White stuff

Thursday morning
Couldn't believe it when I woke up and went for our early morning cup of tea to the kitchen ... snow! I actually yelled the word.

I had promised to do some work in the church office. But I couldn't walk in without first walking around and snapping some pictures (with totally inappropriate shoes). It was so pretty.

You ask "What? No grandchild pictures? Just landscape?"
Look at this picture of Caleb which Sarah put up on FaceBook. She said it was Caleb's first snow.

This picture is from the evening before. Sarah and Wade had invited us to dinner. Caleb was reacting to Wade's tongue wiggling ... and he tried to do it too.

Friday I volunteered to help Sarah so she could get some things done. First a trip to Lowes for something for the remodeling. I thought this looked so funny ... following my determined daughter.

Omi played "dress up". This was in the package which had come from my cousin Eva from Germany. She is a super knitter like our mutual grandmother Oma Grete was .I know how to knit but I am sooooo.slooooow. And her work is way more fancy.

I had forgotten that I needed to send an email. Caleb is cooperating and seems very interested in what I am doing. No, Caleb, you are too young for a smartphone! Sarah took this photo.

In the evening James wanted to do a little grilling for us. Look what he found under the lid of one of the side burners: seeds from the bird feeder and insulation.

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A new thing

Tuesday Jan 7
Came home from the lace workshop and surprise, surprise. I discovered a third bloom coming out of the amaryllis which already had had two gorgeous flowers.

Wednesday the 8th
When I can I drop by Sarah's to be with Caleb so she can take care of something. Sometimes she will call or text to see whether I can. Well, I could. Got to see the progress of their remodeling too. The upstairs bathroom had an uneven floor and a wobbly toilette which at a later point could have caused great damage. So if you do something, do it right right away. Good motto. In this case it was major.

I had been jealous of the great picture of James and Caleb in the last blog (just kidding). But Sarah took the following saying that it was the mate to James'.

Monday 13th
I had promised Sarah to babysit in the afternoon. She needed to go to her pharmacy for a while. Reality. Soon she has to go back to work. But Caleb and I had fun.
Playing.

Sleeping.

Playing again, eating and sleeping some more. Look who wanted to have part of my lap! Wasn't easy to take this picture. Always seem to get a finger into it.

When Sarah came back she took this photo.

Tuesday 14th:
Caleb does a new thing every day but here is something new for me: first meeting of the CR quilters. Quite a good number of ladies were interested to get together regularly so I took the initiative and reserved the big room in our Pavilion for 10am on every second Tuesday of each month.
We were 14 and had a great time. First we discussed what format we wanted the meetings to have. Refreshments or not, cutting, sewing too? It was a good discussion and once that was done we had a wonderful time with show and tell.
Margaret started. Unfortunately I don't know every lady's name yet.

Everybody's work was stunning but can you believe it? Bea does not use a sewing machine. All piecing done by hand. All quilting done by hand. Helen wants a private lesson from her when she visits next time.

Everybody seems to have a specialty. This quilter's preference is appliqué.

Here is a close-up of the quilting. She has a friend with a long arm who does not like to make the tops so they are trading labor.

Back to Margaret again hidden behind the exquisite little wall hanging or table cover.

Lynda is working on her second quilt from the same pattern but totally different color scheme. I was lucky to see her first one which she had given away because it was a gift

Sometimes it takes a while to figure out how it goes together. And often you have a choice and you have to make a decision.

Joyce's machine-embroidered Victorian ladies. Sorry I forgot to take a close-up.

Pillow covers are good beginner's projects.

Very special color choices.

Janet has done a lot of quilt work too and is very willing to share. A block of the month quilt.

Marsha was happy to show her Kiwi fabric. She bought it on a trip to New Zealand and will use it in the pattern she bought on a trip to Alaska.

Stay tuned for this. I think I will learn a lot from these ladies.

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Lace and leftovers

Today I went to Williamsburg for a lace class. Opportunities to learn from an expert lace teacher don't come around that often. Janet's friend Betty Manfre was in town and there was the opportunity.
Betty is an expert in Cantu lace. Here is a link to see more!
The Monday class! Thanks to Janet's daughter, who took the group photos!

Everybody is intensely working.

The teacher's earrings!

The teacher's little coaster thingy.

That's what the two-day students were working on. I can't remember whos pillow this is. Lots of new technique to learn here. Wished I could ...

And this is my achievement of the day. The flower is about the size of a quarter. Lots of new technique.

And now about the leftovers:
Since I was gone most of get day, I had not given dinner a lot of thought. The drive alone is an hour each way. Open the fridge and look what needs to be eaten. Wow, LOTS of fresh cauliflower. So I took my biggest pot and steamed it in some water. There was so much cauliflower that I took some out for my salad when it was still somewhat "el dente".
When the cauliflower was squashable I did it with the potatoe masher. Then I added leftover Philadelphia cheese, leftover cheese sauce from a taco salad dinner (velveta and salsa), leftover spicy cheese cubes and some chicken bouillon. Not how I usually make my cauliflower soup but oh, was it good. Ha-ha, I should say: is! There are probably two more meals, yeah!!!


And while I was in lace class, look what James was doing!
(Photo messages to me by Sarah)

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