Daily Ramblings - Fishy Fishy Fish

This weekend, we had a visit from my sister-in-law, her husband and our nephew for his early birthday celebration.  I haven't been to an aquarium in years, so jumped at the opportunity to go with everybody to the Aquarium Of The Pacific in Long Beach.  I discovered that being elbow deep in water to pet a slimy stingray is both awesome and kind of disgusting, that sea lions are just as cute as I remember, that I don't want to be the diver in the shark tank that has to hold the big sticks to push away any shark that gets too close, and that it's really hard to not make reference to "Finding Nemo".  The best part though was watching my nephew - the wonder in his face as he discovered all the new things was just too cute not to share!

Daily Ramblings - A new addition

I'm thrilled that we're soon to be welcoming my second nephew to the family - thanks to my sister-in-law for keeping the nephew supply coming (although she swears she's done after this!) I had the pleasure of attending her baby shower over the weekend, and it was really nice to get a weekend away and see the family members that I don't get to visit with often.

For once I remembered to charge the DSLR camera battery and take the camera with me.  (Ask me about the time when I grabbed the camera but left the battery charging at home....on second thoughts, don't ask).  Everything was beautifully decorated so I had a great time playing with my 50mm lens, and got some really cute photos to share!

 

I was happy to gift my first knit teddy bear for the baby, and the bear has since been named Ogden.  I'm so excited to have a new little one to make stuff for.  Crafty Aunt Nat - that's me!

Daily Craft - Buzz Lightyear, a quilt for a Space Ranger!

Months ago, after I finished my first patchwork blanket, husband suggested to me that I make a quilt for our nephew for Christmakah.  Armed with a minimal amount of online research on how to make a quilt, I set off to find some fabric that would be suitable for a 2 year old boy.  He loves trains and that was my original plan but wasn't impressed by any of the train fabric I found.  Just as I was starting to lose hope, I happened across Buzz Lightyear and knowing that our nephew is a big fan, I knew I had to go for it.

So, here's my Space Ranger quilt - slightly wonky but made with love.  If nothing else, I'm just really happy that all the corners for my squares matched up.  I was told that, when this gift was opened, our nephew was happy to sit on it and informed his mom that his gift was better than hers.  Now if that's not a 2-year old seal of approval, not sure what is!

Please excuse the somewhat rushed photography job here.  I took this the morning that I was packing everything up to send, and there was no natural light because it was the middle of the one week this year that Southern California was buried under rain and didn't see sunlight.  

Things I learned during the making of this quilt (for all the novice quilters like me):

- Do get a rotary cutter and learn to use it accurately.
- Be careful with choice of fabric.  My biggest mistake was picking fabric that was a little slippery to work with (for the striped blocks) and it would have been neater had a picked a more sturdy fabric.
- Get happy with the iron!
- When sewing blocks/strips together, if the seams have been properly pressed to the appropriate side, they "lock" together in the right spot, which really helps with matching corners.
- Don't try to sew strips together late at night when you're tired.  You may find that you pin and sew the strips upside down and have to pick apart the entire seam immediately after.
- There is no such thing as too many pins.
- Making a quilt sandwich requires a lot of space and is a total pain in the derrière (when you only kind of know what you're doing that is).
- Carefully read/write down instructions on how to machine bind a quilt.  Don't do what I did and think you remember what you're supposed to do because it will invariably lead to frustration and sweating.
- Be happy with the end result even if it's not perfect - after all, it can only get better right?

Daily Travels - A Vegas weekend

Seeing as I was away for a nice 5 day weekend, I've spent all today wondering what day of the week it is anyway.  Surprisingly enough (to me anyway) it's half way through the week and tomorrow is pay-day.  Things could be worse!

Husband and I spent Labor Day weekend in Vegas with his family.  Our nephew had his second birthday party on Saturday, which was quite the success.  We got him some Thomas The Tank Engine mega-bloks, which were a great choice seeing as he spent quite a bit of the day with his new "choo-choo" firmly in hand.  As much as Thomas was a hit, I think Buzz Lightyear might have stolen the show - an interactive and intergalactic space ranger.  Not sure who was more fascinated by it, the toddler or my husband.

Seeing as we've done most of the usual Vegas-y things (i.e. drink too much, gamble a little), we decided to take a trip out to Red Rock Canyon.  Of course, we realized as we were leaving that neither of us had packed anything remotely close to hiking shoes.  Armed with flip flops, we decided to do the 13-mile scenic drive through the canyon, stopping at various vantage points for photos.  There are tons of hiking trails and places to climb around the rocks so we are definitely planning to go back sometime when our feet are better prepared.  For now, here's a handful of shots taken from the various stops we made in the car.