RememberME: I'm Baaaaack!!!

Hello dear friends. RememberME? Long time no see. Sorry to have left you on such a negative note. Needed to take some time to decompress. Now that the crappiest summer evah is ovah, I baaaaack! And I'm refreshed. Yesiree Bob! I've got more CraftyME goodness. More TouristyME adventures. Some WannaME cravings. And more. Watch this space cause it's all on the way.

RememberME: Memory Mondays....Tis the season (almost)

Today's Memory Monday was inspired by yesterday. What was yesterday? Yesterday was CHRISTmas in July. And what does this have to do with Memory Mondays? Well, I would like all of my fellow crafters and general gift givers to just take a moment to remember all of the craziness that ensues come December. Everyone has the best intentions all year round. But then December hits and there is just nothing left. No time. No $$. No interest because you are just so over this overly commercialized holiday that no longer has any meaning.

So my friends, be ye crafters, be ye shoppers, be ye broke, or be ye slackers. I raise the call to you today, the day after CHRISTmas in July. Starting now we have 5 months. Pick up the tools of your craft and plunge in. Let's see if we can actually follow through this year. Select small projects. Hit up you local 5 and dime. Don't forget the thrift stores. Gift giving doesnt have to mean breaking the bank. With some well timed planning you can find something for everyone on your gift giving list. Do they have hobbies, favorite colors or things, tv shows etc? Heck grab some old magazines and a picture frame from IKEA. Think of the recepient and go crazy. BOOM insta-collage! Crap did I just give away a potential gift?


All I know is CraftyME's digging in my stash and hands don't fail me now. Cause unfortunately a sista's pockets dont reflect the amount of love I have for my family and friends. I may not get everybody. But I'm gonna try. And just because I can, here's a sneak peek of what's to come....

Merry Xmas in July friends.....

RememberME: Memory Mondays....Birthday wishes from Heaven.....

Hello My Friends.  I am happy. Really happy today. Why? Because it's my birthday and I just got the best gift EVAH!!!!! No it wasn't the new Iphone or new shoes or cake.  Nope WannaME didn't get that. lol. It was even better. Yes, a rainy dreary Monday evening made my whole day wonderful.

I was sitting here randomly clicking around the net when something told me to look outside. And when I did, I saw the most beautiful, colorful, brightest rainbow I've ever seen. And not just 1 but 2.

And in that moment, all I could feel was that my Daddy and big brother Jamie were smiling down from HEAVEN and wishing me a Happy Birthday!



And it made me smile.

And it made me want to dance barefoot in the rain.

And I felt so much love.

And it was good.

I hope you all get a chance to feel the happiness of dancing in the rain on a hot summer day, watching rainbows.

RememberME: MemoryMonday....80's food

This week's edition of MM was inspired by a convo with the BFF yesterday.

So we are sitting there watching tv and a Mountain Dew commercial came on. And we get to talking about how addicting and yuck it is. Then we were both like Dude they have Mello Yello at Target!!!!! OMG I loved Mello Yello. Mello Yello was the truth. The Best Soda EVAH!!!

Then a commercial comes on that had someone eating a smore's . So then it's like Dude remember the microwavable Smore's.

Of course that segues into....Wait for it.....

MICROMAGIC!!! Remember they had shakes and hamburgers and fries. Oh how I begged my Gram to please let me buy those. And please could I use the microwave? Cause I don't know about y'all but my Gram wouldn't let anyone use the microwave. She didn't want anyone to break it. Lol

RememberME: Memory Mondays.....the 80s

  Let's start with a belated Happy Mother's Day to all for whom this is applicable. Hope you all felt loved and appreciated. Now let's get down to business. Today is Memory Monday. And I don't want it to be always about remembering a lost loved one. Sometimes you just wanna think about the good ol' days. So from time to time RememberME is gonna take a stroll down memory lane. Join me, won't you?
   So a friend recently posted on FB that her daughter's homework assignment was to ask a parent what they liked and disliked about the eighties. Dude I may have been made in '77 but I'm a child of the 80's. And since it was such a wonderful time to be a kid, there is no way I could list EVERYthing I loved about them.  So here's a couple to get us started. Back in my day.......

   Back in my day, I loved......JELLIES!  Best shoes evah. Second only to Skippies. In the summer, jellies were an indication of how good a play day it was. There was nothing like taking off your jellies and having dirt stencils on your feet in the pattern of the shoe. They did have a down side though. Getting a rock stuck in the heel made for a very uncomfortable walk home.

   Back in my day, I loved......SLOUCHY TWO COLOR SOCKS! You know the ones I'm talking about. The super extra thick ones that made you look like you had cankles for days. Oh yeah. You could get really creative with it and mix em up. Yo, how did our feet not spontaneously combust?

     Back in my day, I hated.... TINTED LENSES! Ok so, what I begged my dad to let me get purple tinted lenses. He didn't have to let me get em. Or the pink ones neither. And seriously did they have to make the frames so big?

    Back in my day, I hated.... JERI CURLS! So did not want. But that was one I had no choice in. Like every woman in my family got it., my mom, my gram, me, everyone. WHYYYYYY?!? Not a good look at all. With or without the plastic cap. 

 Put it all together and what do you get? Jellies, slouch socks, tinted lenses, jeri curls?...........

A Hot mess! Enjoy the smiles
 ME

RememberME: Memory Monday....

 In keeping with Memory Monday I decided to add this little piece of nostalgia. Unfortunately I couldn't find the yellow chain to post with this entry. I did come across this hilarious letter that I wrote and mailed to my dad around the same time period. All spelling errors are courtesy my 10yr old self, circa Feb 1, 1988. It reads: Dear Mr Roye: How have you been. I am in a rut. May I borrow $20.00 dollars untill March 31, 1988. If you can may I have it before Feburary 13, 1988? Thank you for your concern in this matter. Sincerly yours, Dorian Roye.

CraftyME:KCBW 2010 Day 1 ( KnitCroBlo1 )

So, as we all know by now, I spend an obscene amount of time visiting my online crackspot, Rav. Unlike in real life though, this crack is not whack. Wandering around that site, I have been inspired to try so many new things. And since I'm always looking for a place to belong, I've joined something else. In the tradition of the KAL/CAL my blog group,The Blog Hub has started a BAL. That's knit-along/crochet-along/blog-along for my noncrafty friends. Knittng and Crochet Blog Week 2010 is pretty much a way to increase not only our blogging skills but our sense of community as well.  For 7 days we will all write entries on the same topic. Special thanks to EskimmiKnits for putting the whole darn thing together. We will see how long I stick with it, we know how I do....

KnitCroBlo1: Starting OutHow and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
 
My tale of how CraftyME was born began with an oops of sorts. I was a 20yr old away at college in Pittsburgh and my oops was being pregnant. Having grown up in a not especially tight-knit family (bad pun intended), I so wanted my baby to have a different life experience. I was determined to find something that I could pass down to my child. Something that we could share when he/she grew older or something they could have to share with their own child. I just didn't know what it would be, I didn't really know how to do anything.
One early-preggo,  particularly hormone filled day, around the first anniversary of my dad's death, I was sifting through my box o'nostalgia. I came across this looooooong yellow chain. I'm talking like a 25-50 ft or longer long, pale yellow crocheted chain.
 Years ago, when I was about 9 or 10, I spent a week with my Gram's sister while my Gram was away. About half way through the week I was extremely bored. Being the bookish, kinda nerdy child that I was, I had read all of the books I brought with me. My Aunt Cat attempted to occupy my time by teaching me to crochet. For some reason that I can't remember, all she did was show me how to start a chain. But at the time it was enough for me. I was gonna crochet something for my dad. I sat there for like 3 days chaining my life away. At the end of my stay I had a super-extra long yellow chain that i presented to my dad. And just as he did with every drawing, or card or whatever I gave him, he proudly displayed it in his living room. It wrapped 3/4's o the way around the room like a Christmas garland. It hung there for several years until he moved.
When cleaning out my dad's apartment after he passed, I opened the bottom drawer of his dresser. In it I discovered all of those old cards and drawings and the yellow chain. He had saved it all. Coming across it again that day,  I had my "A-Ha moment" as Oprah would say.
I was gonna make my baby the blanket that  my younger self envisioned making for my dad. I would learn to crochet. So I did what I so often did those days, waddled myself on over to the Carnegie library.  I checked out Crocheting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti, bought a ball of random baby looking yarn and a hook. I spent the next 7 months crocheting away I am happy to say that I did end up with 3 lovely blankets before MiniME was born. Not just feet upon feet of crochet chain. lol. And 11 years later I'm still hooked. (again bad pun intended)

RememberME: Memory Monday....Gram

So, I recently posted the WallofCourage.com picture of TheKid on FaceBook. My sister commented on how much TheKid looks like our grandmother. Now this isn't a newsflash or anything I mean TheKid looks just like ME, I look just like my mom, and my mom looks just like my Gram. But while TheKid is my MiniME, it really is eerie how much she favors her G-Gram. She even acts just like her. Here they are together, about 7yrs ago.

Now I'm sitting here QA'ing away, being mostly good WorkME (shh). But I got to thinking how much I miss my Gram. I am one of the last generations that grew up with grandmothers who were 2nd mom's. Not these newfangled ones of today. I lived w/my Gram and mom until I went to college. Most of my life lessons were learned in her kitchen. Heck my most memorable asswhippings were from her hands.

I don't want to get all verclempt or however you spell it, my yiddish isn't that great. So rather than go into a bunch of tales this time around, I will simply proclaim Mondays as Memory Monday. And this first one is dedicated to you Ms Dorothy Lee Hogg Folkes! Gone but not forgotten.