Visiting

My mom is visiting, I love it. We lunch, we go to movies, we shop, we visit friends, we just have a lovely time together. But judging from how much time she spends on the back porch, I think this may be her favorite thing to do while she is in the woods. It is a magical place.

The glider was her folks and on their front porch the whole time I was growing up.

Twinkie time

Found this fabulous pink flamingo fabric. I think everyone has a pink flamingo story. There is actually a rouge flamingo popping up on lawns in our neighborhood currently, and my kids each had a teacher (the same one over a 7 year period, for science) who used flamingos on a regular basis. A ploy to be entertaining as well as informative. Hey, a teacher CAN teach and be fun at the same time. Also there is a guy in Alaska who ties them to trees on a little island. We saw them on our cruise a few years back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_flamingo will enlighten you to all things pink flamingo.

So here are his and hers.

His with star buttons.

Hers with pink buttons.

I have been practicing matching the front of the shirts. In my mind, SO easy, but in reality, there must be a trick, as hers was slightly under overlapped and his was slightly over overlapped, so his buttons are slightly wonky, but hubby never wears his shirts unbuttoned, whereas I do. This one will look super cute with a black, pink OR white t-shirt underneight, OR buttoned up tight.

A morning surprise.

We noticed a chrysalis when Baby K was visiting and checked it every day. It's been about a week and this morning, hubby went out to check on it and this is what we found! He spent the night emerging from his cocoon and when we found him, he was gently drying his wings. We were able to get a couple shots off and by 9 a.m. he was gone! What a lovely gift he gave us.

Two more!

This is what can happen in ONE DAY when I can stay home and sew, sew, sew.

Baby K's Dora nightgown.

Baby D's sport themed jammies. Of coarse. Hope he doesn't mind the basketball buttons on a football themed fabric. Think he'll notice? It's a great knit. I have more for his winter jammies in the fall.

So this is what can happen if I don't need to clean, party, shop, appoint, prepare, launder, host, errand, lunch, worship, study, meet, exercise, or any of the other things that take up my time.

Two jammies

For my camo camping cowboy.

For my Lulu.

Poke, Pop and Pull

When Baby k was here, I offered to teach her to sew. I had been thinking about this for a while and remembered when I was very young, my mom drew a large A on a hankie and let me do a simple embroidery stitch. Odd that I remember that, to me it was fascinating and fun. Go figure. Certainly a foreshadowing of my personality, and interests.

Anyway, I decided to do the same for Baby K, but I let her do the drawing. This is her K and I did the little flower, anticipating showing her three total stitches. She did a great job, only sticking herself once as she was trying to pull the needle through the fabric. After that, I got the "pop" part. She learned quickly how to hold the base of the needle so the thread wouldn't come out as she drew the thread through the fabric.

We spent two sessions of about 20 minutes each. And we also spoke the words, "poke", "POP!" and "pull" for each and every stitch, and I was quite impressed with her concentration, patience and ability to be very precise as she placed the up stitch blindly from the back. She would not give up and would try as long as it took to get that needle to come up exactly where it needed to be. Pretty cool.

Easter 2012 with Baby K and Son

We just wrapped up a lovely long weekend where my children were able to spend time together, and I had an opportunity to spend some one on one time with one of my grandchildren. This time it was baby K! What a fun time we had.

They arrived on Thursday afternoon, I was SO excited. I had been looking forward to this for several weeks, ever since we got their tickets to come. Actually for much longer than that. I am already looking forward to Baby D's visit and then travels with the kids to places all over the U.S. once they get into the double digits. Love my family and always look forward to seeing them.

Of course I had been preparing by doing what I do . . . sewing! She got two new dresses to wear while she was here.

She likes the song that I made up for her and we brought it to life with bunny ears and brownies to make. Yes, she’s cute like a bunny and sweet like a brownie! We had fun making them together, but grandfather sure helped with his advance prep and measuring skills.

We made puzzles, Dora is her favorite character at the moment.

We studied nature and talked a LOT about butterflies. There are three chrysalis's in the back garden.

We also went to a butterfly sanctuary, but I forgot to bring my camera, it was magical.

We read stories. I could do that for hours.

We rode bicycles. Who knew these bikes that hubby and I bought would come in handy when the grand kids were here? Yes, her feet reached, just barely.

We spent time in the back garden drawing pictures of butterflies.

We joined other children from our church for a big Easter Egg hunt and other activities.

Baby K found a golden egg and got a special prize, a stuffed bunny.

A balloon artist made her a beautiful pink butterfly.

We also looked for eggs in our garden on Easter morning.

We ate.

and ate. . .

and cooked . . .

and ate . . .

and spent time with Grandfather, Aunt Gnomi, Uncle Change, and Aunt Dewey.

She met Radar.

She met Lexi.

We played Quarkle. Baby K is GOOD at this game.

We played Settlers of Catan.

We played with Beanie Babies.

And just generally had an allround lovely time with some of the people that I love so very much.

Bye Baby K and son, what a precious gift your visit was for me.

I had heard and seen some photos of pine trees that sprout a cross where the new growth is each Easter. Been watching for years, but this is as close as I have seen. You can sort of see the cross bars, but I think whoever published the pictures that I saw knew how to use photo shop.

Regardless, it was a very Happy Easter, and my blessings abound. He has risen indeed, Alleluia!

You got your girlfriend a WHAT???

Remember the ad campaign for 7-Up in the early, early 70's? Remember the "new" and revolutionary Twist Off Caps? Remember the giant pink elephant they used in the ad campaign? If not, I understand, it was a LONG time ago.

Hubby and I were waxing nostalgic on our way home from a recent boondoggle, at least on my part, to the coast. He had work, I had a library copy of "Heidi", a book my granddaughter is reading and I decided to read it again myself, it had been years, but I digress.

The billboard. We were driving along the highway somewhere in middle America in probably 1972. I don't believe we had been dating more than a year, if that. I had a "thing" for elephants back then and had a rather extensive collection. ANYway, I saw the billboard and exclaimed (with enthusiasm, I am sure), "I want THAT!"

Unbeknownst to me, that very fabulous boyfriend managed to figure out a way to get his girlfriend a billboard. He cannot recall how he managed to pull this one off, after all it was long before you could hop on the internet and "get 'er done." We were discussing the process of finding the address of the corporate office (remember, no internet?) and writing letters, checks and such.

So, eventually a package arrived, flattish about one by three feet with a postage of under two dollars if I remember correctly. I MAY still have the box in the attic. What a great gift! A billboard! It did sit in the box for years, but 10 years ago we built our current home and felt like this (after 9 addresses in 29 years, two overseas) would probably be our final move and retirement home, so we took the plunge and put that puppy up. We also happened to have the perfect place for it, my stained glass studio.

It is absolutely the most unique and probably one of the most thoughtful gifts that I have ever received. It is an example of my hubby's persistence, humor and thinking out side of the box. No wonder I think he's the coolest.

The BIG picture. We call this our "wall of fame" and put all those weird, odd, and certificate type things up. We even have some autographs of the guys from This Old House! And an astronaut!

A detail of the "new" twist off cap. Revolutionary, for sure. Note the Nixon/Lodge button? Yup, we're old.

This bottle was laying on it's side on the billboard. Since we didn't have a 20 foot wall, we turned it right side up, put it on a second wall and made it into a guest book. Brilliant! If you have been to visit, I hope you have signed it.

Two Easter dresses PLUS!

I have my Baby K coming! Can't wait to play, play, play.

Had fun designing and making a couple of fun little spring dresses for her. Nothing beats a sweet little girls dress for cute, except the little person IN the dress.

I decided to take a picture of the fabric that I was going to use for the project. I know my daughter-in-law likes the Michael Miller fabrics and they are really nice cottons to work with, plus great little designs. The theme is butterflies since we are going to see them during Baby K's visit.


I really like the white/pink/red dress and the little buttons and piping. The black one didn't turn out quite like I wanted. I was going for the Easter egg trim idea. It's OK, just not what was in my head. At least they are one of a kind for a one of a kind little lady that I love. We'll see if I have time to get a little nightgown done for her before she gets here. Got some vacuuming to do first! Yuck . . . housework.



I was delighted to get a photo of the little cutie wearing a CASA dress that I made. This little one's relative was willing to donate to CASA and I was certainly willing to make another little outfit, purse and hat. Apparently there is a set of keys being carried in that purse, we do start young, don't we? A great cause and a fun way to make a donation.