Recycled Fun

I saved the tie dye bottles we emptied earlier this week, 

figuring Jac and Donovan might like to use them to play in the bathtub. 

Neither one likes to get wet - 

no sprinklers, hoses, water guns or pools for them - 

so when I offered to let them play outside with a bucket of water,

I really thought it wouldn’t last long.

Three hours later, 

I had to talk them into stopping and going back inside. 

They had so much fun, especially after they ganged up on Leanne, 

who loves swimming and sprinklers,

and even little kids with squirt bottles. 

The funniest thing was watching Jac and Donovan stand on opposite sides of the grass, yards apart, and squirt water at each other, yelling “don’t hit me!” as the liquid went a total of about 6”.

And the look on Jac’s face when she complained of being hot and I said, “then take your pants off” was priceless.

“Wait, we can do that??” 😂

Between the sun and the fun, these two are going to sleep well tonight. 

Success!

Jac could hardly contain her excitement on the way home from school, 

 Leanne’s new shirts

but I wasn’t sure if it was Cutting! Rubber! Bands! 

 My recycled shirts 

or seeing her creations that was most thrilling. (It was the scissors 😂)

 Shirts for Marie - Leanne’s design on the left, Jac’s on the right

When it came time for photos, Jac flat refused to cooperate . . . 

 Jac’s artwork

until I found today’s bribe of choice 

and agreed to style her hair the way she wanted. 

One side pony, one side down. It looks like we stopped halfway through but, oh well, Jac was happy. 🙄

 Jac climbing up on the chair: “Pretend I’m on a mountaintop, looking out for animals.”

Leanne was a bit disappointed in her shibori triangles (on the left in first pic) but we decided she just needs more dye next time. And yes, there will be a next time. We still have so many ideas we want to try!

Dye Day

What’s a summer without tie dye?

I was a little smarter this year and had Leanne search how-to vids before we started. 

By the time we were ready to apply dye, she was brimming with ideas she wanted to try - 

including this one for Shibori triangles that I can’t wait to see.

Jac let me band up her first project

but after that she just wanted to squirt dye 

and watch the colors blend. 

We always joke that tie dye is good, “clean” fun

but none of us like wearing the plastic gloves

so our hands are almost as colorful as the shirts. 

The projects are marinating overnight

 Jac named this one “ALL THE COLORS!”

and tomorrow, once the girls are home from summer school, 

 Leanne named this “blood splatter.” 😂

we’ll cut the rubber bands, 

 New life for old t-shirts

launder everything and have the Grand Reveal. Stay tuned . . .

Annie Oakley

These two spent the night Friday, 

their first sleepover together at granma’s - 

can you tell they were a tad bit hyper? -

so Matt could take Leia to the rifle range early Saturday morning. Apparently she’s got some talent. Says Matt, “This kid is a crack shot. The range master was impressed with her so he set her up on some distance shots, she hit targets at 270 and 320 yards with a .22 on iron sights. Amazing.” Our own Annie Oakley (Leia probably has no idea who that is . . . )

And Leanne?

Haircut day - love this new style on her!

Reading and Mudding and Bubbles In Socks

Summer school started today for Jac and Leanne, 

so mornings are peacefully quiet 

and afternoons are busy, busy fun. 

 Mudding. Pop was sooooo happy when he came home and saw this. 😂

Jac fell behind in reading, thanks to the pandemic closing her pre-school,

 Watering the lizards

so she’s signed up for twice weekly tutoring (phonics! yay!!) and her summer school is also focused on reading (sight words).

 Which of these is not like the others??

Leanne was invited to do a writing workshop for her age group at CSU Channel Islands.

I think she thinks it’s a punishment - writing is not her favorite thing -

 It’s ‘go outside in socks’ day!

but she’s got a great imagination and is a good verbal storyteller. Hopefully, this will give her skills a boost and she’ll enjoy writing more. Fingers crossed.  

Willow Leaves

Happy 4th, y’all!

It was a peaceful, relaxing day, filled with reading, movies and just enough sewing to finish one final weekend project.

Willow leaves, Botanical Beauties block #7, lulled me with those nice, big pieces into thinking it would be a fast, simple sew. Nope. There’s a reason it’s halfway along the learning curve. But I now know how to deal with sharper angles, plus I got more practice with my fav seam ripper. 😜  I’m pleased with how it turned out. Also happy I’m still able to learn new stuff. #olddog

Only 5 more blocks to go . . .

July Sunflower

July’s BOM is done! Hooray!

I bought the pattern back in February when Kristy Lea of Quiet Play offered it as a fundraiser for Ukrainian war relief. Pretty amazing that it raised over $7800 USD in just 36 hours!

I thought about making the center section purple - since I still had out all 13 purples from June’s project - but decided I’d rather go traditional than fantasy. 

I also pulled out the white-on-white dragonflies I’ve been saving for something ‘special.’ 

Haven’t decided if I’m going to continue with a flower theme each month -

I’d like to work this mariner’s compass and maybe some stars into the lineup too. So many great patterns, so little time.