It’s Been A Week

Part 1: Timing is everything: 

Tuesday we noticed the water overflow valve was leaking on our 15 year old water heater. Figured it was a warning sign, so called the plumber, who came out today. He tried to attach a hose to the old heater and the valve literally fell off in his hand. He got soaked but he prevented the garage from flooding. And we were without water for a few **hours** rather than days. Whoohoo!

Part 2: went to the doctor last week for my annual sinus infection (lucky me). She prescribed the same antibiotic I used last year with no problems. Aaannnnd I’ve apparently developed an allergy to it - in addition to being allergic to penicillin and doxycycline. 

After a week of nausea and a fun (not!) trip to the emergency room Monday night, we’ve added Bactrim to my list of medical no-no’s. It was pretty scary having a giant “bruise” suddenly appear on my arm, caused by the antibiotic breaking down my blood vessels. And wondering what it was doing internally where it couldn’t be readily seen. But after 3 days with no additional symptoms, I’m crossing my fingers I’m in the clear. Although the warning insert said problems could appear up to 2 months later . . . 

Ending on a happier note - 

tiny sleepy girl loves her Papa

and her guitar.

In Progress

Lots of quilting projects in the works. Some are super secret . . .

like the one Leia is working on for her baby-brother-to-be. She’s excited for the big reveal at Saturday’s baby shower. (So am I!)

Tonight my supervisor and I made the signature blocks for Mary’s baby shower - I love her choice of Grunge instead of white or cream;

started the binding on the shoo fly quilt - 

I may have made a mistake when I decided to finish this by hand rather than on the machine. It’s huge! -

 Love my height-adjustable table!!

and cut the fabric for my first English paper piecing (EPP) project. 

Yep, I got bit hard by that particular bug.

 EPP is my new portable, take-everywhere project since I had to give up crochet. 

Between the glue basting and the hand-stitching, this should keep me occupied for awhile.  

Junkin’

Look what we found at the Great Junk Hunt tonight in Ventura.

The little girls are going to love using this when we’re cooking or crafting, and I love its bright cheerful color. 

We found the step-stool in one of the first booths we visited - and had to carry it through the rest of the packed show - and found this mirror in one of the last. 

 “Les Preuses” translates to “The Guests”

It fits perfectly on the wall by our fireplace, just like I hoped guessed knew it would. 

Family

I love this picture Shelly took during Sunday’s birthday party.

Jac looks so tiny but she’s definitely the boss of this group.

Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to sweet Leanne, who turned 7 on Sunday.

She spent Friday 

and Saturday 

at Disneyland with mom and dad, 

then finished off her weekend 

with a party 

in the (cold and windy) park.

Good times.

Zoo-Be-Doo

Leia and I needed fabric for a secret project, and I wanted her to have a large selection to choose from - and this store is just dang cool - so Saturday we headed to Carpinteria and Roxanne’s. Leia went in thinking dinosaurs and came out with a whole new (fantastic) plan. Stay tuned . . . 

 Success!

Since we were so close, we continued on to the Santa Barbara Zoo for a little face-painting . . .

giraffe viewing . . .

condor courting . . .

and sister-cousin time.

It was a lot of walking for little legs 

and I thought Jac would be sound asleep as soon as we put her in the car.

Nope. Leia passed out first, falling asleep almost before we were out of the parking lot. Vampires are so cute when they’re asleep. 

Happy, Happy, Happy

Got this back tonight from the long-arm quilter.

It’s amazing what quality quilting can do.

I liked this ok when I sent it off but didn’t think it was anything really special.

Now I love it. It feels so calm and peaceful. The orange and purple backing doesn’t photograph well but it’s gorgeous. So happy this UFO is done.

Proposal

Youngest son is engaged!

He proposed to his girlfriend on Valentines Day and she said yes.

So happy to be getting another wonderful DIL.

Hurry April

Only two more months until we meet this little guy in person.

 Donovan Richard

Also? Ultrasounds are amazingly detailed these days.

Baby Baker

I’m always looking for new things to try with the grand-girls, so when this super easy - only 4 ingredients!! - artisan bread recipe showed up on FB we had to try it. 

Leanne and I mixed the dough last night, then let it rise overnight. 

This morning Leanne shaped the dough, 

then Jackie helped form it into a ball

and pat it into shape. 

Does anything smell better than bread baking??

This tasted every bit as good as it smelled. I’m already thinking about variations . . . more salt (sea salt??) . . . or Italian spices . . . or some cheese . . .  We’ll definitely be making this again. 

Cabo San Lucas

We had signed up for a whale-watching excursion in Cabo but it was not to be.

The view from our balcony as we pulled into port was grey, overcast and windy.

And it didn’t get better. 

By 10 am, gale force winds forced the suspension of the ship-to-shore tenders - our only means of getting ashore - and our afternoon whale tour was cancelled. 

At noon, we had sunny skies and the ability to go ashore . . .

and at noon-thirty, the clouds, winds and cancelled tenders were back. And so it went all afternoon.

We decided to play it safe and stayed on board; we’d rather not be stuck in Cabo if the tenders were forced to stop running altogether. And we could console ourselves with an extra pastry at tea time . . .

The upside to cloudy skies was the beautiful sunset 

we watched from the aft deck 

 It was still verrrrrrry windy.

as Queen Elizabeth loaded the last of the tenders back on board 

and we headed back out to sea.

See you in two days, San Francisco!