Family Fun

Our nephew Paul was here from Seattle with his daughter, Julie.  So we had to cram as many family members as we could into my sister-in-law's house yesterday.  All four of Stan's siblings were there, plus a couple of my kids and some cousins and second cousins.  We had a great dinner and a good visit.  But the fun started after almost everybody had left:

Stan, Steve and Paul hanging out and catching up around the fire pit.

Paul's daughter Julie.

Sydney and Julie playing ball.  It was nice that they got to play together, last time Julie was here she was only one.

Then the cousins, who hadn't seen each other in three years, decided to get crazy and play war with the kids on their shoulders.  We laughed so hard!

The daddies "riding" on the kids' shoulders.

 Paul's dad got involved in the game, but he won't let me share his pictures, he was a bit embarrassed!  But we had a ball watching the hijinks!

In other news, I have an interview at Macy's tomorrow.  You may remember that instead of doing the sick time paperwork over and over, I just resigned with the idea of returning.  Well, I should never have gone into the store!  I was kidnapped by a couple of managers and asked if I was ready to come back to work.  (Puleeeeese!)  So I did the online application and scheduled an interview.  I'm going to have to be firm-I don't want full time and I don't want to give up my job at the church-that's my retirement job.  Besides, my Social Security starts in February and I don't want to earn so much that it cuts my payments.

I have a ton of sewing to get done before Christmas, so I really have to budget my time.  I'm almost finished with the hats I've been knitting, so that will be out of the way.  The kids all want fleece blankets instead of pajamas so that's on my list.  I'm hoping to pick up the fleece for them tomorrow after my interview.

How About a Little Montana Beauty?

Stan came in the house after a trip to the bank and told me to grab my camera.  We drove a half mile down the road to get a clear shot.  So cool with the new snow on the mountains.

Bikers for Jesus

The sewing I did today:

 

The neighbor lady just got married.  Her new husband is a retired minister, and now the two of them, both in their 70's, hit the road on their Harley and minister to bikers.  Darling couple, and I'm so happy for her.  She's a longtime friend and has worked way too hard her entire life.  You have to go through the Christian Motorcyclist's Association training to earn these patches.

I barely got the patch on the right in, but I couldn't sew down the one on the left, not even my old workhorse Viking with the low gear would penetrate all the layers.  I got the rest on fine, though.

They spent a week in Sturgis, SD, where they have the big international Harley Davidson convention.  They visited hospitals and ministered to the hurting and injured.  LeRoy said she is a natural-I'm not one bit surprised!

Hats

Got on a hat kick, and made some for the younger grandkids:

Put a picture up on Facebook, and now I have an order for three of them in Manhattan school colors!  It's sure a good thing I have a lot of orange yarn I want to get rid of!

Sewing, Some for Me.

Yesterday I finished Gracie's outfit.  I'll wait for her to model it before I put up pictures.  Then I sewed patches on six American Legion Auxiliary vests.  Did my own acupuncture on those-the patches are pretty tough and took a lot of pushing to get the pins through, and of course they would come through unexpectedly and bloodletting occurred!

Then I rooted through my stash and patterns and found this fabric:

Stan's mom gave me this fabric from her stash, actually she gave me her stash, since she couldn't see anymore.  It's a nice flat cotton knit.

Made a cowl top for winter.  It's an oversized pattern-I haven't tried it on yet-hopefully it works.  I've made the pattern before so it should be fine.

I cut down the cowl a bit-it just looked better and I can't stand a lot of fussy stuff around my neck.

This is the pattern-printed in 1995-timeless!

It's still too warm to wear it, so it will hang for a bit.  It's been in the 80's and still so smoky here.  I keep praying for rain, but so far my prayers haven't been answered.

My Baby

I promise I will get around to posting my work, I've been productive but haven't taken the time to sit down with my laptop.

The baby I'm talking about?  I've been looking for a realistic baby doll to use in my Etsy shop photos, and I stumbled across a nice one at Walmart yesterday.  When I pulled it out of the bag, both dogs went nuts.  It looked so much like a human baby they had to examine it closely.  They finally decided it didn't smell like a human, but I put it up in the sewing room, just in case they decided it was a toy.

Chloe is worrying over her new baby!

Now I just need to make some baby things to photograph for my shop!

Finally Done!

I finally got the log cabin blanket finished!  It got so hot this summer, I didn't work on it much, and I kept running out of yarn, which kind of defeats the purpose but there ya go!  It's 10:00 PM and I just finished it-no sunny picture but I did snap it on the floor of my office.

I stuck my foot in there so you could see the true size.

It kind of took on a personality of its own-I didn't plan on it being so bright-but I have a ton of bright orange and bright yellow that I've had for years so more bright yarn went along with it!

And since a couple in our church just had a baby I decided to tackle one of those baby slings.  I like it-wish I would have had one like it for my kids!  We did have backpacks, but nothing that a tiny baby could be carried in, and nothing cuddly.  Sydney was with me when I picked out the fabric, so:

I had a terrible time finding the rings they use for these.  I thought I was going to have to order them, but someone suggested the local farm supply store, and voila-hog rings!  There isn't a baby born that could break these things!

I'm working on an outfit for Gracie.  She is hard to fit, so I'm tweaking a leggings pattern for her.  I have some things ready for a fitting-tomorrow is Isaac's birthday party so we'll have a little fitting party too.

Now off to put the afghan on Stan's chair so he'll be surprised in the morning!