The One With Frames

OMG! I'm blogging! After an over 2 year hiatus. A lot has happened in that time. But here's a quick lowdown of the last 2+ years:

Remember that house that my husband told me we purchased back in 2011? Well... it was a foreclosure and was pretty much stripped and in need of some serious TLC. Long story short, we've made some improvements.

 My boy is now 7, over 75 pounds, in the 99th percentile for height and weight, and is a brainiac.

My girl just turned 5 and I'm quite certain her sole purpose in life is to be entertained and will stop at nothing to make people herself laugh.

My mother in law moved from Oregon to live with us for almost a year. I will not speak of the details but... she no longer lives with us.

My mother passed away in June of this year, and I've been dealing with her estate and her trust (that we didn't know she had) and probate ever since.

And between work-related high school drama bullcrap stress, major personal stress, and just the challenge of being a fulltime working mom and wife, my body and health are really not happy with me.

But.. more about the above (except for the thing of which we do not speak) later.

For now... one of the ways that I manage stress and find perspective is by drinking heavily being all crafty and brilliant.

When my mother passed away, my sister and I were left with a ginormous hoarded mess.  I don't think losing a parent is ever easy or pleasant, but if you know me, you know that I am ridiculously happy most days and prefer to find the good in all situations. Now I'm not sure if what I'm about to tell is really the good in this situation, but in a very round about sort of way, I'm willing it to be good. (I haven't really started this little endeavor, so .. the jury is still out.)

My grandfather Leroy Greene was an artist. He made jewelry, sculptures and paintings, primarily. (I'll write more about some of that stuff later.)  My mother's home had a vault (yes, a vault, as in steel door, all cement, almost impossible to destroy, unless you're a family of rodents who always find a resourceful way). A few years back, my mother entered into an "arrangement" with a gallery owner in Billings, MT to sell some paintings. Apparently when he came to Corvallis to haul away these paintings, he wasn't interested in the frames they were in. So the vault (and home) were loaded with probably 75 or more empty frames. Some are super nice... I took a bazillion back home to Colorado with me, and left a bunch in the home for the estate sale company to deal with.

Side note. If you are ever in a situation where a family member passes and there is WAY more stuff than anyone ever wants, and you just don't have the time or desire to deal with it, do yourself and your family a favor and enlist the services of an estate sale company. Amaze-balls.

Back to the bazillion frames.

Frames.

Frames.

OMG.

Frames.

Just so many of them.

And I realized that they really have no value. What was I thinking bringing these damn things home with me? I really should have left them for the estate sale company. Grief, frustration and enormous emotional  trauma will make you do crazy things.

But as anyone with any crafty sense will do, I turned to Pinterest.

Stayed tuned for frame projects. Oh yes. There will be many of them.

Merry Christmas, Friends! Bwaah-haa-haa-haaaAAAAAA!