Happy Birthday to my sister & Welcome home Baby

Georgia is the little one....

My sister and I are close in age. Right now we are just a year apart in number. Me _5 and her_4. It doesn't last long but it just shows the numbers aren't distant and neither are we!

I adored my baby sister and have always felt close to her. I don't think we had any sibling issues when we were little but you'd have to check with our mom for only she truly knows, and she has passed on. I do know I hit her with a sandal and gave her a black eye when we were older. Sorry sis!

Happy Birthday Girl!

Easter

West Covina back yard

At Grandma Collinwoods

You're not getting older little sis, amazing Auntie, you're just getting better!

For a long time it was just Georgia and I but one day we were three.....and yes the only thing girls wore in the 50's and 60's was dresses!

Hay sis, you can click to enlarge all photos

The house on Denna

A big Welcome home to the new Baby Girl Reagan. There are only two of us in our family that could give our babies the name of Reagan. I was able to name all of my kids with Reagan and our Son gets to give all of his the Reagan name. We are just pink with delight over this little girl. Haven't seen what she looks like yet but she went home today and I'm sure she is just beautiful. This is number eleven for us and we are proud as can be!

Give me enough time and I can make anything, I think......

It's January and it's a new year with a lot of fresh family birthdays coming up. Some months are Birthday Busy and some aren't. I've tried to tell all the families which months are empty so we can put a birth in those month but no luck so far.

January and March are really much too full!

I'd decided to call the grown-ups for birthdays and make something for the kids. Logan was the first January birthday and after a little time looking at supplies and thinking I figured out this cute idea.

The spaces in the letters are white fabric appliqued

Left over card board was cut into alphabet shapes. A front and a back that's 48 pieces to cut out. Then I glued the top cardboard on some cotton batting. I suggest the fast drying white glue. By time I had all the cardboard glued onto the batting the first were dry enough to cut out. I just put a line of glue around the outside shape.

I'm hoping Logan can hang this across his bedroom walls,

I'm including some pins and tacks to rest the ribbon in on.

The next step was to cover them with fabric. I have lots of pieces so I collected a different fabric for each letter. It was fun to cover them. Be sure your pattern for the letters have enough space in the spaces, the G,S,E,F,K,M,N,Q, etc. When you go to cut and fold the fabric in those tiny spaces it gets a bit hard. In some of ours we just put the glue on the side of the cardboard and held it there with a toothpick. This is where fast drying glue is nice.

I took the back cardboard letters and traced it on the back of the fabric so I could cover the batting with fabric. Watch yourself you need the shape of the letter to be traced so the right side of the fabric is going the correct direction for the Alphabet. Pick it all up and see if it is correct before tracing. I trace the letter be sure you leave space 1/2" if possible and cut around all opening and then snip around all the edges so you can fold the edges around the batting and glue it to the back.

The final thing is to hot glue the ribbon to the back top side of the letters, then flip them over and white glue the fresh backs on the fabric fronts. I put big heavy books on top with a piece of wax paper over the letters to protect the books. The heavy books make sure the backs are well glued to that snipped fabric backs.

Well maybe you didn't want to know how to make these, and I didn't do such a good job explaining but they are neat and our 3 year old Logan is already putting them to use.

Oh we made the L.O.G.A.N in the same fabric so he can find his letters easily.

So the count is 1 done 10 to go!

playing with Lilly with the best toy I know

Lilly is a year and a half old

My granddaughter Lilly came to play yesterday. She knows my house and all the toy corners because I babysat her during her first year several times a week. Now we don't see each other often so I make careful use of each moment we have. Today I brought out the best toy I've ever used. Used Scarfs. Yes for years I collected 2nd hand scarfs (some my grandmother brought me from Europe) and keep them in a big plastic bag. My kids found a million things to do with them, imagination ran strong when the scarfs were out for play. Like wise Lilly loved them. Here are her delightful adventures with the best toy I know.

click to enlarge (for the mommy!)

These toys don't take much to draw a crowd.. Papa alas bleach boy suddenly appeared and created a new game!

A cold winter walk at sunset

My head always clears of worries if I go outside. It is a deep love I have for the Pacific Northwest even at it's worst it is worthy of a walk. Tonight was just beautiful. So very cold and a slight wind chilling breeze. It's just sad how fast it got dark. I can act quickly on an impulse, I peeked out the door and in moments I had a sweater and my camera. If not fast I would have missed all this! Wish I'd grabbed my gloves. Funny bleach boy didn't even noticed I'd slipped away.

Looking East towards the Bright Water work site, see the crane? It's only pretty because the Goodbye sun kissed it!

Click to enlarge

Looking south our street is a narrow path with trees on both sides as they make a little blaze at the end you can see storms moving south. Tonight it was beautiful.

Click to enlarge and see the next photo where I did a close up

Due South