Surreal times

The last three weeks have been rather surreal for our family. First, we rejoiced with DD#1 when she got engaged. Four days later we rallied around my husband when he experienced his stroke, and we continue to help him as he works toward recovery. Five days after the stroke, before DH was even out of the hospital, we mourned with DD#2 when she found out their precious, unborn baby has acrania and, as a family, we’ve chosen to celebrate the time we do have with him or her. There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). We’ve been putting that into practice a lot lately, but it can be challenging.

As a result of all of this, I’ve been trying to divide my attention between all three of them. Much of my time the last few days has been helping DD#1 design and print out Save-the-Date cards for their upcoming wedding. We’re pretty much a do-it-yourself type of family in many areas, so we never questioned that we would DIY the Save-the-Date cards, and we actually had a lot of fun designing them. The process is very much like quiltmaking; it involves a lot of creativity and problem-solving, sketching, perfecting, collecting elements, assembling, photographing, playing around in Photoshop. What’s not to like?

It was fun for me to collaborate with my daughter, too. DD#1 approaches things very differently from me, but I love what we ended up with. I like her color scheme. It actually ends up being a sophisticated, split complementary combination of ecru (muted yellow), burgundy (red-violet), and lavender (blue-violet). I also like her combination of aged elements like the old paper and the vintage crocheted doily put together with the smooth lavender, slightly metallic cording. The scrollwork was inspired by the “P” (which will be the first letter of her new last name) from the font she used on the Save-the-Date cards.

One unusual thing we did was to include Pre-RSVP cards. We would love to use our own church for the wedding and reception, but we are not sure it will be large enough. We’re hoping to get a rough head count now so we can choose the best venue, and then we’ll send out the final RSVP cards later with the invitations. I’m hoping this will help alleviate some potential worries.

The only glitch I’ve had so far is that I think I accidentally “mailed” about $30 worth of extra, unused stamps. I’ve cleaned up all of my work areas and haven’t been able to find them anywhere. Oh, well. I have more important things to be concerned about. At least one more thing is crossed off the “to-do” list and I can move on to the next thing.

I haven’t forgotten the giveaway. The winners are Theresa M and Mary Miller. Congratulations! If you two ladies will send me your mailing addresses, I’ll put them in the mail to you.