Another day in the life.....

As a grandmother, with no job, life should be slow and soothing, even kind of boring. NOT! My life is anything but boring. My son is visiting right now and life has really been spiced up. He enjoys playing with the kids because he's really a big kid at heart. He gets them riled up and then they all get in trouble, including him! My daughter and her family will be here tomorrow and she has a little one that just learned how to walk. We will be going through the house tomorrow and putting up the breakables. And the plants! It's going to be so much fun, watching him learn to control those little legs and motate.

As I contemplate their visit, I think back to when my kids were little. I really enjoyed them when they were babies, with their darling chubbiness and their engaging smiles. They were so helpless and really needed me. Now they're all grown with children of their own, and I'm only needed when they want a babysitter. I guess that's the way life is supposed to be, but I think it's kind of sad.

Enough of that! On to more ABC pages. I think I might put a whole bunch of them in this post. Just post the photos and let you see what they look like. I am working on making PDF patterns, and I will post a link for those later. So, here goes.....



This is what you see when you turn to the F page.



This is what you see when you pull on the tabs!

There is plenty of room for more grandparents.

The top wings are on brads so they can move.

When I did these titles, my QuicKutz was in storage.

My kids favorite aunt and uncle, Debbie and Jim King.

I tell you, I had a ball making these books. Personalizing them was the best part. My family lives scattered about in Tennessee, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and Oregon, so the young ones don't know the whole family. This is one way to give them pictures that they will actually look at and enjoy, and as their moms "read" the book to them, they can tell them who each face belongs to, so they at least know what they look like, even if they don't know them.

More ABC pages next time. Keep your head up and your socks matched. Love ya, Gramma G.

I'm working on it!

The front is kind of plain.

 I've been talking for a long time about building a website. Well, it's finally happening. My son is helping me to create my website and I'n so excited! It will have patterns and projects galore. And there will be links from this blog to the patterns, and maybe to some of the projucts, too. I'm not sure.  Its still a work in progress. There is a lot more work to designing a website than there is in designing a website. So many things that I didn't even know had to be done or COULD be done. And it's going to take some time, for sure. Until its up and running, I'm going to go back to the ABC book and also show you some scrapbook pages. Eventtually, all the patterns for the ABC book will be on the website, too. (I finally figured out how to creat a PDF file.)



The faces on the berries are the aunts.

I'm going to show you the photos of the ABC book, starting way back at the beginning. There will be two or three in each post. I hope you enjoy them. I sure had fun making them, trying to come up with things that you wouldn't find in your run-of-the-mill ABC book. This particular one was made for a grandson.



Under the flaps are stickers of butterflies.

I love to make books and especially fun bools. I do a lot of the drawings myself, so they may not be what you want, but these pictures are just ideas and guides. I encourage you to make the book fit the child. If they like bugs, use bug stickers instead of butterflies, or maybe dad is a cop. Use cops instead of crayons. Use your imagination. You are the one who knows your child best.  And don't worry, the uncles get their 15 minutes of fame, too, later in the book.

Well, that's it for tonight. I know its short, but I have to go to bed. Tomorrow I have to make curtains for two bedrooms, sheers for the living room, finish a pioneer dress and apron, and repair a bonnet. And the kids are out of school for Spring Break! Pretty full day.

My middle son just arrived! I thought he wouldn't be here until tomorrow but it wasn't as long a drive as he thought it would be! See ya later! Keep those socks a matchin'! Gramma G.



Life is a Rollercoaster!

With all of its ups and downs, life is still better than the alternative, but I could do without so much drama. Those of you out there who have big families.....do they get along?  How do you handle it when they don't? I have a hard time dealing with my family when they fight. My youngest daughter is a daddy's girl and the rest of the kids hate it. It causes a lot of friction and I don't know what to do about it. I fight with him about it but it doesn't change, and I don't blame my other kids for their feelings. And the youngest takes advantage of it, too, and that makes everything worse!

So I've spent the last 24 hours wondering if its all worth it. In my heart I know it is, but motherhood is a bummer sometimes. And so is wife hood. Oh, well, enough of that.

Today is my grandson's birthday and we're having a big spaghetti dinner and cake and ice cream afterwards. He is 11 years old and a very sweet boy. (Most of the time. He is after all, a boy!) The spankings have already begun! One here and one there, all day long. Poor kid. But he is enjoying it, too. Don't take what I said earlier wrong.....I love my family very much. And I love being here for these special days. If I could have the grands without their parents, I might just do it.

Well, this is a short posting, but I have to go wrap presents and cook dinner. Later, Gramma G.