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This is my favorite outfit on Jakey this winter. The hat is a treasured garage sale find. I will be very sad when his head is too big for it. The jacket was a Gap kids jacket given to Jakey for Christmas.

Here is Jakey's new and improved room. That is one set of curtains that I made for him behind his new-to-us toddler bed. I got the fabric for the curtains from the Uptown Whittier antique fair, an estate sale, M & L, Amy's Nana Norma and Maxine Hooper. The quilted pillows in Jakey's reading corner were made by my grandma.

Jakey still loves to swing in his dolphin.

Would you believe we are still getting tomatoes from last summer's tomato plant? Only in California.

Triplets!!!

Here is a set of quilts made for a set of triplets soon to join our church family. I collaborated with a couple of girls from the RH quilt group to make these quilts. They were based on patterns from Quilting for Peace. (Now I know what kind of crafting books I like!) The blue quilt on the left was largely done by Gioia, but I contributed the binding and the backing.

Amy and I worked on this pinwheel quilt together. It was fun to do a quilt that required a lot of piecing. The end result is stunning, but it was a lot of work to figure out the pattern.

What ties all three quilts together is the fun yellow backing that they all share. I got this from a vintage sheet found at one of my estate sales. I really love this sheet and am happy that it is going to quilts that I really love and may even see around sometime.

The third quilt is a simple strip quilt, but it was fun to find fabrics that complemented each other. Most are from my stash, but one of the fabrics is from Amy's Nana Norma fabric. A couple of these quilts use fabric from ladies who are no longer with us, but we feel that they would be happy that their fabric contributed to these happy little quilts.

Labor of Love

I got this pattern from my Quilting for Peace book which I received for Christmas. It has been the best crafting/sewing book I have received to date. I think I have already attempted 3 other quilts from this book already and it's not even the end of February. One thing I love about quilting is the fun of putting together different fabrics and making a pleasing whole. I also enjoy using fabrics and sheets that I have gotten at estate sales and giving them a new life. Finally, I just love the fact that I'm making a quilt which is something that can be used for years after I have sent it off to it's recipient. This particular one is dear to my heart for many reasons. First of all, I love all of the fabrics and materials in it. I am so happy with the way they all came together. Second, I quilted it using free-motion quilting on my machine which is a new method for me, but one that I have been wanting to try for a while, and I believe it will be something I can attempt again. The final reason is that it is for an amazing girl that I just met recently, but whose courage and bravery in the face of great adversity astounds me. If you want to read more about Meghan's story, you can find out here. My hope is that my flower garden (that's what I'm calling this one) will be able to brighten up her days.

Chinese New Year with the family

We spent the weekend at Tom and Amanda's house to celebrate Chinese New Year and mom's birthday. It was a very relaxing and fun time for all.

Here's Trevor with his special Chinese New Year outfit.

RH # 30 &31

I really like this top. Unfortunately the sheet on the bottom had a few holes. I think I'll be able to patch them up and make it work.

This was our desert quilt. It was made up of all of the sandy and tan colored squares. They chose the blue backing so that it would contrast with the brown front.

RH #28 & 29

2 more done. These tops were completed before Christmas, but with all of the craziness we haven't gotten a chance to bind them until now.

#29. We should have been finished by now, but 5 (or maybe 6) of the first quilts were given away to the firsts girls at Refuge House, so our quilting project continues.

Jakey at the zoo

I'm back!!! Hopefully I'll find our Christmas pics somewhere and blog them later, but here are some recent pictures of our trip to the zoo.

We took our first trip to the LA Zoo. This is the second zoo that Jakey has been to. The first was Knowland Zoo, my personal favorite when I was a child, but this is the one he might have a chance of remembering. The LA Zoo is about the same size as the Knowland Zoo, so it's basically perfect for a child Jakey's age.

He loved seeing his favorite animals come to life. Unfortunately, Nate spent most of the time carrying him around because he didn't want to walk.

This was the closest we got to seeing an elephant. Too bad. The exhibit is under construction for who knows how long. Hopefully they'll get it together sometime this year since we have a yearlong pass to the zoo.