Hi Grandma!
How YOU Doin’?
Betcha didn’t think you’d see me here, did ya?
Pssssst, Come closer.
Thimbleanna wanted to show her friends the pretty new quilt you made me.
And the fun matching tag you embroidered for the back.
They made me lie on my tummy to show off the hat you made me.
But, that made me tired, so I’m off to bed now.
I Love You, Grandma!
Congratulations to my sweet quilty peep Jewels (and her darling daughter) on the birth of her 5th grandson!!!!
XOXO,
Anna
I had a completely different post planned for tonight and then this came in the mail today:
TheFirstChild has been accepted to Medical School. It’s been such a long wait. He’s worked so hard. And worried so much. We’re all delirious with joy and we’ve spoiled our pre-wedding diets with a celebratory dinner. It was worth every single calorie-laden bite!
Congratulations Big Boy! We’re all so very proud of you!!!
XOXO,
Anna
I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was fairly quiet. On Friday night we saw The Bucket List — I loved it — highly recommended! Then, my youngest niece had her 11th birthday last week, so on Saturday morning, I finished up her birthday present and took it to her house. I took a few pictures while I was there.
First we have TheYappers. You may remember that I mentioned them — TheEmptyNestChild could squish them. They’re sisters, about 5 years old, and loved and pampered by the whole family. Here they are wondering what in the heck is going on — things were a little wild at their house.
My niece decided she wanted a 70’s themed birthday party and she had two of her friends over. The girls cracked me up. I dragged them outside and took pictures of them. The two on the left kept saying “Ooohhhhmmm” as if they were meditating, and the one on the right kept striking a disco pose, ala John Travolta.
My sister did a great job on the party. She had a disco ball, a vw bug pinata and lots of other fun decorations in their basement. When I got there, the girls were playing twister. If you have kids this age, this is a great idea for a theme — I was laughing the whole time I was there.
Here are some pictures of the gifts I made for my niece.
I made her a little apron to go with the cake decorating kit that she is holding. The apron is from this pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates. Another great pattern — Cindy is going to think I’m stalking her. It took less than three hours to make this apron, start to finish. I love Cindy’s patterns! I also had a good time using some of the tools that I rarely use on the ruffles — the narrow hem stitch from my serger and my ruffler foot on my machine.
As for the shirt, I couldn’t resist embellishing a little sweat jacket with that saying. It makes me smile and it made MyDadLovesMeBestSister and my niece laugh! Now, if you have germ issues, you must avert your eyes. Here’s proof that I speak the truth. Yapper1 and my little niece in action:
Eeeewwww!!! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ll try to clean things up around here next time!
XOXO,
Anna
On Thursday last week, my 15 yr. old niece asked MyDadLovesMeBestSister if she could make dinner for her and 10 of her friends on Saturday night for the Christmas semi-formal. Of course, MyDadLovesMeBestSister said yes, but she was in a panic because she didn’t have any Christmas decorations up, she works full time and she was attending The Nutcracker on friday night. So, I didn’t say it, but I was thinking “Good Luck with that!”.
On Saturday morning, as TheManoftheHouse puts it, the APB for help went out, LOL. MyDadLovesMeBestSister didn’t really ask for help, but things weren’t going particularly well, so TheManoftheHouse, MeMum and I all went over to help with the preparations. When we got there, my first assignment was to finish the table, in particular the napkins. She gave me the napkins and candy canes and told me to do something with them. I thought “Where is that napkin folding book (that I don’t own) when you need it?” But wait. We have the internet. And the internet has everything on it. (I love you internet.) I told my 10-year old niece to google “napkin folding techniques.” We needed ideas. She was back by my side before I even got the word “techniques” out of my mouth. She found this fun site and we used the “candle” napkin idea.
We all had a great time and decided we should help each other clean and decorate more often. After a break to go Christmas tree shopping (can you say “picked-over”? — it was only the 8th, what’s up with that??? –I know nowadays that’s late, but back in the day (and I AM still back in the day) that was early) I went back to take pictures of my niece and her friends. Her date brought her a pretty little corsage for the evening.
I had a fun time watching the kids. And especially watching from the girls’ family perspective. I told MyDadLoveMeBestSister, in spite of all the work and panic, how lucky she was. I’d always wanted to make dinner for the groups my boys went with, but that seemed to be something that the girls arranged. The boys did the asking, the girls did the arranging. This group was pretty cute. The original plan was for my niece and her girlfriends to go to the dance together. Then this boy asked her. What to do with her friends? She just invited them and a few other boys along. My niece had the only official date — there were 7 girls and 4 boys. And what really cracked me up was when it was time to sit at the table they lined up — all 4 boys sat along one side and the girls were at each end and down the other side. So funny!
So, anyway, not much decorating got done around here. But it got done somewhere! Here’s a cute set of ornaments from MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s tree.
She has two little poodles. We call them TheYappers. Put them together (8 lbs. each) and they don’t even weigh as much as TheEmptyNestChild (17 lbs.) I’d love to see the three of them together. A family portrait: TheEmptyNestChild with a Yapper sitting on each side of him.
Sharon suggested that I’m so late decorating, that maybe I should just bag it this year. Sharon! I’m appalled! I’m working on it. Really, I am!
XOXO,
Anna
Today is TheFirstChild’s birthday! Here he is looking suspiciously like his younger brother. He loved his little bear whose name was Bear. TheFirstChild took Bear with him everywhere. He’s the reason we have 2 yr. old pictures with bears in our family. We wanted to remember Bear forever. It’s a good thing we have this picture, because about a year after it was taken, Bear was lost on an outing.
But, back to the birthday. Hard to imagine it’s been 23 years since my little cherub was born. I’m totally stealing and paraphrasing a fabulous quote from the VERY funny Camillaknits. “That was 17 hours of labor put to good use.” TheFirstChild came into the world with big, wide, blinking eyes, and he’s still wide-eyed, soaking up what the world has to give him. He’s been a great kid and a hard worker (well, unless you count his incredibly messy room.) This, his 24th year, will be a very big one, with a wedding in May. It might be bigger for me … I’ll have to give him up to SweetiePie. I don’t know if I’ll be able to bear it. {Sniff}{Sniff} (Excuse me while I blow my nose.)
Well, I’ll spare you the gushing over my baby. Suffice it to say, I could go on and on … he’ll always be my little sweetie. Thanks for a wonderful 23 years Big Boy — I hope you’re having a great day!
Now, I’m off to make another attempt at reading some of your blogs. I haven’t been very successful the last two days — you’re writing faster than I can read! Don’t you people ever sleep???
XOXO,
Anna
P.S. Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments about my trip and pillowcases. You’re all SO very sweet and kind!!!