Best Buds

In the time it took me to turn around and pick up the camera, Leia and Leanne went from 'awwwww, isn't that sweet'
 
to full out mugging 
 
and giggle fest.
 
Leanne started it
 
but Leia was loving it. 

 

And just like that, we're back to so sweet.  

 

Never a dull minute with these two monkeys around.

Travis

This is Travis, my brand new great-nephew, 8 pounds even and 20" long.

He showed up a week early, on December 23, probably because he heard all the excitement about Santa and didn't want to miss out.  

His momma was hoping for a new year's baby but our boy Travis did things his way (get used to it, Mom!)

Hubby and I had to put off meeting him because we both had miserable colds, so Travis was a day shy of 2 weeks before we got our hands on him.  

And he is every bit as adorable as I thought he'd be. Good natured, happy and soooo squeezable. He even consented to open his eyes for a few minutes  (Breanne calls this his 'old man face')

  
and to model one of the newborn hats I'd made for him. 
Wish the new family didn't live so far away - I'd be over there everyday, bogarting* holding the baby. 
Congrats, Breanne and Garrett!

*	bogarting - the act of hogging something to the point of annoyance

Finished, Gifted and Returned

Remember the black and white quilt top I was working on? I added a narrow teal (aqua?) stripe around the perimeter -

and a thicker dark border around that.

Love how it looks - and so do the recipients, who saw it today and said they loved it. But I still brought it back home with me . . . . . only so I can send it off to be machine quilted and have the binding put on. Once it's returned, I'll hand sew the back of the binding down and re-return it to the giftee. 

And the bonus? Youngest son says he loves this too. Can you say birthday (or Christmas) present?

What's New

I was going to post about a new hat I finished, but the pictures turned out really crummy. Instead, how about some cute kids - with something new with each of them? 

Leanne - I love when she raises her eyebrow like that. Normally it's the other one that goes up. Maybe the left means 'humor' and right translates to WTH?

My girls; 2 of them anyway. Not often I get a decent picture of me with the littlest squirm-worms.
So did you figure out what's new? Leanne has new teeth (5, as of tonight) and Leia has new earrings (you gotta look close!) Pretty cute, aren't they?

Picky Eater

How do you get a 3-year-old to eat something besides oatmeal, her favorite food? Let her help make it! At least, that was my theory. And it seems to have worked.
 
Naia had the job of mixing the porcupines - she loves getting her hands into the meat/rice mixture - while I measured added ingredients, and then all three of us rolled meatballs and added the sauce, which is Leia's favorite part.

Since we were already in the kitchen, I put them to work on zucchini bread. Naia cleaned and grated the zucchini and measured the dry ingredients,

while Leia beat the eggs and stirred the batter. 
Leia needed a little help reaching the cabinet, but she still did a great job.

And how did it all turn out? We made about 4 pounds of meatballs for the four of us and I bet the girls ate half of them in one sitting. And the zucchini bread?

Tastes as great as it looks.  

Fresh Start

I'm hoping planning going to do a lot of crafting in the new year, so in the spirit of 'start as you mean to go on', I started a new quilt today.
 
I'm in love with the look - and quickness - of the 1600 quilts - 

so I broke out the jelly roll I recently bought at my local quilt store,

sewed the 40+ strips into a 1600" (44.4 yard) looooong row,

and then sewed . . . 
 
and sewed . . . (this piece goes all the way across my entry hall and halfway up the stairs)

until it resembled a quilt. 

All this sewing gave me an excuse to finally play with a new toy tool I picked up in Colorado. 

 

Love how quick and easy this is to use; and the razor blade is easy to change out when it gets dull. Plus, I don't have to worry about cutting the fabric when I cut the threads (and yes, I've done that before . . . )
Still a lot of work to be done before this can be gifted - like borders, backing and binding - 
but I've started.

Finishing Up The Year

It's been awhile since I talked about my crochet stuff. I'm still working on the 3-color blankie, a long-term project just for me! (couldn't guess that from the colors, right?) 
This is my 'relaxation' project, what I work on at night while watching teevee. Really enjoy making the continuous spiral in multiple colors. No boredom here! 
Another 'almost done' is the pair of slippers I'm making as a class sample (AFY's schedule of classes is out, if you are interested.)
"Pair" is probably the wrong word - one (this one in Noro Silk Garden) will be felted; the other will be in an acrylic blend to show a non-felting version. I seldom end up actually wearing class samples, so a mismatched set isn't a bad as you might think.

On the 'finished' side of things -

a batwing granny shawl with a picot edging (also a class sample) using one ball of Crazy Zauberball sock yarn. **LOve** that yarn; so soft and colorful. This is one sample I AM planning to wear. Absolutely love the finished shawl.

Also done is another Tunisian shell scarf.

I made this one as an experiment in using multi-colored yarn. Turned out to be a good move since the original class sample has turned up missing. Not sure if I've misplaced it or if it was 'borrowed' from the shop. Hopefully another search will turn it up.  It's depressing to think of things disappearing from my favorite yarn shop.

 

Still working on additional class samples - spike stitch scarf, adult sized 2-Hour Hat, and Tunisian honeycomb cowl - and hoping to have them completed before the holiday weekend is done. Happy New Year - and Happy Hooking!   

Nothing Better

There's nothing better than happy, healthy kids.

Early Christmas

Now that the kids are grown and we have an assortment of half's and steps, in-laws and out-laws, it's hard to find a time when everyone can get together to celebrate on Christmas Day. To make it even more challenging, we wanted to spend some time on Christmas with hubby's house-bound mom, who lives over an hour away.

So, we tried something new this year - holding our celebration on Christmas Eve. We took the little girls out to watch Santa fly over (love helicopter Santa!), 

drove though some of the more brightly decorated neighborhoods to admire the lights, then came home to find that Santa had already stopped at our house!

We told the kids that we must have been first on his list of stops this year and that's why they were getting presents early. 
I don't know if they believed that story or not, but they really didn't care; presents are presents and early presents are the best.
The kids will find that Santa visits them at their homes tomorrow morning too, but we had a lot of fun putting together our early holiday. Hubby bought a gently used playhouse that now resides in our pool-table room for all the girls to enjoy. 

Leanne got a new car seat, because at 10 months, she's already outgrown the one that was supposed to last her until 18 months (she looks so small in it!) 

We had pizza and goodies and lots of kisses. 

All in all, a very successful early Christmas.

You Know It's Christmas When . . .

You know it's Christmas when the baking pans come out at my house. Naia and I headed out about noon to get the few items I missed on my late night run to Target last night. Then we cleared the decks counters, and got started. 

First up - because I got to choose - were my favorite brownies. 
I got the recipe from a co-worker, Old John, well over 20 years ago (back when I was still a dispatcher) and I've never found one that's better.  

Then it was on to Naia's favorite, Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Naia did most of the measuring and mixing on these, with just occasional help from me. 
We added the cinnamon glaze at the end, while the cookies were still warm from the oven. I think that's going to be standard from now on. Yummm!  
 
We tried to clean up as we went. Fortunately, Naia's favorite part of cooking is playing in the bubbles washing the dishes 
so she handled that while I transferred cookie pans in and out of the oven.

A break for dinner, then we made a batch of snickerdoodles - PopPop's favorite cookie - 

and last but not least, the first of many batches of zucchini bread. Naia peeled and grated the zucchini all by herself for the first time - she was shocked that there was actual zucchini in zucchini bread - then did the mixing and measuring too.

I think she may have a talent for this baking thing. 

P.S. Don't tell my kids, but all the cookies we baked tonight? I hid them in the freezer. Only way I stand a chance of having any when Christmas actually gets here.