Shifting Gears

I worked on hand carding this month's fiber; Black Wensleydale locks.  The Georgia family headed home today.  It always takes me a few days to transition back to my own domain after they leave.........

For my mental health, I clean like a maniac and then I curl up with a book for a while and then cast on a new pair of socks!  This is a new mitten pattern from KnitPicks that I am slightly altering to make a pair of socks instead!  I am a knitter; I can do things like that!

A Celebration of Years

 An early birthday celebration party at Grandpa and Grandma's train house!  Abigail is going to turn 9!

 Daunting, isn't it?!

 An American Girl gift certificate really brought out the smiles!

 The AG swim towel and bathing suit,

 and a bunch of craft kits under the watchful eye of the big brother!

 Even the retake has a bit of the devil in it.........see him prepare to bunny ear his sister!

 Mom shared her knitting this winter......her lace afghan is coming along beautifully!

 She also finished her wall hanging and Dad hung it for her!

This is a little scene she built for the coffee table.  (she doesn't have any cats or this wouldn't last long!)  We ended the night with a rousing game of cards in which I won.  Just for the record.

Lending a Hand

The 'men' worked on the shed this morning.  David was thrilled to be working with his Grandpas.  (Getting to use a power tool sure helped, too, but he is a very good worker!)

Abigail helped with Ella; they had play time, talking time and just plain building the cousin-link time.

David enjoyed the Zero-turn mower and would have loved to fit it in their van to take home so he could mow all their lawn!

Mom finished the Easter sweater for Will.  Isn't it classy?!

Abigail likes the quieter pursuits......she is eating a cooked potato while sharing Nyki time.

Ella and my Dad were having a good conversation and shared a handshake........

Goodbye for now, sweet Ella.  I loved having you visit; you are such a sweet-natured baby!

Grandma Smiles

 The little sweater for Ella is finished just in time........

 ...because she is here for her first over-nighter  at Grandma's house!  Caleb and Cassandra are celebrating their first wedding anniversary already!

 Grandpa shared his new mower with Ella, too.

 But she wasn't as impressed as David!

See what I mean?!

Ella likes girl talk instead!  What a blessing this day has been!

Projecting!

 When your grand daughter asks for a bathing suit for her American Girl doll, this Grandma searches until she finds a pattern and then finds everything she needs in her stash to make it happen!  Done in plenty of time before her birthday!

 Mom and I recovered some foam to make new rocking chair cushions since none were available in the stores!  Old foam and a new sheet-it worked out great!

The men have completed the walls!  The hurricane straps are on, too, and you can see them if you look at the base of each two by four!

Pleasure Takes Many Forms

 The quilting is done on Mom's wall hanging; we put the binding on and now she has the hand sewing homework ahead of her.

 It is covered with dragonflies!

 The men are making good progress on the shed!  The front wall has the big door so a bit slower on the construction but they will conquer it!

We had a lovely knitting day yesterday-so nice to have a day to knit and share our lives.  I am working on a little Easter sweater for Ella.

I am a Skype Grandma...........love our weekly visits!  Aria's face just lights up when she sees me on the screen-hoping she will recognize me when they visit in June!!!!

Bike Week

 So nice to have company stop by to celebrate bike week!    My brother, his wife and youngest son and brother-in-law and wife stopped in for a tour of our house!  Harley Davidson is well represented in their troupe.

 My one and only bestest brother, Bob and his wife, Shelly.  We enjoyed a great visit and a fantastic lunch served al fresco at Dad and Mom's.

Sparkly Notes

 Find one tri-fold card,

 layer organza and some fabric confetti and some colored threads,

cover it with some sparkly organza, 

 add some quilting lines to keep it all together, glue it behind the cut-out ,

and you have a nifty note card to send to a crafty friend!

Decked!

The guys started right in on the shed this morning, and moved to nailing the decking this afternoon.

 I hung up this curio cabinet we found when cleaning out that old portable garage.

 It is hanging in the sewing room over the antique sewing machine.  I filled it with little knick knacks that were out and about the house.

 Another unpacking find-an old clay plant hanger which I scrubbed, filled with new soil and a planted a baby bromeliad inside of it!

After lunch while them men worked, the ladies went to do the sleeping bag sewing.  After dinner, I sewed this bias challis scarf for Mom.  Now, I am headed to the recliner and some knitting!

Cosmetology-Spin Style

Several years ago, the finish went on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel.  It has been sticky ever since and not attractive to spin with it!  It was a huge dust bunny and not in a good way!

I worked for 5 hours but I got it all apart, all sanded to remove the old polyurethane finish and then  waxed all the cleaned parts and then put it all back together!! ( I took each part and put it in a baggie labeled well so there would be no question of what went where!  )  It looks so much better and my socks don't stick to the pedals anymore!

( I will share with you my consternation when I was about halfway to having it back together and I saw the poly drive band sitting. over. there. and not on the wheel; which should have happened as  step one.  Nothing to do but take it all back apart and start again.  I was much quicker on the second assembly! lol)

Domains

 After bombing on the knit kits we tried to buy online (they were back ordered too far in the future) and not having the right fabric in my stash to finish Mom's wall hanging, we sat and did some knitting.  And Mom promptly ran into a snarl and had to rip out. again.  We laughed so hard!!!

The men built their support beams and then leveled them and started laying floor joists.

This evening we had dinner at our house and then games..........I am sorry to say the men beat us soundly; buy not silently.  They have no sense of humility!  What a perfectly delightful day.

Love-An Action Verb

 I finished this pair of socks for my daughter-it is fun to use up the skeins of yarn for each sock! The socks are long and lean just like Marsel!
(See the shadow on the upper left of the picture?  It is in every shot I am taking and I can't get rid of it.  I am afraid it is a piece of sand from our trip to the beach last time!  It is going to drive me crazy!!!)

When Abigail, my grand daughter,  was here a few weeks ago, she 'planned' an outfit for me to make for her American Girl Doll.  I put her plans to work this morning and was able to mail out the package of love this afternoon!

Colored Blooms

All the blocks are together and sitting pretty in a table runner.  It was a good day in the sewing room.