Meeting Generation Four...

Brynwood Needleworks - Annabelle and Me.

Before you giggle, let me just say that "selfies" are not my strong point. Annabelle and I wanted to capture our visit, so a selfie was expedient. Isn't she just adorable? Let me tell you a bit about her family.

In 1976, I moved from my hometown to Portage, Wisconsin following "love". (I was very young.) I took a job doing what I knew. I'd been a cashier at a grocery store for the three years I was in high school, so I applied at a store close to where I was going to live and was hired that day.

It was there that I met Linda. She was warm and welcoming, and she lived with her family only a short distance from where I lived. In no time at all, we were fast friends.

In addition, Linda was a seamstress, so we spent many happy hours sewing at her house. I purchased a New Home sewing machine from a local dealer and left it at her house. In the evenings, after feeding her husband, daughter and sons, we would do clean up and then set up our machines to sew.

Soon, her daughter, Marie (who was a teenager) joined us and we shared tasks. One of them (not me) loved to cut out patterns, so she would cut our all our projects. If one of us made a mistake that required ripping stitches, one of us would take on the task for the other. We sewed nearly every night.

Eventually, I took a job as a paralegal and office manager in a law office, so we'd get together after work. By the end of the week, I'd have a new dress or suit to wear...and I helped when Linda's daughter fell in love, became engaged and set about the task of sewing her own wedding gown and attendants' dresses (There were five of them, and I was one, too.)

When I first moved back to my hometown, I couldn't sew for a few years. I was too lonely for my sewing friends.

Brynwood Needleworks - Raimers, Snyders and Me

Through the years, Linda (and her husband); her daughter, Marie (and her husband, Tim), and Marie's daughter, Adrienne and I have remained fast friends. Yesterday, I met Marie's husband, Jon and their four children.

Annabelle is their eldest daughter, and looking in her eyes was like seeing Adrienne as a child. I was instantly smitten, and she seemed to take to me right away, too. Now, there's I've met the fourth generation of this family I love so much.

Our evening ended much too soon, but I know it won't be long before I see them all again.

Brynwood Needleworks - A Rainy Day In Camp

It rained most of the day yesterday. I awoke to 60º weather and nearly danced in the wet grass. Have I told you I'm not a huge fan of that hot, steamy Florida summer weather?

I can see why people become snowbirds. They leave the heat behind for more tolerable northern locales, and then return to the south when the snow flies. I think there might be something good in that plan. Who knows?