Gifts of the heart...

I have received some beautiful gifties (as my Nana Carol used to call them) in the past few months and wanted to share them with you. 

This lovely woman was given to me by Jackie Peters of Good Grief Girdie. She has a rhinestone and real feather in her hair and individual blue brad buttons. Her skirt is real lace. Jackie has a blog that makes me smile. I usually visit just as soon as I see she has posted something new. Her creations are clever and unique and make me wish I lived in OKC so I could take a class from her! 

This sweet angel, who has a real fur muff and fur hat, comes from Katie Struckhoff of Ragmuffin Gal's Studio. Katie is a talented artist whose creations are often romantic and full of beautiful lace. She is a person with a huge heart who also teaches school. I love the pictures of her hugging her students. She has such warmth and oI love when she talks about her "happys" (things that make her happy). She has quite a story about her life. Check out her blog to get to know her. 

If you read my blog last month, you saw the beautiful ornament scrapbook that was made by Sheila Rumney of Blessed and Distressed. What a generous woman! What a generous gift! My mother-in-law (someone with great taste) even commented on the incredible scrapbook when I visited several weeks ago. This was such a lovely card and has a real three pearl pin running through the ribbon.

Never say you love something to Beth Leintz of Gathering Dust. I made that mistake and she gave this to me! This "Suz" handkerchief (haha!) has incredible embroidery and is sitting by my bed with a few other special things. I have ordered from Beth on many occasions and she always includes "extras" with whatever you get, usually fabulous tags. I love Beth's tags! She is an estate sale buyer and has fabulous things in her stores. 

I just visited a blog of another lovely woman, Laura Kaufman of 52 Flea. I met Laura at Silver Bella this year. What a gentle and real soul! She has a giveaway, Romantic Prairie Homes. It looks like a truly beautiful book which has pictures of the homes of many bloggers I visit. I didn't realize that FiFi, the author, was from New York. I guess I thought she was from Kansas. Nonetheless, she has incredible prairie style!

Thank you, my friends, for your kindness. Receiving these little treasures in the mail has really helped me get through a hard time. I am so grateful to be a part of this blog world and communion of friends.

I want to update you a bit on Jud. He was supposed to get his second dose of Folfirinox this week but his platelets and white blood cells were both low. So, instead he gets a shot in the stomach every day for five days. I got to watch the first one and I didn't pass out!). The shot, called Ampligen, is designed to increase his white blood cells. The good news is...no chemo this week. The bad news is...no chemo this week. It made me happy to see him feeling good enough to go out to a play last night! This chemo is a combination of four agents and is a very powerful...and a very difficult regimen. He is a really good sport about his treatment. 

More gifties coming soon!


"It isn't the size of a gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it."
Quoted in The Angel's Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994