Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Babies. Show all posts

Thursday, September 6, 2012

I'm Still Here...

Hello, out there!  Checking back into Blogville after a hiatus which included lots of decluttering, room painting, packing, and some fun times as well. 

I finally got sick of painting walls, especially after missing the last rung of the ladder several times and falling.  I got my daughter-in-law Emily to recommend a power-washer, who is also a painter.  He and his partner are painting the upstairs as I type!  I totally love it when I can sit and play on the computer while other people are working on my house.

I'll have some pictures, but right now our rooms are piled up with stuff from the rooms undergoing a paint job.

The "bonus room" over our garage is where I do my longarm quilting.  This room is normally fairly clean and organized.  If you wonder why I am not doing any longarm quilting...

 
Yes, there is a longarm sewing machine parked at the end of that twelve-foot long table.  I had to clear off my cubbies and pegboards for this room to be painted.  Not only the table, but the floor
 
 
and cutting table are covered as well.
 
 
They are painting two bedrooms, the hall, and two stairways as well as the living room and crown molding and other trim in our downstairs.
 
When the painting is finished and we put all the rooms to right, all we will need is to have the carpets upstairs cleaned.   Then the For Sale sign goes up!
 
The very welcome respites to all the work include a trip to see the McBrayers in western North Carolina in August.  Charlie's brother Richard has an annual pool party, and we really enjoyed relaxing that weekend.
 
Yep, that's more like it!
 
 
I enjoyed playing with Richard's grand-daughter, Kaylee, who is very much like her mother was at that age.   She simply could not leave a kitty-cat alone!  This cat, CJ, was pretty calm around the baby.
 
 
She soon retreated behind the curtains, with Kaylee  hot on her trail.
 
 
The weekend after that, we spent a day on Jordan Lake to celebrate my son Dave's birthday.  Several of us went in to rent a pontoon boat for the day.  We cruised the lake, ate brats and stromboli at a picnic shelter on the lake, and had a ball.  One of the guys borrowed a jet ski, and the men had fun trying to splash water on us with it.
 
 
I think the birthday boy enjoyed his party!
 
 
While we were cruising around, we came across a boatload of boys who were stranded when they drove across an unmarked stump and broke the transmission on their ski boat.  We kindly gave them a tow back to the boat ramp.  Pretty cute, huh!
 
 
We went to the mountains to celebrate the Labor Day weekend.  What a pleasure to be there again, and realize that all the work on the house will hopefully result in building an addition to our tiny cabin.  We are looking forward to the day when we can be there full time.
 
 
 
My sister and her husband, along with my dad,  are moving up there in just a couple of weeks.  There were a lot of family members helping her with painting and construction.   That meant I had lots of time to play with their newest grand-baby, Holly.  She liked wearing my cowgirl hat from Hawaii!
 
 
We bought a piece of furniture at the Main Street Antique Market in West Jefferson.  I told my husband we were not taking his old side table that he keeps next to the man-chair.  Luckily, we found this very nice replica of an antique ice chest for a very reasonable price.
 
 
 
On the way home we endured lots of thunderstorms and rain.
 
 
In fact, we are having a thunderstorm right now here in Wake Forest.
 
 
Thanks for your patience...I will try not to delay my next post for so long!
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, August 9, 2010

Quilt Bee and Mountain Weekends

Last Thursday, I hosted a second quilt activity at my house.  My local quilt bee got started just as the skies darkened and thunder was rumbling above.  I lit some candles and we had a power flicker, but never lost power.


I only remembered to take one show-and-tell picture.  This stunning log cabin quilt was made by Irene Hardister, who was unable to attend.  She made the top and did all the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, but she got Donna Sontag to quilt the outer borders for her.  This is the partially completed border that Donna quilted on her computer-guided machine.  Looks great!


We have spent the past two weekends at our cabin in the North Carolina mountains.  It is so much cooler and very relaxing to be in the hills.  It was my nephew's birthday on Saturday, so there were quite a few young people there to help him celebrate.  They brought their babies and their dogs. 


Two of these three little girls are my great nieces.  My sister, Katy, got a Little Tykes play set with a couple of slides and tables.  It was so cute to watch the little ones having fun.  This one is my niece Melinda's little girl, Ragen, who is getting way too grown!


My window boxes are doing pretty well, but the deer have discovered that they like red salvia, and have snipped off some from the left side.  I would love to look out a window and see a deer munching on my flowers!



We had some nice rides up to the top of the mountain, which is especially nice at sunset. 

I am putting the finishing touches on my art quilt of Maggy treeing the raccoon, and hope to post the final pics in a couple days. 

Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend in the Mountains









We had four wonderful days in the mountains of North Carolina over the Memorial Day weekend.  Both the mountain laurel (kalmia) and wild roses were in bloom on the mountain.  The laurel were all in shades of white and pink.


The roses were all white.  It smelled wonderful as we came down the mountain after riding up to the tree farms on the top.

My hanging basket of pansies was starting to look a little ragged, since they do not last long once the days get hot.  I purchased this basket of red verbena and petunias to hang by the hummingbird feeder.



Our son Bryson and the two grandchildren stayed Friday through Sunday.  It was so much fun to have them there.  Lily was so happy that the daisies and buttercups are blooming again around the Christmas tree fields.



It got warm enough for the kids to swim in the afternoon.  Or wallow in mud, perhaps?  We had to hose our two off before they came in the cabin.



There were pretty babies a-plenty to play with and pass around.


These are our friend's daughter, Shelby, and my great-niece Lacy.  Good little mountain girls!  And Ragen can walk now, and did pretty well on her chubby little legs on the mountain.  With someone close by to grab her if needed.


The only bad part of the weekend was that my father had a car accident when driving over on Saturday afternoon.  Fortunately, he did not get a scratch or bruise, or even get sore the next day.  But his pretty little Toyota is pretty torn up.  We are so thankful that he was not injured.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Family Gathering

I spent most of the day yesterday in my jammies after the big family reunion at my house on Saturday. It was lots of work, but so great to see everyone. We ended up with a little over forty people. Here are the two youngest! Both little babies were very friendly and sweet among all the tall relatives.

So, how do you feed a sit-down turkey dinner to forty-something people? The men were in charge of the turkeys. My son Dave cracked me up as he played Massage Therapist while rubbing in the seasonings. "How's your job going?"

He brought his turkey cooker over, so we had twin fryers bubbling away in the driveway...


and two twin turkeys, fried to golden perfection!

The weather was cold and gray, but we had about fourteen kids running in and out of the house and around the yard. Here is my granddaughter Lily in her new fleece toboggan made by my friend Mary Nennstiel. Too cute!
I plan to do as little as possible today, and won't be cooking anything for days...unless heating up leftovers in the "nuker" counts as cooking. Maybe the new sewing machine will get out of the box this week!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Joyful Blessings

Here is my niece Melinda's new baby girl, Ragen.

And less than a week later, here is my niece Rachel's new baby boy, Christopher, with my brother Chris and proud Papa Wasim looking on.


Little Christopher does not have a baby quilt yet, because they did not tell us the baby's gender until he was born. I better get busy! My nephew Jason's little girl is due this summer!

Now I can't wait to play "Pass the Baby." :)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Why I Make Quilts, Part 2

My last post featured my two grandchildren with quilts I made for them. Here are a few more of my nieces and nephews with their baby quilts. Move over, Anne Geddes, here come the quilt babies!

The first quilt I ever made, with original applique designs and rickrack. This was made for Dave, my younger son, who is featured on the left next to his cousin, Jessie. Dave is now 6"5" or thereabouts and still likes my quilts!


A colorful one-patch made for my niece Laura. One of my last experiences in hand quilting...

Jewel Box quilt made for my nephew Andrew.Very early quilt made for great-niece Taylor.

A Bow Ties quilt made for nephew Ryan (a younger me on the left, his mom Patti on right)




Quilt with family photos made for great-nephew Briar. My sister Katy is on the right, and his mom Mika on the left.

And one more with a grandchild again. This one is Avery when he was an infant.