It Was a Crafty Christmas!

So we all know she's crafty, but this year mom really outdid herself! Last year she spent countless hours behind the sewing machine, making a playhouse and a teepee for the grandkids. This year she spent months at a pottery studio in Griffin making handcrafted ornaments and platters for all of us.

Not only has she been crafting at the pottery studio, she's been painting books for the kids in her makeshift studio at home (aka her bedroom). See the books, called "Gifts of Christmas," explain that she's made ten ornaments for the kids to open- one a year for the next ten years. Each page in the book is painted with a "gift" which also has an ornament to coincide with it.


Of course, as with any sentimental gifts and kids, it was pretty anti-climactic for them to open their gifts, but we tried to explain to them how special these gifts were that Nonnie had made for them. We almost had to hold Bo down in her lap to get him to look at the book that she had made for him (he really wanted to get back to the remote control car she gave him before the book!), but it will be so special for them the older they get and as they realize how much work went into their gifts.





For each ornament, she rolled out the clay, cut it out in the shape of a heart, and stamped or wrote the words on it. Then the lady who owns The Clay Lady Studio, mom's (now) good friend, Bonnie, would fire the clay. Then mom would go back and paint each piece and it would be fired again. Bonnie even closed the studio to other clients after Thanksgiving, opening only to help mom get the project done (which, surprisingly I know, is not QUITE done, but she promises that they'll all be wired and done by the first of the year)! She did all this work in between working close to 50 hours a week at her paying job and all those stinkin' doctors' appointments! Then after she got home at night she'd work on painting the books for the kids, which she made by ripping the printed paper off of a board book, then painting layers of Mod Podge and paint. She finally perfected her watercolor technique, and the books are amazing.


She painted platters for Morgan & me with "Oh Holy Night" painted on them and a note written on the back about special memories at the lighting of the Rich's great tree when we were younger. That has always been her favorite Christmas song, and the lights of the huge tree would always be lit when the high note was hit on the final verse of that song. It was a fun tradition that we had for a long time.

We shared hopes that she'll be here to give the kids each one of the ten ornaments and that they won't serve as a memory of her but will be special presents that she'll be able to share with them for many years to come. You're the best, mom!

Click here for a link to the sweet article that The Clay Lady wrote about her time spent with mom in a local magazine.