Saturday

This is what we've been talking about all week. Any guesses? D brother?



And how I spend my Friday nights:




Playing with the dogs, yes, but please tell me you noticed Bella's creative haircut! She is fully shaved now, but sported a fauxhawk like her mom did for just a little while.




*Posted from my mobile phone

LittleC's Quilt

My C and I returned on Sunday from a fantastic weekend with our friends N&A. They moved back to the heartland at the beginning of the year, so we were able to see their new house and definitely follow up with their son, LittleC. He's crawling all over that house and he is such a smiley baby!

I had promised A a baby quilt at her baby shower (approximately a year ago!) and made the last push to finish LittleC's quilt this weekend. [In the meantime, my dear friend M had her baby C about eleven weeks early and one quilt trumped the other.] Apologies for the following cell phone pictures.

I was definitely not done hand stitching the orange binding to the back of the quilt in these first few pictures!

I designed the bar-graph-looking top just for LittleC and quite like how it turned out.

Pretty typical back for a modern quilt.

Close-up of the back of the quilt.

I do not have a sewing machine that actually "quilts" (or a walking foot, for that matter), so I just quilted in straight, easy lines. They are definitely not perfect, but they are getting better and I know the babies won't notice any time soon.

See, it's going to look great wrapped around LittleC!

The front porch of N&A's new house! And slightly better light.

LittleC's daddy, N, holding up his son's quilt.

And the back, again. I really loved this quilt - the lines, the bright colors. But, I've loved each one I've made and I know that the babies will love them and that their parents appreciate them. The next one is already super complicated, so we'll see how it goes!

The Three Bs

These photographs (all taken by the lovely and talented KV of OrangePeelPhotography last October) will not post in the order of my choosing. I completely forgot that I never showed y'all some of the great shots K took of my family!

While we were attempting to get some great shots of C and I with the old military Dodge in the setting sun, the dogs were waiting patiently in the truck. Boris and Bailey.

Boris loves the ride of an open truck with the sun on his face. He's a happy dog.

Bailey and Bella eager to go wherever it is that we are going! Loadin' up!

Pre-parenting the three Bs: look at the camera, be good, smile big, don't be in a bad mood . . .

Oh, how I love my big girl, Bella. She has my heart.

Bella smiling. Such a beautiful girl.

Bailey's half smile.

Not sure if Boris is smiling, but he sure is attentive!

I'm sure C is trying to get Boris NOT to lick him in the mouth. No worries, that comes later in the session. I'll try and post more of these as I remember - K took so many thoughtful photos that truly capture what our life is about right now.

While these three dogs are our family, we recently lost two dogs that lived with C's parents out at the farm. Read the post below. We've been holding our dogs tighter and enduring more kisses in the wake of their loss.

They are Deeply Missed

If you know C at all, you have heard stories about Bubba and Loki. Bubba is a black lab, rottweiler, basset hound mix that C got as a puppy when he was in high school. Loki was one of a litter of nine or ten (depends who is telling the story) that Radar had and she was C's brother J's good pal (Radar was a dirty white Corgi-looking dog that apparently had an affair with a blue heeler, as Loki looks pure blue heeler).

In the last month and a half, we've lost both of these dear members of the family. C has lots of stories to share about both dogs, as do his parents, brothers, and aunt & uncles. I can really only share mine, but I'll ask you all to talk to the R family about these dogs because they were family.

This is Bubba. He was the sweetest dog I've met. He's also one of the funniest looking. Upon seeing Bubba for the first time, my dad said he thought he was looking at a black lab (Bubba was laying in the back of a truck), but when the dog stood on his basset hound legs, the lack of height was startling. Everyone loved Bubba, and as C found out in high school and college (so I hear), Bubba especially loved the ladies and they loved him.

No funny camera work, Bubba was short. He made an excellent pillow for me multiple times. And he just made you feel good about yourself; he was a happy dog, content to sit at your feet and wag his tail. He always seemed happy that you were there.

This is Loki. She is the reason we have Boris, our own blue heeler. That, and there was no finding another Bubba. She was alpha female and pack leader. C has always told me that Loki used to growl at other girls he would hang out with at the house and he found it surprising that she never growled at me. He says that because she and Bubba responded to me so well, he paid closer attention to keeping me around. I guess that means that I can thank Bubba, Loki, and Radar for my husband.

I love these dogs. They represent home to me just as much as C's parents and his home do. I miss them so much. They lived fantastic lives and were adventurous and spoiled and rough and soft and loving and vicious (okay, I never saw Bubba be vicious) and so very loved. That's about all I can say about them without crying. I am glad that one doesn't have to be without the other for Bubba and Loki were dear friends.

Love.

Randolph ORV Park

Fun times at Randolph ORV Park! We went out with friends D&N, their kids Au&Ad, and new friend R. Thankfully, we found some mud, some steep climbs, and of course, a reason to get the winch out!




Fun mud! Soon after this puddle, Au and Ad wanted to ride in the "fun" Jeep that went through really deep mud holes. Their dad's Jeep just wasn't cool enough. But it did have all of the food!




So, C drove into this puddle. Slowly. And buried the front of the Jeep about up to the doors (which is saying something as it is a climb to get into the Jeep AND it's 2-3 inches higher until the new springs settle). Au was in the backseat and I was watching muddy water slop against my door.




C had to crawl out the door, onto the hood and then the bumper (custom made Fat Kid Bumper - now taking orders!) to grab the hook on the spool to toss to R on the opposite shore. Yes, we all expected C to slip off the muddy hood into the abyss in very comic fashion, but he disappointed us.




C waiting for R to attach the hook to the red Jeep (yes, we hang with far too many red Jeeps - if you'd like to hang with us, we're only taking applications for purple, black, bright green, and orange Jeep owners). It all worked out, but we did have an audience and a bunch of people laughing. Fun times.




Priceless. We were in the lead and came back to find this. R is kinda young and impetuous (from what I know) and he said that he saw the mud puddle (and the tree growing out of it) and thought to himself "What would C do?" Oh, yeah - get buried! Or, not attempt the too deep mud hole at all.




No worries, Au pulled him out in a wonderful exhibition of girl power.

We stopped at Vista for the high class appetizer of corndogs on the way back to C's folks' house. Where we had an awesome dinner, crawled over a wannabe beaver dam, and poked the skin off of a dead, water logged possum (okay, that last one was Au and Ad). Played with some kittens, shot some guns, and Boris did not eat anyone.

That's what I call a successful weekend.

*Posted from my mobile phone

Boris's Fight

So, Boris when with C over to a friend's house. This friend has a huge chow/golden retriever looking dog named Ranger. Ranger has a new friend - a black and white little female pit bull puppy. Boris is friendly. Ranger is friendly. The puppy has always been friendly. Boris and Ranger have met before and played together, but, when you throw a girl in the mix . . . there's bound to be trouble. Boris LOVES playing with anybody and began playing with the puppy. Ranger didn't care for this and tried to bite Boris's head off. [Let's all be thankful for one moment that I wasn't there to scream and cry when this all happened]. It's an animal/boy thing for sure, so no one is upset about it.

Boris wants to know why I'm bugging him when he really wants to be in the back room with C and Bailey and Bella.


Well, I just wanted a picture of his wound. He's got these nice gouges and some scratches to the back of his neck. This picture was taken after C shaved the area, treated it with iodine, and put some antibiotic ointment on it (C's a great medic in a pinch!).


Poor Boris thought he'd done something wrong and he definitely didn't, so he's been getting lots of love and peanut butter and gravy on his food. Poor baby.

C's Quilt

Little C is an amazing tiny girl. I met her when my dear friend M came to visit her family in early January. I was lucky enough to spend half a day with M & C (husband S was back home in Maryland), M's parents, grandparents, and aunt & uncle. My C was able to join us for dinner in Lawrence (M's grandma made the best cheesy potato casserole I've ever had!).

C is a little over six months actual age and almost four months adjusted age. Did you catch that? Little C was born to her parents eleven weeks early at 29 weeks gestation. So, M & S were expecting a baby in early September, and C was born one day before their fifth wedding anniversary in late June. It was a shock to say the least. Little C was born healthy and spent eight weeks in the NICU putting on weight and learning how to regulate her temperature. She is a darling fighter and I am so glad this segment of the story has a happy ending.

As M is one of my dearest (& oldest) friends, I knew I wanted to make something for Little C. Since she was so early and unexpected in June, I began to work on an "unexpected" and crazily-put-together baby quilt. This quilt was made with all the remainders and scraps I could find in my stash with pink/orange/blush coloring.

Crumpled in the sun on the front porch. This quilt came with orders TO BE USED.



Some of the aqua backing and quilt lines - still in the sun.



Shot of the back. I had the best laid plans for a completely aqua back with aqua binding, but of course, did not purchase enough aqua fabric. I do love the hodge-podge look though. My second issue was underestimating the amount of time it would take me to handstitch the binding to the back of the quilt. It looks so polished and finished, but handstitching alone took at least eight hours.


The front in all of it's strip quilting glory. I LOVE the colors and expect any little girl will love them as well. So many of these fabrics are tied to another quilt, clothing, or project I (or AM) have made, and I can only hope that Little C will love this quilt as much as I do!