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H/t GP for platter pic.
Category Archives: Family & Friends
Another thank you
Some of the loverly behind-the-scenes folks here in the PoliNation garden chipped in to get me a “thank you for blogging” present, some beautiful fabric that I actually tolerate to make myself a much-needed dress. I have a hard time sewing for myself, so I made “scrap” dresses to get the pattern worked out. I ended up with some much needed nighties from the not-quite-right efforts LOL and a couple not-too-bad every-day dresses. Finally, I had the courage to cut into the beautiful fabric and I made this!
Corporal K was able to fly through town recently, on the way to and from a doctor’s appointment. Actually, we are an hour beyond the doctor, but they’re too poor to afford gas to come for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, so she got up at the crack and drove straight through to our house, we had a speed date style visit … talk as fast and possible, watching the clock, then shoo her out the door so she made it to the doctor on time.
The reason I mention this is that I finished my Beautiful Dress JUST in time for her arrival and the first thing she said on clapping eyes on me was, “Ohhh, you look so pretty in that!!!” 🙂
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Bragging on me!
I just completed my latest baby floor play pad. It will be winging its way to a certain pregnant cousin in Idaho soon. 🙂
I had SO much fun quilting this! I played with squares, rectangles, triangles, curves and changing thread colors.
Click on graphics to embiggen.
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Goodbye to summer
My husband and I built our house in 1985, the year our son was born. Because we were so poor, we built as little as we thought we could get by with, the idea being that we could always add onto it later. We built a super-simple, no-frills house with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a laundry room, and a living room.
Over the years, we gradually added four more bedrooms (the original two bedrooms were turned into a home office and a music room), another bathroom, a workshop, a garage, and — the best part — a screen porch, which is something I’d wanted forever. The cats, as you can see from the pictures below, think we built it entirely for their amusement.
The problem, we quickly discovered, was that our cats would sit on the catwalk inside the porch, and our neighbor’s cat — who was home alone all day and apparently got kind of lonely — would come over to our house and try desperately to get into our porch. He would jump up and hurl himself at the screens, tearing holes in them with his claws. I got the bright idea that if we put window boxes on all the windows, they would work as cat deflectors, and keep him from inflicting any further damage on the screens.
So our son built eight window boxes, one for each window, and attached them to the outside of the porch. I’ve grown lots of different things in them over the years, but this summer I decided to go with just marigolds. They are easy to grow, hard to kill, thrive on neglect, and bloom enthusiastically from early summer until autumn’s first frost. Now that the weather has turned cold, their days are numbered, so I had my daughter go out and take some pictures of them while they were still blooming cheerfully.
Filed under Family & Friends, How Does Your Garden Grow?
November 6th, 2012
Mama Buzz took this … it speaks to me of November 6th.
Filed under Family & Friends
When I care enough to send the very best
Hallmark hasn’t gotten any business from me in many years — not because I’m boycotting them or anything, but because I have no need for what they sell. That’s because my youngest daughter makes all my cards for me. She’s been doing this since she was just a little sprout (she’s now 17).
When my husband and I recently celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary, our daughter made a card for him to give me, and one for me to give him. Here’s his:
And here’s mine:
And here’s the card she made for my birthday:
(check out the label on the bottle — “Blue Bird Bitter”)
When she’s not drawing, or singing, or playing the piano, or reading, or knitting, or climbing trees, or riding her bike, she loves to act. Recently she played the part of Beatrice in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado about Nothing,” part of the local theater guild’s Shakespeare in the Park series. Here’s a picture of her tormenting her love interest, Benedick — something Beatrice spends most of the play doing, before finally giving in and marrying him in the end:
Later this month she’ll be performing in a program her voice teacher puts on every summer, called “A Little Bit of Broadway.” The students perform songs from Broadway shows, in costume and in character. My daughter will be singing “I’m Not That Girl” from Wicked. I haven’t asked her yet how she plans to color her skin green for the performance — I’m not sure I want to know.
Never a dull moment!
Filed under Family & Friends
Fabric baby ball UPDATED
I made a fabric ball with this pattern (URL below) for the Buzzers. It has been a huge hit. Daddy Buzz especially enjoys it! LOL There have been some none-too-subtle hints from Mama Buzz and her sisters that Grammy Hyphen better produce balls for the Buzz Cousins. I just finished one for the Monkeys and had so much fun, I had to share.
The Corporals K and YoYo (aka, The Marines) are next on the Tuit list. They’re both artists. I’m thinking maybe it would be fun to pull out all my quilt fabric scraps and cut a LOT of sections and circles, then mail them so they can design their own ball. I’ll sew it.
K sews … all my girls do, it was one of Mom’s Non-Negotiable Summer Skill Acquisition Projects. And don’t you think for a single minute that I haven’t savored every minute of them buying their own machines and thanking me for making them learn! LOL The GRIPING I endured that summer!
But K’s working 12 hour days at her summer job, which will overlap with returning to college in the fall. I think she and YoYo will get a kick out of playing with the fabrics, shuffling colors around and sending them back for me to do the assembly. And I’ll end up with a LOT of left-over sections and circles ready to sew for the next baby shower that comes along. 🙂
Sources:
http://sewing.about.com/od/babyshowergiftsewing/ss/babyball.htm
http://sewing.about.com/od/embellishment/ss/basicyoyo.htm
UPDATE: I’m having fun!
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This is so weird!
Mama Buzz collects miniature snow globes. On one of her visits to our nation’s capital, she bought a pretty one with the Capitol Building and the Washington monument inside and the Great Seal of the United States on the base.
Recently, she told me something very odd had happened to it. I asked for a photo so I could share. Keep in mind … this was NICE when she bought it, with clear water and a straight sculpture inside. She has a whole bunch of these things. Nothing like this has ever happened to the others.
I think it’s encouraging that the base … the foundation and Seal … are still bright and straight and sturdy. It’s only inside Washington where it’s polluted and cock-eyed. And isn’t it interesting that the reason it’s cock-eyed is that the LEFT side has somehow risen too high?!
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Packing is such a bore!
The Buzzers are moving to a new base soon, so that means Army Wife Extraordinaire (aka, Mama Buzz) has to PACK. Brrr. They are HUGE fans of LEGO and often get sets for each other for holidays. Since they’ve been in this house for 3 years, that means a lot of LEGO creations that have stayed out on display. She got a tad distracted yesterday while packing it up. LOL
I spotted one of Hagrid’s jack-o-lanterns (his hut came with some pumpkins
b/c he has a patch and one side has a carved face!) and made a quick headless
horseman with Voldemort’s body and one of our many skeleton horses (Castle
series…they’re a great blend with our Harry Potter stuff!)
This is only ONE of the dozen or so pictures she sent! LOL I even got a video of one of the Castle action sets in action. I dunno what it’s called, but it wheels around and shoots spears. Very cool. One time when she visited, she brought along the entire Harry Potter castle! I got to play with it until they left. They even have the Knight Bus! With three levels and beds that slide! 🙂
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Queen Anne’s Lace
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has washed her lace
(She chose a summer’s day)
And hung it in a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night;
Then waked, to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.
Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer’s day),
But left her lace to whiten in
Each weed-entangled way!
(Mary Leslie Newton )
Mama Buzz snapped and emailed this to me while she was out with the kids yesterday. The text said, “PINK Queen Anne’s Lace?”
I was curious and found the COOLEST web page about Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), aka, Wild Carrot, Bird’s Nest Weed.
It seems the young blooms are pink. I never noticed that. As they mature, they turn white, with a little purple one right in the middle!
The micro-photography at this site is splendid. I highly recommend a visit.
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