Dutch blitz and other games

I really like playing games. Growing up, we didn't have regular family game night, but I have fond memories of playing a myriad of different games. We played Monopoly, Careers, Mousetrap (one of my favorites), Clue, Life, Mille Borne, and of course Euchre. 

Saturday night we played Euchre with Glenn and Nancy before they move. (If you're looking for a house in Alger Heights, theirs is for sale, it's very, very nice!!!)

Tonight we started out playing Skip-Bo with D.d. and Jon. But D.d. remembered playing Dutch Blitz and really wanted to play that. So after googling it and pulling out multiple decks of cards, we learned how to play Dutch Blitz.


It's quite fun and fast.


Of course I liked it because I won. 


I'm a sore loser. But so is Bill. We're two peas in a pod we are.


That's why we don't play Risk. One of us has to lose. 


But in general, win or lose, I like games.

Sunday, a day of rest

After breakfast, I had decided I would sit down and read. I'm currently reading, "Blue Like Jazz", a book I've been wanting to read for quite some time.

Then I remembered I told Sami I would bake cookies for her for Wednesday night. But I can't be there Wednesday night because I have HPC. 

I then decided to go ahead and bake them today so they were done.

I made Oatmeal Butterscotch chip with Walnut cookies.

Bill and I had to try one to make sure they were good.

They were.

Then I went outside and started the never-ending process of removing the grass that grows between the brick paver edging and into the flower beds. I got a quarter of the way done before filling the bucket and it was time for us to go to youth group.

It wasn't really so much of a day of rest, but I didn't work as hard as I did yesterday or Friday.

Thank you to the men and women who serve our country

I have thanked those who have served our country in previous posts, but it's worth saying again.

Thank you for your service. Thank you for giving your time and yourself (well-being, mental state, and sometimes life).

We celebrated the homecoming of one of our servicemen today. His family held an open house and we stopped by for awhile. He had pictures of his tour in Afghanistan. Bill could identify all of the planes in the pictures. Pete is in the Air Force and is an aircraft mechanic. 

I'm impressed by anyone in the service. This includes several former high school classmates as well as family. I have a special place in my heart for the Air Force specifically. Sort of like cars and their brands, military "people" tend to have their favorite branch. I "chose" the Air Force because my dad served in this branch, as did my in-laws and at least one aunt and uncle (I know others served, I'm just not positive in which branch).

Thank you. You are brave and are our heroes. God Bless each and every one of you.

t-shirts and tags

I have a t-shirt that is pretty old. It may actually be older than me. I have to ask my parents if they remember where and when they got it. I think they got it from my grandparents when they went to a trade show. My grandparents owned a small electronics shop in Niles, Michigan.

The shirt says "Built to Move, Road-Rated Receivers, Craig".

I don't know anything about the Craig brand and wonder if they're still around. Yes, I could do a quick google search, but frankly I don't think I care enough right now.

The point is the tag in the shirt. Have you noticed how much our tags have changed? Many clothes are tagless. Most have symbols, which I don't understand. This t-shirt that is easily from the 1980's has a tag that, get this, is only written in English.

Shocking.

Plus, the best part, it was made in the U.S.A. and actually has the address of the Ohio company that made it.

It's like a piece of history. 

Maybe it belongs in a museum.

At any rate, I thought that was cool and wanted to share that with you.

If you read my post yesterday, I mentioned I had a secret ingredient in the carrot soup. We've eaten dinner, so I can share the secret with you now; it was honey. Just a tablespoon or so. I didn't measure, I just squeezed in an amount close to that. You can't taste it, but I think it helps cut the otherwise overwhelming carrot flavor. 

another food post

I made some Creamy Carrot Soup tonight.

I actually made a lot of Creamy Carrot Soup.

I had a 3 pound bag of carrots that tasted different than the other bags of carrots I've bought. My reasoning is that these weren't organic. I really could taste a difference.

So what better way to use them then in a soup? 

It's a pretty easy soup and you can eat it warm or cold.

I had to freeze half of it because I used all the carrots (the recipe only calls for 1 1/2 pounds). I doctored it up a bit too. I added mascarpone cheese and a secret ingredient. I'm not going to tell you until Bill tries it. It's nothing scary and I found another recipe that used it, so I thought, why not? I also used thyme and a dash of celery salt. It's pretty tasty. It needs croutons. 

I'll make more croutons tomorrow.

The other night I made pancakes in order to use up the Bisquick that I had in the cupboard. I stuck the pancakes in the freezer.

Yes, I made pancakes just to stick in the freezer.

I'm weird that way.

But tonight I thought those pancakes would be good with the homemade chocolate hazelnut spread I have. So I am going to try that for breakfast tomorrow. I'll let you know how it tastes.

waxing poetic on sunrises and other things

You can accomplish a lot in one day when you wake up at five o'clock in the morning.

Yes. I woke up at that hour on purpose.

Bill has been in Detroit since Monday (he made it home safely this afternoon) and he couldn't have another absence at his BNI (networking) group. He asked if I would be his substitute. I said sure, because I'm nice that way. But his group is the Holland chapter. That's a forty minute drive. 

The meetings start at 7am.

That meant in order for me to be on time, I needed to leave the house by 6:15am and that meant I had to be up at 5am.

The drive over was fine. It's always a surprise to see how many people are up and out on the roads at that time. 

The sun came up in my rear view mirror on the way over. It was one of those indescribable scenes.

The rose color touching the clouds all the way across the sky. The pastels streaking across the pale blue sky. 

 Gorgeous.

The rest of the day was cloudy and later it even rained. 


But before I get to the end of the day, I wanted to wax poetic on those tabs in folders meant to hold business cards.


You know the ones. The four diagonal slits where you tuck in the corners of the business card.


Who decided that was a good idea? 


You have to "pop" them open before placing the card in the slots. Now business cards are typically printed on heavy cardstock weight paper. The kind of which doesn't fold or bend easily.

That is until you try to stick it into those four little tabs. Then you wind up bending the card. 


It's a vicious cycle. 


No. None of that was poetic, thanks for paying attention though.


Now it's the end of the day. Time to relax and enjoy Bill's company.

Lady of the flies...

It's going to be a bad year for bugs.

How do I know? 

I just spent the last twenty-eight minutes chasing a dozen flies around the house. It started with one. I caught it, and took it outside. I walked back in to find two more flying around. I left them alone while I washed my hands. Then I discovered a few more. I went downstairs only to find about five or six flying around the side door, on the inside.

I went back upstairs and brought the vacuum downstairs. I then proceeded to chase the flies around the first floor. I sucked up at least six of them.

At one point (had you been a fly on the wall you would have seen me) I jumped up on the couch and I yelled, "It's me verses the flies and I'm gonna win!!!"

There's at least one still flying around, taunting me. 

I haven't broken anything, I'm trying to be very careful, but it's not easy chasing the flies around with the vacuum.

Why the vacuum? Because flies are gross and if you are quick enough to smash them with a fly swatter, which we do not have, their guts go everywhere. When dealing with this many, I decided the vacuum would be the best weapon. 

Go ahead, picture it. It's got to be the funniest thing I've done this year; wielding the vacuum like a sword, swinging it around trying to suck up the flies, then cleaning so the dust kills them inside the bagless vacuum. Leaping from couch to ottoman, running from room to room, getting tangled up in the cord with each quick turn.

I'm amused. And sweaty. Does this count as a workout?

scarves

I like scarves. I have blogged about a few that I crocheted here. But I don't think I've ever explained my love of scarves.


I don't know when it unofficially started. But officially I started hunting for scarves after our Mediterranean cruise.


In Barcelona, on our way to dinner, we saw a man selling scarves. It seemed the European thing to do, so Jenny picked out a pink scarf and I picked out the bright, lime green scarf. We paid a few Euros for them. From then on I was determined to find scarves for a good bargain.

I bought a silk scarf in Venice. It goes from a light shade of gray to darker.


Then when I was in New York City with the young adults, even though it was May and should have been warm, it was literally freezing. I told Sami if we saw any scarves I wanted to buy one. Sure enough we found them. Well, Sami found them, and much like a cartoon, yanked me into the store. That's where I bought my pink one for $10.


The light blue one came next. Last year in the Atlanta airport I spotted it and bought it on our way home from Savannah. I paid $10.


Then came the dark blue one. This one was purchased by Bill for me for Christmas. It came all the way from Jacques Penney. 

The last two, the gray one in the center and the dark brown one, I just received this last weekend from Jenny. She bought them for me in Doha. 

I've learned how to tie them in a couple of different ways too.

I like scarves.


What colors should I look for next?

that was some cake

I made the Oatmeal Cake with Cinnamon frosting for Bill for his birthday. I had also made it for Emil and Gary as part of their desserts for a year. Gary raved about how good it was. 

Yup, I made it for them before I ever tried it. I do that a lot. Make recipes for the first time for other people. 

I trusted this recipe. 

Before Bill and I got married, we had a couple of showers, like engaged couples do. One was thrown by the Schrumpf family friend, Suzanne. It was a "couples" shower and had a kitchen theme. Ask my parents and they'll tell you (somewhat proudly I'm ashamed to say) that the only thing I used to be able to cook was macaroni and cheese (from the box) and hot dogs. I could cook scrambled eggs and grilled cheese too.

Anyway, Bill was the cook. And we were going to need things for the kitchen. One of the things Suzanne did for the shower was ask the guests to provide their favorite recipes for us. Another family friend, Karen, told us at the shower that we would get the recipes later. She didn't write just one, she wrote dozens.

It's definitely because of this gift that I have a love of baking. Her recipes were clear and easy. She added tips and hints. Those made it easy for someone like me to bake delicious goodies. I know I have told her in person how much those recipes mean to me and how grateful I am that she shared so many.

Back to this oatmeal cake. I knew I could bake it and it would turn out for Gary and Emil because it was one of Karen's recipes.

So I finally made it for us.

Now, because I have gotten much more comfortable around the kitchen I'm not afraid to changes things up a bit. In this case (or cake, I should say), the frosting has coconut and is actually finished under the broiler.

I am not afraid of the broiler anymore either. But I did decide that because I had to give this cake to two people, and I only had one 9 x 13 pan, I could bake it in two 9" round pans (sorry for all of you who read this and aren't bakers, hopefully I haven't lost you completely). That meant I needed a different frosting. 

I pulled out the "Cake Dr." cookbook and looked at the Buttercream Frosting recipe. One of the suggestions on that page is for other types of Buttercream frostings. One of those suggestions was Cinnamon.

Now I know cinnamon and oatmeal go together like peanut butter and chocolate. So that's what I did.

We shared it with our friends Friday night. It was good.

Then Bill and I each had a piece last night, it was even better.

And tonight, we each had another piece.

That is some good cake.

time to start grillin'

It's time to purchase a new grill. Bill is going to use his birthday money because he's the one that uses the grill.

I used a grill once. No, that's not right. I was charged with watching a grill once (a friend in NJ, not Bill, he's smarter than that). Let's just say our burgers were well-done. Well past well-done.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that we need a new grill in a post at the end of last summer, but since the blog interface (or something technical) has changed, I don't know how to go find it. So you can go search for it, or take my word.

As I was saying; I mentioned last year that our grill was dying (and if I didn't, I meant to). Bill looked into buying replacement parts. But with all things priced accordingly it wasn't made to endure. Now the research begins to find a grill that is made of stainless because we're not buying a cheap new grill every five years. 

Isn't it sad? Yes, we're bringing back manufacturing to the US, but nothing is built to last. 

Just in case I sound extra sassy let me explain that I've been up since 6:30am. That was after a night of little sleep. Two beers are one too many for me in one night. But the bowling, chili dogs and fried pickles were worth it. I also went to Detroit and back; I was there for a luncheon for the Friends of Birmingham Park & Museum (I just got that so wrong, Jenny I'm sorry!) I am so ready for bed.

the one good thing

It's Friday. That's not the only good thing about today, so I'll continue to list them in order to try and be positive.

It's Bill birthday. We had a birthday cookie (cake will be served later).

I got my hair cut (or "got my hairs did", as Bill likes to say). It's always cuter when someone else styles it.

We're going to eat at one of our favorite places, the Rockford Corner Bar. They're famous for their chili dogs. Then we're going to go bowling. It will be fun! We're going with a couple of our friends, so I'm sure everyone will have a great time. I'm taking my camera, so maybe by next year I'll have posted some of those photos.

The reason I'm trying to be positive is because it's rainy. Yuck. And because Google decided that the best way to make everyone happy was to change the look of the blog. I'm not against change. But why? What was wrong with the old look? The new look is making use of a lot of empty space by keeping it empty. How does that make my blog better? Of course, you don't see any of this blank space unless you are a blogger on Google too.

At least until Google decides they should change the look of the published side of the blog too.

I sent them feedback. Threatening to take my creativity to another blog. I'm sure they will respond accordingly.

I'm in a mood and this did not help it.

I'm trying desperately to get out of the mood because it's Bill's birthday. There's nothing worse than fighting on a birthday/holiday with your loved one.

Where's the sun? That would help.

speaking of liberating pictures...

I forgot I had talked about some of the things I had crocheted. I promised pictures after I gave the recipients their gifts. Not that any of them read my blog, but I like the element of surprise. And the one day I post a picture before I give the gift, they might happen to check out my blog. Then it wouldn't be a surprise. And they would have to pretend that they actually liked the homemade gift.

Here is a teddy bear that I made for Wesley Hinman, son of our friends Amy and Adam.


He didn't start out whole (the bear, not Wesley). I didn't get any pictures of all the pieces, but here are a few before he was finished.

the head

the body

216

I just liberated 216 photos off the camera onto my computer.

Oops!

It's not like I was holding them hostage. I'd say 70% of the photos are on my laptop. They weren't deleted off the camera and therefore hadn't made it onto my desktop. Which is where ALL of my photos are stored.

Yes, it's our camera.

But they're mostly my pictures.

Bill has been known to snap a few pictures. But I'm the photographer in the family. Or at least I hog the camera. Most of the pictures are of flowers, butterflies and Needtobreathe. I'm not sure Bill wants all the photos that I take.

I store them on my computer. If there are photos he's taken, he puts them into his Photo Bucket account. The files still end up on my computer.

It's how we share.

Back to the 216 photos that I liberated. Did you read my post from the other day? Those pictures were actually already in my blog archives, yet it still took me four years to publish them!!

Here are a few things I blogged about, but never showed you the pictures.

Uncle Bill holding Spencer.

Uncle Bill helping to dress Spencer in the outfit from Uncle Bill (it says, "I'm a Classic")
Uncle Bill was commenting on what a grip the little guy has!!


The buttermilk cake with butter cream frosting and coconut that I made for Easter.

Our wine stock. It was empty, so we refilled it. Bill said, "Take a picture! Every spot is filled." So I took a picture.

I can't promise I'll do a better job posting photos with my posts, but I'll keep trying! At least I remember to take pictures.

all the right smells

I came home from Bible study tonight and when I walked in the door the smell of dinner hit me. Oh, it was good. Trust me (or ask Bill). It was homemade pizza.

Yes, the sauce was homemade.

Yes, the dough was homemade.

It was topped with sausage (not homemade) and mozzarella cheese (also not homemade).

Don't you enjoy it when your favorite smells linger?

Onion and garlic, cooking, are two of my favorite smells.

Also, as I was walking from my car to the house, the smell of lilacs reached my nose. They smell so good right now. You can smell them all the way down at the street (they're near the back corner of our neighbor's house).

A week later (or four years later...)

Because I just came across this post in my drafts, I thought I'd go ahead and post it. These pictures were taken when Skylar was here in the summer of 2008.

I did good getting them posted, didn't I?

I'm shocked at how much she has grown up in just four years.

Scary.

Can we just stop growing older?















Frogs on Merry-Go-Rounds are rare. Did you know that? We learned that at the Henry Ford Museum.



























Of course ice cream was involved.

quiet moments

While sitting in church, it always astonishes me that people chose the quietest possible moments to open their candy/cough drop/ gum wrapper. The part where the organ is playing loudly? Not then. No, that would be silly. They wouldn't be able to tell if they had it open or not. The part where the bell choir is delicately ringing bells? The part where it's silent prayer? Apparently those are perfect places to make the most noise possible.

Of course this coming from the woman who has held in sneezes only to make a louder noise that sounds more like a duck, in order to be quiet.

Oh well. I'll go look for quiet moments elsewhere.

lost in time on a Saturday

Bill and I worked really hard yesterday. He worked on the Corvette and I worked on the hallway. Today, we shared the workload of cleaning the house.

But it has still allowed for a lazy Saturday. I have no idea what time it is, nor do I care. We are watching a multitude of specials on the Titanic. We are also waiting for our friend Heather W. to make her fourth appearance (third in the last month) for another comedy show here in our fair city.

I'm going to use a recipe that our other friend Heather E. (we know a lot of Heathers... but it's not like the movie) gave me. It's pasta, spinach, tomatoes, and northern beans. Oh, and there's some cheese in there too.

Since it's a lazy Saturday, I still haven't removed any photos from my camera.

I"m enjoying myself.

Heat Gun Biceps

I'm done scraping the paint off the trim in the hallway upstairs.

I'll have to take a picture. Although it just looks like bare wood and the doors haven't received their treatment yet, but I guess I should record it for progress' sake.

I'll get to that when I can lift my arms again. And hold a camera.

Heat guns are heavy. Even with all the exercises I do, six hours of holding that heat gun above my head has worn me out. Whew.

I'm glad that's done.

so cheesy

We like cheese.

In this post, I talked a little bit about cheese...

But it doesn't quite convey the true love we have for the dairy product.

Maybe this will...

Currently in our refrigerator we have seventeen (yup, you read that right, not seven, but seventeen) different kinds of cheese.

Surprisingly, only four kinds of cheddar.

And truthfully there were eighteen last week but I used the rest of the Mascarpone.

While I'm being truthful; the Gruyere is almost gone. And I have a small chunk of something, which I can only guess (hope) is Parmesan. I'm not sure.

Plus there is the popcorn cheese that I keep in the cupboard. That brings the number back up to eighteen.

I've been keeping goat cheese in stock too, but we're out of that right now.

Typically I keep all the cheese in it's original packaging so that I know which cheese is which. My dairy drawer is filled with ziploc bags of cheese. It's an abundance of cheese.

It's how we like it.

the answer, which wasn't so easy

Bill didn't think my pop quiz was very fair.

His guess (which was a very good one, but didn't count because he didn't post it) was that in ten days it would be his birthday.

That is correct, but not the answer I was looking for. Lucky for him, he'll continue to get dinner made by me.

Since no one answered, and yes my answer (or is it the question, now I'm not even sure) was slightly obscure, I'll let you off the hook.

Please go back and read this post, "what I did today".

Now do you know what I meant?

It lasted ten days. Not very long. In fact, the only reason it lasted that long was because Skylar was here and I didn't use it at all.

Sorry, I'll try to make my games easier...

Pop Quiz game time

Just over a week or ten days; is the answer.

The question? Like Jeopardy, you can play along. It's somewhere here on my blog. Just find the post that holds the question. Leave your answer under the comments on this post.

Winners receive a free dinner of their choice* made by me. Prizes can be claimed when I visit or when you visit here. Family members may play, but must leave a comment. Answers sent by text, facebook or telephone do not count.

*Dinner choices must be approved by me and can be subject to setting off smoke detectors


This post was not [yet] reviewed by my lawyer and therefore is subject to conditions not thought of by the author.

But you should still play, unless you plan on suing me. Then you should pass.

Oh, and you have until tomorrow (Wednesday) 5pm to answer.

Back

We're back.

Back in town.

Back to quiet.

Back to the two of us plus the children of fur.

Back to exercising regularly.

Back to the same ol' routine.

I really enjoy having Skylar here. It's always so quiet after she leaves. It never feels like she's here long enough.

But eventually she has to go back home too. She misses her momma while she's here. I may be a cool aunt, but I'm not her mom. And that's okay. I enjoy being an aunt.

Happy Easter!

Here's is an Easter Haiku for you:

May your day be filled

with sun, flowers and smiles
and with peace and joy.

A Lent filled with preparation

Advent is all about preparing.

Today felt sort of like Advent.

After meeting 4/5 of the Robinson family (Leslie, Chris, Olivia and Grant) we had to run to the store. Bill left his suit hanging on the back of our bedroom door. Mom and Dad had gone to the grocery store.

I frosted the white buttermilk cake with buttercream frosting and topped it with shredded coconut. I cannot wait to eat a piece of this cake.

Then I made the au gratin potatoes for tomorrow's dinner.

Finally, I assembled the breakfast casserole. That is going to the church in the morning (I know, why else is it called "breakfast" and I used my least favorite word). There will be breakfast after the Sunrise Service, we'll be attending breakfast but not the service. We will all go to the 10am service.

Mom made a carrot and gelatin mold dish... It's orange. I don't eat it.

She also "stuffed" the eggs for the hunt, boiled the eggs for the devil (well, they're called Deviled eggs) and I created a Scavenger Hunt to hide a gift for Cyndi.

See? That was all a lot of preparation for Easter.

We also stopped by the hospital. Uncle Bill got to hold Spencer for the first time. Both did really well!

The four of us went to dinner.

Then Leah stopped by on her way to her mom's. Her birthday is tomorrow. She had two over-tired, active yet still cute children with her; Logan and Eliza.

But now we wait. It's almost over. Tomorrow the Son will rise.

True Friendship

How do you define true friendship?

Is it taking turns calling every few weeks or months to catch up?

Is it visiting each other and finding new places to visit?

Or is it getting a phone call that your friend has had too much to drink and needs a ride home from the concert that you didn't attend because you're lame (or because you have to be 18 years or older and your 12 year old niece doesn't pass for 18) and you waited up until the concert ended at 12:45am to go pick up your friend. Then you drove all the way to your parents/in-laws for the Easter weekend.

Bill and I think all of the above.

But especially the third definition.

Because it happened last night.

Or this morning, depending on how you look at it.

We made it to my parents and are pretty exhausted.

Bill got to meet Spencer.

Now it's time for bed.

sickies Thursday

Skylar and I met Sarah at the mall this morning. Skylar had taken some Advil Cold & Sinus because she wasn't feeling great. By the time we left the mall, Skylar was shivering. It was cold, so I wasn't sure if she had chills or if she was just cold.

We came back to the house and she fell asleep. Before she fell asleep she told me her head hurt. I gave her some Ibuprofen. She slept for two and a half hours. She woke up when she flung off the blankets. I took her temperature. It was 102.6

Um, I'm not a mom, but I know that's high.

We dug through the cupboard and found some acetaminophen and gave her one of those to break her fever. She had some yogurt and is still awake.

Fortunately we didn't have anything else planned today. Dinner tonight is steaks and risotto. We'll see if she's feeling better by then.

Art Wednesday

Skylar and I went to the Grand Rapids Art Museum this morning, aka the GRAM.
I had never been to this museum and Skylar and I both like art. The admission was reasonable, so it made sense that we check it out.

This is one of the views looking out of the museum.

These are on the stairs going up to the third floor.

We had fun.

This afternoon Skylar took the iPad and took some interesting pictures of herself. Then she went outside in the flower gardens and took some photos out there.

Tuesdays and Thunderstorms

This morning I woke up to thunder and lightning. Atticus slunk around the house, depressed that he couldn't go outside. Skylar and I braved the rain and went to Meijer. By the time we left, there was blue sky off to the west.

We decorated paper bags and delivered them to Kids Food Basket. What a great organization!

Then we walked over to Ken's Fruit Market. By then it was sunny and much warmer.

For dinner we had Alfredo, chicken and Caesar salad.

Now we're going to watch a movie.

Another Spring Break with Skylar!

As you know, Skylar is here visiting again during her Spring Break.

Today, we went to Meijer Gardens with my friend Nancy.

We were all wearing fleece zip-ups and so we had to take a picture of that.

Here's one of the many, many butterflies that were out and about. We got there early, a very wise decision on our part, and so not only was the place not crowded but the butterflies were everywhere!

But my camera battery wasn't charged (I spent the weekend taking pictures of the new nephew...) so I didn't get as many as Nancy. But she promises she'll share. In the meantime here are the pictures I took that are good enough to make the blog!

This is a Clear Wing butterfly. It was in the butterfly house, so the plexi-glass is reflecting the tropical plants behind me. It turned out to be a pretty neat photo!

Butterflies just chillin'.

Skylar and Aunt Em.

Skylar wanted a picture of the Quail that also live in the Conservatory.

This is not a screen saver. This is a picture I took of the flowers out in the English Garden. I'm pretty proud of it. I'm guessing they're a type of Daffodil. Anyone know?

And here are the beautiful Hyacinths.

the other binkie I made

Here's the blankie I made for my sister's new baby, who we now know is a boy!! I totally forgot to include these photos yesterday when I blogged. That gives me a post for today!!

I tried to get a good picture in natural light.
I hope Cyndi doesn't mind that I post this picture?!

Spencer is set on blankies, he received five at the shower yesterday! All were handmade. One was a quilt, the other four were crocheted. And all were beautiful.