So is this the last of the blankies? (Once again, a knitter wonders.)

Happy (13th) birthday, dear Ryan!

You're never too old for a blankie from Grandma!

Hey Caitlin!

No sooner did she turn 14 than Caitlin suddenly turned radio host! Mom (my illustrious daughter Shannon) took her to work today, and I must say she looks good with those headphones on. Hosting can't be far away.

In other news, Caitlin looks happy with her hand-knitted birthday present from Grandma, who never thought she'd still be knitting blankies at this stage. Sixteen balls of wool, a few weeks with the needles and a few dollars spent at Michaels, but I must say it all turned out well.

NEWS FLASH! 

More of Caitlin the journalist, learning camera techniques from a CTV technician. She also appeared for a nanosecond in a story her mother did, but I can't post that one unless it pops up on YouTube. Stay tuned!

                 And here she is in her Halloween costume.

Happy birthday, David!

Squishy and Squashy

Here she looks about 15, but Caitlin is 11, that age when they have one foot in adulthood and the other in kindergarten. Mature as she is, she wants me to knit her a new "blankie", which of course I will.

A rare photo of the cousins together. Note the brunette/auburn contrasting with almost Scandinavian blonde/blue-eyed.

Is Caitlin too old for pandas? I don't know, but I'm not. These were devilish to make and might represent my last effort.

Horrible picture of me - I do not photograph well - but Caitlin looks cute with Squishy and Squashy.

  Visit Margaret's Amazon Author Page!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K7NGDA

Caitlin: you made me a grandma!

To honour an amazing day, the day I watched my first grandchild Caitlin's birth. She gave me a new life, a new self, and  a reason to carry on when all seemed lost. Today she is eleven years old. We do mad scientist crafts together, baking experiments, make YouTube videos (ferociousgumby!), and have all sorts of riotous fun.

  Visit Margaret's Amazon Author Page!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K7NGDA

More pictures from Ryan's birthday!

"Knit me a Minecraft Creeper, Grandma!"

. . . and so I did.

And now, for something completely different

Yesterday's rant stirred up some mixed feelings in me. It was one of those posts I usually delete because it comes from so far out in left field. But I decided to leave it up.  Please take it as irony of the most iron kind.

And in case you're wondering, my own marriage is nothing like that! Even as I write, I hear the vacuum cleaner running downstairs, and it ain't the cleaning lady. Later on he will put a meat loaf in the oven. Oh yes.

To provide some counterweight, I hope, I hereby display the rest of the stuffies I knitted for Lauren and Erica's joint birthday party on Saturday. I'm proud of these. They were fun to make, but also a lot of work. They are, top to bottom, the Ugly Ducking all grown up, plus his girl friend (and later, wife) Melinda Mallard;

A grizzly bear, unnamed (yes, I know there isn't a grizzly bear in The Ugly Duckling, but there was in my version; this one was so hard to make he was in and out of the garbage pail several times);

A penguin, definitely NOT in the story (one of the hits of the evening, though it was the easiest to make);

A dolphin, likewise, who looks like a girl dolphin (dolphinette?) to me;

And some ladybugs. Lauren loves them, and it's the name of her team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk for the Cure, which convened on Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa included. The five-kilometer walk was a bit of a stretch for us old people, but hey, it was for the best cause ever!