Cupcake Girl

Now that she’s mastered chocolate chip cookies, Leia wanted to try her hand at making cupcakes. 

Her reaction to using a cake mix for the first time? “This is too easy!” And delicious.

She also made custom icing colors. 

We both liked “sunset orange” but “dusty rose” was a definite blah.

Play Date

Wenona and I had planned to take the girls to Sky High for this month’s grand-girl play day, 

but since trampolines and broken arms* really don’t mix, 

we went with Plan B - pottery painting.

Can you tell how unhappy the girls are with the change in plans???

Two hours of fun hard work and concentration deserves a reward, or that’s what the girls told us anyway, soooooo . . .

fozen yogurt for all before we headed home!

* Leia went back to the doctor yesterday 

and got a pretty red short cast to match her braces.

Two more weeks, to be sure her wrist heals completely, 

then maybe she’ll be cast-free.

Maybe.

Oh, My Heart

Jaclyn met Donovan today.

Jac wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with him at first,

even though we’d been showing her pictures and talking about “baby” since he was born.

She finally agreed to hold him, 

but only if she could do it while sitting on grandma’s lap.

Be still my heart.

You know what comes next, right?

Jac decided Donovan was HER baby and no one else could hold him.

Mr. D slept soundly through the whole thing. 

More Meet and Greet

In between trips to the doctor

and practicing his smile, 

Donovan has been gradually meeting the rest of the family.

This weekend he met Uncle Gary 

and Aunt Shelly.

I’m really (really!) looking forward to introducing him to 22-month old Jaclyn.

Soon . . . 

Makin’ A List . . .

Making a list of my current quilting projects in hopes it will break my inertia and get me motivated to do more than just sit on my b*tt working on EPP (English paper piecing) projects in front of the teevee every night. 

I want to make Gary and Shelly a housewarming quilt; escrow closes May 7-ish. Have the black and white fabrics but can’t decide on a pattern. . . 

Signature quilt from Donovan’s baby shower. He’s here, this needs to get done soon. Signed blocks will be the small snowballs; large snowballs will alternate the raccoon and hedgehog prints; dark blue is for the block corners and the binding. Thinking about throwing some orange in there to spice things up.

Bought Harvest Grunge fabric to make hubby a quilt. He picked the colors and likes this design.

Although they are hot hot HOT in the quilting world, I’ve never cared one way or another about Liberty of London fabrics. Until now. I spotted this octopus print at the Camarillo Quilters’ show and was all MUST HAVE IT NOW. Octopi will be the big blocks; other three fabrics will make up the pinwheels. 

I’ve joined a quilting guild in Santa Barbara; at my first meeting, I won a raffle prize and at my second, I was given this 10x6” container stuffed with 2.5” squares. They will eventually become two (three?) quilts - a traditional Grandmother’s Flower Garden that I’ve already started; and a child’s quilt using the novelty prints. I also separated out the 30’s reproduction fabrics and may do a different EPP quilt with those . . . 

I love this octopus chart. For the ‘water’ (white squares), I’m planning to use the teal fabric, working the colors from dark at the bottom to light at the top. My initial plan was to use the gradient orange in the second fabric for the octopus. Still not sure about that. Wish I could find something like the teal in orange or red . . .

The top quarter is almost done on this one - it’s my favorite and I work on it most often. I’d be a lot further along but I ripped out all the white hexies because they were too “stark”. The replacement fabric has a hint of blue running through it. Much nicer. (And probably nobody but me would notice the difference.)

Nap Time

Sleepy time with mom

and dad.

Baby D

Three days and already looking older. They grow up too fast! 

 Dad says I sleep a lot . . .

The hospital had a photographer on staff to take baby pics and she was very good*. Newborn photos sure have changed since my kids were born. We got one shot and, good or bad, that’s all there was.  Ahh, the good old days. . . .

 Baby toes!

* These photos look much better in person. I couldn’t get the tones quite right on the downloaded pics.

Introducing …

Introducing Donovan Richard, our newest grand-love, 

born Monday, April 16, at 1:21 a.m., weighing in at 8 pounds and 20.5” long, 

with a full-head of the softest brown hair you could imagine. 

 One net for dad’s hair, another for his beard.

Mr. D arrived with a bit of drama. Mama was at the hospital, in the first stages of labor, when nurses noted Donovan’s heart rate was decreasing with each contraction. Not good.

 So mad!

Thirty minutes - and one emergency c-section - later, 

Donovan was safely out and in mom and dad’s arms.

 3:20 am. 2-hours old. Dad looks pretty happy.

And lucky me got to hold him when he was just two hours old! 

 Three generations 

Big sister, Leia, met Mr. D on Wednesday.

Looks like love at first sight,

on both their parts. 

Mom and baby are home now, doing well,

and Donovan is gradually meeting the rest of his family.

 Auntie Marie

Fortunately, he is very good-natured and is taking everything in stride. . . so far at least . . .

 Leanne and Donovan