Cloth Napkins

In an effort to use less disposable product in the house I recently decided we should use some cloth napkins. There are many tutorials to make them and they are pretty simple. First Katie and I went to the fabric store and I let Katie pick some fabric.

Its bright and colorful, just like Katie. Next I cut the fabric into 12 inch squares.

Finally I sewed a seam around the edges.

Just like that we have a cloth napkin. I intend to make any more since I imagine we will go through them quickly.

Garden Update

Last week sweet potato plants were added to the garden, all but one squash did not make it so there was some extra space to plant them.

Katie likes to check the tomatoes, always looking to see if they have changed color yet.

The tomatoes are getting bigger almost every day it seems.

This yellow pear tomato has already reached the top of the cage and the tomatoes are almost ready. 

The corn is also getting bigger.

Here are the peppers and eggplant.

Katie is showing us one of the eggplant.

The cantaloupe and watermelon are spreading and have small melons.

Katie is checking on the one squash plant and the baby squash.

The broccoli and peas are pretty much done and we will soon start planting more of the fall crop seeds.

Sent With Love Quilt

This past week I have been off work! Well actually I left my job with the County, my last day was a week ago. I have accepted a job at a Santa Clarita Library and have been working for about a month getting things ready for their opening from my home. So this last week I have been spending a few hours a day working from home, I start traveling to my new job Monday. So what all this means is that I have had time sew this week...during the day! I have of course been able to rest and relax too, its been nice to spend the days with Katie again.

This is a picture I have posted before. I started this quilt over a year ago but packed it up when I moved. I was determined to finish it and have been working on it between other projects. This is supposed to be for my bed but I think it came out a little bigger than I planned.

I selected the fabric for the red colors but it is way more hearts/pink that I would like, the fabric is Moda's Sent With Love. Here you can see a little over half of the top from when I was sewing the rows together.

The quilt is 90"x98". For the back I used tow rows I had left over and did a row of red fabric, a strip of squares, a pink/red print for the fabric line, a strip of squares and then pink, it is even larger than the quilt so I was not able to take pictures of it. I am sending the top, backing and batting to the longarm quilter I use, when it comes back I will do the binding. Here they are ready to be boxed.

I will post an update of how it comes out and my progress when it comes back.

Katie at the Zoo

Not to long ago Katie and I were invited to a birthday party/zoo trip for the son of a friend who I went to high school with. It was Trystan's third birthday. The day started out with a party next to the Zoo at Griffith Park. I had never been there and there is a lot of construction right now, it was in interesting adventure. Once we were there it was fun.

Afterwards we went to the zoo. One of the first things we went to was the waterfall.

And of course the flamingos are there on your way in. They were fighting and caused quite a stir.

Katie got to see the giraffes pretty close.

Before we went Katie has said she wanted to see monkeys and a moose. Well there is no moose at the LA Zoo but she did see gorillas and a chimpanzee. The hippopotamus was Katie's favorite this time, he was very active and kept opening his mouth which is apparently very funny. Katie also consulted the map to see where we should go next.

The new elephant enclosure was very nice. As we were leaving we stopped and sat for a few minutes when along came an elephant. Katie got very excited and kept calling the elephant to her. A volunteer told us his name was Billy, so then Katie kept calling "Billy come here", Billy did not listen to Katie because he was eating at the time.

Outside there were several painted elephants, we had to go through them and say all their colors.

The zoo is an enjoyable time. 

Pool Time

Since summer is coming and it usually gets hot here in the desert I wanted to get Katie a little bit bigger pool than she had last year. On a recent trip to the store I picked up what I hoped would be a good sized pool and two tarps. This last Sunday Uncle came over to help set it up. 

First he staked a tarp to the ground. If I had grass this would not have been needed but the grass did not come back this year, I think last years lack of water while it was on the market did it in. Next year will be better. After the tarp was down we pumped the pool up with a hand pump, (note to self- we need an electric pump in the future), then came the water. It took some time for the water to fill.

When Katie woke from her nap she was more than willing to put on her swimming suit and be slathered with sunscreen, well maybe not on the sunscreen part. Then she wanted someone to go into the pool with her and Mommy volunteered, Olive jumped on the side and considered it.

Soon Katie was having fun walking around and splashing.

For awhile she sat on the side and bounced, she was also somehow able to lay on the side and take "naps".

Katie did not want her baby to miss out and soon she was in the pool too. Baby could of course could jump in the pool and did repeatedly.

She even jumped off the side.

I think the pool will be where Katie is found this summer. The next morning one of the first things Katie did was run to look out the door to see if her pool was still there, it was. 

As for the second tarp, it is the pool cover. My brother added more stakes and the tarp is tied down to keep bugs and anything else blowing around out of the pool.

Photos by Katie

Katie loves taking pictures. She takes my point and shoot camera and will walk around taking pictures of everything but she especially likes taking pictures of people. People seem surprised that she know how to do it but she will watch the screen then hold the button. It is interesting to see things from her perspective, I thought I would share a few of them.

This is one from inside the house looking at the roses in the front yard.

That day she was also taking pictures of her toys. This Frankenstein sings "Monster Mash", he used to dance but I think she pushed the button too much.

Recently she has also been trying to get closer pictures of thing. We are not quite to the point of using the zoom, so she just hold the camera really close. This is her baby lion.

As anyone who tries to take a picture of themselves knows its hard to aim when you cant see the screen on the back. She will say "cheese" and click away.

When her Grandparents were visiting from Northern California she took their picture.

More roses.

A look at the window.

A lot of her pictures are blurry and random but I like that is wants to take them and I save them all. Who know, someday they may be considered her early works.

Garden

Part of the garden are are growing well, others not so much. The squash have been decimated by some mysterious bugs that we have not been able to find yet. Luckily what is not growing at my house is growing at my parents, so I am hoping it will all even out. 

The corn and watermelon are all coming up.

Here are the beans and broccoli.

These lines are a wide variety of peppers, Katie is checking on them.

Behind Katie are the tomatoes, the cages are now staked down around them.

There are now small tomatoes getting ready to get ripe. Katie has to be reminded that they need to change color before we can pick them.

The broccoli are just about ready.

And so are the peas.