We had fun!

I figured I'd share a few more pictures of our family get together last Sunday. We were all there, but Isaiah. We couldn't get a hold of him, so I guess he had other plans. Our little lady started out the morning all smiles. She was in the cutest little sundress.

Noah was having a blast, playing with his grandpa and a balloon. They played for a long time with this. Here is Jon greeting Ashton. Jonny hadn't seen his nieces and nephews since Christmas. (grin)While Hazel was preparing our meal, I wandered back to Noah's room. I do believe we have a budding artist in the family. He did this with a permanent marker while his mama was busy with Izzie. Anyone have any ideas for removing this? The Magic Erasers are not working. Neither are most cleaners. I am thinking she is going to have to prime this good and just repaint. Here is the darling boy in front of his art work. LOL I asked Ava Beth if she would pose for a picture for me. This is what I got. How darling is this!
After a delicious meal of lasagna, salad, and chips and dip, we all needed to work it off. LOL So we headed outside in the apartment complex yard. We had frisbees, a baseball and gloves, and a couple of footballs. What better way to burn some calories off than to toss these around.

Ashton is playing ball this summer with his kindergarten class, so his dad, Jeremy, was giving him some pointers. Checking to see if he really caught the ball. LOL Jon getting ready to toss the football back.
Bob waiting for his turn. Cathryn's unique way of emptying the sand out of Ava's pockets. LOL
Carolyn enjoying a tea party with Ava. Cathryn is on the right and Carolyn's MIL, Louise is on the left. Ivan and Jeremy.
After playing outside, it was time to go in and have cake. Izzie got the first bit. LOL
After the cake, it was time for presents. Noah had to help his little sis open gifts. It was a wonderful day. Izzie started out happy, but was getting tired and cranky at the end of the day. She protested any more fun. LOL It was time to go home. It is also time to get this posted. Thank you for joining us in our fun. I appreciate the visits. Please come again. Tomorrow, I have a new project to share, so check back in here. Everyone have a nice day.

Winona

Izabella Turns One Today!

Hello everyone,

I have some wonderful pictures to share of our family gathering Sunday, but they will have to wait till later in the week. Today the post is all about our little Izabella. She came into this world 5 weeks early and about worried her parents and the rest of us to death. She was in the NICU for a full week. Sure was scary seeing her like this, but she is a fighter.

I stayed with Hazel and Ivan for 2 weeks when Izzie was born. At first I was there to take care of Noah, her big brother, so they could concentrate on Izzie. She came home when she was one week old. I stayed for another week, just to help out. She was so tiny, though she weighed over 5 lbs when she was born. That isn't a bad weight for a premie. Her newborn clothes swamped her.

Here she is at about 6 weeks old. This was taken about the time when she should have been about a week old. She was finally fitting into newborn clothes. LOLHere is our little Izzie at about 3 1/2 months. I believe this was her first outing to our house, but maybe not. I can't remember now. I do know that it was a BBQ and she was enjoying being outside on her daddy's lap. (grin)This was Noah's birthday party. She was exactly 5 months old. We had Noah's party a few weeks early since that was the weekend their parents had off. She was just starting to scoot around on the floor.
This was taken the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was babysitting for Izzie and Noah. Noah is so proud of his baby sister. Izzie is a little over 6 months here.
This is her first Christmas. Her mama is holding her. They had just arrived at Aunt Cathryn and Uncle Jeremy's house for our family celebration. She was just over 7 months old. Look at all of that pink! She wears lots of pink. LOL Here we are at cousin Ava's birthday party. She was cutting her first tooth. She was drooling up a storm. LOL Eight months old here. The rest of the pictures were taken this past Sunday at her birthday party. Here she is with her whole family and cousins, Ava and Ashton behind her Tinkerbell birthday cake. LOL I think Noah and Ava helped her blow out the candle. She was sure enjoying that cake. Hazel thought someone had 'decorated' her face with the pink icing, but she did that herself. LOL
This is my favorite picture of her and her mama. I can just feel the love that our daughter has for her daughter in this picture. Finally, here she is in the ladybug dress that I made for her. This was the end of the day and she was getting tired and cranky. I got a picture anyway. LOL Grandmas do things like that. LOLHappy birthday Izzie! I hope you have a fabulous day. Grandpa and I love you so much. I'm sending ((((HUGS)))) to you from my blog.

Thank you, everyone for visiting. I appreciate it. Please come again.

Some Finishes

Hello everyone,

I know it has been several days since I posted last. I just can't seem to get more than a couple of posts in a week. Oh well, I guess a couple is better than none. Right? LOL I have been busy this week. We had storms in the area for the past couple of days. I don't have the computer on during storms. We have had too many lightning strikes on top of this hill. A couple of years ago a strike of lightning hit our modem and absolutely fried it. The tech who came to repair it, said he had never seen one fried so bad. It had black smoke damage coming out of every opening. He recommended strongly that we unplug things when it is stormy, so we do. (grin) We were fortunate to not have severe weather. It all developed south and east of us. All we had was rain. We received about an inch of rain, so no need to water the plants in the garden. They are looking good.

I finished mom's rooster quilt last week. I think she will really like it. I am relieved to have it done in plenty of time for her birthday on the 26th. I will take her to the cemetery, probably on the Saturday before Memorial Day, so I will give it to her then.

I really like how the back looks. I just quilted around the rooster because it was too hard to hand quilt inside it. I used the turquoise fabric for the binding. I really like how it turned out.

Our little granddaughter, Izabella, will turn one on Tuesday, May 19th. So we are going to Kansas City on Sunday to help celebrate her first birthday. I asked Haze if she could use some little skirts. She said yes, so I have been busy sewing for Izzie this week. I found this cute lime green fabric with red ladybugs in my stash. I also found a simple dress pattern. I made this up yesterday. It went together quickly, but not without some ohohs. LOL The sleeves were too small to fit on my machine even with the free arm. So I did the best I could with those. Also, I have not used this machine for making much clothing. I usually just piece quilts on it. The little dress has a zipper. So I hooked up my zipper foot and promtly broke a needle. (It was a new needle too.) I figured I had something on my machine set wrong, but I didn't. Can you believe that I had put my zipper foot on backwards? Yep, so the needle came down on metal. Oh well, I got that figured out and the zipper in. That is all that counts. I also made her 3 little skirts. This is the first one I made. As you can see, I started out with ruffles. That didn't last long. LOL These next two fabrics are just so cute. I found them in Wal Mart last weekend. They are very simple. I cut a strip of fabric (WOF) as wide as I needed. Sewed a seam up the back. Put elastic in the top of it and used my machine for a fancy hem stitch. Nothing simpler. They look large, but they aren't. I guess it is because I took closeups of them. The waist measures 16 inches and the length is 8 inches. Should fit Izzie perfectly. Her mom wanted them to come down to her knees. She is the one who took the measurements, so not my fault if they don't fit. LOL

Well, I need to get busy around here. I am still quilting on the disappearing nine patch and the Savannah Star. I am beginning to wonder if I am ever going to get the SS done. Everyone have a lovely day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Happy Mother's Day!

Good morning everyone,

It is cool and cloudy here today, but that is ok, because I am wanting to get my tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and eggplant planted later. I have been watching the radar, because they keep saying we have rain coming in. In fact, we have chances of rain throughout the next week, so I would love to get my plants in the ground. Dh told me to take it easy today, but I have usually planted things during this weekend in the past, and hope to again today. (grin)

Yesterday was a fabulous day. It started out in the 40's so we hung close to the house for the first part of the day. It was Kevin's birthday so I finally got to give him the beagle quilt. He was thrilled and wanted to know when I had worked on it. LOL I told him only when he was at work. hehe I have a picture to share, but I will warn you, it is not good. I am no photographer and he hates having his picture taken. Since he posed for this and knows that I take pictures for my blog, I am assuming he knows it will be posted here. He did not tell me that I couldn't post it, so I am going to do just one picture. (grin) Here he is holding it up.

Please excuse the background. He was standing in front of one of our ratty doors. LOL I still need to get the hanging sleeve on it, then it will go behind his chair. Now to continue with our day yesterday.... We decided to go out to eat at Ryan's. I love Ryan's. This was to celebrate Kevin's birthday and Mother's Day. It was crowded, but we had fun anyway. He paid for the meal and I did the tip. I think I got the better deal. (grin) Kevin gave me some money and asked if I wanted to go to JoAnn's. Well, duh! So we went to JoAnn's. While I was inside the store, Kevin went further down the strip to Office Depot. He found a program for his new laptop and I bought a 10 inch hoop for when I am quilting smaller quilts and borders. I actually beat him back to the car. He was amazed that I was finished shopping first and only purchased one item. (grin) After JoAnn's/Office Depot, we stopped by Wal Mart, so we could get a few things. While in there, I decided to buy some bright colored fabric. I think I will make little Izabella either some jumpers or skirts for her birthday. What do you think? Think a 1 year old will like these fabrics?

Of course I found a couple of pieces to add to my stash. (grin) I also bought some snaps, webbing for Kevin's laptop bag strap, and a thing to make the strap different sizes. I think Callie approves. (Sigh) She is laying on Izzie's fabric at the moment. I just can't lay anything fabric related out without having a kitty take it over. LOL We picked up a sub and cookie at Subway. We stopped by my MIL's to visit and give her the treats. She enjoys these little treats. After we got home, I tilled with Katie while Kevin mowed with Big Red. Goodness, our ground was hard. We didn't do much with it last year, so it has been a couple of years since it has been tilled. I think I have it ready to set my plants out now, though. After coming in from our work, I decided to run up and spend some time with mom. I gave her a hanging basket with some sort of yellow flowers in it. I can't remember what they were, something that started with a 'G', but they were pretty. I spent a couple of hours visiting with mom, then came home to spend the rest of the evening with my husband. (grin) It was a good day and Kevin has told me a couple of times what a good day he had.

I almost have mom's rooster quilt done. I just have a little more quilting along the bottom border. I hope to finish it up today. I am going to dig around in my patterns in a bit and check for a jumper pattern for Izzie. A skirt will be simple, but jumpers are cute too. I hope all of the women out there have a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Whether you are actually a mother or not, I am sure you have nurtured someone. Just enjoy your day and take it easy. Thank you for visiting. Please come again.

Laptop bag made.

Good morning all,

I think it is going to be a lovely day. It was already in the 60's when we got up. We had chances of thunderstorms this morning, but I think they have all gone south of us. It looks to be a lovely May day here in Missouri.

I made Kevin's laptop bag. I was trying to follow a pattern I found on the net and just having a horrible time with it. That was on Monday. So I just decided to quit working on it and think about it. When I got up Tuesday, I decided to just scrap the pattern and create my own. It took me about 2 hours to come up with this.My dh is very picky about not having anything that he considers 'girly'. LOL So even with my large stash of fabric, it took some looking for me to come up with a fabric that he wouldn't think was too feminine. LOL I figured this looked like a guy fabric. He told me before I started, no flowers. (grin) I lined the outside front and back with fusible fleecing. I had cut 4 pieces the same size. Two were linings and the other two were the front and back. I sewed about 3/4 of the way around with the lining and front/back, facing each other. Then I turned them right side out and pressed good. I had purchased a couple of sheets of 8"X11" thin foam at Wal Mart. I inserted one of these in each side, then finished sewing the seams. I put my walking foot on at this point. That thing is worth its weight in gold. (grin) I also sewed velcro on the outside front before sewing them together and put a large pocket on each lining side. Then I measured the laptop on the sides, only to discover that by the time I had them sewed together, it would be too snug a fit. No problem, I cut 4, 2-inch strips, the same length as the bag, ironed fusible web on one side of each pair, sewed them wrong sides together, turned right side out, and pressed. Then I sewed these sides to the front and back to make a tube, so to speak. You can kind of see one of the sides in this picture. I sewed the velcro in a different direction on the flap, so he would have more room if needed depending on what all he put in the pockets.

The flap is just 2 pieces of fabric with fusible fleece ironed to one side. (I use fusible fleece a lot when I make purses, etc. I really love this stuff.) Then I sewed around 3 sides, right sides together, turned and pressed. I sewed the flap to the back of the case, flipped it up and sewed again. I almost forgot. I also sewed the bottom seam twice to give it more strength. I haven't put straps on yet, because I wanted to see how long to make them. I think we are going to buy some webbing and use 'D' rings to make and attach the straps. Here it is with the laptop inside of it. It is a very good fit, and dh was thrilled with it. (grin) You can see the inside pockets. This meant alot to me, to be able to figure this out on my own. Kevin couldn't believe it only took a couple of hours for me to finish it. I had to work quickly because I was doing this Tuesday evening and wanted to be done in time to watch Biggest Loser. (grin) I also got the applique done on Mom's rooster quilt.

Yesterday I got all the quilting lines drawn on it, the button sewed on for the eye, all sandwiched together, and even got a good start on the quilting. Here it is, all ready to quilt. I took a closeup picture of the rooster, but the flash made it all washed out, so I will wait till I get it quilted to share that with you. I have been doing some spring cleaning. Feels good to open the house up again. Well, I need to go check on my baby chicks, then get back to quilting. Everyone have a great day. Thank you for visiting and please come again.

What a weekend!

Hello everyone,

We have had an interesting last few days. LOL My dh needed to get his driver's license renewed before his birthday next Saturday. So we got up bright and early Saturday and headed to the license bureau. We were 15 minutes early and still had at least 6 men ahead of us. (sigh) So we stood in line for almost an hour before it was dh's turn. Our state now requires a one time of proof of your identity. Doesn't matter that you have had a driver's license for almost 40 years. (frown) Anyway, dh pulls out his SS card, voter registration card, and birth certificate to proove who he is. (Eye roll here!) They will not take his birth certificate because it is not embossed. This is what his mom gave us when we got married almost 32 years ago. I have kept it in the safe with mine all these years. Now we find out it won't work. Dh was not happy, since we had just driven over there and waited an hour in line for nothing. So we went home. A little later, I went back to get groceries. While I was gone, dh's mom called and said she had fallen and couldn't get up. So he rushed up there. Her motorized chair was blocking her and he couldn't get it to move, so he picked it up to move it out of the way. That thing is heavy! Then he had to get behind her and pick her up. He was a nervous wreck because she is very fragile. Anyway he got her up and in her chair, but it threw his back out. I was able to massage and get it back in. This was all just on Saturday. We both agreed that Saturday wasn't a good day. (another sigh)

Sunday started out much better. We got the brooder house all ready for our baby chicks. They are having so much fun, running and playing. I just sit down there with them watching them play. Aren't they cute?

Some of those little banties are already running around bumping chests. LOL So I figure I have at least a couple of roosters. I just love those feathers on their feet.

While I was getting the chicks settled in, dh was push mowing. We have been trying to keep up the mowing with a push mower and weed eater. He mowed around my clothes lines. So I got all the laundry done and hung out. Then I set all my plants out in the little cold frame so they could start hardening off. They are so big. It is time to get them planted, but I never plant them before Mother's Day weekend. I bought my seeds from Jungs. They have really done well. Now I know the tomatoes don't look so great, but that is because they are getting leggy. No problem, though. I will just plant them kind of like in a trench and turn the top parts up. I have done this many times. It gives them a better root system.
The peppers and eggplant are looking good. And look at the cabbage. I told Kevin that if we don't get them planted, we are going to have heads setting on them in the house. LOL So on Sunday we got the chicks moved, alot of mowing done, laundry done, hummingbird feeder out, trash burned, and plants moved outside. By mid-afternoon we were ready to call it a day. Then one of Kevin's friends called and said he had found a heavy duty mower for sale that he thought we would like. We have very rough mowing, and as I said before, we haven't had a rider for about 3 years. We went to go look at it and came home with this. This thing is almost as old as me and weighs a ton. Kevin and his friend tried to pick up just the front end to get it up over the tailgate and they could not lift it up. We had to use ramps to drive it into the pickup. Kevin has already mowed some rough ground with it and says it does great. The newer mowers just aren't made for our kind of terrain. I know, as we have had 2 new mowers in the past 10-15 years. So, that was our weekend.

This morning at 8 a.m., I called our county health department. The lady there said we should be able to get Kevin's birth certificate and be on our way in 5-10 minutes. Yeah, right. LOL We showed her the BC that he had. She typed in all the necessary stuff. Then told us that he isn't in their system. We are like "WHAT?" So she called Jefferson City. It seems that someone in their legal department decided that a 'P' in Kevin's name wasn't a 'P', but a smudge. Even though his father had the 'P'. This was the last name. Our health department lady convinced them that it really was a 'P' and he really did exist. So they faxed the document to her. Guess what? Now they have on it that Kevin is female. Yep, my big burly husband is listed as 'Female'. By now, we didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So 3 calls and about an hour later, we finally get that straightened out. Kevin goes to pay for it with a $20 bill. She says, sorry, it has to be correct change. Luckily, I had 3 $5 bills in my purse. Goodness, what a day! But he now has an official birth cerificate, enbossed, and has his driver's license renewed until 2015! He is so relieved. I never would have dreamed it would be so hard to get your driver's license renewed. LOL

So, after all of these happenings, I did very little quilting this weekend. Now I need to get off here and make Kevin's laptop bag. So there won't be much time for quilting today either. Oh well, I will do the best I can. Won't be the first time, if something isn't done on time. LOL

Everyone have a good day. Thank you for visiting. I love the comments. I tried responding to all comments, but just haven't had time lately. I do read them, though, and really appreciate all of them. So please come again, and feel free to comment.