Birthday Week

Addy’s birthday is Tuesday but this whole week is a grand bday celebration.

Saturday we checked out two local craft fairs. The hit of the day was Leia’s Barbie sunglasses. She’s so stylin’. 

Today we hung out with The Rock.

Leia and I made custom-scented candles 

before joining Rachel and Addy at the paint tables. 

Rachel knew what she was doing,  

and Addy had a good grasp of color theory,

but Leia and I

just followed the written directions

and hoped for the best. 

First attempt

Rachel wasn’t crazy about her first attempt 

Finished tree

so she went rogue and redid it her own way.

Not bad for our first try, eh?

So much fun. 

Silly faces

Travel Day

 Look who’s bright and cheerful, 

even though we woke her up at 0415 - 

aaaaaand who passed out almost as soon as our plane was in the air.

So happy Leia gets to spend the week with us in CO for Addy’s birthday. 

New At The Zoo

Since there was no school today, we packed up the baby grands and headed for Santa Barbara. 

There were lots of new things at the zoo - a week old baby giraffe (not on exhibit yet);

a Ranger Station with lots of touchables - the skulls were a big hit with Donovan and Jac;

a new tank for the axelotyl, one of Jac’s favorite creatures (Donovan said the meerkats were his favorite today);

and a red panda in a really nice waterfall-adjacent habitat.

The Australian exhibit puts the kids almost within touching distance of wallabies and kangaroos.

They were also within touching distance of the snow leopard (if you don’t count the window wall between them).

Leo’s favorite thing was the climbing wall, which was doing a brisk business.

Leo: I made it all the way to the top!

Me: So how was it?

Leo: Absolutely terrifying.

Gift Quilts, Round 2

The second round of gifts for Jama’s grandkids includes this pinwheel dragon for Abby, 13, who requested blues in her quilt. 

I think that dragon panel is fantastic (hope she does too). 

The backing is blue 70s-style flowers 

with dragons for the quilting. 

Abby’s getting a new sister in January, and she needs a quilt too, right? 

The center panel was from Jama’s stash and I added the matching border and Tula Pink ladybug blocks from my stash. 

The backing is one of my favorite kid prints - so bright and fun - with little cottontail bunnies for the quilting. 

For Abby’s mom, I decided on this coneflower quilt, 

with quilted hummingbirds. 

One quilt to go, for daughter Lacey. It’s being quilted now, so this project is almost done. 

Teach One

 Pop spent the day with his new mixer (tiny but mighty!)

while teaching Leo the finer points of working with cement. 

Their reaction? “My feet hurt.” 😂 (Leo hung in to the end and was a big help.)

Making progress on the bathroom remodel!

Gift Quilts, Round 1

Back in August I offered to make quilts for my late sister Jama’s grandkids, incorporating her stash of fabrics, as a remembrance of her. 

He likes it!

I thought it would take until December to get all 7 quilts done (her daughters needed quilts too, right??j but thanks to the super fast work of my long-arm quilting pal, the first 6 went out this week.  

This is 6-year-old Spencer’s quilt, with the dogs and rainbow colors he requested,

quilted with dog bones. 

The dragon backing was from his grandma’s stash. (I may have given it to her since I have the same in my stash…)

Marshall, 12, got a colorful galaxy

with a variety of dragons on the back

and dragon quilting ordered especially for this project. 

The boys’ mom, Mandy, loves the outdoors and goes foraging for mushrooms, so this fabric seemed perfect for her …

Bird quilting

especially since it matched the colors for her favorite team on the back. 

Next up, Round 2 …

Done!

Done! This is the same idea as the green Starburst (here) but it took me an extra day to finish since there are more pieces and the layout is more complicated.

Not bad for a 2-day quilt! This one is going to be hard to give away. . . 

I can’t get a good pic of the colors. They’re much more vibrant in real life.

One To Go

The gift quilts are shipped - due to arrive Saturday - so today I started on the last quilt I need to make before I begin Christmas quilting. 

This is one of my all time favorite fabrics, that I’ve hoarded for years, waiting for the perfect project. 

Beautiful fall colors, with a luscious teal blue - so perfect.

With the girls home sick, and Donovan on vacation, I got to spend the entire day playing with fabric. 

All 96 pieces are pressed, cut and trimmed, ready for layout tomorrow. Sure hope this works how I think it will…