I heart California

I know you can't tell it from this picture* but I LOVE California. I love everything about it. I love the weather. I love the crazy people. I love my insane family. (OK. I don't love the cost of living there, but you can't have it all.)

We went out for my baby brother Will's high school graduation. It's hard to believe he's old enough to be graduating. I just held that tiny baby in my arms at the hospital and marveled at how beautiful he was. And he's turned out to be a pretty handsome man, don't you think?

We got there the day before graduation and spent a mostly relaxing week hanging out. My mom & her fiance Dan just remodeled their house so we were finally able to see the fruits of all of their hard labor. We had the best fish tacos I've ever had in my life. Wish I could import those back here. And sadly, I was very excited to go to a real mall and shop. Charleston has no decent malls and very few of the big chain stores.

The last day we were there we went to this amazing beach - Bates Beach - just north of Ventura in Carpinteria. Gorgeous, rocky, cliff-y beach. Loved it. Didn't love cleaning the tar off of my feet so much when we got home but it was well worth it. The beach is covered in these great round rocks. Will started a rock skipping competition between us but I think it was only because he knew he'd win. . .

More crafty things soon. I'm halfway through another baby blanket and I've gotten my wedding quilt back from the quilter. Just have to hand stitch the binding on and I'll be posting pics of that. And next week, addressing of the invitations begins. . .

xoxoxoxo

* This picture is for one of my earliest besties, Celene. We loved taking pictures in those crazy old photo booths and came up with the serious, no smiles shots that we called "prison face". Scott doesn't normally get into the act but this time he decided to play along. LOVE YOU CELENIE WEENIE! HAPPY DAY AFTER YOUR BIRTHDAY!!

Not quite a finished project yet

But so close. . . The top of the wedding quilt. Finished yesterday. This morning I woke up doing math in my head trying to figure out what to do with the back.

I'm pretty sure I love this quilt. There are bits of all the fabric Scott gave me for my birthday last year and some I bought to add in a bit more colour. It's just so. . . bright. This shouldn't be a surprise. I picked the fabric. And I put it all together. It's just so. . . bright. Which our bedroom needs desperately. Anyway, the original idea for this quilt was that we were going to hang it up somewhere at the wedding and use it as a backdrop for our pictures. But it's enormous. Held up like that it's so much bigger than I was thinking. I think this may be my wedding cold feet moment. Thoughts??

xoxoxoxox

Finished project #8

At the beginning of the year when I started numbering my finished projects, I thought I'd be much further down the road at this point. Oh well. The blanket for my soon-to-be niece is complete and all of those ends are sewn in. It's a sweet little blanket that's a quick knit - only a few weeks of TV watching. And I'm about to embark on another one, identical in pattern but different colours and with yarn made entirely from corn. I'd do something different but I don't think my completely addled brain can handle focusing on a new pattern just now. . .

I'm still working on the wedding quilt. Pictures will follow soon. Many bumps in the road but I'm still loving it. Lots. But I need to have it done and ready to go to the quilter before we go on vacation in two weeks. Yikes.

xoxoxox