Family

Mystery of the chewed on afghan solved!

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Chewed on

Lulu did it!
Hubby and I were sitting on the couch last night snuggled under the afghan I knitted for him several years ago. It’s heavy and knitted with two thick strands for maximum warmth. All of a sudden I heard Rick gasp. It was very unlike him to make that sound especially during an episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” After Rick pulled up one end of the afghan I sneered.

“Lulu just took a bite out of my afghan,” Rick growled in Lulu’s direction.

The yarn strands were still wet with her doggie DNA. My heart sank. Lulu is mostly well behaved … but has her moments. She is partial to shoes having taken out my favorite pair about a month ago. Now we know Lulu also likes knitted things. And that means it can be confirmed that Lulu was obviously the pooch that took the chunk out of my favorite afghan last year. The mystery is solved. Lulu is definitely on my “poop list.”

It’s for the little rutabaga

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I knew when I first laid eyeballs on the quilt kit at the International Quilt Festival last fall, it would be my first purchase. I mean … our daughter and son-in-law will have our first grandbaby in early May. Hooray! Oh, and our daughter also works at the Houston Zoo (www.houstonzoo.org). Naturally, a quilter, and grandmother-to-be, I had to run out and make a quilt for the little rutabaga.

We used to call our grandbaby-to-be a “sprout” for the longest time. It seems now all the rage is to compare their current size to fruits and veggies. Today it is the size of a rutabaga!

Picking which animal quilt option was a no-brainer, as back last October we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl. I figured the giraffe was generally gender neutral, although the pink flamingo and the monkey were also pretty darn cute. I have to say applique is not my favorite way to manipulate fabric, but I decided to jump in anyway with both feet. With the help of my trusty “Applique Pressing Sheet,” I could do this project in no time. Made it easier to build the whole giraffe and then fuse one large piece onto the quilt top.

Next step is to sew around the edges of the applique pieces before sending it on to my long-arm quilting lady!

The adorable animal quilt is published by “The Teacher’s Pet,” http://www.the-teachers-pet.com, out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The quilt pattern is called “Peek-a-Boo Pals” and includes all four animals in the pattern. An alphabet chart is also included. I opted not to put a name on it since the first name is not entirely settled.

2013 … a look back

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I only managed to complete two quilts in 2013. I have loftier quilting goals for 2014! The first completed 2013 quilt was a Christmas present for one of my husband’s many, many lovely sisters. Dipping into my collection of Christmas fat quarters, I used a disappearing nine-patch pattern (future blog alert) that I learned to make at our church’s prayer quilt ministry. A real stash buster and lots of fun to make! Did I mention that Becky is one of nine sisters in the family? She lives in San Antonio and runs a soup kitchen. I finished the quilt in the nick of time … only one year late!

The other quilt went to a charity gala for The Village Learning Center (www.villagelac.org). I make one every year for them. It’s the least I can do. Among other wonderful things, the Center runs an adult day program that my special needs daughter attends. Mimi’s favorite day of the week is Tuesday when her class goes bowling! Life should be so simple.

Just so you don’t think I was a total slug in 2014, I did manage to make coordinating pillow cases, dust ruffle and a little skirt for under Mimi’s television. It goes nicely with the quilt I made for her wall in 2012 with a collection of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters. The fabric on one side of the pillow cases is blue and the other green. The pillow cases were a booger to make until I learned the “hot dog bun” method of making pillow cases from my friend Angela. Now I just gotta figure out what to do with Mimi’s curtain-less window!

Spending time with Santa

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Santa visited our special needs daughter again this Christmas Eve! It was a regular hug-fest! I so appreciated him leaving his sleigh parked out front to make a special pit stop at our house. After a few minutes he was back dashing his way delivering presents and good cheer.

A twist on ‘Sharing Sunday’

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This year for ‘Sharing Sunday’ at St. Martha’s Catholic Church in Kingwood, hubby and I cashed in a year’s worth of small change before heading down to our local toy store. On the Park (www.onthepark.com) is a lovely toy store that really shines this time of year … and they gift wrap … not my strongest gift. We came out of there with 10 baby gifts. It was a new world’s record for the Frantz family. We usually wind up with 5 or 6 baby dolls.

Our “twist” to our church’s event this year was all the gifts purchased were for babies about eight months old. Yep … we are getting in some practice on what it will be like being grandparents. Our first will be born in May … so by next Christmas we will have an eight-month-old bouncing on our knees.

I wrote a column this week about this very subject for my newspaper (www.ourtribune.com) with lots more words … no photographs … because that is what columns are … lots of words. You can also check it out on the “You Gotta Laugh” tab of this blog in case you are interested.

Thanksgiving … family, food and friends

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My girls, Katie and Mimi, made a delicious bourbon pumpkin tart with streusel topping for Thanksgiving. One of Katie’s gifts is the girl makes amazing desserts! Another gift is her huge and gentle heart. Katie adores her sister. I loved watching them interact … Katie wheeling Mimi into the pantry to retrieve pie ingredients, letting Mimi hold the eggs, laughing hysterically when one of them hits the floor, helping Mimi stir the ingredients … these little things are huge in Mimi’s life.

Thanksgiving … so much to be thankful for … family, food and friends.

Who ate my afghan?

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A bite missing“Is there something you want to tell me?” I asked hubby upon showing him the chunk missing from my favorite afghan.

I had just come back from our special needs daughter’s room. It was going to be cold that night and I thought the afghan would help to keep Mimi especially toasty. I saw the jagged edges where yarn ought to be as I spread the afghan across Mimi. When Rick looked as bewildered as I about the mysterious missing chunk of yarn, I knew he was not the culprit. I would stew about how it happened all week.

I knitted the multi-colored afghan about twenty years ago from a kit. I’ve always loved the colors and the pattern was so easy/breezy. It had a special spot all neatly folded over the couch for easy access. Heck, that afghan was just the perfect weight for an “anytime snuggle” on the couch and used often … very often. Until last week that is.

Did the cleaning lady do it?Everyone was suspect. Moths, the dog, spooky-looking zombies with milk-white eyeballs … heck maybe even the cleaning lady. OK, so I have recently hired a cleaning lady every other week to keep the Frantz house neat and tidy. Dusting is my least favorite domestic duty. So I thought perhaps she sucked part of the afghan into the vacuum cleaner and didn’t tell me. But how was that even possible? When she is cleaning, I am madly clicking keys on the computer 10 measly feet from where the afghan is parked on the couch. I have to confess I did turn the vacuum cleaner over to see if there was any yarn shrapnel stuck to the vacuum brush. Nothing!
LuluWhich leads us to our final logical suspect … Lulu! I vividly recall her “guilty face” after she ate one hubby’s favorite flip flops. But the dog is just so darn cute, it wasn’t hard to forgive. Heck, the last time she chewed on anything inappropriate was a year ago. So I reluctantly crossed Lulu off the list … with a pencil.

I am resigned to the fact I may never know what happened to my afghan. But now I have a great reason to make another one. My crystal ball says there is a visit to my favorite yarn shop in my future!

Pigeon beaks and quilt bee cookies

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Drake
My lovely neighbor, Marie, knocked on my door the other day. She was wearing a frowny face which was most unusual. In her hands were a youngster’s blue hoodie jacket and a couple of squares of yellow felt. Oh, and the hood of the little jacket had what looked like very large “peel and stick” eyeballs on the top of each side.

“Drake has to dress like a storybook character for school and I’m having a little problem figuring out how to sew on a beak. Can you tell me what I should do?” Marie said.

I had heard about Drake’s favorite book, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” by Mo Willems. Marie had told me a while back that her son belly-laughs whenever he reads it. Of course, Drake MUST be a pigeon!

I quickly inspected the jacket and had Marie follow me into my sewing room.

“I’ll just snip the felt here and make a three-dimensional beak. Then I’ll stuff it a little and whip stitch it on. It won’t take long at all. I drop it by in a little while,” I said.

Did I mention that Marie makes these amazing decorated sugar cookies? She sells them locally. I order from her from time-to-time and just love seeing my friends’ reactions to her little works of art. A couple of weeks back I ordered a batch for delivery this week after searching through her website selections (www.missmariescookies.blogspot.com). I challenged her to come up with either a “bee” or a “quilt” type cookie. And I mentioned that if that was not possible the autumn leaves I had seen on her site would do nicely. So of course Marie gave me both the bee and the quilt! And they taste just as yummy as they look.

Oh, so let me finish my story about Drake’s pigeon beak. When I delivered the pigeon jacket across the street a little while later, Marie thanked me profusely. Drake tried on the jacket and looked just adorable! Actually, Drake looks adorable without the jacket, but that is beside the point.

“I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you again so much,” Marie said.

I smiled. Did Marie know how honored I felt to be able to participate in such a small way? Before turning to head home I stopped.

“You know Marie … my gift is that I sew … and your gift … is your amazing sugar cookies,” I said.

Life should be as simple as a child’s favorite book and a delicious sugar cookie.

It’s a great time to visit the Houston Zoo

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If you haven’t been to the Houston Zoo lately you are in for a very tall treat … as in my favorite … the giraffes. My Air Force son, also very tall, was in town for the weekend and we decided to meet daughter Katie, who happens to work there. I have to say the highlight, and there were many, was feeding the giraffes! It is so worth standing in line for a few minutes till you arrive on the raised platform. The beautiful animals swirl their tongue around the stalks of romaine lettuce and in it goes! Katie cautioned that giraffe feeding is dependent on weather and giraffe participation! There is a fee involved to feed the giraffes, so check out the website for feeding times and to plan your zoo visit at http://www.houstonzoo.org.

The creative folks at the Houston Zoo have been very busy updating several habitats since my last visit a couple of years ago. You should check out what they have done with the new flamingo exhibit. The flamingos have been busy building nests with at least one new baby born on display! Cutest thing ever!

Did you know there are also six chimpanzees now residing at the Houston Zoo. The Insectarium opens in the Spring of 2014, and the construction of the gorilla exhibit is also well underway scheduled to open in 2015.

And don’t miss the elephant exhibit. It has also been expanded since my last visit. One of the elephants, not hard to guess which one, is expecting a big bundle of joy in a few months. Go by and pay your respects to Shanti! Baylor and Tupelo were born in 2010 and seemed pretty excited about the announcement of the new addition!

Our visit also coincided with the last few days of Zoo Boo. So many kids and parents came dressed in costume for the festivities. I paused at the graveyard with tombstones listing extinct animals and the year of their demise.

There is so much to see that we missed a lot. Just means we have to go back very soon to catch Zoo Lights, an evening (6 to 10 pm) holiday celebration with thousands of sparkling lights, singing choirs, hot chocolate and so much more starting in late November. Just saying!

Layers of New Orleans’ French Quarter – Part Two

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Continuing to inspect the many layers of this historic area of New Orleans, I decided to write one more post before I leave the city. It will probably be another year before we get back. Although not in the French Quarter, my only regret this visit was I didn’t get to go through Louisiana’s Civil War Museum (www.confederatemuseum.com). Better known as the Confederate Museum, it is located at 929 Camp Street right around the corner from the World War II Museum. Darn if it wasn’t closed during the month of September. One New Orleans native told me it was closed for dusting, like I believed that explanation. My husband says the lady could tell I have the word “gullible” printed in big block letters all over my forehead.

Wandering toward the Mississippi River from the French Quarter is the Audubon Aquarium of the America (www.AudubonInstitute.org). It is located at 1 Canal Street at the River. There is also a butterfly garden and insectarium, along with an IMAC theatre in the same area, but I focused on the aquarium since I would be meeting hubby for lunch during his seminar break. My one adult ticket was $22.50, which I thought was a bit pricy, until I spent some time wandering around the impressive exhibits. I loved the Caribbean reef tunnel with its array of sea life. The scuba diver hand feeding the stingrays was the highlight. For some reason I neglected to pick up a map. It actually made it more of a surprise when I happened upon all the different habitat areas containing penguins, sea otters, seahorses, the Amazon Rain Forest and so much more. There are combo tickets available which provide savings for those visiting multiple attractions, children and lots more time.

The Historic New Orleans Collection (www.hnoc.org) is a lovely museum located at 523 Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter. Closed on Mondays and some holidays, it focuses on the history of New Orleans, and what an interesting history it is! Hidden among the many galleries and shops along Royal Street, I know I’ve passed by the museum storefront a hundred times and never knew it was there. The Williams Galleries and special exhibits are FREE with lots of interesting art, maps and artifacts. The special exhibit that began October 1 and runs until March 9, 2014, is “Occupy New Orleans Voices from the Civil War.” They also offer docent tours of the Williams residence for just five dollars. I highly recommend this tour! It lasts about 45 minutes and starts with a short movie and then on through a historic counting house. You are also walked through the 1889 townhouse that was remodeled in the 1940’s. Containing several lovely courtyards and family possessions, it was owned by a prominent family in New Orleans. They took five small pieces of French Quarter property and combined it into one which now houses the museum galleries and townhouse as well as a great little gift shop. What a treasure … and right on Royal Street. Who knew?