Temp Quilt

Spent the day catching up on my 2021 temperature quilt.

This is the first 6-months, plus 8 days of July. Love how it’s transitioning from greens and blues (cold temps) to purples, pinks and a bit of orange. Our hottest months are usually September and October, so I see lots more orange and bright yellow ahead. 

Not looking forward to fixing the June month marker I somehow messed up (the cream blob in the lower corner.) I thought about calling it a “design element” and leaving it . . . but it bugs me. Guess we’re headed to the frog pond for some quality rippit time. At least it’s close to an edge??? Trying to look on the bright side . . .

Blanket Fort 2.0

We used to build room-sized blanket forts for Leia and Leanne all the time but somehow we got out of the habit with Jac and Donovan. 

Today they were huddled, playing happily, in a fort they made over the arm of the couch. 

But the look on their faces when I brought out the folding tables and sheets and pillows!

So much excitement. 

If you look close, you can see Donovan’s favorite lion and tiger in the play house. 

Well worth the (slight) extra clean up time. 

Nap Time

Nap time for the besties. 

And grandma. 

Fence, Toes and Tomatoes

It rained again!

Only in California would we be celebrating those tiny dots as “rain”. But we’re happy to get every little bit of moisture we can. 

The pool fence is progressing - one . . 

two . . .

and beyond (decking materials).

We have (almost) tomatoes!

I need to figure out how to pollinate these since Jac and I decided having bees inside would not be a good thing. Jac: “we could let them in but then they’d want to make a home and that would be bad.” 

Leia’s daddy took her shooting this past weekend and turns out she’s a very good shot. 

Also, look how tall she is! Turning 13 in a couple of weeks. How is that possible??

Who Wore It Better?

Jac is finally big enough 

to wear the cute dress Leanne made as a Fair entry in 2019.

I should say “award winning dress” 

since Leanne won a blue ribbon/1st place for her efforts. 

And then promptly outgrew her masterpiece. So happy it will get some use now with Jac. 

First Time

Took Donovan in the pool for the first time today

 Those funky sunglasses were all I could find in the house today

and he loved it, as long as I was holding him. 

Not Papa. Not Leanne. Just Grandma.

While he was a bit hesitant to get in at first, he was *mad* when it was time to get out. Kid’s going to be a fish by the time summer’s over. 

Now we just need to get Jac in the water . . . 

Bah, Humbug

I was so pleased to get the second half of my Watercolor quilt done . . .

Then I looked at it closely and thought WTH.

I cut and sewed the color sequence backwards. Dang it. (That wasn’t what I said at the time . . .)

Thought about leaving it, since I kinda like it and the transparency effect is still kinda there, but I must have been sloppy in my cutting or pulled too much on those bias edges since I also have significant waves in the fabric (yellow arrow). Double dang it. 

Jac’s portrait of her friend from down the street. 💕💕

I really really want to finish this quilt. I have enough of all but one of the fabrics to give it another go, just as soon as I get over the bah humbugs. Cheerful Jackie art should help with that. I’ll be at the cutting table if you need me. Again.

Summertime

Celebrating summer with a trip to the zoo,

pool time

and playdoh flowers.

I could happily do this year-round.

Big Guns

Hubby couldn’t get the new gas-powered auger to work

so he called in the big guns.

And it worked - 

5 minutes after Matt’s arrival the first of 7 fence post holes was done.

If all goes well, cement and posts will go in tomorrow and the actual fence will be up on Monday-ish. Or Tuesday-ish. . . 

Making Progress

The pool is full and in use,

the retaining wall is about three-quarters done 

and the new windows for the back of the house - the only original windows we have left to replace - are at the contractors and ready for install in about 2 weeks. 

Also, Jac planted some garlic to go with her “cabbage”. So much progress!

Rain Day

It “rained” Tuesday 

and the 10-and-under-crowd went wild.

And by “rain” I mean barely sprinkled -

we could still see the individual drops on the ground. 

Quoting Donovan, “It’s wet on my head!” 😂

We got just enough moisture to make the air smell fresh, 

Lucky shot

keep the flowers and tiny bugs happy,

and put Tuesday in something like 5th place for “most rain ever received” in July. Hooray?

Ballet Girl

Jac is on her second week of ballet class

and while she’s looking cool,

Photo by Leanne 

she’s actually beside herself with excitement. 

Leanne’s hip-hop class is only for the summer 

but Jac will continue with ballet for a year, just like Sissy and Leia did. So much excitement!

Watercolor Quilt

Today’s quilt workshop was great - I learned so much and feel a lot more comfortable working with curves. 

I love how Zoom makes these classes possible - the instructor was in Kentucky, I’m in California  and my 16 classmates were located all across the US and Canada. 

Colors are waaaaay off 

The only down side? 

The 7 am start time (10 am East coast). I am sooooo not a morning person.  

Lily helped me finish my homework last night -

cutting out pattern pieces,

cleaning my sewing machine -

and also attended class 

My teacher’s view during class

to make sure I paid attention.

See the red arrow? That’s the pattern and fabric I’m trying to cut in class. Not going to get as much done as I’d hoped. 😂

Also used my new iPad tripod for today’s class. So awesome. Told hubby I bought it so we could use it with the treadmill. Wonder if he believed me . . . (Hahahahahahahaha)