Mimi and Pop Pop's House

As promised!  Doll bunk beds.

Once I found these in the attic, I knew I had to fix them up for Graysen and Katherine. 

 Any mention of new toys gets the response from Emily and Ryan:   To go in Mimi and Pop Pop's house.

And so it will be.  Beds for Rusty and his new unnamed sister.  Then Katherine's babies as she gets old enough to tuck hers in.

I bought this fabric last summer with thoughts of making 2 quilts.

Because of lack of time, we just wanted a quick fix and will go back and do better when we have time.  

Mike did a good job on the painting and will come back later and retouch it and put in newer screws.

I just made the sheets from the pink and decided to do a blanket from Minky fabric and the main print.

The pillows are cute but maybe a little big, and I'll go back and make those smaller - maybe - later.  Since I had packed all the batting, they're stuffed with other fabric for now.

I tried doing a little turquoise (for Rusty) since the fabric had some in it, but I'm not happy with it.  The pillowcase is cute and will do until I figure out something else. 

I'm glad we made ourselves take on this project when we didn't need to start anything new.  It will be worth it to see Graysen's face when she sees it - in Mimi and Pop Pop's house.

Two more attic finds:

This little high chair is so tacky it's kind of cute.  I'll probably leave it just the way it is, complete with Cabbage Patch stickers on the tray.

This is the high chair all 3 kids used, bought for the baby who is 44 years old today.

It's in good condition, if a little whole lot dated.  My choices then were yellow or black, and now I wish it were black.  I picked out the color, but my co-workers gave it to us.  Earlier this year, we didn't see it in the attic and figured it got thrown away, so we threw away the tray that went with it.  Just as well; painted black with the hardware off, it will make a nice booster seat for - guess where - Mimi and Pop Pop's house.

Cat Stowaway

We had this sofa and this cat.

They are both old and familiar and comfortable, and we planned to take them with us.  Then we measured and pondered and finally decided it would be impossible to make an 8-1/2 foot soft look good in a 12-foot wide living room.

Stella, we figured, would look fine in any room.

So we advertised, and a nice lady wanted this sofa as well as the living room one.  She sent 3 strong men to move them, and they were perfect - quick, no-nonsense, manly men who had them loaded in about 5 minutes.

Just as this last one went on, I heard lots of noise - mainly screaming - and went out to see what the problem was.  We had vacuumed and tried to make sure nothing was left under either one of them.  All of them were holding their hands over their hearts and bent over, and I couldn't imagine what had them so upset.  One of them said, "Cat.  It ran that way."

Poor Stella, hearing strange people in the house, had crawled up into the lining of the sofa, her favorite hiding place, and subsequently got carried out by the big strong men.  As they lifted it up on the truck, she made her escape and ran toward the back yard. putting a pretty good scare into them.  One of them wondered if she had kittens in there.

Poor thing.  She still has not appeared.  I'd better check those dresser drawers when it goes out.

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She's back!  She was sitting under the car in the driveway.  She's inside now and only a little grumpy.

A Different Christmas

We've had some unusual Christmases the past 10 years or so, some of them related to my work schedule, some related to folks being scattered and not able to all be together.  We've enjoyed what we had to work with though, and this year is probably the strangest of all.

We celebrated early in Snoqualmie from Thanksgiving to the early part of December.  I'm not sure why I don't have more pictures, but we had a small gift opening night before we left to come home.  Graysen and Katherine both got dolls, but Graysen kind of wanted both of them to be hers.  It was hard for her to understand why Katherine would need a baby doll since she's still a baby.  She'll get used to sharing soon - or maybe not too soon!

Katherine got some new big-girl pajamas and was ready to play.

Hmmm.  No way that marker is going to be shared.

I think there is a brief consideration of decorating baby feet here.

 This was going to be a hug because who can resist a squishy baby in pink pajamas?



I think Katherine did one of those inexplicable baby backward leaps to fend off that hug - not really sure what happened here but nothing dangerous.  Just another move in the sister interaction dance that's just starting.

Graysen came downstairs every morning newly fascinated by the tree standing in the living room.  She would reach for the remote on the desk and magically turn the lights on with a flourish.  Then she would put the remote to her ear like a phone and have a brief conversation before she put it back.

She did pretty well with the ornaments she was allowed to touch, usually very gentle - but they were completely impossible to resist touching.  I found a little snowman ornament in her hand when I tucked her in for her nap one day.  She said, "I'll just sleep with it."

It's funny how adults decide what animal is associated with a baby's personality.  Very early in Graysen's life, she seemed to have a lot of fox-related things - in her nursery, on her clothing, in her books and toys

- and she started getting fox ornaments for Christmas last year.  Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alan always pick the best ones, and here  is one ready to go on the tree.

I'm going to request more Christmas pictures in the next few days.

Meanwhile, back in Alabama, it seems a lot like springtime with all the rain and tornadoes.  We're listening to thunder rumble right now, and the temperatures are supposed to reach the low 80s in the next few days.

I enjoyed my last Alabama haircut yesterday and again will miss Donna so much.  Mama and I never seemed to land in a particular beauty shop here and changed as our beauticians changed or as we just needed a change.  I wish Donna and Jaclyn's shop had existed all those years.  Our friend Amanda recommended the shop, and Donna was the one who had an opening.  From the very first, she cut my hair just exactly like I wanted it and listened to my frustration about how to "go gray" without a drastic change.  We're gradually getting there, and she promised to talk to my new beautician if I wanted her to and give her the "recipe."  She has a become a friend I can talk to, and the whole atmosphere of the shop is upbeat and happy.  No whispering or gossiping among the workers, no mean looks or hints of disagreement caught in the mirror among the staff.  Just a clean, efficient, and well-run place.  I'm not sure they need advertisement because they're always running over with customers, but they have my endorsement!

Mike and I have a project we started yesterday.  It's really MY project, but when I told him what the stakes were, he decided to get on board.  I've kept a set of bunkbeds in attics and basements throughout the years - doll bunkbeds.  They're the ones Elise and Emily played with when they were little, and I was one day going to redo them for granddaughters if we had any.  When I talked with Graysen about Mimi and Pop pop's new house in Snoqualmie, I mentioned that we would have 2 doll beds for them to play with.  When I talked to her last week, Emily had just told her that Mimi and Pop pop were coming to live in their house in Snoqualmie.  Her first words were, "And there will be 2 doll beds in Mimi and Pop pop's house."  Oops.  Time to get busy.

Mike had taken them apart for moving, so that makes it easier to work with.  He sanded yesterday and went and bought some white paint.  We're not getting real creative now; we'll go just simple to start with.  I might add some trim later or paint the spindles a different color.  What looks like orange in this picture is really some red tape that trimmed all the posts once.  That's where I'll add some color later.

I made the mattresses last night, which consisted of using leftever carpet padding and the original board mattress.  Those eighties dolls didn't have nice soft mattresses.  I covered the padding with a stretchy fleecy fabric - just made a pillowcase type thing and will sew up the ends today.  It worked nicely.

I got this fabric - and some in light green - at Joann Fabrics and have used it to line bibs and blankets and burp cloths.  I wouldn't mind having a blanket made from it myself.  Those dolls should be very comfortable.

I plan to make 2 pillow, 2 pillowcases, 2 sheets and 2 comforters.  I'm glad we were forced to go ahead and get it done.  A stormy day is perfect for projects - and that taco soup and cornbread I'm about to start.

Christmas at the Manor

Andalusia Manor, as usual, celebrates every holiday big, and Friday was the West Hall party.  I took a couple of platters to contribute, and they really had a great party.  When Mama and I were walking around the halls, we saw people from all the halls making their way there and coming back with plates loaded with goodies.

Some pictures from our tour.

A couple of the trees we noticed on the hall.

A good many of the rooms were decorated.

Debby decorated Mama's room last week for her.  It looks pretty festive and cozy with the candles and her puppy resting in the recliner (she wanted a cat but couldn't find one - maybe Santa Claus will bring her a cat)

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Meeting up with friends in the halls.

Inez and Mama grew up in the same neighborhood as children.

Jeanette lives across the hall from Mama.  She worked with Daddy at the Alatex for years and has the her room decorated like home.  

Some of the sweet ladies who do a great job taking of these folks.  There are so many more that I didn't get pictures of - 19 in all, I think, serving West Hall.

Lots of good food.  They sent Mama back to her room with a bowl of soup.

I kept hearing about the "homemade butternut cake" all morning, and I could smell it when I walked in the door.

Debby and I had lunch and Zaxby's and stayed and talked for a long time.  There were even a few tears when she gave me this mug to remember her every day when I drank my coffee - as if I needed anything to remember her!

I love it.  It's so original - she knows just what I love.  All the cats seem to be different, and there is even one in the inside bottom.  I'll treasure it for sure.

I then went by and visited with Kathy for probably too long, but I enjoyed every minute of it.  Such a good talk.  She and Alan have invited us for Christmas lunch!  People take care of us!

The weather is really strange this week - warm and extremely wet with tornado warnings all over the area.  We'll enjoy it, but I'm sorry for the ones who have to be out and doing their last-minute shopping or traveling.  Looks like taco soup and cornbread weather.

 I guess the moving sale will just about shut down until after Christmas.  It's been slow but profitable. I like having a few people at a time drift in.  You get to chat and find out about them and visit a little bit.  One lady who had just moved from California spent around an hour here and spent $125.  We had fun talking and trying to work out how to get everything in her car.

A guy came by yesterday without our noticing him and was gathering up things in the garage, thinking that was the sale.  Mike had spent all morning organizing and staging things for moving - too well, it seems.

Most of the big pieces are sold or spoken for, thank goodness.  

Sherry and David plan to come back again this year for New Year's Eve and Day on their way back to TN from FL.  We had such a good time last year.  We'll put together a dinner Friday with ham, black-eyed peas, and turnip greens.  I think their motor home is better equipped than our kitchen at this point, so we'll be working together.  We'll go down to Andalusia Sunday to see Mama.

After that, it's crunch time.  The truck is booked starting the 8th.  We'll have the same people pack us and hopefully will be ready to leave by lunch time.  We still don't know what to do with the second car, but it will be revealed to us before then.  I'll follow the truck with Stella and 5 days of audio books.  Destination:  Echo Ridge, Snoqualmie, WA.   We can't wait to get there and see those sweet babies.  Graysen is enjoying every minute of this season.  She told her mom the other day that the birds were "going home for the holidays."  

Time to get ready for my last Alabama haircut.  We sure will miss Donna.  It's always hard to find new haircut people, doctors, dentists, etc.  I wonder if we could talk her into a Snoqualmie vacation.