Not Finished, The Baby's Room, A Brave Little Girl, and My Brother Whew!!!!

I don't usually put pictures of unfinished garments on my blog, but I thought I'd show you that I really am making a little progress on this dress.  As you can see, it needs to be ironed and the smocking is nowhere near finished.  I have decided that the sleeve hems need to be gathered.  I'm actually going to put a casing about 3/4" from the hem and insert elastic, I think.  I'm trying to make the smocking look somewhat like a row of flowers, so I have work to do on the top part of the lavender, and I'm going to use some more yellow in the flower part where the white shows through.  Does that make sense?  As you can see I inserted two of the antique hand-appliqued napkins, like the ones I used to make the sleeves and collar, into the front of the skirt.              

Here are a few pictures of the real nursery.  Our little almost 3 year old, who is going to be a BIG SIS, is excitedly awaiting lil' sis in her big blue story reading chair.  She did the art work that is on the shelf.  I love it.  I made the curtains, the crib skirt, and the crib  mirror.  My daughter chose all the fabrics, and told me what she wanted, so the fact that it is all so cute is her doing.

Above the closet doors are some really cute bird houses that my daughter painted. The crib skirt fabric is a Love Birds pattern.  I don't know if you can see that in the picture or not, but these bird houses mimic that theme.  My daughter and son-in-law haven't chosen a name for this little one, yet, but after they do, she's going to do some kind of art work above the crib that incorporates her name.   I'm not sure about the art above the changing table, but I like it. I love all the sweet colors in this room.                               

I have been fortunate to have gotten to make the nursery things for all of the grands so far. 

The first one was a sky theme with the light blue fabric with clouds on it.  I made lots and lots of stars and moons that hung from the ceiling.  The curtains were puffy like a cloud.  

The second one was a circus theme.  I made a canopy that looked like the top of a circus tent to hang over the bed. 

For the third one I made valances that were three large stars stitched together.  The bumper pads and head board cover were made from star sprinkled yellow fabric.  The head board piece was shaped like a large star.  My daughter used the curtains that I made for her nursery when she was a baby that were little squares of yellow gingham and white eyelet sewn together checkerboard style.  

The next nursery was this new baby's big sis.  Her nursery was painted orange.  The fabric we used was a sky blue with large polka dots that were yellow, green, orange, and red.  I made the bumper pads, bed skirt, and Roman shade from it. 

For our Little Man, we used this pieced fabric that had chenille, flannel, and printed cotton fabrics all cut in squares.  I made the bumper pads from that fabric.  I made curtains from an old chenille bedspread.  For all of them I made a blanket and some pillows, etc....  Their moms picked out all the fabrics, etc... and I just made what they asked me to make. 

             

This is our almost three year old jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool where she is taking lessons.  She wanted to jump off the blocks!  This class is designed for 3 - 9 year olds, but she was too advanced for the class for 2 year olds.  She is very tiny next to the other kids.  She reminds me of our youngest daughter, who is her aunt.  She never had a fear of anything, except maybe spiders.

My brother just called to tell me that the doctor came in this morning to tell him that the infection isn't getting worse, but it's not getting better.  They are going to give it a few more days, and if it still isn't better they will have to go in and remove the whole prostheses, clean it out and put in a dummy one which means he won't be able to walk.   I didn't ask him if they would then go back later and put in another real prostheses.  I was afraid to ask him.  He was so down and out.  He said his wife really is getting depressed, as well.  He teaches school and definitely won't be going back in August.