Young and Grown...We all Celebrated!

This past weekend was one of CELEBRATIONS...

One near, one far...

One little...

One grown...

BOTH LOVED...

My little GB Riggins

TURNED THREE!

I can hardly believe it!!!

His little life has overjoyed us with his smile,

his tenacity and his "SQUEEZES"...

Every time I hear him say Gigi...

I MELT I tell YOU!

Take a look for yourself...

Happy Birthday My SWEET GB...

your GIGI LOVES YOU!!!

and then...

THE VERY NEXT DAY...

in IOWA...

(funny story here...I have a daughter in Ohio..
and I keep telling people the wrong state when I tell them
where either of these two live!!! I had to change it
just NOW too...my son texted me and said
IOWA!!! ...
There you go sweet son of mine.... IOWA!)

MY BABY...

had a Birthday!

All grown, with a sweet wife and family of his own,

This man is one of the best Daddys I know.

 Handsome Son...

and my first born.

He is LOVED by his Mama.

Two GREAT reasons to 

CELEBRATE...

Building love...

Years ago, I had a friend named Ruby.

She had a home with a sewing studio in it.

Her husband built it for her.

It had a "L" shaped counter top large 

enough to cut out patterns and sew on it.

I can remember walking into her studio and thinking...

Wow.

I secretly hoped I could have a sewing room like Ruby's.

In 2009, I set up my first sewing room in a newly

emptied bedroom vacated by "college bound" girls ...

My Bill has enhanced it every so often with little (BIG) things

like a magnetic board for patterns and pictures and my design wall...

He's even fixed little tables to help me 

with the load of those large quilts that have 

hung over my 6 ft. fold up table while I wrestled with them.

Oh...and that sewing machine thingy... last year... (Yes....that WAS BIG)

Wanna walk back with me?

My first little sewing space in my current room...don't you know I was thrilled to have it!!!

That was my brand new Brother Runway model sewing machine I had just gotten for Mother's Day

I really loved the simplicity of it...and the fact that I even had it!

and it then grew to this:

A beautiful design wall...yep...the one hubby did...

Oh...and that sewing thingy I mentioned above...

again...Mr. Bill.

Until finally...I was here.

No complaints. None.

But that man of  mine...

Built me a sewing cabinet last weekend.

It holds all my fabric,

my rulers, thread, and has a space for my cutting mat

and storage for my Go Cutter and dyes.

I will be able to iron on a portion of it...

oh, and of course it has that all important

sewing machine space too. 

It has enough landscape to sandwich any sized quilt...or 

to hold those quilts so I can actually quilt them without

them falling off the sides into the floor almost pulling my 

machine needle with them...

Even though my sewing room is still a mess right now,

and my sewing cabinet still needs paint and stain,

 and I want to add a few little touches...

 I just couldn't wait to

load it all up to see how it would look...

and 

I

  love 

it.

A funny thing happens...

I don't know about anyone else, but when my children left for college, I was a little lonely.  OK, for those of you that know me...VERY lonely.  OK< OK! but there isn't enough blog writing space to write LONELY any bigger!
but I digress...
So, now that four of the five have spread their wings and left us with a virtual empty nest...(and I am only 45!) I began to want another animal around...I have two outside dogs...both Labs...we call them the Saw Brothers...(Buzz and Jig) and let me say their names say it all.

Mr. Buzz Saw

remind me to tell you the story of Wal-Mart ...

Mr. Jig Saw

and about this one's smoking habit...

Anyway...I was beginning to ask randomly for a little toy poodle...but wise hubby said no...and he was right. I didn't have time for all that potty training...you know..work and all..


But one day, while in the Tractor Supply store in Kerrville, TX...I had a "light bulb" moment.
I was wondering around the store and to my surprise, there were these little cages and metal bins with ducks and chicks in them. Cute...even adorable...but I had decided long ago, that with the Saw Brothers, birds would not work out so well...so I knew there was no danger in looking.

Then it happened.
I went around the corner to another isle and saw another bin.

I walked up thinking, "man! how many birds DO THEY SELL?"

I looked down, and there they were.

BABY BUNNIES.

I reached down to pick one up, and they all ran to the other side, "sept" (Texas term here) ONE.
It was a solid white, baby bunny with little ears and little paws...and she came to the side where I was reaching down, and sat up with her paws up wanting me to get her.  

I picked her up, and she immediately "skooched" (more Texan speak here) up into the nape of my neck...and...

I was DONE!

The guy in the store saw the whole thing...and as I was calling to my hubby to look, the store guy started laughing...and said, "sir, how do you like your new pet?"
I looked at Bill...he looked at me...and five blinks later...we were buying a house for our little "Cotton Patch".  (She only has one patch of gray on her nose and ears.)

Well, judge for yourself...do you think she is a good companion? 

Let me just say...empty nest my foot! NO EMPTY NEST HERE!

Cotton's first close-up

Isn't she adorable in purple?

In case you haven't noticed...she GOES EVERYWHERE I GO...

and do you think Mr. Bill (aka:hubby) loves her at all?

and oh my...goodnight kisses are the best...

this just doesn't get old to me....being a photographer doesn't help either!

her favorite position in the evenings when we are watching the ASTROS

her new digs to go traveling with us...and we taught her how to take walks too!

hey, i missed showing you this one...

I know! I know! But Spring time at the Ranch this year was beautiful....

Cotton's favorite window in our little camper...

seriously, there's only one more...

hanging out ...