Harriet , You're so right, about freeing time up, by purchasing those soft, luxurious throws. They're warmer, softer, and cozier than fleece, too. At $8.99 apiece, we couldn't pass it up. I got one, too. It's off-white with some plum berries on the branches, which fade into a pastel grey. So beautiful, so soft, and cozy. I need to keep Kitty Cat away from it though. I keep it inside my linen cupboard, when not in use.
Elizabeth , Are you Scandinavian? You look like a natural blonde, to me, too. My Ddil is a natural blonde and redheads are in my Dmom's side of the family. Also, DGD-2 has reddish short curly hair. It's too sweet and cute.
Thanks for sharing the happy photos of you two. Also, I crocheted DGD-2, a dress recently, like the one in the photo, only for a larger size and I made her 2, when she was a baby, like the photo dress. Aren't they fun to make?
I only wished, when DD was a baby, I knew how to crochet dresses, but she got a lot of cute sewn ones.
It was such fun. Made clothes for Dson, too. Once, I made them wide-wale cord aviator jacket pant suits. I put a whistle zipper pull on Dson's jacket, he blew the whistle, in Show & Tell, in Kindergarten, and he made a huge hit by doing that. (I cannot recall what DD's zipper pull was.)
That was about 38 years ago. Once, I made Dson and DD matching pant suits, with those pearly-type snaps. One pant suit was one color and the other was a different color, but they both were those patch pattern prints, like they were quilts sewn together, but it was stamped material. They were adorable.
What I was blessed by, is how Dmil lived in Chino, CA. She'd go to exercise classes, 3 days a week, and in the same strip mall, she's peep into the fabric at the store next door. She'd purchase fabrics on sale, she'd ship them to me, in WA State, I'd open the packages, and measured the fabrics she mailed to me. A lot of the fabrics were double-knit polyester or gabardine. I wrote down the fabric measurements on 3" x 5" inch cards, hauled my kids to the fabric store with me, while they were preschool, and kept them in the cart, as I browsed the pattern books. It was a "game" to match the pattern requirement with the amount of fabric I had. I'd get the pattern, the notions, go home, pre-wash, cut, sew, and after the outfits were done, I put them on DD and Dson, to photograph them, to send down to Dmil and Dfil, to "see". Dmil was often told, by her Dfriends, "Oh, that fabric will never be good for a girl! It's much too old for her!" and they'd try to discourage her. Dmil kept telling them, "Just wait and see! You'll never believe what my Ddil can DO! I'll show you photos! I'll prove it!" And she'd get the photos from me, she'd show her friends, and they'd be so surprised, but very admiring and pleased.
It was fun like that, until my kids got to Middle School.
Then, they wanted everything to be store bought. Oh, well... Things do change, while we're not looking, right?
But now, I have DGS-6, DGS-4-almost, and DGD-2, to crochet for. It's like everything has come full circle again, but this time around, I crochet instead, so it's a new experience to me, but it's still as rewarding.