Hi everyone! Today we spent the day visiting Niek's grandmother, who only two months after breaking her hip is back home on her own, climbing stairs, doing her own shopping, and much more. This woman has a will of iron! The kids enjoyed seeing her, though Nicky expressed some regret at bedtime that she didn't have any good toys. Niek and I enjoyed seeing her and were relieved at how quickly and fully she's regained her mobility. She lives quite far from us and so it isn't possible to lend a hand with housework & shopping, which makes it all that much more of a relief to know she's doing just fine on her own. While we were there she gave us a gift for the nursery - that she stitched herself - which I'm happy to show off here. She'd loosely framed it, but as the frame didn't fit, I'm going to ask if it's okay for me to finish it as a soft-sided wall hanging. I think it would look great!

I had hoped to whip up a charity ornament during the long drive, but our kids are not easy travelers and most of my time seemed to be spent hushing our noisy passengers. I didn't take my neighborhood RR for the obvious reason that to do so would only invite disaster - a spill (I always drink Coke in the car), leaving it behind, who knows ... something would've happened. However, I have a slightly more recent picture of my progress. This is actually a scan because our camera doesn't like my color scheme and keeps making it look much pinker and darker than it is. Though it is surprisingly pink and feminine. I was quite surprised when I realized this because I am not overly feminine myself. The "pink" house is actually meant to look like weathered brick (which is what our house is made of). The "pink" steps are done using GAST old brick. I think once I complete the rest of the airborne birds, the piece will look more balanced and less girly. Oh, that big, blackish spot in the upper corner will become a magpie, which we have a lot of here in the neighborhood. I'm using a blend of old crow and midnight GAST fibers to try to copy the black-blue color of the magpie. It's a little too dark, though, for a real magpie.