Dec 7, 2012

Reagan's dress

I made a dress for one of my grand daughters.
I chose this Pink Fig pattern.


Reagan just turned 2, and I made the dress a size 3T.
I'm afraid it is going to swallow her up! I will probably have to take the band off the hem and resew it on.....I hate having to redo things like that :(


I was looking for a white shirt to put under the jumper.  I think I hit the jackpot with the aqua one.  I embellished the sleeve with a small yoyo and button.




I added a red crocheted flower to the bodice.  I like the ruffled lace.


I bought some red sparkly shoes and little red heart tights to match.


i can hardly wait to see what Reagan looks like in the little outfit I made for her ♥


Here is cute little Reagan in her new dress.  It is a little big, but she will grow into it :)



post signature

Dec 5, 2012

Chalkboard Gifts

I ordered these wooden plaques from "Pick Your Plum".  
They were engraved with the names of all of my grandchildren, except for Benjamin who was born after I ordered the plaques.  Benjamin would be too young to play with them anyway....
I sprayed the first set with black chalkboard paint.
It dries really fast.
I used paint markers to highlight their names.


I sprayed the second set with green chalkboard paint.


The names looks so much prettier after they are embellished.


Before you write or draw with chalk on the boards, you have to shade the whole surface with chalk and then wipe it off with a dry cloth. This enables the chalk to adhere to the surface better.


I made a set of chalk holders for each grandchild.


Don't they look pretty all packaged up with a mentos treat?


I'm hoping they will be a big hit!

post signature

Dec 3, 2012

Mandarin Oranges and Pomegranates and grandchildren

While our family was visiting, we went to a mandarin "satsuma" orange grove.




I had never seen mandarin orange trees until I moved to California.




We took some photos while we were in the orange grove.  Notice how Kennedy has her leg lifted?  That means she is very happy!  Whenever she gives her family a kiss, her leg goes up....lol!!!



Kennedy loves to pose for photos, she wants her arms around Bridger and Charlotte, but Charlotte is not cooperating and Bridger is trying to talk Charlotte into keeping still!  A rare occurence.....that little 2 year old is always on the go!


Charlotte won't cooperate, but Bridger will!  Bridger is such a good sport with his sisters. By the way, that is Bridger's "smile" for the camera.  He isn't being impatient or anything, I think that he thinks that he is smiling naturally for the camera :)




Kennedy adores her big brother, he still has that fake smile!




Finally, a natural smile from Bridger :)




There were even some pomegranate bushes!  I have never seen one before!  Most of the pomegranates were cracked like this but we were told that they were still perfectly fine to eat.




The lady who worked at the grove told us to immerse the pomegranate in cold water and scoop out the seeds.  The juice won't stain your skin and the seeds float to the stop.  Good to know!


























We have been eating a lot of mandarin oranges, they are sweet and juicy.

post signature

Nov 30, 2012

Paperdoll Finishing Kit

Every Friday for the past few months, I have been blogging about my paperdoll quilt.  I have finished appliqueing and embroidering all of the blocks.  Now it is time to put the quilt together.




This is the basket I have been keeping my goodies in for a couple of years now.  
The stars and dots fabric is the border and the gingham is the binding.  The little white pom poms are sewn next to the binding.


This is the fabric that will be on the back of the quilt.
Really vintage, it looks like Betsy McCall!
 Does anyone remember her?


This colorful jellyroll will be used to sew the sashing.


Look at the sashing!!! It's tons of little squares!
I can hardly wait to start working on it.


Unfortunately I won't be able to begin putting the quilt together until the new year.  The Christmas season is always so busy, a fun busy!  I will continue this paperdoll adventure on the first Friday of 2013. 

post signature 

Nov 28, 2012

My Wedding Dress

Kennedy is such a sweetheart.  She is my 5 year old grand daughter, and Kennedy was my maiden name :)  Kennedy Grace (Grace was her great great great maternal grandmother's name) loves trying on my wedding dress, it makes her feel like a princess.




Wouldn't you have wanted to try on your grandmother's dress when you were a little girl?
Isn't Kennedy precious?
She asked me in a quiet, shy voice, "Grammy, do you still have your wedding dress?  Can I try it on?"




This is what I looked like in the dress 32 years ago!
Both the dress and my husband's tuxedo were featured on the cover of a bridal magazine in 1980.  Yes, the hat with the veil was in style back then.  Ha ha!!!


post signature

Nov 26, 2012

I Am Thankful

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving, I thought I would share....My daughter Lindsay and her husband Jeremy and their three sweet little children (our grandchildren) spent a week with us over the Thanksgiving holidays.
We went to a mandarin orange grove and tasted orange treats.
We played at the playground multiple times, playing tag and chasing and laughing!
We watched "Rise of the Guardians" and munched on popcorn.
We visited Grandpa's office and got treats from his assistant.
We had a tour of the local fire station, where Bridger and Kennedy dressed up in miniature fire suits!
We had pizza at our favorite pizza joint.
We played Dominoes and nibbled on treats.
We played hide and go seek in the house at night, with all the lights off.......
We made some crafts, visited, played, ate and laughed some more.


Kennedy loves playing with the Barbies I had when I was a little girl.  I have a big box of them along with lots of clothes, some of them were made by my mother.
There was some silky green moss growing under the fir trees in the backyard.  Kennedy thought that some fairies might live there so she built them a home.  I gave her an old shoe box and with the help of her mother, she cut a door and arranged some pretty red, orange and gold leaves along with some berries and little stones.  The next morning, there was shimmer in the box and she knew that the fairies had been there!


Lindsay and Kennedy found the fairy glitter.  It really does look like a magical fairy forest.


Bridger can hardly wait to play with Jordan, Addison and Sean's Lego.  He is constantly building things, Lego is his favorite toy.  For the Reflections contest at school, he reenacted a construction worker throwing him a tootsie roll from his backhoe, out of Lego!  He won first place and will be going on to the state competition.
Since Bridger is old enough to read chapter books, I introduced him to Tintin books, another childhood memory of mine.


Charlotte loves her panda pillow that she has taken all the stuffing out of.  She also loves her pink Ruff, a pink stuffed dog.  When she is around them, she can't do anything else but suck her thumb.
Charlotte is so busy!  Busy finding the gum in my sewing room desk drawer, busy finding treats in the pantry, busy trying to sneak Mom's iphone away from her, busy unrolling all of the toilet paper in the bathroom, busy taunting her older brother and sister,  busy keeping us laughing all the time!


This is our Thanksgiving feast.


Green beans with toasted almonds, homemade cranberry sauce with some orange zest, and the turkey of course!


Ruth Chris sweet potato recipe (it is dessert!!!), stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.


We served almost everything that is pictured in my Thanksgiving Dinner Quilt.  It hung right beside us as we ate.  I don't have a Christmas quilt yet, so I keep the Thanksgiving one up through the Christmas holidays.


I can't forget the mushroom turnovers, it has become a family tradition.  I got the recipe from a Good Housekeeping magazine in the early 80's.  Jeremy said that when he and Lindsay were spending their first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, that Lindsay told him they had to have mushroom turnovers.  He thought that was a strange request until he tried them and then he understood!


I wrote the recipe on the Thanksgiving Dinner quilt.


Here we are at our Thanksgiving table with so much to be thankful for.  We gave thanks for the rest of our family who was not with us, and especially for our son Sean who is serving a two year mission in  Porto Alegre South, Brazil.  


post signature

Nov 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
I am thankful that I have talents to share with you.
I am thankful that I have made so many friends through this blog.
I am thankful for you :)


post signature