It's Back!

Sent my quilt top off for finishing when we got back from our Colorado trip - it arrived in Oklahoma on December 3 - and got it back, completely quilted, on December 8. Five day turn around, including shipping time, in the middle of the Christmas rush! Very impressed with both the quality and speed of her work.(Grandchild included for scale - and because she wouldn't get out of the shot.)
This was the first quilt top I made after I got my new sewing machine; the pattern to make this was the reason I even asked for a new machine.Love it sooooooo much!

Art Project

Or "What I Was Doing When I Was Supposed To Be Sleeping"

Leia likes to stay awake after she's been put to bed. She reads to her babies, sings songs, plays on her bed - as long as she's fairly quiet, and doesn't keep Naia awake, we let her be.

Tuesday night she added a new item to her bedtime entertainment list. Art Project.

With grandma's brand new pack of sticky tags. Grandma was so.very.happy. (But hey, at least it wasn't black magic marker!)


Look! A picture of Leanne smiling! 
She's happy because she just pulled all grandma's unread newspapers off the couch - again. Nothing that child likes better than streeeeetching and streeeeeeeeetching until she can finally grab on to something, anything, she's not supposed to have.  

The things they say

Some of the things Addy and Leia came up with while we were in Colorado were hilarious. I tried to write them down, so I wouldn't forget, but only got a few. For your reading pleasure . . . .

Leia to Addison: Don't pick your nose. It's yucky. I do it for you.

Addison, after I told her not to bounce on the bed, that she might get hurt: It's alright grandma. I'll just go in my room and cry by myself.

Leia, after I called her 'my baby': I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl. I don't pee in my pants.

Leia, watching Uncle John play Angry Birds: Die, happy pig.

Leia, begging asking for another bite of chocolate: My mouth says please.

Dressing The Tree

We set up our tree Saturday night, a little earlier than usual. 

Matt brought his clan over to help out; 

the girls did most of the work,  

with only occasional assists from the adults.

Matt's crew also brought some new ornaments for our collection. 

Christina supplied the recipe while Matt made the dough and helped the little girls make their ornaments. "G" is Naia's (she says it stands for "Gingerbread Girl"), "H" is for Hanna,  

the pink stocking is Leia's 

and the angel belongs to Christina.  

The rest of our decorating will probably wait until next weekend, but I love having the tree up.  Merry almost-Christmas!

Crafty Little Girls

While we were in Colorado, I bought some plastic canvas, needles and yarn so I could teach Addy and Leia to sew.Leia is still a little young - she tried for awhile, because Addy was doing it, but wasn't overly interested. 

Addy, on the other hand, LOVED it.

So being a good grandma, I bought her more canvas - stars, hearts and a big square - more needles, lots of yarn colors and a big pink bucket so she can keep her sewing supplies all together on her crafting table. If she were older, this would be called 'enabling'. But now it's just 'teaching the next generation'.

Grandma Does It

Leia brought this cute painted turkey home from preschool today.The staff had asked the kids how they thought you made a turkey, then written down exactly what each child said.Since our Thanksgiving dinner this year came from a restaurant (yum!) and was served up by John and Rachel, I'm not sure where Leia came up with her answer.

Except that, in her eyes anyway, Grandma can do anything.

Cookie Heaven

Last week, I made chocolate chip cookies from my super secret recipe (from the back of the semi-sweet morsels package. Ok, so it's not so secret.) I'd been checking out recipes on Pinterest and decided to put a glaze* on the cookies. And to kick it up a notch, I threw some cinnamon in the glaze too.

Best. Cookies. EVER. 

Can't wait to make them again.   

In Her Cups

It's a bit hard to see from this angle, but AJ is sound asleep, her nose firmly planted in Leia's pink teacup. 
Hmmm, maybe I should see what 'tea' Leia is serving . . . .

Cats 'n' Kids

Leanne has been with us almost everyday for the past week or so while her momma fills in during a co-worker's vacation. Hubby and I - and Leanne - are all thrilled with the arrangement. The only one unhappy? Poor Lily. She's terrified of all the little girls, but especially of Leanne, who would love to get her hands on the pretty kitty. Lily used to hide under the furniture when she saw the baby headed her way, but Leanne had no problem getting down to that level and would get waaaay too close. Lily has finally figured out that Leanne can't climb. At least not as far as the top of the couch. Now Lily sits up high, usually right behind my head since that's my spot on the couch, and keeps a sharp eye on the littlest interloper. You can almost hear her thinking 'nanner-nanner, can't get me up here.' Although at the rate Leanne is learning to crawl and walk, it won't be long before she's climbing too. Better keep a sharp eye out, Lily.

Pass 'em Down

Thought this hat,

made from my favorite 2-color spiral crochet pattern, was going to be for Leia, 3.
Um, no. Waaaaay too small. 

But doesn't it look great on Leanne, 9 months?It's nice having a range of ages to craft for. If I didn't, I'd need to be a lot better at figuring sizes.

Start 'em Young

Leia wanted to know what I was doing this afternoon, so I showed her the crochet hook and yarn I was using to make her a hat.Next thing I know, she's practicing her stitches with great concentration.I am one happy Grandma.

Rainy Day

The perfect rainy day - fire in the fireplace.

 New lace on the pillow - and time enough to take some artsy pix 

 of my current favorite thing.
 

Life is very, very good.

Enabling

I taught my first bobbin lace 'class' tonight and my one and only student got it on the first try.

Even better - she loves lacing! She's so hooked, she's already bought a lace pillow from another friend and is arranging to take more formal classes. I love spreading the addiction.

I also finished my latest piece tonight - This pattern was tricky at first, but by the end I really felt I understood what was going on. 
Next up: getting Vickie and Ellen hooked on bobbin lace too . . . . . .

Fenced In

Now that Leanne is mobile (here), hubby has resurrected the low-tech fencing he put together when Leia was younger (here). Now Leanne has the run (crawl?) of the family room, without us having to worry constantly that she'll get into something she shouldn't.
We have tile flooring throughout the house, which can be pretty cold on little knees and elbows - and hard on little noggins when balance systems fail. We'd been using layers of blankets for padding but PopPop had a better idea. He found a carpet remnant that completely covers Leanne's crawling area. Warm, cozy and padded. Perfect for little girls.
And how does Leia feel about the barriers since the girls are usually here at the same time? She's thrilled that she's big enough to go on the other side of the fence. Sometimes, bigger is better.

Shaving Cream Paints

Or, How To Have Fun On A Rainy Day
I spotted this paint idea on Pinterest (not a member yet? You gotta join! So much neat stuff.) and thought it would be great fun for the grand-girls. And as luck would have it, the next time Leia spent the day with us, it rained and she was bored - the perfect combination for bathtub time.We didn't have any food coloring, so poor PopPop went out into the rain to get us some, coming home with Neon colors (who knew??)
I didn't have a muffin tin so we improvised with a disposable pie tin, which worked out great, allowing Leia to mix up some of her own colors. 
Leia had a blast - she stayed in the tub so long, I had to add hot water several times to keep her from tuning into a frozen prune.And when she was done, I just rinsed down the shower walls. Love easy clean-up.
The only thing I would do differently next time?
Remember that it's food coloring and not use my fingers to do the stirring