A Study in Red

Being the first week of February, it must be close to Valentine's day. Anyway, close enough. I though I'd do a study of my favorite color, RED, to honor that special day. Red is such a vibrant color. It just pops out at you. It is a fun color to have in your home. I love looking at the RED objects in my home. I love using them also.

First is my Fiesta ware in RED. I love using each piece, especially the red ones. We even bought enough small red plates that I can have every other plate in red in my cupboard stack of small plates. I usually have my oatmeal in the morning in the red bowl. Makes my breakfast fun.

I love the new Red drinking glasses we got after we moved to Las Vegas. They are big. So it is Red and Big.

Red tomatoes. These are the vine ripened type that actually taste like tomatoes, not the usual winter cardboard variety. We love them on our sandwiches.

This is a little "chicken in a red rimmed bowl". We use it for nuts so we don't get carried away and eat the whole bag at one sitting. This little chicken is just cute.

I love this pillow. I call it "Red Heart Squared". I dream of making a quilt with this patch in the middle someday. But, for right now, it is just a picture on my calendar begging for me to start cutting and sewing a new quilt.

This is a picture Michael gave me for Christmas several years back. He knows I love chickens and roosters and especially the color Red. It is my Red Angry Rooster. I love it.

The last entry for today is some "not often used" RED glass work. The goblet is from a set I bought almost 40 years ago in California. I guess I started liking the color red many, many years ago. The dessert glassware is from a set we inherited from grandma McLean. We had bought the red dessert cups many years before as a gift for her. They are perfect for a little dish of ice cream.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Red in the McLean household. What is your favorite color? Are you surrounded by that color? It can bring a cheer to your heart each day.

Birthdays are suppose to be fun, no matter what your age! Jeni has a January birthday and I wanted to do something different. I had an idea. I started a little quilt last year and had not finished it yet. It had been put aside for many other pursuits. Now was the time to strike. I fished it out of my many UFP. I still liked what I had done. So, I added a border and finished it!

A little late for the big day, but it was sent and I was happy. I call it Butterflies in the Mountains. In the quilt there are Butterflies in the Colorado mountains (triangles) in the corners. I love the flowers in the middle. Flowers always make me happy. Colorado has lots of spring flowers. Such a fun quilt to make.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENI!

Joy in the Journey

I just plain LOVE grandkids. I have hugged, kissed, squeezed, and tickled them. I have held them for that first greeting and counted each little toe. Yes--there are 10 little stubs. They are perfect!

>I have grandkids that are now teenagers. How did that happen so soon?? At times it feels like I have had grandchildren almost all my life. You can love them and hand them to their parents, when they start crying. You smile, love, and weep over them. Having given birth to seven children, I know of the pain and travail their mother's went through to bring these sweet and innocent babies to this earth. It is pure joy to see their eyes light up in recognition of grandma. They love being talked to. They have joined our eternal family. They have entered their journey of earth life.

We had two little sweethearts join our family last year. Charlotte Ann Bradley came July 2,2009 and Hattie Ce Ce Bake came October 26, 2009. I was able to be there after their births for a week or so. Each little one is so precious in their own right. And yes, I made sure, they each had 10 perfect little toes!

Charlotte is now six months old. She loves to watch her siblings and is perfecting (in her mind) how to run. I can see her saying: Run, run, as fast as you can. I'm going to catch you soon. Her brother and sister love her. Chas. has to come over to her and give her a kiss when ever he is near.

Hattie is 2 months now. She is busy being loved by her siblings, also. Her 2 sisters love to hold and feed her a bottle, especially in the mornings.

These two little girls are going to be bosom cousins forever. They loved being around each other before birth, and this feeling will only magnify as they grow. How wonderful to have cousins to grow up with so close.

Children are an heritage to the Lord. Grandchildren are an heritage and joy to their grandparents. We do love each of our grandchildren and wish we could visit them more often.

And the year is 2010

Long, long ago - maybe 44 or 45 years ago, I remember being at my grandpa (John) McLean's home in Modesto, California. This is Dan's grandpa and mine by marriage and love. I met him in his golden years. He had been married 51 years to his sweetheart Nola. They did everything together. They loved to watch TV, especially game shows. They played Yahtzee with his sister, Zora and they also loved to fish together. Fishing was the only time I saw Grandma in pants.

The day was January 1st. I was just "hanging out" with my future husband and his grandparents. I remember we were watching TV, maybe the Rose Parade or one of those game shows. As we were watching, Grandpa took a piece of paper and wrote the date of the new year. He said something like, " This is the first time I've written THIS YEAR." He made it seem very important.

This morning I wrote the date January 1, 2010, on a check and realized it was the first time I had done it and I said to Dan, "This is the first time I've written 2010." It reminded me of Grandpa McLean. It seemed important to me also. It is now Twenty Ten.

For me, it seems like a strange date to write and say. This date is suppose to be in the future, not here and now. But, change is constant, it's always around us. A new year, a new way to say the date, lots of change is in the wind. This is going to be a good year, a great year. Happy Twenty Ten.

Memories

My first memory of Calvin was when I came out to help for a few days after he was born. He was soft and cuddly. He seemed and was so perfect, especially being our first grandchild. He had 10 toes and 10 fingers and everything else he was supposed to have. At that time, I wasn't making quilts for our grandchildren yet. So, we went to Joann's Fabric and bought flannel. We made two blankets and we were very happy with them. I remember one was red on the back and white with dogs on the front. I think the red bleed to the front. My first experience with red and learning to not put red behind fabric with mostly white on the front. I know those blankets were used a lot. I remember the day he received his name and blessing. We went to the Hansen's across the street for a little celebration. I remember sitting for what seemed like hours holding and rocking him in the rocking chair in front of the fireplace. What enjoyment that was: Holding our first grandchild. It was a wonderful day. Several years later I made quilts for each of our grandchildren I hadn't made quilts for yet. Calvin's was a design of bottles with insects and bugs inside. I had so much fun making that quilt. We all have great memories of Calvin and he lives on in our hearts. We all love and miss him, just like Donna, Chris and the boys.

A few days after Calvin's passing, Cole asked me to make him a quilt about Calvin, so he would never forget him. I told him, of course I would. Then, Clayton asked if I would make him one also. Of course I would. Jeni was there and we decided I would make one quilt and she would make another quilt. We thought the quilts would help the boys heal. We had old pictures which she printed on cloth so we could include one picture of Calvin on each row of the quilts. These were really hard quilts to make for both Jeni and I. Now the boys have their quilts to remember Calvin, but I know they also have great memories in their minds that won't be forgotten ever.