Wrap up with the memories

  My grandma turned 94 the end of last month (and with Christmas being here) and my mom wanted to do something special for her; so, she decided to have a memory blanket made.  We searched the internet and found many places that would allow a photo to be added, even a few, but nothing like what she had envisioned.  She wanted to add photo's of the whole family, both old and new and this meant adding photo's that were over 40 years old or older. After searching high and low (so it seemed), I found a place (walmart.com) that would allow me to add up to 30 photographs to grandmas blanket.

  My Grandma suffers from alzheimer's disease and she loves looking at the photos that we all have placed on the walls by her bed, but she doesn't do well holding them because she tends to tear or ball the pictures up.   Therefore, my mom felt that a memory blanket would be a perfect gift to allow her to wrap up with her memories, keeping her warm and having the photos where she could touch them as well; and I think that it was an awesome idea!

  I was worried that the picture quality of the old photographs would be poor; so, I edited them as much as I could with Adobe Photoshop before hand; and found the best pictures possible of the entire family.  Walmart.com allows you to make memory blankets and add up to 30 photo's so I had to make sure I had everyone, but included some that might allow a memory to resurface as well; one's like my grandma and grandpa together, her daddy, pictures of her with her kids when they were small, and even one with my grandpa holding their first child.  I was hoping that adding these pictures would be special and in some way help her recall her life before the disease took over!

  I got a 60x80 Collage Fleece Blanket for $49.95, which was a pretty good deal, in my opinion. The process was pretty quick (once I had everything I wanted to include), but it uses a shuffle feature instead of allowing me to place the pictures in the order I wanted.  This aggravated me somewhat, but looking back, I am glad it didn't let me do this because I would be still working on it. ((LOL))  Once I was finished adding everything, I shuffled the pictures until I found the best look to match what my mom was going for! When I finished the order, it said that it would arrive within 7-10 days right to her door, which shocked me a little.

  Tuesday morning the memory blanket.. and I have to say... I was PLEASED!!!!  It turned out SO good!  The older pictures look like they were taken recently, and the quality is great!  All of the pictures are at least a 5x7 size; and it is perfect; my mom was more than happy with the results and is already looking forward to making another one... I just wish my grandma was in the right mind-set to enjoy all the memories wrapped up into this blanket.

  So, if you are looking for a sweet and memorable gift for a loved one this Christmas or anytime in the future, consider getting them a memory blanket; so they can wrap up with their memories and enjoy them for a lifetime!

  Believe me... It will be worth the look on their face when they open it because it is a special gift that can last a lifetime!

Here it is...

(Sorry, it was hard to get a good picture because it is so big, lol)