Eckenrode Family

Family Pictures

Orchestrating a family picture for me is always a stressful event. So, that is why our last professional family photo was taken about 3 years ago. But, once our relative and friend Jodi moved minutes away from us and started a photography business, there were no excuses. I had an idea for how I wanted these photos to look and since chances are this won't happen again for another 3 years, I wanted to do it right. So, I scoped out possible locations to match the one in my head and taking a wrong turn down a private driveway one afternoon I came across the field with tall grasses to match the on I had in my mind. After getting up the nerve I went to the front door of the house and asked permission to use his property. With a surprised look on his face he agreed to let us use his field.
































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Jewlery Organizer

I orgnaized my closet recently and after I saw how good that felt I couldn't stop and decided to organize my jewelry as well. I don't tend to wear a lot of jewelry and only recently started to wear earrings again after not wearing them for so many years to avoid little hands pulling on them. So, since I started wearing earrings again, I've acquired a few pairs that I love but that I forget about because they've been tucked in a jewelry box.

I began looking on pinterest and saw all of the lovely ways to display your jewelry which is how I came up with this idea. I love the fact that my jewelry along with some of my favorite fabrics are displayed on my bedroom wall as art. Making this was so simple and quick. I bought a corkboard which was mounted on a wood frame, then I sewed together some of my favorite fabrics into a square slightly bigger than the corkboard, and glued it to the corkboard using fabric glue. I tacked the jewelry onto the board using furniture tacks. I like the black antique look of these tacks.
Now my jewelry is on the wall and I don't forget about it because it's sitting in a drawer.

Grandma

Grandma with my mom.

It is so hard to be in a world where you are not.
You were my soft place to fall. You listened to me always, without judgment, only love. I believe that if you weren’t my grandma and I wasn’t your granddaughter, that we would have been friends.

Well-worn Keds, Double Mint gum, green machines, Dove soap, Oil of Olay lotion, Klondike Bars and Election Day – these things are you to me.

I remember laying on your couch when I was home sick from school drinking 7-up, listening to music on headphones and making you listen to song after song and you did it and you made me believe you were enjoying my music. I remember staying at your house as a child and you bathing me – I’d never been so clean. As teenagers, we would walk in your house and you’d hug us and always say, “I don’t know if you’re getting taller or I’m getting shorter.”

I showed up at your door one day in my early twenties, probably with some bizarre new hair color and maybe a new piercing but you opened the door so happy to see me and you said, “Don’t ever change.” Those three words were the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. In those three words you told me that I am enough.

I’m not sure why you had that disease or what the point of all of that was. What was the point?
The first time I came to see you when you were unable to even fake a hello; the first time neither one of us could pretend that you didn’t know me, that hurt. It hurt so much but I couldn’t really mourn you then. I was overcome with the loss I felt, but I had to hide the emotion because seeing someone cry upset you. And so, I cried behind your back and then pulled myself together. It is only now that I can acknowledge the total loss of you; body and spirit. It hurts and I miss you but I’m so glad you’re free.