Licking the bowl

 

 

 

 

Grandma duty this week yippee!! We made freezer jam with fresh raspberries from the local you pick.  The berries were few and far between but I persevered and picked enough for one recipe of jam. (The berries were thick on the canes just not ripe another week or two…..)  They helped wash the berries and crushed the berries and measured the sugar the added the sugar and stirred and stirred.  Wait 10 minutes for the sugar to dissolve add the pectin and lemon juice and stir for 3 minutes then into the container and lick the bowl. Just that slick.  I have been using the recipe in the pectin box forever and I do mean forever.  It was my first 4-H demonstration when I was 9 but back then it was powdered pectin and had to be cooked for a minute or two but still super easy.  —Ann—

Little artists

 

Fun weekend with the little girls as always low tech.  My watercolor pencils got sharpened…..while they were painting, cutting or gluing I was coloring in a Peter Rabbit coloring book from my daughter’s childhood with watercolor pencils then they would use the waterbrush to paint. They saw that I was using multiple colors for leaves and fur so they would try it.  They would try so hard to stay in the lines and be neat. They love their Prang paints the colors are as vibrant as from my childhood the paint brushes have gotten smaller if you can see that in the top photo.  They each have the Prang script. I buy tablets of 9 x 12 paper and cut the sheets into 4 the perfect size for them.  Little art lessons and they think they are just having fun. —Ann—

Fun weekend

Fun weekend with the little girls however they tell me they are big girls!!  Always low tech with grandma baking cookies, drawing, painting, paper dolls, and playing outside because it was sunny and 50+ degrees that weekend.  We saw and heard lots of geese heading north and even saw one robin. Do the birds know something the weatherman doesn’t or are they going to be in for a surprise. The little girls were exhausted come supper time. And today we have 3 inches of fresh snow.  Can’t wait to go see them again.

My devices updated themselves and a new glitch in the system wouldn’t let me upload pics but darling daughter got me straightened out if I do things in exactly the right order…………I need to get productive again and post more frequently wish me luck to get in gear. —Ann—

 

Nap time

Sometimes nap time just doesn’t happen when you tell them to go lay down. Sometimes a stack of books is much more effective especially when grandma’s voice keeps getting quieter and quieter, they didn’t even know they were falling asleep. A fun fun weekend with the little girls. —Ann—

Low tech weekend

 

It was a very low tech weekend— Grandma wouldn’t turn on the tv and find any kids shows!!  Instead it was sugar stamp cookies, paper dolls and quilt forts (grandmas who quilt can make the best forts) and lots and lots of picture books for quiet time…….naps are becoming a thing of the past.  —Ann—

Posing together

That’s as good as it gets for them posing together.  Now we just need October weather to arrive so they can wear their new sweaters. Miss M was really not unhappy here it was just the picture that wasn’t a blur, she can change expressions so fast.  Miss O was also captured in a brief pause in the fading evening light.  Cooler days are coming and I knit hugs into every stitch.  —Ann—

 

Sweaters

 

I’m working on sweaters for the little girls. The yarn did not come from Ireland, I love knitting wool but this Berroco Remix Light is more practical for little girls.  It’s machine wash and dry!! Madeline is always a card in front of the camera. Olivia was not interested that day.  The pattern is Harvester by Elyssa Samatha Taylor, super easy front and back are the same no shoulder shaping so they won’t ever put it on backwards. And I just knit stockinette instead of garter stitch in the sleeves. Ann

So far it’s been a no sew summer

 It’s been a no sew summer for me at least since I finished quilting the last baby quilts. I need to stay home for a couple weeks to start a new quilt, I look at my books and choose some fabric and then we go again when we come home I look at my mess and am not inspired so I clear the table and start again……this has been happening for weeks. My fabric stash and ideas can wait the little girls will only be 3 for a few more months then they will be 4.  And off we go again.  What do I do on those 4 hour drives coming or going? Knit socks!! Unless of course I am driving. The roads are long and straight in South Dakota. These are socks since June and I’m using up the wee bits of leftover yarn.  Savoring the moments—Ann—

Writing in books

 

A few decades ago back when I was doing calligraphy and my children were babies I wrote their names in all their books that were gifts, their name, year and the occasion and a couple books signed by the author. The little girls always want me to read that page and always followed by a slew of questions and explanations. “ This was my daddy’s book?” “From mommy and  daddy?” Followed by long explanation of grandma and grandpa are your daddy’s mommy and daddy. We are still working on that concept. I have continued the tradition of writing in the books I give to each of them and together. My calligraphy is not as nice as it once was it’s like all things that require practice to get to a degree of perfection if you don’t do it you loose it. These books are theirs but the books stay at my house. We always read the inscription before reading the story.

My mother gave me a stack of books from my childhood years ago, it was fun to read the inscriptions in them from my grandparents and godparents but sadly those books had been stored in the basement and smelled musty really musty. I shelved them with my books briefly but the smell migrated so I spread them outside in the sun for days but couldn’t get rid of the smell so I tossed them all. Most were little golden books. I still have a couple that I got after my parents passed away, my daughter says she can still smell grandma’s house in them.  Making keepsakes—Ann—

 

Minki blankets

 

I made a couple minki blankets for the little grands because when the try to take a nap at grandma’s house….the bed isn’t right and the pillow doesn’t feel right and the little quilts don’t feel right either….so next time grandma will have blankets with minki on the back and I really hope they “feel right”. 

I just used some yardage that I had to make a ‘quilt back’ then laid it on the minki and folded the minki over the cotton then stitched it with the triple zigzag stitch.  After we read a pile of story books they can count the little animals and maybe fall asleep. Ha!! It’s a good plan. —Ann—

Tea party

 The little girls opened the bag together that hid their Dollie’s for Christmas. They peeked in and both said their own name when they saw them then said she has hair just like me. And they were promptly tossed aside for the toy digital cameras with a real sd card that do take pictures and the microphone with the music from a Disney movie. How toys have changed!! We are at the river this weekend to celebrate their daddy’s birthday. They brought their Dollie’s over for a tea party with teddy grahams (they were hard to find) a favorite snack from my children’s childhood.  I made that little teaset in 1965 when my mother was going through a ceramic phase. Then we built a fort out of quilts.  —Ann—