Isn't He Lovely?

Our beautiful new grandson arrived this week.  He is just precious!  It never ceases to amaze me how instantly your heart knits to a newborn.  The whole perspective of life is changed instantly when you first lay eyes on them, and you are never the same again.  Your heart just expands filled anew with joy, hope, and love all in the space of a single moment.  

Excuse me, but I'm a gushing grandmother, and no matter how many grandchildren I have each one will always be special with a place all it's own in my heart.  Each time it is like it's the very first one, exciting and new all over again.  It never gets old or loses its wonder. I am so blessed!

More Baby Fun

We had so much fun planning a shower for my beautiful daughter-in-law.  My daughter and I have talked about little else in the past few weeks.  My daughter really wanted to make everything perfect.  She had the greatest ideas, and couldn't wait to get started on them. However, the week of the shower my daughter got very sick.  After she spent the day in the hospital and the next three heavily medicated, we had to let some of our plans go.  We moved the shower from her house to my mom's.  Even though we didn't get to do all of the things we planned to it turned out really sweet.  Now we are just waiting for the sweet baby's arrival.

My lovely daughter-in-law

We made a clothesline and hung several of the outfits I saved from when my son was a baby.

I took a tree branch and hung baby socks, pacifiers, clear balls with colored water, smaller ones with blue candies, and trimmed it with blue Christmas lights, (they didn't show up well in the pictures,) and little baby party favors.  It made a great center piece.

Just some of the party food, the adorable cake, made by my daughter, who by the way is also beautiful, turned over on the way to the shower, but she worked her magic on it and look, no one could even tell!  

We used vintage planters to hold flowers and candles through out the kitchen and living room.
The mom to be had a lot of help opening her gifts, at times they even got ahead of her.
The grandkids all had a blast, they thought the party was all about them, and of course we didn't tell them otherwise.


My mom with her two great grandsons, now we are preparing for her third.

Memories

There are sights and smells that instantly take us back to another time.  I went to one of those places Sunday afternoon.  It is the place my husband and I lived when we were first married thirty years ago.  Just driving on that property opens the floodgate on my memory.  It is a beautiful piece of land, and whenever I go there I want to move back.

Lucy Don't Look!

Spoiler Alert:  Lucy Don't Look!  And don't get excited it isn't that great. (sorry)

I'm going to try to put the picture at the end of the post so Lucy won't see this before it arrives at her house if she peeks in here.  I tried really hard on this little valentine, but it just didn't work like I'd hoped.  

Of course, my machine being on the fritz made it difficult to correct the mistakes I'd made.  I would have taken it apart and started over or something, but that just wasn't an option.  I also wanted to make more, but, again, my machine......

I have a friend who gave me a machine she had, and I am so thankful.  She wasn't sure if it worked or not, but when I picked it up we turned it on and it ran, more than can be said for mine at the time.  

I took mine to one shop and the guy there said he couldn't fix it.  I did not think to ask him if he meant he couldn't fix it or it simply couldn't be fixed.  So I decided to take it somewhere else.  They haven't call yet, so the jury is still out.

Anyway, here is the valentine I made for Lucy from a tutorial on Sew Momma Sew's site.Dicad

aada-01

Celebrating Life

Today my daughter-in-law's church gave her a beautiful baby shower.  The food was delicious, the people warm and friendly, and the gifts were great!  We all had a wonderful time.  

The kids really enjoyed helping open the gifts.

They also really enjoyed the cake!

And this little guy can't wait to get a cousin his age.

Georgia Grace $50 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Georgia Grace $50 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Silver Linings?

It's been one of those weeks, well actually longer than a week.  Everything is falling apart.  First, our renters moved out without notice leaving a rather large hole in our income.   We went out to the farm to see how many things needed repairing, and were a little overwhelmed.  After several months of continuing to find things and dwindling out savings we finally thought we were almost through, not so.  Today we found out that the inside and outside heat pump needs to be replaced, another MAJOR expense.  To top it all off my old faithful sewing machine of twenty-five years died in the middle of a project.  When it rains it pours!

Now for the good news.  We are alive, full and dry.  We have a job, a home and a wonderful family.  Although our savings is depleted, we hopefully will get a tax return to help pay for the new units.  This is just another exercise in faith, and God is faithful.

Another Fun Farm Day

After much rain lately, 

it was a amazingly pretty day today.

When any of the grandkids come over they always want to go down to the farm, and since it was such a great day we headed out.  We always try to take carrots or apples to feed the horses, so they are always happy to see us.  The cows think we have food, but I'm afraid we disappointed them today.  

The hay bales are sometimes as much fun as the playground, and the pond is great for rock skipping, too bad our rocks aren't smooth enough for that, but that doesn't stop us from trying.

Sewing and Bargins

This is the diaper bag I made for my daughter- in- law.  I have plans to make her a matching sling.  She chose the fabric and I think it turned out nicely.  

This is the third bag I've made by this pattern and the only hard part is getting the bottom exactly right at the corners.  I use very thick interfacing to make it more sturdy which makes getting all of the layers together at the corners and smooth very difficult.  

I found some bargains on a recent trip to visit friends.  When we go to visit these friends one of the highlights for me is a side trip to a little store called Dirt Cheap.  You never know what you will find there.  This time I found bolts of jersey knit material for $2 a bolt.  Since my husband was with me I limited my purchases to only 5 bolts.  He had too many practical questions like "What are you going to do with all of this material?" and  "Have you ever used this type of material before?"  I can't wait to try it out.

The apron is one of three I found at a little thrift shop on the way home.  Cute, isn't it?

Amish

I've always been fascinated with the Amish lifestyle.  We took a vacation to Pennsylvania a few years ago and were able to see a little of their everyday life.  I found a really great site that Lovina Eicher, an  old order Amish lady, writes for her local Michigan paper.  The site carries her articles, and it really gives you a nice peek into a totally different culture.  There are also some really great recipes in her articles.  Check it out.