One Done

One star done, fifteen to go 

on the quilt Leanne chose for her birthday.

I thought she’d like the fairies but it was the glow-in-the-dark that actually sold her.

The stars are the most time consuming, so I’m getting them out of the way first. With luck, everything else should go together quickly. I’ve never done a mitered border so I’m kinda looking forward to that. No pressure either -  if I can’t figure it out don’t like it I can always cut and sew regular column borders. Easy, peasy.

Waiting

Jac and I were excited about the big storm predicted for today.

We waited all day - ready with hot chocolate, fireplace logs and a stack of quilts - but we got only sprinkles, not even enough to rinse the dust from the car.

It finally started raining at dusk, when it was too dark for us to sit inside and watch.

 
I’m hoping part of the storm sticks around until tomorrow but it’s not looking good - most of the wet seems to be going east of us. Glad we don’t have flooding like Santa Barbara and SLO but a few hours of daytime precipitation would make a little girl (and her grandma) very happy. 

Jac Wisdom

Jac was on a roll today, just being herself and saying what was on her mind.

Some days she barely lets me brush her hair, other days she’s stylin’. Today’s count: Three ponytails and five hair clips before she was satisfied. 

Jac, at lunch: This hamburger is delicious! Two points for Grandma! (It was from In-n-Out but I’m keeping the points. 😂)

Jac: My horses need a naked sand day. (Kinetic sand, Jac. Although we all call it naked sand now . . .)

Jac: Grandma! There’s a diaper on the ceiling! (Air filter, Jac . . .)

Jac, after helping make cookies: These aren’t too bad. That’s 10 points Grandma. 

She keeps us laughing, and on our toes, every single day. 

PreSchool HomeSchool

Due to COVID, Jac has been unable to attend preschool in almost a year. Which is really a shame, not just for learning and socialization, but because she looooooved it. She was so excited about school that she cried almost every day when it was time to go home. Silly girl. 

Thanks to a recommendation from cousin Breanne, whose son Isaac is also four, Jac and I have been doing preschool-in-a-box each afternoon while Donovan takes his nap. The boxes are well thought out, include art projects as well as ABC’s and 123’s, and contain pretty much everything we need for each lession. 

Turns out Jac is a numbers (and colors) girl. She tolerates the ABC stuff - and has almost zero interest in writing her letters - but give her things to count and she’s in her element. She understood adding and ‘take away’ the first time we tried it and I’ve been adding more/harder exercises because she’s so interested. She also knows the order of colors in a rainbow - Jac says, “Rainbow is my favorite color!” - and she’s happy to discuss at length, without prompting, what color you’ll get by mixing two other colors. I’m thinking future artist-scientist here. I may not be as interesting as Miss Sandy (her preschool teacher) but we are having fun and she’s learning stuff. (Don’t tell her that last part. 😂)

Rethinking

Anybody surprised I messed up the math on my temperature quilt? Yeah, me neither. 

I forgot that each day had two blocks - one for both high and low temp - which would have made the finished quilt well over king- sized. No way I have enough fabric or patience for that. 

So I’ve spent most of this week re-mathing and re-making all the &#*@$ blocks I’d already sewn. 

I think I’ve got it right now.

And all those strips I pre-cut at the wrong size? Just grateful I cut them too big rather than too small. Trimming each to size is a PITA but so much better than trashing them and starting over. 

Lost My Mind, Round 2

A friend called last year’s temperature project the “you’ve lost your mind” quilt. I’m still working on hand-stitching it (I’m almost up to June, whoohoo!), so this year’s quilt will be different. Something machine stitched, using a simple pattern, that I can sit down and get caught up on over a weekend if when I fall behind. 

 First fabric pull

It’s taken me weeks to make up my mind, 

 Reject! Braid pattern was a finalist until I tried sewing it. Icky.

with multiple flip-flops on almost every decision, 

 Background fabric choices 

but as of tonight, 

the FABRIC IS CUT and decisions are DONE. (I think . . .)

 Cut, labeled and ready to sew

I’m winging the pattern based on this picture I found on Instagram.

The background will be black (the top right pic above), which I think makes it look more modern and makes the bright colors really pop.

Thanks to the Stripology ruler I bought last year, all 19 fabrics were cut in a couple of hours, something that would have taken me several days the old way. And with all that done, tomorrow we sew!

All Done

The repair crew was up and working before 7:30 this morning.

It took them a bit over 6 hours,

and lots of machinery,

but we had (almost) clean water restored by mid-afternoon. 

The baby grands weren’t as fascinated by the big trucks as I’d expected - maybe Donovan is a bit young for that still?

But they definitely enjoyed the excuse to run around outside

and thought the really big hole was fascinating. They’re going to be bummed tomorrow that it got filled in again. 

Fun Times

Hubby came back from his morning walk to find muddy water bubbling up and over the front sidewalk. 

Several hours of digging and consultation with the water district’s on-call guy determined the leak was on the city’s side of the line. Hooray!

Apparently there’s now a deep hole under the sidewalk and the water guy thinks it could extend well out into the street. 

The baby grands are going to *love* watching all the trucks and digging equipment tomorrow morning. Very grateful we aren’t the ones footing the bill for all this entertainment. 

Whale Shark Adventures

These two *love* going on a morning walk with Pop and Leanne (especially as it often includes a stop for treats at the corner market). 

But today Jac came back almost hysterical. Blue whale shark had gone AWOL, dropped as they crossed a street on the way home. 

Jac got this pack of sharks on one of our last trips to the Santa Barbara Zoo and she and Donovan adore them, playing with them almost daily. Jac was inconsolable that one was gone. 

So Pop, hero that he is (and also maybe to get away from Jackie’s noise), retraced their route and found the escapee. All’s well that ends well, right?

Yeah. Donovan went down for his nap, tightly clutching whale shark, and somehow managed to drop it through the headboard and onto the floor under our bed, centered exactly in the hardest spot to reach. So tonight, one of us gets to climb under there and retrieve the &#@$ shark before Jac misses it tomorrow morning. 

Update! Pop did the honors and also found Donovan’s missing Mama Tiger! Hooray!

Traditions

Hubby and I don’t have any traditions or rituals for welcoming the new year. But after the dumpster fire that was 2020, I felt like we needed to do something. 

Since we refuse to eat black-eyed peas or liver - my mother’s idea of the correct start to the new year - I settled on buying a new plant and repotting my older ones. 

 Plant babies! 

A bit of positive energy (and more oxygen) is always good, right?*

 I think my new plant is ‘mother in laws tongue’?

Notice the spikes around the money tree? Lily kitty would eat this one down to bare branches if it wasn’t protected. 

Fortunately, she’s learned to leave the cacti alone. Silly cat. 

* And then I burned dinner on New Year’s Day. Crossing my fingers that doesn’t cancel out the positive plant energy.