If you'd like to share your memories of Janis, and playing in
The Cat Lovers Hop, please use the comments below.
Let's remember Janis together.
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Good morning, Jo. Thank you for doing this.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I remember about Janis? My first thoughts are that Janis loved cats, her family, her church, making cards, blogging, and that she organized the annual Cat Lovers Hop. As a cat lover myself, this was the highlight of my crafting year! I joined every year for 8 years.
The Cat Lovers Hop wasn't just a blog hop. Janis made it special. It was a week-long event where Janis invited us to get together to share our cat stories, our cat cards, cat layouts, and other crafty cat projects.
Janis wanted to read about the cats in our lives and also memories of our departed kitties. Tears were shed each year as I read everyone's stories and as I remembered my own kitties of the past. Janis provided a space for all of this during the Cat Lovers Hop. She was compassionate, kind, and supportive.
Most of all, Janis made the Cat Lovers Hop fun! It was great fun, with daily games and challenges that helped us all connect. Janis even had us try our hand at poetry, and she inspired us to write poems about our cats. This was tough for me but I enjoyed it so much, and enjoyed reading everyone else's poems.
Another happy memory is that Janis would visit everyone's card or project in the link-up and would leave a thoughtful comment, not just a quick "cute card." You knew that Janis took the time to actually look at the details of your card or project and remarked on what she liked about it. In short, Janis cared.
Janis was also a pro at organizing. Although she had helpers with the hop each year, Janis did most of it herself, and it was a lot of work. As busy as she was, she was patient and took the time to answer everyone's questions with kindness. I never met Janis personally, so we only connected through email or her blog, but I know Janis was a Christian and we shared our love of the Lord. We would pray for each other as well.
One last memory is that Janis had a great sense of humour and she loved cat memes! She would share cat memes on nearly every blog post, not just during the Cat Lovers Hop, but all the time! Janis was a lot of fun! So in memory of Janis, I would like to share a few cat memes that I collected. Enjoy! You will have to go to my blog to see these:
https://ktdesigns2013.blogspot.com/2023/10/remembering-janis-cat-lovers-christmas.html
Rest in peace, Janis.
Thank you so much, Kitty. This is so beautiful and captures why we all loved Janis, played at The Cat Lovers Hops and cared about her so much.
DeleteMy memories are still a little surreal, like she is still here but isn't. I think because her love of her cats, appreciation of all genres of crafts and her ability to bring together like-minded people from all parts of the world, created such a wonderful atmosphere in a community crossing all kinds of barriers to share, love, encourage and inspire for eight years that it is impossible to feel her loss completely. Here we are in the 9th year and we are once again gathering our community of craft and cat lovers all because Janis had a vision which grew. She was so so selfless, a beautiful soul.
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely, Mandy. Thank you so much for your encouragement and support in helping me to put together this tribute to our sweet and much missed friend.
DeleteI mentioned it yesterday but I mainly knew Janis via the Card Chain. I cherish the card she sent me along with a special kitty embossing folder. She was such a sweet person & is missed in the card-making community! RIP Janis!!
ReplyDeleteHi Linda, I can't remember if I met Janis through CCC or her Cat Lovers Hops, but I'm so glad I did meet her. She was so supportive when I began this Challenge and gave me plenty of helpful hints and tips about running something like this. I was delighted when I discovered that she and Gail were also established blogging buddies. Thanks for your support for this challenge and for your ongoing friendship. Hugs, Jo x
DeleteI had only been cardmaking for two years when Janis asked me to contribute a card for one of the sponsors. I felt like she wanted to encourage me to keep going. Her love of cats and crafts made a whole community. She is missed and I'm so happy to be a small part of this hop in her memory.
ReplyDeleteHi Suzanne, Janis was just someone who encouraged and supported fellow card makers, wasn't she. She really helped me with the start up of Christmas Kickstart and she was my very first elf/guest. I feel so blessed to have been friends across the miles with her too. Thanks for all your help and support with our tribute challenge, Jo x
DeleteJanis was a wonderful lady - full of happiness, compassion and encouragement. She was a massive cat lover and told us about her many kitties, both indoor and outdoor ones, and her kindness and love shone through her words. She was a brilliant crafter and organiser and had so much patience and always a kind word. She took time to leave meaningful comments on our blog posts and always said the right thing! She had a brilliant sense of humour and her kitty memes always brought a smile.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great shock to me when she passed away, as despite corresponding with her in November and early December 2022, I had no idea that she was ill. She wouldn't want to burden us with her troubles, is all I can think ... and such was the selfless person that was Janis. She is a great loss, not only to her family, but to the crafting and blogging community. A beautiful lady. May she rest in peace.
Hi Carol, such beautiful words about a very special person. You really have captured her personality so well in what you've written. It's a privilege to host this challenge in her memory, but I really wish I had her organisational skills - thank goodness for the Helpful Hoppers! Just like you I was chatting to her at the end of 2022 and had no idea of just how poorly she was. Wasn't she just so selfless. Jo x
DeleteI feel very similar to what Manysea said. Janis grew her vision and it is still here. In those 8 years Janis did something surely bigger than a crafters blog hop. Not only craft, but a full human experience that goes out the limits of distance and time. With the Cat Lovers Hop she managed to bring together and make many crafters interact as a community of people who shared each other their joys and sorrows about their beloved cats, their positive and even sad experiences, their memories. Not just craft, but emotions, feelings, sharing of life lived, humanity. I admired Janis so much for her zest for life, cheerfulness, intelligence, positivity, a big good heart and a beautiful soul. She was young at heart and put seeds and cared for them, for 8 years (and the last one despite she was ill, without saying it... ) So these seeds are still in the memory of our hearts... And then, somehow, she is still here with us.
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful for your initiative, you are taking care of those seeds, and I'm sure that Jane is smiling to you from the place where his soul is. God bless you. Thanks.
Thank you, Alice, I can't begin to tell you what a privilege it is to run this challenge in Janis's memory. She was incredibly special and is so much missed by her family and friends. I'm always amazed by the friendships that can be made in cyber space and how strong, how warm and how nurturing these friendships can be. Janis created a strong sense of community within cardland and encouraged and nurtured so many crafters across the world. Thanks for your kind words and thanks for joining this challenge come hop to remember our friend. Jo x
DeleteI don't think I can add much more than what has been already said. She was just such a kind and thoughtful person. She went out of her way to make everyone feel special! Although, I only knew her through her blog; her posts made you feel as though you knew her essence as a person. And she always left the kindest comments on my blog. I really miss that interaction with her. I looked forward to seeing her kitty jokes and posts and seeing what she had created. Thank you for honoring her!
ReplyDeleteIt's been my pleasure to honour her with this challenge, Chris. I miss chatting with Janis and sharing the fun of owning cats. It's been so lovely to get to know you and the other Helpful Hoppers through this challenge, Jo x
DeleteJanis and I 'met' in the crafting community earlier in the year of her fourth Cat Hop and she invited me to play, so that's when I started participating in the hops. She was truly the sweetest, kindest and most compassionate person I've ever met. Her love for cats and her love for crafting are what drew me to her. She was always pleasant and upbeat. I valued our friendship and I really miss our interactions. But I know she's smiling down on us and she's extremely proud that this event has continued in her memory. Such an awesome thing for you to do, Jo! <3
ReplyDeleteHi Leslie, I can't remember whether I met Janis through the Cat Lovers Hops or through her participation in The Card Chain Challenge, which I run with my friend Gail, but she became a firm friend and a regular 'correspondent'. She was always upbeat and made light of the difficulties she faced with her health and her care commitments. It's been a privilege to host this remembrance challenge and to get to know so many of the Cat Lovers Hop community. Tanks for playing along, Jo x.
DeleteI always told myself that if I ever got to Idaho I would make it a point to meet Janis in person. She was simply the sweetest soul and such a dear, crafty friend. She was always positive and never had a bad thing to say about anyone. You knew in your heart that you could trust her with your life. But she was also all about having fun, enjoying making cards, playing in the challenges & anything & everything to do with cats! I don't remember where we met exactly, but probably through a card challenge and then invited me to play along. I miss her terribly, as I know we all do. She's in a better place and is grinning, giggling and commenting on all our cards!!
ReplyDeleteYou've summed her up perfectly, Becca! Janis was so sweet and kind, and yet was nobody's fool. I loved her sense of humour and admired the strength of her personality. She is so much missed across the crafting community. I'm so happy to have got to know you, the Helpful Hopper Crew and the Cat Lovers Hop folk through doing this challenge. She's with us still, Jo x
DeleteI first discovered Janis's blog when it was the end of the Cat Lover's Hop and I knew I'd be marking the date in my planner to take part the following year. And I have enjoyed getting to know her over the last few of years, loved the stories about her cats and always enjoyed the games she organized. She was such an organized crafter, everything was planned out so well! Just wish I'd found her blog and the cat lovers hop sooner so I could have gotten to know her a bit better. She seemed like such a sweet lady with a huge heart for cats!
ReplyDeleteJanis certainly had a huge heart, and her tales about her motley crew of moggies always made me laugh. She really was a very special person, and she made everyone she was in contact with feel that she cared about them. She was so supportive when I began The Christmas Kickstart Challenge and was my first every Elf/GDT so I could thank her for all her encouragement. So glad you're playing along with us all, Jo x
DeleteI remember about Janis that she was kind and beautiful lady who loved cats, her family, making cards, blogging, and she organized annual Cat Lovers Hop.
ReplyDeleteCat lovers blog hop was great for conecting with card ald cat lovers.
I was happy to be sposor with my personal item or prize that I couldnt use,because Im in Croatia.
Rest in peace, Janis.We are missing you...
She was such a special lady, wasn't she, Fiki. I always loved reading her posts about her cats and her family, and she was so encouraging of all of us in the cardmaking community. Thanks for offering your prize to this event - that's so kind of you, Jo x
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