Thursday, March 27, 2008

My very first blog contest!

Today is the 5 year anniversary of the passing of my Grandma. We miss you GiGi! In memory of her I am running my very first contest. When I think about growing up, I remember cooking with my Grandma. She wasn't a gardener, but she was a wonderful cook and knitter! I want to hear your favorite memory of cooking, knitting or gardening with your Grandma. If you weren't fortunate enough to know your Grandma, you can still play with us. Just share a story of someone similar. Leave the story in the comments and make sure to include your email or link to your blog so I know how to reach you if you win. I will choose the winner randomly, so just tell me your favorite memory. No need to make it extra sappy lol. Feel free to link this contest in your blog and include the link in a new comment and I will give you an extra chance to win.

The contest will run until 04/04/08 at 11:59pm MDT. Oh and you want to know what the prize is don't you? I will send some seed packets, some yarn and hopefully a candy surprise. There is something in particular that my Grandma loved, but I am not sure I can get it here. If I can find it, you will get that too.

29 comments:

kate5405 said...

My grandma passed away many years ago, but my favorite memories of her were always in the kitchen. She could cook and bake anything--all without a cookbook. She baked the best pies and she tried many times to teach me how to make flaky pie crust. Every time I buy a pre-made pie shell I remember grandma and how she must be quietly shaking her head at me. I never did get the hang of pie crust.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely idea. I have one grandmother who passed away right before I got pregnant with my son. She hated to cook. She basically cooked just to feed the family, but took no joy in it. Every time we would visit, there was always teh same meal heating up on the stove when we arrived and the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner was always in the same pot. When we were going through her things after the funeral, I ran across that pot and it now lives in my own cabinet. I couldn't imagine it going to Goodwill and every time I look at it I remember the thrill of running into her house and knowing exactly what we would find and where. Unrelated to the memory, I am quite certain that she had a hand in helping us conceive her great grandson and I know that she would have rejoiced in the beauty that is Liam just as we do.

Elaine said...

My grandma died more than 35 years ago but I still remember her often, especially in April - her birthday month. She would have been 113 in a couple of weeks.

One of my funniest memories of my grandmother involved my mother and cooking. Both were good cooks, but my grandmother had a number of special dishes that my mother never even tried making. One was stuffed cabbage.

The 3 of us were riding in a car and I was asking my grandmother how she made it. Well she did measures by hand (a handful of this or a little of that) and used her years of experience. So my mother was trying to interpret and help, and so when my grandma said I take 2 handfuls of rice, my mother helpfully said that's about a cup. My grandma shot back, how would you know, you never made it.

Grandma and I laughed and laughed. Mom didn't.

knittingpanda said...

My favorite memory of my grandmother is having an easter egg hunt at her house every Easter.

tripletsmom said...

My Grandmother(Nanny) passed away a week before we got married. I was very close to my grandparents growing up - I was there every single day:-). She was the most wonderful cook. I loved holiday dinners at her house. She always got out the good china - which is in my cabinet now. To this day looking at that china makes my mouth water thinking of her Christmas dinners. She was very close to her siblings, so I was as well. My favorite aunt(her sister) taught me to crochet in middle school. She talked to them every day - very unlike my fathers side of the family. I got my sense of family closeness from her. About once a month a tear up that my girls will only know her through stories.
She was also very particular about her appearance and would never leave the house without putting on her lipstick - Revlon in Love That Pink. Sorry this has been so rambling, but when you bring up Grandmother there are just too many wonderful little memories to settle on one:-).

Sharon Rose said...

My Grandma Rose is my heroine! She fractured 3 vertebrae in her late 20's and was told she would never walk again. She laid in bed for three years, then couldn't take it any more and got up. She started going to Gold's Gym (this was before women went there) and was adopted by the bodybuilders. She is now 93, lives alone, and is still the very picture of elegance and glamour, despite being in physical agony every day for the past 6 decades. She also lost her husband (my G'pa) at the age of 30. She's stayed single, beating away all the men who still chase her (she looks great) because she is still in love with her Frank. Going to see her this weekend, actually, very excited. :)
PS - she thinks it's hysterical that I knit

Anonymous said...

I only remember my step-grandmother Louisa. She was wonderful to us. I was in 2nd grade when she died. When we were leaving their house after a Sunday dinner, we always would say to her "See you later alligator" and she would always respond "Not for awhile crocodile". We loved it.

I may never be a mom, but I would surely love it if someday I could be a step-grandmom like Louisa was.

My name is my Ravelry name.

taelixev said...

My grandmother passed away when I was five. I remember going to her house once and I had a favorite stuffed Minnie Mouse toy. She took one look at my toy and said, "Well, she needs a dress." and crocheted one in a mustard colored yarn right there and then. I never learned how to crochet or knit from her, but I did eventually learn.

wenat said...

I never knew my paternal grandparents (both died when my father was a child) and only met my maternal grandmother once that I remember. What I'm loving most is my in-laws, who are my children's grandparents, and my mom, who's become an awesome grandmother. They all love on my kids like there's no one else in the world, and I love having this new relationship with them, and seeing that side of them.

Anonymous said...

when i was a little girl we lived far from my grandparents in a large city, but i LOVED it when we visited my grandma and grandpa in their rural indiana home. for breakfast, grandma got out her fancy tea set and made hot tea with LOTS of milk and honey, and served toast with grandpa's homemade strawberry jam, and grandpa fried up this maple bacon and served scrambled eggs with sliced tomatoes fresh from the garden. oooh, it was SO good - almost magically good. much better than the fiber one cereal with skim milk we had at our house!

angelabaker@earthlink.net

Anonymous said...

I'm lucky to still have both of my grandmothers, and I can't imagine life without them. I totally understand how you can miss your Grandma even 5 years later.
One of my grandmas used to sew a lot, and I remember standing besides her, and trying to soak up some of her huge sewing knowledge. I loved Grandma's beautiful sewing machine! She had bought it new in 1951 or 1952 while she was pregnant with my father (she first used it to sew my dad's diapers!), and she has used it to sew clothes for three or four generations of people in the family. The machine is still in perfect working order and Grandma told me lately that a manufacturer's representative offered her a nice sum for it, which she declined: she says she prefers to keep the machine and pass it on to me one day. I feel honoured, but I hope it won't happen any time soon: I'd rather keep Grandma with me as long as possible!

Anonymous said...

While I loved my gram, I was much closer to my grandfather. See, my father's sister died of crib death and my grandfather never held a baby after her death. That is, until I was born and my parents named me after her. I was his girl from then on. My favorite memory is walking into his house and smelling the smoke from his pipe, crawling up on his lap and listening to the stories he told. He's been gone for a few years now. Whenever I walk past the pipe tobacco section in the stores, I breathe in deeply and remember him.

my blog addy: http://journeysandreflections.wordpress.com

Bianca said...

My grandmother passed away in December 1995 - I was expecting my second son in that time. I used to help her at home when I was a teenager - by cleaning the windows and do all things that she did not like to do alone. She had many stories to tell, things to share and she always managed to let everyone go homeward happy. Cooking... she was a remarkable one, especially in winter soups. She always made a big pan of brown bean soup for her birthday (Nov 6) and an enormous bucket of fruit bowl. All 27 grandchildren loved it, and at the end of the day none of the soup, nor from the bowl was left. I still miss her, though she died age 89, and in a way I think she is my son's guardian angel.

Mette said...

What I remember most about my grandmother was how she loved to talk to everyone. I was very young when she passed away, but I still remember our long little talks. She was a great woman :)

cthulhulovesme said...

My grandmother was a very, um, forceful woman. When my parents got married and decided to move to the US for a better life, my grandmother made it very clear that she would also be included in their plans. She moved to the States not knowing a word of English with an eye to make sure my father treated my mother right. Even by the time I was born, a good twenty years after the fact, she was still the same woman who put fear into my dad's heart at an early age. ;)

Anonymous said...

I miss both of my grandmothers a lot. They both lived less than a 10 minute drive away from the house I grew up in, and they were an integral part of my life. My mother's mother I would visit once a week as a teenager, and we would sit and have waffles which she had made for us with jam or sugar. It was such a wonderful thing to be able to go see her every Friday afternoon like that. She always used to say that she wasn;t much of a cook, but I loved her cooking.Everything tasted better at her house, even the things she would have gotten ready from the store. It tasted so much yummier and actually completely different than they did at home.

There is so much I could tell you about my grandmothers, and while I;ve been sitting here writing this, memories are coming flooding and I am sad, happy and sentimental all at once. I think the most important though is that they were both really a part of my life. What I regret the most is not asking them more questions about them, about their childhood and their parents etc. Somehow that was never centre of our conversations, and as it wsa becoming more important to me to know, it was almost already too late, and so there is much that is just lost forever in terms of family knowledge and memory. I have learned from that though, and now I constantly ask my parents, and uncles and aunts etc for stories, so that it can all stay with me.

Turtle said...

Wow, this one makes me smile and be a bit sad/nostalgic all at the same time. My grandmother just passed away on leap year last month. The dr had given her 4 to 6 months just days before her passing so it was a little bit of a suprise.
When my parents divorced my mother and i moved in with my grandparents, so gram and i always got along great. She was a crocheter and a great cook! Having grown up in an orphanage she was very frugal so i get that from her i think. One story i recall was when we had to slaughter the cows... weird but there was some story on the travel channel the other day that reminded me... she was so cranky yet laughing as my aunt and i played star wars throughout the kitchen with the calves tongues. We used them as light sabre's slapping eachother with them. Gram was trying to tell us to cut it out but could not keep her smile away. Our family has a weird sense of humor...i know gram still does!

LizzieK8 said...

It's hard for me to remember just one story.... I have Asperger's Syndrome which makes me hard to get along with. Grandma always could look past that and just like me.

She made bread whenever we visited and made fry bread especially on my request. No excuses, no "Maybe later" she just said, "Sure, we'll do that ________________."

She encouraged my education and always requested to see school papers and had me read to her each evening when we went to bed.

She just made me feel normal.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother used to have an old washbasin and in it was Hens and chicks. Whenever we visited we would check on them! She would point out the Mother Hen and make up stories of the chicks.

Anonymous said...

My nanny passed away when I was 7 years old so we never got to knit together. My favourite memory of her is that whenever we would arrive (my mom, dad, older sister, and I) we would run to her lap, my sister and I each on a knee, and she would give us each a butterscotch candy. About a year ago my dad dug out his old socks that my nanny knit him (green with money symbols like Donald Duck's uncle) and gave them to me.

Dove Knits said...

Both my grandmas passed away when I was a child, but I did get to spend some time with them. My favorite memories of my maternal grandmother were walking in the garden with her. She was an amazing gardner and grew sunset-colored roses the size of my head. She could get anything to grow and bloom. She loved all plants and animals, and would tell me that every single living thing has a purpose and is God-created and good, and I still try to remember that lesson today. Except for cockroaches -- she never did find a use for those!

My paternal grandmother is the one that taught me to crochet and knit. She always lent me needles and yarn when I visited!

Anonymous said...

I never knew my paternal grandmother - she died long before I was born, but my maternal grandma was alive and well and moved to our neighborhood when I was about 8. She was a lovely, sweet grandmotherly-type. Once her husband died, she started eating dinner with us every night so I saw her daily.

She had some cooking specialties that my mother never made - an eggplant spread, stuffed cabbage, and an apple tort all of which were delicious. She never had an unkind word for anyone. I miss her, particularly at holiday times and in April which was her birthday.

I'm purple on Ravelry in case I win.

Kenyetta said...

My Grandma passed in '89, I was 14. I really miss sitting on the porch with her during the summer; eating fruit. My grandma dipped snuff, so we would chew oreos and pretend we were dipping- my grandma would get so mad. I miss those days. She passed way too early.
I posted on my blog.

kathy b said...

Great contest.

My Nana was my roommate for awhile. 6 kids in our family plus nana. When I returned home to go to a local college, we shared a bedroom. I always felt the luckiest of all to have Nana be my roommate.
we'd watch her "story" General Hospital together. She was very hip in her late 80s and could predict who would cheat on who next!

suzzcq70 said...

My Grandma died when I was 14, but she was my best friend. I still miss her and I am almost 38.

She taught me to crochet. My favorite memory is going to her house, and my first stop was the candy jar (of course) and second was the scrap yarn draw. She'd save stuff for me so I could make Barbie clothes.

She was no great cook, however. SHe was always making veal. In her German accent, it sounds like "wheel". I hated wheel, I mean veal. But I loved her oh so much.

suzzcq at gmail dot com

Elaine said...

Just wanted to let you know that I posted a notice of your contest on my blog (elaine-knitting).

ikkinlala said...

I'm lucky enough to have both my grandmas still alive. My dad's mother lives nearby, and she is one of my favourite people for a lot of reasons. She cooks, knits, and gardens, and I have so many happy memories with her that it's hard to choose anything in particular.

So instead I'll tell you about my mom's mother, who lives a couple of provinces over from me - about a 12 hour drive away. Up until a few years ago, she and my grandpa (who passed away earlier this year) used to come visit us twice a year. When I was about seven, she taught me to make pie crust. It took a few visits before I got it right. She was so happy that somebody was taking an interest, and I felt special because I was the only grandkid she taught.

txknitter said...

My grandmother is awesome. She's 97 and still kicking. She lives in a nursing home for physical reasons, but her mind is all there. She is the only tenant allowed to have scissors. The staff want her to feel needed and appreciated so they ask her to mend curtains among other things.

My grandmother passed on to me her love of bird watching. Even at the nursing home she has a bird feeder right outside her window. I also have bird feeders and a love for feathered creatures.

Thanks for letting me celebrate my grandma.

Anonymous said...

My grandma is 93 and still lives independently. What a lady. She's a great baker, and although she's stopped knitting because of arthritis, was a wonderful knitter too.

Her birthday is April 10 (that's when she'll be 93 actually)

I don't blog but can be reached at dadofra AT hotmail