Weaving!

First up at YarnFest 2017 - an all-day rigid heddle weaving class with my pal, and fantastic teacher, Deborah Jarchow. 

 

We made two dish towels on one warp,

 

the first with a solid weft throughout

 

and the second with stripes of multiple weft colors.

 

My towels are BRIGHT and I love them. 

 

If you have to do dishes, you might as well have fun, right?

 

 

Addy helped me finish the last bit of weaving

 

 

 and served as my very colorful measuring device.

   

While I was in class, Rachel took three hour-long intro classes in knitting,

 

 crochet

 

 

 and pin loom weaving. Which did she like best? 

 

 

Crochet! And I didn't even have to bribe her to say that.

Travel Day

Today was a travel day - Colorado or bust*!

 

* Interweave YarnFest and the first grandchild are in the same town this weekend. How could I resist??

Relearning To Spin

I took a spinning workshop after the Guild meeting on Saturday and the spinning bug bit me hard.
 
I'd put the spinning wheel away awhile back, planning to take a small break while I learned to quilt.
 
Yeah. That was in July 2012. That's a loooooong break. 
 
The last thing I spun was 2 bobbins of BME singles (below) that have been sitting around all this time, waiting to be plied.
 
By Sunday night they were done and dusted. 216 yards of 2-ply Falkland wool ready for a bath. And I might have purchased a subscription to Ply Magazine . . . and five back issues . . . and signed up for an on-line spinning class . . . and bought out the BeeMiceElf Etsy shop . . . Why get back into this halfway? Right??
 

Growing Up

Jac has finally gotten big enough to play with one of the toys she received for Christmas.

 
Pop put this together on Sunday - with "help" from Leanne - and we happily plopped Jac on the seat right after her nap.
 
Notice Pop's leg in the first photo? He turned loose of Jac, stepped out of the photo, and she promptly fell over, pulling the car on top of herself.
 
Not a happy camper. After a bit of a cry, we tried again. Success . . . as long as Grandma stayed close by. 
 
Today, while Pop headed to the Apple Store for a class, the girls and I hung out at a nearby for-a-fee playground. Leanne made several friends while sweating her way through all the toys and equipment.
 
Jac and I hung out in the stroller. It's a hard life when you're a 9 month old.

24 Hours

We've needed a new furnace for awhile - ours is original to our almost 40-year-old house - and we really wanted to add air conditioning during the replacement.

 JacJac slept on my lap for almost 3 hours during construction. Nothing bothers her!

Camarillo gets nice ocean breezes and, up until 2 or 3 years ago, the overwhelmingly hot days numbered less than 2 weeks a year. Not any more! Maybe I've become a temperature wimp, but it's been way, way too hot lately.

  
So Wednesday night we had a local rep come give us a bid on a new furnace/ac unit. . . we planned to think about it, maybe get other bids, make a decision in a week or so . . . . 
 
Yeah, that didn't happened. We signed the papers about 8 that night and at 8 the next morning 5 trucks were out front. By 9, our old furnace was sitting on the front lawn. . .
 
all the old duct work was out by noon . . . 
 
and by 5 pm, we were done. 
 
New furnace, new air conditioning, all trash removed and the minimal damage (for new vents) repaired.
 
The boss came by this morning to test the AC on our huge compressor and collect a check from us. 
 
Still can't believe it happened so fast - and so painlessly.
 
Want to see why we needed a new heating unit?
 
The oldest ducts (original to the house) had burst seams and were slowly rotting from the inside.
 
Some weren't even attached anymore - and weren't capped off either. Apparently we've been doing an excellent job of heating the attic. 
 
Definitely not what we wanted. 
 
Now we have all shiny, new everything furnace-related and a very nice warranty. I'm almost looking forward to summer.

Mugging Sissy

Leanne is such a good big sister.
 

She lets JacJac climb all over her when they play together.
 
Can you tell how much JacJac loves her Sissy?
 
And the other thing Leanne loves? Working puzzles with Grandma.

 
It took us a little longer to do this non-traditional puzzle but we finished it!

Jac's First Road Trip

Hubby had a roaring case of cabin fever after being down for a week with a sore back, so Saturday we packed up the available baby grands and headed north.

 

First stop - Ostrichland.

Leanne was a bit nervous at first

- those are some big dinosaurs birds - 

 

but she quickly figured out they were only interested in the food pellets

 

and not in biting/pecking her.

 

Once the ostrich food ran out - and we'd counted ostrich toes -

we headed for our own lunch

 

and then into Solvang

 

for Leanne's special surprise -

 

a ride on the horse-drawn trolley.

 

She was one very happy girl.
You know it's been a good day when you end up with green frosting on your nose.

And I was happy too . . .

these silly socks and another cuckoo clock might have followed me home.