Work in progress

My nephew will be arriving in about 15 weeks (though his mama is already hoping for a little earlier than that).  It's a miracle that he's even on his way and we're all very excited to meet him, even if he's made this pregnancy absolutely miserable for my sister-in-law. 

I started planning the idea for this quilt as soon as I found out they were having a boy.  It's been surprisingly easy to put together so far.  I'm hoping to get a good chance to sit down and finish it next weekend so I can give it to them at the shower, but here's the quilt top, ready to go once I finish piecing the back together.

It's not perfect.  The corners don't match up as nicely as I would like, but I'm still pretty darn happy with it.  I can't wait until the little guy arrives. 

Baby Blanket

I know I've been a lazy blogger, but we've been super busy around here.  It seems that everyone I know is having a baby right now.  Hubby's cousin just had hers a couple days ago, a friend is due in a little less than two months, my nephew will be here in January and my best friend has one due in April.  That's not including all of the acquaintances that are expecting as well.  So I've been in baby crafting mode during most of my free time. 

I met my friend Tracie at work and we instantly became friends.  When she told me she was pregnant, I was so excited and I knew I wanted to make something for her little one.  I pestered her for a long time to pick a name for her little guy so that I could get started.  I spent last weekend putting this baby together.

 

Please forgive the horrible lighting.  I wanted to get these done quickly so her gift could be wrapped up.  It's soft flannel with monkeys on one side (which sort of matches her theme for the nursery) and a pretty blue on the other.

I added an L for baby boy's name.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  I can't help but laugh when I look at this now because less than an hour after I had completely finished the blanket and cleaned up my sewing space, Tracie texted me to tell me her husband is second guessing the name and says he doesn't like it anymore.  Great timing, eh?  Fortunately, baby's last name starts with an L, so I told her that if they change his name we'll just say it's for his last name.  I also told her she wasn't getting any more monogrammed gifts until after he's here and the name can't change. 

Now just two more months until he makes his appearance and gets to snuggle up.

Amanda Tapping on Supernatural

This got posted on Twitter yesterday.  Looks like Amanda Tapping (of Sanctuary and Stargate fame) is going to have a recurring role on Supernatural for season 8.  It's a little sad how excited I am about this considering that I don't even watch the show.  But I'm pretty sure I'd watch just about anything that had her name in the credits.  I guess there's another show on the list for the hubs and I to watch. 

I am the Messenger

I think I've found a new author that I love.  Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger is even better than The Book Thief (which is the first of his books that I read).  After stopping a bank robbery, Ed Kennedy receives a playing card in the mail with three addresses and he has to figure out what to do with it.  The story follows him as he deals with his friends and trying to figure out what he has to do.

The book is brilliantly written.  I love Zusak's way of telling a story.  It is wonderful and he has a different way of explaining and describing than you usually see.  One little piece of the story is fairly predictable, but there are so many surprises that it's barely noticeable and doesn't take anything away from the story.  His characters are very well-developed and all have their own personalities.  Ed, our narrator, is flawed but he tries so hard to do what's right, which makes him a great character.

I can say with certainty that I'll be picking up more books by Zusak in the future. 

Why my Husband is Awesome

When my birthday was coming up back in June, the hubs asked me what I wanted.  The only thing I could think of was the bracelet that I really wanted, which he did get for me, but he felt like it wasn't enough.  He said he wanted to make me something, which meant he would finally get to use the compound miter saw I got him for Christmas.  Really, I think that made it a present for both of us.

I threw out a handful of ideas like a hutch for the kitchen (he thought that was too complicated for his first project) and a new bookshelf since mine has no room and there are books stacked on my desk instead.  He didn't like that idea either.  Then I remembered that when we were still renting and had no backyard whatsoever, he promised me that he'd make me a picnic table someday when we had the space.  So I asked for it, and that's what I got.  He started out with some blueprints he found online (sorry, I have no idea where) and then adapted it so it would be much larger because we have a big family.  It now seats 8 people (4 on each side) and we have enough room to add a chair to either of the ends.  So it will last us a little while before we start needing to add an extra table.

Wanna see it?

He stained it with a redwood stain, but it's made from pine.  He also drilled a hole in the center so that the umbrella my in-laws bought us over a year ago would finally have a home.  

I realize you can't really see the umbrella in this pic because it blends in with the clouds, but it's there.

I love sitting in the shade at this table and watching the amazing view we have from our backyard.  I can't wait until the next big get-together we have where we can actually sit outside and eat and have room for everyone. 

The Getty

On our last day in L.A. we visited some old friends of my husband's who I hadn't had a chance to meet.  He worked for them not long after he graduated high school and they had a huge effect on the person he became so I was really excited to finally meet them.  We had a wonderful time and they took us to the Getty, which is a giant museum built into the top of a mountain.  It is a massive structure and it's gorgeous.

The view from up there is pretty awesome too.  

There's also a huge garden with a little manmade creek running through it.  If it hadn't been so unbelievably hot and we weren't completely exhausted from two days at Disney, we would have spent more time there.  Instead, we walked through the shaded parts and took a few pictures from up above.

We also got to see paintings by some really well-known artists.  The first is Irises by Van Gogh and the second is by Monet (but I can't remember the name of it).  Getting to see these was really amazing to me.  My elementary school was big into art and we studied a different artist each year.  These guys were second and first grade, respectively, for me.  I studied them again when I took an art history class in college.  I saw prints of these paintings so many times and I never really thought I'd see the originals. 

I really wish we'd been able to spend more time there as the buildings themselves are incredible and they're all full of art.  I know we passed by so much and I would love to return and see what other little things they have to offer.  Oh, and if you go, don't forget to grab a bite to eat at the cafe.  The food there is surprisingly good, especially considering that you don't really think of going to a museum for good food. 

Legos are Awesome

We visited Downtown Disney after our first day at Disney.  After stuffing ourselves at the Rainforest Cafe, we wandered over to the Lego store because my husband loves Legos.  The outside has amazing giant Lego statues like these:

Lego Beauty and the Beast (I loved this movie when I was little).

Buzz and Woody!

This dragon is on their roof and is fighting the guy in the picture above.  The pictures don't do it justice because he is huge and he catches the light just right to make him look silver in the late evening.  

Inside the store they have even more awesome Lego creations, but on a much smaller scale.  These ones are all sets that you can buy and build at home yourself.  A lot of them are super expensive and I'm not really sure what I'd do with my very own Lego R2D2 (although I'm sure I'd find a place for him).  

It was hard to get a good shot of R2 here because he's trapped inside a plastic bubble that was super reflective and was determined to keep me from getting a good photo.  I'm really surprised my husband didn't try to convince me that we needed to have one of our own (although he did try to talk me into other Lego sets).  I think I might have caved for this guy though. 

The Soulkeepers

The Soulkeepers by G. P. Ching is the story of a young boy named Jacob whose mother disappears.  He's in a terrible accident the day that she goes missing and he has no idea if the memories he has of that day are real or not.  He's forced from his home in Hawaii and goes to live with family that he didn't even know existed.  While there he meets a mysterious neighbor and strange things start to happen to him.

I picked this book out because it was in the top free sci-fi books available for the Kindle and sounded somewhat interesting.  I'm not really a big fan of fantasy (which is what this really is, but Amazon is terrible at telling the two apart), so this book did take me a little while to get into.  The writing, however, is pretty good (though there were a few typos).  The story deals a lot with Christianity and Jacob's lack of belief.  I found the author's handling of such a usually touchy subject was very good.  It managed to avoid pushing any one viewpoint on the reader.

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this book, but I know a lot of that is because I don't really like fantasy.  If you like fantasy, I would definitely recommend this book. 

World of Color

On our last night at Disney we watched the new World of Color show at California Adventure.  We were a little late, but we did get to see most of it.  This was the most amazing thing we saw in our entire vacation and, considering that Disney has some great sights, that's saying a lot.  Through most of the show my husband and I were in complete awe.  It's a magical combination of lights, water, and projection that comes together beautifully.  It was absolutely incredible and, if you're going to be at Disney, it's worth going to see, even with the massive crowd that it attracts.

Unfortunately, it's really difficult to get decent pictures of the show because it happens at night.  I got a couple of short videos, but even those are hard to see.   This is at the very end of the show, which, lucky for me, was when my camera decided to crap out so the video is cut short, but it gives you a little bit of an idea of just how awesome the show really is.  It's nothing like being there in person though.  I highly recommend it.  

Disney Pictures

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things we saw at Disneyland.

Indiana Jones!  One of my favorite rides.  I wish we'd had time to go on this more than once.  Because of the Ancient Egypt theme that the ride has, the hubs and I spent our time in line making Stargate references.  It only made the ride better.

 While waiting for Star Tours there are a bunch of droids that are being unpacked from their crates.  The one on the right was seriously adorable, but we couldn't get a good close up shot of him. 

This guy is near the end of the line for Star Tours.  He scans passengers, which is what the screen next to him is.  Disney does a great job on the details because from the other side of that screen, you peak through and see what he's looking at and they actually look like real, working computers.

While exiting Space Mountain we ran into a little trouble with a storm trooper.  Also, my husband wants this costume. 

Far away shot of the Matterhorn.  It was approximately a million degrees while we were waiting to ride the monorail and we saw three guys climbing to the top of the mountain.

This is a shot in the new Carsland at California Adventure.  They did such an amazing job it really felt like we were out in the desert.  The scorching heat only helped the illusion.