Finally I Can Post This!

I have finally finished the project that I have been working on for what seems like years! I was not able to post any pictures of it as I did not want a certain someone to see it! Well, now that someone has received it as their birthday gift. That certain someone is my brother, Freddy! I talked about my brother having his 51st birthday on Jan. 19Th in my last post. My brother has always been an Alabama football fan.
When our Mama was alive she would always buy him something representing Alabama football every year for Christmas. After she died and I was cleaning out some closets I came across a Christmas ornament that was still in the box. It was a little Alabama airplane with a little elephant flying it. I knew she had ordered that for Freddy for Christmas. So just before Christmas I wrapped it and wrote to Freddy, love Mama on it and mailed it to him. I am sure it hangs on his tree every year now.
Now on to what I made for Freddy. It is an Alabama Football quilt! I had been planning the project for years, but just could not find a pattern. It is very hard to find an applique' pattern for Alabama! My 86 year old friend has made all her grandsons Alabama quilts, but she likes to machine piece and so her quilts are mostly machine pieced with only a little applique. I kept searching and searching. Then one day this older lady who was a member of my church died. Her daughter gave my 86 year old friend a lot of her sewing stuff. Imagine our surprise when we found an Alabama Quilt pattern among the things she was given! I was so excited to find out that is was applique. I really liked it and decided to use it for Freddy's quilt. I did change it up a little, but over-all it is the same pattern. I hand appliqued the blocks using the blanket stitch and then I hand quilted it. The hand quilting seemed to take forever! I don't really care for hand quilting and have only hand quilted a few very special quilts.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt.

Here is a close-up of the Elephant that is in the middle of the quilt. I just love him! Don't look too closely at my hand-quilting as it is not the best in the world! But it was all done with love!
This is a close-up of one of the footballs.
And here is my son, Keith, holding the quilt.

I finished this quilt the day before my brother's birthday. I mailed it the day after his birthday since his birthday fell on a National holiday and the post office was closed. He just got to pick it up at his post office yesterday. He called me as soon as he got it and was so excited about it! He told me it was AWESOME! He just loved it and couldn't believe all the work I had put into it! He will never know just how much it means to me that he loves it so! His wife took pictures of him opening his present and of him holding the quilt. So she is suppose to upload them to walmart.com so I can print them out. I can hardly wait to see them!
My brother had also called me on Tuesday to wish me a Happy Birthday. I was sitting here at work and the phone rang. My hubby had already called me twice and so I figured it was him calling me again. Imagine my surprise when I pick up the phone and my brother starts singing Happy Birthday to me! I just laughed and laughed! It has really been a very special birthday for us both. Oh, and my brother told me that he was late mailing me my present so I haven't gotten it yet!

Barbara's Quilt

This is my friend's, Barbara, quilt. She is the one I was talking about on the previous post who did her pattern the same as mine. You have to turn your head to see that the squares are on point like mine as she took the picture of it standing at one of the corners. After reading my post this morning, my daughter, Amber, told me I should have put a picture of Barbara's quilt top in my post. So I decided I would just do a new post and show it to you.

Quilt Tops & Christmas decorations

This is a quilt top I made for myself. I am waiting till after Christmas to have it quilted. I have to finish my children's quilts first and my brother's. What is really a hoot is my best friend, who got married and moved to Minnesota in the summer, has been working on a quilt for her bed in her new home. She hadn't sent me pictures and I hadn't sent her a picture of my quilt top. Nor did we discuss the pattern we had chosen. Well, last night she was finally able to take a picture and send it to me. Can you believe she did her squares just like mine?! Not the same fabrics, but the same design! I was blown away! The only difference is I did not put a border on mine and she is putting a border on hers and doing something different in the corners of the borders. I guess we really are a lot alike!

This is a Christmas quilt top that my 86 year old friend, Lucille, made for me. I have yet to quilt it. Hopefully, I will have it quilted by next Christmas! I think I might just quilt this one myself. On my sewing machine, that is.
I know I've mentioned that we live in a very small house. I really never realized how small it was until we moved back in after my mother's death and there are now 5 people living in the house. When I first moved there with my mother and brother at the age of 15 it was just the three of us and was not crowded at all. Well, we did have a garage full of stuff since we had moved out of a large two story house, but we managed to get rid of all that. My brother moved out a year later when he married and went to college. So the house was just the right size for my mom and me. But now with Hubby, me, two kids, and my Dad it is way too small. We have a very small den and this is my Dad's territory. He sits in his recliner in there all day long and watches nothing but news or TV Land on TV. He keeps this little heater going non-stop in there and it is always so hot that this old menopausal woman can't stand to be in there for more than a minute or two at a time. Therefore, our bedroom has become our family area for Hubby, the kids, and me. I did put my big tree up in the corner of the den. But since I am hardly ever in there I don't get to enjoy it. I really didn't even feel like putting it up, but I did for the kids sake. It is so hard to try and put it up in there because my Dad is always watching something on TV that I am interrupting while I am working on the tree. Never mind that it is a show that he has seen at least 20 times! So this year I put this little tree in our bedroom. I also put some other decorations in there. I figured this was the only way I would enjoy a tree this year. I have had no Christmas spirit at all this year. But since I put the decorations on this little tree last night I feel a little more in the Christmas spirit. Also, since my Dad was sick the past two Christmas' and I spent most of my time at the hospital with him it kinda makes me worry that the same thing will happen again this year. It is so ironic. My Dad is an alcoholic. He has been sober for the past 2 years now. But when my mother was alive he got on a drunk every single Christmas and would be so drunk on Christmas day that my mother would always have a miserable Christmas. And now since she has died and he no longer drinks he gets sick every Christmas. How strange is that?! I have really been praying that he will not get sick this year. I am taking a week off and would love to just relax and spend the time with my family. My daughter is coming home from college and my niece will be coming again. The one who came at Thanksgiving. I might have to go to Louisiana and get her if her Dad can't bring her over here. But that will be fine. It has been really hard on her living in a house with nothing but men since her Mom died 9 years ago.
Here is a picture of my little tree in our bedroom.
This is a cross-stitch Christmas picture I made back in 1985. I love to get it out and hang it up each year.
This is a snowman made out of a sock. My brother, George, made this in school. I imagine he was 11 or 12 at the time. George died at the age of 13 in 1967. We have put this snowman out every year. As you can see he is a little spotted from age, but he is really in pretty good condition for his age. I have kept him wrapped up in paper towels every year, but this year I would like to put him in some kind of plastic box and put him in my china cabinet so he does not get anymore handling and fall apart.
These little elves were given to me by a dear lady who we called Aunt Sybil. She and her husband lived next door to my parents when they lived in Hialeah, Florida way before I was born. She was so sweet and was always sending me little things. I just love my elves!
The next two ornaments are just two of a few that I have left from years gone by. These were always on our tree when I was a child and I have always loved them!

The next two pictures are little plastic deer that Aunt Sybil gave me, also. I always hang them together on the tree. Aunt Sybil has been dead for many years now and I really miss her. As a child she and I would exchange letters and we went and visited her and her husband, Uncle Johnnie, lots of times.

That is all the Christmas decorations I have to show you today. Maybe I will take some pictures of some more another time to post. Oh yea, I almost forgot. The doily that the deer are on is one that my Aunt Vivian made and gave to me. She had almost finished it. All I had to do was finish that one row of red around the outside. Isn't it beautiful! Can't wait to go see her this weekend!

Busy Weekend & 100th Post

Everyone has been putting such beautiful fall pictures on their blogs and so I had to put a couple of my own on mine. As I was going to the store on Saturday I passed these two trees and grabbed my camera out of my purse and took pictures. I have passed these trees millions of times and never thought to take a picture before. They usually look almost identical, but the one on the right has lost a good deal of leaves already. I have always thought these were the most gorgeous trees! There used to be an old house that sat behind them but after the lady died who owned the house the people who bought the property from her kin sold the house and it was moved off the property. The lady told me that they are just going to keep this lot vacant. It is a beautiful place.

This is a close-up of the tree on the left. I so love the colors!
Do you know what this is? It is the foam that the car wash sprays on your car! Yes after going by the trees and stopping at the drug store I went and cleaned my car. It had not been vacuumed in a while and even though the weather was fairly cool I was sweating by the time I got through! I had wore shorts for this purpose. I knew I would get hot. It is a job vacuuming a car! I did luck up and find a few coins for my effort!
Here is the jet water spray washing away the soap. This does not do a super job on the car but at least it got a lot of the dirt and grime off.
After the car wash I went on up to Wal-Mart to get groceries. If you live in a small town you cannot expect to go to Wal-Mart and be in a rush! I always seem to run into people I know and have to stop and talk a minute! The fact that I used to work there 8 years ago makes it hard, too. There are still lots of people who work there that worked there when I did and so I love to say hello to them, also. In fact, one of my dearest friends works there, but she is a department manager and so does not work on the weekends. Last year when I would take the kids to school in the morning (which is right up the road from Wal-Mart) I would ride on up to Wal-Mart a lot of times and look around and I would usually always run into her and stop and talk a few minutes. This year the kids take my dad's car to school every morning and so I never go up to Wal-Mart in the morning unless I really need something. So I haven't seen my friend in a while. I saw her last week at the fall festival and she said she had wondered if something had happened to me and was gonna call me to see since she had not seen me at Wal-Mart in so long!
Anyway, I finally got through with my shopping and got back home. I spent the rest of the afternoon making soup, doing laundry and cleaning the inside windows and other inside stuff on my car. It sure looks better! I spent Saturday night cutting out squares for my daughter's, Tara, quilt.
This is a picture of my Charlie Brown quilt top I finished sewing together Friday night. Hubby is working nights right now so I have to sew while he is gone. I am gonna be getting this quilt machine quilted soon and hope to sell it. Does anyone know anyone who would like a Charlie Brown quilt? I love Charlie Brown! I used to watch Charlie Brown Christmas and The Great Pumpkin every year as a child. I have a few books from way back when of Charlie Brown. When this quilt is all quilted and the binding done it should measure 78" x 92".



Last night I worked on putting together the squares I had cut out on Saturday night for Tara's quilt. I got quiet a lot done. I hope to get a lot more sewn together tonight. Here is sneak peek of hers. I am chain piecing the squares together.
It is just a scrappy quilt like the one I made Amber. I am using up a lot of my scraps in these quilts. I hope they like them! I know most people would make block first and then sew the blocks together. But with the way I am doing theirs I like to make rows with the blocks and sew the rows together.
It's hard to believe this is my 100Th post already! I will be having a giveaway but I have not figured out what it will be yet. Give me a couple days to see what I have and I will post about it and you will be able to leave a comment on that post to enter.

Daddy's Birthday, Quilting, & Tara as Nun

familyMy pictures are not in the right order and I can't seem to get them into the right order so I will just have to deal with it. I realized this morning that I had not posted about my daddy's 77Th birthday which was on October 13Th. Below is a picture of my Daddy and Mama on their Wedding day back in 1951. Weren't they a handsome pair?! I think so. My Daddy was 19 and my Mama was only 17. She was 2 months shy of being 18 and lied about her age to get married.
I have been really sewing a lot lately! Hubby was working nights last week and I sewed every evening when I got home from work till I went to bed. I don't know when I have sewn on my sewing machine so much! Below are some of the rows for my son's quilt. I got the quilt top finished Saturday night. I haven't taken a picture of it yet. But I will soon and will post it. As he never looks at my blog it won't matter. I don't even think he paid any attention to what I was sewing, even though he was in the room at the time! He was on the computer and he never sees anything when he is on the computer! The papers with numbers on them pinned at the end of the rows is my method of keeping everything straight.

Here are the 4 inch wide rows. The above rows are 2 inches wide. They go in between the 4 inch rows. I really think it turned out nicely. I also got someone elses quilt top finished but cannot post any photos of it as I don't want them to see it!
I hope to start another quilt this afternoon. Hubby is on days and so I figure I can come in from work and sew for about an hour before he gets home. It is strange how for years I have not wanted to piece quilts on the sewing machine and have done all hand applique'. But here lately I have wanted to do machine piecing! I just want to use up some of the fabric I have accumulated over the years. It does hurt my back really bad to sit at the sewing machine so long and after I get through sewing after a few hours I have to get my son to come rub my back and pop my spine for me. Then I take a couple Ibuprofen and rest! What hoot.
Here is my son, Keith, my Daddy, and my daughter, Tara on Daddy's birthday. Notice that Daddy has on a jacket. He also has on long sleeve shirt! And it was hot as can be on that day!
Here's Daddy blowing out his candles! I baked the cake and Keith iced it and put the sprinkles on it.
Tara's senior class had a Halloween Party this past Saturday night. Tara went as a nun. Here she is with her friend, Bird, who dressed as a priest. He was her date for the night.
Here is Tara's best friend, Tiffanie (who was a pirate) and Tara. Notice Tara's head dress. She didn't wear it at the party. She said it wouldn't stay on her head. Doesn't Tiffanie's hair look pretty? I curled it for her with a curling iron. I had to spray a ton of hairspray on it to make the curls hold. When she came back by after the party the curls were still in place!
~Tiffanie & Tara : The Pirate & The Nun~
Here is Tara in her whole Nun outfit. Notice her closet wall? She decided to let her friends sign the wall! What a hoot!
I spent all day Saturday cleaning house! Hubby helped me. We opened all the windows and doors and aired out the house. It was so nice, while it lasted, that is. It was between 70 and 75 degrees outside. Perfect weather, but it freaked my Daddy out to have the windows and doors open. He couldn't stand it! As soon as we got through cleaning he started shutting the windows and doors. I did manage to keep the kitchen window open for a little while and I kept the windows in my bedroom open and in my kids rooms. Daddy couldn't stand that. He kept wanting me to close them. Now, you have to understand that he has this little heater sitting next to his chair in the den and he runs it non-stop all day long! So it was like 80 degrees in the den, but he thought it was cold because I had the windows open in our bedrooms! It is a mind thing with him! I went into the kitchen to cook yesterday at 3pm and it was 80 degrees in there so I opened the kitchen window and the living room door to get some air in there. When Daddy got up to go to the bathroom he saw the living room door open and freaked out! He wanted to close it. He said I was freezing him to death! I told him it was 80 degrees in there and the temperature was climbing because I had the oven on! He is such a hoot! It seems his world is shrinking more and more and he cannot stand any kind of change. He told me it was going to be cold last night. I told him I didn't care what temperature it was going to be at night, that it was 80 degrees right that minute and I was trying to cook and I was sweating to death! I have a feeling it is going to be a very long winter!

Making quilts & Penny

It has been a busy morning and I have not had time to sit and type this post. I had a very productive weekend! It makes me feel so good. I got all my laundry done Friday night and went early Saturday morning to get groceries so I would have lots of time to sew. Hubby was on the day shift Saturday and Sunday and I wanted to be through with the sewing by the time he got home at 6pm. I sewed lots of squares together on the quilt I am making for my son and one I am making for myself. Sunday after church I started sewing again and also started work on a quilt for my daughter. I won't tell you which one as they will be reading this soon. Of course I plan to start work on the other daughter one this week, also. I know it sound crazy to be working on 4 quilts at one time, but it is so neat. I just have the squares layed out all over my bed and have my sewing machine set up next to it and sew away! I should have taken pictures of what I got sewed but was so busy getting things put away before hubby got home from work, that I didn't think about it.
I did get this picture of Molly helping me hold down my squares! I had the fan blowing on me as I get so hot all the time and my squares were trying to blow all over the place. I was trying to find things to lay on them when along comes Molly and solved that problem! I told my daughter, Tara, to grab the camera so I could get Molly's pic. Those cats of ours love to lay on all sorts of things!

I was so excited about all the sewing I got done and can't wait to get back at it. I also got my very first order to make a quilt for someone who is actually going to pay me for it! A lady at church heard me telling my pastor's wife that I was making some quilts and she asked me about making one for her son. I told her, of course I would! So I have to draw it out and figure the price and get back with her. I was so excited! I have never sold a quilt before! This will be a first! Who knows this could be the start of something!

You know how sometimes you are just sitting thinking about different things and something will pop into your head and make you remember something or someone who is no longer here but that really meant a lot to you? Well, this happened to me in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. I woke up when hubby left for work at 5:30am and for some reason I started thinking about a dog we used to have named, Penny.
Penny was a very special dog. My Daddy found her along side of the road when she was a tiny puppy. It was out in the middle of no where and so he figured someone had just put her out cause they didn't want her. He brought her home to my Mama and told her he thought she was part chichuahua and that she would make a good inside dog. As you can see from the photo below she was definitely not chihuahua! We kept her in the house until she got so big she had to go outside. We used to live about 1/2 mile from the center of town and I used to ride my bike to town on Saturdays. Penny would always go with me. She was so smart. When we would come to a road to cross I would hold out my hand and she would stop. When I put my hand down she knew it was safe to cross. If I went into a store she would sit right next to my bike and wait on me. She was very friendly to everyone and never tried to bark or growl at anyone going in or out of the stores or walking along the sidewalks. When I stopped at this little dairy bar in town to get a coke I would always get her a cup of water. We had her a lot of years and she eventually got too old to go to town with me. The last time I let her go with me I had to keep stopping and waiting for her to catch up and she would just be panting. She was just too old to keep up anymore. So from then on when I would ride my bike Mama would have to put her into our utility room till I got out of site so she wouldn't follow me. Then Mama would let her out.
When our neighbors got two new puppies, Penny liked to mother them. Those puppies had a habit of laying out in the road. I noticed that if Penny heard or saw a car coming she would run out and nudge the puppies out of the road.
Another funny thing that happened with Penny is the night she rode over to my Daddy's house with us. You see, my parents divorced when I was 15 years old and my dad remarried and moved across town. He and his wife divorced a few years later and 10 years after he divorced my Mama he came back and they were together for the last 20 years of her life. But anyway, when Daddy first got Penny he was living with us, of course, so Penny was used to him coming home every night and staying. After the divorce Daddy would come visit, but then he would always leave. One night he was over at our house and he had had a bit too much to drink so I had to drive him home. When we go into the car to leave Penny jumped in the car on my Daddy's lap. I tried to get her to get out of the car but she wouldn't go. Daddy said just to let her ride with us. So she did. My cousin followed me over to my dads to bring me back home. When we got to Daddy's house he and Penny got out and Penny started walking all around the yard. I opened my cousins car door and kept trying to get Penny to get in the car. She just wouldn't do it. She walked right up next to my dad who was unlocking his house door. I told Daddy that Penny wouldn't get in the car. Do you know my dad looked down at Penny and told her she had to go back home with me and then Penny turned and walked over to my cousins car and got right in! She was one smart dog! I think that Penny just wanted to know where it was that Daddy went when he left our house. For years he stayed home and then all of a sudden he didn't come home anymore and she was wondering why!
I love the picture I took of Penny below. She was pretty old by the time this picture was taken. But I told her to smile and she did! Can you see her smiling? I think we had her about 7 or 8 years when she died. I still miss that dog. She was one in a million.

Sweet daughter & friend's quilt

My daughter, Amber, is so sweet. Look at the lovely journal she sent to me! She also sent me some watercolor pencils. She and I are going to start journaling together and post pictures of our journal pages so we can each see the others! This is a really nice journal with nice thick pages.
This is my first attempt at journaling. I am afraid it is not very good. I learned that I should have used the watercolor pencils first and then did the pasting and writing. Consequently a couple of my pictures got messed up and my writing smeared. Oh well, live and learn is what I always say. I still think my mama looks beautiful in the pages.
The next two pictures are of my 86 year old friend, Mrs. Anderson, holding up the quilt that she embroidered and hand quilted and that I put together for her. I posted about it in an earlier post. Sorry my pictures are so dark. I contacted Nikon about it and they said that my camera does not have a very powerful flash. So I would not recommend anyone getting a Nikon Coolpix S5 camera. It does fine outside, but awful inside. As soon as I can I will be getting a new camera with a better flash. I am checking cameras out on line this time and reading all the reviews that people post who have different cameras. If anyone has a really great point and shoot camera that makes really great indoor pictures, please let me know. I don't want to mess up and get a lowsey camera again.

Getting ready to make a quilt

I went to a yard sale a while back and bought two large bags of fabric scraps. These were some really nice cotton prints. I have spent the last week cutting the scraps into squares. Some of the scraps were large enough for 4 inch squares. Some I cut into 3-1/2 inch squares and then some were only wide enough to cut 2-1/2 inch squares. I still have a little more fabric to cut, but I hope to start sewing on some quilts soon. I want to just make some scrappy quilts for everyone's bed around here. The ones I made 14 years ago have been used well and are wearing out. I am really excited to start sewing! I will keep you updated on my progress.

My very first quilt

This is the very first quilt I ever made. This is the only photo I have of it. I actually made the quilt in 1978 at the age of 18, but this photo was taken in 1983. That is my dad lying on the couch with my quilt over his hand. When I asked him what he was doing he said he was warming his hand! He had just came from Miami, Florida, where he was living at the time, to spend Christmas with us. So he was not used to the cold temperatures! You can see that he still had on his jacket! My mom and I were both hot blooded and so we didn't keep the heat turned up very high. This was not a fancy quilt. I just cut out squares and sewed them together. I did hand quilt it. I doubt it was quilted very good. I no longer have the quilt as it wore out and was discarded. How sad. I really wish I had taken better care of it.

Susan over at Ape Over Quilting is making her first quilt and has just started blogging. She is having a giveaway. Check it out!

Good Monday Morning

It has been a busy weekend. First I want to show you the pictures of two project bags I made Thursday night. I have put my embroidery I am working on in both of them. I have three different projects going now!


This next picture is a cat that I am embroidering. I saw these two cats over at Buttonberry's Blog that their mother and aunt had embroidered in the 70's! I feel in love with them and emailed them and asked their permission to print one of the cats out and make a pattern to trace and embroidery. I got a very nice email back saying it would be fine for me to do that. So below are two pictures of the start of the cat I am doing. Isn't he fantastic? Pop over to their blog and look at the original cats! That are outstanding. And I love the way the two ladies each took different approaches to how they did them.


This next picture is a quilt that my 86 year old friend hand embroidered. She bought a kit and embroidered all the squares herself. The she got me to sew the squares together for her as she was worried she would not be able to match up the embroidery correctly. She then hand quilted it in rows. So guess who gets to put those rows together? You got it, me! I started on it Friday night since my husband is on nights. I didn't get to work on it Saturday as the kids and I went shopping and visiting. I mentioned that we were going to be going school shopping in my last post. I will tell you about the visiting in a minute. I hope to get this quilt finished in the next couple of days and get it back to my friend so she can put the binding on it.

So I told you we went visiting. As you know from a previous post my Aunt Vivian lives a short distance from Mobile, which is where we went school shopping. I had planned for us to go by and visit with her anyway, but the phone call I got from her on Friday afternoon definitely made me go by. She called to tell me that her great grandson, who was only 4 years old, had drowned in a pond. He lived with his parents and sister in Georgia where his father is stationed in the Air Force. They brought his body back to Mobile for the funeral. It is so sad. The funeral will be tomorrow. I had never met her grandson nor great grandson. She was so sad and I just wanted to go hug her. So the kids and I went over. Her son, Tim, who is the little boy's grandfather, lives right next door to Aunt Vivian. So we went over to his house, also, and met the parent's of the little boy and visited there for quiet awhile. They showed me lots of pictures of the little boy, Matthew, and told me all about him. He was such a beautiful little boy.
When we first got to Aunt Vivian's my cousin, Tim, and his family wasn't home so while I sat and visited with my aunt and my cousin, Gayle, my uncle took the kids outside and showed them some things. My kids have never been out into the country and seen different animals. My uncle doesn't have as many animals as he used to as he is now 80 years old and can't take care of so many, but he had lots of things of interest to teach them! They really enjoyed it.
First of all were the bees. My aunt and uncle have bees and they sell the honey. They sent us home with several jars! I will have to put a picture of the honey on here soon. Below is a picture of one of the bee boxes that my daughter took.

This is my daughter Tara with my aunt and uncles horse. Her name is Barbie and their great granddaughter rides her. She is a small horse and very cute!

This is one of my uncle's goats. I don't remember what Tara told me his name is. She will tell me that I should have asked her his name to put in the post! So when I find out from her I will put it in. She always wants to know the names of all animals. I'm surprised she didn't ask if all Uncle Juniors bees had names!

Here Tara is on a limb of a big old tree in the back yard. I just love the way the branches are so big and low to the ground. I wish she would have taken a picture of the whole tree.

These are two of my Aunt Vivian's great grand daughters. Shelby is on the left and Gabriel is on the right. Aren't they adorable? Tara and her friend, Tiffanie, who had gone with us, had so much fun playing with these two beauties!

This is my cousin's son, Josh, and my Aunt Vivian. It was not his son who died.

This is my Uncle Junior and my daughter, Tara. In case I forgot to mention this. Uncle Junior is my mom's brother and he is married to Aunt Vivian who is my dad's sister!

This is my Aunt Vivian and my cousin Tim.