Lorna is pregnant! Come January, Chris and Lorna are going to be outnumbered. Elanor and Jack are very excited, as are we all. I got permission from the proud parents to release the first official photos of Baby #3.

I never had a sonogram with either of our boys. I don't think they were as commonly given back in the day. Now you get pictures with text added ("Hi Mom and Dad") which is admittedly pretty cute. There's also an action shot! 

I doubt that they can tell at this stage if it's a boy or girl and none of us want to know anyway. It's a baby that looks to be normal and healthy – that's the important thing. 

I just realized that we got in the new and improved Sewline Sure Guide Needle Threader a week or so ago. Lorna unpacked the box and told me they were here but I promptly forgot. 

For those of you who were waiting for this updated version, this is what it looks like:

It has a new mechanism added to one side that keeps you from pushing the threader if the needle is not aligned. The old style didn't have this mechanism and some people broke their threaders. Now you won't! Click here to see it on the Piece O' Cake site.

That is the name of the project I've designed for my class for Adventures in Italy. While it's true that my adventure is not until May 18-24, 2014 now is the time to get the ball rolling. 

I've not yet been to Italy but I have been to France. As I walked around Paris I was captivated by doors. As I thought about what sort of quilt to design for Italy, my mind kept going to doors. I scoured the internet and found many photos of Italian doors. I've gathered some of them on this Pinterest board. I did some reading and found out that Italians love doors. The older the better. They don't throw out or replace old doors, they treasue and use them.

I have a drawing of three doors. Each can stand alone or be set together. I've been working on Door Number One. This is where it started…

I liked the blue door but I also liked these quieter blues. I had to see them both on the desing wall to make a decision.

Well, the light door fades away so it went away. The circles are meant to represent ceramic plates. In several photos I spotted decorative plates hung around exterior doors and I loved the splashes of color.

Even better with plants outside the door. I'm close to finishing this one. I'll post the photo tomorrow or the next day.

In a recent class one of my students had this stool:

She brought it to put her feet on. Great idea! And look at the way it folds up:

This stool is light, folds flat, and it's inexpensive. When we were shopping at Target today I found one for $14.99. Mine is all black with white dots. It holds up to 300 lbs. Love it! Mom got one too.

We found lots more than this when we were shopping. I've started my Christmas shopping which means I need to try to figure out where to stash stuff. I've started a list of what I've gotten for who in Evernote.

And speaking of Evernote, if you have a phone, iPad, or similar device that uses apps, you should check out Evernote. I use it daily. AND – if you have an iPad, check out Flipboard. It's hard to explain but it's a lovely aggregator of the things I like to keep up with.

There's probably more news but I'm kind of tired. Amazing how shopping can wear you out. That said I'll be perking up soon because the grandkids are coming back in a bit to swim with Judy, their other grandmother. Steve's making turkey burgers for us all. I'm so lucky I don't have to cook :-).

It's only Wednesday evening but so far this week I've found every SLOW driver in town. No matter where I was going or what I was doing, it was all slow. I try to be patient but to be honest I got cranky. Just ask Mom. 

So in the spirit of instilling calm, how about some flower pictures?

I have ONE of these lilies. It popped up out of nowhere. I believe it is locally known as a naked lady. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago when I noticed it blooming.

It's gone now. No leaves, just a withered stalk.

I love the hints of purple in the flowers!

It calms me down just looking at it.

Tomorrow Mom, Elanor, and I are driving south to go shopping and to have lunch. I expect it to take some hours…. and there's highway construction to look forward to! It'll be fine, right? I do actually expect to have a good time. Mom and Elanor have a tight bond and it's fun to watch them together. I just need to slow down and enjoy the day. 

Mom, Steve, and I got to see the last performance of Sarah, Plain and Tall on Sunday. 

I knew I would think that my son and granddaughter were very good – which they were! I really didn’t think that I would be as moved by the whole play as I was. I got a bit weepy and so did many others in the audience. Mostly the women, but that’s typical. Christopher played the brother of Sarah – a big but not huge role. He was perfect! And Elanor, who played Violet, one of Anna’s friends, was way better than I had any idea she would be. Darned if that girl doesn’t make you look at her even when she’s not doing much. I was proud.

Instead of cut flowers that fade, I made Elanor a paper flower bouquet. It was really cute and will last a lot longer. Christopher, who did not want or need flowers, got an extension ladder. He has to get up on his roof often and he needs a safe ladder. Now he has one.

Today I went to lunch at my friend Jacquie’s house. I was there on a color consult – although Jacquie’s house is so cool it was hard to find something to give advice on. The house is over 100 years old and quirky. And wonderful!

I took a few photos to share with you. I should have taken more because Jacquie does some way cool things in her house. So, first, for the cat folks amoung you…

Jacquie and Todd have 4 cats – and no cat smell! That in itself is amazing. One cat, Dixie Edwards, is a very active cat so Jacquie installed a series of shelves all the way around her office, mostly up high, for Dixie to climb on. They could be book shelves, but aren’t. The silver brackets came from IKEA. Jacquie covered the first several with a sisal sort of material but she said she’s going to take that off and make them sleeker in appearance.

FYI – that black tree and birds on the wall is a decal.

There’s Dixie and some of the most fun, weird book shelves thatI’ve ever seen. The green behind the books is paint.

Dixie was performing for me. You can see that the shelves mostly hug the ceiling and are a varying lengths. What a GREAT idea!

I didn’t get a good photo of these but I gotta tell you, these photos were amazing. Many of us have similar framed photos/faux paintings in our family. Alone, they are pretty bad. But when you put them together to tell a story – they become priceless! That’s Todd, his grandfather, and mother. In their original frames! I love it!

I worked on a new video today but it will be late tomorrow before I get it uploaded.