Harriet, the rocks are just little river rocks -- I bought a box of them in Wmart, and wrote on them w/a Sharpie. It was a learning process, b/c my rocks apparently had been polished and had a waxy sheen on them. So I tore up several Sharpies before I got it right. The wax would get on the felt point and then it just would not write anymore. Finally I realized I was going to have to sand the rocks a little bit before writing. After that it was easy.
My ONLY talent is penmanship, so I tried to do several different fonts and then a little bit of design -- culiques or something -- around them, and then wrote the person's name (who gave me the word) on the back of the rock.
A coat of mod podge on each side restored some of the shine that sanding took away, and since the rocks I bought were several different shades, it looked really pretty.
I found a rectangular basket at dmil's that just fit for the number of rocks I had, and I made a little card from cardstock that had the verse Robert Burns' poem on it -- "O would some gift the giftee gie us, to see ourselves as others see us."
She was just really carried away with it. I am so glad I did it.
I had responses from 23 people. Some used the same word, and I allowed myself several rocks b/c I had lots of words, LOL. (Aren't y'all surprised?)
Some of the responses from others -- almost all family, but a few of her oldest friends -- were
gentle
steadfast
caring
generous
patient
awesome cook
sweet
kind
beautiful
friend
thoughtful
calm
intelligent
faithful
caring * that was neat, b/c both of her sisters-in-law said that as the first word that came to mind
sister * by one of the sisters-in-law, when I told her she used the same word as the other
lovely
devoted
classy
Godly
My words werestrong
understanding
saint * b/c I thought about how I'm always telling y'all my mother is a saint
Proverbs 31
Ellen O'Hara
* DS said, "What's with that?" I assured him that Granny would understand. There's a passage in GWTW that describes Ellen as all that is good about womanhood, a very great lady, and how Scarlett, when she was a small child confused her mother with the Virgin Mary, and when she grew older, she saw very little reason to change her opinion. It says, "Someday, when she was older, Scarlett intended to be like her mother."
Oh -- and ddil said to put a rock in that said "Granny" for dgs, and I added one that said "Mother."
If you search river rocks -- sharpie, or motivational sayings or something like that -- you can find plenty examples on pinterest. The only thing original I added was the poem.
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I actually have another project in my mind, kinda mulling around. I brought home all of dmil's scarves, and I'm trying to decide how to display them and keep them. I do NOT want a "bohemian curtain" and I don't want to frame them -- there are too many. So I'm thinking maybe I could get a plain styrofoam wreath form and wrap them around it? And maybe have my crafty cousin make some flowers out of the stiffer fabric handkerchiefs?
Do y'all have any other ideas?
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Dsisil wants all the costume jewelry to use in making a cross wall-hanging for dniece. She is going to use jewelry from dmil and her own dmother who passed away the year before. I am hoping there is enough of dmil's that she could make a small wall-hanging for us, b/c that sounds really nice.