Dressing For The Season



Shug takes terrible pictures.



My mom always dressed for the season.  She had long denim jumpers with Santa on the chest, sweaters with pumkins and black cats, turtle necks with candy canes or hearts or bunnies all over them.  She always wanted to dress the part.  Me,  not so much. So the other day my dad brought over a HUGE box of my mothers Christmas clothes.  He said he thought me and Sister might like to wear some of them.  Really?  Does he have us confused with someone else's daughters - like the Duggars maybe.  Anyway, I washed all of them (because the smelled like moth balls which is so my mom's style) and when Sister came over we played dress up.  We dressed ourselves in the clothes and then the children. Then Shug took our picture, which we plan to send to my mom's three dear cousins.  These are the cousins that she grew up with and was very close to.   After that I had been unable to figure out what to do with them.  I couldn't get myself to donate them, and I sure couldn't wear them and maintain my hip mom status (in my own head).  I finally came up with the BEST idea ever.  Sometimes I can't believe myself and my great ideas.  This weekend I took them to a lady who is going to make a quilt out of them.  I am going to give my sister the quilt for Christmas.  She will  love it.  The clothes have made us laugh so much.  And now our kids can look at the quilt, we can all lay under it, and the dorky sweet Christmas clothes will stay with us. And there won't be anything dorky about them. 

The quilt lady has great prices, ships anywhere, usually finishes in 1 week and can turn anything into a quilt.  It's not just for dead peoples clothes. Concert tee shirts, college shirts, hats, baby clothes, anything.  I'm a bit obsessed right now with what all I can turn into quilts.

The Ash Project makes it to Fairview Peak

The whole family went to Colorado for summer vacation.  I finally climbed to the top of Fairview Peak.  I have been trying to get to the top for several years. I have stopped before making it because I am was lazy, out of shape and it was just to damn hard.  It is after all 13,214 ft.  This year (after much training and prep) I made it.  Once at the top I spread some of mom's ashes - Which leads me to The Ash Project.  My mom's ashes sat on my bookcase for awhile before Sister and I could figure out what to do with them.  Mom (Navae - her name) had always wanted to travel but never actually went many places.  She talked about it, planned it, but never made it.  Maybe the fact that she got sick and died way earlier than she thought she would had something to do with it.  Anyway, Sister and I decided that her ashes should travel and The Ash Project was born.  We have spread them in so many places we love.  We also give them to people who are traveling to neat places and they spread them.  So far her ashes have traveled to some really amazing places on this planet.  From the Taj Mahal to Cuba to Pitkin CO.  And lots of other places.  This is a project that has made my sister and I laugh our heads off (because sometimes it's just funny to say "Mom's on a flight to _____ and I can't believe she's riding in the suitcase") and sometimes it makes us cry because she would love what we are doing so much.  We are really trying to get the blog about it off the ground.  Seems a little harder to create and link the way I want than I thought it would be. And because, as mentioned more than once on this blog, I am lazy.  If your reading this blog (all 3 of you) then you now have a link to the unfinished TAP  blog and you know about the project... so if your traveling anywhere cool or know of a great place to spread some ashes and aren't creeped out by the idea let me know.  Or if your really handy with blog making and want to help get The Ash Project blog to look really kick ass let me know.