We're home from our camping weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend, camping up at the park near Noel and Laurie's home. Other then the first day and night we were there, when it was quite cold, the weather was perfect. I don't know if there were temperature records set, but it was a glorious and warm weekend away. Lots of time spent outside, chasing the shade, relaxing and reading. Unfortunately, the wireless reception at the park was kind of hit and miss, so I wasn't able to do any blogging from up there. And, of course, there was time spent with family. After we arrived on Thursday, and got the camper mostly set up, we headed over to have supper with Noel and Laurie, Bill and Jan, who are Laurie's parents, and with Laurie's Grandmother, affectionately known as Gee-gee, short for Great-grandma. And, of course, we can't forget the birthday boy, Avery.

When we had Laurie's baby shower, before Avery was born, Becca and I put our heads and hands together, and made the cake for the shower. Considering neither of us had ever attempted making a tiered cake before, It turned out beautifully.

Once the shower was over, we had the top tier of the cake left. Jan very carefully wrapped it up, and stored it in her freezer, with the plan of keeping it, and taking it out to have as dessert for Avery's first birthday. I am still blown away by how fast that time passed. 
I think this might be the first time Avery has had chocolate. He had a fabulous time with it.

I don't know what it is about babies, and chocolate cakes and pictures of them with the cake all over their faces, but they are always cute, and never seem to get old, for being repeated. He's not as messy as some I've seen, but he sure is cute. It was fun to watch him take a tentative little pinch of the cake and taste it, and go from there to big hand fulls. What a joy he is. And he continues to turn this Grammy's heart to a melted puddle of mush. I actually have a video of him eating the cake, but I haven't had the time to upload it yet. I'll most definitely share it once I get that done.

Grandbaby days

Thursday afternoon, I hopped on a bus and took the trip up to spend some time with Noel and Laurie and Avery. Scott wasn't able to come up due to issues with his brother, who is ill, and needed him near by. But the bus trip wasn't bad, at all. I had my Kobo ereader with some books from the library loaded onto it, and I was quite content to sit and read. The best part, though, was looking after Avery all day Friday while Noel and Laurie were at work. He is such a fun and happy little guy. The only time he gets grumpy is when he is tired, at which point he goes into his bed, without a fuss, and goes to sleep. I know it took some doing on Laurie's part a few months ago to get him to this stage, since at that time he had a really difficult time going to bed and settling. But she persevered, and it worked.

I have decided that I really need to invest in a new camera. The one I have has a lag time between when I push the button to take the photo, and when it actually does. Any suggestions for a good, inexpensive one without that annoying lag time? Every time I go to get a picture of Avery, by the time the camera actually takes the picture, the picture I wanted is gone. Very frustrating. I seem to do better with using my camera to get videos of him, since that way I don't have to actually try and get a single picture. I got one of him feeding himself his lunch yesterday. And, since I have nothing quilty to show, I'll show him, instead. Besides which, he's an awful lot cuter and more fun to watch, than any of my quilts. But, then again, I'm a terribly biased and proud Grammy.

Stash Report Nov. 27

November 27, how on earth did that happen so fast? Wasn't it just yesterday that we were waiting for our grandson to be born, and he's a little over 6 months old already. He's such a handsome little boy. I am so thankful for the technology of the internet. It makes keeping in touch, and being able to see him so much more possible. He had his first taste of banana a couple of weeks ago, and Laurie called me on Skype, and put her laptop in front of Avery while he was having his first taste of it, and I was able to participate in the experience, even from 4 hours away. So cool. But, this is supposed to be a stash report, not an Avery report. Somehow, I seem to have gotten a bit side tracked. So, on to the numbers:

Fabric used this week:                                     2.9 yards
Fabric used this year:                                     141.9 yards
Fabric purchased this week:                                0
Fabric purchased this year:                             162.5 yards
Balance:                                              20.6 more yards in than out.

Hmmmmmmm, looks like I just might make the 150 yards used mark. I wonder if I'll actually get down to a zero balance? With only one month left to the year, probably not, but I'll get close. I'm linking up with Judy's stash report where there are other quilters also keeping track of there fabric ins and outs. And now, I'm going to go sew for a while, before I have to go in to work this afternoon.

Too cute not to share.

I might actually be doing a couple of posts today, one family related, and the other quilt related. While we were away visiting Noel, Laurie and Avery, I took a couple of videos of Avery using the camera. All well and good, until I tried uploading one of them to my blog. Do you think I could get it to work? Nope, wouldn't do it. Of course, not having a clue about what I was doing didn't help. Then, I found out that it should be uploaded to Youtube first. Sure, OK, I can do that........... not. I couldn't get it to upload, and when I finally figured out how to do that, it said it would take 138 minutes to complete. Huh????? We just started a new internet provider, and it hasn't been going well so far. The blistering speeds we were led to expect haven't happened. In fact, for a while it was slower than the old dial up. Anyway, fast forward a couple of days, and much troubleshooting later, and the speeds are better. It only took 38 minutes to upload a little over a minute worth  of the videos from my camera to youtube. So, without further delay here he is, his first video performance on my blog, my wonderful oh so adorable grandson Avery.....

What a delicious evening

We were given the opportunity Saturday night to babysit Avery while Noel and Laurie had a date night. What a wonderful evening it was, filled with all sorts of wonderful looking after a darling baby stuff. There was  play time and feeding time and bath time and rocking to sleep while grammy sang him lullabies time. It was the first time we've really been able to spend that much time with him, and I enjoyed every single second of it.

First he had a nap, sleeping in his bouncy chair, that wasn't very bouncy since it needed batteries, but he didn't mind in the least.


Then he had something delicious to eat, but I didn't get any pictures of that, since I couldn't very well feed him, and take pictures at the same time. Scott could have taken the picture, I suppose, but he was bust trying to get the DVD player working.  Then we went downstairs, and changed his bottom, while he had a grand time looking at and playing with his bouncing camel.

And then, the most fun of all, was bath time. He loves his bath. Grampy took these pictures, after he gave up trying to get the DVD player working.

Shelby, their chocolate lab had to come in and make sure we were doing everything just the right way.

And after all that, was the best, the total best of the evening, a snuggle up in the rocking chair, with the lights down low, to rock and sing our darling Avery to sleep. We're home now, and I miss him already. I wish we lived closer. (sigh) 

Design Wall Monday June 20

There is nothing  new on my design wall today. Bear Tracks is still there, and unchanged. I spent last week starting to catch up on my backlog of customer quilts, and working 3-11 at the hospital. And then, we spent the weekend at the campground near to  Noel, Laurie and Avery. We were at the same park as last time, but a different campsite. This one was right on the water. We were able to open up the zipper at the end of the bed, and then lay there, and look out over the water while having our morning coffee in bed. This was part of the view:

While we were there, Noel, Laurie and Avery, and Laurie's parents came out for a campfire, and hamburgers cooked over the fire. Yummy. Avery had a great time............ he slept through almost the whole thing. But Grammy got to have quite a lot of cuddle time, while sitting at the campfire. What could be better?

Noel did the cooking. He doesn't have a great fondness for camping, but he sure does a great job of cooking over an open fire. We had roasted marshmallows, and pecan tarts for dessert, and Avery got to have his dinner inside the trailer. I wonder if we'll make a camper out of him? I can see future years of going up there, and having him come out to visit, and maybe even stay with Grammy and Grampy for a night or 2, or maybe even more. It can be guaranteed that by then, he won't be doing a lot of sleeping, like he does now. But, he sure is adorable.

The rest of this week isn't going to be anywhere near as much fun. I'm off work at the hospital until the weekend, so my goal is to get all my customer quilts finished. I'm well on the way to that goal, since I finished one today. I'll be loading another tomorrow. I want to be able to get them done, so that I can get to quilting the backlog of my own quilts.

Design Wall Monday June 6

We finally have a decent summer day. The kind where we can comfortably sit outside in the yard on the swing for morning coffee. Pure bliss. The irises are in bloom, the roses just starting to show a bit of colour, and the peonies just starting to open up. The pond is partially reconstructed, and the water is gently trickling, making an attempt to cover up the occasional annoying barking from the dogs next door. There is barely any breeze, so, after I finish writing this, I am going to pack up what I need to work on Bear Tracks and bring it all outside.
My design wall has a couple of things on it. My progress so far on My Tweets and my progress so far On Bear Tracks.

And then, no post right now would be complete without a picture of the reason why there hasn't been any recent design walls, or much quilting going on. Our beautiful, adorable grandson Avery. This is going to one of the last current pictures I have of him, unless his Mom and Dad take pity on me and send some down. We don't know, right now, when we are going to be able to go back and see them again. I miss him so much already, and we just left them on Friday. He'll have changed so much by the time we get to see them again. (sigh)

If you want to see other inspirational design walls, pop on over to Judy's Patchwork Times There is always lots to see there.

We're home.....

Why do vacation weeks always go so fast? We had to come home today, since both of us are working tomorrow. While we were gone this week, I managed to get all the pieces for My Tweets for May cut, prepped and glue basted onto the background, and then some stitching done. It is nice, so far, being able to keep up with this. The other challenges I started at the beginning of the year seem to have fallen by the wayside. But they've been replaced by a wonderful grandson.

We had to go over to say goodbye to Laurie and Avery before we left. He was awake today, and we got to have some playtime on his play mat. He is such a good tempered baby. Sleeps well, most of the time, except in the middle of the night, when most newborns think it is time to be awake. He was slow getting started gaining weight, but he's on his way up, now. It was really difficult saying goodbye, especially since we don't really know when we'll be able to go back up again. But Avery had a good chat with Grampy before we left. He is just the cutest thing ever.

Vacation time

Here we are, in the middle of our week's vacation up near our kids. The internet connection at the campground is a bit erratic, so I haven't been able to do as many posts as I would have liked. This evening, however, we are spending some time at Noel and Laurie's, with the baby and the hockey game. The campground we are at is rather nice. Sometime in the past someone planted scores of lilacs. They are all now in bloom, rather later than usual, due to our late spring. When the breeze blows out of a certain direction, the fragrance is absolutely heavenly. The campground itself is small, and not very busy at this time of year. We don't have the place all to ourselves, but it's pretty close to it. We've had one nice day, yesterday, but the rest of it has been pretty chilly

Of course, the main reason for coming up here was to spend time with Noel and Laurie and that precious grandson of ours. Becca and Matt came up on the weekend, and stayed at the campsite with us. Matt wasn't able to get time off when Avery was born, so this was Matt's first chance to meet him. I must say that he looks really good holding a baby. I've been teasing him that Avery needs a cousin. LOL And Becca is thrilled with the baby as well, and wanting one of her own. However, as much as I would love for them to have one of their own, they would be smart to wait a while.

And what would be a post, without a picture of that beautiful boy.

More pictures of Avery, our Grandson......

Three generations, mother, son Noel, and grandson Avery

Wow, does that ever sound good...... Grandson. And to be able to say it about an actual person, who is here, rather than expected, is even better. Yes, I know, everyone who is a grandparent has told me how fabulous it is. But it is another one of those things that has to be experienced, to really know. Laurie and Noel have been fabulous with him, relaxed, as if they've been doing this forever, rather than it being their first child. So far, he is an extremely mellow baby, and we are all hoping and praying that he remains that way once he comes home.  And, how can I talk about our grandson, without pictures. It is a guarantee that I am going to drive everyone absolutely nuts, and have a fabulous time doing it. LOL. I don't have any pictures of Laurie with him, though. A situation that I am going to have to change, maybe tomorrow before we head back home. Now that is going to be difficult. We'll be back in a little over a week, to spend a week camping at a park that is only 10 minutes away from them. And our work schedules have a 4 day weekend once a month, that we can use to come and visit. But it is going to be difficult to be that far away from them. Babies change so much, so fast, and we'll miss big chunks of it. But, I am grateful that he is here, that he is healthy, and that they are only 4 hours away, not 4 days away, on the other side of the country. That would be one way to guarantee that we would finally get on to an airplane. LOL

Proud father

Proud Grampy

Edit: I do have a picture of Laurie with the baby. Here she is, the beautiful mother:

Introducing Avery

 He is here!!!!!!! Our grandson, named Avery. He was born this morning at 6:59, weighing in at 8 pounds, seven ounces. He is beautiful and we are thrilled. No more for now. We've been awake for over 24 hours, and it is time for some sleep. More details later.