Special Sewing

I've been wrasslin' with my sewing machine for nearly a year. It kept making nests on the underside of the fabric, but not consistently enough for me to diagnose the problem. I decided that before I started really working on the baby quilt for Gabby, I wanted the sewing machine to be 100% cooperative. I like to pray for the baby and the mama while I sew. Fewer thread nests meant more pleasant prayers :)

After watching a bundle of videos online and nearly taking the machine apart bit by bit . . . I decided to consult the manual. Believe it or not, the answer soon became apparent--the bobbin case (the holder under the bobbin that I wind and thread) cannot have any scratches on it. Closer inspection revealed mine had several holes from an errant needle and was missing a chunk or two of vital plastic. Who knew? So I looked up a replacement on the 'zon, and within a few days for a few dollars, my machine was happily stitching along like it was fresh off the assembly line.

That is an answered prayer!

With this simple repair made, I got to enjoy working on my granddaughter's sweet little quilt! When I was at Hobby Lobby shopping for fabric, I loaded my cart so high with options that another lady commented, "You must be working on quite a project." I told her, "I am. It's my first grandbaby's quilt!" Because I couldn't decide which I liked best, I ended up buying enough fabric to make two quilts for the baby. The forest creatures won out! This was for sure the most detailed and sizeable baby quilt I've ever made, but I loved doing it, because of who will be covered with it and the prayers that went into the making of it :)

Because I liked the other fabrics so much, I decided to learn how to make nursing covers from them. I really enjoyed the process of making these for Gabby--one out of a fun orangish floral pattern and another out of the fabric K picked for me to make Baby H's quilt. I remembered that Gabby like the fabric, so I bought some more. It goes along well the wildflower nursery mural Gabby is painting for her baby. I don't know how necessary it is for one to match the decor while feeding one's baby, but I guess that will be an option :)

Until then, I can hardly wait to meet the baby girl who will snuggle up in this quilt 💗

Do You Know What's Easy?

Posting about puppies is easy . . . I just say, "Look at the cute puppies! They are (?) weeks old. Awww, puppies!" and that's all I have to say :) So . . .

Look at the cute puppies! They are five weeks old here . . .

Puppy meets tiny toad! It hopped right up to her nose and she pretty much just napped, lol :)

Olive disappeared under a pile of her playful pups--they got real big, real fast!

The day I visited the pups, Daisy turned two! Not much of a birthday present to her  for me to come home smelling like her siblings whom she's never met, but the visit worked with my timeline :)

And six weeks old here! Olive is very skinny, but nearly done nursing. So we should be able to pick her up soon and bring her home to fatten her up a bit :) We stopped to see the pups on the way to Colorado, but not on the way home (because of delays and thunderstorms). There is a new set of puppies from Olive's summer litter buddy, who added 7 little EC Goldens to the pack while we were in the mountains. Excited to see them!

This was the pups' first pool day! They are very bitey with their very sharp teeth! 

Oh, but exciting news--two of the dogs from the litter buddy Golden's first litter were placed as official service dogs last week! One of them is the girlie pup Caelan and Noah puppy-raised when they were switching back and forth with puppy-raising Daisy. We finally got one through! :) Several others from that litter will be placed over the next year, including Noah's favorite, Herbie. Three cheers for successful service dog training!

A Very Special Celebration

Preparing for the upcoming arrival kicked into full swing, recently! One great-grandma arrived from the south, the other arrived (SURPRISE!) from the west, and sweet S volunteered to spend days-on-end with us helping with all the bits and pieces of the party. Although mostly on the day before the baby shower, I'll admit, we sat around and chatted and painted baby blocks while Caelan baked up a French bakery's worth of fancy foods :) I'm not sure how we'll ever get through that 25 lb. bag of flour she bought, lol!

We had a tea tasting of all the chai tea flavors my boss sent me last month; I still can't quite, but I'm still trying to learn to like loose leaf tea! G$ and C (whose sweetie was on vacay with her fam) did some backyard golf swing practice while we were indoors prepping (C ended up staying a couple of nights, too--we had nine people scattered through the house for a couple of days, on about every sleeping surface we could come up with!) I didn't mind a bit, a full house is a fun house!

With Brennen's unexpected return home for the summer, and some of the baby shower gifts appearing at our door, and Caelan's Farmers Market, vacation, and baby shower boxes in tow, plus visitor luggage and extra bedding all over--well, we need a bigger house :) One specifically with a staging area for big events!

I'm pretty sure Gabby is in there somewhere, too--the balloon dream team reunited! She came over after work and was shocked to see Grandma J sitting casually at the kitchen table :) But all for good reason, the next morning was baby shower time! The theme was classic Pooh/100 Acre Woods. Caelan put honey sticks, like our kids used to enjoy at Farmers Markets when I was writing newspaper articles, in the flower arrangements. Of course, she only picked ones that matched the color theme :)

Wooden blocks were the guest book! We certainly had the advantage of hours to work on ours rather than everyone else's quick stop at the welcome table on the way in to the festivities :) There are some very creative people in that guest group though, and some darling, personalized toys for baby as a result!

We were grateful for Gabby's MIL to hostess the party. Her house is the perfect set-up and flow for large gatherings. Caelan has decorated the rooms before (for Gab's bridal shower), so things came together quickly--especially with all the helpers!

The crocheted booties Caelan made were gifted to her sister later, with the flowers and beans still inside :) I missed the syrup-making while I was at PT, but the ladies at home cooked down mangoes, strawberries, blueberries and more to create homemade flavors for the lemonade bar. They also sliced up pretty fruits to drop into the glitter gold glasses (that were part from other parties and part from a fresh order to restock in a new size). The party was also loosely a tea party (with no tea), but Buck and I found several pretty dishes at various places around town. Mix-n-match settings are quite popular and looked sweet for this event. We also pulled pink paper plates and napkins from Caelan's graduation party backstock--so many party supplies that keep coming in handy!

I forgot to take very many pictures at the shower, but we did capture a few special moments! The storybook guessing game (we all enjoyed working on creative titles together in Wyoming . . . such as Forest Dog Wearing Ankle Blankets, North Carolina Fly-trap, Trunk and Snout Besties--I'm trying to remember them off the top of my head--did you guess Fox in Socks, Charlotte's Web, and Elephant and Piggie? :) We also played a story-building game that turned out to be a comedy/personalized baby book tale for the new one! 

Gabby's gift opening took nearly an hour, and I only got a pic of the tail end of her amazing gift pile. Baby Girl is going to be well set when she arrives! So many sweet, pretty, thoughtful, unique, useful, creative items! S even gave a copy of her own favorite book from childhood, aww!

Those few hours flew by in good company--more than 30 guests appeared! Our first family baby shower proved a success. We hope it was a blessing to the mama- and daddy-to-be!

When we all reconvened back at the house, more block decorating took place--the Uncs needed to add their flair to the collection. S was very sweet with Brennen, encouraging him to maybe finish the block with purple scribbles, because, "He could for sure do that one." Oh my goodness, we laughed so hard! She ended up helping him spruce up some of his Veggie Tales characters, and they shared credit. Noah took on zoo animals and they turned out adorably! Caelan went for under-the-sea and G$ designed a car-enthusiast themed block with a tire burnout of pink smoke, aww! He also got the baby the COOLEST Abc's book at an all-day car show, burnout event he and Josh and C went to. Each alphabet letter is a car part--with good explanations of what they are! A is for Alternator, S is for Supercharger, T is for Transmission . . . seriously, the perfect gift from Uncle G$ :)

While we were sitting at the table, ever knitting or crocheting, Caelan got started on her gift to the baby--a blanket with colors Gabby picked out on our Hobby Lobby outing earlier in the week :)

And because no one wanted to cook, and also because Caelan misses good restaurants which are missing in her rural locale, we all met up for dinner (Buck after work) and Grandma J and Maga treated us to a tasty night out! Somehow, after all that, the four pictured below still had the energy to go out for cookies afterwards! This trip was the first time the schoolyweds  got to meet S, so I'm so happy they found time for a little double date with Brennen and his sweetheart.

So many good things this week! So thankful 💕

First Monday of the Month

I am not even going to make an attempt to catch up all that's happened in the past month . . . but, I picked a little pop of cuteness for the page and that was my blog goal for today :)

I present . . . Olive's puppies . . .

One Day Old

They are surprisingly chunky at the beginning! Three boys (one didn't make it) and one girl! The girl weighed nearly 2 lbs. which reassured Olive's other family that the scheduled c-section was the right choice. Olive woke up kinda panicky and didn't realize the puppies were hers, so they put liver treats on the puppies (Olive was verrrrrrry hungry) to get her to acknowledge the new arrivals. Once they had her lick scent on them, she understood what she was supposed to do, and started nursing them. Being the good mama she learned to be with her first litter!

One Week Old

Buck and I drove out to visit when the puppies were one week old--they had doubled in size! Olive decided she'd like to come home with us, thank you very much. But she had to stay to care for her growing brood. Turns out, these puppies also like to chew on Buck's beard :)

Five Days Later

On our way out to Wyoming, Caelan, Gabby and I stopped at Olive's other house to see the puppies and they were up walking around! I was shocked! Not even two weeks old and already chasing their mom around :) And don't you love the little Swiss kiss heart on Elga's head? She's the only pup with that marking!

Almost Three Weeks Old

We had quite a break in the puppy-visiting action . . . 10 days went by with travel, company, celebrations, and such. Grandma J couldn't resist a visit (and a little peek-a-boo :) and Brennen and S came along, too! Eyes are opening, they are on rations, Olive is skinny (and this time had to be lured away from the exit with food--she was ready to pack it up :) Rigi (they are all named after Swiss Mountains, given their parentage, which I thought was clever!) has the most Bernese Mountain Dog markings, followed by Miss Elga.

It's already been a week since we've been out to visit! If it didn't take four hours RT, it would be a lot more often! We should have Olive back in a few weeks, and then she'll be done with puppy parenting. Her buddy from the summer of Fern and Piper is expecting a large litter again about the time Olive's ready to stop nursing. Lots of fun at the pup house this summer!