Daycare lesson time

This clip from yesterday is so cute that I just had to preempt others and post it today... BEFORE I get started sewing. ;-)

I didn't catch it on the clip at the beginning, but she said, "See, Baby..."

Weeble ride

I'd better get one more post up here while I can, because my load of new fabric comes today, and then I'll be off having fun! ;-)

Wish I looked that cute from that angle! LOL

"Cheese"

Here's a day brightener on our dark, dreary, rainy day.

Why I don't post every day

It's been a busy week! I mailed these buckets and book covers to Jess this morning to list in the Etsy shop.

And Monday my shipment of new fabric is supposed to arrive. I'm excited! My bags, buckets and book covers will take on a whole new look! Fun!

I'll still post when I can, but don't worry if I skip a day or three... it won't be because I died (I hope!). ;-)

More of Grandma's great toys

After working so hard digging dirt (and cleaning off the hostas), we finally went into the house for a break. I stepped back out into the garage to clean the mud off of Courtney's shoes, and when I came back in, here's where I found her... having found Grandma's latest "toys", and trying them out.

Perfect fit! Well, if you tighten up the velcro enough. :-)

Courtney loves kitties, too

But they can't have her dirt!

A little indoor gardening

Since my gardener ran off with the maid and the cook, I decided I'd better take matters into my own hands (literally) and get a few things done on Saturday. It was a very productive day. I transplanted the little impatiens plant from the amaryllis pot into a little pot of its own. It survived the transplant quite well, with no rejection issues.

It went into a VERY little pot of its own. Note the size comparison. :-)

Either I'll put it outside with other impatiens when the weather gets warm enough, or I might just keep it in the window of my sewing room to brighten things up in there (which will, of course, mean future transplants). We'll see.

Next my hibiscus plant... this is before.

And here it is after.

Pretty sad, huh? But a necessary job. And I know, it's not the proper time of year for the pruning. It's supposed to be done in the fall so that when it's time to put it outside for the summer, it's all full again and ready to bloom. But mine always blooms all winter because it gets full sunshine through our south living room windows. So when the sun gets high enough in the sky in the spring that it no longer comes into the living room, and the hibiscus is getting overgrown and scraggly-looking, that's when I prune it. It's a little slower to start blooming outside, but that's okay. I'd rather enjoy the nice blooms all winter in the house.

The trimmings make for a nice bouquet, don't you think?

Yeah, I know... I trimmed off flower buds, too, which I hate to do. But there are always buds, so I can't avoid it.

The plant is getting so old that I may just toss it this fall instead of bringing it indoors. It's so woody at the base that it doesn't make a nice-shaped plant anymore, and it needs a bigger pot, which would be even harder to handle than the one it's in now. BUT, I don't know. I've had it for years and loved it, and I'd hate to give it up. And where else could I find a hibiscus plant that has two different colored flowers?! Here are a couple of its last.

Well, this post has gotten much longer than I intended when I started out, so now I'd better get off to some serious sewing. We sold 10 buckets in 10 days out of the Etsy shop, and so far we've sold 3 of the new book covers! Fun!!

Courtney still loves dirt

Here she is, helping Grandma clear the dead foliage off the hostas. And "working the ground" around them a little.

But she likes her dirt 'pure'... with no additives!

Oooohh... look!

Remember the tiny surprise that I showed you on January 29th? Well, here's what it looked like yesterday. Sweet!

Let's see, that makes it just over 11 weeks from sprout to bloom. Now we know.

And boy, do I ever need to get it out of that pot and into one of its own! Where's my gardener, anyway? Musta run off with the maid and the cook. Sewer needs help... or more hours in the day! ;-)

Grandma has such great toys

Back to last week Tuesday.... Courtney had gone out to the entry, and I heard her busy with something. I figured she was probably picking up bits of cat food and putting them back in the bowls, as she likes to do (nice to have somebody pick up after my messy cats). But when I went to look, here's what I found.

She was working pretty hard.

(Note her baby lying in the background unattended... a rare happening!)

Eeuww... they were wet and a bit muddy, too.

But Grandma's boots have ZIPPERS! How fun is that!

(Unfortunately for Courtney, the zippers zip pretty hard, and she didn't have any success in getting them up. It was sure fun trying, though!)

Poll Results

The results of the poll "Do you have a Twitter account?" are as follows:

• Yes (0 votes)
• No (6 votes)
• What's Twitter? I thought only birds twittered! (3 votes)

I guess Twitter is not that popular (or even known about) in Grandma G's circle. ;-) However, it seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. I don't know that much about it myself... just that it's another social networking thing... a way of keeping track of what's going on with friends, news, etc.

Here's how I saw it described on one site: "So what is Twitter exactly? Probably the best one-word definition is microblog. You can post an update to your Twitter account by writing anything you want to write, but you are only allowed 140 characters. So you are limited to about a sentence or two." Then if you want to see what someone else has written, you can "follow" them, using your Twitter account. You can get updates to your computer (email), phone (text messages), etc.

That's all I know... or care to know. I'm not signing up. I already have more than enough things taking up my time. ;-) If you want to know more, just go to Twitter and check it out for yourself.

Thanks for voting... and reading my blog, even though I don't "Tweet".

A sneak peek

Here's a quick look at our new product for the Etsy shop. Someone suggested to us that we make book covers, because she'd had a fabric one at one time and used it so much that it finally wore out. We thought it sounded like a great idea, and this is a sampling of what I mailed to Jess today.

There are two different sizes, what we figured would be pretty standard for most paperback and hardcover books (the dimensions will be listed in the shop). Each is reversible, with a different fabric on the inside and an attached bookmark.

Here are some of the combinations.

They should make reading more fun, don'tcha think? Or perhaps hide from prying eyes what you happen to be reading? ;-) Not to mention protect your book, of course.

We REALLY appreciate the suggestion (thanks, Audrey!), and we're open to other ideas any of you have of fabric items you might like to see in the shop or think others might be interested in buying. Feel free to email me your idea (there's an email link in the right sidebar if you don't already have my address).

So there you have your peek. They should appear in the shop on Thursday or Friday!

'I' do it!

(I'll catch up here with a video from last week Tuesday..... while I work on new product development for the Etsy shop.)

This was the first day she'd even attempted to do this by herself at Grandma's house! The climbing part, that is.

Here we are

Well, I had a tough time getting a pic of her dress, because she hunted up a "baby" right after I got there, and she wasn't about to put her down. ;-) And she was so tired after we ate, that she actually asked to go night-night, so no photos of the dress then, either. But I did manage to get some cute shots, anyway.

I don't know what was so funny here...

But it musta been a good one!

She looks just like her daddy, doesn't she? Well, that's debatable... ;-)

Here's how tired she was.

But at least you can see more of the dress (which turned out to not be quite 'new' - thanks for sharing, Jenna and Jaime!). ;-)

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a beautiful, special day. Hopefully I can get some good photos of a certain little girl in her new Easter dress. Do check back later and see if I did! :-)

So pretty!

Jess's new fabrics are now available for sale, and she received her batch of them yesterday. These are "Beads". I love them!

Take a look at the rest of them on her blog.

I can't wait to get some. In my mind are visions of these delicious new prints on bags, buckets, b.... oh, yeah - our new item that I'm working on for the Etsy shop, which should be available next week. I'll "show and tell" you more later!

Our favorite little model

She arrived in her jammies on Tuesday (long story there). She just looked so adorable I wanted to leave her in them all day! :-) We did, however, do a bath and put some clothes on eventually.

She was actually posing for me... and even said "cheese". :-)

Of course the first thing she did when she got here is get the baby up. I'll tell ya, that baby seldom leaves her arms!

Poor birdie

On to brighter things

Enough of the snow (although there's plenty left out there yet)!

Let's watch this little girl put her shoe on all by herself.

Pretty fast, huh?! ;-)

Poll Results

The results of the poll "Do you have a Facebook account?" are as follows:

• Yes (5 votes)
• No (3 votes)
• No, but my face is often in a book... does that count? (0 votes)

Looks like Facebook is more the "going thing" than MySpace. In this "crowd", at least. I have a Facebook account, too, but find it to be more of a time-waster than anything. ;-)

Thanks for voting!

I thought it was supposed to be spring

Isn't it pretty? Pretty MESSY - UGLY - DISGUSTING - ETC., that is! Hey, if I have to look at it, you do, too. ;-)

(Click to enlarge, if you can stand it.)

Still wishing you were here, Mark??? Ha! Easy for you to say! ;-)

Happy birthday to me

Another 5 inches possible overnight.

BLECH.

Bath time or ???

The other babies got "cared for" that day, too. Well, before the new one arrived, anyway. ;-)

What I did on my April 2, 2009

This is my sewing room (a.k.a spare bedroom).

Before:

My camera wouldn't give me an accurate color there. Imagine it to actually be a faded pale mint green.

Just beginning:

Fairly accurate for the wet paint. At least you get an idea of the contrast.

After:

I'd say that's pretty accurate. If anything, the actual color is maybe just slightly lighter.

I heard recently that blue is supposed to be an 'inspiring' color. If nothing else, I think this color is fun! I love it! I think it'll be great to sew surrounded by it! :-)

She really did go!

For a very quick trip.....