Bee-utiful

Jac and I have been working on art projects whenever Donovan isn’t here. They are inseparable when they’re both here, but Jac thinks I’m an ok substitute if he’s not around. 

First up was painting with glue and food coloring. 

Glueing fabric scraps is one of Jac’s favorite things but this was the first time we added color to the glue first. Giant hit!

As was the basket of leftover ‘diamonds’ and ‘jewels’ I dug out of the craft cabinet. It really does pay to (almost) never throw crafty things away. 

We also celebrated the gorgeous weather 

with a bit of sunbathing and chalk drawing

while poor Leanne was in school (in her pj’s and quilt).

The art part was almost over before it began

 

when a bee landed on Jac’s shirt and freaked her out. 

Look at the size of that stinger! Poor bee was probably as traumatized as Jac. 😂

Orchid tree

Our lizard habitat 

Frog Pond

Turns out quilts take trips to the frog pond too, not just crochet and knitting. 

Rippit, rippit.  

All better. 

Teeaa Teeaa

Jac and I were hanging out when she started talking about, “you know, that girl that left the stuff in the bathtub that squirted me in the face.”

“You mean Aunt Teena?” 

Yep, “Teeaa Teeaa”.

 
So Jac wrote her a letter and, typical child of the digital age, insisted I send Teeaa a text and picture.

But she’s even more excited about this ⬆️. 

Hey Teena, keep an eye out; old-school stick-a-stamp-on-it letter headed your way. 

Halfway

Nine rows done, eight more to go. 

I’ve been calling this “Hot Mess” - rather than “Carnival” - ‘cause that’s what it looked like on the design wall before this weekend. Pretty amazing the difference a little stitching and pressing can make.

 

Horses and Chickens and Snowballs, Oh My

Jac and I took a quick trip

  Ride ‘em, cowgirl!

to our favorite farm stand this afternoon

 Jac had no interest in the goats, alpaca or sheep, just the chickens and her “pony”

before I started in on the giant pile of snowballs. 

 96 snowballs, all in a pile. 

My original plan was to cut the fabric squares and call it a day. 

Then it was ‘hey, the last 2 stars won’t take long’ . . . and ‘maybe I’ll start the first line just to see how it looks’ . . . 

And presto-changeo, all the pieces were done. I’m glad I went ahead with the lines, I think they add a lot. Next up? Sewing all 221 blocks into rows and columns and squares, oh my. But that’s definitely waiting for tomorrow. 

Little White Blocks

I finished nine and three-quarter stars today before I ran out of snowballs. 

The little white blocks are an odd size for cutting with my Stripology ruler, requiring a chart and a bit of thinking, so I’m waiting for a quiet house and refreshed brain cells before I cut more. Better waiting than swearing, right?

And I think a few white lines are needed in addition to the stars. Since my quilt is smaller than the original, I can’t follow the pattern for placement, but I think this will work. We’ll see . . . 

Not So Quick

I wanted to make a quick quilt for a sick friend (kidney transplant in the works) and remembered the *already cut* ombre fabric and pattern Teena sent me. (Thanks again!)

So much glorious COLOR, with bonus sparkly metallic dots, would cheer anyone up, right? 

But it’s not going as quickly as I thought. (Story of my life.) Three days in and the color placement is set . . . I think . . .

and now I’m debating if I really need all those white lines in addition to the white stars. Sure would be faster not having to make a million snowballs . . . Hoping to start sewing stars tomorrow during nap time, so it’s decision time.

New Skills

I wanted to make gluten-free bread as a surprise for Mary’s birthday, thinking how hard could it be?

Turns out it’s a *lot* different from the baking I’m used to. Thank goodness for the “5 Minutes A Day” gluten-free book!

First you make your own “flour”,

then mix the dough (it looks/feels more like paste than dough) 

and let rise (it smells like yeast bread but doesn’t rise as much).

Then push it into shape with wet fingers (there’s no stretch to the dough at all),

let it rise again, slash and bake. 

It doesn’t look like much 

but Mary said it tasted very good - and asked for more. Hooray!

Maybe I’ll try the GF cinnamon rolls next . . .

He’s 3!

Look who turned 3 on Friday!

He’s getting so big and handsome, 

said the very proud and biased grandma. 

Happy birthday, Big D!

And many happy returns. 

Baker Baby

I think Donovan may have a future as a baker - 

he really got into his work when we made this batch of focaccia -

and wore himself right out. 

He barely had time to put his babies (Blue, T Rex and Jackie’s Peanut Butter) in a row on their pillow before he passed out. Be sure to turn up the sound . . . 

Napping

Jac and Donovan were unhappy about who got to sleep next to grandma at nap time 

so they fell asleep on top of each other. Silly bunnies. 

Penultimate

We celebrated Leanne’s next-to-last day of spring break with a trip to our favorite zoo.

It felt like family-day everywhere we looked.

Not only was it crowded with human families, 

 That’s one super relaxed cat

even with the reservation system in place, 

but we saw a mom, dad and baby tower,

a family pride (baby Pauline is getting so big!),

and a flock of rocking flamingos (they were settling in for their afternoon nap.) 

Lots of construction projects are well underway and some of the girls’ favorite animals are gone (elephants, American alligator) or off exhibit (otters, reptiles and Chinese alligator), 

but there’s still room to run and play so they were content. 

And just to make sure, we stopped by the zoo gift shop and the Disney outlet store on the way home. Not that they’re spoiled or anything . . .