Silly Baby Brooklyn Video!

Gramma's Little Cupcake

Good news - I finished the Cupcake Hat for Brooklyn - just in time for it to be right at 90 degrees here yesterday!!!




This was a great pattern and easy to do. I used Simply Soft yarn - the pink was leftovers from a blanket so I only had to buy the tan. The whole thing is wonderfully soft and fits her like a dream.

She was pretty full of herself with the hat on. Of course, we were all ooo'ing and gooo'ing and telling her how adorable she was!

Brooklyn's First Boat Ride

Kind of hard to believe that we headed out to the lake in February! That's just one of the joys of living in Texas :)

Loni decided it would be a good idea to try the life jacket on Brooklyn before we got out to the lake. Mostly we had to make sure that it fit, but we also felt it might be wise to be prepared in case she hated it. But her little trusting eyes in this picture are looking up at her Grandpa to see what he thought.

Loni also lathered her up with Water Babies sunscreen, then said that Brooklyn smelled like a Cabbage Patch baby! Really it was a wonderful smell. And we did get some smiles from her as soon as we discovered that she vastly prefers to stand up so she can see the water out the back of the boat.


Her eyes closed and her nose in the wind - I do believe we have a little sailor baby amongst us! She even did a little dancing to the Alan Jackson song that was playing.





Of course, being out in the wind and the sun can really tire out a baby girl. What a little doll baby she is! And have I mentioned just how much I love my granddaughter??? :)

Stamp Night Projects

More cards from our recent stamp night! This time we were celebrating the annual Stampin Up! Sale-A-Bration and using stamps from the promotion.


I just love the colors of the first card and it kind of surprises me as I would never have picked these on my own. :) The sentiment is from the "Merci" set and I can't find the set the flowers came from. The ribbon and all papers are also Stampin' Up.







The second card uses stamps from the "Friendship Blooms" set and that's the set I ended up purchasing. Just loved it! I'm not sure how well it shows in the photo, but this card has a tab that it tucks into to keep it closed. Too cute and what a great thing to learn!

New Stripes Yarn

I have fallen in love with Sugar'n Cream's new Stripes yarn. I first saw it on one of my mother's friend's blog and snagged me a skein at Hobby Lobby the next time they had a 40% off coupon.

This color is Violet Stripes and to me has such a Caribbean flavor to it. I dashed off a quick Grandmother's Favorite dishcloth just to try it out and am thrilled with the color and striping.

The ball band has a "pattern" for placemats using this yarn and I'm thinking about doing a couple for our table. It stripes up so nice and since I have about 10,000 dishcloths and know that they wash well it just makes sense to have placemats.

True Light and Atlanta

As I flew in to the DFW airport at night this week I was struck anew by the sight of millions of lights for miles on end. The sheer beauty of the silver and gold lights fills me with awe each time I see it.

I don't fly much. In fact, I can only think of two times in all our 28 years of marriage that Keith and I flew for vacation. The rest of my flights have all been business related through the years. And that's not to say that there have been a lot of them. But each time I'm in an airplane I am just amazed that humans can fly through the air with such ease. Truly a modern wonder.

As we hovered over DFW waiting to land, and as I watched all the lights below with such glee, it made me remember the book I recently read - True Light by Terri Blackstock. The premise of the book is that some sort of pulse knocks out electricity worldwide. It follows one family's struggles and triumphs and actually this particular book is #3 in the series (I just read that #4 will be released 4-18!!!). We live in such times that we take for granted such things as hopping on an airplane and dashing off to Atlanta for a meeting and don't give it a second thought. Or hop on the internet to find the answer to any question with only a moment's effort. A picture of my precious grandbaby can be shared in an instant.

And I sat in that plane as we landed and taxied to the airport where my beloved waited to take me home, I bowed my head in a prayer of thanksgiving. I was back from my trip safe and sound, the meetings went very well, and I was back home to my family. Truly God has blessed me yet again.

Amen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated our holiday a day early by going out to dinner last night. Tonight is my Weight Watcher meeting and we could go out after, but fear of the crowds sent us out early.

Before leaving the house I had time to try a new fudge recipe - a Weight Watcher fudge recipe believe it or not! It said to cool for two hours before cutting, so I hurried and got it in the fridge before Keith got home from work.

When we got home from dinner I set about getting some little gifties made for my workmates. The recipe claims that each 1 1/3 inch square is only 2 points, but as you can see by the photo of the pan my "squares" weren't really all that square. ;)

I placed two pieces of fudge in the middle of a piece of saran wrap and tied it with curly ribbon. This morning at work I went around and left a little package on workmates desks.

I do believe this will be my new "go to" fudge recipe. It isn't quite as over the top sweet as some and it is the creamiest I think I've ever had. I'll try to get the recipe posted in the next couple of days. And I will run it through the WW calculator to double check the points as well.

A Brooklyn Visit

The in-laws were headed through town and stopped by to have dinner with us on Friday. Luckily I was able to leave work a couple of hours early and ran to the daycare to get Brooklyn. I wanted them to be able to spend as much time with her as possible.

She was of course in fine form and just delighted everybody. She's also going through the stage where she sticks her tongue out a lot and that reminds me so much of her daddy when he was that age.




I have a feeling she will be very scholarly (spoken like a true grandma!). She just loves for her mama to read to her and now that she can sit up and hold things she really enjoys her books. I enjoyed sitting across the table from James holding Brooklyn - it warmed my very soul. :)












I love this picture with her daddy's coke! She had been playing with the straw up until he moved the cup out of her reach. This little face is one she makes a lot and it's just so cute. I especially like being able to see her little toofies.


I changed her clothes when we got to our house and put on a new little outfit I'd gotten her. At one point we put the hood up on her head and it cracked us up because she looks like a Jedi Knight here.

Knitting At Work

Along about the first part of December one of the girls I work with asked me if I'd teach her to knit. Of course I jumped on it! I chose the pattern I wanted to teach (Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth) and put together an email with pictures and a supply list. I sent that email to 6 ladies and the first day of our class I had 5 show up, needles, yarn and smiles at the ready.

At the conclusion of our lunch hour here's how it panned out: two ladies were all over it, one was struggling, one said no thank you and the other was frustrated enough she toss her needles aside.

The days continue to pass and K, the frustrated one, kept trying and quitting. Finally I suggested she get with Loni (my daughter-in-law who also works where I do) and have Loni show her how. Different people teach differently, so maybe that would be better for her. Also, Loni knits continental and perhaps that would click for K. And it did! She took to it like wildfire and absolutely loves it!

Our new work routine is to eat lunch at our desk and then gather together during our official lunch hour and knit together. We've had comments about how stereotypical we are in our hen party - sitting in a circle knitting and visiting. And the gal that originally said "no thanks" to knitting still sits with us and she crochets.

So far in the 6-8 weeks they have been knitting we have mostly seen scarves - in every color and texture. They are all beautiful and oh so soft. There have also been blankets and dishcloths aplenty.

And one of the girls has become a hat expert! I'll bet she has done 10 or 15 hats and has conquered knitting in the round on circular needles and dpn's. The blue hat in the picture is one she made for one of the guys here.

They also are coming up with their own knitting slang. DPN's are known as "depends" and stitch markers are "Cheerio's".

The father of our hat expert recently passed away. When P got back to work she came over and gave me a hug and thanked me for teaching her to knit. She said that she did a lot of knitting and that it helped to calm her during her grief.

We talked yesterday during our lunchtime knitting about how it is a "zen" time in the midst of a busy, crazy work day. After knitting they said they felt refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of the day.

I think they get it.

:)