We've Been A Little Busy Over Here....

Yes, we have. There has been a whole lot of this going on:



That's Little Pearl on the left above, and Little Ruby on the right. Such hair! These little babies are fattening right up. They've just been fed and are totally konked out and relaxed in Pa's arms.

They've reached their first milestone--they lost their umbilical cords and have shiny new bellybuttons! Nothing is cuter than a brand new bellybutton, I'm here to tell you. And these are very cooperative babies; they'll let you rock them whether they are asleep or awake. Which is a good thing, since they mostly sleep.

Another reason I've been MIA is due to a truly lousy internet connection. But that will be remedied very, very soon. A new setup will be installed shortly, because it takes FOREVER to upload pictures. I guess that's what you get when you run two desktops, three laptops, two X-boxes, and a Wi on one service. It's a wonder anyone around here ever gets any work done, isn't it? But with a house full of people and many, many Random Teenagers hanging out at our house we need all the internet (and gaming power) we can get.

I've partially succumbed to a serious case of Spring Fever, too. In my case this involves grandiose plans of flower beds, potted plants, manicured lawns, and climbing roses. This happens to me every year, although I must say I escaped it last year. That was the Spring of the Tornado, when the entire yard and house was just awful. The front yard is still unsightly, but hopefully that project will be started in the summer. In the meantime, I'm working on the back patio area and the back flowerbeds, because that's where we'll spend the most time until the heat drives us indoors. I'm good outside until it hits 90 degrees, then it's every flower for himself.

This year I'm using a different approach to the gardening thing. I'm cleaning out flower beds and pulling weeds and getting my containers ready FIRST. Then I'm going shopping and put it all in the ground or pot.

Yesterday the Old Man and I celebrated out 34th wedding anniversary. The children gave us a little party (excellent food was involved) and nice gift certificates to an area restaurant. Such smart children. They want their daddy to be able to eat something he didn't have to cook himself. We spent the day working on the patio and the flower beds. The weather was perfect and it was really nice to spend time by ourselves, planning and working together. And that's what marriage is all about, isn't it? Spending time together, planning for the future, and realizing how fortunate you really are.

On the sewing front, no sewing has occurred, but a lot of sewing is about to occur. I've been shopping for sewing stuff, since that's what we do when we can't actually sew, isn't it? I've subscribed to Patrones (more on that later), bought fabrics to redecorate my bedroom, and bought a new sewing machine to boot!

Sorry for the long post, but I had a lot of ground to cover. Which reminds me, I need some vinca or pachysandra or ivy or wandering jew.....

Whew!

Wow. I can't believe it's come and gone already.

The Food:

(Yes, I cooked for TWO days, although I have to admit that Number One son hung in there with me through the mixing, cooking, and washing up)

Roast Turkey

Smoked Ham

Cornbread Dressing with Giblet Gravy

Baby Carrots

Collard Greens

Pear Salad with Maraschino Cherries

Brown Rice with Mushrooms

Broccoli with Cheese Casserole

Fordhook Lima Beans

Macaroni and Cheese

Pasta Salad

Green Beans

Black Eyed Peas

Deviled Eggs

Chocolate Delight

Cranberry Sauce

Baked Creamed Corn

Tropical Fruit Salad

Hot Buttered Rolls

Stuff Other People Made That We Ate All Gone-Gone:

Fudge Brownies

Cookies Galore

Red Velvet Cake

Italian Creme Cake

Chocolate Layer Cake

Pecan Pie

Sweet Potato Casserole

We ate, and ate, and ate some more. Then after we recuperated for a while, we gathered up the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren in attendance and forced them, once again, to sit on the stairs for the Annual Christmas Staircase Photo Opportunity:

By looking at this photo, I can tell you that when we started this annual picture, eight of those people weren't even born. Time flies, I tell ya.

And once in a while you get lucky. You have a camera in hand, turned on, with a memory card and a nice strong battery, when a precious little child plants a kiss on your Christmas tree:

I hope you were that lucky.

The Elves Have Been Busy.....

The Christmas Elves have been extremely busy around here. Busy, yes, but also a bit inattentive when it comes to HIDING things......


Oh, look! Where did THIS come from?????






Let's see....if I hold my mouth just right, maybe I can work this door thingee......







Don't I look MARVELOUS in this little pink car??

Oh well. Maybe she'll drive the thing in the living room and park it under the tree.

I wish such delight and smiles for you and your little ones this Christmas.

Getting Closer and Closer

What a week! This was our week of semester exams at school, and school is officially over until January. I do have to go in for a teacher workday on Monday, but after that, Christmas is ON! I still have a little shopping to do, but not much. And I haven't wrapped a single present yet.

We are almost finished with decorating the house. Here is a close up of the beaded fruit decorations on the Hall Tree that I posted a few days ago:




I just love the grapes and pomegranates.

The next photo is of the Kitchen Tree. The quilt hanging on the wall was a gift from my mother about 15 years ago. It makes an appearance every year. The little reindeer plates in the plate rack were a gift from my niece.




I love this tree! Look how we decorate it every year:







It is draped with wooden cranberry beads, laced with ribbon, and hung with toy food and cookware from a children's cooking set. We hot-glued the ornament hangers directly to the back of the toys. This is the seventh or eighth year we've had this tree and the children (and me!) love it.



I have something to run through the pleater, fifty loads of laundry, and a special shopping trip to do today. I'm hoping, really hoping, to get in some sewing time before midnight.



Enjoy your day.

A Special Day

Today, far north of here, my oldest brother is celebrating his 57th birthday. If I know him, a very large steak and some excellent ice cream will be part of his celebration. Jalapeno peppers will also be involved.

Our parents married at the end of World War II, and after several years of marriage they found out they were expecting a baby. Today is his birthday.

To celebrate the upcoming event, our daddy went out and bought this for our mama:

A Singer sewing machine. He bought it so she could make baby clothes and blankets, not only for that little baby, but for the other three that would quickly follow within five years. There was only one hitch to his plan. Mama didn't know how to sew.

That didn't daunt Daddy one little bit. As one of ten children raised on a farm, he had one sister and eight brothers. In the rural backwoods where they were all born and raised, everyone had to pitch in, whether it was farm work or house work. So his mother taught every single one of her children how to sew. Yep, all nine boys sewed, as well as the only sister.

So Daddy taught Mama how to sew. She never had a sewing class in school, and her mother and sisters didn't sew. He taught her how to lay out patterns on the grainline, put in zippers, hand stitch hems, make buttonholes, and put in sleeves. He must have been an excellent teacher, because she took right to it and never looked back. As children we all remember her sitting at that sewing machine, winding bobbins, dropping pins, and figuring out new things.

I remember standing right beside her the night she was making my sister a dress and sewed right through the fingernail on her hand. She very calmly unscrewed the needle and we all piled into the backseat of the car, headed to the emergency room. I can still see her driving along, changing the gears, with that one finger stuck up above the steering wheel. She was calm as a cucumber.

Later on she bought Barbie doll patterns for 25 cents apiece and taught my sister and me how to sew. We both learned on this old Singer.

When we were going through Mama's things, we took turns choosing what we would most like to have. I chose the sewing machine. I don't think the others were surprised one little bit at my choice.

Once I got it home, I was amazed to see that the instruction manual was still in the little tilt-out drawer. Here it is, copyrighted in 1947:

And from this view of a couple of the inner pages, you can tell we liked to color while she sewed:

It's really odd how life works out. Last year when we redecorated the downstairs family room, we never did find the perfect little chair to put next to the fireplace. This old sewing machine, in its battle-scarred cabinet, now sits in that spot. I think it was meant to be. When I look at it, I think of Mama and how she loved that old sewing machine. She loved to tell the story about how Daddy surprised her with it when she was pregnant, and then taught her to sew.

She moved many, many times during her marriage, and of all her possessions there were only six things that she took with her on each move. Her four children, the pearls Daddy gave her on their wedding day, and this old sewing machine.

To her, this old sewing machine represented the happiest period in her life.

Happy Birthday, big brother. Mama adored you, and so do I.

Sewing? no. Decorating? yes.

Still no sewing or smocking, but there's been a whole lotta decorating going on here. See?

This is the landing of the main staircase in our house. Here's a shot of the mid-landing about three-fourths of the way up, where the stairs turn:

Here's a close up of one of the newel posts on the mid-landing:

Draping and decorating this staircase takes a LOT of time....it took Number One son and me about five hours to do this today, which was actually pretty fast. We've been doing it for about 15 years, so it does get faster with time. The first time we did it, it took 3 days. Now we know how much drape it needs and how much STUFF you need to make it look good.

Although it would be much simpler and quicker, we don't do it the same way every year. We've had a variety of trims and ribbons and ornaments on it in the past, but this is the first time we've used the gold beads. This year it is made of up about 300 feet of garland, around 3000 little white lights, and about 75 yards of gold lame fabric.

We also put up another tree today (we're up to three already) and I just want one more.....the bird tree. I'll put up pictures of the other two trees tomorrow--it's hard to photograph trees at night.

And who knows? Maybe I'll smock something tomorrow....I have one to finish, one to cut out, and a little idea for a tiny little smocked something special. We'll see!

One Tree Up....

Long time no post. First a bit of a flu, then quite a bit of a stomach virus has kept me from doing pretty much anything fun. Throw in some Christmas shopping and work, and that's what I've been up to. So of course, I haven't done any smocking or sewing for more than a week.

But in between the flu and the stomach virus, we did manage to put up a tree or two. Here's one of them, the Hall Tree:

It's hard to photograph a Christmas tree. I finally climbed up on the staircase to get this picture.

This is our fruit tree. It's six feet tall and sits atop the sideboard in the front hallway. It is decorated with a zillion little lights and satin and beaded fruits--apples, pears, pomegranates, grapes, etc. We always enjoy this tree a lot, since we can see it from downstairs and upstairs. You have to walk past it to get upstairs, so the children and their friends enjoy it as much as we do.

I'm itching to smock and sew again, so I plan to get going with it again this weekend. But first, I'm going to a basketball game!

Have a nice afternoon!

If Only YOUR Sister Could Cook Like This...

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my sister's house again this year. She hosts the entire family (and whoever else might show up) out in the country at Thanksgiving every year. She puts out a spread to feed anywhere from 20 to 35 people every year, and she always has enough food for dinner AND supper. Just look at what we had to eat, yall:

The Feast

Deep Fried Turkey

Sugar Cured Ham

Chicken and Dumplings

Cornbread Dressing

Giblet Gravy

Home Grown Corn

Broccoli Casserole

Sweet Potato Souffle

Zipper Peas

Cranberry Sauce

Deviled Eggs

Glazed Fruit Salad

Baked Rolls

Pound Cake

Pecan Pie

Banana Pudding

...and I probably left something out. It is all homemade food, too, no cooking out of a can or box.

She cooks like this all the time. Her family lives on a farm and they tend to grow food there, so she tends to cook it, and then everybody tends to eat a lot of it. We eat so much that the grownups sprawl out wherever they can afterwards and nap while the Random Teenagers and Countless Cousins play football in the yard. People tend to hang around in her kitchen all the time.

She's one of the things in my life I'm thankful for.

You CAN Go Home Again

And I know, because that's where I spent my weekend. Back home.

Today marked the 150th anniversary of a little country church that my ancestors helped establish several generations ago. So this year the church Homecoming drew a huge crowd with lots of praise, singing, and of course, good old Southern cooking with plenty of sweet tea.

About 30 years ago I became interested in genealogy and spent lots of time with older relatives--talking with them, getting their stories, and hanging out in cemeteries. One day my daddy and his first cousin took me out into the cemetery at the church and after two hours they pointed out to me that I was related, by blood or marriage, to everyone buried there, with the exception of three people. A lot has changed since then, but I'd venture to guess that I am now related to all but thirty people in that cemetery. The blood runs long and strong back home.

We had a great time at my sister's house. Tons of food, college football, and family always make a nice combination. And this year we had a special treat--The Last Man Standing.

My uncle, 90 years old, came this year. He is the last surviving member of my daddy's family. He represents the last of a generation that was raised on a hard scrabble farm and went off to the war. There were ten of them, 9 boys and 1 girl. When we first started gathering at my sister's house 27 years ago the family arrived from several states, near and far. Some of them would fly in for the occasion, and one year we had about 70 family members there. The years have passed and so has a lot of the family, but the bonds we share are strong. We were delighted to see the uncle, still walking around under his own power, eating with his own teeth, telling jokes, and with a very sharp mind. He is the last real link we have to our own grandparents. Most of us, their grandchildren, are now grandparents ourselves. A few of us are great-grandparents. The circle of life continues forever, doesn't it?

Any road trip in the south offers opportunity not only to see the countryside and admire the farm crops, but to also receive religious and moral instruction. So I'm going to share with you some Sights From The South, because not everyone was blessed with being born and raised here.

Here's the first one:




And another:



Good advice, here:



I love this one:



This one is very original:




And this one leaves me wondering Just What In The World is going on in this congregation:



I'll be back to sewing soon. I plan to cut something out tonight.

I hope your weekend was as nice as mine.

A Truly Murderous Affair

Number One son recently had a birthday and was feted with food, drink, and murder at the hands of his friends and family. Yep, that's right, a murder was committed, and the Birthday Boy himself was the victim. How's that for a happy birthday?

Here's what we saw when we arrived at the scene of the crime:




The Pregnant One set up and planned the entire thing. It was a murder party kit, complete with characters, plots, clues, and costume suggestions. We had a blast. Here we all are:




One of those people is a murderer!

There's the Actress, the Class Flirt, the Valedictorian, the Head Cheerleader, the Tech Guy, the Class President, the Newspaper Editor, the Jock, the Big Man On Campus, the Hall Monitor, the Drum Major, the Pom Pom Captain, the Yearbook Editor, the Bad Boy, and the Math Whiz.....

And me? I won the Dressed To Kill award, in my role of Cindy Crawfish, the Class Flirt, of course!



Check out those fishnet hose, won't you?

No More Almonds

Oh, woe is me. What an awful last few days. Want to lose 5 lbs in 7 days? Chomp down on whole almonds like I did, and break a molar. Let the molar be one that has a $$$ porcelain crown on it, too. And let the break be in the dead center of the molar, so that the fracture goes straight down the middle of the tooth. And let your molar have the roots of Alex Haley. They will be so extensive, and so deep, and so embedded that when they come out, two of them will bring little pieces of your jawbone with them.

My dentist had that "look" on his face when he examined me. You know the one. That look that means "Gosh, I could write a Pain Filled Dentistry journal article on this one. Hmmm, has she signed a release form yet? Definitely gonna need a signature.....". That look also means "I'm not touching this one with a ten-foot pole. A highly sharpened dental tool, yes, but a ten-foot pole? No way." That look that also means "I'm sending her to one of the Ontist Guys." That look that is gonna cost you some big bucks.

So off I went to the Ontist Guy. He's nice enough, probably mid-fifties, looks like he should know what he's doing, so I'm all A-Okay. Until I see his forearms. This guy has the forearms of a gorilla. That's when I start to get a little panicky.

But I should have saved all that panic for when he actually started working on me. He pulled, he drilled, he pulled, he gave me umpteen shots, and finally he just started cutting on me. So he cuts enough to see that the problem is that the lovely roots are so near/into/whatever my jawbone that they don't want to come out. He warns me first, then uses his giant arm muscules and YANKS. I didn't know whether to pass out or wet my pants. So I did neither.

I leave with stitches, a swollen face and neck, and a prescription for Vicodin. I high-tail it home, hoping against hope that I can make it home and get my prescription filled before the pain shots wear off. Didn't happen. Since I had a 1 1/2 hour drive home, I was almost seeing double by the time I made it in the back door.

And the Vicodin? I took one and it didn't even PHASE the pain. I have an extremely high pain tolerance--I birthed three of these children with nothing at all (not by choice, mind you, it just happened that they wanted to be born RIGHT THEN!!). So I rarely take anything for pain. I don't know if the pain is beyond the level of the drug, or if this particular pain med just doesn't work with my body.

Before all this happened I did finish the sweater I was knitting. I ended up knitting three fronts, since the first two were both right fronts. So I raveled and reknit. I had planned on blocking the pieces over the weekend but that definitely didn't happen.

I had also started the little Noro sleeveless sweater and had taken pictures. But Blogger must have a mouthache, too, since I can't post any pictures.

I'm holding out hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

A Quilt! And A Luau!

I promised pictures of my quilt in progress, and here it is!

Meet Fruit Salad!

The blocks aren't sewn together yet--they are just straight pinned to the wall, so it looks a little weird right now. The colors I used were bubble gum pink, lime, orange, fushcia, hot pink, black, brown, yellow, dark pink, and anything else that got in the way while I was cutting up.

The actual colors are about ten times brighter than what this looks like on my monitor--hence the name. Here's a close up of the piecing on one block (I can't believe how dull this looks in a photo):

Check out this corner:

And how did I accomplish such great work? Well, here's the secret, on the backside of this square:

It's foundation piecing! I recently bought a great book by Karen K Stone, smack full of wonderful patterns and ideas for quilts. It has all the patterns you need for this kind of work!

In other news, a Random Teenager recently celebrated his 16th birthday. We threw him a surprise Luau Party:

Aren't these guys cute with their little leis?

Of course The Princess was in attendance. And look! She's wearing Jamaica!

The Duke of Cute was tearing into the cake, outfitted in his Hawaiian shirt:

Here we are with the Birthday Boy (yes, my skirt is falling off, I know):

Here he is again, with me and our two daughters (check out those cute outfits!):

And yes, I made him wear that shirt. And if that wasn't embarassing enough for a 16 year old....we then did a hula dance just for him!

One Year Ago Today.....

One year ago today, we were blessed with something truly wonderful--this little granddaughter:




It's my birthday!


Here's the Royal Party Throne, a concoction of pink velvet, ribbons, and yards of tulle:




And the Royal Confection, complete with tiara and scepter:



And beautiful flowers for the occasion, of course:





More than 30 folks, spanning four generations, showed up for the Royal Event, including an aunt (Miss America) and the Random Teenagers:



Our grandson, the Duke of Cute, was way too busy to have his picture taken:




But I finally managed to get those big blue eyes, anyway:



Here are the Royal Parents, the providers of many more future heirs, I hope--hint, hint:




Here's the Queen, our very own Miss Christmas, demonstrating the wearing of a tiara for The Princess:





She got the hang of it really quick, didn't she?





And last, but not least, the Great Grandmother, a natural born beauty and Real Live Bona Fide crowned Beauty Queen more than 60 years ago:



I'm posting to you live from Amelia Island, Florida this week. It's taken us 3 days to piggyback on a wireless connection--we sure are glad the Butler family showed up today, aren't we gang?

I'm busy knitting a sweater with some great Vermont yarn. I'll post some pics tomorrow, and rumors abound that there is a great shop Right Here in town. By nightfall tomorrow, I'll know for sure!

More to come--right now we're going to see the fireworks on the beach!

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

We're still on fire down South, a situation that has really made my sinuses give me fits. The wildfires down here are unbelievable. Even though we are a good 150 miles away from the fires, our town has been covered in smoke for three weeks. It even gets inside the house. It has been so bad I've gotten up a couple of times at night, thinking that our house was on fire. It hasn't rained here since the night of the tornado (March 1). The word dry just can't describe it. There is a huge bog down in the Okefeenokee swamp, and the authorities say it will take a tropical storm system to sit on top of that bog and rain for 4 or 5 days to put it out. They say that Nature will have to put it out, that Man Alone just can't do it.

Although I'm feeling a little better now, I'm still not back up to par. Today is the first day I've been on the Internet since my last post. Is eBay still in business??????

I haven't finished Blue Bonnet. All it needs is buttonholes and a hem.

I haven't cut out that cute little baby bubble either. It's still sitting there, all sad, on the cutting table.

On my first day of vacation, last Thursday, I had a pajama day. I laid around all day, feeling puny, and read a little bit.

On Day 2 of my vacation, I decided to get a haircut. That always makes me feel better. In fact I was feeling so rotten I had highlights, too. That helped.

On Day 3 of my vacation, I resorted to Shopping Therapy. I scored this yarn (so soft!) at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents each!





On Day 4 I continued the Shopping Therapy at Joanne's. I got 5 yards of a linen/rayon blend (for me!), two Burda patterns, and a scallop-making thingee:





On Day 5 I took a road trip (more Shopping Therapy!) with my Stitching Friend. We went to the needlework store, two yarn shops, and Michaels. Pictures to come!


Today I feel better than I have in two weeks. I've been off the Claritin-Delirium for 6 days now and am beginning to feel like myself again, although I still have the sinus/chest thing. My sleep patterns are still all screwed up--I sleep at night for three hours, and then get up. I'm tired, but not sleepy.

I really want to make some capri pants and nice slacks out of the linen, but I would LOVE to lose 15 pounds before I have to go back to school (and before I make the pants). So I've decided to spend less time with a fork in my hand, and more time on this:




See how dead the grass is? And we aren't allowed to water.

I'm riding this thing (it's my brother's) at 6 a.m. and about 10 p.m. Why so late early? Well, for one, I'm less likely to get run over. For number two, yall have no idea how HOT it is down here. And number three, I sure look stupid with that little helmet on.