Summer Pics

Sorry for the long delay - we were away on vacation.  My goal now is to get caught up so I can post pictures from that vacation (it was pretty amazing!).  So........

It is a lot cooler already and Taffy has some of her warmer clothes  on!

This is an older picture from last spring - Curtie and Poppa at McDonalds enjoying their time together!

And when Curtie came to visit in the summer, he practiced his baseball pitching with Poppa in the little park.

They played together on Poppa's laptop - I think they were doing jigsaw puzzles.  On to another topic....

... remember Poppa's nice tidy garage??  Well...

... he started a new project and needed his extra-long extension cord to use his grinder to take off the peeling paint on the iron fence in front of our complex.  If you look carefully, you can see that it was starting to look pretty shoddy in places and he decided he could do it.  As  you can also see, one of the other owners offered to help - the same lady who helped with the small fence at the botton of the new out-side stairs.

While he was working on that, I finished another blanket.  It started out with a lace border, but after pressing it - the border was too long, so the blanket ended up with a lacy ruffle.  Taffy really liked it!

More Poppa Tasks

What is he up to now???

Nope - that's not Poppa!  That is Bob.  He owns the unit two doors down from us and he was kind enough to offer to help Poppa refresh the lines in our parking lot.  As you can probably guess - he is painting the square for the handicapped parking space.

Here are the two of them, carefully painting the lines for the angle in the Visitor Lot.  They did such a good job!

Here is a look at the parking lot in front of our unit - you can see our car in the centre of the photo (the blue one!).  And... when they were all done painting the lines..........

...... they painted the border on the handicapped spot.  Poppa was waiting for the stencil (from Amazon) to paint on the symbol.  And, that same day....

......... we had a very brief visit from Uncle Mike.  And to make it even better, Terry, Blake and Braydon were with him.  For those of you who are not family members - Terry is Aunt Denise's son, Blake and Braydon are his two boys.  They live in Alberta so we do not see them often.  They have sure grown since last time we saw them - that is Blake with Uncle Mike.  Wow!

This is Terry, Braydon, Blake and Uncle Mike.  They were picking up some of Aunt Denise's stuff that was stored in our garage.  It was great to see them - we probably won't see them again for a couple of years at least!

What's Poppa Doing Now??

Okay - here is the picture....

....can you guess what is going on???  Those two ladies each own a unit in the large apartment-type building.  

Here is Poppa checking out something...........

.......... now what's he doing???

I quit watching for a while and did some cleaning.  Next time I looked out, Poppa was staining the landscape timber around the bottom stair landing.  Now that the wooden stairs have been replaced and look so nice, the consensus was that those landscape timbers tooked kinda shabby.  

So - Poppa decided to stain them.  Needless to say, since it had been so long since anyone had done that - the colour turned out a shade darker than the stairs, but they have already faded in the sunlight since the day he treated them - and they look much, much better!  Then he scraped any loose paint off the wrought iron fence and....

....... then one of the ladies offered to paint the bare spots - another nice improvement in the appearance of our space!

While they did all that -

......... I put the finishing touches on Lauren's blanket - oh yes - big news - Lauren was born yesterday at 4:53 in the afternoon and weighed in at 7lbs and 15 oz.  Aunt Jeannie is now a grandmother! I'll post a pictue as soon as one becomes available!

Still Behind....

But, I'm going to try to catch up!  Honest!

Here is a better picture of the blanket for Aunt Jeannie's soon-to-arrive grand-daughter.

You can see the little roses better and then you can see why I chose to put knitted roses on the corners of the blanket.  The little roses came from Aunt Peggy.  She had them at her house and asked me one day if I would have any use for them.  I thought they finished off this outfit just perfectly and thought of her very fondly while I sewed them on.  I hope Lauren and her parents like them too!

This is the hat of the next outfit I made for the hospital.  I just liked it and thought you might like to see it up close!

And, here is the rest of the outfit.  Any of you who have known me for a long time will know that I have been knitting this popcorn set from an old pattern book that I have had since Mommy was just a little girl!  I've gotten more proficient at it over the years and pretty yarn like this makes it even better!

Here is Taffy showing off her relaxed, but chic, outfit for a cooler day this spring - just before we got our heat wave!

And.... this is the blanket I was working on in May - I have sent another one since then - and I will show you the picture of this one all finished when I get to that folder in my pictures (that means sometime "soon").  It is almost done in this picture, I just added a border and sent if off to the hospital with Auntie Cecile.

Poppa and Squeegie were taking a break - doing some jigsaw puzzles on the computer - Poppa loves doing that (and of course Squeegie helps him immensely!).

But - it didn't take too long before Poppa was outside working again - seeping up the sand that washed down from the road during a big rainfall .

Vacation ....

At the end of June - just before school was done - Mommy and Daddy took the little boys for a vacation (while Daddy could get some time off!)....

...... with Grandma they rented a cottage in Muskoka - this is the view from the cottage!  Wow!  Nice picture Mommy!

They had lots of fun in and around the water and...

...of course they helped with the chores!  They are doing the dishes - no dishwasher there I guess!  I am told they had a great time and it was a relaxing break from the routine of working and going to school!  While they were there....

.... I knitted this little outfit for Lauren - that is to be the name of Aunt Jeannie's first grandchild (provided the ultra-sound didn't lie and the baby is a girl!).  Auntie Pauline had a big shower for Travis and Nicole, as well as Baby Lauren, in the clubhouse at the golf course (where Poppa golfs!).  It was really good - there were a lot of us as well as Nicole's family.  Now we are just awaiting news from the city to advise us of the arrival near the beginning of August!

Golf Anyone?

Last year Poppa went golfing for the first time about the middle of April.  This year - finally - on May 10th.........

... he headed into the garage to clean his clubs up in preparation for this year.

He checked his golf bag out carefully to see how it fared during the cold weather...

..... then when satisfied that all was well, he loaded them into the car....

......... ready to head to the golf course.  Finally, I get some peace and quiet to get something done ( and more time for knitting!).  As you can tell by the long pants and light jacket that he is wearing - it was still rather chilly then, in fact....

.... it was still chilly enough for Taffy to be wearing her sweater and bunny slippers while she chatted on the phone!

But, it was mild enough that Poppa had started working on his front flower display!  Hurray!

More Knitting

The weather has been so chilly.....

.... that in the middle of March, Taffy was still wearing her winter clothes!  And since it wasn't nice enough to do too much...

... I just kept on knitting!  Blankets use up lots of yarn and I'm still trying to use up some of my stash (so I can get more new yarn!)...

... and this blanket turned out quite nicely - all made from stash yarn - except for the white.  I liked it, so when I got it finished....

.... I took it to the hospital and Auntie Cecile sent me this photo of it on display in the tuck shop.  On the right side of the photo you can see a couple of lovely crocheted blankets made by another volunteer - so pretty! She also sent this picture.....

... where you can see some of my other projects also hanging, along with some items made by other folks.  Last time I was in they were all gone except for a couple of items.  Soon....

.... I found myself sewing a lace border on another blanket (can you tell I enjoy knitting that heart pattern on baby blankets?😊) ... I liked this one even more.....

... and once again I didn't buy any yarn - and my stash was getting smaller - so I ordered some more!

While I waited for it to arrive, I decided it was time for a change of pace.  With the stash and springtime in my mind, I created this little sweater and hat.  Then,

... still with those things in mind I made another little sweater.  When I look at this one I picture a little person in the garden with a packet of seeds in one pocket and a little spade in their hand.

Kevin popped in for a visit one day - he brought Teddy with him - Teddy loves Poppa so they had a snuggle.  I think Kevin really came to show me this picture...

....... to prove to me that he actually got a wild turkey when he was hunting!  I'm still waiting for a drumstick!

What is Poppa doing???

Oh... I mentioned to him one day, that my Dyson stick wasn't working properly - he took it all apart and cleaned all the pieces - it is working just fine now!

Here is another picture....

.. taken on May 28th - as you can see, the bears are still wearing warm clothing - still not very springlike weather - but at least the snow has gone.

I guess the most important thing that happened since I last posted....

....... you can see in this and the following picture.  This one was taken sometime prior to the end of March.....

... and this one was taken April 2nd.  Can you spot the difference???

Oh yes..........

... I finished one more blanket.  This one has fuzzy yarn in the borders and each white zig-zag - but you can't really tell in this picture.  You can tell I was using up smaller bits of yarn from the stash - as each stripe is a different size!  What fun!