When Jayden was a tiny baby she would make these cute little snorting noises - and she ate like a lumberjack! Hence, she acquired the nickname - Pig. Since she has gotten older (She is almost 11 months!) she has acquired another nickname - DIVA! So, now, we often combine the two and call her Diva Pig. I know, I know..... the pig part will have to go pretty soon! Somehow I don't think she will care much for it but for now it is a term of delighted endearment!
I was shopping at JoAnn's the other day and found this little 5.5" square canvas carry bag. TOO CUTE!! Jayden NEEDED it! Really!!! So, I stenciled on a wand (she also has a diva wand she got for the 4th of July (you can see the picture below in the 4th of July section. It's the second one down). Then I ironed on the gemmed DIVA. On the back I found an adhesive backed "jeweled" crown and put it on. I already had some pink boa (I mean - you never know when you might need some, right?) so I sewed that around the top. I also had some pink elastic cord and a little pig button. Those were sewn onto the side.
So, here it is: DIVA PIG BAG
front
front - detail
and the back
I'm going over to their house tomorrow for my "baby fix" and I'll give it to her then. I'll post picture of her and the diva loot inside tomorrow.
Well, it was inevitable I think. The fourth of July a couple of years ago began the healing of some relationships and a very extended family. We often refer to ourselves as the "Jerry Springer family". Although, since we all get along I'm sure we would not be good subjects for the Jerry Springer show. We actually had a great time together on the 4th. Below are some pictures.
Annette with the twins - Justine and Joseph
Jayden, aka DIVA. She is holding (and chewing on) her "diva wand"
Annette, Justine and Jayden
Annette's oldest daughter - Stephanie - holding Joseph
Mike (Sam's husband), Tom (Sam's step-dad) and Josh (our son)
left to right (more or less) Annette holding one of the twins, Jeffrey, Devon and Lucas on the blanket, Tom (my husband) holding Jayden, Sam holding the other twin, Pam (Sam's mom). In the foreground with his back to the camera is Matthew.
Tom and Jayden
Yep, even the new puppy, Buddy, got to celebrate!
OK, here we go - the whole crew.
Front row - Dustin, Dillon and Sadie (Brian and Jamie's kids) Stephanie, Devon and Matthew (Annette and Brian's kids) and Jeffrey (Josh and Sam's son)
Kneeling behind the kids is Jaime (Brian's wife)
Back row - Holding Joey is Annette (Josh's girlfriend, Brian's ex), Brian (Jaime's husband, Annette's ex), Holding Lucas (Mike and Sam's son) is Mike (Sam's husband), Sam (Mike's wife, Josh's ex), Tom (Sam's step-dad, Pam's husband), Pam (Sam's mom), Holding Justine is Carrie (Annette's friend who is helping her with the twins for a little while), Josh (our son, Annette's boyfriend, Sam's ex) holding his daughter, Jayden and new puppy, Buddy. Me and Tom (my husband, Josh's dad, and Papa to 4 of the kids)
Whew! And not one chair thrown the whole day!!!
Yeah!! Justine is now home and thriving!! It's a long story so I'll just let that go and show you pictures of the afternoon she came home.
Here is Dad (Josh) taking care of Joey while Justine was taken inside to get on some summer clothes and out of the outfit they had her in at the hospital.
Joey and Justine - together again AT LAST!!! It has been TWO MONTHS since they were this close - since their birth actually (except for one short photo op at the hospital) It seemed like they knew they were supposed to be together!
Annette with her hands full -- literally!!
The celebration prompted a stop by Caribou Coffee on the way home from the hospital. Smoothies and coffees for everyone!! (except the twins, of course, their time will come soon enough!) Here's Jeffy with his smoothie. The proud big brother!!
Even Jayden get to celebrate with sips of Nani's green tea and mango smoothie! I think she also got a couple of tastes of Annette's chocolate cooler! Hey, it was a special occasion!!
OK, one last picture of Joey and Justine! Since you insist!!
Well, believe it or not..... in the midst of all the babysitting, shopping for baby stuff and visiting the twins in the hospital I actually got this round done on my Nesting Robin before the deadline!!!
The challenge for this month was:
Technique - crazy quilting or simple border
Color Harmony - Triad using secondary colors
OK, so these are my primary colors that were supposed to be used last month but I kinda missed that little bit of information so I had used my secondary triad last month. So, I just used my primary triad this month to make up for it.
I am challenging myself to try to use both of the technique options for each month if at all possible. This month was a bit of a challenge. I decided to do a simple border with crazy quilt corner pieces. Works for me!!
I know..... it has taken me forever to post since the twins arrived. Now is the time when all you mothers of small children are going to either laugh or mutter something like "good grief!! what IS her problem???" With all that is going on with the twins and some other issues (Jayden's court date and the death of one of Josh's friends) it has been crazy around here. We have been keeping Jayden since last Sunday. Now, we LOVE having her, but it has been quite a while since I have taken care of a baby for days at a time. Our usual procedure when Jeffy or Jayden come to visit is that everything else goes on hold until they leave. Ok, that works well when they spend the night. For a whole week -- I can't remember how I did it when I had kids!!! Of course, part of the problem is that I adore holding here when she falls asleep and I love playing with her. It is difficult to put her down! She is such an angel!!! Results -- I get nothing else done. (Oh, and I'm getting a little tired of fast food -- can't figure out how to cook and all that holding a baby.) Well, we finally today got her a play pen thingy so she can be with me in the studio and still see me and yet have a safe place to play (never sure I get all the pins off the floor ya know!) So, right now she is playing with her toys and about to fall asleep for her morning nap so I have an opportunity to catch up somewhat on other stuff....... like posting about the TWINS!!!
They were born C-section on April 30th. Justine Danielle was born first (7:54am, 3lbs and 1/2 oz). Joseph Declan was born next (7:56am, 2lbs and 7oz). They were a bit early (31 weeks) so they had some developmental issues, especially with their lungs. Justine was breathing on her own pretty soon but Joseph was on the respirator or ventilator or something like that until yesterday. They are both doing very well now and they parents (Josh and Annette) got to hold them. We've seen them twice only but will maybe get to see them more often when Josh and Annette go to visit them. The twins will probably be in the hospital for three more weeks. So, without further ado............. Here they are!!! (And some other pictures also of hospital visitors)
Justine Danielle
Jeffy with Justine
Joseph Declan
Jeffy with Joseph
Jeffy with Josh
Jeffy with Papa (DH - Tom)
Jayden with Annette's mom - Elaine
Elaine (with Jayden), Annette's Dad - Ron, Annette
Annette, Jeffy and Jeffy's mom Samantha
He was SOOOOO surprised when he went to bed last night and I brought out his NASCAR quilt! I know it wouldn't win or even be considered in any show but the smile on his face is worth much more to me than any Best of Show anytime! It was worth all the work.
Below is the picture I took today of him on his new quilt on the porch floor. This is not where he sleeps BTW!! <VBG>. The pillowcase is of racing motorcycles and they have the same flame motif as the alternate block cars on the quilt! Thanks Vicky!!! He LOVES it!
Finally finished Jeffrey's NASCAR quilt for his bunk bed here at our house. His favorite color is orange so the backing is solid orange the same color as the binding. Thanks Debbie for the great NASCAR blocks! I also have enough to make a matching quilt for A.J. (Jeffrey's step brother) who sleeps over on occasion in the lower bunk. Except his color is green.
Jeffrey is coming over to spend the night tonight so I'm going to surprise him with it. I'll post pictures of him with his new quilt tomorrow. Stay tuned!!!
Jeffrey's NASCAR quilt (The artwork above the quilt on the design wall is Jeffrey's. He loves to draw trucks and has his own journal - full of drawings of trucks!!)
I know I know - it is supposed to rain in the spring. And it is! I am a person of mixed emotions at this point. I actually love rainy days. They seem to have a peace all their own - and a beauty. BUT, can't ride my motorcycle on rainy days (well, I CAN but I choose not to!). Anyway, I was posting to a class I'm taking and was bemoaning that I couldn't get out and take some pictures and capture the loveliness of this rainy day. Half way through the post I decided "Heck yeh I can!" So I went to the porch and donned my "duck" shoes (Those rubber ones for gardening - mine are bright yellow and DH has named them duck shoes) and took my camera tucked up under my shirt to protect it as much as possible from the rain. I took some shots of the rain droplets all in a row on a branch of the linden tree outside my studio window. Then I noticed rain dripping like mad off the evergreens. I snapped a bazillion (at least) pictures in rapid succession to try to catch the water dripping off the needles. I got several but need a faster shutter speed to get them clearly. (I KNEW I should have taken that introductory course on the care and operation of my new camera!!!) Anyway, I then moved into the front yard and captured a few more pictures. All these are in an album to the right named "Rainy Day 4-08". The albums are in alphabetical order so you should be able to find it. Hope you enjoy them!
And now for Round TWO for the DyeHard Nesting Robin. The pics of round one are posted on March 11 if you want to see the progression or you can click on that picture album
The challenge this month was a Triad (three colors equal distance apart in the color wheel) done in Curves and/or Circles. I chose to do both. The Triad pieces make up the curves in the latest border and the circles are cut from one of the snow dyed pieces I did with the colors from this color wheel. Here is the progress so far.
Both DyeHards and DyeHard Surfacing had stamping swaps this month so I did a lot of stamping.
DyeHard had a stamping swap so I used thickened dyes for that one. I thickened the dye with sodium alginate and also added soda ash and then dye powder. I had some chunky stamps I really like for things like this. Here are the results.
Then DyeHard Surfacing we could use paints or whatever for the medium but we had to use styrofoam in some form for the stamps. I had collected bits and pieces of styrofoam from take-out cartons, shipping packaging, etc. I used mostly Jacquard Lumiere paints for this one. I think only one color (brown) was a Jacquard Textile paint. And the results??? Here they are.
August, 2007
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