Easter & A New Grandson

TA-DA!  He's here!

The day before was Russell's birthday and I'd been teasing Casi for months that she was gonna have the baby early, on or near his birthday.  She'd had a doc appt that day and messaged me that she fell out of the car in the parking lot and hit her knee really bad but they had her under observation for a few hours.  I told her that I was surprised her water didn't break and that I'd be willing to bet that this fall would get things moving.  Sure enough, her water broke about 8 hours later.

I'd told her to make sure they called us and I didn't care what time it was.  So I'm sleeping and hear my phone ring.  It's 2:30AM.  It never occurred to me it was Casi.  So half asleep I answered and didn't understand a word the person said so I go, 'you've got the wrong number'.  I hung up and saw I had a text so I checked it and it was from Casi, 'Joanne my water broke'.  I immediately called her back and boy did we have a good laugh!  Her labor was pretty easy and he was born at 1:15 in the afternoon.

I finished the birthstone key I made for them too.

I finished ours too, which contains all the stones of all the kids and their partners.

Mark had a few problems a few hours after he was born.  They think he aspirated amniotic fluid on the way out so he was on a CPAP, oxygen, a feeding tube and IV antibiotics.  Fortunately the problems started clearing up quickly and he's now eating like a champ.  He was able to go home a couple of days ago.

Been dying to egg Val's house for over a year.  I wanted to do this last Easter but she'd had surgery and couldn't keep bending over to gather them.  Russell & I started buying dollar store trinkets a few months ago.  We got up at 6AM on Easter Sunday and headed to her house.  We were stealthy...plus she was still sleeping.  

We were home by 7 and I waited for her to finally wake up and discover what we did.  I wanted to keep it a secret but it was getting late and I knew she had to leave for work so I ended up nudging her to go look.  This was her post.

We also had Shadow overnight that weekend.  She's so cute.  She grabbed one of Sagan's toys to bring to bed.  First time she's ever done that here.  

Silly boy was a bit jealous and VERY clingy when she was here.  I took this before we left to bring Shadow home.  Not sure why he was standing on the couch looking at my computer. 

My friend Cathy surprised me with this bracelet made for me by her 12 year old grandson!  A few years ago I made him a Minion from a kinder surprise egg pod and he wanted to make something for me.  I just love it and am so touched he thought of me and did something in colours he knew I'd love.

She also sent me this Snitch kit she found!  Can't wait to put it together!!!

Had Shadow again.  To say we spoil her as much as Sagan is an understatement.  She woke from a nap and took her lunch en suite.  

"Thanks Food Lady!"  She comes to me when she wants food.  It's hilarious.

When she was done, she nudged the dish off her bed onto the floor and went back to sleep.

Winter's still hanging on for dear life with mix rain and snow in the forecast quite a bit.  Hoping for spring temps soon so we can get out again!

Winter Projects

How is it possible that it's almost February????  I finished up this cross stitch in just 3 days' time. I love easy 'instant gratification' projects.

This was messed up from the get go.  I miss counted so much that I ended up just finishing to see how bad it'd look.  My friend Hannah loved it so much so I sent it to her.  I loved the design and colours but by the time I was done, I knew I wasn't going to keep it.

I found capiz shells on Amazon and made a couple of windchimes.  This is the one on a starfish.  I have another that I did with the shells descending in a spiral but I don't have a pic yet.

People were posting these cool pics of bubbles with pretty frost forming in the sub zero temps so I gave it a try but it didn't work that well for me.  

It just mostly fogged up.

This project is extremely challenging.  Building the Hogwarts Express out of teeny tiny pieces of metal, that have microscopic tabs that fit into microscopic slots.

Penny there for scale.  There are about 70 pieces that have to be carefully punched out and assembled.

You have to follow these instructions which are actually pretty easy if you go slow and make sure of each step before you commit.  I've had a lot of trouble keeping ahold of the super small pieces, even with tweezers and needlenose pliers, and a few pieces have broken.  Thank god for E6000 glue and toothpicks.

So far I've got the coal tender done and now I'm working on the engine.  Each piece feels light as a feather but put together it's surprisingly heavy.

One of my friends asked me to make this for her.  It was a quick workup....a few hours one afternoon.  I used four strands of rainbow floss for the lettering since it's on 12ct Aida.  I was going to outline the letters but it didn't look right so I took it out (thankfully I'd only done the M).  

Just waiting for him to be born so I can finish this one.