Kitty Kapers

I thought it would be kind of fun today to post some pictures of our resident king and queen. You DO know that we belong to them and not vice versa, right??

We adopted both of them from our local pounds.

The white and black kitty is mine. Her name is Baby and she is about 2 years old. She is kind of skittish around new people, but if she comes out to see you and let you pet her, then she thinks you are ok!

The calico kitty is named Rocky and he is about a year and a half old. He belongs to my step son.

He thinks he is part dog. He was raised around 2 beagles and learned how to sit up on his back legs, wave his front paws at you and beg.

They are both characters in their own ways.

Are you allowed to go to the bathroom by yourself? I didn't think so. I'm not. Doesn't matter where in the house Baby is, or even if she is asleep. She hears me go in the bathroom and here she comes, gotta check out what mom is doing. And of course Rocky usually isn't too far behind.

There is a short wall between the tub and toilet. Baby likes to perch on the tub and peek around the wall at you.

"Golly mom, did you have to wake us up??"

Both cats like to curl up on top of the snake aquarium, I suppose because it is warm up there. AND it is next to a window, so they can monitor any neighborhood happenings. That's Rocky in front and if you look close, you can see Baby sprawled out behind him.

"Caught me didn't ya?!"

Speaking of looking out windows, I caught Baby up on the kitchen table getting ready to slip behind the curtain to look out the window. She doesn't look too happy about being busted, lol.

"Another picture mom???"

Well ok, I guess. I'll just have to sit here doing what I do best, looking pretty for you. But can you tell I REALLY don't care?

"I don't care if you take MY picture"

I like having my picture taken. See how nice I pose for you grandma??

And last but not least, here's Rocky doing what he does best. I'm sure he thinks I put that pillow there especially for him.

First Big Snowstorm Of The Season

Well, we had our first big snowstorm of the season on Tuesday and Wednesday. I took these pictures when I went outside to finish up shoveling.
The first picture is our apple trees in the backyard full of snow.
The second picture is looking west on the road that we live on.
We got about 8 inches of snow. Then it got really windy and super cold, today it is zero degrees with a windchill of 15 below.



It IS really pretty, but I'm sure glad I'm retired and don't have to go out in this stuff every day anymore! I DON'T miss the winter drives to work for sure!

We have a hard time shoveling snow anymore. Dan with his bad back and bad knee, me with my circulation problems and asthma.
But, we have WONDERFUL neighbors who help keep us shoveled out. Ernie to our west usually snow blows most of the driveway and front sidewalk and Bill to our east helps out with shoveling too! I usually just have to shovel the front stoop, the small sidewalk right in front of the house, and a path between the vehicles. Takes me awhile, but I get it done eventually.
They will never know just how very much we truly appreciate their wonderful acts of kindness!
I'm just not a big fan of winter anymore. I suppose it's because I've gotten older and health problems don't help either. I just dread the cold and snow. I made sure I super stocked up on groceries and other necessities before the storm hit, thank goodness.

Update On Baby Stockings

Just learned that there are 267 stockings for the babies! That is just amazing considering that there are only about 100 members in our group. Everything gets shipped to our group leader Danette and she and her husband Richard get all of the donations sorted and packed into the stockings. Then they get shipped out to all of the different hospitals we help nationwide. It has to be a lot of fun seeing all the goodies coming in for Danette, but absolutely overwhelming to get it all organized and together.
Danette, there is surely a special place for you in Heaven and you are married to a saint.

GTA Donations November 2009

Our group, God's Tiny Angels, works on Christmas items for the babies this time of year. We just finished up on this.
I made a blanket and some Santa hats.




















Some of the ladies that work with my daughter at the local blood bank graciously donated their time and efforts to make some Santa hats too!
They aren't part of our group, but we ALWAYS appreciate any donations that anyone cares to make to help the babies.









Many of our group members also donated stockings and items for stocking stuffers. Our group leader, Danette is in the process of filling the stockings with Santa hats, blankets, bottles, pacifiers, bottle covers, socks, booties, hats, bibs and other assorted goodies. The last I heard, there are over 106 stockings stuffed to the brim with goodies for lots of lucky babies for Christmas! I love belonging to this group!



Our next project through December 31st is going to be booties for the babies. We know everyone is usually pretty busy with other things through the holidays so booties are a good choice this time of year. They work up fast and are easy to pick up and put down when you need to.

May all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with the love and warmth of enjoying your family!

Peyton's Baby Shower Gift Outfit

This is for those of you that haven't seen these on my Facebook page.

This is my beautiful granddaughter, Peyton Eileen Waters, born October 27, 2009. She was 6 pounds, 6 ounces and 18 inches long.

She is the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so there's no chance she will be totally spoiled, uh huh.

Here is the "Going Home" outfit and blanket I crocheted for her. The colors for her room are light orange and sage green. I found these really cute teddy bear buttons at JoAnn's so I built the "theme" for her outfit around those.

I even made little mittens to match. I figured if I made the mittens in white, she could use them with any other outfits she has too.

The center of the blanket is a filet crochet teddy bear with a little bow tie :). The rest of the blanket is a big granny square around it. I edged the blanket with a simple shell stitch pattern.

Here is a closeup of the teddy bear in the middle.

I got it all done just in time for the first baby shower on October 11th. The diaper cake in a previous post was given as my gift at the second baby shower on October 18th.

Fall Colors And Other Stuff

I just had to post this picture because I think this tree is really beautiful. It is in the cul de sac behind our house. I was able to get the picture earlier this week before we got a lot of rain and before very many of the leaves were gone from the tree. It is one of the prettiest trees in the neighborhood right now.


After a full week of dealing with the flu, I got up the gumption to drive to my daughter Mindy's and her husband Jarrod's house to try to help them finish up moving since they sold their house. Jarrod's dad and grandma were there too. I didn't do a whole lot, just helped finish packing stuff, but every little bit helps! I am pretty tired but actually feel somewhat better after moving around and doing something besides sleep and eat. They still aren't done moving everything, but the closing is the 29th, so they have some time yet. Everything left can go by car, at least the last of the big stuff got done today.

Still working on baby shower pictures to get posted. That will have to be another day :)

Baby Showers and The Flu

Sorry I'm behind on posting about the baby showers. Both of them were really nice. Sunday night after the second one I came down with a hefty case of the flu. I'm still recuperating. Hopefully within the next week I will be able to get to posting about the showers and have pics up on the blog. Might even have the granddaughter here by then!

Granddaughter's Baby Showers

We have enough family and friends that there are going to be 2 baby showers for my granddaughter to be. This weekend on Sunday is the first one with Nichole's family and friends, and next weekend on the 18th is for Frank's family and friends.
My daughter Mindy and I have had so much fun deciding on food, decorations and prizes for the shower we are giving on the 18th. And I'm having lots of fun cooking most of the food for it.
I will be at both as the paternal grandma. After the one this Sunday I will post pictures of what I made for my granddaughter. Can't show pictures yet, don't want to spoil the surprise!
Hint: It's peach and white since the baby's room will be light orange and sage green with a farm theme.
That's all you get for now!

My Attempt At Making A Diaper Cake

DIAPER CAKE PROGRESS

I decided to get brave and attempt to make a diaper cake.
My son and daughter in law are having their first child around November 1st and my daughter and I are giving them a baby shower.
They are doing the baby’s room with a farm theme so I used stuffed animals for decorations, and orchid colored ribbon since they are having a girl.
I did a lot of research on the internet before starting. Got a lot of good ideas but also had some ideas of my own so this is an attempt to document my progress as I go along making the diaper cake.
Have fun, experiment, and do what works best for you!

Recipe List Of Items I Used

16 inch round serving tray (for 4 tier cake)
Empty tube from roll of heavy plastic
3 packages of disposable diapers: size 1, 8-14 lbs, 56 diapers per pack
(I used 118)
White yarn
Invisible and / or assorted colors of thread
1-2 rolls of 1 ½ inch wide ribbon, color of your choice
I got a good deal on a 50 yard roll of ribbon so had way more than enough
Scotch tape (optional)
Glue gun (optional)
Large clear plastic bag to put cake in
Assorted Beanie Baby size stuffed animals
(I used 2 cows, a mallard duck, a bull, a chipmunk and a bigger lamb for the top)
Assorted SMALLER baby items
I used pacifiers, a pacifier holder, baby spoons, wrist rattles, travel sized baby shampoo, powder, lotion, etc., baby washcloths, small
packet of Desitin, and baby wipes.
1. Start out by deciding how many “tiers” you want on your cake.
I decided I wanted a big cake, so I went with 4 tiers.

2. Begin rolling up and tying your diapers. The diapers I bought had Clifford The Big Red dog on one end, so I started by rolling him on the inside because I didn’t want him to show and clash with my colors. Open up your diaper (not the sides), roll it up, then tie or rubber band your diaper so it stays rolled up. I used white yarn because I crochet a lot and had yarn on hand.

3. After you have 4 diapers rolled (or 3 if you are only doing 3 tiers) lay them end to end. Lay your empty cardboard tube next to those and mark off the length on your tube. The tube is going to be your center that the diapers will all be tied around and it helps hold all the tiers together. Now cut your tube to that length. I used an old serrated steak knife which worked quite well.

BOTTOM TIER
4. Stand up your tube and surround it with rolled up diapers, how ever many it takes. Mine took 6.
OPTIONAL: You can use your hot glue gun and glue the tube to your serving tray if you feel you want more stability, but do this BEFORE you add any diapers, and make sure it is EXACTLY centered. Let glue cool before adding diapers.
Tie these diapers snuggly around your tube. This is the first row of your bottom tier.
Continue adding rows around and tie each row as you go.
You need as many rows around as the number of tiers you are going to have.
If you will have 4 tiers, make 4 rows, 3 tiers, 3 rows.
My 4 rows for the bottom tier took this many diapers:
Inside row: 6
2nd row: 12
3rd row: 17
4th row: 23
Number of diapers all depends on how tight your roll your diapers, and how tight you tie them together. Also, what you use for your center “post” makes a difference too.

SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, TIERS
5. For the second , just like the first tier EXCEPT, only make 3 rows out if you are making a 4 tier cake, or 2 rows for a 3 tier cake.
Each tier will have one less row around than the tier below it.

DECORATING YOUR CAKE

1. Tie wide ribbon around each tier, on the outside row. Or, you can tape the ends of the ribbon together and add a bow or other decoration where you taped it. DO NOT TAPE TO THE DIAPERS!! Mom will eventually use these diapers and you don’t want the tape tearing the diapers later on. If you tape the ribbon, TAPE IT GOOD! Because otherwise, I found out, when you go to add stuff to the ribbon, it gets a mind of it’s own and keeps wanting to pop lose.

2. Next I started putting the animals on. I decided to tie them on so they would stay put. I started out with some of that invisible thread. Worked great, but my old eyes had a hard time seeing it to tie it, so, I ended up using thread that matched the color of the animal I was tying on. I used a big needle and made a big stitch in the ribbon to run the thread thru to tie the animal directly to the ribbon. Play around and see what works for you. This was the most frustrating part for me.

3. Next add all the baby goodies to the cake. I tied on most of the items, because there just isn’t a lot of room to slide items between the ribbon and the diapers, without the ribbon popping lose. Unless it’s something thin like the Desitin sample thingy I had. I slid the baby washcloths part way under the diapers between the bottom layer and the next one up. If you slide at least half of it in, they stay put. No need to tie them down, lol.
I slid the 2 baby spoons between the ribbon and the outer diapers on the top tier. This gave me something to tie my lamb to and anchor it down sturdily.

4. Put your cake in the plastic bag to cover and protect it, gather the top together, and tie a big old bow around the top.

Woohoo! You are done! And doesn’t it look good??

GTA Donations August 2009

For the month of August, we had a sweater drive and here are some of the sweaters I made to donate.

This is my favorite one out of the group. I haunt our local Goodwill looking for cute like new baby items and found this pretty sweater. The picture color is off a bit as it is actually a blueish lilac. I couldn't find yarn that I liked to go with it, so I made the hat and booties in white, and used embroidery floss that matched the flowers on the sweater to edge the hat and make ties for the booties.

This is just another cute little sweater I found and made a hat for it.

I found this cute little pair of panties and matching headband at Goodwill. It has strawberries and cherries on them. So I made a hot pink sweater to tie it all together.

I went to JoAnn Fabrics awhile back and found a bunch of cute buttons marked down to 25 cents and 50 cents a card. I loved these red stars, so I made a white sweater with red sleeves to use them on.

Just a pretty little peach sweater made out of Pound of Love yarn. And some of my JoAnn's button finds.

A variegated color of yarn that I just really liked. I like purples, lol.

I had this partial skein of really bright colors. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I made the body of the sweater white, then put different colors of buttons on it to pull it all together.

For September, our projects are going to be blankets. I found this cute little baby quilt and decided to make it my first item for the blanket drive. We have more requests for blankets and quilts than anything, and cold weather is coming up soon!

GTA Donations July 2009