. . . seventh heaven . . .

. . . really? . . . 

. . . has it been seven years 

since this pretty little girl was born? . . .

. . . she looks great even fresh out of the pool . . .

. . . missing teeth and all . . .

. . . which may have been what caused the trouble . . .

. . . with blowing out her candles . . . 

. . . 'cuz it took many tries . . .

. . . and pay no attention to her silly grin . . .

. . . she really does love her new "long" dress . . .

. . . and her fancy sandals . . .

{she's rockin' the fuzzy legs, aging bandaid 

and remnants of a cute pedicure, no?}

. . . little miss "going-into-second-grade-smartypants" 

was so excited when she opened these chapter books 

from aunt amanda and uncle brent . . .

{by the way - and it has nothing to do with ramona quimby - 

but, did you know that junie b. jones' middle name is beatrice? 

neither did i - till now}

. . . also popular with the birthday girl . . .

. . . disney princess coloring book, word search book, 

twistable colored pencils and lots of candy . . .

. . . thanks aunt amelia and uncle tyler! . . .

. . . how fun to celebrate addi's birthday! . . .

. . . especially since we managed to miss her actual "birth" day . . .

. . . hello! she was due at the end of july . . .

{who looks this good two days post giving birth?}

. . . we figured we'd be safe taking a three day weekend trip . . .

. . . back to bill's mission stomping grounds . . .

. . . for the dedication of the nauvoo temple . . .

. . . and it was a wonderful experience . . . 

. . . except for the part where we ended up 

listening to the birth of our first grandchild . . .

. . . via cell phone . . .

. . . we girls rushed home the next day . . .

. . . while the boys took the long route 

by way of BYU basketball camp . . .

. . . we couldn't wait to meet miss addison leigh hansen . . .

. . . all 5 1/2 pounds of her . . .

. . . she's been an absolutely delightful little girl . . .

. . . and hopefully she's forgiven me for missing her debut . . .

. . . after all, i made her this swell blessing dress . . .

. . . that looks like her mama's wedding gown . . .

. . . it's the least i could do . . .

. . . love you lots, addibug . . .

. . . desperate times . . .

. . . call for desperate measures . . .

. . . especially in these tough economic times . . .

. . . i admire go-getters . . .

. . . out there beating the bushes . . . 

. . . hustling to find work . . .

. . . there's a job out there for everyone . . . 

. . . all you need is a little creativity . . .

. . . an open mind . . . 

. . . and a willingness to do whatever it takes . . . 

. . . and it always pays to advertise . . .

{i couldn't take the chance of you hooligans actually calling their phone number. 

just go to their website if you're serious. 

or the corner of ironwood and ocotillo.

and tell them i sent you.}

. . . dia del padre . . .

. . . happy fathers day to my dad . . .

. . . from the girls and me . . .

. . . nothing says have a great day 

like a good heel stretch . . .

{photo ca. 14 february 2007 at his 80th birthday celebration}

. . . seeing stars . . .

. . . it seems like this is turning into a quilt blog . . .

. . . what can i say? . . .

. . . i stay home a lot . . .

. . . anywhoooo . . .

. . . you know picasso? . . .

. . . his paintings are such a mess . . .

. . . which is how i feel about this quilt . . .

. . . whoa . . . 

. . . what in the world happened here? . . .

. . . hodgepodge city . . .

. . . let me back up a bit . . .

. . . in that class i took a couple of years ago . . .

. . . this was the third quilt we tackled . . .

. . . alex anderson's friendship star . . .

. . . first step . . .

. . . i chose a focus fabric . . .

. . . loved this sort of "boho" paisley . . .

. . . selected twelve prints to coordinate with it . . .

. . . purchased yardage recommended . . .

. . . went to town making the sixteen star blocks . . .

. . . and that's when things started going downhill . . .

. . . this quilt measures 34 1/2 inches x 36 1/2 inches as shown . . .

. . . i wanted it a little bigger . . .

. . . so instead of sixteen stars {four blocks x four blocks} . . .

. . . i made twenty-five {five x five} . . .

. . . plenty of fabric for that . . .

. . . then i wanted sashing and cornerstones between all the blocks . . .

. . . so far, so good . . .

. . . then a couple of extra pieced borders . . .

. . . still going strong . . . 

. . . my quilt ended up 55 1/2 inches square . . .

. . . about twenty inches larger than i bought fabric for . . . 

. . . which was all fine and well . . . 

. . . except i still needed a back for it . . . 

. . . which was originally supposed to be 

a nice smooth seamfree piece of paisley . . . 

. . . but it turned into requiring the use 

of every teeny scrap to make it large enough . . .

. . . which reminds me of pablo . . .

{it still needs to be quilted and bound - stay tuned}

. . . chocolate/strawberry/vanilla . . .

. . . a long time ago . . .

{like approximately october of 2007}

. . . i swear i posted about 

this simple little rail fence quilt 

that i made in a class i was taking . . .

. . . but, for the life of me . . .

. . . i simply cannot locate it . . .

. . . see another project from that class here . . .

. . . anyhoooo . . .

. . . suffice it to say that, 

oh, only about twenty months later . . . 

. . . this, the first project we worked on . . .

. . . is finally finished . . .

. . . we learned about fabric selection . . .

. . . dark, medium and light values . . .

. . . please note the loopy/swirly goodness 

of {again} the expert machine quilting . . .

. . . and because when i'm done working on a quilt, 

i really don't want to have a lot of leftovers . . .

. . . i piece the back together using up scraps . . .

. . . you need to know that 

the pro/expert/artist who quilted this for me 

does so freehand . . .

. . . no pattern or pantograph to follow . . .

. . . she's amazing . . .

. . . and since each quilt should be named . . .

. . . i give you neapolitan . . .

. . . hard to believe . . .

. . . it's been a whole year . . .

. . . since this little angel made his debut . . .

. . . also hard to believe it's the same baby . . .

. . . he's changed a lot . . .

. . . he's busy, but so sweet . . .

. . . all he wants for his birthday 

is to know who the top twenty are on 

so you think you can dance . . . 

. . . and he might have a crush on cat deeley . . .

. . . ahead of the times . . .

. . . how could we have known? . . .

. . . that thirty years ago, 

our yellow&white wedding 

was totally paving the way 

for mr&mrs pratt! . . .

. . . copy cats! . . .

{minus $1.2 million in borrowed diamonds, 

monique lhuillier gown [$20,000] 

& schmuck of a husband [worthless!]}

. . . AND there's another yellow&white wedding 

right around the corner . . .

. . . we were sooooo trendy . . .

. . . fourteen/ten . . .

. . . i'd heard them . . .

. . . the horror stories 

about phone calls 

costing several hundred dollars . . .

{don't get me wrong ~ i'd be willing to pay!}

. . . still . . .

. . . i'm thankful for 

the cox international calling plan . . .

. . . two hours and seven minutes . . .

. . . happy mothers day to me . . .

. . . grand total $6.35 . . .

. . . priceless . . .