Poor neglected blog

I have been sewing! But these lovelies are what has distracted me from remembering to blog my creative projects this summer!

Grand kids over for summer play.

Vacation time!

Baby cuddles.  She has finally gotten used to Nana. :)

Summer is winding down so I should remember my little blog again!  Hee, hee.  

Quilty pics to come.  

Apple Cider

We have several apple trees and usually end up giving most of them away.  There are only so many apples two people can eat!    This year we bought an apple press and decided to make cider.  We had the grand kids over, the weather was perfect and boy was it fun!

First up - picking....  

....and carrying them back to Papa in the garage.

Even their dog, Rusty, got in on it....though he was more about fetching and eating!  :)

Back in the garage grinding and pressing.  We ended up with 8 gallons.  Hubs and I pressed another 4 gallons on a different day.

Sent several gallons home with the kids.   Reduced a half gallon down to 1/2 cup and made apple cider caramels with it - soooooo good!  And the rest went in the freezer. 

Oh and a week ago a mama black bear and two cubs came and ate all the apples that had fallen on the ground!  Got to actually watch them do it...such a treat.

Mothers Day Firsts

Jenny and her family came over for Mothers Day and we went to the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  A first time visit for me despite living nearby for 20 years!    Bloedel is a beautiful public garden with 150 acres of natural forests and landscaped gardens.  I loved it and can't wait to go back again.

This was the easiest way to get pics of my grand children -- when they weren't looking!   :)

Nana is enjoying the view from the estate home while Heidi is looking for something to climb on.

Another first that happened on Mothers Day was teaching Liam to sew.  He has wanted to make a quilt for a while and Sunday was the day to start.

I worked the foot pedal for a couple of rows but then he did it standing up.  It actually helped him slow down to work the pedal himself rather than telling me to go faster!  We will work on it again the next time they come over.

So much easier to teach my grandson than my own kids.  Why is that?   :)

Great day.

Gifting quilts

I'm down in Texas visiting my Dad and step Mom.  My most recent quilt project was a gift for my Dad.   He has Parkinson's and sits a lot these days........a comfy quilt was needed, don't ya think?   :)    I'm rarely able to get a pic of my quilts with their recipients....I'm so glad I was able to do so this time.  
I love you, Dad.

First Bike

Last weekend the grandsons were over for a visit.   It was Liam's 5th birthday!  Here he is on his birthday present.    After many times around and around the house.....and lots of tire marks inside........it was time to head to a park and use sidewalks.   Boy did watching Liam on his first bike ride bring back a multitude of memories....both of my kiddo's and their first bikes, as well as my own.   The only time I've broken a bone was falling off my first bike and breaking my wrist.   It never deterred me from riding.  I have always loved the feeling of freedom while riding....still do.    In fact, I'm looking forward to a bike ride with hubby in Maui on our upcoming vacation.  Woo hoo!  

This pic cracks me up!  It's David's boot after he was done playing in our creek!  Little guys simply don't stay upright when splashing and jumping in water.  He loved every minute of it!   

Christmas Joys

Jennifer told me I had to write a new blog post so that the skull on the beer bottle wouldn't show up when she went here....it was freaking her out.   :)    So here's a few pics from Christmas to share.  It was a great day!

Our crew...including the dogs.

Hubby with the special picture frame Liam made with the extra cute Christmas picture Jenn took of the boys.

Jennifer with the felted purse I made.  I blogged about those purses a while ago.  She loved this one so I added some buttons and made a little wallet (which I'll write about later...they were super easy) for her too.

Faith and Daniel enjoying present time.   I made the quilt on Faith's lap for her.  

This is my favorite picture of the holiday.  Liam is playing his new guitar and David is his lead singer...belting out some tune.  I'm thinking it's a rock-n-roll song since David looks angry.     :)

Bump on the road of Traditions

When hubby and I got married 29 years ago we wanted to establish some traditions for ourselves and future family. So when Christmas was approaching we decided on December 7th as the day we would ALWAYS put up the tree. Nothing special about the 7th other than since it was Pearl Harbor day we figured we wouldn't forget. And we never did forget. Hubby always took the day off from work when the kiddo's were little so the whole day could be devoted to tree getting and decorating. A great tradition that has held fast...........until this year. :)

The 7th was gonna be Yaya day. Which meant I would be unavailable and hubby would have the task alone....not so kindred. So since our grandson was coming over for some alone time on the 4th, we decided to do the tree early. Breaking a 29 year tradition was hard....but trimming a tree with a 4 year is much more fun than doing so alone.

Here is Liam being distracted by my Christmas Beanie Babies. He loves to play with my collection of Beanies and these are with the Christmas decorations so he didn't remember ever seeing them.

This is lunch break on day two of decorating and making gifts.

And this is Mr. not-so-helpful Finnian. Whose holiday tradition is to take off all the red bows from the tree. He has a thing for red......which you can read about here and here.

Ok...so I realize there is no picture of the tree after we were done. Silly me never took one and I already had pics uploaded for this post before I knew and I'm too lazy to start over! It's marvelous! What Christmas tree isn't?

Where did all the pictures go?

I just spent a long time going through photos in order to gather up past Thanksgiving photos. I thought it'd be a fun post to show past pics. I knew we were bad about picture taking but apparently its worse than I thought. I only found ONE photo from a past Thanksgiving. One! And that included my growing up years....my folks sucked at taking pics too! Sigh.

So here it is. The one photo I found. Its 1986 and we were at my brothers house. Dig that hair style of mine....why oh why? Jenn is 5 and Dan is 3.

And this year? Well, I managed a single photo. So that makes two in 29 years. I don't think I'm getting any better. :)

This year was the first time someone from hubby's side of the family was with us. His brother and sis-in-law are in the Seattle area for medical reasons and were able to come over. Coolio.
Nice day.....even if I don't have the pics to show it.

I am not a knitter

Nope...I wouldn't consider myself a knitter. I dabble in knitting but I am not a hard core knitter. I don't dream about yarns or projects to make like I do with quilting! But there is something about this time of year. The color and textures of fibers.....lovely. I'm safe if I stay out of yarn stores. Kinda like staying out of the bakery department when you're trying to lay off doughnuts! :)

Anyhoo. Last week I went with my daughter-in-law, Faith, on a fabric shopping expedition. She wants to learn to quilt and asked me to come along to help. Any good quiltaholic worth her salt would jump at the chance....so I jumped......and danced....and clapped! As it turned out my daughter, Jennifer, was also able to go with us. Extra fun. We went to the Kingston shop but nothing caught her eye there so we headed to Bainbridge.

First we had to fuel up at the Blackbird Bakery....home made soup and bread....so nummy.

Here is Faith with her new lovelies. Gonna be a beautiful quilt.

What does this have to do with knitting, you ask? Well......just across the street from where the fabric lives is a very scrumptious yarn store. Bad move. See some of the lovelies that live here?

My eye caught a pattern for a cowl made with silk yarn blends....oh man, its so soft. And this non-knitter could actually do it cuz it was a super easy pattern. So I bought the stuff. Not too bad. But then I went back. And I saw a pattern for the cutest ruffly scarf....so feminine.....easy enough pattern. So I bought the stuff. And then I eyed come cute variegated yarn for a child's hat....a pattern I already conquered. So I bought the stuff. Whatever! I really need to stay away....I have ZERO self control.

And just cuz.....here are some pics of a few other things I love excessively!

We bought swords for the grandsons and Liam insisted he needed a helmet. Hubby made a couple of paper hats to be helmets.

The wild grandson, who as you can see, gets into everything! Literally! :)

Life is full.

A New Passion

~ Passion requires focused direction, and that direction must come from three other areas: your purpose, your talents, and your needs. ~

Our son has a new passion.....it's Mixed martial arts fighting. Ya know, that fighting where pretty much everything goes? The fighting that makes a Moms heart skip a beat! He loves to tell us all about his training.....how he passed out cuz he didn't tap out in time.....oy vey! I do have to say that while it's a bit hard to hear stories and see bruises, I do *love* seeing him excited!

He hasn't had a fight yet but he did have a submission wrestling match. I couldn't bring myself to go watch (not ready yet....but some day) so I grabbed some photo's from the match he won to show ya.

That's what I get for putting him in Tae Kwondo! LOL! You go, Dan! I love ya.

Apple Fun

We have 6 apple trees and this year the apples are abundant. I don't make jelly or sauce or bake pies so there are lots of apples for giving away....no way eating an apple or two a day would ever come close to using them all up! :)
The grand kids were over last weekend and they love going out to pick apples. I think they'd eat them all day long if we let them.

Here they are enjoying the treat of fresh picked apples:

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

"A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend." ~Author Unknown

Today is our daughters birthday. Our first born. The one who as she ages makes me feel old!

As I searched for photos to use in this blog I discovered that I rarely, if ever, took a picture of her alone on her birthday. I got shots of the cake and shots of presents and shots of friends but rarely just her. Oh well. Here's a small trip down birthday memory lane.

This was the day she turned one. The dress she is wearing was crocheted by my Grandma Dickerson. But the best part of this photo to me is how young my hubby looks. Good golly he looks like a child....no wonder the "older" folk thought we were too young! LOL!

I love you sweety.

Fall Fun

I love fall! The leaves haven't fallen much yet but its the thing I remember most about fall. As a kid I used to make forts with my friends at school with the leaves on the playground. Also it was fun to try to burn them with a magnifying glass.....safely, of course.

Jennifer and Daniel liked their leaf playing too......as you can see in the picture above.

Nowadays what I see in the yard full of leaves is WORK. Our big leaf maple puts down a ton and it takes quite a while for hubby and I to rake them all. Isn't it funny how many childhood things we loved are work for us now as adults? :)

Mary in a bathtub

“M in a B” - that’s what it’s known as to our family.

Years ago when we traveled to upstate New York to take our kids to the family camp for the first time, they encountered their first sight of shrines to Mary in people’s front yards. There were several on our drive. Some elaborate, some plain and simple. But our favorites were when Mary was in a bathtub! Folks would take a cast iron tub, bury it part way and place Mary inside. Clever.

After seeing the first one the kids and hubby stayed busy looking for more. It was fun and not something they had seen here in WA. I have fond memories of seeing the shrines as a child growing up back East.

We returned to NY two more times in the following years and found that many of the Mary’s were gone and only a couple of “M in a B’s” were left. So disappointing. Then two summers ago, when hubby and I went to NY (no kids) we saw only one shrine and only one “M in a B”…..the one in Owls Head that has been there each and every time but is now in dire need of a makeover!

These Mary's have a following besides our family! :) Check out this blog: "Bathtub Mary" or read more on Wikipedia. You can google "bathtub Mary" images and see all kinds.

Wedding Bells

You know the old saying, "A daughter's a daughter all of her life, a son's a son until he takes him a wife"? It's one I believe is true most of the time. I used to hope (and even pray on occasion) that Dan would marry an orphan so she'd not have a family to pull him away to! ;) As it turns out, I needn't have worried. Yesterday our son got married and we have not lost a son but gained another daughter.....and no, she's not an orphan! :)

Here's Hubby with Dan on his cell wondering where the bride was and what was holding things up. He was anxious to get things moving!

Me with the groom.

The beautiful bride, Faith, walking down to the gazebo with her dear friend Colette. You can see the smile on her face as she spots her man.

Dan wanted a private ceremony....he would have preferred no one be there but we managed to shame him into a couple of people. Poor boy gets nervous having to speak in front of anyone! Sigh.

Here are the happy couple listening to Joe....right before the vows.

Faith is getting ready to put Dan's ring on. The picture of Dan putting her ring on didn't turn out very well.

I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Jandt.

Love this shot of them. So sweet.

Happy day!

P.S. You can read a funny blog here by a very determined best friend who decided she wasn't gonna miss this event even if Dan wanted it private!

Happy 26th!

Happy Birthday, Dan. You bring pride, delight and laughter to this Mom's heart. Love ya!