Good Genes

So, while I'm bragging about Elliot's little genius brain, I thought I'd post some pics of some great stuff my family has made. Today I'm just focusing on my parents, grandmothers and my sister. Some other time I'll go on and on about how talented my children are. There are a lot of pictures...Enjoy!

My dad made this (the garage, not the little boy...I made him).

What? Yes! Of course it's a working elevator. This has gotten a LOT of use and the clearance bar on the top is a new addition; leave it to my dad to find a creative way to add a handle.

Then, my dad made this for Elliot to put his cars in. I was expecting something like a milk crate on wheels, but I forgot, Dad goes all out!

Did I mention that Elliot probably has well over 300 Hot Wheels cars? And that's just the small size...we have countless other trucks and cars of various sizes. (Really, it's getting to be quite a problem!)

My mom did these floral prints in pastels when I was very young. They were in my grandma's bedroom for the longest time and now they're in my room.

Mom also stitched all of these things.

She made towels for every month...they're lovely. And the pillow case (one of two) was a present for our 10th wedding anniversary.

My grandma made this quilt for me. She pieced the whole thing by hand and quilted it by hand on a big quilting rack.

She made one for each of her four grandchildren. I remember her sitting at the end of her diningroom table with a little cardboard box that had all of the pieces in it. She would sit there and watch "her programs" and put it all together. She obviously had a lot more patience than I have!

Grammie made this needlepoint.

She also made beautiful beaded Christmas tree ornaments and did a lot of knitting. I wish she were still here to give me advice now. I have her rocking chair and it just occurred to me that it's a chair specifically for knitting...the arms are very short and just long enough to rest your elbows but not interfere with the knitting needles. Cool.

My sister has this bizarre ability to look at a room full of beads and figure out how to put them together to make something really cool. I would be beside myself with such a big decision to make. She made these for me or my daughters over the years.

I've been trying to convince her to make knitting markers and things for crazy knitting people like me. We'd buy them, right? Clearly she doesn't understand just how far-reaching the whole knitting revolution has gone!

This has been a nice way to realize how much talent there is in my family. Believe me, this is just a sampling of some of the projects we all get involved in. My dad builds a lot of miniatures, too; perfectly to scale. He does all of this just because he has fun doing it. Grandma sewed nearly everything she wore and a lot of clothes for the rest of us. She taught me to sew when I was only ten. She also made the best hamburgers and coffee in the whole world. Wow, I really miss her.

This was painted by...I have no idea who painted this, but it's above my computer and I think it's pretty.

Now, on to more pressing matters. See this? This is the inside of my knitting bag. Do you see anything in here? No!

It's been a long time since I haven't been working on something. But, the good news is...I finished four loads of laundry this morning and cleaned up the house! Probably just a coincidence.