One of my husband's colleagues and his wife have a new son – Theo. They sent this photo (and gave me permission to share it with you). As the proud parent of two sons and two grandchildren I've gotta say – this is may be the best newborn photo taken by a non-professional that I've seen. 

Theo is handsome but it's more than that. In this photo he's looking at you. He's not just looking. You can see that there is a brain working behind those eyes. It's lovely that this photo captures that.

I think that all babies are thinking about what they see, but it's not often that a photo captures it. I cannot go back and take this great a photo of my own children but if I could, I would try to capture the spirit of this photo.

As a quilter I also have to say that I want to feel the blanket Theo is wrapped in. The stars are printed on… what? It looks like a quilted gauze. If I'm lucky Theo's parents will at some point let me see this blanket. If they do I'll report back. That said – these are parents of an infant and I'll bet real money that they are going to be sleep deprived for kind of a long time. If they forget that I'd like to touch the blanket I will so understand.

I loved my boys. I love my grandchildren. I did not love sleep deprivation and I would not willingly ever go back to being the parent of a baby. I like my children older. Chris at 30 and Jeff at almost 27 seem to me to be the absolute perfect ages for children. Elanor at 9 is really good. Jack at 4 – I love him a lot – but really, he's going to get better with age.

UPDATE: I found out that this swaddling cloth came from Aden + Anais. There is a set of four with different colored stars. I think they might make nice, short curtains too.

I spent this weekend in Valdosta, GA, with the Withlacoochie Quilt Guild. Seriously – how could these ladies not be fun with a name like 'withlacoochie'? 

Yesterday we worked on coloring a block from My Whimsical Quilt Garden. Today we worked on applique techniques. I took a couple of photos this morning before we had to get to work. Here's Grace and her block:

And Barbara and her block:

There were 22 students in the class and I wish I had had time to photograph everyone with her block because each one was lovely – and differently colored. I love a 2-day class where there is time to play with color! I very much enjoyed the time I spent with these ladies.

I left class today and drove 2 hours to Jacksonville, FL, where I will be for the next 2 days. Then it's down the FL coast to Titusville for 2 days and then farther south for 2 days in Port St Lucie. I fly home next Sunday.

I'll do my best to post more this week from the Sunshine state. It is, in fact, sunny!

In my layman's understanding, the 2nd law of thermodynamics says that all things tend toward disorganization. Murphy's Law is all about entropy. I have spent the last week fighting entropy all over my house. I have much tidier drawers and closets and I feel good! The photos, however, are not thrilling.

This morning Steve and I spent several hours fighting weeds on the patch of ground next to the driveway.

Our driveway backs onto an alley. The spot below, next to the alley, is hard to keep tidy. There is this wiry, persistent, obnixious vine that grows here and elsewhere in our yard. You can't really see it here but it had grown all over that chain link gate, up the crepe myrtle, and into and through the rosemary. 

We raked out the leaves and then layed down 4 layers of newspaper. It was at this point that I realized I did not have anywhere near enough newspaper. So I went dumpster-diving down the alley and was stunned to see that almost none of my neighbors take the paper or, if they do, they are not recycling. I called friends and got some newspapers but this job is going to take more time as we have to collect newspapers.

The reason we put down newspaper was because of an article I read that said that 4 layers of newspaper would smother the plants/weeds underneath. I hope so. Steve went for mulch as I spread newspaper. Here's a tip: pick a day with no wind. Luckily we did not have wind today. If we had this would have been a lot harder. 

I weighted the paper with logs and 'tree cookies' that we had on hand. Steve spread mulch between them and over the paper.

I admit that our after photos may not look a lot different from the before photos, but they are. The vines are cut back to the ground and it is to be hoped that they don't grow up through the newspaper. The leaves are tidied up. I am amassing more newspaper so that we can cover the remaining ground. I feel like I've made progress.

Don't you love making progress? I've also been working on the website this weekend, on pages that are not exactly obvious. I updated the video 'Lessons' pages. You can click here and here and here to see them. I also updated my class page. That meant re-writing all my supply lists. I've spent hours standing at the computer and working. I stand because it supposed to be a lot better than sitting. I can tell the difference – it's harder but my bone density is better.

Speaking of bone density… I've been doing a little yoga in addition to pilates. I read an article in the NY Times today that confirms what I had already been told. Be careful of some of those yoga moves bacause they are not as benign as you may have been led to believe. I listened to a related story on The People's Pharmacy about yoga for osteoporosis. It pays to be careful.

If you read yesterday's post, you know we found a great tool for mom to use to put on compression hose. We got a call last night… she couldn't get them off. Good thing we live four houses down.

As it turns out, there's a tool for getting the darned things off. If I had known, I would have ordered them both at the same time. Click here for more info on the Medi Butler Off (called the doffer).

Mom went to the dermatologist today. He froze off some pre-cancerous patches and he looked at her legs. Mom gets to apply some ointment and wear compression hose for the foreseeable future. We bought the proper hose and then came the real fun.

When you can't bend and can barely reach your toes to put on regular socks it's more than a trick to put on compression hose. I have, in the past, thought mom was sort of a slacker when she told me how hard this task was. Boy, have I been schooled. 

I decided to google 'tricks to putting on compression hose' and found this movie. I watched the first half and we tried that. Didn't work. But then we watched the end of the movie together. Yes! There is a tool for putting on compression hose. Mom went from being disgusted with the whole process to happy.

Within 5 minutes we were calling (the number is listed) to place an order. We ordered one that has extension handles which should be even better for mom. So, for any of you who need to know… here you go:

You might also find good links here.

As promised, here is a photo of Mom's front porch:

Rather than one big step, the boys built two 4 1/2" steps. The hand rails are made from treated lumber. We debated about using galvanized pipe but it's too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. We also thought about building fancier hand rails (well, I thought about it) but this simpler design was faster and looks better with the house.

The concrete pavers off to the right were there before. As mom says it's one less place to need to plant something.

Steve used the same style of hand rail for the front steps. 

The previous owner painted all the concrete in front orange. Mom does not love it. The one gray step you see here is the one Jeff fixed last August. It doesn't match. I am waiting for the day when Mom would like us to either paint it orange or sandblast the rest of the concrete. Until then, I'm going to ignore it.

You're wondering about the bird, aren't you? On my way to Mom's to take this photo I was surprised to spot an adult road runner in our front yard:

I tried to get a better photo but the darned thing kept running farther away. It stood almost a foot tall. Who knew we had road runners!