a special keepsake...

I wanted to make something special to wear to the funeral in honor of my Grandma. I found drawers (and drawers and drawers) full of costume jewelery and a few of her vintage shirts that she had stashed in the closet. I've always known that creating and crafting is my way of dealing with stress, so to make the time pass as we were sitting with her over the last several days I used her necklaces and pins and old clothes to create this:

I was too anxious to wait to wear it and thought it would be a good way to keep her close to me when I wasn't sitting there with her at the nursing home so I wore it the next day to run some errands. My nieces fell in love with it, so I put them to work on sewing the yoyo flowers and picking out the pins and such that they liked and we got busy :

I made one for my grandma's sister as well and she has worn it every day since being here. I have a few more to make for more relatives so we'll be busy today creating more. I love that we've created something unique that we can each keep in her memory.