Fun Day

Leia was in charge of Big D today (Matt and Mary were in Del Mar for a reptile show… I see more snakes in their future) so to help entertain him, we offered to take them to the Moorpark teaching zoo’s spring extravaganza. 

 Who’s cuter? Teenager or Gila monster?

Back when hubby and I attended college classes there it was called EATEM, Exotic Animal Training, Entertainment and Management. Now it’s the classier, but less colorful, Teaching Zoo (here).

Donovan announced his boredom before we even got in the gates - and every few minutes afterward - but the rest of us had fun. 

(His attitude changed once he ate lunch. Note to self: protein for grumpy boys before going out the door.)

It’s a very small zoo but they have 2 new tigers, 

a lion, a Gila monster,

multiple apes/monkeys, 

and lots of enthusiastic students and volunteers willing to share fun facts. 

 Blue-tongued skink in the reptile house

The reptile house was the biggest hit - Donovan even forgot to be grumpy while we were there. And it’s amazing how much he knows about lizards and snakes. 

The show put on by first year students 

was silly (deliberately),

but we got great close up views of some cute critters. 

We also saw an in-progress training session 

with what one volunteer called “the smartest animal we have” (the baboon, not the student 😜) Super cool to watch. 

Leia picked our lunch spot, 

Yep, still wearing the fashion-statement glasses 🙄

a very busy, and slow, crepe restaurant which gave us plenty of time to take selfies.

(It was fun and the food was good but I doubt we’d go back - definitely overpriced with very slow service.)

Finished off the day with Leia making her first chocolate chip cake, a big family favorite, 

and hanging out with me while I worked on a new sewing project. 

 Endangered butterfly habitat

All in all, a very fine day. 

And yes, M&M came home with 3 more snakes… a big boa - D wants to name it Banana 😂 - and 2 small hog nose. See the black belly on one of the small snakes? That one’s Donovan’s and he named it Emerald.

Destash Redux

My quilt guild is having another fabric sale at the end of April, so when I finished the January craft room declutter, my plan was to go through the overflow room* (aka OMG how much fabric do you have?!?j and trash or donate a bunch - fabric to the guild and “stuff” to wherever.

“Before” pictures

Then we went to CO for Rachel’s birthday… and came back to 4 solid weeks of (probably) Influenza A… and the ongoing eye drama and… yeah, not much has gotten done. But hubby wants to move forward on installing a Murphy bed in the upstairs guest room, so today I started on the first wall of shelves.

Top shelf will be for oversized Christmas decorations 

Two+ bags of trash and a hallway full of donations later, that part is close to being done. (I cheated and also emptied several center section shelves near the back window since they were easy).

Red to Goodwill, blue to Guild, green to trash.

Then comes the center section where most of my yardage lives - the donation pile should be huge when it’s done; some of that fabric has been around since I started quilting 13+ years ago.

I’d worked on the front section before we went to CO. It was mostly photo albums and supplies from my (long gone) scrapbooking days and most went to a buddy who still scraps. The shelves on the right are almost completely empty, as are the middle shelves on the left. Making progress! And hoping to get some sewing done too…

* its not just fabric, honest! Suitcases, unwieldy vacuums, former craft hobbies and stuff that magically accumulates are all well represented here. 

Little Chickie

Spotted this yesterday at Home Goods, our current favorite store, but left without it because “do I really need that?”

Cookie jar chick

Went back today and brought it home. It makes me happy and in today’s world, that’s $ well spent.

* Right eye is still not fixed, it keeps dragging on and on. So depressing. 

Chef JayJay

Jac made most of our dinner tonight. She didn’t eat it, except for the jasmine rice which is one of her favorite food groups. 

I thought she’d give up after her first touch of shrimp but Jac removed the tails - and a couple pieces of “intestine” - from about half a pound. And enjoyed it. She usually doesn’t like touching cold or slimy things, or getting her hands dirty, but none of it bothered her tonight.

I also showed her how to “snap” asparagus and she did the whole pound before putting them in the skillet and stir, stir, stirring. 

She told Pop and Donovan that she plans to have 3 jobs when she grows up - geologist, teacher and chef. And her reaction when D told her she couldn’t have that many was basically Watch Me -“I can be whatever I want.” That’s my girl!

Plates and Plants

Way back, like 45 years ago, we bought a set of dishes using stamp books (remember those??) from our local Alpha Beta grocery.

The cups and bowls fell (literally) away over the years but we still use the plates as our everyday dishes. A few weeks ago I fell in love with a random flowered plate on FB, which made me think we needed more COLOR and PRETTY in the house. Three stores and a bunch of websites later, we found these at Home Goods…

Not flowers, not super colorful, but they make me laugh. And 4 plates for $9.99 is a deal. (Even if they are melamine and neither dishwasher nor microwave safe. So not practical…)

Bowls were 4 for $10 too

I didn’t realize how much of a deal until I checked the manufacturer’s website (looking for bigger plates.) The ones I bought are apparently last year’s model, but still for sale at 4 for $48. 

The new design? Available now for pre-order? 

$20 per plate. I feel like I won the jackpot. 😂 

 My favorite color. So pretty.

Hubby made some contributions to COLOR too. We now have a couple of orange trees in the backyard, visible from the kitchen windows, that light up at night…

and what I thought was a hollyhock 

- correct name is Sea Mallow - for the front. 

He’ll be heading back to Home Depot soon to get a few more. Love them!

Sewing Bug

It’s been awhile but the sewing bug finally hit again this weekend. 

In January? February? a speaker at my quilt guild talked about tools she recommended, including a lap pillow for hand stitching.

A friend found a video/pattern (here)… 

it looked simple… and easy… 

and didn’t require precise sewing (still can’t see close up)…

so Saturday I cut and quilted the pieces

and Sunday I sewed it up and stuffed it.

Why buy little bags when you can have 5 POUNDS of stuffing??

The idea is to use the pillow to rest your arms/hands on while stitching, which relaxes the tension in your shoulders and neck. 

Such a weird shape…

Not sure if it will work for me - may need to make a larger one or one with less stuffing - but it was fun to make. Hoping my sew-jo is back for reals. 

J-Sorry

One of my favorite parts of the day is hanging out with Jac, playing board games that she renames and makes up rules for as she goes. 

J-Sorry has been a favorite for a few months: tonight she came up with a new version called “School”.  I especially love that her rules always benefit both of us equally, she’s not doing it to give herself an advantage. So fun to see what she comes up with each time. 

Can you see our new friend?

We had a couple of visitors in the back yard. I opened the back door to toss them some carrots and scared them away. ☹️ 

Hope they come back at least long enough to collect their treats. 

Snake!

Matt’s family has gotten into reptiles in a big way and today Mary brought over the newest, recently arrived member - 

Luna Lovegood, a Western hog-nosed snake. 

Luna should grow to about 2.5 feet long.

Isn’t she pretty?  

I think Luna is snake #4, to go with the 8 lizards, assorted spiders (jumping and “only mildly poisonous” tarantulas), 2 birds, 2 rabbits and 2 dogs - all (except the dogs) named for Harry Potter characters.

Donovan adores them all.

Jac likes snakes, in theory, but had to be persuaded to pet Luna today. 

And me? I’m Team Jac - they are pretty to look at but not really my cup of tea.