Something About Nothing

     My Mother and Grandmother were not really sewers or quilters although they had their moments of trying. Grandma told me she made quilts during her years as a stay-at-home mom living in a holler in West Virginia but it wasn't a skill she kept when she moved to the big city of Chicago during the 1950's.  After I made a few quilts in the late '70's, she decided to make one from patches of cloth she cut out from her polyester pants suits.       We affectionally called it "The Ugly Quilt." Grandma Marie raking the back yard in West Virginia      Unfortunately the quilt was not attached securely to the top of our car when we were moving one year and was blown away on the freeway, lost for all time.  I'm still very sad about losing that quilt, even if it was ugly, it was the only quilt I had from Grandma.  Grandma's real skills were in the kitchen.      She was a really good cook. ...

Took my boy down to see his Grandmother and Aunt before he takes off for graduate school this weekend. This one is a little fuzzy but it gives you the idea of why he's always been called Big J. You do have to remember that Grandma is only 5' tall.

I started looking through the photos on my computer hoping to find something to use in an upcoming quilt project when things quickly degraded to a trip down memory lane.   Boy I had some cute babies! Can you believe he was only about 6 weeks old?  I don't think he was very happy.  It was probably lunch time.  I really need to scan more of his photos.  I have so few on this hard drive. Next came this beauty.  Look at all that hair!  And those sweet cheeks! Apparently I couldn't resist them even then. . . I should have cropped myself out of the above photo - don't you love those big glasses and permed hair? Not a sweet memory! But this sure is. The twins were just as adorable as the older two. Another cheeky picture. And this one has a smile that melts my heart. J and his sister were great to "watch" the twins while I made dinner - of course it was after much "persuasion." J was okay as long as he was allowed control of the remote. B actually ended up do...

May is the time for flowers, mother's day and graduations. My dear husband got his Baccalaureate in Political Science in 1989. I was barely pregnant with our second child. Don't you love the great big glasses we both have. And the darling boy in my husbands arms is now as tall as both of us put together. My dear husband graduated again in 1995 with his law degree after taking a few years off to work for the Army. This time we still have big glasses and I have HUGE shoulder pads! I followed in DH's large footsteps and received my baccalaureate in Journalism in 1995 as well. It was a very busy few years for us! Look how big our babies were then. Why didn't anyone tell me that the silly collar thing was messed up. It is off in everyone of my graduation pictures and it really bugs me now! But back to the real topic at hand! It is 2009 and we are celebrating another college graduation today. Here's a picture of our sweet little graduate: He was about 6 weeks old here a...

Are you a "beautiful and proper bookmark" person, or a "grab whatever is handy when I'm done for the moment" kind of person? Generally, as illustrated by the photo above, I am the latter. The book on the top is using the book cover as a bookmark. These are very handy as they do not get lost while I am reading, and as long as someone else doesn't carelessly pick up the book, my place is saved quite nicely. My place in the second book down is being kept by the bookmark the library gave to me when I picked up the book. Generally it is referred to as a "reserve slip," but I like to call myself green (at least a pale green anyway), and so I recycle them as bookmarks. In the third book we are sporting the "torn off the nearest slip of paper" bookmark. Another way to recycle paper, and if they are lost there is always another one around to replace it. The bottom book is sporting one of my favorite kinds of bookmarks, the "I just finished a...