Birthday Girl

Look who turned 13 on Friday the 13th!

And got her favorite pazookie for dessert. Happy birthday, Leia!

Pool Progress

The pool project is at the stage where there’s a lot going on, 

tons of progress being made, 

but you really can’t tell by looking at it. 

The block retaining wall around the base of the pool is done; 

balance beams are cemented in place (not what they’re called but points for Olympics reference, right??);

and the beginnings of the wood walkway

and the steps up to the pool are in place. 

Today’s milestone was delivery of the decorative “stone” facing for the pool end closest to my craft room.

Looks good, doesn’t it?? (It’s foam) (Amazon really does carry everything).

Introducing Luna

The lease is almost up on our SUV, so this weekend we began the “new car dance”, 

the one that starts when you visit a dealership (BMW) in response to their offer to pay your last month’s lease payment if you lease another car, only to have the floor manager say ‘nah, we won’t really do that’.

So you go to another dealership (Audi), but the front seats are too uncomfortable and you go home to rethink your options.

Monday rolls around and you decide to give it another shot, packing up the baby grands (and the iPads!) and heading off to Lexus. 

The 4-days-til-she’s-a-teenager napping on my shoulder 

Bingo! They had the model, color and trim package I wanted,

 Signing the final papers

didn’t play games with the price or financing - the price I’d looked up on the internet was exactly what they offered - and sweetened the deal with a rebate we weren’t aware of (yeah, Costco!)

The only downside was the 4 hours it took to get everything done but the sales guy went to the store and got the girls a bag of candy, chips and apple juice to head off the crankies help pass the time. Never had that happen before and it’s another reason we’re now big fans of Lexus of Thousand Oaks.

Leia and Jac put their heads together and decided, 1) the car was a girl; and 2) her name is Luna. (My suggestions, Berta and Big Blue, were summarily dismissed.)

Luna is a little bigger than I wanted but the next size down was definitely too small. The girls are thrilled with the extra room and we’re all loving that new car smell. 

Now I just need to figure out all the electronic gadgets . . .

Aliens

This project wasn’t even on my radar (ha! space joke!)

until a local quilt shop posted this customer quilt using Area 51 fabric from Robert Kaufman.

Hubby has long been a UFO fanatic diehard enthusiast, so this jumped straight to the top of my “must make” list.

I’m using the “City Cycles” pattern that was in my stash - the two-tone gray background is very cool, not something I’ve seen before - 

 Galactic winds 

and after hubby nixed the very bright ‘alien green’ I’d planned to use, I subbed in this blue fabric I bought awhile back on a whim. At the time, it reminded me of peacock feathers. But now it is definitely space winds blowing little green creatures through the galaxy. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Retirement Goals

The last of the National Parks quilts is done

and this one is mine ours!

It’s kinda ridiculous how much I love this panel. It makes me happy and hopeful, remembering past trips, planning future vacations, setting a retirement goal to eventually visit every park.

  Debbie’s lovely polka dot version

Mine is the last of five quilts that Debbie and I made together,  

Karen’s quilt, with Tula’s Fairy Dust as backing

one for each member of our long-time crochet group 

  Sea colors for Laura and her new grandson

and the fifth for Addy and Rachel and their annual girls’ trip. 

Rachel’s quilt

I love how different they all look, depending on the border and binding colors. And how special they will become once we start adding embellishments to each park’s block as we visit. Fun times and family history in the making. 

Sew-ering Things

Jac: Grandma, do you have any sew-ering things?

Me: Why, yes, yes I do. 

I think this is Jac’s first time sewing. She knew exactly what she wanted to do once she saw the ladybug fabric.

Crossing my fingers she got the crafty gene and I’ll have a sewing buddy. 

My favorite line in the video -  “Don’t say wow ‘cause this is going to be aMAYzing.” 🤩

Temp Quilt

Spent the day catching up on my 2021 temperature quilt.

This is the first 6-months, plus 8 days of July. Love how it’s transitioning from greens and blues (cold temps) to purples, pinks and a bit of orange. Our hottest months are usually September and October, so I see lots more orange and bright yellow ahead. 

Not looking forward to fixing the June month marker I somehow messed up (the cream blob in the lower corner.) I thought about calling it a “design element” and leaving it . . . but it bugs me. Guess we’re headed to the frog pond for some quality rippit time. At least it’s close to an edge??? Trying to look on the bright side . . .

Blanket Fort 2.0

We used to build room-sized blanket forts for Leia and Leanne all the time but somehow we got out of the habit with Jac and Donovan. 

Today they were huddled, playing happily, in a fort they made over the arm of the couch. 

But the look on their faces when I brought out the folding tables and sheets and pillows!

So much excitement. 

If you look close, you can see Donovan’s favorite lion and tiger in the play house. 

Well worth the (slight) extra clean up time. 

Nap Time

Nap time for the besties. 

And grandma. 

Fence, Toes and Tomatoes

It rained again!

Only in California would we be celebrating those tiny dots as “rain”. But we’re happy to get every little bit of moisture we can. 

The pool fence is progressing - one . . 

two . . .

and beyond (decking materials).

We have (almost) tomatoes!

I need to figure out how to pollinate these since Jac and I decided having bees inside would not be a good thing. Jac: “we could let them in but then they’d want to make a home and that would be bad.” 

Leia’s daddy took her shooting this past weekend and turns out she’s a very good shot. 

Also, look how tall she is! Turning 13 in a couple of weeks. How is that possible??

Who Wore It Better?

Jac is finally big enough 

to wear the cute dress Leanne made as a Fair entry in 2019.

I should say “award winning dress” 

since Leanne won a blue ribbon/1st place for her efforts. 

And then promptly outgrew her masterpiece. So happy it will get some use now with Jac.