A very quiet house...

My son and his wife and their baby left this morning after a few wonderful days visiting us.  I'd not met this wee little girl, but she is a delight, and I had serious quality Granny time with her.  At four months old, she is already a sweet-natured baby, really only fussing when hungry, wet, or tired.  Otherwise, it was all big drooly, toothless smiles and chuckles at the dog--with whom she bonded immediately. 

Josh and Montana

Granny Jan and Juniper

Josh and his phone

 

Papa Phil and the wee featherless biped.

Juniper loves dogs already!

Pals.

We had a "burger burn and beers" in the back yard to celebrate their visit--inviting friends my son hadn't seen in a decade or more.  Sunday the guys sat around watching the game, and my daughter in law and I found an estate sale right around the corner.  Monday the guys hit the firing range while we girls played with paper clay and paint.  The cat finally came out of hiding to investigate the strangers, but by then it was almost time for them to go home!

Hope you all had as fine a weekend as we did!

What's up at House Conwell

Haven't posted since the doll show postmortem blog, but things have been crazy busy here.  Guess everybody says that, but alas, 'tis true.

It looks to be the case for a while to come, but in a good way!

On the home front, my son and his wife and our tiny new granddaughter will come down from Colorado for a while.  We haven't seen them since they left with orders for England years ago!

Montana, Joshua, and little Juniper (Bumpy June-Bug).

Then later in October, Phil's folks will visit, and I miss them so much and can't wait to see them again.  I really hit the lottery when it comes to in-laws, and feel blessed to know them.  And our Schultz will be ecstatic because he gets to see Annie, whom he is slightly afraid of and maybe a little in love with, if you'll pardon the prepositions. 

"I'm all in!"  (Dec. 2012) Phil and his folks playing poker, a family tradition.

Brothers Conwell (Dec. 2012) and quadrupeds, Schultz and Annie, hangin' with the chew toys.

On the realty front, one of our rental houses is empty now, and we've decided to sell it.  So guess who will be painting and house-repairing this weekend on her fiftieth birthday?  Phil and I make a good team when it comes to projects like these, though, so the weekend with him will be a memorable time.

On the doll front, I finished one of my post-doll-show orders, a teeny izzy (9") and she's all ready for bed in a super-fine linen gown and cap.  The lady who will give her a new home has been to visit me at every doll show since the first one...when I teased her at the show for not picking out a doll, she said, "But the one I want is sold."  So of course nothing would do but that I made her one similar.  Miss Mary has a thing for dolls in white, so little Nell will fit right in.

9" Izannah, "Nell"

 

Those tiny applied thumbs are quite a trick!

The small ones are harder to make, but something about them really tugs at the heart.

On the landscaping front, I planted a "Charlie Brown Tree" this week--a baby Honey Mesquite--over the objections of every landscaping adviser ever.  Don't care.  I love mesquite trees, and wanted one on our place.  The weatherman is forecasting rain for our area, but not very hopefully.  I think I will augment that hope and maybe do a few rain dances while I'm watering today.  (It's our day to water, 3 am to 7 am...yes, we set an alarm.)

Hope your weekend is fabulous dahlinks!