More weekend fun

This took place in my sewing room, which is also the room Jess 'n Alex slept in. Jess and I were busy at the machines, and Alex was "babysitting" on Tuesday before they left.

Didn't stay "night-night" very long, did she? ;-)

Over and over and over and...

Crazy bird keeps flying into the window.

He's done it many, many times in the last few days. Either he's fighting with himself, or else he wants to come into the house really bad. He certainly entertains my cats, along with the bird I posted about yesterday.

What is this bird?

This bird has been around the deck for the last couple of days. Yesterday it kept flying into the bottom of the living room windows... and Willow kept flying at it from the inside. Good thing there was glass in between! You should see all the bird tracks and noseprints on my windows. (Well, maybe I'm glad you can't.)

The closest I can come to indentifying it is a female cowbird, of which there is a nice photo here. Any other ideas? (Dale?)

Sidewalk artists at work

This is some of what went on while Jess and I were sewing.

It was a "working weekend"

And here's my "boss", hard at it.

She brought her sewing machine and made some things for herself while I sewed more bags for the shop. We had a lot of fun and a very productive weekend besides.

Okay, we didn't sew ALL weekend. Courtney and her family came over, too, of course, and we played some, ate good food, watched a movie, etc. More pics and stuff later. For some reason I'm very tired and am headed off to bed. :-)

If you bring a child to Courtney's daycare...

... you'd better make sure her panties have good elastic! These kept falling off, and the process of putting them back on may have left a little to be desired for the baby.

No, I haven't been totally bird-brained and forgotten to post about Courtney lately. I'm just running out of 'stuff', and this is the last I have. I didn't take any pics/videos of her last week (if you can imagine that!), and this week I didn't have her on Tuesday! I hope to make up for lost time this weekend, though, when she comes here to visit with Jess 'n Alex, who are coming on Saturday - YAY!! Also, since they're coming, this may be my last post for awhile, unless I see something that I just MUST share with you.

Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend... and that your Courtney withdrawals are eased a bit today. :-)

Just so you know

I haven't been just sitting around watching birds all day. ;-) Here are the latest bags which got listed in the Etsy shop today.

(Click to enlarge.)

Look who else dropped in...

... as I was eating my lunch. Mr. Orchard Oriole!

He certainly wasn't shy about helping himself to the grape jelly!

Alas, now I have to move to the basement to the sewing machine, so I can't be watching the birds. But that's okay... it's much cooler down here. It's 93° outside!!!

And today the missus stopped by...

... for a few bites of grape jelly.

(Photo's fuzzy, but consider that it was taken from about 20 feet away!)

She's sure not as pretty as her hubby, is she?

I really enjoy having all the birds to watch while I'm cutting out fabric on my kitchen table. I always keep the camera close by.

How about (more) orange?

He figured it out! And apparently he really likes grape jelly.

Yes, it was very windy yesterday.

What a handsome fellow!

Speaking of birds...

We seem to have all kinds around here. Strangely, I saw this pair of mallard ducks walking along our driveway early Friday morning!

Maybe they were lost.

Better, though, was this baltimore oriole I saw on my new feeder later that same morning.

Isn't he gorgeous? The feeder contains grape jelly, which they supposedly love. He didn't figure out how to get at it that day, and I haven't seen him back since, but I hope he'll return.

I have seen a couple of male hummingbirds at my feeder, but they were only passing through. They don't stay around here for the summer. The goldfinches have been very busy at their feeder. They do stay around here all summer. We'll see if the feeder keeps them here through next winter, too.

Hard water

Overheard at the birdbath this very chilly morning:

"Something looks strange here."

"Water seems awfully hard."

"Hope the sun hurries up and thaws it out... I'm thirsty!"

One more great "toy"

She found this by herself and claimed it. I think she's had practice with bubble wrap before... she seems to be an expert.

After sitting like that for awhile, she flattened it out on the floor and searched for every single bubble. I think she only missed a couple.

Doesn't Grandma G just have the BEST toys?!

It's official!

Finally I can show you what I've been doing with all that fabric! When Jess posted on her blog about this bag that she'd made, she had a number of commentors saying they'd love to buy one if she sold them in her Etsy shop. Unfortunately, the free pattern was for personal use only, and not for making to sell. However, the woman who designed the pattern (Rae Hoekstra, madebyrae.blogspot.com) got so many requests for license to sell, that she agreed to do it, and yesterday she put the pattern for sale in her Etsy shop. We knew this was coming, so I started making the bags, and here's what I've sent Jess so far. They are now available in her Etsy shop!

A closer look at a couple of them:

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Their size is about 11½" wide by 7½" high. Don't they look delicious in those fabrics?!

Update: They sold out in less than 24 hours. Not that I was surprised, between the cute pattern and gorgeous fabrics! ;-) I shall be busy making more!

Something Courtney doesn't like!

Listen closely. ;-)

"No, DONE!"

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms!

I hope you like yellow! I do. Well, on birds, anyway. :-)

I got this feeder from Jess 'n Alex for Christmas. I just hung it out last week. I'm glad to see it's getting good use!

I also have the hummingbird feeder out, but I haven't seen any of those little birdies yet.

And then there are those tricky puzzles

Beads are tricky, too

Building stacks can be pretty tricky

She has amazing patience! She never got frustrated with it, but just kept on working.

Grandma's new old toys

I dug out a couple bags of our kids' old toys that I figured Courtney is now old enough to enjoy. She seemed pretty delighted to see what was in the "doctor kit". You can tell she's been to a doctor a few times herself. :-)

She really likes the ol' Mr. Potato Head. And with a little limbering up, he does come apart more easily now.

Look who's back

Right in our back yard this morning. At least there are only 6 of them this year... 4 toms and 2 hens. I found it interesting that their heads were so blue.

Poll Results

The results of the poll "When was the last time you read a book cover-to-cover?" are as follows:

• This past week (4 votes)
• A couple weeks ago (3 votes)
• A month ago (0 votes)
• A few months ago (0 votes)
• Within the last year (1 vote)
• It's been years (0 votes)
• Books? What are they? (0 votes)

Looks like those who voted are pretty avid readers, for the most part. Those who didn't vote are probably embarrassed to admit they don't read many books. ;-) I always have a book going, which I read mainly while I'm on the NordicTrack so I don't go insane from boredom. ;-) I also like to read while I eat my dinner, if Grandpa's not here.

Thanks to those who "dared to" vote! ;-)

The potential

I took this photo before I cut into anything. I'll show you what I'm working on later!