The Butterflies Have (Finally) Been Released

It was a perfect day, with great friends, good weather, and much love!!! After such a busy and amazing weekend, I'm finding it hard to gather my thoughts about what it means to me to have you be a part of such a personal celebration of my daughter Bryn. So, I'll just let the pictures do it for me.

play hard ... play hooky

On the Rocks

If you've been paying attention to my Instagram or FB feeds, you may already know that I've been working on something sneaky. With a group of my local crochet girls, BlondieChell and Good Lookin' Hookin', I planned a small yarn bomb for the start of a local event called FIBArk - First In Boating on the Arkansas. It's the oldest (and coolest) white water festival in the States and we wanted to do out part to get involved.

The Idea

It was early this week when I went to my yarnies and suggested we do a yarn bomb for all the people coming to our little mountain town for the fest. The water can get cold down by the river (am I the only one who hears Chris Farley's voice when I say that?) so we decided to keep the rocks warm by giving them bright cozies. I gathered up some rocks from my backyard and got to work. We only had a few days before the start of FIBArk, so we made 13 in all.

Sneaking Around

 

Last night, we enlisted the help of our 4 year olds to pick the perfect spots for our rocks. We tried our best to be sneaky, but there were still a few people hanging out in the park. So as nonchalantly as we could (with two flashlight-toting preschoolers), we found new homes for our rocks, Easter-egg style.

The Theif

BlondieChell was up with the sun to go check on our crafty stones in the light of day. And to all of our dismay, she caught this guy stealing the rocks! We all knew it would happen at some point, but not at dawn only a few short hours after we set them up. And this guy was taking them all! Seriously, what does one man need with a dozen crocheted rocks? So if you're in town for the fest and you see this blurry guy (he may or may not be related to Bigfoot), tell him you know he stole the stones... and that we'll be watching him... ;)

We got Lucky

Bigfoot must've sensed something because he abandoned his pretty-rock-gathering before he got them all. I walked to the river this morning with my kids around 9am and found four of them right where we put them. I don't expect they'll be there much longer, but that's the nature of the beast. If you see them, feel free to snap a pic, pet them, or even relocate them, but don't take them home. Let's show all these tourists how weird and fun us locals are, and that our town has more to offer than first meets the eye. Ok, so they probably won't get that deep of a meaning out of our rocks, but at least it'll make 'em smile.

FIBArk 2013 is just getting started!

PLAY HARD ~ PLAY HOOKY

Bryn's Flowers

Last summer, I experienced the darkest moment of my life; I lost my 5 year old daughter, Bryn. My sassy, funny, and amazing daughter suffered a massive asthma attack one month after her 5^th birthday. She fought harder and survived longer than anyone thought possible, but after two days her little body ran out of strength. I kissed my baby girl for the last time as she quietly passed away in my arms. The slow walk to healing can take many forms. So far my journey has included crochet and yarn bombing.

Bryn left us just a few short days after her last day of preschool. She never went to her first day of Kindergarten; a day she talked about with such enthusiasm that her whole body shook with excitement. She never got to walk through her classroom door, meet her new teacher, or experience the joys of a 'big girl school' so I decided to create a yarn bomb to be there in her place. After months of planning, over 300 volunteer crocheters from 35 US states, 7 Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, Germany, Italy, and Australia have come together for the biggest project I’ve ever attempted. Their outpouring of love and support helps me get through each day as the one year mark of her loss approaches.

Tuesday, April 16, would have been her 6th birthday. To celebrate and help give us strength, family, friends, a group of local volunteers, and even strangers walking past gathered on Saturday to install this epic project, showing just how many lives were touched by my sparkling girl.

This is a look back on the journey...

It begins...

My organizational skills are put to the test

Last minute preparations

People around the world showed their support by wearing Bryn's favorite color

 YARN BOMB!!

Bryn, I love you more than candy

Bryn's Flowers - Along the Way

The journey for this project started last September when I had the idea to create a yarn bomb for Bryn at the elementary school she would have gone to this year. You may know that I created and put up a yarn bomb at her preschool (it's still up!) last fall, so this will be my second in her honor. At first it was going to be something small, maybe a sleeve for a pole on the playground, but then it took a turn. I saw an incredible yarn bomb by the Ladies Fancywork Society - in 2010, they were commissioned to create a flower 'garden' for construction fences across Denver. Immediately I knew it was something Bryn would love and something that I could involve the entire crochet community in.

So far I've had an amazing, and overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and eagerness to be a part of the most epic project I've ever attempted. Fans of my Playin' Hooky page jumped at the chance to be involved, resulting in close to 300 members of the FB group I created in an attempt to keep things organized. Members had the chance to choose from 11 different flower designs, butterflies, bumblebees, pinwheels, stems & leaves, and even a rainbow. I created an online sign up sheet (again to keep things organized - both my parents are engineers so this kid had no chance of escaping OCD) and within an hour, all of the slots for crocheted items were filled. I had no idea I would get that kind of response! I've since had to add more items on two occasions so that everyone who wanted to help could have the chance to send something.

The designs we're using to yarn bomb the fence

Along with all the crocheting that's going on, I get daily words of encouragement, support, and love (and even German chocolate - scroll down) from everyone involved. I get so much strength from all of you. If you're local and want to help with set up, please let me know!

So that's where we are. I'm starting to get 6-10 packages a day with gorgeous items from all over the country (11 states so far) and even a couple from Germany and Australia. I'm going to try and update everyone through pictures, so if you're on Instagram or Twitter search #brynsflowers to see my daily photo-diary and other's contributions to the project too! You can also follow some of the pictures on my Facebook page.  Here are some pictures to get you caught up.

March 8: My first package notice!!

March 11: I had so many packages that they gave me a locker, I got my first International shipment from Australia, I'm trying to stay organized, some of the flowers in that day's mail.

March 12: My second International package came from Germany - and it didn't just have flowers in it. GERMAN CHOCOLATE!!! Happy

March 12: Today's flowers, a look at the fence we'll be covering, the German awesomeness

This was a special bird made by Beate (the same crocheter who sent me chocolate so I love her). It reminds me so much of a paper bird that's hanging on Bryn & Tara's ceiling that Beate gave me permission to hold it back from the yarn bomb and use it in the decoration of the room some how. 

PLAY HARD ~ PLAY HOOKY