Well That Certainly Did NOT Take Long....

The weather co-operated and we made it to grandson's baptism in Small Town Wyoming. We did opt to drive the four wheel drive pick-up rather than the car under the theory better to realize we could have taken the car rather than sorry we had not taken the four wheel drive vehicle on bad roads!

The church is such a lovely church built in 1912 with imported stained glass windows.  I did not catch any of them in the background darn it.

AND the pinafore/dress I made for Granddaughter at Thanksgiving??  DIL reported it almost did not fit her in the waist - it's tight!!! Wow - the lil' pumpkin is growing like a WEED!  But the pinafore is fully adjustable so all I have to do is make a bigger dress every year.  I think she can get a good two years out of it that way.

The dress needs some adjustment here Nana! Don't get your undies in a knot over it!

This is a Girly Bonnet!  TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!

I had extra material left over - enough to make a matching blanket for Grandson.

I really enjoyed the music they had for the Sunday services in this church.  They were ALL upbeat tempo and cheerful!  Wow - being raised in a German-American Lutheran community I never knew hymns could be like that.  I always thought they were all mournful slow dirges with weird notes NO ONE could sing and lyrics NO ONE could understand written by a Johann Mendelson Straussberger in 1789 or thereabouts!  I always get a BIG kick out of Garrison Keillor and his Lake Woebegon Lutherans.  That was MY childhood!

This year's two fillies are in the weaning pen and were decidedly UNIMPRESSED with the arrangement at first. As soon as the ice melts out of their pen, we will start working with them.  Hasn't happened yet but suppose to be 40 degrees tomorrow so soon they will sporting purple halters.

Brida the Buckskin and Hi Note the liver Chestnut - both Morgans of course!

I am ready for spring, to heck with ice and winter.  Bring On the MUD!

It FID DIT! erhhh Did Fit!

Oh Man I was worried the Baptism Outfit I was working so hard on would not fit the new Little Wee Guy so we traveled 300 miles from North of Nowhere and tried it on him!  IT FIT!  Whew.  I can breathe now as he is being baptized next weekend.


I did some creative 'sizing' on this one.   I knew his current weight and length thanks to his Mother and then I modified the pattern to a long sleeve.  But not knowing how long his arms were, I googled the sleeve length for a baby of his weight and the pants length for the same -- and got results!!  Who knew you could get THAT information from the internet.  Well you can.

 

The finished suit.  The little bowtie tends to push the wings of the collar up so I think we will probably take that off.  But it looks cute doesn't it?

 

A matching bonnet.  I doubt he will spend much time in it, but when we tried it on we discovered (to my absolute horror and embarassment) that I had sewn a straight pin inside the lining. Yikes, poor Grandson almost has a new meaning for MEAN Grandma!  I brought the bonnet home and opened up the lining and removed it.  Bad Grandma!

 Grandson with his mother.  He's a stout little boy.  Since I never had a daughter, my granddaughter always felt 'frail' to me.  Like I was going to 'break' her.  Well this little guy feels normal, just like his Daddy always felt in my arms - like a little bear cub.

 Granddaughter needed to show us the new bike Santa Claus brought for her.  I am happy to say she is an excellent bike rider, although she needs a little alley oop/catch on occasion from her Daddy.

She and Grandpa had fun making snow balls and throwing them at Grandma and the camera!!  Fortunately they all landed just a tad short!

I got a real kick out of Granddaughter.  Her mother told her to go get her glasses and mittens so she went into her room and took out 'just' the right pair of sunglasses and then looked over about 3 pairs of mittens till she picked the color-coordinated pink striped ones.   My gosh, do little girls become fashion conscious  that young???  It was cute watching her decide.

It was a fun weekend, thanks to my daughter-in-law and son for the great time; and since I have enough material left over, I do believe I will make a matching quilt to the suit, and line it with blue flannel.  Putting a kid dressed in satin into a satin quilt would be like putting a greased pig into a greased tube I believe.  Tooo slippery.  They would shoot out of there like a rocket and across the floor...............

A Cute Face Will Serve One Well in Life's Tribulations...........

Proof Positive that with a Cute Face, One Can Commit All Kinds of Havoc Without Serious Repercussion

I'm happy to report the Duct Tape on the Refrig door was a success and the schnoodle did NOT get to have his way with the New Year's Turkey although we did share bites with him and the schnauzer (yeah, they are spoiled).  The Schnoodle, Shitmire MacGuire aka Jerry, however, has reeked his revenge.  He stopped asking to go outside to do his duty and started using my sewing room AGAIN.  Probably the DIRECT result of Turkey Deprivation.  The carpet is getting thin from being shampoo'd so often....as is my patience with this.  Just when I thought I had this problem whipped Jerry throws me a curve ball -- well in this case it's ball of dog sh..t!

I reported I finished my granddaughter's dress and here is a shot of her in it.

Granddaughter in the dress/pinafore with #2 Son/Daddy

What you probably cannot tell from the picture is that the pinafore is inside out.  Daddy, who is apparently Little Girl Dress Challenged, dressed her!  We left it as it was, and went on with our Christmas celebration. Daddy told me she insisted on the tights with her black shoes so maybe next time she will tell him it's inside-out!

New Year's Resolution for 2011 - Ride More and maybe do other things like Work, Housework, Paperwork, Television, Internet & Email, LESS.   And Learn to knit in 2011.

New Project in Progress:

 

Top of Christening Suit in Progress

I've started the Christening suit for my new grandson.  It has to be done by the 23rd when he will be Christened.  I found I like making these 'heritage' type sewing projects even though it's hard sometimes as things are so SMALL like sleeve openings and cuffs.  I'll post as I go along.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Give you Exhibit No. One.........................

Yes, Duct Tape, the all-purpose material on which Modern Society is Built.  Duct Tape.  Said Exhibit One will be used on Exhibit Two.

Exhibit Two - the refrigerator, one of the greatest inventions of Modern Society.   The Refrigerator.

That is correct - here North of Nowhere, Land of the Frozen -10F at night, we will begin 2011 by taping the door of Exhibit Two SHUT with Exhibit One.   And why, you ask?

Because the house smells delicious.  This is in the oven................Exhibit Three.

A Turkey, slowly roasting to a Nice Plump Golden Brown.  It's just the Hubby & I today but I had this in the freezer and thought we would start the New Year out with a scrumptious dinner and LOTS of Leftovers for Turkey Sandwiches!

And Because Exhibit Four still lives here,  we must safeguard the Turkey Leftovers......................

Exhibit Four - Shitmire MacGuire aka Jerry.  Who has been caught red-winged with a turkey leg AFTER he opened the refrigerator several years ago.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A ROLL OF DUCT TAPE HANDY!

The DRESS is Done

And given to the Granddaughter.  I like it --  The pattern shows a ribbon around the neck which I was going to do out of the pinafore material but decided it would be too busy.  Maybe I'll add a plain maroon ribbon about 1/4" wide.
Here's the pattern I used:

A vintage pattern I bought off of Ebay.

On to the next sewing project - the Christening Outfit for the New Grandson!

Shopping? NOT ME! I've Got the Crabby Christmas Blues!

WOW - a it's been over a month since I've posted!  We had a nice family get together over Thanksgiving and I sure enjoyed seeing the grand-babies.  The new one has grown so much since he was born the 29th of October. He almost had to share his birthday with a pumpkin or something!!  And granddaughter is such a good big sister!

Grandson was only about a week old when Granddaughter's Uncle (#1 Son) took this picture.  It's been my favorite photo of them so far!  Look at Big Sister's face in this photo in the corner and her hands.  She is so taken with her new baby brother!

Course with Thanksgiving came BLACK FRIDAY!!!  What an awful name for a day of shopping.  And I hate to SHOP.  HATE IT.  So I certainly did not participate in the crowded stores after Thanksgiving.   When I was dating Hubby I remember going into the J. C. Penney store in Mid-Wyoming Town on Black Friday.  It was so packed you almost could not navigate the stairways to the upper and lower floors.  So there we were in the midst of the crowd and Hubby-to-Be starts waving his arm and yelling at me "Out and Around 'em Shep!  Out and around em!" (for those that don't know, that's how you tell a stock dog to gather up the sheep or cows!)

And my nickname has been Shep ever since!  

So maybe that's what started my dread of shopping in crowded stores - nah, I hated it before then.  I guess when you are raised near Broke-Back Mountain (I really was!) crowds and you don't mix.

But I did participate in Manic Monday or whatever they call the Monday after when everyone orders on-line. Now wasn't that Easy?  Well, almost - still waiting on one order for the Wee Grandson.   Hopefully it will arrive next week and then I'm Done! except for a few small presents.

I've decided I have turned into Maxine!

I am almost done with the pinafore and dress for Granddaughter #1.  The pattern I used had several errors so that was challenge to work through but I like it and hope she will too. I wound up doing something entirely different then originally planned fabric-wise thanks to the great gal at ET Quilts!  Now on to the Christening outfit for the Grandson!  I'll post a photo of the outfits on the blog when I'm done.

Merry Christmas to All - to all a GOOD NITE!   Shep

Sewin' my Life Away!

Remember Eddie Rabbit's Drivin' My Life Away?  I always did like that song.

Tis almost the Season - Winter the Season of Sewing.  That's about the only thing I like about the season of frozen nose and toes anymore.

Some of you know I like to sew.  I have a new baby grandson and I made him a hooded cowboy towel that turned out pretty cute (but I neglected to take a photo of it so you'll have to take my word for it) along with some burp cloths as that's what his Mommy said he needed.  I've only seen him once (he's pretty new!) but he sure is cute.

My next project will be a Baptismal Suit for the new grandson.  #2 Child (who is the Dad) has strict orders that it CANNOT BE A DRESS.    So I've picked out this pattern with some customization - I am thinking of using an ivory satin for the main part but there is a gorgeous matching fabric with a leaf stitched in the satin at the fabric shop.  Maybe using it for the little vest and then making the bowtie a pale blue and making the bonnet with the leaf fabric and a pale blue brim.

When my granddaughter was born I wanted to make her a Christening gown and there in my closet was my wedding dress that my mother & I had sewn in 1974.

  My mother had hand-beaded the lace insets.  Now I thought NO one is ever going to wear that again so I cut it up and made this ---

Course I cannot make something for new baby brother without including Big Sister, so I thought I would make this for granddaughter in a red plaid with a black bowtie and white lacy pinafore.   I think she will look pretty cute in it.  She's fun to sew for as she is a girly-girl and likes the fru-fru.

Another project I think would be fun would be to reproduce a Victorian dress worn by one of her great-great grandmothers at the turn of the Century.  I have her other grandmother looking to see if she has a photo.  The photo below is my grandmother Irene with her older Sister Florence.  Boy they really had fancy dresses didn't they!   I'm not too sure I don't like Aunt Florence's dress better than my grandmothers.

Do you suppose that these little girls or their parents knew how precious this photo is to me today?

I have a lot of fun memories of my Grandma Irene.  I always loved her kitchen as she had a rooster theme.  Her table was round and it sat in a round dining area in the kitchen.  She had rooster salt and pepper shakers and a rooster napkin holder.  Her table was red and chrome classic fifties style.  But the neatest thing she did was she painted a gorgeous rooster above her cabinets just to the left of her kitchen sink.  Someday I want a rooster over MY Kitchen sink!

Well I have a ton of other projects lined up for this winter too!  Several quilts and some baby hats like this one  These are the cutest hats on a baby and I usually make them for all the new babies I know.

Happy Winter Sewing!