That'll Do Doggie, That'll Do

Remember how Kaylee the dog has taken over the cat bed?


It seems that the cat has found a sufficient replacement. When went over to Aunt Maggie's this is where she was, completely unbothered by the car we pulled up in!
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7 Joys

I borrowed a prompt from Two Adults given by JohnJennifer. Too good to pass up.


1.)Clean sheets and clean towels. Luke thinks I'm a nut. We're working through it.
2.)A phone call with good timing from the man who thinks I'm a nut.
What this means: a time thats good for both of us, and we're both smiling, you can hear it, usually around bedtime so we're winding down and enjoying each other's company.
Take tonight for example. I was babysitting and kind of bummed because we'd missed each other. He worked late, I was putting kids to bed, then he was in bed so he could get to work at the crack of dawn. I had even had the thought, "Poop, we keep missing each other, it's been a while since we've had a good chat." Then on my way home late late late who would call me but Luke. He had woken up to close the window (cold, can you believe it?) and thought to call me before he headed back to sleep. One of the best 3 minute conversations. Made me smile from the inside out.
3.) When a kid I'm working with has an AHA moment. I live for those, they make my day.
4.) Holding up a finished product. AND showing it off. Yep, I made that.
5.)Reading with Luke. Basking in each other's presence and not even needing our own words.
6.) Sunshine.It makes me glow from the inside out. Ill sit on the floor in the middle of the living room if it means I get in the sun's way. (Whats a word for the inverse of a shadow?)
7.)Fresh of the tree, Fresno flavored fruit (strawberries, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, grapes, oranges, the occasional fig, and Bowser Applesauce) as well as fresh off the plant sun warmed tomatoes.

Germs and Dawgs

I've been spending a lot of time in the school computer lab. Apparently so has everyone else because the keyboards are dirty. Gross dirty. I can't afford to get sick right now and I DEF-inately don't want to touch that grossness so I unplugged the keyboard and went to work with a "wet one." Look at what came off on the wipe after cleaning 1/3 of the keyboard!


Ok maybe I'm. Bit much but I'm still not sick. Allergies are a different story.
Last weekend I hung out with "my dawg" (implying he's my homie an not my dog) Priest.


He likes hanging out with his peeps so a car ride makes him happy as long as he is with people.


He wants to be sooo near people that he puts his paws on the center console and sticks his head through as far as he can. Boy was I surprised when he got my shoulder with his tongue. Dude. I'm married.


Priest in fact loves people so much that he denied my aunt and uncles dog Kaylee Waffle any interest in playing. (ok they played a little but not as much as the puppy who runs 6 miles a day on the treadmill would have liked.) Poor Kaylee.


She was still pooped enough to squeeze herself into her stolen cat bed. If that's not funny I don't know what is!

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Professional Knitter

I guess I've been a professional knitter for a while, but this project kind of "made it real."
I was commissioned by a woman in San Francisco, who I'd never met, to make a sweater for a baby who was going to be born. She sent me the yarn she wanted used, and a check, and we talked about what she wanted.
Size: Three Month, Cardigan, Cables would be great, She wanted to ad buttons.
Here's what I came up with!

I'm pleased as punch! I also love this making up patterns with the top down method. The only thing I have to seam is the underside of the sleeve!

One In Every Color- Dorm Room Edition

On our visit to Cal Poly we took a tour of the dorms. These were some girls after my own heart!


They were celebrating all of their April birthdays!


These girls only used one color and I LOVE what they did for Christmas! I can't blame them for not taking it down. I wouldn't have!





And in their rooms:


Can you tell what it's made of?





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One in Every Color- M&M's and Mustangs

Val and I had a snack while Jay was at the Pre BBQ mixer.


And Cal Poly has sheep! And the sheep had babies! But sheep are still dumb and scardie pants so I still want alpaca.


Now I have boots so the transition to alpaca farming should be as smooth as a lake in a calm day. Ha.


Val says I'm a poser.
Major disappointment of the day: finding out the "Farm Shop" isn't a store shop with products from the farm it's a farm shop for tractors as in like an Auto Shop. Sigh no cheese, ice-cream and veggies for me.
Here's Val outside the farm shop.


Ok maybe we are posers.
Jay with his other Wine and Viticulture majors:


We got an awesome personal tour from Will! We were stragglers to the housing display on campus and sort missed the boat, but Will answered all our questions AND took us to various buildings AND accompanied us through on our tours and explained some things we didn't all hear from the back!


Shout out to Will! Now you're famous! Thanks for an awesome tour!
At one point in the day John got a megaphone. Several times he contemplated throwing it away but then he'd think, nah I got this far.... The megaphone (and John) survived the day, we'll need a follow up blog to see what happens to it.


The dilemma, which one of us was going to be the "token student" when Jay was off with his new friends!


They had a flower display/ competition in the library, here are some of my favorites:








We started Beth's Bachelorette Beach Weekend in Cayucos, but the dancing opportunity was primarily reggae and we weren't so much feelin' it. So we went back to San Luis Obispo. While we were there we soooo accidentally walked by the bubblegum wall. We had all wondered where it was and when we realized we were standing right next to it, the exclamations were probably hears for a block. I had pink bubblegum so we left a tribute to Beth and Alex. We all chewed a piece.


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One in Every Color- I'm Gonna Let it Shine

Ok these little lights or candles aren't actually mine but I saw them... And took a picture...So they'd have a chance to shine in the spotlight!


They're at Cost Plus World Market. They come in a tea light and votive set. I think I'd get both sets when I become a grown up and have a real live living room to decorate. I'd put them in my grayscale living room that I intend to spice up with a splash of new color every season.
Christmas- winter green
New Years- navy blue
V-day- pink
St Pattys Day- lime green Spring- purples
Summer- aqua blue
Fall- burnt oranges and maroon

These candles would be great accents on the coffee table or mantle.

Meet Matthew

His dad Chris is in my teaching credential program cohort. Chris and I were talking about projects and hobbies and he showed me this:


It's a "Good Night Moon" room, and he made it for Matthew! Matthews favorite book is Goodnight Moon.
Here's the thing, Matthew had Autism. Because he has Autism he has problems pointing to objects...but Chris says that "with Goodnight Moon, he was a pointing machine. I wanted to make something he could explore and interact with.

My mom made the bunnies. Everything else was me. On a negative note, he's pretty much destroyed everything that wasn't glued down!"



This Saturday is World Autism Awareness Day and Chris has decided to do a "One Man Bike-a-thon" to raise financial support for the Central California Autism Center where Matthew goes for therapy. I have visited his blog here and pledged to support Chris fir the amount that I spend at the MCC sale f





This Saturday is World Autism Awareness Day and Chris has decided to do a "One Man Bike-a-thon" to raise financial support for the Central California Autism Center where Matthew goes for therapy. I have visited his blog here and pledged to support Chris with the amount that I spend at the MCC sale. I encourage you to check out his site ( http://tinyurl.com/4mz7rpl )and make a pledge too!

Stipple Me This

Yesterday I taught myself how to stipple.


I'll call that a success. Now I just need to watch my edges.

Little Red

Sweater. Recipient unknown, there are a lot of babies being born, but do moms really want a sweater they have to hold on to for 3 years before said babies can wear said sweater? I've been commissioned to make a sweater by someone and wanted to get in some sizing practice. This was supposed to be a 3 month size but had turned out to be more of a 3T. I started the neckline with a pattern I had an then made it up as I went! Eek! A little stressful but way rewarding!

Bound to Be Legendary

Our pastel 1830's quilt is finished! Pieced, hand quilted, bound and folded. This is a true heirloom worked on by my mon, sister and me. Woooh!


We had juuuuuust enough thread.


We're going to be quilting the primary color one this Sunday from 1-7 at our apartment. We'd love to have you join us! Open house!

Moving Forward

Today I'm putting the binding on the pastel 1930s quilt. It was recommended I use a walking foot, (This has grabbers on the top AND the bottom to pull all the layers of the quilt forward together.) which meant the featherweight got benched and moms old Elna came out.


Getting this machine out felt significant to say the least. Mom taught me to sew on this machine. Lesson one, a zippered pouch. (Mom was fearless.) Project two, a butterfly costume, (Mom was hands off because it was for Oddesey of the Mind and I couldn't have grown up help. They disqualified us anyway because they thought there was no way I could have done it.) Project three, baby quilt for one of the "o's" I didn't understand why the "quilt in a weekend" took sooooo long.

It is March Madness!

That is the gift Jessica gets me every year for my birthday and I had to have the right words.  This year it is madness too! Still did a pretty good job of sorting through all the layers and made some good picks, but have no clue about Butler or VCU.  How does she give you a gift that gets played every year anyway? She gives the gift of time, lots of time to watch the games.  I love and appreciate that about my wife.

In other news I recently got a promotion.  Still can not say where I work, but I now have a lot more responsibility, will work a ton more hours, and get paid slightly more money.  This is a very exciting promotion for both of us because it gives us hope that we are doing the right thing for our futures by currently being apart and working through the tough stretch right now.  This glimmer allows some hope that god has a plan in all of this and that we are proceeding the correct way even if it is unusual.  Thank you all for your support.

One in Every Color, Egg-citing

Hard boiled and everything. I'm soooo tempted.
Also tempting: fruit by the foots. We(me and Luke) buy them at Costco. Funny thing, one in every color is not preferred with these guys. There are three fake fruit flavors. Berry, strawberry,


and mystery red, yellow, green.


Mystery red yellow green is our favorite. The catch? The individual packaging gives no clues. None. Luke finally figured out why I open his and bring them to him... It's not to be nice and get rid of his trash. The last box we got had all berry. We were going nuts. Every single one. Then Luke had to leave. I get back from dropping him off at the airport, was feeling rather sorry for myself about everything and grabbed three for "comfort." All had yellow. Matthew 5:4. Weird little things remind me He's there, and he has a plan. We just gotta get through the layer on top.

Stolen Sunshine

Luke left and he took the sunshine with him. We had a spurt of some of the best weather! BUT It got cloudy, cooled off, and it's been raining for DAYS it feels. Here's the thing, I need me some sunshine. Especially if my Luke has to be in Colorado. So Ill reflect on some of the sun we got last weekend when we headed north for the Bay Area Golf Show and some exploring.
We were supposed to leave early on Friday but an earthquake, tsunami warnings and road closures

helped us delay our plans until Saturday.

We left early and went to the show Saturday morning so Luke could get to know the California golf industry a little better. Then we headed out for some golf geared exploration. One of my classmate had told me that the 17 Mile Drive was a "must do" for my golfer husband. I'd never heard if it before. I was a skeptic. A 17 mile stretch of road with a glimpse of ocean, and a peek at golf course? Really?
Let. Me. Tell. You. It was beautiful! So fantastic!

And my dreamy husband? Quite the view!

Dragon's egg?

Ocean booger?

Bird representation for Grandma G. The cute little guys I wanted to take a picture of were too fast.

Meet my new beach side cottage:

The cypress... A golf symbol for standing strong etc...


Luke says they try to keep on on the dl but the trees keep falling down. Huh.

Also.
We saw geese on the beach. According to Luke I yelled that our rather loudly as people were enjoying the view.

What a gift.

We stopped in at 4 golf courses and peeked in at their pro shops.

Then on our way outa town we stopped an an Italian restaurant and shared bruschetta(so flavorful I'm sure I tasted it on my breath all the way home, so it might have had a little garlic), an amazing seafood pasta dish, and ?canoli?. My heart and tummy were sooo happy. The drive back was so mellow and warm. It was the best.