Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to our sweet Leanne, who turned 9 today.

Her official party is Saturday 

 “Where are MY presents?!”

but we celebrated today with dinner at her favorite restaurant.

 “I like French fries!”

Leanne also got to order her first pair of glasses -  she has astigmatism and is farsighted - and is very annoyed she has to wait 2 weeks to get her pink and purple sparkly specs;

had her hair cut and lightened, and tried out the new playground at the outlet malls. 

And she has this entire week off from school for Presidents Week Leanne Birthday Week. Pretty nice way to celebrate!

Demo Day

This is hubby’s favorite day on any project - 

Demolition!

Aka “get a bigger hammer day“

No unpleasant surprises, so far. 

Crossing fingers that remains the case when the tub comes out tomorrow.

Busy, Busy Roundup

Leia received an award for earning a 4.0 GPA last semester. Whoohoo! So proud of her.

Leanne - who turns 9!! on Tuesday- is out of school next week for “Presidents Week”. That’s a new one on me.

I see baking (and eating) in our immediate future.

Donovan’s mom changed jobs so we will have him with us more often. Yay! He’s my favorite little goofball, always making me laugh. And he gives great hugs too. 

Hubby started demolition on the guest bath, the only room in our house he hasn’t remodeled.

It’ll be great when he’s done . . . 

 Ready to start the background

And finally, I took a collage quilt workshop today. So fun and so addictive. 

There are 3 designs in the pattern -  octopus, sea turtle and mermaid. I’d only intended to do the octopus but I *might* have bought the fabric kit for the mermaid during class . . . Oopsie. 

Homework, With Extra Tula

I love Laura Heine’s collage quilts but they look so complicated.

 Teen Tiny octopus - 16x20” finished

All I’ve ever done is buy a pattern or two and put them away for “some day”.

 All 3 designs are in the $25 pattern 

So you can probably guess how fast I signed up when a local quilt guild offered a workshop - and kits. Hooray for not having to guess what fabrics are appropriate when I have no clue what I’m doing.

Since it’s a one-day only class, there was homework - ironing the pre-cut fabric onto the sticky backing.

Done!

I had extra sticky stuff, so I added some Tula Pink scraps from my Tula Nova quilt (which is done except for the binding! So exciting!). Perfect match in color and subject. This is going to be fun. 

Date Day

Hubby had the bright idea to celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early. 

We made a last minute reservation at a favorite hotel in San Simeon,

packed up a bag and headed north. 

Lunch stop was the Beachside Cafe in Goleta 

- great food, beautiful location -

and a walk on the pier

to admire the birds

and bees seaweed

before getting back underway. 

A couple of hours later, 

we were settled in beachside

with our rocking chairs, fireplace and cozy room,

ready to admire the sunset.

Happy early Valentine’s Day, y’all.

Volcanic Slime

The first words out of Jac’s mouth when she woke up Friday morning were, “I want to bake a cake!”

And so we did. Sort of. 

 Jac, in her dinosaur “cape”

Cake-making required a trip to the store, and I figured Jac wouldn’t know the difference, so we made brownies instead. Yumm.

I should say “I” made brownies. 

Jac mixed eggs, flour, sugar, salt, pepper and green food coloring to make. . . something? She wanted more, so I handed her the baking soda - and in a moment of genius - some vinegar.

It was awesome! The more she stirred, the higher the bubbles rose. When she stopped stirring, it settled, but she’d start stirring and it would rise again. We Jac played with this for at least 45 minutes. 

My brownies were delicious but volcano slime was epic. We’ll definitely be doing this again. 

Progress!

January’s temperature quilt blocks.

The first and last tan blocks are month markers that I’ll embroider on later. 

Here’s the back with the papers still in place. I write the date on each block so I can double-triple-check before sewing them in place. 

The blocks and rows are fun to make but sewing the rows together? That takes forEVER. Going to have to force myself to keep up on it each month or this could easily become a UFO. 

Spring Fever

Spring fever hit early this year. Normally it’s at least March before I get the urge to kill plant new green things.

The early start is due to the landscape nursery where Marie works giving plant seeds to the little girls. That sent Jackie and I on a Home Depot shopping spree for pots and soil. 

 Green=Jac, blue is Leia and Leanne has red

After the girls were done, I repotted most of my indoor plants,

combining these three from their smaller pots,

refreshing the soil for my three Christmas cacti (seriously, who needs three of these??)

and moving my lucky bamboo from gravel to soil (fingers crossed it survives).

Next up is repotting the three orchids I’ve managed to keep alive for over a year (it’s a miracle!) Pretty sure their health is due more to the steamy bathroom where they live than anything I’ve done. 

Chair Thief

Donovan wasn’t content with his own chair -

The little stinker stole my favorite rocker!

He was so proud of himself for sneaking into my chair;

he’s barely tall enough to climb up by himself, 

especially after he piled it high with pillows. So much fun putting one over on grandma.