Inspired to Spread a little love

Early in the week I was inspired by a news story on my local station about spreading a “little love”. Watch video below and you might be inspired too.

You readers who stop by my blog on a regular basis know my close affection for a couple living at an assisted living facility nearby. In the past, I was able to visit the facility, and to volunteer there with the ladies who liked to quilt. This last year has been a challenge for those residents and I’m certain for residents in all care facilities. The video above inspired me to do something for my friends at the assisted living facility. After grocery shopping on Tuesday I made a trip to the local Dollar Tree and picked up some “valentine” embellishments and put my plan in motion. I was going to make some cards! I wasn’t sure I could make enough cards, so I got some pre-printed ones too that I could add a bit of embellishment to as well.

My friend Nancy came over on Wednesday and we spent some time in the afternoon working on Valentines cards together, and got 2 dozen made. I emailed the activities director, and she was very welcoming to the idea and gave me the number of residents. On hearing the number (80 residents) I thought I might need a LITTLE more help to reach that number of cards. On Thursday I resupplied my cardstock and envelope supply with a quick stop at Michaels, picking up a new stamp and some washi tape and some new colors of stamp pads.

Friday my youngest granddaughter and her mom came for the afternoon. With a 4 year old, I thought it best that we work in the dining room, with out all the distractions in my quilt studio over the garage. I brought some things in the night before and set the dining room table with paper over the protective pad, and baskets of stamps, pens, stickers, ribbons etc. When they arrived, we went into ‘overdrive’ ! We stamped, we stickered, we used our felt pens and fine point pens, we glued, taped, and embellished cards. We had a lot of fun together! My granddaughter and I worked side by side and she loved adding stickers to cards I had stamped, as well as doing her own stamping and other decorating! Little did I know what expert card makers they both were!

With my embellishment stash dwindling, I had a chance to “resupply again” at a different Dollar Tree while out running errands on Friday evening, and got ‘lucky’ finding the shop well stocked with crafting items. The Dollar Tree in Seaford Delaware is well supplied and certainly will be my choice if I need to pick things up for having fun! Perfect for mass producing cards.

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We even got Grandpa in on the fun, figuring out how some of the paper punches I have work. He is an expert at aligning the scallop punch! On Saturday morning my older granddaughters are coming for a couple of hours, and I am sure we will have just as much fun making more cards and hitting our target. If we have extra, well I think the staff at the facility deserve a card too ! With the artistic flair of my friend Nancy, my daughter Heather and the granddaughters, I think every one will enjoy their Valentines Day cards.

This has been a fun project, an interesting diversion, and a nice way to spend some time together within our “safety bubble” this week. I feel like I have had lots of fun too! Thank you Nancy, Heather, and dear granddaughters for all your hard work making cards. I hope it was as much fun for you as me. I know they will be a bright spot for the residents of the Assisted Living center.

My other daughter and I got out for a haircut finally after discussing it, and went on the recommendation of the other daughter to a place with a good stylist, safety procedures etc. For me it has been well over a year! Last haircut was just before my Aug 2019 Alaska cruise. I usually let my hair grow during the winter to keep my ears warm, and whack it all off in the spring for “pool hair”. Well, I got rid of about 6 inches of hair. All those funny layered ends from the last summer hair cut are gone now and I feel less scraggly! (No more COVID HAIR!)

Between a couple of outings for craft supplies and even an outing for dinner with the hubby, it’s been a fun week. We’ve eaten out twice in the past week, once at Delmar Pizza and once at Arena’s in Georgetown. Arena’s is our “safe spot” locally, with every other table removed. I am not a fan of carryout food. If I have to reheat it and plate it, and clean up the dishes, I might as well cook. Going out and having someone “else” do the cooking and clean up is the #2 thing I miss doing ! Restrictions here are being eased again, with occupancy being raised to 50% capacity in restaurants next week.

A real treat

How are you prepared for another 6 weeks of winter since that old groundhog let us down? We laughed on February 2nd and said the last 11 months have felt like Groundhog Day, the movie. Certainly having a change of pace, doing something different this week has made it feel a little less like that for me.