Manic Monday

Here is my cute Kaitlyn during a calm moment last week. She has been extremely emotional lately! It has to be the age!

I have been so bored today! I have flitted from one craft to another because nothing is holding my attention today!

Dave's neice, Virginia, had her first baby in December! I have been so bad because I haven't gotten the baby gift sent off yet. I have it finished, or at least part way finished. I made her, baby Zoe, a purple dress and booties with a matching blanket and burp cloth. But I also am making a blessing gown for sweet little Zoe. I better get it done and sent off since they will be blessing her in July when her Grandpa goes to visit! Sorry Virginia for being so slow!!

Wendy asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could send a blanket and burp cloth to her for a baby gift for a friend of hers. Her friend is having a boy so I went to my stash that my Grandma, Mom, and Sister-in-Law (Angela) has stocked for me to see if I had one finished. I can't believe I didn't have a boy one available! So I pulled out this really cute dinosaur patterned blanket that Angela and Grandma picked out, Grandma hemstitched for me, Mom sent to me for Christmas a couple of years ago to add to my stash. Any way, you get the idea. I decided that I better get it done so I could get it sent off in the next week or so.
I have to tell you about my amazing Grandma! She is my Daddy's mother, she has been sewing most of her life. She has tried to teach all of us grand-daughters, there are eight of us, how to sew. I don't know about my cousins, but this girl can't sew a straight line to save her life! Any way, Grandma has been hemstitching blankets and burp cloths for years and then she crochets around them. Well, Grandma can crochet!!! She does beautiful work and has retaught me how to crochet. I remember learning the basics when I was about 10 or 11 years old, but I just couldn't get the hang of it. Grandma tried to teach me again when I was in my 20s, again I couldn't get it. I still knew the basics...a chain stitch. But in 2006 when we were getting ready to move to Italy and we were staying with Grandma for our last 3 or 4 weeks, she insisted that I try to crochet the baby dresses that she does. I was so scared that once again I would disappoint her and fail at this talent she was trying to pass on to me. With her gentle encouragement and my determination to succeed I did it. I have been non-stop since then. I have very fond memories of my Grandma, actually both Grandmas, working wonders with fabric, thread, yarn, and those amazing needles! Grandma Crook (Daddy's Mom) was very seldom seen without her hands working some kind of magic! Now Grandma is teaching my daughter, Wendy, how to sew, once again with gentle encouragement and lots of patience. I am so grateful for Grandma Crook and the talent of handwork that she has passed on to me. That talent saves me every day from the constant pain that I live with because it forces me to focus on something else besides the pain. And I have beautiful, even if I do say so myself, work to show for it! Like Grandma, I'm very rarely seen without my handwork with me and my hands moving right along. I hope some day to relearn the quilting talent that my Mom's Mom passed on to me.

And I did a bit of cross stitchin'!

I did manage to finish my November Bears.

I collect bears and I found this book that has hundreds of bears in different costumes. I love it! I turned them into magnets! Aren't they just the cutest?