Dreamkeeper Creations: Cupcake Day Signs, Gifts, Giggles, and Blessings

Magic by Elli Groninger

Cupcake Day, for those of you who know me, happens twice a year - every year. Once on my beloved daughter Jessica's Earth Birthday when she was born, which was April 29, (1988), and once again on her Celestial Birthday, also known by some as the "death day" on January 9th, (2015). So on these two days my husband and I buy or make a cupcake which we share together, and drink a celebratory glass of Cupcake wine (yep it's a real brand and it's not bad!), cheering her on her accomplishments, adventures, and journeys near and far.

These days can feel a little and sometimes a LOT serious and heavy and heartwrenching, and after 10 years of her passing I can say I am better at navigating the emotion than I was for the several years. So this year I said to my husband, was feeling especially heavy because a little over a year ago my beloved sister, Melinda passed, and not even nine months later, my 90-year-old mother passed. All three had lengthy and alarming and painful illnesses, so with each came true challenges with finding balance in my heart and mind.

On top of that, this very weekend my mother's home sold, and that was feeling extremely emotional, mixed with all those feelings of her pain, which I couldn't control, memories flooding in both good and not so good, and feeling the absence of my sister so acutely I found myself having nightmares and sometimes crying (when nobody would see) and I was feeling rather devastated and alone.

ENTER ELLI GRONINGER! I ADORE this woman! I adore her work and we have several pieces I've collected over the years, plus I thoroughly enjoyed giving some of them to my Lovies when they were here. Shortly before my birthday, which falls also in April, I fell in LOVE with this Monarch Moose figure Elli created because when I saw it in the State College Framing Company and Gallery it made me giggle right out loud. And I said to Rob, my hubby, "You know what? I think I'd love to have this in our home to remind me to lighten up and not be so serious!" He likes to make me happy so he bought it for me, and I can't tell you how many times I walk by and tap its little nose or even give it a kiss right on its nose for the joy it brings in reminding me how blessed I am to have these Lovies in my life, both while they were on Earth and now when they have the whole Universe to play in. It reminds me that LIFE is the important thing. That death is just a split second transition, that the suffering is temporary, thank goodness, and many sweet and loving things happen between us all not only while they were here but now too!

I love the signs and gifts that they're with us in spirit. For example, my hubby and I were listening to a playlist we've listened to a thousand times, when we ask Alexa to play Frank Sinatra. She loops through a fairly familiar playlist that's pretty long and thoroughly enjoyable, but THIS weekend, what happened? I don't know, but a new song came onto that playlist and we had nothing to do with it but I suspect my Lovies in their heavens did. We were in the kitchen cooking dinner, and in the middle of this familiar playlist along came Andrea Bocelli's GORGEOUS rendition of Time to Say Goodbye and for some reason this piece of music captured my heart with such beauty and soul and oh my gosh, gave me the best kind of goosebumps (always a sign of spiritual presence with me). I vaguely knew that my sister's beloved hubby had played it at her funeral service, but at that time I was home in bed sick as a dog, (probably pneumonia, ack it was so bad...) and her husband was kind enough to set up the service streaming so I could watch it from my bed.

So THIS weekend, when it played out of the clear blue sky and captured my attention I wanted to know more about who was singing and who this person was. Welp. It was a gift. Because there are so few people you run across who are such that you would want to be like them. I googled all I could find out about him and was enchanted to find that his whole family is talented and refined and beautiful beyond compare, AND that his mother was advised not to allow her pregnancy to continue because the docs knew he would suffer some physical challenges. Well God bless her in the best way, she didn't listen to them and she had this special baby, and she was also wise and compassionate, and in raising him with his surgeries and various physical challenges she noticed that music was the very best thing that soothed him when he felt sad or frustrated, so she gave him all the exposure she could, which he asked for, and as he grew up, he eventually learned to play a million different instruments, speak several languages, sing like magic, and love without reservation, which led to his children becoming some really amazing and talented people too! AND led to the whole wide world loving him and his family and the gifts and magic they share so generously with us.

So this tiny gift of a song which I absolutely believe was my sis in spirit lifting my heart when it felt so crushed missing her, led me to a discovery that now brings me hours of joy in listening to him - and his family sing, and such joy in just knowing there are people like this on the planet. How lucky we are. Thanks Mellie. No wonder she loved him. She used to blast his music along with many others when she was here, and she's still helping us to share in the joy. True joy. It sure felt like magic to me, give it a listen.

So that led me to contemplate LIFE and what my Lovies created and shared. They were all very different from each other, but each exquisite in their own way for their own reasons. I thought about the beautiful rocking chair my mother gave me shortly before she passed. It's so precious in our home. Every member of my family going back to her mother and father and quite probably her mother's mother has sat in it, AND my beautiful son and his wife and the newest member of our family, my granddaughter, so it's a very special chair. It had seen some wear, being over 100 years old, and even though my mother recovered it once, it was time to do it again, so I invested and now it's just such a special piece of family history that I love to rock in sometimes, remembering all the good times, when it lived in my grandmother's home, then my mother and father's home, then her home, then ours. Sigh. It's like being wrapped in a big hug to sit in it.

The lovely rocking chair XO
Now recovered in soft forest green velvet.

Mom gave us something else that I a l m o s t didn't bring home. It was the grandmother clock that had belonged to her mother. I remember hearing it chime when we visited my Gammy's home, which was my favorite place to be because she loved me so well. The reason I almost didn't take it was because our town is fairly small and we do not have anything to choose from for people who know how to repair clocks and get them working. I understand that mom's clock was working when she moved here, but when it stopped, nobody helped her get it fixed (I'd have done it but I didn't know it wasn't working cause I didn't see her during Covid and not much after because we were both so sick). But again, my hubby was so wonderful he went online and found a wondrous clock man called Walt Mack, who came and took the clock back to his place of business about an hour and a half away, replaced some parts, serviced it, and got it working, and TA DA! We now have that beeeeeeeeeautiful sound in our home what I remember from when I was a kid and what it says to me is: Time is special, use it wisely and let it sing to you. I stopped wearing watches a long time ago and I do not run my life by the clock since I retired - my schedule is crazy artist stay up all night working and sleep a lot of the day, because I'm a project person and I'll stop when the work tells me it's a stopping point, not the clock. But THIS clock is like a grandmother herself, reminding me to BE in the moment and to LOVE how I spend my time. So it is most precious to have, thanks mom for the gift, and thanks Rob for making it work.

Grandmother clock sings her song so beautifully XO

Then I thought of my sister and all she gave to me while she was here. Lucky am I to have her with me. She was my person and I'm pretty sure she still is. She was everybody's person because she was a nurturer from a very early age. My sis was different from me, very much so, since I, being an artist from the tender age of about 6, didn't care a hoot about people, I cared only about being alone and creating. Florence Nightingale I would never be, though I was and am fierce about supporting my children emotionally, and trying to protect them from any who might hurt them, I want them to spread their wings and fly, where my sis was just always cooking and phoning and listening and talking and connecting and teaching and loving so very well. I do love with all of myself but it's quite different. So we were very close and loved each other unequivocally, having a sort of symbiotic relationship. We loved giving each other presents and knew each other fairly well, and there are things in my home, just so many that I have around me that she gave me, one of which is a beautiful stained glass mobile that hangs above my desk in my studio, turning gently in the breezes that flow through, flashing light here and there, like she did. I love it. I think of her when I see it and it makes my heart sing. Thanks Mellie, for all of your gifts, which were many, and for being my person, then and now XO

The beautiful stained glass mobile XO

She also gave me such fun birthday presents. She'd say about a week or two ahead of time, on the phone or if we were visiting, "Somebody I know has a birthday coming up! What would you like?" And that's how I got the lovely rainbow candle holder she gave me which is kind of like a little piece of God or Creator sitting in my studio because, rainbows you know....

My sister's magical rainbows are with me whenever the sun is out,
I don't even have to light the tealight inside!

And next to my sis's rainbows are the camels I inherited from my mother and the kaleidascope I gave my Dad one year. Lovely reminders of things they loved and things we enjoyed together. XO

And my Sweet Jess. I have so many things she gave me, though she didn't believe in holidays per se, she just liked to give me special things when she felt like it. I love them all but perhaps most of all I love the photos she took as a professional photographer. There are literally hundreds and hundreds and I have them on my computer, but one she framed for me and I've never seen anything like it. Lots of photographers go to Antelope Canyon and take pics, but hers is like nothing I've ever seen before. It holds worlds upon worlds and I remember asking her when she gave it to me how it came about and she said she had to wait until the other tourists had gone through, and she went up to this crevasse and touched the sand with her fingers, then stepped back and snapped this shot. Wow. I just adore it. Thank you my lovely for your artistic eye and your road trips and sharing your talents with me XO

Jessie's experience of Antelope Canyon.
Bet you'll never see another like this one, it's amazing.

Because it's framed it doesn't really photograph well at this point, though you can pop by and see it in person anytime, along with several additional amazing photos she captured - magical moments in time.

So when I was feeling a bit lonely with nobody to talk to as my mother's home was closing out an era, and I was so missing my sis and daughter, and most especially my son and his lovely wife and my baby granddaughter, (who live a bit far away to visit as often as I'd like what with work and all) the music and Elli's lovely creation reminded me to think of my beautiful blessings and keep my heart light.

And you know what happened? Welp, sometimes when the Universe is busy loving you it tends to keep on coming, and that's what happened.

Hubby and I were sitting on the porch and he went into the house for something or other and right then the doorbell rang. (This was on the hard Saturday.) We wouldn't have heard it if he hadn't gone into the house right then. Lo and behold, it was our DARLING little neighbor from across the street. She's very young, I think around 7 or so. And she has the BEST EVER parents I've ever seen. They take their kids outside every day no matter what the weather and they have lots of other kids over all the time and they're so patient and kind and take great care of their yard and home, and the kids are always adorable. Well she was skating around the neighborhood on her whatever you call those single wheel roller blades with a basket over her arm distributing butterfly drawings just because. So WE GOT A BUTTERFLY DRAWING, and I'm telling you it made my heart sing, cause if you can't have your littles with you sometimes there are others who share that special innocence and joy and it's so special. So look what we got to put on our fridge, yep, THAT icky sticky hard day...

Baby artist sharing her joy, yay!

She has no idea how much we just love it! So I searched through my art supplies, always one to encourage the littles in creativity and found a lovely butterfly coloring book that was yet untouched and we ran it over there and gave it to them with a note (written in super glitter marker that she'll enjoy) letting her know how much we love it. When Rob dropped off the coloring book and card, her Dad said she was so proud of her drawings and rightly she should be!

And here's the thing. I realize it's been a heck of a tough year. But I also realize how much my Loves have given and still give, here, there, everywhere, and so this year, for Cupcake Day, I've decided it needs to be a democratic year. Because almost all my girls are in Heaven now (except of course baby granddaughter who high fived them on the way up/down I'm sure, and her beautiful Mama who is here with us) it's not going to be "only" a Sweet Jess cupcake. And there won't just be one.

We're making a batch of from scratch carrot cake cupcakes with yummy cream cheese icing, and we're sharing with our little artist and her family across the street, with my sister's husband, and if there's anyone else who wants one, pop over and get it quick cause they won't last long. Hubby printed out the most gorgeous recipe, and tomorrow I'll upload a photo of our shared "democratic" cupcake, which I'm sure Sweet Jess would approve of, cause she was always a very sociable gigglepuss who loved to share her joy.