bears, blankets, and the Biltmore

this post is a bit of a hodge podge of items but that is how this last week has been.  this has been week 2 of spring break and it's been filled with a little bit of everything- some cleaning and purging (aka nesting), a trip to the Biltmore, and finishing some things for baby girl and finding some things for baby girl.  i even did a little work this morning.

we visited the Biltmore on wednesday of this week.  since it is still the "off season" for Biltmore, we were able to get discount tickets and we used jay's mission hospital discount.  they have the audio headsets free until the end of the month, so aside from our lunch, we got almost a 2 for 1 deal on tickets and our visit.  we have been watching Downton Abbey on masterpiece classics (on PBS) and wanted to learn a little bit more about the history of the Biltmore house now that we've seen DA because we can picture the working nature of the home a little bit better.  it was a beautiful day.  the only thing that would have been better would have been if the gardens were in bloom.  i took a few pictures after we had been through the house and eaten our lunch.

the windows of the grand staircase 

you can see little bits of color... 

one end of the house

i have also been cleaning up our storage area in the apartment (this is in our large laundry room) and moving things around to put them away, purge things, and take stuff to our newer and larger off-site storage unit. i put up all of my winter clothes and spring and summer clothes and am working on cleaning out baby girl's closet and room and getting our office ready to be rearranged into an office/guest room.

after going through some of the boxes, i found a few things that our baby girl can use.  one of them is my first teddy bear.  i have a picture of me with my dad (somewhere) on my first Christmas when i got the bear and the bear is still in pretty good shape- "gently loved."  so the bear got a "bath" and some stitches to one of his armpits and now he's ready to go!

he needs a name... maybe rufus?  what else is sweet for a teddy bear?

i also finished (finally) knitting her blanket and i also found a couple of baby hats i made awhile ago that she may be able to wear.  

 a close up for detail

 seed stitch border with garter stitch in the middle (so it is reversible)

so we have a few things accumulated for our baby girl.  she has another blanket that was crocheted by a former coworker/friend of mine from williamson medical center and a blanket i bought on clearance awhile back and she received a little sweatshirt and some jeans she can wear next year!  i've also acquired a "my brest friend" nursing pillow and a couple of slip covers from one of the mamas here at school with a boppy on the way.  we have our first baby showers in tn in a couple of weeks.  i can't wait to see what we are blessed with besides the love of our family and friends!