Recent Trip, Down Home, and A Sneak Peek

Even though we knew that my mother probably only had a short time left, we went ahead and left for our trip up to the NE, knowing that we might have to turn around and come home.  But, Mother hung on until we got home.  We got home on Wednesday.  She died on Saturday morning.  It's almost like she knew she needed to wait. I'm so glad that I was here.  I'm also glad we got to go on this trip.  We had so much fun!                                                            

We recently went to the NE to celebrate Miss J's birthday.  Here she is with big sis watching her blow out her candles.  My daughter makes the most beautiful cakes.  She made the flowers from colored chocolate, but she had me make the iciing.  Don't ask what I did wrong, but obviously something, because it was way too runny.  The color is pretty, though.

 

Little sis ran around playing in her "pretty princess dress"  that I made for her birthday last year.  She played as hard as any of the other kids, climbing the ladder, sliding down the slide, playing on the see-saw, etc.....

I took the Halloween costumes to them.  Here I am with the three big girls.  I can't believe I am posting a photo of myself!

My husband and me at Newport Beach, RI.  Again, I'm posting my photo!  What is up with that!?!

Papaw, my father-in-law, went with us.  Here he is with the three big girls at Newport.  This was a great trip for him. We really enjoyed his company and the grands were thrilled to have him there.

We went to a Shaker Village in MA.  This is the unique round barn.  How interesting it was!

We also went to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.  That was fun!!!!  There were several displays about Pat Summitt, Tennessee's women's basketball coach!!!

Grandaddy and Little Man painting flower pots to plant with wheat seeds.  This was my husband's birthday present from our daughter and her little family.  What fun they had, and how proud my husband is that the wheat is already growing.

While the family was here for my mother's funeral this past weekend, Papaw got the tractor out for rides.  This is Lil'E, who seemed a little nervous.

Here's one of my cousins holding Lil'B in her Halloween outfit.  Aren't those leg warmers cute?!  I didn't ask for my cousin's permission to post this.  Hope he doesn't mind.  He probably won't ever know.

These four pictures show a sneak peek at the Christening gown I'm making.  The top photo shows the smocking.  The next shows what I've done on the bottom of the skirt.  I did a madeira appliqued hem line.  I hand stitched around the scallops to hold them to the dress.  Then, I embroidered a simple little design with a flower and French knots across the top of the scallops.  The bottom two pictures show how I painted liquid starch across the top of each scallop and then ironed them down.  This makes a really smooth, even fold around these curves.  The starch washes out.  I used a pen with wash out ink to draw the scallops.  I used an embroidery hoop as a guide.  It was exactly the right size!!!