Strawberry Girl

 Jac’s getting creative with her berry trimming. 

I started to take a picture and she’s all “hold on, I’m not done yet!” 😂

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Jac and Leo didn’t know about the new car - Donovan saw it last night - so picking them up from school today was extra fun. 

Jac walked right by, didn’t hear me call her out the window and would have kept on hiking if Pop hadn’t redirected her. 😂

Leo’s mouth about hit the ground when she first spotted us. All in all, a very successful surprise. 

Maybe Betty

We had an appointment at the Lexus dealership to get info on our end-of-lease numbers…

and drove off 4 hours later in Maybe Betty*, a fire engine red 2024 Lexus NX with electronic everything. (I didn’t realize that included a heads-up display until we were ready to leave. So cool.)

We had talked about not getting another Lexus and planned to visit two other brands before making a decision but… the numbers were good, the sales guy was pleasant and low-key and the car was RED. Anyway. Her name is Betty, at least until tomorrow when Jackie will want to name her something different. 😂

* Donovan’s kindergarten class named their first hatched chicken OG Cookie and I can’t stop giggling. So between them, he and Jac may come up with a much better name. 

Making Room

Spent most of the past 2 days rearranging my craft room to make room for Koko.

Took almost everything out, piled it in the family room (Jac said, “What is this mess?!”), then slowly put most of it back, filling more than a couple of trash (and donation) bags along the way. One of my favorite parts was moving the filing cabinet out from behind the design wall (and cleaning out all the oldddddddd paperwork), then putting the bookcase with my sorted fabric scraps on top of it, so I can actually get to them! So happy. 

Rather than start a new project while all that was in progress, I’m testing Koko’s quilting abilities with this table runner that’s been pin basted since last August.

Really pleased with how easy the built-in walking foot is to use. Some of the stitches look a little wonky so I need to do a bit of research on that. And today’s surprise? Koko remembers the last stitch setting used, even after the power has been turned off. So cool!

Ghost Stories

These two spent the run up to bedtime telling each other ghost stories and freaking themselves out. They’d both decided they wanted to go home when I reminded them that 1) no ghosts were allowed in grandma’s house; it’s a firm rule; and  2) grandma is *much* scarier than ghosts, so ghosts are afraid to stay here. 

Jac still loves her sleep mask. 

Donovan tried the “there’s monsters under my bed” story but Jac and I convinced him that Lily Kitty would *love* to chase anything that dared try to get under there.* Must have worked. They were both asleep within 3 minutes of lights out. Now if they just sleep thru the night…

* Such a lie. Lily is afraid of almost everything. 😂😂

Testing Koko

I was looking for a project to help Princess Kokopuff and I get better acquainted and spotted this Fat Quarter Shop video (here). 

Cute, fast and perfect for the Carolina Lillies fat quarter bundle I bought back in… 2022? I love the colors and the designs but it’s so busy I’ve never been sure what to do with it. 

I think this works. And did I mention it was fast? 

Less than 24 hours after I started it’s hanging on the design wall waiting for daylight so I can take pretty pictures. 

71.5 x 55”

And I discovered Koko has a trick I didn’t know about…..

a “your bobbin is running out” alert! Now I love her even more. 

After School Fun

After school, we

play in the park,

swing on trees,

(this may be the first time -ever- that Jac was too TALL for something 😂),

spot lizards,

chase lizards

using new telescoping nets,

admit lizards are FAST 

and settle for taking photos of them,

Photo by Jaclyn

along with pics of some strange lady

Photo by Jaclyn 

and random flowers.  

It was a good afternoon. 

Sleep Mask

Jac put herself to bed - and to sleep - at 7:45 tonight.

My first thought was “how cute!” The second was a cynical, “She’s sick, isn’t she?”  Morning will tell…

Back To It

So happy to be sewing again. I used 3 different machines over the past month trying to finish this quilt for Cheyenne. I’m kinda amazed the seams fit together correctly. 😜

It still needs borders - the same grayish blue that’s in the top and bottom row. Hoping to have it finished by Friday so I can drop it off when I see my longarmer buddy. 

Princess Kokopuff

Meet Princess (because everything Jac is involved in naming is either ‘Princess’ or ‘Rose’) Koko (Kokochi is the model name) Puff (because how could I not??) Her friends call her ‘Koko’. 

My main sewing machine - an 8 year old Janome 8200QC - has been glitching since before we went to Maine, skipping 2 stitches here and 3 stitches there, just often enough that I have to double check every.single.seam. for problems. So annoying.

Three separate visits to the repair shop spa, 30+ minutes each way, with no resolution, has been frustrating (they are very nice but have no idea what’s wrong*).

I’d been daydreaming about a new machine for awhile, especially with sister Teena singing the praises of her Juki, but probably wouldn’t have followed through because $$$ and learning curve and inertia. The repair saga changed that. 

I narrowed my choices to 2 models each for Janome and Juki, contacted a few shops to see what they had (not much ☹️), and had hubby talked into a day trip to a shop in Huntington Beach on Saturday so I could test drive a Juki, even though they didn’t have the models I wanted (they’d ship it to the store from the warehouse next week and I could drive back again to get it, since they didn’t ship …. Oh joy). Then I found a new-to-me shop, only 45 minutes away who, when I called, said they didn’t have the models I wanted but they did have the next model up (top of the line), on sale for half price since a woman had returned it after 3 days to buy a different machine. (She did that 3 times with 3 different machines. I can’t imagine!)

Good news - the price was $1000 lower than the less expensive models I’d been interested in. Bad news - there was only a 90 day warranty since they were selling it as ‘used’. But… they offered a 3 year warranty that was basically the same cost as having the machine serviced/cleaned each year. Add in the tax and it was still cheaper than the others! I feel like it’s Christmas. 

Learning curve is going to be steep - I’ve already broken a needle and jammed the machine - but this is going to be fun!

* I’ve a feeling repair issues are only going to get worse. The old repair guys are retiring, taking all their been-there-fixed-that knowledge with them. The new guys mean well but if cleaning or re-timing the machine doesn’t work, they have no idea what’s wrong. 

Planting Bug

For Mother’s Day, Matt & family gave me a plant, 

a nursery gift card and offered to go plant shopping with us - who could resist???

We filled the back of the SUV - and put a hefty hit on hubby’s credit card - but came home with some very pretty plants (that I hopefully won’t immediately kill…)

Jac and I spent a few hours Monday 

making our own dirt mix (Matt’s special recipe)

and repotting succulents

while Leo took charge of the wine barrel planter*. 

She did such a good job**!

We finished up today, so hubby could have the garage back, and all but one plant are either in the ground or repotted. 

Hope the lizards enjoy their new plantings!

*See the smallest round pot at Leo’s feet? We needed it to be deeper for the plant we wanted to put in there… so we smacked the bottom with a sharp tool until it broke (Jac was shocked 😂)… then put it back in place with no one the wiser (until Leo snitched me off to Pop 😂). Instant DIY deep-dish planter! 

** A local cat decided Leo’s plants would make a good bed and slept right in the middle of the red one, crushing it. 

So… Pop and I put flower lights and wood stakes in and around it to discourage further naps. Hope it works!

Sneaky Math

Jac wanted to know how many days there were until her birthday, so we sat down to figure it out…

then made a calendar to count down the days. 

Shhhhhhh, don’t anyone tell Jac we did **math** while we were having fun. 😂

Back To Normal

My back-seat squad, waiting for the teenager to get out of school.

Lego girl, building her first underwater adventure.

The box was a gift from Uncle Mike and Jac is thrilled. She’s never shown much interest in Lego before, but she worked on this for hours the first afternoon and again today. So cool. 

Jac’s pretty easily distracted so I’m surprised and very happy that this is such a hit. Hooray!