How A Little One Grows, Etc

Here is Henry in his blue jeans!  My goodness, he has grown a lot since we were in Denver almost a month ago.  Sweet little chubby cheeks and a darling double chin - what a sweetheart.

Love this picture with his little tongue sticking out. 

Love this picture of mommy and baby.   There is a link to Norah's blog - Living the Dream - on my sidebar.

Have been lazy the past couple of weeks and have not done as much posting.  Seems like I don't get as much done in a day as I used to, but that certainly comes with getting older.   I feel so fortunate to be able to do what I do and I am especially thankful that I am able to keep busy, interested and enjoy life. Yesterday I worked some more on getting some of the planters emptied and the plants down to the woods at the end of the street.   Today was another machine quilting class and again this was a lot of fun.  There were nine of us.

Here is another picture from Pinterest - lovely autumn photo.

Wouldn't you like to live on this street?  I think this is in Ireland.  The link for
my boards is http://pinterest.com/caroldb/   Beautiful stuff out there.

(Click to enlarge) 

My Mind's Made Up

I've been in the basement working on the fabrics for this quilt and have decided it will be done in the Kaffe fabrics ala Glorious Applique.  Certainly have enough of them in my stash - and it's fun using the really wild fabrics in such an old fashioned quilt.  This pattern was from the 1930's. 

Instead of matching the backgrounds of each of the fabrics, I am going black for the buttonhole stitch.  That gives it a really old fashioned look and I like the way it kind of unifies the pieces.  The closeup shot lets me know I might be going a little too fast around the curves!  When it is all done, though, little bobbles will be hard to spot!  That certainly is a great shot - you can see the weave of the fabric perfectly!  Good little Sony. (Click to enlarge)

Fall is in the Air

My favorite time of year!  It's noticeably cooler the past few days, days are getting shorter and the trees and flowers are starting to dress in their lovely fall color.  Here are the berries on my mountain ash tree - lots of them this year.  Two years ago, there were a lot of them, also, but last year there were none. It is making up for that again this year.

Today Sherry and I went out to Warmbiers - a simply wonderful place a few miles from here.  It has a great nursery, lots of concrete statues and one of the neatest gift shops I have ever seen.  Didn't know about it until a few years ago.  In the fall there are all the great fall items such as pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds, mums, and lots of things for the kids to do.  Perfect day - blue sky, puffy clouds, wonderful temperature and a great shopping buddy - my daughter. 

I bought this old witch (maybe she is an old hag!) and set her on a wreath I have, tucked in some bittersweet I bought and she is ready to greet anyone coming to my house.  As in the old song - Ain't She Sweet?

She's not very pretty but she's still sweet.

This little fellow has been hanging around at my house for probably 18 years.  Bought him back in the days when there was so much wood at craft shows and he has stood up very well.  Managed to lose him for a couple of years - he was on a shelf in the basement and I didn't notice him - but eventually I spotted him and he's back greeting fall again.  I think he may need some more rope hair.

The free moonflowers that I had last year produced some more free ones for me this year.  They certainly love it at the edge of the patio and the plant gets so big.  I always have to cut some away so I can get on and off the patio. 

Not fall related (fallish colors, though) but some pretty Kaffe fabrics that one of the girls was auditioning for a quilt and two of us were along to cheer her on and give her support.  We went to the Park Bench, the new shop here in town that is already a year old.  Great place! It was guild night so she was going to go back next day - will find out next week if she went with this particular group.  They are so very pretty!
(Click to enlarge)

Have You Checked Out Pinterest

There are certainly tons of eye candy (or cake) on Pinterest!  It is so much fun checking out the gorgeous pictures posted by bloggers.  One of my categories is COLOR!!! which I love so much.  Look at this rainbow cake I found. 

And here are pictures of things good for you.  They are just gorgeous.

This wreath is gorgeous and could be made by any of us with the right ribbons, tulle, etc.  So pleasing to look at.  http://pinterest.com/caroldb/color/     Click on the link and it should take you to my Color board to see what you think of the things I have found so far.  You might want to try Pinterest for yourself - it's fun.  You can pin pictures from other blogs and from the boards of other pinterest members--what is so great is that credit is given to the person who posted the picture in the first place.  Nice way to spend some time looking around at great stuff!!

Decisions, Decisions

First of all, as we all know, this is the anniversary of the horrific day in 2001 when the unthinkable happened and I know it is on everyone's mind.  I find it hard to watch television and see and hear about that unbelievable event but it draws you in and you relive those days again.  I pray that there will be no repeat of anything like that ever again. 

My week has been lazy and unproductive - guess the old hag takes a bit longer to bounce back from a busy time even though it was such great fun.  How can you get pooped out having fun?  But, by golly, I didn't have any naps yesterday and today so far I don't feel the need for one so figure I am back on track!  Sherry and I went to see The Help yesterday - the best movie I have seen in a long, long time.  Now I know what everyone is talking about.......it is so good.   The young fellow who played the part of Stuart (Skeeter's beau) was driving me crazy trying to remember what show I had seen him in.  I knew I had seen him a lot.  I googled the cast, found out his name and discovered he had been in Private Practice which I watch all the time.   He's no longer in it as his character died. 

Yesterday I spent some time in the basement sorting through fabric - batiks.  These will be for Hop to It.  Do you think I have enough to pick from?  (Just being a smart alec!!)  More of them show in the top picture.

This is the first block of Laurel Wreath and I am certainly not happy with it.  So I am thinking of changing the leaves to assorted Aunt Gracie fabrics------

and I'm not crazy about that either but probably haven't tried enough fabrics with it.  On to doing it as in the quilts on Glorious Color with Kaffe Fassett---

and I am leaning toward this one.  I would give much more thought to choosing the fabrics than I did for this.  I also thought of doing it in batiks but that would be a lot like my hexie quilttop.  Decisions, decisions----(Click to enlarge)

Back Home Again

Coming to meet us in the Denver airport was this sweet little baby boy (and his proud parents) and we were immediately smitten and in love with this precious little fellow.  You forget how small they are and how soft they are.  It was great to see Sherry and Barclay, the brand new grandparents, as they met Henry for the first time.  Each person has their own way to talk or sing or coo to the little one in their arms.  I think it just comes naturally - fun to hear.

Here are four generations--Funoldhag as great grandmother,  Aunt Molly holding Henry, Mommy Norah and Grandma Sherry.  Missing, of course, is Aunt Hannah but we talked to her and she is doing great.  (There is a brand new post that is fun to read - she has been rewiring her house and has new furniture.  Also has painted her rooms.  There is a link to go to her pictures and among all of them you will find her redecorations.  What a girl!  Click on her picture on my side bar to read her blog).  Now we will wait for December when all will be together, Hannah included.  I found that the altitude made me huff and puff especially when I had to climb stairs but all is well here at home.  Have taken some great naps the last two days, but will get back to my sewing soon.  (Click to enlarge)