Family Time

 With Pete home for the weekend, we decided to make the most of our one day together before Julia left for her semester abroad. We wanted to go on a hike, so Julia brought us to Norman Bird Sanctuary where she worked this summer. This picture was taken at the top of Hanging Rock, high above Gardiner Pond and Third Beach.

I just can't resist taking a picture of them on the trail every time we hike together. This is my new favorite trail. There's a little bit of scrambling up rocks, but the views are well worth it.

 

The crazy kids did some rock climbing, too.

 

We drove Julia to New York on Sunday for her flight to Tanzania via Amsterdam. She had to prove to herself that she could handle all her own bags. JFK's international terminal is the best place for people-watching.

As we were leaving the airport, we got a weather alert about flash flooding. A few minutes later, I was driving through the worst downpour I have ever seen. We could barely see the road as we crawled along at 20mph. There was one giant puddle to drive around that caused some traffic backup. A few miles later, we were crossing the Whitestone Bridge and a rainbow appeared. That's always a good sign!

I got an iMessage from Julia at 2am our time. She was waiting at the gate in Amsterdam and was very excited! I've been tracking her flight all morning and she just touched down in Tanzania a few minutes ago.

Pete heads back to North Carolina tomorrow and our nest will be empty again. It will be a busy Fall for all of us, so before you know it, we'll be together again.

WIP Wednesday

I've been getting a lot done, but not what I should be working on. It's productive procrastination!

Finish: Cactus Flower table runner started in May, finished last week. See the reveal post here.

New: I started playing with fussy cut hexies on a day when I didn't want to move off the couch. Productive laziness? The gray and white one is my favorite so far. I'm not sure if they will get centers or stay as rings. I might add some other sizes (these are 1" sides) and scatter them across a quilt top. We'll have to see how this evolves.

Finished, but not posting until tomorrow: Tangerine and Teal Triangles. The colors in this quilt radiate out from the center, so I quilted my first spiral. It was more fun than I expected.

Family news: My husband and I are enjoying our new phones more than we should. It takes two of us to take a selfie. You can see the reflection of our arms in his sunglasses. (It was hot and windy- please ignore how bad my hair looks.)

 

Julia is enjoying her summer job as a camp counselor at a nature center. She's teaching her 4-6 year olds about ecosystems this week.

Our Marine in reconnaissance training is our biggest work in progress. Pete is gearing up to head back to Coronado for more swimming, zodiac riding and jumping out of helicopters. OOH RAH!

It's house cleaning day, so I'll be hopping around the WIP Wednesday posts when I need a break.

Handmade Christmas 2011

 I had planned to take a little blogging break for the holidays, but how have 3 weeks passed so quickly?  Lemme sum up...

My mother made this Christmas Lily wall hanging for my sister in the early 90s.

A sneaky mouse got into her plastic storage tote and stole some comfy bits.

I did a little applique repair, front and back with a bit of fresh batting and a few stitches of quilting to hold it all together.  Mom and Sis were pleased.

For Julia, a knitting needle roll from this tutorial.

She loves it!  How could she not love anything made with this Kate Spain print?

 Pete has been asking for a carrier for his cajon for a whole year.  He even picked out the fabric.  It's just a big tote bag with a flap to cover the top.  It's nothing fancy, but it works!

Another happy kid with his custom cajon carrier!

Julia made pasta for Christmas dinner.  YUM!

We spent Christmas Eve at my niece's lovely home.  Lily and Anna wanted Julia to play dress up with them and kept bringing dresses to her to try on.  So cute!

I made little tote bags for the girls and stuffed them with snacks, crayons and little activity books.  Anna didn't care much about the books, but was pretty happy with the juice boxes!

There was one more handmade gift, a cute little zipper pouch for my mother's hearing aid supplies, but I never took a photo of it.  It is super cute and a major improvement over the plastic baggie she was using.

In other news...

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles sponsored a float in the Rose Parade, celebrating Girl Scouts' Centennial in 2012.  We had an opportunity to purchase flowers for the float, so I bought a dozen, one for each girl in my troop.  Their names were tied to flower stems and placed on the float.  I cried when it came into view on TV.  Such a sap!

It's so easy to not  post to the blog when you get out of the habit.  I'm back now and ready for 2012!

Wonderful Wedding!

My amazing nephew Christopher married his incredibly gorgeous Jamie on Friday night.

Jamie carefully orchestrated every detail of a perfect day.

Julia was the cantor for Mass, with the voice of an angel!

So happy!

A facebook friend called this Pete's suave face!

My brothers are both grandfathers now, so they were showing off photos of their granddaughters.

My sister looked so beautiful!
We did well to not cry all day.

Pete was a dancing fool and even got Grandma onto the dance floor!
OK, so she was a prop in a dance show down, but look at the smiles!

Jamie bought this custom cake topper from Etsy seller, Milk Tea.


A perfect ending to a perfect day!


Check these out:
Sneak Peek of Wedding Video
Gorgeous Wedding Photos

Playing Catch-up

Hello, Blogland! It's been a while.

To catch up:

Pete came home from the Jamboree with lots of new friends, great memories and dirty laundry.

We took the teenagers on their first college tour- Union College in Schenectady, NY.
The last stop on the tour was the Nott Memorial, where the Unity Quilt panels are hanging from the balcony. We were excited to see our family block in the lower left corner of this panel.


We attended my family reunion in Albany, New York.
Since we had to contribute something crafty, Julia and I made a dozen Italian-themed centerpieces. The white flowers with text are photocopied pages of Pinocchio, in Italian, of course. The containers are parmesan cheese shakers that I picked up at Michael's for $1 each.

Here's my family- about 120 of us!

We celebrated my niece Debbie's birthday on Lake George in the Adirondacks.
The kids (including my husband) jumped off this 50 foot cliff into the lake.
OK, it was only about 12-15 feet, but from the top it felt a lot higher.

Our last adventure of the weekend was a rafting trip on the Sacandaga River with Bill's nephew David as our guide. Doesn't he look like Tarzan?

It was an amazing family-filled, fun-filled long weekend.

Stick Family

I like this one better than the one I made last year.

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Happy Saint Joseph's Day!

My family has fully embraced the Rhode Island customs of wearing red and eating zeppole on March 19. I googled and found out there are other pockets of Italian Americans who celebrate this feast day, especially in New Orleans. In honor of my Italian heritage, I thought I'd share my ancestors with you today. Here are my parents visitng my mother's hometown of Giovinazzo, near Bari. It was my mother's only trip back to Italy.
I knew three grandparents growing up. (My father's father had died before I was born.) We lived in a 2-family house; our family upstairs and my mother's parents downstairs. So this grandmother was called Grandma Downstairs. This was the chair she sat in every day to pray. I reupholstered it recently with a panel left over from my mother's 1950's curtains. Grandma took care of the flower gardens and Grandpa grew tomatoes, peppers, beans, herbs and raspberries (my favorite!).This is the Other Grandma. Yes, that's what we called her. This is the photo on her Citizenship papers. She was a character. She didn't read or write much, but you could not cheat her out of one penny. She ran a boarding house (everyone called it the Big House) and a home business selling cleaning products. The only handwork I remember her doing was broomstick crochet. She was a wild teenager and had a tattoo on her wrist from a visit with the gypsies. A fortune teller predicted she'd lived to be 100, but she only made it to 96. I loved riding my bike to her house in May to pick lilies of the valley and lilacs. Can you imagine the delicious scent as I rode home with those flowers in my basket?Grandma Downstairs was a master with a needle. She could tailor men's suits and made little tuxedos for my brothers when they were dancers. She did incredible embroidery with pulled threads. And when her eyes started to fail, she crochetd afghans. I have some beautiful work I'll show you another day. This quilt was in her trousseau, but we don't think she made it. It's sateen with a wool batt and weighs a ton! I love the daisy quilting. When she came to America, it was too big for her new bed, so she cut it down. That one rounded corner is the only one left. I found pieces of the quilt in the seat of her chair when I took it apart.I wanted to show you my mother's paternal grandmother because she scares my kids.
A bonus photo of my dad wearing red on Christmas. He knew he looked good!Eat some Italian food today!
Ciao,
Tina

P.S. I received a package yesterday from Diane in Canada. Thanks for all the Girl Guide goodies, Diane!

My Family

I always wanted one of these stickers for my car. This is even better! This is our pretend puppy. If we ever do get a dog (when hell freezes over), her name will be Ginger.

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