Saturday Morning

I started working on this first thing this morning.  It's another faux smocking design, this one from Just So Pretty - watermelons.  Stitches nicely.

Mike worked on the pre-fab vegetable/flower bed.  Pretty neat looking and a great alternative to this hard clay soil.  The reason for the saw and other tools for a kit?  It may have been 3/8 of an inch lower on the back side than the front and had to be leveled.  Whatever----

Murray (renamed Tebow by Mama) kept an eye on both of us.

And the other eye on all that nice black dirt.

We need to get it filled before he takes it over as his own personal litter box.

This is the Children's Corner Frannie Baby that I've wanted to make a long time.  It has some tricky instructions, but I watched a video on the shoulder seams, and it worked perfectly.  I hope it's the right size for the summer; I'm loving those watermelons.

Loving April

I wonder if there is a climate anywhere that has weather this beautiful for more than a month without tradeoffs of freezing winters.  I think I would move there if there was.  It's cool enough to spend all day outside (if someone wanted to) and yet is warm enough now for plants to start growing and blooming.  The smell is delicious, and the pollen doesn't bother me.  There are day of sunshine but always the promise of a thunderstorm to keep things interesting.

I stood outside watering my newly planted begonias late this afternoon and felt like this is about as perfect as it gets.  I won't feel this way in a month when it starts getting warmer and the mosquitoes come out.

No picture of the begonias in the front, but these some backyard ones.  I like the red Mandevilla better than the pink.

I'm going to love this flower bed when the seedlings get bigger and fill in the spaces.

I did a little sewing this week.  I wanted to try out my new Monogram Wizard Plus and Baby Leah probably could use a couple of bibs.  She's 5 weeks old and such a sweet baby.

This is a different set of designs, and I love how this turned out.  That may be a little too close a look - noting where the iron leaked on one of them and the stray threads.

Graysen has shown an interest in cooking already, and with her dad being such a good cook, he wanted her to be able to cook and learn with him.

So he just built her a nice stool for helping - built it himself in a matter of a few hours.  Amazing job, Ryan.  It still needs to be painted and another step put on, but I like it just the way it is.

So now Graysen can use her red pots and pans to "help," and Jack can get a little bit closer to where the food comes from.

Yard Work

When I bought this house after Mike moved to Texas, these are the pictures I sent him. 

Not really all that bad, and I just ignored the back area for years, having a yard person to cut the grass and planting some daisies and other flowers in the bed beside the door.   Looks like mainly rosemary.

Then we got the new patio done last year and a new look to the back.  It's still very much in progress, but we've started on it anyway.

This is what I brought home from Wal-Mart in a quick shopping trip last week.

A few vegetable, a few herbs, some annuals, and a couple of perennials (dianthus).  I grabbed a few more things at Home Depot Thursday, but I still don't know what to put in the huge pots we got last year.  I guess it will be clear to me one day.

Mike just dug out the flowerbed by the house and spared nothing except maybe an old rose that was there.  I planted 3 squash and 1 tomato (and realize the squash will be spilling out everywhere if they live.)  I did a few seeds next to the tomato and saved room for maybe a hydrangea by the patio.  

It's a start anyway.  And the flower bed under the crepe myrtle --

I have seeds and petunias there now, but it looks to be shady, so I'm thinking about a couple of hostas and a clematis.  Even with the grass short, the cat/dog path is clearly visible.

The reason for this brick-licking episode is known only to Darby, and she ignored me when I asked her why.  It's lizard season, and she kind of loses her mind this time of year.

While I'm waiting for a sign of what to put in the big pots, all the plants found a home somewhere but with no reason whatsoever.

Parsley with the verbena.

Marigolds and 1 tomato.

 Banana pepper and Thai basil.

Chives and petunias.

Sweet basil, rosemary, chives, parsley - and more petunias.

And the one squash in a pot alone.

It's going to take a little more work, but it's looking like a place I'd like to spend a lot of time this spring and fall - maybe not so much July and August because no one spends much time outside in Alabama in July and August.

Someone had sunshine in Snoqualmie, and I got some sweet pictures today.  

April Catch Up

If I would write a little bit every week and not put it off, I wouldn't have all this catching up to do.  I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I see that orange blogspot icon, so I'll give it a shot but not sure where to start.

I'll probably split it into several small sections so I won't lose my focus and neglect writing for another month.

First cousins!  Well not FIRST cousins, but it gets a little complicated.  Trevor and Emma are grandchildren of my first cousin, so that makes Graysen and them what?  3rd of 4th?  I never know about those things.

Gracey and Myles and Myles' future baby brother are great-grandchildren my first cousin, and that's even more confusing.

Anyway, here are some pictures I've gotten lately:

This is Gracey.  So beautiful.  So much like Debby at that age.  Gracey is the daughter of Krissy and Forrest, one of Debby's grandsons.  She is the only girl in this big family of boys.

This is Myles, son of Paige and Justin, another of Debby's grandsons.  His mom is expecting another boy (of course) this summer.  He is beautiful too and so sweet-looking  Maybe I'll get to meet them when they all get through with Texas and come back to Alabama.

The Florida cousins are Emma and Trevor.  They are just about as far away from Graysen as people can be in the United States - from Homestead, FL to Snoqualmie, WA is a loooong way.

This is Emma's first birthday party back in November.  She's already changed so much.  She just always looks so happy and full of fun in every picture I see - except for the wagon one on Sherry's blog - but she's cute even looking sad.

I can't believe she's already wanting to ride a bike.  I think she was 16 months old in the picture below. She is definitely going to be adventurous.   So cute. 

Trevor was just born, so he doesn't do much yet but the usual newborn things.  He's taking it all in though and will make his presence known soon.  He does look a lot like his big sister and is just a healthy handsome baby.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and have them all appear to spend a weekend together.  I'm sure it will never happen, and it's sad when I think about all the fun Sherry, Debby, and I had growing up.  

Sherry and David's blog, Tails from Tennessee is now in my blog list to the right and comes to the top every time it's updated.  There are lots more pictures of the children as well as Sherry and David's trips in their motor home.  Speaking of which:

They brought this back from Florida on their last trip.  Can't wait to see it.  I told her it's probably bigger than some apartments we've lived in, certainly bigger than the pink trailer in Pennville, GA.

Can't leave Graysen out for sure.  I got this picture today of her hippo outfit and the unfortunate "clown pants."  I think her legs aren't long enough yet to pull off the gathered look, but she's cute in her bunny shoes.

The next pictures are so funny to me.  Sometime in the early 1970s Elise got this little stove for all the   cooking she did for her babies.  When you turn the knobs on the right, the burners go from "on" to "off" and look just like an electric burner.  A lot of little girls and probably boys too cooked on this through the years.

 When I took it out of the attic and cleaned it up, it looked a little shabby, and I almost threw it away or donated it but decided to hang onto it and included it in Graysen's last box.  I think it was a hit.

Emily said she refused to put it down and was still playing with it past her bedtime.

Who would think something so simple would cause so much fun - at least for an evening.  I imagine she's going to give up on something happening when she turns all those knobs pretty soon.

Speaking of old and simple and fun, Emily said she didn't want the Fisher-Price A-frame house, so instead of tossing it, I decided to take it to my Friday moring kids and see if it would generate any interest, and it most certainly did.

It almost caused a few scuffles with everyone wanting to put their treasures in one door or the other.  I wish I had taken some pictures but forgot my camera.  Bronner and Mark rang the little bell over and over and over and never got tired of it.  The older ones used it for various things - a zoo, a cookie holder, and a train station, to name just a few.  

Ok, that's half the afternoon, so I'll end this.  I have a camera full of before-and-after house pictures and our efforts at gardening that I'll try to get up tonight.  Think squash in a pot.

Oh, video for today.