I'm Back! I hope....

I thought the last time was bad when I neglected to post for about 4 months and now its been much more than that! I hate to even acknowledge it, but I either quit completely or get back into it and so here I go. I can give you lots of excuses/reasons as to why there's been such a long time with no posts and I will give you some, but truthfully I coulda at least checked in and let ya'll know what was going on.
It has been a VERY busy year for me to say the least and I've really done very little crafting. In Jan. and Feb. I was spending a lot of my time next door at my elderly neighbors house taking care of her. She didn't fair so well through the winter, especially since she has COPD. And she doesn't have family close so I have "adopted" her. In March I was working on getting some seeds going for the garden, beginning to sew for the upcoming wedding and making preparations to go to Indiana to see our newest granddaughter. She was born April 4th which was a week or so before we thought she'd come. This was our daughter's first daughter and long awaited. She has 5 boys already! They thought they were quitting, but then they got a beautiful
surprise!
                     
And then two days after she was born we got the terrible news that my husband's brother had been killed in a tragic accident. So we left for Indiana a few days earlier than planned. It was a very bittersweet week. All of our children and grandchildren got to spend some  time together which hadn't happened in quite a while and little Myla brought smiles to very sad faces. He will be greatly missed, most especially by his wife and he left behind 3 children still at home and one married. He never even got the chance to love and kiss on  a grandchild. He was such a happy, cheerful person and never met a stranger. His viewing and funeral were testimony to that.
   Then it was back home to prepare for a Feast week and then I had a couple weeks to prepare for a bunch of Indiana family to come down for our oldest son's wedding on May 19th. We had a houseful and then some. Our two married children and their children stayed here and so did my parents. My husband's sister and husband stayed at the neighbors and we had others staying elsewhere. Most of them stayed almost two weeks! I loved it, but got very tired of cooking and cleaning up! I would not change it for anything. I had prepared quite a bit of food ahead, (I thought,) but it seemed like we were running to the grocery or Wal-Mart everyday. We also had started an upstairs bathroom remodel (very much needed) a few months before which our son was doing. After he started he was called out of town to work and was only home on weekends. This lasted at least 6 wks and so we were remodeling a bathroom even as family was showing up.
  I also, had taken on the job of altering the bridesmaid dresses and somewhat remaking the bridal gown. It was at least 4 sizes to big! But she loved it and couldn't get it in the right size. It began as a strapless and I added the top part on so that it sorta had cap sleeves and gave a bit more coverage. She also didn't have to go around holding it up all night :) I did manage to get that done before my family all came in. Here is a picture of her in her dress.

  And then as soon as all the family left and things were mostly put back in order I began to work on my layouts for the Close To My Heart convention album contest. This years theme was "Live" or Viva!. I had been gathering ideas, sketches, techniques and info for almost a year so I had quit a bit to start on, but it still took me about 5 weeks to get 5- 2 page layouts completed before I left to go on June 26th. I was soooo ready to get back in my craft room to actually scrapbook and then I practically lived there for those 5 weeks.
   My poor crafting ladies that meet monthly must have felt very neglected. We didn't meet in April or May at all! But they remained loyal and put in orders each month anyway.
   And so....that is the first half of 2013. I have much more to tell and I will be sharing my layouts in the next couple of weeks. Telling of some fun and exciting new things I learned at convention  and showing some new product. Close To My Heart is an awesome company to work for. They care so much about their consultants.
  I believe this will be all for tonight. And unless some major catastrophe comes up I plan to be back with more in the next day or so.

Blessings,   Polly