I was too late with the camera to catch the tail swinging into her face, which Courtney thought was pretty funny. That surprise at the end was a little kiss, I'm sure. :-)
And on that fun little note, I just want to tell you that my next post will contain a major announcement, so be sure to watch for it! It might be a day or two (or three), but do check back! (And no, I'm not pregnant or getting married.)
As those of you who've been following my blog for awhile know, I decided I was going to toss out my quite-a-few-years-old hibiscus plant(s) at the end of this summer. It was a good plan. With all the rain and humidity we had this summer and fall, it was not looking at all healthy. I knew its time was near when the weather started getting colder, so I quit watering it so it would be lighter and easier to carry away. When we got our wind and snow on October 27th, it blew over, and here's how the poor thing looked:
Pretty sad, huh? It was still somewhat heavy, or actually more like awkward to carry away, but the worst part was getting it out of the pot. I've never seen a more solid bunch of roots! It took some digging around the edges with a knife and then some thumping it on the ground, plus a lot of tugging, but I managed. So, all is said and done.
BUT.... here's the new life from the cuttings I took back in June. As you can see, the red one has a bloom and more buds, and there are buds on the coral one, too. So I'm happy.
Now if only I could keep it out where I could see it... but alas, there's Josie, who I'm sure would torment it. So it is relegated to the bedroom where Courtney sleeps, till it gets a little bigger, anyway. Oh, well......
Pheasant hunting season, that is. Here's just a little teaser for any hunters that are looking so hard for the birds. He was right out there by my garden.
My apologies for the poor quality of the photos. I took them through a screen. Mark was giving me grief about washing my windows, so I didn't do those. (Or, maybe I just haven't gotten to them yet.)
Recently I came across a tutorial for a child's neck pillow here. It looked so cute, and I thought maybe Courtney could use one, as she occasionally goes on road trips to visit her cousins. I showed her that pillow on the computer this morning, and it didn't take her long to decided she wanted one!
I had to draw my own pattern. I'm not a very good freehand drawer, but I finally got something drawn that looked about right. I used some of the fleece I had left after making my chickens. Here's how the fabric looked after I got it cut out.
Courtney kept busy cutting, too.
(A little aside note here. I'm going to have to give her a sewing lesson soon. If you've been following my blog long, you've seen how she loves to arrange pins. The first thing she did when she picked up my pin cushion today was press her palm onto all the pins to push them all the way in. That's just not the handiest way to find my pins the next time I go to use them, although she had no trouble getting them out to hand to me as I needed them.) ;-)
Courtney helped with ALL the stuffing of the pillow. She thought it was great fun, and she never tired of it, no matter how many times I said "We need more!" You can see she also did a little trying the pillow on to see if we had enough stuffing in it yet.
You may have noticed the tattoo on the back of her hand. It's Spongebob Squarepants, just so y'know. (You can click on either collage for a larger view of everything.)
Normally when Mommy comes, Courtney is not very anxious to go home. She often has to be coerced into putting on her shoes, her jacket, telling Grandma good-bye, getting out the door, getting into the van, getting into her carseat. Get the picture? Well, it was a totally different story today. She was ready to go and in a hurry to leave. She wanted to give the new pillow a try! I've never seen her so excited to get into that seat. And then the poor little girl had to wait till Grandma took even more pictures... thus the goofy faces below... she was getting impatient to get on the road. ;-)
But then one of her "friends" hopped into the van and brought back the smiles:
We finally got Patches out, and Mommy and Courtney took off. I don't know if Courtney fell asleep to test the pillow on her (short) trip home or not. ;-)
Yep, Halloween brought a pretty little fairy to Grandma's house.
She liked to twirl around and show off her wings.
Did you notice the cats checking her out? The one on the floor and the one on the desk? The one on the desk was actually the one that held all her treats from trick-or-treating in town. Courtney was very generous in sharing those goodies with us!
She also liked to sit in Grandpa's lap and check out what was in his pocket.
Must've been interesting stuff!
I think they're keeping it a secret.
Or telling each other funny stories!
That little fairy flitted around all evening. Something to do with sugar consumption, perhaps? We had fun... and pizza, too.
