Enter our Bluegrass Team Ornament Contest!

I recently won a contest sponsored by our Bluegrass etsy team. Here is a picture of the necklace I received that is created by Corinne Sullivan of Daydream Art Studios. Just received it in the mail today. Thank you Corinne! I loved it and the packaging too. Your stamped muslin bag is a nice touch!

Our team is hosting ANOTHER contest if you would like to participate. It is an ornament contest and all you have to do is vote on your favorite, then leave a comment on the team blog for your chance to win! The prize is $20 in BEST bucks, redeemable at participating bluegrass etsy shops. Here is the link to our team blog. Good luck!

Cute Handwarmers & Craft Show

I bought these handwarmers/fingerless gloves from the show I did at St. Gabriel a couple weeks ago. They are too darn cute and I like them even more because they don't exactly match. There were two ladies next to us knitting away during the whole event. These went with the sweater I was wearing and I just love them. My hands are always cold and they get chapped in the winter. The best part was they were only $8. Since buying them, I have priced similar (but not as cute) handwarmers and they run from $25 - $40 at local boutiques and on etsy. I got quite the deal!

Here is a picture of my table too, with some of my holiday decorations displayed on my table with my jewelry.

Reflections on my Grandmother

Friday my cousin and I went to pack my grandmother's things at the nursing home. She sure had a lot of stuff in that room. It was very hard to do and all of grandma's friends and caregivers came by to see us and express their condolences. For some reason I thought that people in jobs like that, exposed to sickness or death in hospitals or nursing homes, didn't get too attached. I was so wrong. They cried right along with us.

I had to chuckle when we opened up the last drawer in her dresser to find a drawer dedicated to candy. Marshmallows and suckers and chocolates. Oh my! I am sure I will have a candy drawer myself someday. If you talk to my friend Lisa she will tell you stories of the shoe box I kept under the bed as a kid, filled with candy. The sweet tooth gene certainly runs in our family. Dessert was always mandatory when you went out to eat with my grandma. Even if you couldn't finish your meal, you could finish a dessert.

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Sunday and Monday were very, very long days for us. When I woke up on Sunday, I just wanted it to be Tuesday morning.

Sunday was visitation. We were able to share a lot of funny stories about grandma with our family and friends. They knew my grandma but they didn't know how in the past year she started eating stuff she never ate before in her life. Her appetite totally changed. She started eating things like chili and cheeseburgers and put ketchup on everything. She told me she had her first cheeseburger earlier in the year. I am not sure if I believe that or not!

She also learned how to operate an elevator by herself at age 88. She and her sidekick Margaret decided they wanted to go downstairs and they did not need assistance. Margaret is in a motorized wheelchair and she gets on the elevator first. It takes awhile for her to get the chair inside the elevator. Meanwhile, the elevator door closes and my grandmother never made it on the elevator. Margaret is alone and she is gone. She cannot reach the buttons and is terrified. When the elevator comes back up to the 2nd floor and the door opens to Margaret's very upset face, my grandmother is laughing. This is just one of many stories we have from her time in the nursing home.

When you think of nursing homes, you tend to think of all the bad things. Like bad nurses or poor care. My grandmother's home was anything but. She loved the staff and they loved her. She had (in my opinion) the best year of her life in 2008. Margaret and my grandmother would like to sit outside when the weather was nice and they would giggle like school girls when they would greet everyone walking by. They were always together. They never missed bingo games and I enjoyed sitting with them. My grandmother was always very lucky and would win frequently. Granted, the stakes weren't high. Regular bingo paid 25 cents and the coverall paid $1.00. One of my family members counted up all her change from bingo winnings and she had over $100!

My grandmother loved to play cards. She and Margaret would put on their floppy hats and sit out on the balcony and play cards all the time. They recently dressed up for their Halloween party and my grandma won a prize for scariest costume. She was dressed up as a devil. Also our state fair has a contest for the Ugliest Lamp. It can be a lamp you create or something that was just butt-ugly in it's original unaltered state. My grandmother decorated a lamp for the contest and it certainly qualified! It didn't win, but she enjoyed the contest and we got to see it on display at the fair and a local restaurant. We were so proud of her.

We were able to share some of these stories with our friends to keep us from crying too much at the funeral home.

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Monday (yesterday) was the funeral. It was very cold and were were hoping for some big fluffy snowflakes as she loved to watch the snow fall. We did get a little but it was mostly sleet. The music my mom picked out was lovely and the acoustics of the very old beautiful church made the music even more powerful. The Ave Maria sung in latin was something that would make me cry, even if I was not at my grandmother's funeral. Very powerful.

It was an overwhelming day.

Tonight I was getting out some Christmas decorations and set up the nativity scene. My grandmother made them in ceramics many, many years ago and I think everyone in our family has a set that she made. They were special to me before, but now, they have even more meaning.

I think of all the things my grandmother created and I know I owe my creativity to her. Thank you grandma for such a wonderful gift.

Your loving spirit will always live on in us.

A Tragic Loss

Last night was a busy "before the holiday" kind of night. I was busy making a cheesecake, some jello salad and an appetizer. The counter was covered and dishes were everywhere. I enlisted my son's help to wrap up birthday gifts for my grandmother, whose birthday is today. He picked out the gift bags and coordinated tissue and wrapped up each item with love. Earlier in the afternoon, I wrote a blog post about Thanksgiving to be posted today and mentioned how thankful I was to have my grandmother.

During all this activity, I received a call from my mother just before 11 pm and I could immediately tell something was wrong when she said my name. The nursing home had called her to tell her to come right away. Then they called again to say my grandmother had already passed away. It seems her heart may have stopped. She passed away quickly.

About 14 months ago, she had a heart attack at home (she lived alone) and then was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. At her age (late 80's) she was not a candidate for any surgery to repair her heart. She was admitted to a nursing home when she was discharged from the hospital. In the past 14 months she had a rebirth of sorts. She made lots of friends and participated in all the activities. She made a best friend in another resident named Margaret who is a sweetheart. They played cards all the time and talked about drinking a beer together, although I don't think they ever did. Her group of friends were known as the "Lollipop Gang" at the nursing home for their routine of eating DumDum suckers during bingo each Sunday. She never wanted to miss any of the bingo games. We had photos of her smiling! It was a side of her we had not seen before. And we basked in it. The staff at the nursing home loved her and treated her wonderfully. She was determined to walk without a walker and she did. We were so happy to see her happy. There were times recently that she expressed a desire to leave and go back home, but I think she knew that would not happen as she could not live alone. I think she missed her house and neighbors.

When my paternal grandmother passed away many years ago, I had deep regret. Mostly that I had selfishly not spent enough time with her. I was younger then but that's no excuse. That pain stays with me to this day. And I learned a hard lesson from her passing. With my maternal grandmother I can honestly say that I have so many happy memories with her and she knew how much I really loved her. I have no regrets this time.

It is amazing how many tears can come out of one person. My eyes are so swollen and puffy and my head hurts. One of the things I wish I could change about myself is my depth of emotion. I am so emotional. I couldn't sleep and have been writing a eulogy in my head for hours so I thought I would get up and start typing away. When the pain is not so fresh, I will write more. I just had to get this off my chest.

Our Thanksgiving dinner is planned for 2 pm today but I don't know what we are doing yet. I think grandma would still want us to get together. I am just not sure we can handle it. I have not talked to anyone yet this morning.

When you are with your family today for Thanksgiving, hug them tight!
And give thanks that you have them. Don't have regrets for things unsaid and undone.

Love to you all.


Grandma, Mom, Me - October 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to You!

What are you thankful for?

I hope everyone can think of many things to be thankful for this year. My grandmother is celebrating her birthday on Thanksgiving Day and I know I am very thankful that she is alive and well! Also, I am happy to have a wonderful husband and son, a close knit family, my health and a good job. I realize that I am lucky and I count my blessings.

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving, however you chose to spend it. And lots of leftovers!

Gift Giving Ideas for the Holidays

If you need ideas for the holidays, please visit my etsy shop for the perfect gift!

Most items are priced under $20.

Beginning today through Cyber Monday 11/30, I will offer a free gift with each purchase.

Click here to visit my Creative Eye Studio shop! And thanks for looking!

Happy Holidays!

Ulta.com - Poor Customer Service

If you go to ulta.com you will see at the top of their webpage they announce that you can choose three free samples with every order. This offer and the free robe for buying perfume made me want to make a purchase.

I ordered and selected my samples. Rec'd my order and no samples. Tried to contact ulta customer service. They do not answer the phone when you call their 800 #. You die on hold and they suggest you go to their webpage. Sounded like a good idea. Went there clicked on "contact us" and the maze began. When you click the "email us" button, you don't get an email. You get a list of 50+ questions that maybe you can read through instead of emailing them. Yeah right. They make it very hard to communicate with them.

So I disregard all the roadblocks and finally send an email which is actually a thread on their page.

Here is the chain. It's not so much about the samples, it's that they tell me I am one of thousands of orders and they don't have time to ship them out. That's after they suggest that maybe I never added them to my cart. That's funny, they were listing on my packing list!!

Customer 11/21/2008 09:38 AM
I received my order today. Order #A105365160. Everything looks great, but I did not receive my 3 free samples. Can you send those to me?

Kim Ries

Auto-Response 11/21/2008 09:38 AM

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Response (Christine B.) 11/21/2008 04:26 PM
Novenber 21, 2008

Dear Kim,

Unless you had added the 3 samples to your shopping bag, we are unable to send out any samples due to number of orders coming in at this time of the year. I do apologize, but if you did not add them to the original order we are unable to send any out. This is coming from the Director of Shipping.

Sincerely,

Christine
Guest Services

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Customer 11/22/2008 04:43 PM
I did add these items to my bag. They show up on my packing list. It seems you should be able to see them on my order. I did not receive them and would like them to be shipped. That was one of the reasons I placed my order. Thank you.

Kim Ries

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Response (Christine B.) 11/22/2008 05:38 PM
November 22, 2008

Dear Ulta Guest,

I sent an email to the shipping department asking to ship out the samples that are shown on your order. The shhipping director apologized that the items were not placed in your order. Unfortuantely, because we are receving thousands of orders. He stated that we are unable to ask to send out samples to guests.

Unfortuantely, I am not able to send out those samples at this time.

Sincerely,
Christine
Guest Services

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Customer 11/24/2008 08:37 AM
It seems very misleading to have on your website that you can choose three free samples. And then you don't send them. It was Ulta's mistake and you are not doing what you said you would do. That's bad business. I don't really care that you have thousands of orders. In fact, if you treat customers this way, I would think that your "thousands of orders" will be dwindling.

You can advise your shipping director that I will take my business elsewhere in the future. Your customer service is very lacking. And I plan to post this to my blog and let everyone know.

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Response (Christine B.) - 11/24/2008 12:43 PM
November 24, 2008

Dear Ulta Guest,

I do apologize; however, these are the corporate rules coming from the
Shipping Director. I cannot override his decision, especially since they are
free items. I do apologize, but I am following the corporate rules.

Sincerely,

Guest Services

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Obviously those in charge (namely the "shipping director") don't care much about keeping their customers happy.

Long story short, I'll be taking my business to Sephora in the future!!!