Real, Live Crochet

I actually finished a crochet project - whoohoo! Seems like I have a bunch of stuff in the works, but not much is getting to the finish line. Gotta fix that. . . 
 
I sewed the button on this hat today and put it in the mail to Addison, just in time for St. Patrick's day. Addy's all about the bling right now, so I'm hoping she'll really like the sparkly button I found at Joann's. 
 
This was a free pattern (links to pdf file) and an easy project. Good thing, since I have two more to make in the next five days or so.

I fell hard for these guys - 
 
the Santa Barbara Zoo's 'Little Mac' Beanie Baby. And to make them extra-special for the little girls, I added collars with each girl's name* spelled out in yet more bling.
 
Gotta love the dollar aisle at Joann's!    

*Leanne took her baby home before I decided to make the collars. And the boys - Marshall and Travis - couldn't care less about bling. Marshall and Abby are my sister Jama's grandbabies.

April Showers

I'm hoping that, since the rains are a month early, the flowers will be too. The bed of iris I planted in October was filling with crap weeds impossible-to-get-rid-of ground cover,
 
so I did a little weeding and a little watering in advance of the storm we're supposed to get tomorrow. (not holding my breath . . .)
 
The new iris (irises? iris-i?) are looking a lot happier now that they have a bit of breathing room.

 

And the old iris?

 
The ones that keep coming back year after year, 
 
despite the lack of attention and benign neglect they receive?
  

Spec.tac.u.lar.

 
Love, love, love my iris.

And, in indoor news, the amaryllis that Leia and I planted a few weeks ago
 
has blossomed - 
 
or more accurately, exploded with flowers and color.
 
One day it had a medium-sized bud; the next we had gorgeous flowers that have lasted and lasted.
 
Leia is very pleased and is taking full credit for how well her flower is doing.

Mr. Otter

Leia is sick with the runny nose/fever that's going around and all she's wanted to do today is recline on the couch or bed, watch movies on the iPad and cuddly with her favorite stuffed baby.
 
I won this guy in the Guild raffle just over a week ago and brought it home for the little girls. Leia saw it, fell in love and hasn't let it out of her sight since (and definitely hasn't let Leanne touch it.)
  

I was calling it 'Mr. Otter' and Leia was ok with that . . . until she decided that her baby is a girl and that "Mister" means "boy".

  
So we changed the name to "Sister Otter", but that wasn't good enough. Then we tried "Tanya Otter". Better, but still not right.
 
The official, final name according to Leia? "Mister Otter Sister Tanya". Never abbreviated, never shortened. And never, ever out of reach.       
 

Day Tripping

On Saturday, hubby and I took a day for ourselves and headed north to some of our favorite antique shops. We normally would have made this a two day trip - Cayucos and Cambria are about 150 miles from here - but with one thing and another, we didn't want to be gone overnight, so we got an early start (hey, 8:30 is early for me!) and made it there and back in just over 11 hours.

And what do we have to show for our little jaunt? We didn't find anything super amazing ths time but hubby bought two Stanley wood planes to add to his collection and I came home with these -

a wood Tunisian hook that appears to be hand-carved; a cool screwdriver to use with my sewing machines; and best of all - a Bodie* elephant hook for Leia to hang her coat on. Little treasures we'll use and enjoy.

 

*Since our trip to the Denver Zoo last June, Leia says every elephant is "Bodie". She's thrilled with her new hook.

 

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Present From Leia

Look what Leia and Mary made for hubby and me.

Love it!
 
It's a bit hard to see, but Leia's name is at the top right; "I ~heart~ you" at the bottom; all the letters for "Grandma" and "PopPop" are in there too, all painted by Leia.
 
I asked the artist if I could take a picture of her with her masterpiece. Leia's response? "Umm, no."
 
A bit of bribery, a little cajoling, a smidge of fake-pouting and I had my pictures.
 
Don't you just love how seriously she takes her art?

New Toy

Look what followed me home today. 
 
I swear I was only going to look . . . maybe go back and buy next week after talking to a lady in my Sunday quilting class who wants a new machine too. Thought we might get a discount if we bought at the same time. 
 

Turns out, Brian at Art and Jenny's offered me a super deal today - waaaay too good to pass up, including throwing in extra feet, needles, bobbins and an acrylic extension table. How could I say no?

  

My new baby has 11+ inches of "harp" space - room to the right of the needle - a significant increase from what I have now, and bigger even than the 9.5" on the machine I thought I was going to buy. Harp space was my primary reason for getting another sewing machine;
 
the 120 built-in stitches - including monogram capabilities; speeds up to 860 stitches per minute; automatic thread cutter; knee lifter; Accufeed system; and much more are icing on the cake.

Now I need to figure out how all this works. Play time! 

Zoo 2

Today we headed for the L.A. Zoo, 
 
specifically so Leia could see a real-life one of these guys - 
 
One of her favorite stuffed toys is 'Spike', a small stuffed rhino I bought her almost a year ago. Our usual haunt, the Santa Barbara Zoo, is great but ... no rhinos. 
 
We checked out all the usual exhibits, 
 
from monkeys to gorillas to giraffes and koalas, and even petting a red-tailed boa (Leia petted it; Leanne wanted nothing to do with that thing.)
 
but the girls' two favorite things of the day, by far, were the kid-activated misting system
 
that soaked both of them while they ran around like crazy;
 
and Leia pushing Leanne in circles while Pop and I sat on a bench and laughed at their antics. 
 
Both girls were having a super cranky day, so we were at the zoo less than 2 hours, but thanks to strollers,

rain makers and bear sippy cups, we still have some good memories.
 
My favorite memory? 
 
Leanne falling fast asleep before we even got out of the zoo's parking lot. Blessed peace and quiet. 

Quilt in a Day - Almost

On Thursday, my buddies and I took a road trip north to Carpinteria and Santa Barbara in search of fabric and yarn, with a first stop at Roxanne's. Their recent newsletter featured a seahorse fabric that looked almost like stained glass, and I Had To Have It.
 
Needless to say, more than just that one fabric followed me home. I fell hard for the entire line, with mermaids, 
 
seahorses, jelly fish, coordinating fabric and more.
  
But I also came home with an idea and a plan! First, I cleaned off a big workspace, 
 
and made my supervisor a comfy spot* to hang out.
 
Silly cat has to be near me when I'm crafting (as long as the little girls aren't hanging around; then she's no where to be found.)

Then I started cutting out squares. 
 
Lots and lots of squares**. 
 
A lot of little seaming, a little pressing, 
 
and voila - one almost complete quilt top.
 
It still needs borders - that's what the lime green dots and the blue wave fabrics are for - but hey, not bad for less than 5 hours worth of work. It's colorful, cheerful, put-on-your-sunglasses bright and I love it. Hoping to attach the borders on Monday and get this off to a long-arm quilter within the week.
 
* I don't know which of us is funnier - Lily for wanting to be close to me no matter what I'm doing in the evenings, or me, for stuffing a plastic bag with some leftover batting so she'd have a nice comfy spot to snooze. Never say my cats are spoiled . . .

** Waaaaaay too many squares. I was well on my way to a queen-size bed cover. I scaled this one back to lap quilt territory and I still have enough squares to make a child-size quilt for one of the little girls. Or, if I add in a bit of the mermaid fabric, more than one of the little girls.