Monday, August 24, 2009

It Is Going to Be a BOY!!!!!!!

Well, I haven't posted anything here in a while, for I have been so busy with LIFE, that I have just not had time to do anything!
Emily had her ultrasound done, and they determined that the baby is a boy! Chris, her husband nearly did a cartwheel in the room, he is so excited! He wanted a boy so bad! They've picked out his name - Anthony Richard Smith, so he'll be our little Tony. His due date is Nov. 27th - Thanksgiving Day. Now we can start buying clothes for him, and I've started knitting on a pair of overalls and a sweater to wear over the pants for him. I'm going to go looking today for a red striped t-shirt for him to wear under the overalls. Or a red t-shirt if I don't see a striped one. Or dotted one. Something with red on it. Because I am knitting this up in denim blue yarn, and it is going to look so adorable. I'm doing it up in newborn size, so it will actually fit him to come home from the hospital in. Unless he turns out to be a huge baby. The OB told Emily that she was big enough to be able to handle a 14 pound baby being born, and she hopes he didn't jinx her with that pronouncement! Me too!!!!!!! Everything else I have knitted, clothes-wise, I've made in the 3-6 month size, except for the baby booties. And they are all newborn size. Or 0-3 month size. At my local yarn shop, one of the best knitters I've ever seen works there, and I timidly asked her what she would charge me to knit the overalls part of the pattern, while I knitted the sweater, and she said she wouldn't charge me a thing. She said she would do it as a gift for the new baby. I could have kissed her. So she is doing up those, and I'm working on the sweater, and she'll have her part done in no time, she is so expert, and it will take me the rest of August and all of September to make the sweater. Due to my Parkinson's Disease, which slows you down so much. So I am extremely grateful for her help with this. It will allow me to start on the knitted blue jeans pattern I have bought the yarn for. This baby is going to be a well-decked out baby!

And I have started another blog = http://anniesweightlosstrail.blogspot.com detailing the drama of weight loss at a snail's pace. I hope to reach my goal weight by next Christmas.

I got my hair cut off the shortest I've ever had it in 35 years. I like it, and would actually like it just a little shorter. I go in on Tuesday (tomorrow) for a trim. I'm going to tell her not to hold back on cutting it. Never thought I'd hear thoughts like that coming from my brain. Guess I'm just getting older.

Well, I'm going now to Yahoogroups and dropping some of them out of my inbox. Don't want to have so many to sort through every day. More important things to do.

Friday, May 8, 2009

I get all my paper at The Paper Temptress:

Boy or Girl?

We don't know yet if the baby is a boy or a girl, so everything I make has to be green or yellow or a neutral color - no pinks, no boy blues. Thus the hand-dyed green yarn for the sweater and booties. It is much prettier in person than the scan shows. Hopefully she'll be far along enough soon, to be able to tell if it is a boy or a girl. Meantime I am knitting for either, with greens, and creams, teals and yellows. I am so excited about this baby! Mom is doing well - hungry all the time. Better than the opposite.

Knitting for baby



I've put other projects aside and started knitting for the baby. So far just a sweater and matching booties. Also on the needles is a little hat. And in the bag are 3 skeins of blue denim yarn by Rowan for making knitted jeans, and another beautiful teal yarn to make a baby blanket out of. I do need to make more baby booties, though. They can go through alot of them. I'm enclosing two pictures - hopefully, one of the sweater I finished and one of the matching booties.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ultrsound

I went with Emily and Chris on Tuesday to see her obstetrician, and he did an ultrasound of her baby, and they called me back to see it. Oh my, I teared up, seeing the wee one. You could see its heart beating, and Emily said I had just missed seeing it dance - it did a little shimmy dance for her. The doctor said it will grow about a mm per day, and her next appt is May 29, so it should be a good bit bigger by then.

I had to rip out part of the sweater I am knitting for the baby, due to an error I made back aways, and caught. So I worked ysterday and got it back to where I was, and plan on working on it today also. I also got tempted by another yarn in a very pale pastel teal color for another sweater, so bought the yarn for that. That baby will be well clad. I'm going to have to make the baby some hats (I've already made one) since it will be a December baby. Dec. 2nd is the due date. We are all so excited about this. The doctor gave us each a picture of the ultrasound and it will go in the baby's scrapbook as its first picture. Won't that be amazing for him or her to look at in 21 years?

Saturday, March 28, 2009

I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, when Emily and Chris came home for lunch, they called Michael and me to the den, and told us that Emily was pregnant!!!!!!!! We were stunned, and delighted, and deliriously happy! ; So we will be Grandpa and Grandma. Her due date is approximately Dec. 5th. We'll know more when she has her first maternity check-up on April 28th. The doctor has already started her on vitamins and supplements. We've been making up lists - things to do, things to buy, etc etc. We're going to be grandpa and grandma. Emily and I are going to Mosaic Yarn Shop this afternoon to pick out some yarn for a baby blanket for me to make. We'll use green, yellow and ivory tones right now, until we know the sex of the baby. They haven't decided if they want to know, or want to be surprised at the birth.
With a December birth date and Emily getting 6 weeks maternity leave will give us a very happy Christmas!!!!!!!
We are so happy and so excited. I can't believe that MY BABY is having a baby! We've got a ton of things to do around here. So lists have got to be made. I'm a good list maker. And I have a ton of things to knit. That will take over right now over other crafts and art projects. I'm so glad I'm on my Parkinson's medication, so it allows me to use my hands to knit with.
Happy and Joy filled!!!!!!!!!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Music once again

Volume control is to the FAR right of the play button - it is on the far right edge and shows a vertical stick with a horizontal button you can push up and down for volume. Personally I play everything on HIGH, but that's me. You do need it on HIGH for the second song on the list - Dust in the Wind - for it recorded very softly. The rest, you can choose your volume control as you wish.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Music again

Forgot to tell you to push the big "play" button to start the music. Volume control is to the right of that.

Music

You will notice that I have added music to my blog. These are some of my favorite songs. There is something wonky happening to "Sister Morphine" and I'm trying to get it fixed. Meanwhile, enjoy the other toons!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

New Paris card


I corrected my errors in the previous card - or at least some of them which you can see here. Still working on another card, with more color. My daughter is helping me. I'm glad she is taking an interest.

Friday, March 13, 2009

April Showers


Good Morning! I'm a little bleary eyed this morning. Got up too early, and then laid down on the couch and caught another 2 hours of sleep, and just now woke up. Grabbed myself a diet coke and looked outside and it is snowing - not much, but it is snowing. Pretty.
I've been working on my stamping. Got a new image to play with. Got some constructive criticism on it, so I am going to rework it today - you can see it above this post.

I'm going to re-do the whole thing, taking into consideration the criticism I got on it, and hope the next one will be much better.

This one is called Eiffel Tower/April Showers.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sad News for me

I heard yesterday, that my first art professor at college, died yesterday. He was 72. They did not state the cause of death. Tomorrow there should be more information in the paper about the funeral, which I intend to go to. For he is the man who got me started in art school. Let me explain. His name was Derek Myers. I was a psych major, having previously being a political science major. I needed an easy "humanities" credit, so I opted for an Art Appreciation class - that sounded easy enough, so I signed up for that. Prof. Myers was teaching it. I figured it was going to be an easy A. After all, I could memorize who painted what picture, and what could be hard about that? I came to the first class, and was immediately intrigued by the slides that Prof. Myers showed us, pointing out techniques and why they were used, and who copied who. I was struck dumb and numb. I was totally taken in by what I was seeing. The sculptures I saw were incredible and made me want to stroke them each. The paintings made me want to get up nose-close to them, to see how they were done. Derek asked for helpers to hang the Robert Indiana show that had come to town, and I immediately volunteered (google Robert Indiana, and you'll remember what he did), and so I was the only one to help that Saturday, hanging the show. When we were done, Derek said to me - "What is your major?" And I said "Psych". He said "you need to be an Art Major". And I laughed at him and said I cannot even draw a straight line. He said "Nonsense! I can teach you how to draw!" So I thought about it a long time, and the next semester, I signed up for his drawing 101 class. And was given a supply list to purchase before the first class. It was fun to pick up the supplies (my most favorite thing to do nowadays!!!)
And I went to the first class, and he taught me how to do blind contour drawing, and I was shocked at how good it looked. And we went further and further into drawing. I got an A in the class, and signed up for his drawing 102 class, and learned more about drawing, and realized that I had my own "style" of drawing - that we each have our own styles. And then I changed my major to Art, and it was never the same after that. I took art courses from then on, having gotten the core curriculum done with. And I got straight A's in every art class I took. And Derek was my adviser, and helped me pick out which course to take next and next. Then he got promoted in the art dept. and had to pass me off to another art teacher for my adviser.
But the consequences of meeting Derek Myers is that he changed my life. My life now is surrounded by art, it is consumed by art in all its forms. It is what I think about every day of my life. My screen saver says "Create Something Daily" as a reminder to me to work in my studio. Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I would call myself an artist. Yet here I am - an artist. All thanks to Derek Myers. Who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. Thank you Derek, you changed my life. You will always be remembered.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A Thing A Day



I had to sit at the neurologist's office yesterday and brought my mini moleskine book with me, but forgot a pencil. I asked the receptionsist if she had a pencil and she did, so I made a few sketches while sitting and waiting for my husband to get finished with his appt there. These images are the best of the ones I made.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

sketches




I find myself signing up to sketch every day and posting my sketches on "thing-a-day", through my group "Everyday Matters". Here is what I have posted so far.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

More Scenic Stamping


I'm still into this scenic stamping. Here is a card I made for a friend from my Alextamping group. I made a similar card for my dad's 87th birthday on Jan. 29th.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sunrises/sunsets



I've been exploring scenic stamping, and have learned how to do sunrises and sunsets. I'm enclosing some photos of my recent efforts.