~I Know It's Been A While...~

It's been way too long since I've posted here, but have been WAY busy with:

~A visit from the grandbabies

~Finally launching my new website: www.rosecreekcottage.com

I'm slowly adding more-and-more product between filling orders! I'm learning more and more about SEO and adding new bells-and-whistles!! It's definitely keeping me out-of-trouble! LOL!!

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think of it!!

(Can you tell who was a 'little' apprehensive about the hammock AND doesn't like to have his picture taken????!!! These were the best of Jackson, in all the pics I snapped! Gotta love little boys~)

~Mother's Day 2011~

Dear God,

I thank you for giving me my dear mother (she turns 91 this month) and for my Mother-in-Law....who I learned to love and cherish deeply. We had our ups-and-downs.....but we loved each other very much before she entered Your Kindgdom 9 years ago.

My Mother taught me so many things: how to sew, to clean, to cook....heck, I can even defrost a refrigerator with pans of boiling water and use liquid starch on dampened, rolled white shirts you store in the frig til their ready!! (thank you God for frost-free refrigerators and permanent press shirts!!) She taught me the value of an education, the importance of family, and how to love unconditionally.

She taught me to never give up...no matter how hard the task-at-hand. She taught me to work hard.....that nothing worth anything comes easily. I have the work-ethic I do because of my Mother.

Although she has suffered these past years with alzheimer's, Lord, I know You are on that tough path with her. As much as I pray that You take her home so she doesn't suffer any more, I know that that is not Your plan....but mine.

Thank you for blessing me with the great honor of being the mother of the two most amazing sons ever. I know you just lent them to me for a short while....let me hold their hands for a bit ....but oh the wonderful joy they bring. I am SO very proud of both of them, for the great young men they've become, and the life-partners they were so wise to choose.














You made me wait a very long time for 'daughters'....but oh were they worth the wait!! Jackie is not only one of my sweetest gifts....but she is a beautiful mother to our three precious grandbabies!!

And Amy. Sigh. Amy makes me realize....without even knowing it....that you can never be close enough to Our Lord. She is the perfect addition to our ever-growing family~

Thank you, God, for all the blessings You continually bestow on me. I am ever-grateful~

Your Loving Daughter,

Carol

p.s. Please let all the Mothers in the world have a beautiful Mother's Day

~February Blessings~

It was such a blessing to be able to take January for some much-needed R&R. Sleeping in.....reading books and magazines I've longingly gazed at over the past few months....weekends in the kitchen cooking and baking with Jim.....cozy nites by the fire......watching movies......time with our children and grandchildren. All blessings I cherish more and more as the years fly by.

Among those blessings are my appreciation of the strides modern medicine's taken over the past few decades. My doctor sent me for a CAT scan to try and determine why I had such a hard time fighting off the pneumonia and bronchitis that invaded my body from October to the end of December. (couldn't have had anything to do with working 16 hr. days filling orders, now, could it??) Everything was normal there. However....they saw a mass near my pancreas. An MRI and several ultra-sounds later, it was determined I have a splenal aneurysm that my body miraculously calcified. It re-routed the blood to different arteries, in essence, saving my life! You can imagine how many prayers and rosaries I said over the past 6 weeks. I want to thank everyone who was said some 'heavy duty' prayers for a good outcome. As I've said many times before....prayers DO work!

And now it's back to life as I know it. RoseCreekCottage Studio is humming away. I'm busy filling Valentine's Day orders, re-organizing studio space, and creating new designs for 2011. My Heirloom Collection of hand stamped sterling jewelry has grown much faster than I had imagined, and I'm busy trying to figure out how to continue its growth this year, along with freeing some of my personal time so I can spend it by the sea...and with my grandbabies!!

With coffee in hand.....I'm off to the studio...which is one of my favorite places on earth~
Have a beautiful day, wherever you are in the world~

~Wednesday Blessings~

It was SO nice to be back at Mrs. Claus' Closet last week in Westlake, OH. Even after 8 years of absence, my customers are STILL buying my creations!! Several women stood in my booth, teary-eyed....telling about the 'long-ago' Ragamuffin doll that someone had bought for them. And now...they're buying them for THEIR nieces, grand-daughters, etc. Heartwarming!! The photo shows Monica, whose nieces gave her an 'Aunt' Ragamuffin
doll about 15 years ago. She said it has dark curly hair just like hers! She's holding the 3 Cheeky Monkeys that her friend purchased. The Monkeys will be traveling to her 3 grandbabies in CA for Christmas!!

My next show is Gifts From the Heart at Landerhaven Country Club,Sunday, November 21st. It benefits the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital.

Other blessings this week:

~Tis the Season....and I'm working to keep on top of orders! Even though I put in 12 hours yesterday....I was able to leave for 2 hours and go visit Mom!

~I don't even have to leave to go to the PO. The mailman picks up all the packages every day.....(big smile here!)

~Though my 'boss' is a driven, A-Type personality slave-driver and admitted workaholic, I'd rather work for her than anyone else I know!!

~I can work in my jammies sipping coffee all day if I want!

~Amish Katie is coming once-a-week again!

~Got to spend one-on-one time with my oldest son who came into town last weekend to go to the Browns Game with his dad and Uncle Chuck! (and yes....even at 35 yrs, I love to watch him sleep.....just like I did when he was a baby~)

~Mom is having an 'awake' week and is actually responding with one word answers!!!!

~Got to spend fun time with my SIL and BIL, Bob and Kathee, who were in town from Destin, FL. They experienced one heck of a snowstorm Saturday!!!

~It's beginning to 'smell' like winter outside and I LOVE it!~

~I absolutely LOVE what I do!!!!

Enjoy whatever this day holds for you. It's a present you can NEVER get back~Ciao.....Carol~

~Beyond the 'Drive'~

"Why are you working so hard. Everyday. Now, at a time in your life when you can be slowing down? Where do you get the ‘drive’ from?" A friend of mine posed this question to me over the weekend. It made me stop and think.

Drive. Not the verb that happens when you get behind the wheel of your car, but the noun. The drive that makes you JUMP out of bed every morning, anxious to begin. I love what I do. I’m passionate about it. And although I’m very ‘driven’, it’s not work to me. I’m not saying that putting in 12 -14 hour days isn’t exhausting. Ask my back and my eyes. But when you’re ‘driven’ by the passion and love of creating…..of being totally alone in the studio while your ideas become real….you can’t call that work. It is pleasure. Joy. Watching a flat piece of fabric come to life before your very eyes is surreal; impossible to describe. Magical. And I don’t ever want it to end!

So I stumble out of bed each morning, and head out the back door with the puppies. The crispness of the cool air is invigorating. It already smells like fall. Inside, I fill my favorite cup with steamy coffee....the first of many more to come....throw the pups a treat, and head to the computer. After answering emails, printing labels, and ‘chatting’ with friends…..it’s off to the shower. And my jeans. Ah….one of the pleasures of working at home!

Then I’m off to the woods behind our house. Sounds of the creek and the birds…and already, the locusts, remind me that this is a little glimpse of what heaven must be like. And I pray. I thank God for all the gifts He has blessed me with. For the talent. And the drive. When I look around me I know that for right now, at this moment, this is what I’m meant to do. Joyfully.

I’m off to the studio. Have a glorious day!

"The joy of the Lord is your strength" Nehemiah 8:10

~July Blessings~

As July comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on this month's happenings: the good things, and the not-so-good things. July brought lots of changes here. The fireworks that opened the month brought many unexpected blessings at its end: a family wedding, a planned trip, a surprise visit from an old friend. It brought renewed joy in meeting my Mother where she is….not where I wish her to be. That’s a big thing. I’m now paying closer attention and rejoicing in her smiles.

There were lots of changes, and for me, change often brings fear. The changes in resurrecting my business have been monumental, starting with this blog. I’m actually enjoying it. My fears of failing at it were quickly put to rest. As the orders and emails quickly filled my mailbox I actually had to say “No” to a sweet shop-owner from Colorado. For now, that’s a good thing! I’m fighting to keep this a “One-Woman” show….never wanting to grow it to the frenzied way-of-life it was in the 80’s.

Back then I was almost tripping over the unshaven hair on my legs and didn’t remember that dental floss wasn’t to be used solely for tying bends in little dolls’ arms and legs! I experienced the terror of arriving at a wholesale show to find my product and entire booth set-up hadn't shown up. I remember the days of looking at my sister and saying, “What day is this?”, “What city are we in?” and the infamous, “Are you sure we ate, ‘cause I’m starved!?”. Nope: I don’t want to go back there. Not ever.

Don’t get me wrong. There were highs: lots of laughter, and a few near-heart attacks sprinkled in. Like the time we arrived in Chicago to find blizzard conditions, decided to turn in our rental car at the close of the first day of the 5-day Beckman’s show, and ended up wandering into a high-class (we think!) bordello. Or in our rush to make our plane after a record-breaking show in Valley Forge, we discovered I'd left my briefcase with all its orders, in the booth at the Italian restaurant. Thanks to our sweet waitress running after us as we pulled out of the parking lot, nothing was lost. Another time I watched as my sister literally chugged Pepto-Bismal on our way back to the airport in Baltimore....praying that she wouldn't throw up on the plane!

In those days, my boys knew that whenever they smelled freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies when pushing open the back door after school, that their mom was feeling like she wasn’t “mothering” them enough. Their next questions were always: “Oh no. Where are those over-ripe bananas?” or “Do I taste that ‘bran stuff' in these?” Jim bought me the painting you see posted above, at one of the art shows we did. It hangs in the back hall. I'm sorry I cannot read the artist's signature to give her credit. It's beautiful and very meaningful.

Now I have time to breathe. To dance. To smell the roses growing in my garden. To wake up in the morning and head outdoors to walk in the woods, instead of greeting employees. Now I have time for grandchildren; time for a book club; time for the gym. (okay….I intend to fit it in come August!) Time to pray more than I ever took the time to do during those frenzied days. And with each prayer, I discover more blessings. Everywhere. I wonder what new ones August will bring?