Girls Girls Girls

First picture of baby bump #2.  Ashley has been too busy to stop and take a photo of herself.  They found out today what the sex of this bump is.  Betcha can't guess.

Smudgy Fudgies ie: Sketchbook Challenge

Stephanie is doing the Sketchbook Challenge with me.  She noticed the ink was non-toxic.....we really like trees!

 This picture above, is Highly Prized to me...my daughters art on herself wearing an enameled necklace made by her grandmother, possibly while she was in college too.

And this is made from the PT Steph used to clean up the ink she knocked over....The love of colorful paper towels are something we share.

As for Stephanie's Sketchbook....and I quote;

"Nothing really on the paper except for smudgy fudgies."  

Ok, Change{s}

My son is not a reader....scratch that....WAS not a reader until recently.  He had a super boring shift at work, so he asked me for a book to read.  Oh. My. Yes.  

Lately I have been reading S. M. Stirling and even bought some of the books....gasp....on the cheap of course.  So I gave Ben the first of one of a series and it looks like I had better finish #3 soon because he is going to be asking for it, as he is half way through #2.

My girls have always read, as have I, as had my mom.  The guys in the family have done other things before the reading of a good book have become an interest.  My Dad, my brother and now my son.

I like this change. Yes I do.

Lily has grown out of the 'boat' stool

        

          meg=leg=o

I have a numbers thing...not any particular number....just a thing for them.  I noticed the cable box was set to a DMC embroidery thread number....a blue in this case. 

No I don't know all the DMC #'s by heart....

they have lots of the same colors in machine thread too, which I did knot know.

Megan made a teapot and I will be saving it in my Highly Prized Sketchbook...and while this page sat open while I brushed her hair, she read most of the sentence to me!  Double Prized!

Family Matters

Well mom has been moved from the hospital to a nursing home for further care.  She is still messed up by the anesthesia, according to a nurse.  She is off the pain meds which surprised me.  Have I mentioned that she broke her femur, not her hip?? Have I also mentioned that she is almost 89 years old??

I have spent the last 2 cloudy days veg-ing....I think I am still shedding the stress I didn't know I was carrying around.

I have done some sewing on the Tropical quilt, and some on the Sketchbook challenge project, that seeming to help.  Wonder if Steph has done any on her sketchbook??  Guess I should go ask her.

Mom and Mountains

Mom is still at the hospital, and then will go to a nursing home for further care. I don't know for how long either.  

She looked pretty good today and was famished! She doesn't remember having surgery, and all that, but does know where she is. 

Onto other things....this cell phone picture is the winter view from Ashleys house, the one they are building themselves.  Those are the Olympic Mountains in the background, behind the house that is behind her house.  The view is from upstairs in the kids room.

Mom again

Thank You all for the up-lifting comments!  Mom is doing well, the PT even made her stand up this morning!  I have only the cat and my youngest GD to care for today. GD is fairly easy, cat is clinging, not ill, just old and fussy. I also got to sit NEXT to my husband last night to watch TV.  Mom has wanted to sit next to me since she moved in, several years ago, and that has denied me cuddles from my other family members, except for the grandchildren who just climb into my lap and drape themselves around me.  I know....WAH.

Something Is Not Quite Right...

Said Miss Clavel in the middle of the night...

My mom fell last night.  Dan was able to get her off the floor, but she didn't want to stand on her right leg, so I put a chair behind her and helped her sit. 

The handsome paramedics carefully lifted her to the gurney and whisked her off to the local ER.

Her hip is broken, darn it, so she will have surgery this evening to pin the thigh bone to the hip bone.

Phone Conversation

Me: I sewed today.
Ashley: sew??
Me: I mean I really sewed today.
A: {bfd}
Me: on the sewing machine
A: {gasp} the sewing machine???
Me: yeah....I kept trying to find the treadle though.
A: it's been a long time since you sewed that way [she knows what a treadle machine is!!]

Danny's voice in the background: does she remember how?

Close knit family?  Priceless.

Sketchbook Challenge Post #1

I am making the book for the challenge as part of my own challenge. Not sure if all will start out this way, but I hope so.

First photo of the first sketchbook.  This is the cover.  I started with saved cardboard from clothing/household items that we have purchased, and glued paper towels to all 4 sides of the cover and back pieces. 

"Highly Prized" is the 'theme' for this month. That is what is going into this sketchbook, things I prize highly.

*the paper towels were used by Stephanie when she was painting her room several years ago, they were too colorful to toss out!

*the rubber stamps were my dad's

front cover 

inside front cover

back cover side 1

back cover side 2

megan did the pt with pens, my mom did the tree with pastels and the pencil 'still life' 

i am using canvas for the pages in this book, which were originally used for covers on an ikea shelf.

leaf brought to me by megan, 'paper' from a wasp nest we happened to save. i accidentally cut the leaf in half...sheesh... 

made by ben in the long ago 

by steph a couple of years ago, i glued the drawing of the cat to the back of a 'marble' to magnify it a bit, as it does the fabric behind it, since the paper doesn't cover the whole back side.

size ref and a couple of other items that may make it into this book.  i made the apron years ago as a sample for full human sized ones. the sisters bag is from a fun special trip we made to the quilt show in....2000 ???

Tropical...Snow???

Page making sure the Tropical top is held down.

after it hailed one day, and froze to the deck, i sent the kiddies out to make an iceman...they tried for about 5 seconds, then goofed off.

dry snow. we don't usually get this kind.

not exactly a snowflake to remember....

different storm, different day, steph asked me to take pix....

left my harley outside

i moved the christmas tree outside, lights included.  easy tidy up!

Tropical stuff

 These are pix of the 'coral' sections I am working on.  I had more than 3 pieces of 'coral' in each grouping, but it made the whole thing way to busy, so I left it at 3 per.

 I am turning under the seams on 2 of the parts, but leaving the edge raw on the batiked part of each group, like I did on the reds in the volcano.

I am using the King Tut Quilting Thread that I got from Superior Threads in their 'try me' section, for the turn-under stitching.  I really like the thread, but have found that using Thread Heaven [or any other thread 'conditioner'] makes the thread behave much better, less knotage.  For the raw edge parts I am using the Cosmo Multi-work thread, which I love love love!!!!!!

Home Building

Last time I looked at pix of Ashley and Danny's house, it looked like this....

 ....and this....open and wet.....look at it NOW!!!!

 ...it's a house...with windows....garage door....front door...oh my....

...and here is the color they picked for the exterior. 

Ashley says it's a blue. 

I can see it a little more now, but am sure it will be bluer when it's on the walls.

Duo

So if you look on the right you will see I have added the Sketchbook Challenge badge.  I wanted to do this, but I really wanted to do this this with Stephanie.  She has agreed!  This should be good.  The difference between us is she is very left brain with a little right marbling. I am totally right brained...my left side has left the building. I will post pix of course!

So For A Change...

I am thinking of doing this...The Sketchbook Challenge ...the theme for January is "Highly Prized", which feels right to me for some un-obvious reason.  I am not generally a sketchbook keeper, but I have always aspired to be one...there are also a lot of other little things I would like to dabble with, so why not do both together?

And of course I almost forgot to thank yall' for the wonderful comments!

Dorothy...hang-lyin [her WV jumble of letters]...I can just picture a mom pointing to some spot in the middle of space, "you see that, John-boy, that lie is just hangin' there, now wha-cha gonna do 'bout it?"