Reconnecting with family!

This past weekend I headed off to Pennsylvania with my daughter, Dawn, to attend a surprise BD party for our 90 yr old cousin!!  I haven't seen 'Tootie' since the early 90's when Bob and I made a trip to PA.

 Only bad part of the trip was my sister and Nancy left Florida @ 6:00a.m. and didn't arrive in PA/hotel until almost 8 p.m.!!!  It was a very long day for them due to scheduling crew issues!  Our flight was a piece of cake going and coming home!  WHEW!

Me, David, Leigh, Dawn, Erin & Jordan

While we waited for my sister and Nancy to arrive, Dawn and I met up with my niece, Leigh, her hubby, David, my other niece Erin and her daughter, Jordan and Jordan's friend, Maddie on Friday night!  We had a delicious dinner at the Bistecca Restaurant on top of the Casino located in our hotel. Maddie took this picture for us.

My sister, me, Dawn, Nancy, Nieces - Leigh, Erin and Great niece, Jordan!

On Saturday, after a quick breakfast,  we all met to do a little retail therapy at an outdoor shopping mall (no David didn't join us).  Once again Maddie was our photographer! 

After shopping, it was time to head out for the birthday party!  We had to arrive before the guest!












My daughter spotted this sign on the Ladies Room door and said "you and MaryAnn should take your picture there!".  How cute is this!

My great niece Jordan & Maddie

It's only fair to show you our other photographer, Maddie!  Now I just hope I'm spelling her name correctly!  Dawn was our photographer at the party for us! 



It was a wonderful weekend to be part of this surprise and to see this lady who my sister and I have always loved.  She was such an important part of our life...she acted as a mother, sister and friend and will always have a special place in our heart!

Tootie was a  little surprised!!

Tootie was also surprised to see us!!! 

My sister lived close to Tootie before they moved to Florida and would see Tootie frequently.  My niece Leigh and David built their home almost across from Tootie's house and didn't realize until their home was in the process of being built.  After their home was built, Tootie was a regular visitor for a glass of wine and talking!!!

No, she didn't have to blow out 90 candles!

The first time you meet Tootie you think you've know her all of your life!!!  She is one of the kindest, sweetest and genuine people I know.  She'll tell you how she feels even if you may not want to hear it!  But that also makes her special!

I spent many a summer and holiday on Tootie's farm and was included as one of the family.  Tootie's daughter, Elaine, and I used to pretend we were sisters and would dress alike and spend every day together during the summers. This was Easter and we had matching purses!  I'm on the left..I was 3 years older than Elaine. 

 On weekends, Tootie & Bub (her hubby) would take us to the 4-H fairs to show horses, allowed to ride horses  most every day (they always made sure I had a horse to ride in the summer).  We would  go to horse pulling contests where Bub entered his work horses in pulling events and fairs. Bub had several teams he used to work the farm with.  Years later his daughter, Elaine, actually beat him with her own team! 

We helped on the farm when and if able; picking strawberries, veggies for canning, helping in the hay field, feeding animals...everything they did on the farm to sustain their life, we helped out as much as we could or would!  HA.  I learned how to cook 3 meals a day (see that's where I get that housewife duty from!), bake cookies or have ice cream for dessert every night, work hard doing our best and to be happy and enjoy life! 

How cool is this picture grouping they made!

 I'm so glad I made the trip to see Tootie and help celebrate her 90th!  Wynna,  Daniel and his better half, Chelsea, did a wonderful job putting together this surprise celebration!  Getting all of Tootie's friends and family together wasn't an easy job, I'm sure!  Tootie has so many of both! 

 My sister and I got to see some relatives we haven't seen in over 50 years!!!  I even got to see my nieces and great niece and my sister and Nancy again!  My daughter was able to meet some of those same relatives!  I was so proud to introduce Dawn to them. 

AND Dawn was so great at being my/our personal travel agent, Uber driver, photographer and all around 'go to gal'!  She was fantastic at keeping us in line.  I was glad she got to visit with her cousins,  Leigh (left) and Erin.  They haven't seen each other for many years and it was fun to hear them tell stories of their childhood and some of the trouble they got into and out of!  My sister and I are so lucky to have such wonderful daughters/sons (my sister has one more daughter (in Florida) and a son in Tenn.). 

Tootie, Wynna and Daniel

 

 For some reason, I didn't get a picture of Tootie, Daniel and Chelsea at the party!!! I found this one on Facebook of Tootie, Wynna and Daniel.  Sorry, Chelsea, I don't have one of you!

A special thank you all for inviting us to be part of this special day!!!

Packing up!!

I have been silent this past week but I've not been idle!  I finished (finally!) my daughter's table topper and will give it to her this weekend.  I think it's more for spring but that's for her to decide...now I just hope it fits her table!

A few more beads have been added to Mr. Woodpecker.....

Also, getting ready to knit the top part of the pinafore jumper.  I love the way the yarn creates these cute little flowers!  This too will be on hold until after Thanksgiving...kids are coming  from Indy next Thursday evening until Sunday so I'm playing Betty Crocker, which I love to do!


And...yep, this gal is packing a suitcase to head to Pennsylvania for the weekend with my daughter!  My sister and Nancy are also flying in to meet us...a quick weekend (Friday thru Sunday) but we'll get a chance to see each other!  My only issue is it's so hard for me to leave home!  OK, to be honest, it's so hard to leave the girls!!  But they'll keep Bob company! 

From leaf bagging to snow shoveling!

Our little 4 month old great grand bunny!!!!  Isn't she adorable!

I have honestly been working on my projects but haven't had time to take pics or post on them...too busy shoveling snow! 

We had at least 8 inches of snow this week!!!   These were taken before the snow stopped!

All I seem to do is shovel an area for the dogs out back.  This was  taken when the snow  started...girls were excited at first!

   Kalee doesn't really care what the weather is!  In fact, she is bugging me to take her for a walk!  But at 9 degree's, which it was Wednesday a.m., we aren't walking!  Kalee is bored and Gigi is happy to just sit on Bob's lap!  The sad looking one is Kalee!

I decorated the upstairs  for Christmas on Saturday!  And on Monday I finished the lower level...I forgot to take pics of upstairs.

Some of the before boxes with some surprise decorations!

Tree all trimmed

 I have to say I really enjoyed decorating and finding Christmas ornaments and decorations I haven't put up in years!  For the past 14 years going to Florida at this time of year, I've had to take down the decorations Christmas Day evening, after Bob's daughter and hubby left,  so I wasn't putting up a lot of decorations.  This year I had fun and put items in every room!!!   And I don't have to take them down until Easter!  HA

Picture Book Finished

Well, I've finished the picture (gift) book!  And you may notice the spine is different!  I wasn't thinking when I started/wove the spine.  When I finished weaving, I wasn't happy at all...first off, I didn't double my thread in each section; then I used a thin embroidery thread to do the weaving.  I wasn't a happy camper at all!





This is what my first book/spine looked like and for my first book attempt I was very happy (you can see that book post here).  Yes, I used Perle cotton which was way better than just the thin embroidery thread I had from Hobby Lobby (this thread was and is great to do embroidery work with but not for weaving!). 

See the difference!  This is the picture book I just finished.  Kept me up all night thinking about how sloppy it looked.  I was getting ready to cut all this out; cut back each section and redo the entire binding. 

I got thinking about actual book binding and this is how I ended up covering the spine.  Process is the same as adding a cover to a book you've made with the exception I didn't cover the entire front and back. 

Picture looks a tad crooked and this is before I trimmed the edges!  I glued on some ultra suede and it really looks so much better and I can sleep tonight.

Edges are trimmed here.

 These are just some of the pages. My cousin, Tootie, lived and worked their farm.  As kids, it was a life of good food, hard work and all the animals you could want or wish for.  We rode horses daily in the summer but never with a saddle, always bareback!  Tootie said if we got thrown off  our horse at least we won't get dragged with our foot getting caught in the stirrup!  We did learn how to ride that's for sure!  Smart lady isn't she!  I do have an animation of all the pages at the end of this post.

My cousin and her best friend!

These are my cousin's mother, grand mother and siblings!

My cousin on the left and her sister, June...that is June on the right with her family!

Tootie's two daughter's  cutting cows!  Tootie (picture on the right with the hat) and her daughter.  Yes, she still rides a horse!  

Tootie  (far rt) beside her daughter and DIL at the American Quarter Horse Congress. How cool is she still!
The picture on the right is Tootie's DIL.  

Here is a quick animation of the entire book.

Happy Birthday to my baby!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARRIN!

Darrin was only a few weeks old in this picture!  His sister, Dawn,  still keeps her hand on his back!!!  They are a great team and very close as brother and sister!

How adorable is Darrin in his Lederhosen!  One of the lady's Darrin's dad worked with was from Germany.  On one of her visits back to Germany, she brought us a set for both kids.  Wish I knew where they ended up as they got lost over the years.















 

My 'mum' adored her grands!!!!

And grandma with 'sister' Dawn!

This was taken several years ago...Darrin entered a 'Brawny Man' contest!  Well, his mom entered for him...I thought I wrote a very compelling letter.  Darrin still works out daily either riding bike, running or going to the gym.  He's a great example to his kids and family!

This was taken last year when his sister, Dawn, took Darrin to Ireland for his 50th birthday!   Love those kids so much!!!



Happy birthday, baby!!

Another book in the making....

I made this book in the summer.  Each page was hand embroidered and then the binding was woven to hold the pages together.

I decided to make another one similar but instead of the hand embroidery, I'll be placing old pictures on each page.  This will be for a relatives surprise birthday in November so I need to get this bugger finished...so hard to work on three or four projects at once but I sure do try!! 

I stamped then over dyed  each page with fiber reactive dyes to create the poster board 5"x 5 1/2" squares.  I added the binding strip/edges yesterday. 

I want to add  old pictures on the pages.  I'm just not sure if I will put them on each of the stamped pages or just use plain white pages in between the stamped pages.  Some pictures are black/white and others are in color....decisions..decisions..


The bottom picture is me and my sister taken at her Confirmation...not sure of the year but I think I was around 9 or 10. 

The little girl above that picture on the left, is also me with my great aunt's father, who lived with us. Pops was a retired Police Officer and a great woodworker.  That cement building behind him was his workshop (they didn't have a car so the garage served his purpose!).  When he would go and work in the 'workshop', Pops would give me a hammer, some wood and nails and I would just pound away.  Of course, I never built anything but I sure loved spending time with him. 


Hope to get the picture layouts completed this weekend so I can start weaving the book together.  That's the part that takes time...lots of time...but it will be worth it...I hope!