Dina's Shower

I'm finally getting around to writing about the wonderful shower given for Dina in honor of the very soon arrival of Allyn Emilia and Lauren Alessandra. 

I have a lot of pictures and a good bit of information, but since this was Mike's first baby shower, I'm sure a lot of details were lost.  For instance on my questioning about what some of the gifts were, he got a blank look in his eyes and said, "Uh, bibs, clothes...." 

I'll do my best on labeling the pictures.  

I can't get the picture out of my mind, though, of him stumbling through customs carrying a giant box containing a breastfeeding pillow - a double one - and trying to correct the customs guys' insistence it was a painting.  Even though he is "gifted in many languages," somehow the words for that particular item were not in his vocabulary.  They were saying, "Pintura," and he was countering with, "No, pee-low, pee-low", probably accompanied by unfortunate body language to go along with it.  They either took his word for it or had to go somewhere and laugh, but My Brest Friend made it.

The shower was in Guatemala City, and it was like a Sunday morning brunch.  Mike had a sunny-side-up egg on top of frijoles.  I can get good descriptions of the food - the most important thing.

When asked about the decorations, he said they puffed up some things and scattered things all over the tables.

 A little bit more to it than that.  Gaby and Dina with the help of their mother did the beautiful decorations, and Gaby made the cake, 2 pieces of which made it home for Debby and me to try.  It was just as good as it was pretty. 

Now for the family members.

Dina's Family.  Dina, Allan, and Diego.

Gaby, Carlos, and Alejandro.

Dina and her grandmother.

Dina with her parents.

Four generations.

Mother, daughters, and families.

I think Mike was too caught up in the festivities to take many pictures of the opening of gifts, but Carlos sent some and some more views of the tables and guests.

From there, they all went to Antigua to sightsee and do some shopping and have the evening meal.

This has survived more than one earthquake.  I'm not sure of the history other than that.

This looks neat.  I bet there were lots of interesting things to be found here.  I think some of them made their way back to Alabama.  I would have gone straight to the yellow giraffe if I had been there.

 Allan and Diego

This is pretty.  It looks like one of Gaby's cakes.

 Buying peanuts from a wheelbarrow in the street.

I'd love to see this quilt close up.

The famous Donna Mia.

On Monday, Mike went to Dina and Allan's home and from there to their mother's home.  He put these pictures on FB, so I'm going to copy his explanations since he was there.

The whole area between the homes of their mother and grandmother is 99 percent rain forest

A stunning wild garden

...fresh mangoes. I heard Grandmother say something like "Volver rapido" Due to the fact that a person can literally be injured by falling mangoes.

Gaby's comment:  Granny says RUNNN.

In the same wild garden, Carlos showed the gringo how to harvest...



5 minutes later, Gaby and her grandmother served fresh mangoes while her mom prepared mango juice. I feel very honored to have been welcomed into their homes

The fresh fruit plate prepared for me by Gaby and Dina in Dina's home

Gaby and Dina say this melon is zapote.

This is chico.



 This one I do remember --it is dragon fruit (I am not making that name up.) It is extremely good, as well as having the most intense colors imaginable.

  Such a fun and interesting trip.  The whole family just outdid themselves on the decorations and the food and hospitality, and I know everyone had a good time. 

Especially these two. 

Can't wait to see the little girls.

Heat and Sewing - So much to say about so little

It is SO hard to come back here and try to write just a few of the things that have happened this month.  The HOT month of June.  Thank goodness for air conditioners and not having to go outside very much. 

We have enjoyed the patio in the mornings and late in the evening.  Discussions are about all that's happened on the landscaping part of it.  I can't imagine putting plants in the planters right now and have them struggle in the heat, so I think we'll wait until fall.  Or that's my excuse anyway.  Mama goes out there any time of day to "warm up" when Mike and I have had one of our battles of the thermostat.  Either he is sweltering (at 79) or I'm having to put on 3 layers of clothes to work (at 73). 

But we're thankful that everything is working as it should, and we haven't had any major repairs in awhile.  We did have some gutters put up in the front of the house and gutter guards on the back ones.  I have no idea why we had partial gutters.

The seeds I threw out in the spring have turned into a small jungle of zinnias. 

At first something was eating big chunks out of their leaves, but they didn't seem to mind and are thriving amongst the basil and weeds.

This is one flower that loves the heat.

And on to sewing.   I've done a lot of it, trying to force myself to use better technique, to take my time, and to read the directions before I mess it up completely.  My grade is probably a 75 on all that, especially when the results of some of them are pretty good - no matter how many times I had to take out the stitches to get there.

Fitting is a whole new thing for me.  Before when I made children's clothes, I did it just for fun and went right by the pattern with no one to fit.  Now that I'm sewing for a 4-month-old who seems to double in size every time I see a picture and a 1-year-old and 3-year-old, patterns are only used as a basic outline, and I sometimes just end of making my own.

This is the cute Petite Poche Vintage Sunsuit that I wrote about earlier.

This pictures was taken a couple of weeks ago when she received it.  An almost perfect fit - maybe a little big. 

This was last week.  Much too fascinated with swinging mirrors and monkeys to model.

And the current state of the vintage sunsuit.  A droopy bikini.

This was a 6-month size, so I decided to make a 12-month one last night.  It wasn't until I had it cut out and half piped that I realized how similar the fabric is.

Another bubble I made was this Children's Corner Taylor.  Super easy to make, and it's perfect for a monogram or other machine embroidery.  Lots of ways to vary it.  I did a monogram for the first one.

This was the first trying on last month.  So sad!

This was yesterday, so looks like the 3-month size is a winner - for a few weeks anyway.

This is what the next one is going to look like.  It's hard to see here, but it's diagonal rows of tiny pintucks and a little ruffle - very different (and it will make me look like I did a lot of work).  I think I got this at Joann Fabrics and need to get some more.  I think a dress for next year would be cute.

I don't have a good one of the Emma dress.  This is as close as it gets - NOT impressed with all my work.

Other things on the back burner are embroidered T-shirts and pants to match.

I made this size 1 from the Britches and Bloomers Baby Pants pattern.  Easy to make.  I already had the shirt and added the paw.

For years, I've collected knit shirts and things to embroider on when I saw them on sale, and so I have this collection.  Some need pants to match, like the Christmas ones and the birdie, and some need monograms or designs and pants to match,

 The leggings will work if the size is right at the right time - always a gamble.  And I'm working on getting my embroidery placed better.

I almost forgot I made Graysen a beach towel before we went to the beach.

 I told Emily that this pictures deserves a "Bless her heart," if anything ever did.

The fit on the sunsuit is not so bad - but that hat!

This is better.

Below is my little boy sewing.  Tyler is 3, and Bronner is almost a year old.  They are the sweetest things and always look perfect.  Their mom Amanda appreciates monogramming and cute designs and jonjons and bubbles, and their dad Nick is very tolerant of it - up until a certain age - so we have to hurry.

I've had such fun learning to make a lined jonjon (I'm sure it's not spelled that way, but it's quick to type), and I love using some boy-themed embroidery designs.

I didn't get any better pictures of the turtles, but they turned out to be so cute.

Tyler has the gingham and chevron shorts to match, and Bronner has a totally different jonjon out of the gingham.

This is a beach picture from FB.  Beautiful family.

Amanda already had this seersucker jonjon and wanted a monogram, so this is how it turned out.

And little brother's sailboat patch.  I'm not going to say how many things went wrong on this, but it was definitely a learning experience.   

Writing this, downloading the pictures and editing has taken half the afternoon, and I still didn't get around to Mike's first ever baby shower - in Guatemala.  Ít deserves a post of its own anyway.  I'll do that later today or tomorrow.  Those babies are coming soon, I think.