a RAK...and The Butterfly Story

I received this really pretty RAK today from my friend Janette (blessingsx3).
Janette, I absolutely love this!! I love the cool fold/closure, and the large Butterfly from Garden Whimsy is one of my favs.....especially done up with sparkle!

The first pic is the card all closed up, showing what it looks like from the front.

The second pic is what is looks like open. I'm sorry that I couldn't take a picture outside today. It was just too windy and the card kept falling over. I hope the picture captures what it looks like IRL, and you can really get an idea of how the closure works. The blue strip threads through the word window punch. Totally cool!

Whenever I see a butterfly....even on a card...I think of my "Nan" (grandmother) ...and it makes me smile.

Would you like to hear "The Butterfly Story"?? Okay, good...because I feel like sharing it. {smile} It's going to start off sad, but it has a really cool ending. So bear with me...

My Nan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. Unfortunately, it rapidly spread and she passed away not even a full year later in June of 1998....exactly one week before DH and I got married. In the state she was in, she wouldn't have been able to attend the wedding because she wouldn't have been able to leave the house. The wedding went on as planned. We had a really pretty outdoor ceremony in front of a gazebo....beautiful weather and all. In the receiving line, our friends Bill and Jeanne came up to congratulate us. They laughed and said that "what they saw" of our ceremony was beautiful, but they missed most of it because they were engrossed in watching a butterfly. They explained that just a few minutes into the ceremony, a butterfly flew up and landed on the man's shoulder who was sitting in front of them, and STAYED on the man's shoulder for the entire ceremony. They were totally engrossed in the fact that this butterfly just sat there until the ceremony ended, and then it flew away. We thought that was pretty cool. They moved on through the receiving line. The pastor's wife happened to be behind them and heard what was said about the butterfly. She said to us, "I heard the story your friends told you. That was your grandmother coming to see your wedding." {getting choked up}

The story gets even better though because in wedding video, you can see a butterfly flying around the gazebo in the beginning. I like to think it's that same butterfly.....and every time I see a butterfly now, it makes me think of my Nan.

So that's my butterfly story. If you've made it this far, thanks for listening.....and maybe next time you see a butterfly, it might just make you smile.