BABY SHOWER

Over the weekend there was a baby shower for my daughter in law, Anne.I spent the last month working hard on sewing for  her. She asked for a coconut cake with rasberry filling in between the layers. She also asked for a peoni on top, which I tried to do, but wasn't satisfied with the way it looked, so I just bought flowers from Joann fabrics and worked with that. I used Publix's rasberry donut filling. You have to ask for it from the deli. It does not have seeds in it and it is delicious.  I covered the cake with pink vanilla buttercream. I added pearl like candies all around the cake.

 Anne wanted a hospital gown/bathrobe, so that 's where it all started. Then I made a baby gown for the baby with matching headband and pacifier clip.

         Then we moved on to the quilt. Her nursery colors are pink, white, grey and gold. I made a quilt with elephants appliqued on it. This was my first time joining applique with quilting and also trying my hand at free motion quilting. Not as easy as it looks.

Then I was inspired by the baby's name Marie Elizabeth. I began to search the family histories on all four sides and found 17 maries or elizabeths backing up to 1900. That's a lot of names. I struggled with how to make a family tree, because I didn't want to put all the husbands names in there...just the maries and elizabeths. I fell upon this drawing and thought this would make a great wall hanging.

       Since Anne and Josh live in Atlanta and we live in Florida we missed their one year anniversary in January, so I included a gift for that also. I  had made the wedding cake for them and had saved the flowers that I had made for the cake. After a year of holding on to them I decided to put them on a wreath for them as a keepsake.

Christmas 2014

  This year Christmas was a little different. We usually have a dinner Christmas Eve at our house.  With the addition of a son in law and a daughter in law comes the juggling of added family gatherings. We went to a candlelight service at our daughters church where she and had her husband lead worship. Then we went home by ourselves. It was very quiet at the house. Our youngest did not make it this year for Christmas, but Jason, Josh and Anne did come in. Jess and Istvan are in South Africa with his parents. We missed you all.

My husband and I spent most of Christmas Day cooking for the big meal that would be at Joy's house that  evening. We brought the main courses to her house .The center of attention this year was baby James. He was in a great mood and watched everything. Tims parents bought James a bouncing play center. I wish I had a picture of his face the first time he realized he could bounce himself.  From that moment on he's been bouncing away. You see, since he's been born he loves to be bounced. Within a week of  being born, he could be soothed by bouncing him on my lap on a stability ball. I could put him to sleep and soothe his tummy with the stability ball.