Potpourri Post (And A Winner)...

Today's post is a little of everything.

Hence, "potpourri". (Clever, right?)

I want to start by sharing my latest project. I'm making another mug mat (surprised?), and these are some of the components. I've had so many things to share lately, that I hadn't shown anything sewn, stitched or crafted in a while. I didn't want you to think I was slacking off. Heaven's, no! I'll post this to my Mug Mats Flickr album when it's finished (not to be confused with the Mug Mat Swap album for all of the participants to post to).
I received my January artist trading card from Sandi McLean of Fun With Scrapbookin' (Maximum Embellishment). The theme was "White and Snow". Sandi captured it perfectly!
My photographs don't capture the magical finish she put on this card. First, the image is entrancing. I love the faces of these children. After she secured the image and the words "Winter Sky" to the card, she put a sparkly pebble finish over everything. It's just like ice! I'm not positive, but if memory serves me right, I think this is an embossing technique. Sandi, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

This card is gift from yet another talented ATC artist. I really love being a part of the Blissfull Swap group. These talented women really make the most beautiful creations to share with each other and me. Their interpretations of each theme are varied and all wonderful. I'm looking forward to continuing to participate with them. I want to let you know that if you're interested in joining the swap group, you can email Wendi through the Blissful blog (click here) to join.

Please say a prayer for our friend, Debbie of Mosaic Magpie. Her husband is in the hospital and extremely ill. I know she'll appreciate you having her and her husband in your thoughts. Thank you.
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to my first Memory Lane Mondays party. I'll be continuing each month in 2011, and hope that more of you will be moved to contribute your stories. I'm also going to continue to have a drawing for contributors every month.

Start thinking now about a story from your past that you just have to share with your readers. Once you start thinking about it, there will be one that just continues to push to the front waiting to be written. Then, I hope you'll share it with the rest of us.

I had a drawing for the school book, "Five In The Family", choosing the winner from January's contributors. The winner is:

Donna
of
Conghaile Cottage

You can click here to read her contribution - and visit her blog. Her blog header makes me even want to consider living in snow again (ok, maybe I need to go lie down for a while until that urge goes away!) Congratulations, Donna! **Please email your address to me so I can send your book off to you.**

Memory Lane Mondays - Five In The Family...

Do you have memories of your family gathering around the dinner table when you were a child? Before we ate, we always said grace. It was nothing long, organized or flowery - just a simple expression of thanks for the warm food before us. My mum told us that when our family was young with our sole provider (my father) in college, we were sustained many evenings by venison or pot pies. To this day, she prefers not to eat either, while I still I love both.

I'm the eldest of six kids in our family. Until the younger the kids were born (a sister in 1965 to lead the next three), we were only "Five in the Family". My mum, dad, me, my sister and my brother.

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving Day, 1959. (Don't you just love those glasses my dad was wearing?) I would have been five years old (I'm the one - head down - to the left of my mum.); my little sister was four, and my brother would have been seven months old, having been born in April of 1959. I love that, even as a baby, Mum helped my little brother hold his tiny hands together for grace so that he could learn the concept of gratitude at an early age.
I remember reading this book as a kid. "Five in the Family". I thinking about the fact that we, too, were a family of five. The book was part of the Dick and Jane learning series written by Doroth Baruch and Elizabeth Montgomery.

I read the books over and over when I was little. I still have a copy of the book (copyrighted in 1954 - my birth year), and I think I'm going to sit down and read it all over again this week. I know it's going to be a wonderful read down Memory Lane.
Does this book hold memories for you, too? I have an extra copy that I'd like to share with one lucky Memory Lane Mondays participant. Once you've written your story, be sure to come back here and link to the party.

On Friday, I'll go to the Random Number Generator and select the name of one lucky participant to win their own copy of "Five In The Family". (Sorry, but this drawing is only for those who write their own Memory Lane Monday post and link back to here to the party before Friday.)
I'll be hosting this party the last Monday of every month in 2011. You're welcome to join the party and share your special memories, old or new. Be sure to come back and link to this post to participate.

You're also free to use my button for your sidebar or your posts. And, if you don't care to write, I hope you'll still visit me, as well as the other contributors, to read this weeks' and future stories. I can't wait to tell you my next one about our "jeep"!