Calise's First Birthday

My granddaughter, Calise, turned had her first birthday this past weekend and there was a beautiful party to attend. I wanted to make her a minkee/flannel quilt, thank to a suggestion from Julie, and I found this fabric all stitched together at Joann's. I appliqued her name in fleece to add another texture.

Just a meander for the quilting.

The backing is minkee too.

Her she is with her quilt:

And with her cousin, Liz

With Liz and Drew:

She doesn't care too much for icing

 Dané's Mom Elaine, Dané(Calise's mom), Jeff(Calise's dad), Aunt Julie

Liz, Calise, Drew, Aunt Debbie, Dané's Dad, Jerry, Elaine, Dané, Jeff, Loretta and Julie

Happy Birthday to Me!

Look at these pretty flowers that were on my desk after lunch, from my good friend Dottie.
Thanks so much!

I think she likes them!

Here's Elizabeth at her birthday party on Sunday.





And here she is at home later, playing with her dolls and her new cradle.



It must have looked comfy cause she took her dolls out and tried it out herself.

Elizabeth's First Birthday

I can't believe that she is a year old already. What a beautiful little girl she is! She started out so daintily eating her cake, but eventually leaned over and took a bite.




Of course, Nana made her a birthday bib to wear. I certainly should use my embroidery machine more often.

Her birthday quilt and the cakes matched her decorations.



Andrew enjoyed some cake and ice cream, and I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

Birthday Week

What a wonderful way to start my birthday week. This lovely jewelry box was waiting for me when I got home from the baby shower last Saturday. It is from Jeff and Dané and what a lovely gift. The poem is so touching....”the nights you stayed awake” would be when he was awake with an ear infection, and let me tell you, there were many of those night between the 2 boys. They both had many ear infections, but Julie never did, that I can remember. Wind Beneath My Wings is the tune that it plays and it brings tears to my eyes when I hear it.

This morning I opened these wonderful new toys. Dan called yesterday from a quilt shop in Noblesville, Always in Stitches, and asked if there was anything he could pick up for me. Well, I bent my old walking foot a while back and although it still works, it will be nice to have a new straight one, and the light is something that my friends had at the Ross Camp retreat and I have been wanting one.


EDIT: Oh, Look, I got flowers this afternoon.
BUT, I DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE FROM!I also got to talk to Jeff in Afghanistan today.

The Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, well actually I said that it was the 33rd anniversary of my 21st birthday. Not that I would want to be 21 again, heaven forbid, not in this day and age. I was quite happy being 21 at that time. I had 2 toddlers, so my days were full of Sesame Street and such.

These balloons were delivered at work in the morning from Jeff.


I took 3 hours off in the afternoon to do some yard work and I left work just before these were delivered in the afternoon, also from Jeff.


I have to pat myself on the back for raising such a fine young man, who certainly knows how to spoil a woman, even if it's only his mother. Jeff is still single, by the way!

The Computer
Those of you who know me know that I'm a Mac user. I'm a graphic designer and the Mac is well know for being "the operating system" for graphic design. I have done some freelance design, so I had a Mac at home as well.

When I got my embroidery machine and software, I needed a PC, so Dan got me an older PC with Windows 98 on it. It has served me well with the Artista, Magic Box, and EQ5 software, however, I just purchased Machine Quilters Business Software and it needs Windows 2000, or newer.

My old G3 Mac was slowly dying....I still had OS 9 and old versions of IE and Outlook Express. We made the switch from Verizon to Comcast for our internet service and the Comcast wouldn't work on my old Mac...........
so my birthday present from Dan is this Dell with Windows XP.



So far, so good, but I do miss the Mac, which is at the computer store trying to have the old photo files put on CDs or DVDs.