Working On A Plan

I’ve ordered fabric to make quilts for my late sister’s grandkids (including one due in January - so exciting!)

and while I wait, I’m hoping to get another Alaska quilt started (finished? That’s probably dreaming …)

Got all the pieces cut tonight. Maybe sewing can commence tomorrow …

Farmer Jac

We went out back to water plants 

but Jac decided to make a swimming hole for the lizards instead. 

I don’t think they were impressed

but they also aren’t afraid of her. Yet. 

She hasn’t been out here with the net, like she has out front…. where she caught a baby lizard again today. You know those guys are spreading the word. 

Oregon Bound

We left LA early Saturday morning - on the road at 0500, yuck! -

Old school hike to your plane

for a quick trip to Oregon. 

Saturday was spent with Teena and Mike 

at their home on a tidal river in Mapleton. 

So beautiful!

And today was the celebration of life for our sister Jama, on what would have been her 65th birthday.

Her daughters put together a beautiful celebration of their mom’s life. 

Such a sad day 

but so wonderful to see Jama’s daughters and grandkids again. 

Build A Frog?

We had an hour to kill while waiting for my appointment at the Apple Store*, so Pop suggested visiting Build A Bear.

The 12 year old immediately yelled, “yes!!” and the 7 year old said! “No!”. Say whattttt??

Jac changed her tune pretty quick when she saw how excited Leo was . . . and spotted a rainbow pony unicorn. How can you say “no” to a pony-corn??? Meet Theo Frog and Love Rose Ponycorn, the newest additions to stuffie-ville. 

*My 3 month old phone is glitching, visually and audibly. The tech did a reset that seemed to work - lost most of my settings but not my passwords! - but today it’s acting weird again. Hope it sorts itself out quickly … or at least doesn’t die before we get home from OR. 

FrankenBatting

I didn’t have a big enough piece of batting for the Alaska tablerunner,

 

so I pieced several together …

It may not look pretty but it works! 

Planning to quilt this when I get back from Oregon…

School Daze

All the tiny - and not so tiny - people are back in school. 

First was Addy, starting her junior year of high school on the 15th. (I love her sense of style and color!)

Leia is taking both high school (sophomore) and college classes again this year.

All the remaining grands started school today - Leo is in 7th grade;

Jac is in 2nd;

Donovan is in kindergarten;

and Travis and Isaac started 6th and 1st grades respectively. Such a cute bunch! Hope they all have a great year. 

Bits And Pieces

The littles go back to school in the morning (Wednesday) and I’m more than a little sad. We’ve had fun this summer and I’ve still got crafty things I want to do with them….

A hurriquake hit us Sunday, with over 3 inches of rain in about 12 hours. Very unusual for our semi-desert area. No damage from the water or the shakes (5.0 quake and lots of 4+ aftershocks), so very grateful for that!

Donovan spotted a spider while we were outside Monday. Jac and I said, “so cool!” (as long as it stays outside.) Donovan said - and Pop agreed -  “kill it with water!”

But the first thing Donovan wanted to do, when he woke up today from his sleepover, was go check on the spider. He’s really a tiny bit fascinated. 

Big D decided to make a 2-sided volcano for crafty time. I think it’s his first time using tape … he kept hitting himself in the face when the tape would suddenly tear … but he figured it out!

I love giving kids a bunch of art supplies and watching what happens. Paper, scissors, tape, playdoh, plastic knife and voilá - Pikachu sculpture! “For you, Grandma!”

Sew Alaska

I love buying vacation fabric, especially things that relate to a particular area or culture, 

Tlingit-style salmon

so when I stumbled across two great quilt stores (and one stinker) I had to support them. Right??

This tablerunner kit was from the shop in Juneau, Changing Tides, which sadly has no website. Soooo many things I wanted in that store! Plus the employees - a husband and wife team - were great.

Just enough scraps for a Jackie art project. 

i wasn’t a fan of the included pattern, plus the runner needed to be longer, so I made this up as I went. Love when I win at fabric chicken! (Fabric chicken = finishing a project with only tiny scraps left over. These are the tiniest!)

Maybe this weekend I’ll get photos of everything I bought and post them. 

Bunny Art

 Jac: I think I’ll paint a bunny today.

Jac: Wait. What does a bunny look like again?

Google to the rescue! And then she put her paints away and cleaned up her work area without being asked. Our tiny girl is growing up. 

Dirt Shades and Dinosaur Poop

Remember the dirt pit Pop was building for the littles before we went on vacation? (Here)

He finished it this weekend, adding a patio umbrella to shade the pit … it’s HOT out there in the afternoons…

and a canopy swing for me! 

The pit’s a hit, especially once we added some water to the mix. 

Sometimes I wonder what the neighbors think … when they hear an excited Donovan yelling at the top of his lungs, “Grandma, we’re making dinosaur poop!”  😂

Friendly butterflies checking out my jeans

Getting Back To It

I paused the flower block-a-month project back in February when I hurt my shoulder and then got deeeeeep into the genealogy book.

But I really like what I’ve done so far and want to finish,

so Friday I went through all my orange fabrics (soooo many oranges… picking 4 was the hardest part of making this)

and took my time sewing it up Saturday and Sunday so as not to annoy my shoulder again… 

Love it! I’m thinking maybe 3 more flowers and a couple of tiny blocks for cornerstones should get it to a nice size. Still not crazy about the iris (bottom left) so it may end up on the back. Gotta think about it …

It’s Good To Be Home

Most of this week has been spent in recovery mode - 

we’re tired from traveling and Jac’s been sick with allergies -

Red and gold Spiderman 

so when we all had energy today, 

The Hulk

we made the most of it …

Chalk painting - including Jac’s 49 step hopscotch (red arrows below) 😳-

chalk watering (every bit as much fun as drawing),

making play-dough,

and my favorite - 

bribing Donovan to get his face wet. 

Both kids like playing with water, but neither likes being wet 

and they especially dislike having water on their faces. 

Working to fix that, one two Oreos at a time. 

(Oreos have replaced Tic Tacs as the favorite bribe payment and Donovan is quite a negotiator when it comes to getting more sweets. 😂)