Meaningful Touches

I love looking around my house and seeing something sitting on my shelf or hanging on the wall that immediately makes me think of someone I love or a special memory.  I mean,  that's what this is all about, right?  I have many pieces that make me happy or laugh right out loud with a funny memory and even some that bring a tear to my eye.  Today I want to share two special pieces.  They are both signs hanging in our home and I love them dearly. ​

​ The first one is my Lancaster, PA sign.  It's special in many ways. First, because my sister painted it and she always does such an incredible job!  Second, because of the place ..... Lancaster!  I have been going there since I can remember and have so many fun memories of shopping with my Mom and sister and with friends.  We visited Dutch Wonderland with our kids many years ago and now our grandkids!  In fact, I just took my oldest Grandson, Zephaniah (Zeph for short) to Dutch Wonderland a few weeks ago before school started.  
     

 I can honestly say, I had one of my favorite days EVER!   Zeph is such a great kid and I am honored to be able to spend time with him!   A little bragging is ok when you're a Nana!  He's 5 years old and starting kindergarten this year.  I can hardly wait to take his little brother, Uriah (Rye for short) when he gets a bit older.  He's not quite 1 1/2 and is full of sweetness!  I Know how truly blessed we are to have these sweet grandbaby's on our lives.

​​There have been countless trips spent winding through uncharted roads and finding treasure that makes your insides burst with enthusiasm for the next project.  My hubbs and I love getting up early and heading to Lancaster just for the drive alone.  It's so beautiful and very relaxing!  A great way to unwind for sure!  My last memory of going with my Mom is something that I will always treasure.  She was laying on the backseat really not doing very well that day, but wanted to take my sister and myself to Lancaster for some fun.  We talked and laughed the whole way and my mom said the best part was listening to my sister and me laughing together in the front seat! (Now I'm crying!)  
On the back of this sign is this:

I truly believe that it is a healing process for me every time I look at this sign and realize how blessed I am for the family I have both here and in heaven waiting to see me again someday!  What hope we have!

​The next sign I want to share with you is this one.   

I made this sign several years ago after my Mom passed on and I was wanting something in my kitchen to remind me of all the fun times watching and helping her cook and bake.  Looking through her recipe box one day,  I came up with the idea to put her handwritten recipe card on a sign.  I really had not done anything like that before and did not have the wonderful resource of  the blogging world for ideas at that point,  so I just  created a sign with the idea of printing out her recipe using an engineer size copy I made at the print shop and then cutting out the words and modpodging them to my wood.  What followed was a series of trial and error with sanding and painting again and again until I achieved the look I wanted.  It's not perfect and if I were to do it again, I'm sure I could improve on the method, but when I look at this sign it reminds me that we all heal from a loss in different ways.  I treasure the memory of all the time spent bringing this sign and my moms' handwriting to life.  It has brought me many smiles since then and I love sharing the memories and stories of my mom with my grand kids.  
I hope this encourages you to surround yourself with people you love and to cherish every moment because we don't know the future, but we know Who holds it!
​Heidi