Albrecht Durer

Years ago when my children attended school at Pearce Elementary in Birmingham Michigan, that would be Heidi and Russ, I volunteered in their school.

I was a Picture Lady in an Art Program. This program brought the classic artists into the elementary schools.  Volunteers would choose an artist of their choice to present to the children. They would give a bio of the artist and then present a hands on project for the students to make.

I presented Albrecht Durer one year and I believe Michelangelo another year.

Albrecht Durer was a German artist. I would have to look up any other info about him, my memory just doesn't recall many facts about him. He did carve the famous" Praying Hands". I have always loved them. He also did many etchings.

You can see A carved with the D under the A, Albrecht Durer's signature.

(these are a replica of the original)

(Russ picked up these free standing hands recently)

I have had these replicate hands hanging in my living room for years.

 I have always loved them.

Reupholstery

Anna has some chairs she has been working on.

She has refinished the wood. Sanded out some excess carving on the chairs.

Today she has been working with me reupholstering her chairs. She has chosen a beautiful grey fabric. It looks terrific as we are getting the fabric stretched and stapled on the chairs. We have one chair now with its new fabric on it.

Our next step is to make the cording for the chairs with the new fabric. Then staple it onto our chair and one chair will be completed.

I vote to finish the other chair another day or even later tonight. Well see....

It is always amazing to me how much improvement is made with reupholstery. It is work but I was reminded today, that I do enjoy it.  It has been quite a while since I have worked on reupholstering something, I had convinced myself I didn't like doing it anymore.  I was wrong I do enjoy it.  It is just a lot of work.  I was reminded again it is worth the work!

Two Brothers

I had a great time down with the two new brothers, Bennett and Ryan.

Bennett is a very sweet older brother. He looks for a rattle to give to Ryan when Ryan his new little brother  cries.

Ryan is a dear little brother. He is very alert with his eyes watching. He won my heart this morning when I would bet money he smiled at me!!!  He was looking right at me when he smiled twice!  He knows how to have his grandma wrapped around his finger for life!!!

Honestly even if he hadn't done that smiling with me he would as all my grandkids have me wrapped around their fingers.  Each grandchild is so incredibly precious to us.

Bennett is quite the little man. He has decided his name is "you". It only makes sense he has been called you forever, as you and I have been called you!

Bennett knows numbers, letters, colors and he is you.

I have to pay attention when he says "You missed it" " You get it" "You try again" he of course is meaning"Bennett get it" "Bennett try again" and Bennett missed it".

I loved sharing time with your little family Nate & Becky. Thanks for letting me come and help, if help is the right word, it was such a treat for me!

Hummels

Years ago I was a young girl living in Nuremburg Germany with her family.

I was between 6 & 9 years old. I would receive an allowance. I have no recollection of what my actions were to receive my allowance.

I have great memories of going into town when enough money was collected.  One particular store that sold Hummels was our destination.  My sister Susi and I would gaze and gaze into the window trying to decide which Hummel we would purchase this time with our money.

I remember a vendor outside the store. The smell of brats cooking adds so much to this memory.  ( Nothing like a good brat cooked on the open fire) (Put the brat in brochen add a little kraut and mustard, you have a taste of heaven)

Back to the Hummels we would decide and decide again and again which would be our purchase this time and which would be our purchase with our next earned amount of money.

When the Hummel was purchased my love affair only started. I noticed the paint the colors and the details all the details. These charming little figures have detail after detail. I was totally charmed by their charm!

I had other Hummels that didn't make it through all the years. My favorite was a girl carrying two buckets. I believe these buckets where scarves formed into buckets.  I was particularly in love with that one.

You can see the charm of these little figurines.

Surprise Guest

Anna is having her dinner/cooking group over tonight.

Look who I found at her table!

I think he thinks he is going to have a free meal!

I am going to leave it up to her to tell him he isn't invited!!!

Cleaning up my desktop

I am going to clean today. I mean really clean.


Spencer is always telling me I need to clean up my desktop. I leave things up there that I want to retrieve easily.

I guess today is the day. But before I clean it up I will post all that I keep on my desktop for easy access!

Now everyone gets to see how messy my desktop is!!!

I have tried to line these up and order them, I don't know they wouldn't do it so it looks just a mess. 

Lets see how long it takes Spencer to notice I cleaned up my desktop!

I do have a lovely Monet painting as my screensaver that I can now see all of!

Dandelions

What could be better?!
I love all gifts from the Grandkids.

Cute Mabel gave these beautiful flowers to me that she picked for me at Connor's soccer game today.

The Tailor

I am a fan of Fiddler On The Roof.

Remember Tevia's  son-in -law the tailor. Remember the tailor's  excitement in finally recieving his own sewing machine. Well I have found that renewed excitement in a " new to me machine " I was able to buy at Christmastime.

My new machine is a lightweight industrial machine. I love love love it!!! I feel just like the tailor, Tevia's son-in-law!

I have found I can't stop sewing on some days.

I have tried quilting on this machine. The machine does not have a walking foot but I have loved putting smaller quilts together and quilting(if you will) them on this new machine of mine. It is not the perfect product but these quilts are using my up my fabric stash and I am loving it.

this one will be the next granddaughters quilt

another quilt to have on hand for the floor for babies to be on or a TV Quilt.

This one is a very large queen size, it will be a trick but I am going to try to quilt this one on my new machine too...

wish me luck!

Waiting

A little waiting....

Then the gathering

THEN LET THE HUNT BEGIN!

THEN A LITTLE SILLINESS

BENNETT & RYAN WE MISSED YOU!

CONNOR & CARSON YOU MUST BE IN THE HOUSE!

For the kids who wanted the Easter Bunny not to come in their house, they would be shocked how close they are to our bunny (Tali)

Yes the feelings of Easter live on