July 27th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope you all survived this past week.

I'm not gonna lie, I was and still am greatly affected by Ozzy Osbourne's passing.

I was never into his music when it originally came out. Black Sabbath with Ozzy was active in USA 1970-1979, and as I was an 8th grade goody-goody in 1970 I was not into heavy metal! 

I began at 8 years old with The Beatles, followed by Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Monkees, The Cowsills...pure pop (they called it bubble-gum pop if I remember correctly). I continued to listen to Top 40 radio music until I developed a huge love for Neil Young in 1972, which lasted for years. In fact, when Neil later got a bit metal-ly with his music, I quit liking him!

So, nothing in there for heavy metal, lol.

How I fell for the Osbourne family was their reality show on MTV.

Watched every episode with my daughter.

And it's been only the last couple of years that I've listened as a fan would to Ozzy's music.

And I fell in love with his music for the first time, after all these years.

A few hours after his final performance at Villa Park, a bootleg video of his solo set and Black Sabbath's set appeared on YouTube and I watched it all.

I have some experience with Parkinson's patients here and there (family, friends, neighbors). I'd also been in a service organization where I cheer-visited elderly in hospital, so when it came time for our daughter to do some service projects, I connected her with them. They persuaded me to join her and we were assigned patients with advanced Parkinson's.

This is when I really learned all of the problems those patients face. 

When I watched Ozzy perform, I was acutely aware of his constant struggle to breathe, swallow and the weary/dead look in his eyes.

It looked too terribly familiar to me.

So although it was a shock that he passed just 2 weeks after that, I wasn't that surprised.

Now that I've had a few days to reflect, I am just blown away that he had the superhuman determination to perform one last time for his fans and for charity. And that his wife Sharon made it all happen for him. And that he did such a fabulous job given his health.

Comedian Charles McBee said it best, I think:

"The Man. The Myth. The Mumble!"

There will never be another Ozzy.

 He was the ultimate showman, even to the end.

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Thanks for letting me post all that.

Now onto the cards:

I made this card for our daughter's recent birthday.

No sketch for this one.

I trimmed down a sheet from Ciao Bella's The Seventies dp pack and layered it over a piece of yellow-orange paper and a pink Bazzill card base.

I stamped a Deep Red Stamps City Girl and colored her with Promarkers before adding to the scene.

Stamplorations Celebrate die cut and MFT stamped sentiment cut with the SU Word Window punch.

Star stickers to finish.

I had to make this the week my computer died, so I didn't have my inventory at my fingertips and had to just grab materials I knew I had.

She loved it so all went well.

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Next up is a card I made one of our daughter's close girlfriends.

I also made this while I had no access to my computer files.

The  SU card base, lace and ribbon were in a pile on my table.

I luckily opened my 6x6 paper box and quickly found this Basic Grey Hopscotch dp to go with it, as well as smaller dp scraps for the circles cut with Spellbinders nested dies.

I also knew where the The Sweet Shop Stamps Foxy set was so I used those stamps.

Inside the fox is stamped again along with What does the Fox say? repeated.

And a speech bubble with Happy Birthday inside.

Again, a big hit with the recipient as she loves that song.

And I'd never before used the stamps! lol

And the sketch I used.

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Last up is a card I made my cousin's husband.

The base and brown card stock is Kraft, the dp is Pink Paislee, the sentiment die is Stamplorations and the candle stamps and dies are Catherine Pooler.

I stamped the candles with Versamark and heat-embossed with white powder.

And the sketch I used.

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Well, that's enough from me this time.

Thanks for the visit and again for allowing me to share my Ozzy thoughts.

Hope you have a fabulous week.

Stay cool and hydrated!

XOX