Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

I'm not usually lucky when it comes to Internet contests, but I've won two prizes recently. 

The first was waaaaay back in July, during the Tour de Fleece, but the prize only arrived yesterday. And boy oh boy, was it worth waiting for.
 

A 4 ounce braid of Bee Mice Elf fiber in an unknown colorway and unknown fiber (no info was on the tag). I'm thinking it's 'Heatwave'. Colors look the same, although the intensity is washed out a bit in my photo. BFL is one of my favorite fibers to spin, so I'm thrilled with this.

 
I also won a Facebook contest (random number generator) from my favorite yarn shop, Anacapa Fine Yarns.
 
This luscious skein of BFL (seeing a theme here??) will be put to good use, probably as a crocheted shawl. Shocker, I know.

That's likely the end of my winning streak for the next decade or beyond. Big thanks to Lars and Lois for running some fun contests.

Not Just Balloons

We did a few things other than watch balloons while in Reno last weekend. Thursday afternoon we stopped in at Jimmy Beans Wool for a short quick reasonable time, all things considered. It's a small shop - most of their stock is sold on-line - and the staff is super friendly. Leia asked what was in the "cages" in the back room and one of the ladies took her back so she could see the purse/bag/book storage cubicles. She was thrilled.

 

And after that, we took Leia to Circus Circus, where she won the first horse race we tried - the dolphin was her prize - and I won the second race to get her the baby lion. Since she was only allowed to bring one toy with her when we went out, dolphin and lion took turns going with us the rest of the weekend.

In retaliation, Hubby insisted on wanted to visit the National Automobile Museum Friday afternoon. I thought it was very well done - 

my favorite part was the accompanying display of women's clothing from the same time period -

  

but Leia got bored very quickly. She and I walked through the exhibits (at almost a dead run; Leia was very bored) until we found a little seating area and a shop selling ice cream sandwiches. After that, she didn't care how long PopPop took looking at the cars.

 
Saturday we took Leia to a under-the-sea themed restaurant for a late lunch. 
Oceano is in the Peppermill Casino and it is beautiful to look at, 
but the service and food were both lacking.
  
It took 3 people over 20 minutes to bring our drink order and hubby and I both thought the food was average at best.
 
Oh well, it really was fun to sea. (ha! a little fish humor) 

On Sunday, we bombed straight home, leaving Reno at 9:15 a.m. and walking through our front door 580 miles and 10 hours later, almost to the minute. Leia was a great traveler -
 
she had her DVD player, iPod Nano, (decommissioned) cell phone,  headphones (those made grandma happy . . . ) 
  
books, toys, and blanket to keep her happy. How in the world did kids - and their adult companions - survive long-distance travel before electronics?? It's a very different world these days.  

Hot Balloons, Day 2

We were up at 4 and at the balloon field by 4:40 a.m. 


We watched the Glow - where the balloons light up while tethered to the ground -


then Dawn Patrol - the pilots have a special license from the FAA to fly in the dark -


and Leia was ready to go home and back to bed by 6:30.


We persuaded her to stick around for another 2 hours - mainly because we had the car keys and she had no choice -


then we all went back to our room and took a loooong nap.


Tomorrow we head for home. It's been a great trip, but I'm ready to be back in my own bed.

Hot Balloons

We left Wednesday for the 9 hour drive - which we broke into 2 days - to Reno for the hot air balloon race, which started today. Every half hour or so on the drive, Leia would ask if it was time for 'hot balloons'. 

We finally got to tell her 'yes' this morning at 5 a.m., when we woke her to leave for the 6:45 big event. She's going to be really pleased when we get her up tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. for Dawn Patrol. 
I was afraid Leia would be scared by the size of the balloons and the noise of the fans and burners, but I was wrong. She was fascinated. 


She especially loved the big, special shapes balloons; the panda and the ladybug were her favorites. 



Blogger on the Ipad is giving me grief, plus we have to be up in just a few hours, so I'll just show you the rest of our morning. Suffice it to say, we had a lot of fun.

Busy Girls

It's almost 2 a.m. and I need to get up in the morning (ughhh!) but I wanted to post some photos of the little girls. 

The latest dress was a big hit with Addison - doesn't it look great on her?  (Her mom gets bonus points for using the quilt I made as a backdrop.)
 
During our last phone chat, Addy made two specific requests - a t-shirt dress with monkeys on the skirt and monkey pajamas. Anyone surprised that both projects are in the works?

Leia started ballet and gymnastics today, (she's carried that pink bag on her arm since I bought it for her on Saturday)
 
and she'll be doing hip-hop on Saturdays. 
 She was a bit hesitant on the balance beam - can't say as I blame her - but she loved the trampoline and over-under obstacle course.
She's going to be one busy - and tired - little girl this Fall.

Leanne and Leia were being silly buddies today.
Nothing like little girl smiles to make the day positively perfect in every way.  

Bad Case of Finishitis

I've got a bad case of finish-itis, and that's a good thing. I've had several quilt projects mostly done for awhile, just waiting for me to find the time and energy to do the last little bits boring part add borders and cut/sew the backing. So thanks to slightly cooler weather and an afternoon without grandkids, as soon as the post office opens on Tuesday, two quilts will be on their way to my favorite long-arm artist.
 Lily Kitty, supervising from the 'nest' I made to keep her off my work-in-progress.

The front of Marie's birthday quilt (lets not mention that her bday was June 13 . . .), with new borders added,
 

and the back, which I love, seamed and ready to go.  Marie wanted beachy colors; I think this fits the bill perfectly.

  

My lipstick quilt. I bought the top, already made, from my LQS. Love these colors. It's not my usual thing, but once I saw it I had to have it. I suppose it could be a valentine quilt, but it just makes me think of a colorful Revlon display.

  

And the back? Had to be black and white; when I found Eiffel Tower fabric, it was a done deal.

  
I also worked on this baby gift, getting it ready for me to quilt tomorrow. I bought the top from my LQS (see a theme here??) 
and the backing fabric was a gift from a friend that's been waiting almost a year for just the right project. 
The recipient was born at the end of June, so I really, really need to get this done and in the mail. Crossing my fingers I get this finished quickly, so I can get back to making little girl dresses. And maybe branch out into nightgowns, as requested by Addy.