Life after college!

I can't recall who gave this to our daughter , but she got a 'Big Bird' toy for Christmas that year, I think in 1981.

One of the babysitters we used when I was in college and our daughter was at home with David was Daisy Barz in Kanawha. In this photo, our little girl is trying on a very big hat at Daisy's.

In the spring of 1981, we went to Ann Rueber's for Easter. This is the little coat and hat I made for our daughter for Easter.

 I called this photo 'American Gothic, Rueber Style.' We are sitting on Ann Rueber's couch at Easter time, 1981.

For one of my projects for an art class in Ames, I made this batik-dyed playhouse. It is all hand-dyed cloth, and there is a wood framework beneath the roof. The roof itself has a base of cardboard, folded in the center for the peak, and padded with polyester batting. The roof sits on top of a regular square card table. The 'front doors' of the little house are held shut with Velcro. The house sat in our daughter's bedroom for several years after I used it in my student teaching as a place for lower elementary kids to go to 'calm' themselves when they were having trouble behaving in class. They could read while in the house, or just sit until they were ready to come back into the group. As you may be able to see, the floor in her bedroom had a 'carpet' made of carpeting samples. I picked out blues and greens and sewed them all together to carpet her bedroom floor. Sometimes when one has few monetary resources, one is a whole lot more inventive! It took a very long time to sew each rectangle into the rug, but the final effect was very nice, and made a nice, warm floor for her room which just had crawlspace beneath it and was rather chilly in that old Victorian home we bought. It was a very cute room, and the pretty stained glass window that was located above the picture window in the front bay was lovely.

Here is our daughter at Jean and Jack's condo for Christmas, 1982. As you can see, she is like any other kid who can't wait to find out what's inside the package!

 Dorothy Ann got her a panda bear with a baby bear that could be held in its arms via Velcro. I had a panda bear when I was little, too... I think she is giving the baby panda a nice hug!

 Hooray! She got an 'Annie' lunchbox!

In this photo, David, Dorothy Ann, and Nancy Brown are watching our daughter tear into another gift. Kids always got a lot of attention at family gatherings, especially when gifts were involved!

This was taken on Christmas Eve, 1982, at Merry and Merrel's house. In the photo David and our little girl are mugging for the camera while Jack enjoyed their antics.

 In 1982, we also spent some time during the Christmas break at Grandma Rueber's. In this photo, our little girl and Grandma Rueber are trying to get a gift opened while George Peregrim (Madelyn's husband) looks on.

Here is George, reading a book to our daughter, while she enjoys her thumb!

 In this photo from Christmas, 1982, our daughter is holding one of her new books, and David's sister Madelyn is happy for the gift she received. The little glass 'Santa' goblet on the table near our daughter's head always held a family holiday favorite - Kliigans - little cardamom-flavored cookies that are hard to stop eating...

This playhouse was already in the backyard at the research farm, and I repainted it and put up the decorative boards that had been on my folks' cabin. Behind the playhouse, you can see the rabbit hutch where our daughter kept her 4-H rabbits. This was one of those beautiful mornings where the hoarfrost has coated all of the tree branches and has made Iowa into a wonderland!

More to come...stay tuned!