Loss of a dear friend

I have been absent from the blogging world this past week. Still not sure I am ready to join again. But I wanted to dedicate a post to my dear friend, Nancy.

For anyone who knows me, you know I have lost ad ear friend every year of my life from the time I was thirteen. Nancy it the most recent, making it two friends for this year. She died last Tuesday night after complications from an appendectomy. I have been beside myself for many reasons. I have been trying to get answers and explanations but a friend informed me yesterday that there are no answers or explanations yet. As an appendectomy is so common this should not have happened. And I have been so sad about that. So sad that there are people in this world that will never get to know the beauty that was Nancy.

Having dealt with death much in my life I understand that when someone passes we tend to only rememebr the good and somewhat glorify the person, which isn't a bad thing. . .  I just bring it up because in thinking about Nancy's life it was glorious and kind and loving. She truly was one of a kind. There will never be another person like her. She was always happy, even tempered, friendly and accepting of everyone, not judgmental. . . Everything that is good in this world was embodied in Nancy.

Nancy on her wedding day, which was recently. She was gorgeous inside and out. When I told my husband on Tuesday night after I received the news the first thing he said, "The poor husband!" And our hearts do go out to him, though we've never met. But I know he had to be incredible to be able to capture Nancy's heart.

Nancy was in one of my recent blog posts title "Mothers, teach your daughters to sew." Some of you may recall the picture I post of the dress my mother made for me for a performance I was in:

Nancy in Red. This was ten years ago.

The memories I have with Nancy are so real they feel like yesterday. I live in Virginia now and was not able to attend her memorial service in Arizona. I don't know if I'll ever feel the closure that I normally receive from attending a funeral or memorial. I can rememebr very clearly she and I messing around and having a good time in choir.

We went on a trip to Atlanta once. She and I had both been, well, I'll say "stalked" for lack of a better word, by the same guy. He was very persistent and often would not leave us alone! When we were in Atlanta we were performing a song by Moses Hogan called, "No hidin' place." On this trip Nancy and I rewrote, or rather just choreographed, the song to be about abstinence :) mostly for us to sing and perform for our stalker friend. I found myself all last week and even today still singing that song and doing our dance moves. All the meories I have with her are very happy ones :) She was such a delightful human being and I am sad for those who will never know and come to understand the beauty that is Nancy.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Oh, sweet Nancy. I hope you are at peace in heaven and I hope you have been enlightened with the knowledge of the positive influence you were on all you came in contact with. My life is better because you were apart of it. Thank you, Nancy. And may your blessings in heaven for your good deads on earth be rich and bring you the happiness and peace that you gave to us.

I love you, sweet Nancy. 

Around my house: Living Room

I wanted to show you all what life is like behind the curtains this week. We'll start today with the living room.

 We love to decorate with books. These Encyclopedia Britanica belonged to my grandfather. They are always a conversation piece.

Our seamstress, Krista, she makes our pillow covers that you see in our shop, made the floral center piece on my piano. Lovely.

I have been known to dabble in watercolors. The painting on the wall and the one on the piano are my own.

Now, before I trick you into thinking that we play piano and harps all day and are super smart because we read Encyclopedia Britanica, I want to show you now what my living room really looks like.

My living room would not be complete without laundry baskets of clothes not put away, puzzles on the floor and of course, my son, Joshua, watching Cars or Cars 2. I have now seen Cars more times than I've seen my own face.

Another view often seen through our living room is my daughter, Miriam, headed toward the stairs to hide her cantraband in her room. In this case it is a handful of smarties she stole from the kitchen counter.

And another view often seen in my living room is our cat, Ruby Tuesday, plotting her escape from us, her captors.

I painted the walls, it is not wallpaper. I will soon have a DIY on how to do the stripes later this month.

Enjoy!

One of those days. . .

I struggle with many different problems in my life: my health, depression and complete lack of time management skills :) I have a disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It is a painful joint an tissue connectivity disorder. Often I feel defeated by my disorder. I sometimes ask why I bother trying to make this business bigger and better if I am just going to detiorate and not be able to handle it? There are a few things I turn to for inspiration to keep going when I feel defeated.

(You can see my hand in this picture and see how crooked my fingers are. Ouch).

My wonderful family!

(I'm the one in the black shirt. This is me BC, before children. Ha!)

(I think my sisters say this about me)

My sisters, brother and mom and dad (they all have the same disorder too. Except my dad. . . ).

and even my wonderful in laws.

(My brother in law, Tim. This picture always makes me happy. He's just one of my wonderful inlaws that makes me smile).

I was going to add something here, like I read scriptures or pray or something that might make me look like a pious woman. But who am I kidding?! When I am angry at my body and can't move I watch Top Gear.

or The Walking Dead (because I often feel like the walking dead).

(definitely a closet Norman Reedus groupie. Who's with me?!)

Real men use cross-bows.

We're like 7-11: We're not always doing business. But we're always open.

I know I am not the only person with aches and pains. For my amusement while I sit and wait for the pain to subside I want to know what you use for a distraction from the aches and pains of life.

What do you do when you give in to . . .  life? What/who makes you feel better?

 Any other closet Norman Reedus groupies out there??

Brigthen up your home

Brighten up your home with some of these fabrics for spring and summer.

"Floral Beauty" from Fabric Mart

"Girly Blue" zigzag from Bobbie Lou's Fabric Factory

"Premier Prints Butterflies in yellow and white" from Decorate23

"Imperial Trellis II in Mandarin" from Lynn Chalk

"Chartreuse Zig Zag" From Rainey Creek Home

"Waverly BlackBird" from Window Treatments by Melissa

Each of these shops have many more colors varieties and pattern varieties to brighten up your home this summer. Go check them out!!

Funny Sotry

So I did a giveaway on Kirsten Krason's 6th Street Design Blog. I gave a set of 84" lined rod pocket panels in yellow and white zig zag:

(These are curtains I made for Megan at Megan Creates).

So when the giveaway was over, Kirsten emailed me with the winner's email and said, "I told her you would contact her for the shipping address." So I wrote to Elizabeth, the winner. She wrote back and gave me her address. It turns out she lives within walking distance of me! Crazy! I live in Virginia. Kirsten from 6th Street is in Utah. And Elizabeth and I were able to connect through 6th street. Very cool! Small world! I will have pictures to show of the curtains in her son's nursery soon to share with everyone.

Giveaway Tuesday! ONE BIG ONE

We are going to cancel all the tuesday giveaways for this month until the last Tuesday (April 24th) when we will do ONE BIG GIVEAWAY!!! Until then I will be dropping little hints as to what it could be.

Report on March's sponsor family and Introduction to April's sponsor family

Berkley!

In March we sponsored little miss Berkley. She has recently developed some breathing problems. We sponsored her to help pay for her expensive breathing treatments that are not covered by insurance.

For those who are not aware of our sponsore program, we sponsor a family or individual for a month by offering a coupon code to our buyers to use to help contribute to the cause and then we donate $5 from every order sold that month to their cause. (To read about past sponsored families look under the sponsor family label in the labels section). In March we made 47 sales and raised $235 for Berkley's breathing treatments! Thank you all for your help!

April's Sponsored Family: Avery Andersen

This is the Andersen family. They are friends of mine and some of the hardest working people I know! Parents of Avery, Gabe and Josephine, have dedicated their lives to the success of their family and helping their oldest child, Avery, to be able to walk successfully on her own.

This is an excerpt about Avery's condition from her mom's shop, Avery's Shoes and Gifts on Facebook and also Avery's Shoes and Gifts on etsy. "Avery is a sweet 5 year old who was born with hydrocephalus (“water on the brain”) and cerebral palsy. She has been working hard in physical therapy since she was a month old. In August 2011 she is scheduled for a surgery, called Selective Percutaneous Myofascial Lengthening, which will help her reach her goal of walking independently! We will need to travel to Texas for the surgery, and once we get back to Virginia, she will need intensive physical therapy for several months."

She has since had the surgery and begun therapy. Unfortunately, the therapy is still experimental and therefore, not covered by insurance. I have seen for myself the tremendous progress she has made since beginning therapy and we hope to help her continue that therapy so she can walk independently.

If you would like to help us help Avery please use coupon code AVERY to get free shipping on your enxt order (a $15 value). You can also help Avery by checking out her mom's FB shopAvery's Shoes and Gifts where Avery's mom sells squeaky shoes for babies and toddlers! I have purchased these for my children many times and they love the squeaks with every step (squeakers can be taken out of shoes).

On a side note, we helped Avery back in September and are helping her again because we have run out of sponsor families! If you or someone you know could benefit from our sponsor program, please send us an email at windowsbymelissa@gmail.com telling us your story.

Thank you all!