A weekend recap on Tuesday

Good morning, blog friends!

Oh what a wonderful, whirlwind weekend we had!

Three days packed with driving and celebrating with family.

♥ 

My sister surprised her hubby (our brother-in-law Brad) with a 50th birthday party, and Doug and I wavered back and forth a bit on whether or not to make the trip. Even though we are a bit worn out this morning, we are both so happy that we did it. This morning I have some random photos from the weekend to share with you, then I'm off to tackle a busy week ahead. Yay!

 

My sister chose "The Godfather" theme for Brad's party and all of the details were so much fun. I was assigned as the photo girl for the night, but in our rush to leave our hotel and get to the party, I left my camera lens and external flash behind. Nice. So we ended up with a bunch of grainy photos from my phone. ~sigh~

 

Fantastic party, the guest of honor was super surprised, and a great time was had by all! :o) Sunday morning we met at my sister's house for a big breakfast and a day of relaxing with family. I loved spending time with my nieces and nephews, and even got to give this little peach her first Christmas present.

 

Sweet baby Olivia. She's growing so fast! She let out a sad little cry when the paper was torn back to reveal a little dolly underneath. The baby in the box scared her just a little. Aw!

 

If you had told me two years ago that either my sister or I would be dog owners I would have laughed. And if you had told me how much we would love our pups, I probably would have said you were crazy. But it's true! We have Lucky, and my sister has Walker: 

 

Have I mentioned before how much I love being an aunt? This photo of Presley, Stone, and me makes my heart want to explode. Gosh I love these kiddos!

 

And now it's game on. The rest of this week is jam-packed with places to go, people to see, yoga to practice and teach(!!!), and Christmas to prepare for.

 

Taking deep breaths and trusting that everything will fall right into place...

Enjoy the rest of your week, my friends!

♥

The Juggling Gene

I remember it like it was yesterday…

We were all hanging out in the kitchen, and our mom was making dinner when my brother Ron announced that he had learned how to juggle. He proceeded to demonstrate and entertain us with three oranges pulled from the fruit bowl.

It was so fun to see him juggle! “Hey! How’d you learn to do that?!?!” the other siblings exclaimed as he reveled in the spotlight.

Then he had the bright idea to juggle eggs.

“Don’t you do it, Ronnie!” Mom called over her shoulder.

“Aw, it’s ok, Mom! I can do it! Watch…”

Three sibs watched in amazement as the eggs went round and round - all the while Mom was in the background saying, “Ronnie…put those down…Ronnieeeee…”

“Look, Mom!” he answered, “I’m doing it!”

Round and round went the eggs...

And then -splat!- just as Mom predicted, Ron missed one of the eggs he’d been juggling. And to make it an even bigger mess, the egg fell right onto one of the burners of the kitchen stove.

“You’re cleaning that up!” Mom said, and the four of us roared with laughter. Haha – our poor mother.

#15 - a juggler

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Years later when I had entered the corporate world, I attended a team building meeting with my coworkers. At the beginning of the day, we were each gifted with a pretty wooden box. Opening the box revealed three juggling balls inside, and then the assignment was announced. We would each learn how to juggle, and the requirement was that we had to toss and catch the balls at least five times in a row in order to move on. How hard could that be? Right?

Some of my coworkers caught on right away, and the team building part of the exercise was that those who mastered the art of juggling had to help the rest of the group that was still struggling.

Well, wouldn't you know, I was the very last person to finally toss and catch those freaking balls five times. I bent over and picked up juggling balls so many times that my muscles were so sore the following day I could barely walk. And I haven’t touched a juggling ball since!

Obviously, Ron got all the juggling genes.
♥ ♥ ♥






I know, it's kind of weird that the only photo I have of my brother juggling was in his hotel room while our families were together in San Diego, but it's the only one I took so I'm using it as item #15 for Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. We spent some time in my brother's hotel room while tending to this little peach, my four-month niece, Olivia. Here she is, watching her daddy juggle.  :o)♥

I finished this for my mom. And Olivia.

♥ 

My sister and I found this unfinished doll amongst our mother's sewing projects when we cleared out her craft room last year after her passing. I was trying not to hoard every little thing I found, and when this doll was discovered my sister mentioned that maybe I could finish it for her daughter, Presley. Gosh, I really didn't want to finish this doll for anyone at the time. I've made dolls before and they are not my favorite thing to sew, and apparently our mom ran out of steam before she could get around to finishing this one.

I ended up putting this partially done doll in my stack of things to save and she came to Arizona with me. Then she sat out in our garage for several months in this blue plastic bag on top of a stack of items to be taken to our local thrift store.

In fact, Doug helped me load all of the thrift store stuff into my car one day and this little doll was packed in too. But before I could drive away to deliver the load of donations, I pulled her out of the car and put her back on a shelf in the garage. I just couldn't bring myself to let her go yet, even though I still really did not want to finish her.

When my brother and his wife found out they were expecting a baby girl, I got super sentimental thinking about the granddaughter that my mom would never know. She loved being a grandma so much, and the thought that her ninth grandchild / fifth granddaughter would never know her Grandma Marti just really tugged at my heart. Then I remembered the doll my mom had started, and it all became so clear! I knew I had to finish her for Olivia.

So I sewed some clothes for this little dolly, and I added some yellow-yarn-hair and with every stitch I thought about my mom and sweet little Olivia.

 

The fabric for her top/dress is a scrap from my mom's stash. :o)

I smile to myself now, thinking about the thoughts that went through my mind as I worked on this sweet project. I could hear my mother's voice saying, "This is why I didn't finish this doll - I didn't want to do her hair!" Lol. {Yeeeeah, me neither, Mom!}

I love that this doll belongs to Olivia now, and I can't tell you how humbled and honored I feel to have been able to finish her on behalf of my mom. I hope that Olivia will feel her grandma's love and spirit when she plays with this doll ~ a little piece of her Grandma Marti to hold onto.

Don't you know how pleased my mother would be?

It makes my heart so happy.

♥

This is Olivia

at 17 days new.
♥ 

I wanted this post to contain words to tell you how I feel about this little girl. I wanted to articulate the way she humbles me and reminds me that life is full of new beginnings, how tiny and floppy and frail she felt as she was passed from one aunt to another last weekend. And the way the simplest little twitch of her mouth sends everyone around her scurrying because we all want to make her happy. She's just a perfect little miracle and a breath of fresh air for our family.

 

There's something so magical about having a new baby in the family - something I'm still soaking in and processing in my mind and heart. So instead of a whole bunch of jumbled and mushy words today, I'm giving you a whole bunch of photos of Olivia's little world right now.

 

Olivia's mommy stenciled this design on the wall over her crib. Photos don't do it justice - it is gorgeous!

 

Of course, I took some photos of my brother, Ron, with his wife, Ryann and their new baby girl. I loved having the opportunity to photograph them! I think this one is my favorite:

 Great big love in a teeny tiny package.

My heart does flip-flops over her.

♥

Tiny Baby Weekend Recap

♥ ♥ ♥

 

This is one of those Monday mornings that holds the sweetest weekend memories. We traveled to California to be with our family which is always wonderful, but this time it included meeting our newest family member, Olivia and also celebrating a milestone birthday for her daddy/my brother, Ron.

 

I am filled to the brim with love and happiness, and I'm longing to go back already. We passed a sweet little baby around, prepared for my brother's surprise party while the guys played golf on Saturday, played guitars and sang, ate amazing food, laughed a whole bunch, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.

 

I have all kinds of things to share on my blog this week, but today I give you just one little photo of Miss Olivia's adorable little baby feet. ~swoon~

 

One of the smartest things I've ever done is take today off work, so I have this whole day to catch up on unpacking, doing laundry, getting a massage and a car wash, and editing a whole lot of photos. And being happy. My smile muscles are sore this morning! :o)

 

Wishing you a happy St. Paddy's Day and

a week filled with good luck and laughter.

♥

Just a Quote for Friday

"A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men."

~ Martin Farquhar Tupper

A new little person to love

Late last night our family grew by one tiny person.

My new niece, Olivia made her debut, weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 oz.
Mama and baby are awesome.

♥

I have been a bundle of emotions over the arrival of this new niece - my brother’s newest daughter, a new baby sister for Cris, Britny and Tyler, a new cousin for Carrie, and a sweet little granddaughter my mom will never know. So bittersweet, that one, but it’s in the mix of my thoughts, for sure.

And I’ve been thinking about Olivia and the life she’s entered into - how she’ll one day call me Aunt Deb and how I will love her with the same deep adoration that I love my other nieces. She joins the ranks of some amazing young women who also call me Aunt Deb, and I can’t wait to see how her presence changes and shapes and enhances our family.

How lucky is this little girl, to enter a family that loves and celebrates with such passion. We started loving her the day we heard she was a tiny little bean in her mama’s tummy, and we will love her forever and ever now that she has made her appearance into this world and our family.

I’ll be heading to California in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait to get my hands on sweet Miss Olivia. You can bet there will be lots of photos to share once that happens!

Hooray for new babies in the world,

especially for those who call me Aunt Deb.

♥

PS: Pattern for crocheted baby crown can be found here.

Olivia's Quilt

Now that my sister-in-law's baby shower has passed, I can show you the quilt that I made for baby Olivia. I loved making this quilt and thinking about my new baby niece in the process. What a lucky little girl she is to be loved so much already! She's due to arrive on February 22, 2014. ♥

I'm not sure what this pattern is called, but it was super easy to construct. I cut 2.5" strips and sewed two together, then cut 4.5" squares from the sewn together strips. Strip cutting/sewing is a big time saver for completing a quilt top! I did have to line up the pieces on a table top, then I pinned and sewed a few at a time to keep the pieces all going in the right direction. I love the way this pattern mimics a Chevron design.

 

I used a light weight cotton batting, and a smooth minky fabric for the back. I wish I could blog the way this quilt feels - SO soft and snuggly. I can't wait to hold Olivia while she's wrapped in this quilt, and you can bet there will be photos when that happens!

I really liked the looks of a quilt Abi had made where she used a contrasting colored thread to hold her layers together. I took a chance and quilted mine with some dark gray thread and I loved the way it turned out!

Olivia's quilt is held together with machine stitching, but I did hand stitch the binding on.

I had meant to photograph this quilt at Ryann's baby shower with her holding it up but I got busy and completely forgot, so I don't have a photo of the entire quilt top but I think you get the idea. We have plans to travel to California in March to meet our new baby niece, and I'm planning to take a photo of sweet baby Olivia wrapped up in it.

Oooh I can't wait for that!!!

Plans for my next quilting project are swirling around in my head...

♥

Baby Shower Weekend Recap

Hi there, blog friends!

♥

This past weekend Carrie and I traveled to California where my sister and I hosted a baby shower for our sister-in-law, Ryann. We had such a great time celebrating with family, and my weekend recap for today is all about the baby. ♥

My brother Ron and his wife, Ryann are expecting a baby girl at the end of February, and we are so excited to welcome sweet baby Olivia!

We chose a pink and ivory theme, and decorated with little birds and birdcages.

I had seen this fringe banner a while back and just loved it - had to make it myself! I used a Cricut die cutting machine, with Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the letters, and Songbird cartridge for the birds and birdhouse shapes.


There were no flowers in my house this weekend, but there were certainly some at my sister's house! {I'm linking up with Flower Jane over at Small But Charming for "Flowers in the House!"}

My sister found these cute game cards and pencils online, and it was so much fun to play a few games and award prizes to our guests. We had five games altogether, and our prizes were some cute coffee mugs my sister picked up with a Starbucks gift card tucked inside. We also used the two bouquets of pink and white carnations as prizes too.

I made favor boxes using this tutorial and different shapes cut with the Songbird cartridge. Inside were Hershey's kisses, some heart confetti, and a little note thanking our guests for coming to help us celebrate our sweet Olivia.

We showered Ryann with gifts and well wishes, and I just couldn't resist snapping a photo of her adorable baby bump. Gosh, there's just something so magical about the whole baby-making-experience. Well...not the initial baby-making...I mean the pregnancy itself...well...you know what I mean! I couldn't keep my hands off Ryann's tummy and she was such a good sport about it. Love!!!

I loved that my mom's brother {our Uncle Ken} was able to bring our grandma to my sister's house to celebrate with us. She really enjoyed celebrating with us, playing games, and having cake. It's crazy to think about how much has changed since she was birthing her babies all those years ago.

My sister, Valerie, is such an awesome hostess and party-thrower. She is witty and fun and has a gift for entertaining. Combine her hostess-ing with my decorating and you have a pretty cool party, if I do say so myself!

All in all it was an awesome weekend! We got to spend time with my siblings, our cousins and friends - all for the purpose of celebrating the new addition to our family.

♥

"You know what the great thing about babies is?

They are like little bundles of hope.

Like the future in a basket."

~ Lish McBride