Happy Birthday, dear Tina!

Today is day one, (of which I hope is many to come) of me taking over blogging for Simply Scrapbooks.  When Laurie and Tina asked me to dust off the old keyboard, I have to admit, I was smiling and nodding as the words, “Sure!  I’d love too!” tumbled out of my mouth.  But inside, a small knot started growing in my gut.  A little voice inside my head said, “What are you doing!  No, you did not just say that!  You don’t know A THING about blogs!”

Well, after a couple of weeks of lame excuses, I finally decided to give it a try.    Sooooooo... please, please, please feel free to correct my spelling and punctuation as needed, (everyone needs a grammar drill sergeant in their life), and let me know if you love it, hate it, or think “Eh, I might read that on occasion.” 

Instead of the normal self-introduction, which I speculate is typically what you would expect from a new blogger, I’m going to tell you a little about the person whose birth I am celebrating today.  It’s my baby sister – Tina Crowder – who (whom?) you may or may not know from Simply Scrapbooks.    

Tina is the youngest of eight of us.  But, even though she’s the baby, she’s the one who really inspires me!  Not only with her wonderful creativity, which you have probably had a chance to experience if you are a regular at Simply, (If not, come take one of her card classes – you WILL NOT be disappointed!)  But I really admire the Wife, Mom, Sister, Friend and overall woman she is.  Unlike me, no matter what type of adversity she comes against, she fights it wholeheartedly.  Yes, she has her bad days, and gets depressed like the rest of us, but she really has the gift of seeing the overall picture, and not letting these things take her off course.   She’s supportive, easy to talk to, outgoing, fun, HILARIOUS, and beautiful – inside and out!  She is also very persuasive!  (I haven’t decided if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing!)

When I moved back to Bakersfield in 2005, one of the first things she said to me was, “Oh yay - now you can be in my monthly card club!  I get together with a really nice group of ladies, and we stamp and make cards!”  (Maybe she didn’t say “Oh, yay” … but I got the idea that she was excited about this card club!)  Again, out of my mouth came, “Sure, I’d love too!” – but, inside my head was – “She’s on crack!  I’m not stamping with a bunch of ladies!  I’m not creative and that sounds boring.”  FAMOUS.  LAST. WORDS.  From that moment on, she sucked me into this wonderful world of papercrafting, and for that, I am eternally grateful!

One of the fun projects we did in our club was to take a card home and decorate it with things about ourselves.  Our assignment was to make enough to exchange with each of the ladies in our club, so we could all have a little “Keyring of Friendship”.   Even though we did this over five years ago, I still have mine.  It’s a special treasure I keep hanging up in my crafting room.  Below, is the inside of Tina’s card.  Most of us had a few little things on ours, such as, “I love chocolate” and “Target is my favorite place to shop”.  Tina got detailed and personal, and I think that’s why hers is my favorite. 

If you already know her, come down and give her a big birthday hug!  That’s a present she will really appreciate!  If you haven’t been by in a while, or haven’t had a chance to meet this wonderful lady, take some time out of your busy schedule to pop in for a little ray of sunshine that is my sister, Tina Crowder.