Another Year Older....

...and got to celebrate it a little early when our two favorite little guys visited!

That is our little guy's "CHEESE" smile and big brother's "Smile nice for the camera" grin" as I begged him to "Just do one nice smile for Meme bud." LOL!! I  really didn't want one of his "funny" faces he humorously enjoys flashing in practically every picture taken lately!  Hard to believe he starts kinder in the Fall! Anyhooo.....Celebrating 54 couldn't get any better than this! 

A Virtual Hug!

No your eyesight isn't going bad....our little guy just loves his dog and I couldn't  believe I caught this adorable moment in a photo. (blurry as it may be) I just had to share...hoping it makes you smile too.

The right hug from the right person just makes all the difference doesn't it.

First Jan. OMG: Cow Quilt Finished!

I think this is the funniest quit I've created and quilted in quite awhile!

I love everything about it and am especially glad it will find a home with our youngest grand guy.

 This quilt got me back to doing the kind of freestyle, custom quilting I like to do. The puffy clouds as seen in the clouds above and the tulips and grass as seen below at the bottom of the quilt were fun.

 Celebrating our little guy being one with another quilty hug and...

...continuously cracking up as he keeps "dancing" on his quilt! 

Happy happy first birthday (again) little guy.

Love you bunches.

Simple JOY: Through the eyes of children...

Oh nothing fills my heart more than seeing Christmas through the eyes of children!

And boy! Don't grands seem to grow even faster than our own did? Our grand guys are now one and five and as many of you can relate to,  continue to fill our hearts with enormous JOY!

 

Hubby and I are having one of those "weird" holidays where we actually won't being seeing these two cuties until after the New Year. (But what a great way to ring in the new year!) My Christmas actually being spent sewing (LOL!) while hubby works.  Having always brought our girls up with Christmas's filled with traditions and family, it's taken me awhile to process the idea of being alone on such a big holiday. But as the idea grew on me, I began to find myself embracing it's simplicity as I realized: 

MY FOCUS:

I've enjoyed sharing my simple celebrations of holiday JOY with you here on the blog this month. Thank you for visiting and for your kind comments.  As you know, the JOY of being a grandmother continuously fills my heart. The LOVE of my husband and family nourishes my soul. But! My FOCUS for 2019 will find me embracing new found freedoms at home and work. For the first time in thirty years, I'm living without the obligations of children. Acknowledging this has been a HUGE part of my esteem, I find myself wanting to be intentional about making 2019 a mid-life creative journey of self discovery and expression.  I'll share more on this as I write my post Yvonne's Planning Party later this week. Until then, I'd like to wish you all a holiday filled with love and...

Christmas Wishes...

"Dear Santa, All's I want for Christmas is a mini drone."

What's even more adorable about this picture is, you can't see it, but Santa is using his right hand to  show to our grand guy "how" to fly a drone as he patiently demonstrated the "trick" is in a slow liftoff. Our little guy literally skipped away from Santa with the 

biggest smile on his face exclaiming to his mom and me: 

"I can't wait for Christmas!"

Welcome Christmas!

Wishing you a holiday month filled with the same joy and excitement found by our five year old grand guy.

My Favorite Eye-Spy Quilt Yet!!!!

Today our little grand guy is ONE!!! 

This is his birthday quilt:

Right! An eye-spy cow!!! I had so much fun creating this one!! I love the  ribbon tail, ping-pong utters and taggy number one on top of the spiderman cupcake! I know...it's not even done....but enough to gift to him. Life's just been so busy....in great ways. (more on that later)

We didn't capture his initial reaction on film...but he loved all the colors and textures.

 He immediately clapped and sat right down on it. He made my day.

I have the border picked out and I'm really looking forward to custom 

quilting it over my Winter Break in December.

We brought big brother home for a few days of Grammy Camp as I'm off work all this next week!

(SOOOOOO excited!!!!) Planning to post and certainly catch up with all of  your blogs too.

Wishing you a happy start to the holiday week ahead. 

The Beginning of a New Quilt...

Sometimes it all starts with a little doodling....

Our little grand-guy is going to be one next month which means, time for yet, another birthday quilt.

My daughter requested a "cow" theme to represent her successful year of nursing.

(I know, she's funny!) This is what I sketched and with a rainy weekend forecast ahead, I'm looking forward to spending a better part of my Sunday creating this fun quilt. I plan to incorporated many different textures along with an eye-spy body to boot! Won't that be fun! 

Your suggestions are welcome...as I won't be starting this till Sunday. Fall clean-up first. 

A Birthday Celebration!

Our little grand-guy is five and we celebrated by treating him to his first college football game!

The pre-game "kid zone" events were full of fun! Bouncy houses, "cool" cars and big foam hats!

Boise State is know for it's BIG BLUE...and they didn't disappoint. By half time we had scored four touchdowns to the opponents one, each filled with fireworks, loud cheers and music.

He and Poppi spent quilty time together as he taught him the "ins and outs" of football. 

...and his day was made when Poppi even wore his funny hair!

A much needed family day was had by all and I'm so grateful for the fun had.

Plus, you know it's good when you have two very exhausted little boys by day's end!

 

I-Spy Many Smiles!

I-Spy three happy boys!

Earlier this summer I made this lap size eye-spy for these three special little guys. I finished it's quilting and binding on just in time for the arrival of their new little brother. (Who's wrapped in a receiving blanket I made especially for him! Along with a hand knitted blanket by my mom.)

These are just one of those ultimate moments we quilters love isn't it! 

So while his cousins above are celebrating the arrival of their new brother,

this little grand-guy of ours started Pre-k this year!

Annnnddddd this little guy is growing way too fast and is just the happiest baby!

It's been a very busy month filled with with family vacations, visits and adventures. My school year is also off to a fantastic start and I'm really enjoying my new position as a teacher mentor with no regrets of leaving the classroom. (whew!) It's been a welcome transition in my life.

I have to say, we've even improved our golf game quite a bit this summer too!

Wild Horse Casino, Pendeleton Oregon.

And now, with Labor Day finally upon us, I'm sure I'm not alone in welcoming the coming of Fall. I find my sewing studio calling me once again. It's serenity and outburst of creativity awaiting me. I can't wait to fling it's windows open and begin quilting this Christmas Quilt of a friends that has been patiently waiting it's turn. I also have an entire sew day planned with a friend and we are going to create one of  Buggy Barn's (Now One Sister) newest quilt: Sunny Side of the Street. 

OH! And A game of golf and a BBQ afterwards with hubby are on the agenda too.

Thank you for your support and patience this past month as I made my work transition.

I'm looking forward to catching up with all your blogs and going-ons and an inspiring Fall together.

July OMG: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Click HERE to see what everyone is setting out to do this month.

Anybody remember Beanie Babies?? I think my mom bought our girls every single one when they were little! I have a HUGE tote of them and have gradually re-purposed them into "story baskets" for when our grand-guy visits. He has so much fun pulling each animal out of the basket as we turn the page to "read". He lines them all up and once the story is finished, like any preschool boy I guess, begins to throw them back into the basket as if he himself were a pro basketball player. 

 I scowered the internet to find whatever fabric I could from this 2008 Eric Carle Brown Bear line and as my July OMG  I'm ready to move this from my stash, into a finished lap quilt for us to enjoy.

Grands grow way too fast don't ya think.
Note: This will be my eighth stash busting project for the year. YAH!!! We are going on vacation together at the end of the month. I'd love to get another picture of the three of us on our new quilt.
Stay tuned.

Let the Cutting Begin!

Everyone's been cutting and posting their eye spy pictures on flickr for us all to see, I thought I'd better get busy cutting myself. So after an inventory of my own stash, since I take two spots in the the swap, a trip to JoAnnes was needed. I scored a bunch of eye-spy fabric in their 70% clearance section and splurged on some novelty prints I couldn't resist. I spent about an hour and half yesterday afternoon watching a movie and cutting and will finish today.

Thank you to everyone who has joined our swap this year.  I already have packages coming in! But we still have seven spots left. So if ya know of anyone who wants to join us,
please pass the details on to them:  

OUR SWAP IS CLOSED!

Really, what better way to collect 200/400 different Eye-Spy fabrics than by swapping with fellow blogger friends. Click HERE to read about our Eye Spy Swap and perhaps think about joining us.

I'll end with the most recent text from our daughter of our newest grand-guy using his quilt.

He's six months old already! Grands sure seem to grow even faster than our own kids did. 

The linky party that let's you rejuvinate OLD blogging posts.

This week's theme: Quilt Storage.

Click HERE to share yours and check out some neat cabinets used.