Weekend Update/Love Edition

Another busy, busy week my friends.  Time is flying and I am just holding on for the ride!

We had a guest, our baby grand.  Mom was traveling for work and Dad had work commitments too, so we got the girl for Spring Break, Wooo!  Every time we say Spring Break we go Wooo, because it's fun!

Sweet p. is still on medication for her ear infection, but feeling good and giving so much pleasure to dear old Grandpa and Grandma.

On Saturday we celebrated the engagement of our dear son Jon to his beautiful fiance Charlotte.  The kids threw a great party that brought both Charlotte's family and our families together.  Great food, great company and babies!  Let me count the babies...our own baby grand, Charlotte's niece Norah, our dear friend's daughter Lucy, our own little bug and baby bird...  Makes for a very happy and energetic party.

I decorated five tables with little vignettes.  This one for the happy couple included an owl for Charlotte and a camera for Jon, even a little wood working project Jon made in Junior High! Jon and Charlotte are so very special and love each other so much.  A happier match I cannot imagine.

 This table represented Charlotte's grandparents...

 and this table was very special to me, my parents and grandparents.

 Little things that represented their lives, and remembered them on this special occasion.

 I made these favors with book pages and craft paper streamers.

Charlotte even planned a table to keep the kids happy with projects and games.  We had vintage milk bottles everywhere with baby's breath, and W's for our last name.

 Cookies, cake, a huge pie, a fruit explosion (as we call an edible arrangement)...I never got a photo of the  of the sandwiches, salads, chips and dips. The guests enjoyed it all.

 Family, friends from near and far.

 My guys!  Mike and Amanda came from Ohio and I got in plenty of hugs with my baby boy.

 My girls, how I love these two!  Having them close has been life changing, in only the best possible ways.

Kristen now has what she has always wanted, a sister!

Such a happy time with all my kids there to celebrate.

With more celebrating to come in 2016!  (I made this sign with black poster board and old yardsticks for a frame.)  Jon and Charlotte kept the wedding date a secret (except we parents had the scoop) until they unveiled this during the party! What happy memories we made at this the first of many occasions we will share with Charlotte and her wonderful family.

Now I have just a few short days to get Easter going here in English Valley.  A couple of  hours of putting things away from the party, a day of cleaning, a day of baking, some egg coloring, basket blessing, casserole assembling, egg hiding and what I like to call "bunny work"  Better get going.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy this beautiful day.

What a Weekend, Update

Here's our baby grand, jumping on the bed.  That's how our weekend started off.  Having our little one in the nest makes us so very very happy.  A visit from the cousins, where every cushion in the family room came off the sofa and love seat to build a "nest" for the girls.  Sweet p. was flushed in the cheeks but had a great time. When they left however, things changed quickly.  Sweet p.said she had to go to bed because she was so tired. (Mom thought that was very unusual.)  She was restless and after a while she woke up crying.  We were able to calm her and get her back to sleep but only for a while.  Then she started really crying and calling for her Mom.  She held her ear and said it hurt.  The crying for her Mom is what did me in.  I want to start crying for MY mom.  We got Kris on face time hoping that would calm her, but it just made her more upset.

To make a long story shorter, we packed her up and brought her home.  She had a terrible night, even with a baby Tylenol to ease the pain. We came back on Sunday to take her to the doctor. When they called for Penny, my heart jumped a little as I am a chicken at the doctor's office, but our girl was brave and good. She turned and called, Grandmaaaaa as Mom took her into the office, so I followed her in. It was one of those grandma moments, I love that girl so.  I always had that helpless feeling when they were in NY and we were here.  It was so good to be able to be there, but the helpless feeling when our baby is sick is harder as a grandma than as a Mom. .

Snowdrops in the city.

Penny has an ear infection,  thank goodness for antibiotics.  We went to the drug store to fill her prescription, and  Sweet p. found a Pretty Pony and some other comforts.  Not the weekend we planned, but one where we were able to be there for our little family.

 Well, Spring is snowing all over Chicagoland this morning.

 We might have 4 to 5 inches.

 .

 My dearest was my handyman hanging the banner I showed you last week.  It really is pretty.

 Welcome to our nest.

A snowy, cozy and relieved nest today.  Just face timed with the little one and she was pretending to be at the beach, wearing sunglasses, a backpack and flip flops with her pretty pony.   A happy and grateful grandma.  Enjoy this beautiful day.

Needle in a Haystack

You've seen the commercial of the woman who can't find her keys because she absentmindedly puts them into the refrigerator. Her husband says something comforting like, "That's alright baby."  You know it isn't alright, she is slipping into dementia.  Well  there is a family history of just that, so when something happens, I lose something or can't find something I go to extremes.

I found this great fabric a while back at the thrift.(I have no problem finding things at the thrift ;-)  As soon as I saw it I wanted to make an apron. I found the pattern I had purchased  a decade ago, which in itself was amazing.    

 I haven't cut a pattern in a very long time, but it was like riding a bike, it all was going so well.

There is something calming about sewing.  Takes me back to my youth, my Mom sewed, and I learned in high school.  Thank you Miss Coletta.  I actually, as an adult, got to thank her when I ran into her at a store.
It's a skill learned that I use and enjoy often.  I digress...

 This is the wrap around Daisy Kingdom apron pattern.

It called for yard and yards of bias trim, but because the fabric I had was a tablecloth, I had to use what I had and went with strips cut on the straight of the grain.  First mistake.

 I sewed the binding on by machine.  The pattern is strange.  The binding went on in one piece, the neck, armholes and edge are one continuous piece.

Then I pinned the binding, preparing for the hand sewing to finish my apron.  This is were the needle comes in.  I placed a needle in my pincushion, after a few chores, it was gone.  I don't know if I knocked it off, accidentally grabbed it with the pins, swept it up with the trimming and the thread on the floor.  Anyway, this was my Dad's pet peeve.  If a needle went missing, and they did even when I was young, Dad would go crazy.  Some Polish thing, a urban legend about someone stepping on a needle that then travels the bloodstream and goes straight to the heart and kills you!  I'm calling this the curse of Dad, because I spent the next few hours looking for the dang needle.

When I didn't find it that day, I continued the next.  Cleared the table, under the table, vacuumed the floors, dumped the contents of the vacuum onto paper so I could sift through it and run a magnet through it.  In the process I moved the kitchen table, so I thought I'll wash the curtains...then I washed the windows inside and out.  Then I did the same at the patio doors.  All the while looking for the needle.

 I hung clean curtains in the family room, hung the now clean curtains from the family room to the living room.

 Vacuuming as I went, dumping the contents...No needle.

Hung some different hand towels by the sink in the kitchen.  No needle.  I wish I had a happy ending to this story, except for the fact that I got some spring cleaning out of the way, I haven't found the needle, yet...
The apron is finished and that too is not a happy ending.  It's very big and the binding, though done well, just doesn't lay right.  I'll post a photo of it as soon as I find my camera...just kidding.

Thanks for dropping by and for your patience with this old girl. Enjoy this beautiful day!

A Few Spring Treasures

Sometimes, something jumps into your cart all by itself.  It just belongs to you and speaks to you.  No explanation required.

 This small florist bucket, anyway that's what I call it.  Galvanized, says it all.

I have purchased a handful of clothing items in the past.  Now my budget minded self cannot pay $40 for a top, just can't.  I got this one for $3.99, perfect for when a tee shirt just won't do. Do you like the color? ...reminds me of blue ball jars!

How about this scarf? Veggies!  I've decided that in my golden years, I am gonna let my bohemian inner hippy free.  If you see a crazy older woman with veggies on her head or around her neck, it's just me!

 Just 19 days till Easter... Enjoy this beautiful day.

Weekend Update/Spring Edition

Our first weekend of Spring and it did not disappoint.  We started out on Friday for a ride into the country.
My dearest one had a root canal scheduled for Saturday morning, so we though we'd take off on Friday, not knowing how he'd feel after the procedure. These photos were taken over the whole weekend. Fortunately, all went well with my husband,  he just needed to decompress from the anxiety that seems to be involved in any dental procedure. It is a mental health thing for us to hop in the car and drive, listening to great music, or in silence with our thoughts.  It is rejuvenating to be out together, with no destination just the joy of the journey.  An old barn holds such charm, even in it's waning days.

 A old courthouse, set against a clear blue sky frosted with wispy clouds.

 Up in Wisconsin at Lake Geneva, fishermen were still on the ice.

 The gray skies made it look more like winter than spring.

Sunday after visiting with our baby grand, (she can do somersaults!) we took the scenic way home, up Lake Shore Drive to Sheridan Road along Lake Michigan.

Dear old girl never ever lets us down.  Beautiful in every season, in all kinds of weather.  Our all time favorite drive.  Now we head for home.

 On the campus of Northwestern University.  I don't know what this building is, but it looks like something out of Downton Abbey.

 If you can peek behind the buildings you'll see the Grosse Point Lighthouse.

 The sky on fire at sunset,

almost home.

 " Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." William Wordsworth

Thanks so much for your kind comments and for stopping by.  Enjoy this beautiful day.