Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Chrissi, you poor thing.        Take care of that arm. 

Your candle centerpiece is sooo pretty ! ! !  I'm going to have to remember that one for Christmas this year.

This Gingerbread Coffeecake is absolutely my most favorite holiday sweet stuff recipe.  And the Tiramisu Cheesecake is my favorite cheesecake recipe.  My kids' favorite is the pumpkin cheesecake but the tiramisu gets my vote as the best.  These recipes came out of a cook book I made for my girlies.

The cranberry sauce is easy.  Fresh cranberries, water, sugar, a little fresh squeezed orange juice, a diced apple or two, boil until the cranberries pop then mash it a little.  Put it in the fridge overnight.  Very yummy.

This is soooo easy and I serve it for company all the time.  I always get requests for the recipe.  I put extra parmesan cheese on top and always double the amount of mushrooms.

I've seen Nicole's needlefelted creations in person and, believe me, they are perfectly exquisite ! ! ! 

Hi Nicole.

While on my bear break, I'm learning to quilt.  My Auntie Sue, who has made over 100 quilts (many have been auctioned for charity) is teaching me.  Here's my first, a baby quilt.  It was supposed to be for my grandbaby, Sullivan, but I'm making another for him.  This one just isn't good enough for Sully.

I always have from 15 to 20 for Thanksgiving.  The main thing that helps A LOT is that the hubster bbq's the turkey in the Weber.  It's heavenly this way, very  moist and it frees up the ovens for everything else.  I cook a chicken in the  little roaster oven for the gravy fixin's (I stash it away in the laundry room to cook). 

I make almost everything the day before and put it all in the fridge for heating up the next day.  I make yams (from scratch), turkey dressing, pumpkin cheesecake, cranberry sauce.  The cheesecake and the cranberry sauce can even be made two days ahead of time.  When people ask what they can bring, I delegate the green salad and the bread and maybe a couple extra desserts.  About the only thing I make the day of Thanksgiving is the gravy and mashed potatoes.

I set the tables the day before too.

Funny, I only know how to make thanksgiving dishes in bulk.  If I tried to make them for 4 or 5 I'd be befuddled.

I have the recipes for everything right here in my noggin.  I couldn't tell you amounts but I could tell you the ingredients.  I do have my pumpkin cheesecake recipe written down though.

Thanks for the heads up, Brenda.  I hadn't thought of that either.  I'll let Tracy know.

Thanks, Aleta.  I think he's pretty stinkin' cute too.   

All this new baby stuff is quite amazing.  I think Tracy tried the baby language to decipher the cries too, but the signing has prooven to be quite successful.

How fun is that !?!

I forgot, here's a link to the baby sign web site:  http://signingbaby.com/main/index.php

Did you know you could teach babies sign language?  They can communicate with you before they learn to talk. 

My daughter started to teach Sullivan signs when he was 3 months old.  He had pain in his eyes from the infant glaucoma and she hoped that she could teach him to let her know when he was hurting.  Now, at 9 months he is communicating with her.  After she thought she was done nursing this morning, he signed "more" and "milk".

She talks about this in her latest blog entry where she also has links to a website about baby signing.   She is an amazing writer and I so enjoy reading her blogs.
http://theviewfrommybranch.blogspot.com/

By the way, Sullivan was featured in a newspaper article as a sucess story for infant glaucoma.  Here's a link to the article.
http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/i … ml?ID=6731

I can't resist another picture of my amazing boy:  (I know, sorry, but I am a proud Nana)

Whoops, couldn't resist adding this one.

I never thought so,  but at one show two separate people told me my bears looked  like me in the eyes.

Wow, I want to live there ! ! !

Her name must be Petunia.   :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

Well . . . what I would do is . . . organize his office for him if he would let you do that.  I love to organize, everything is organized in my house.  Really I'm not OCD . . . well I don't think so anyway.

But, seriously, I would, (again, if he would let me) get him organized so his space would be less of a mess.  There's always more room when it's organized and everything is put in its place.  There are all sorts of cool organizers and if it's a bedroom, make good use of the closet by building shelves in it.  In fact, install shelves everywhere possible.  I have one of those industrial-type chrome shelves full of labeled plastic boxes.  I made a fabric cover for it with an opening down the middle front so it looks pretty.  Then I might even get a room dividing screen to separate our spaces and kinda work uninterrupted.  They even have them with bullitin or magnet boards on them.  That way, you could make your space look pretty too.

For your sewing machine, you could get a small typing table or one of those heavy duty wooden tv trays to minimize the space your sewing machine takes up.  Or get one of those plastic folding tables (they come in a variety of sizes) and use one side for your sewing machine and the other half as a work space.  Whatever will fit.

Oh yes, you can always use your ipod while you're working and pretend like you don't hear him if he tries to interrupt.

I just found that the cardboard spools took up so much room.  I was able to fit so much more ribbon in my plastic box when I took them off the spools.  Being in the plastic bags keeps them tidy too.  When I was keeping them on the spools, there were ribbon "tails" everywhere getting tangled up.

OK, here's how I store my ribbon.  I'll try to explain this so it makes sense.  (I'm a bit OCD when it comes to things like this.) I take the ribbon off of the spool.  Then I wind it around my hand take it off my hand and flatten it.  Then I sort them by colors.  Then I put like colors in zip lock bags.  Then I make holes in the corner of the plastic bags and hang them on metal rings that come apart with a hinge. 

(You know those little spool thingies you can get to wind your embroidery thread around? The rings come with that pack to hold the spools. Or you can buy them separately in the embroidery thread department.  I use them to organize my patterns too. Very handy.)

I put three or four zip lock baggies on each ring (also acording to color) and keep the whole mess in a large plastic box marked "Ribbons".  They're easy to take out and look at and color coded too.  You could hang the rings on a peg board too.  That way you could see them all at once.

A HUGE congratulations to you, Aleta.  You probably know I'm a giddy-happy Nana too.  (See my post on Sullivan's travels).  By the way, just in case it's a boy, they have adorable clothes for boys too and I saw an amazing pirate ship bed.

I was shocked when I first went shopping with my daughter too.  Travel system?  Ohhhh, a stroller and a car seat.  We went to babiesRUs where they let you take items off the shelf (high chairs, pack-n-plays, etc.) and set them up, take them down.  That will rule out some items you thought you liked.  They also have a car seat (I mean the seat out of a car) in the store so you can check the ease, and learn the right way, to install the baby car seat. I was also amazed by the baby bath tub with the jacuzzi jets.  Anyway, I highly recommend babies4Us for the essentials.  Be aware, though, you may come out of the store with a bag full of cute clothes too.

I'm still in the process of designing the perfect diaper bag.  We already bought the fabric and the buckles etc.  Hopefully I'll get it done before she doesn't need it.  Oh well, always baby number two.

Can't wait for pictures of your little one.

How scary, Gail.  You're right, I had no idea hurricanes hit Canada.  I hope it loses strength before it hits.  How close are you to the coast? Will they evacute?

Really, Sullivan loved sitting in the suitcase.  We had to pry him out when it came time to pack it.

And, yep, you got it right.  I'm a giddy proud Nana.  Grandbabies are the BEST ! ! !  I never thought I'd be one of those moms who said, "Come on, have another one",  but here I am.

I haven't sold on ebay but I do buy there.

I don't know what everyone else does, but when I search for something on ebay, I choose my category or put in my search criteria, then I choose "ending soonest" or "newly listed", scroll down past the featured listings to where the item that really is ending soonest or most newly listed begins. . . because I can't stand to look at the same item twice.   A featured item comes up first in the featured listings and then again in the real order of ending soonest or newly listed.

And Best Match?  I don't appreciate ebay telling me what they think is my best match.  I'll decide that.

So there, my two cents.

How fun ! ! !  A beagle/bassett hound mix.   I never could have pictured it but, wow, how cute.

Awwwwwwwww   

My daughter, Tracy and her little one Sullivan came to visit us last month.  Here are some pics of them on their way home:

Oh, how I miss them

Ever, ever, EVER, so cute  ! ! !

Evary party needs a pooper, as they say.

That is soooo sweet ! ! !

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup: