Ralph and I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday - but it was HOT!!!!  It was an outdoor wedding at a local ranch that the wedding party had turned into "Cadillac Ranch" for the wedding.  Steve is a car buff, and they used vintage cadillacs as the theme.  Instead of flowers at the end of the aisles, there were cadillac hub caps, the tables were decorated with photos of  vintage cadillacs, and to avoid everyone standing in live for food, they announce what table should go next for food by announcing the 'car' decorating that table. The decorations were three-sided photos, and the side facing me was just a picture of an old car.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat because I had no idea what kind of car that was----I'd never know when they called my table.  Luckily for me (and several others at the table) one of the three sides also had the name of the car too - whew!  Fun!  

As part of the wedding vows that the couple exchanged, Randy said that he knew Steve loved him when he wanted them to buy a car together....a true indication of his feelings, I'm sure!  It was a fun wedding - the ring bearer war Randy's dog - complete in western attire himself.  I left my phone and camera at home, so no pictures - bummer!

Since we didn't stay too long at the wedding, I came home and started working on another unfinished project - a birthday present for Rachelle.  I had the purple jacket done, but I made the dress and beret last night.  I think I'm going to have to invest in an American Girl type doll so I came make sure the clothes fit.

It's done!!!  I got it finished yesterday, and even found a box that it fits in to ship it.  I may just admire it for a couple of days before I mail it though.  Too cute!

After I finished it last night, I wasn't sure what to start next.  Lord knows I should have picked up the quilt to sew the binding on, but....I didn't want to start on that after dinner, etc.  I wanted to be 'fresh' to start it.  So......I picked up a new skein of yarn I got this week (I can't help it - it's a compulsion- - new yarn - must try it!!!)  This yarn is a flat ribbon, about 3 inches wide, and doesn't require crocheting or knitting - though it does use a crochet hook.  

In an hour or so, I had this scarf:

You interlock the loops on the edges together.  I think I can "improve" how they put the scarf together by sewing it together, but they did it all with the loops - the edges look a little funky, but wearable their way.


Here are some photos left over from the Whiskeytown Falls hike:

The 'crew' getting started

At one of our rest stops

My favorite buddy

Up at the very top

I'm not the best at selfies - but I got a new haircut last night!

It's a bit shorter than it has been, but similar in style.  I like it!

AJ saved the day for me again yesterday.  The scouts are planning a backpacking trip, and wanted to do a practise hike.  Which all sounds good in theory, until they realize that the adult leaders are all booked up for the weekend.  That left the 'moms' to fill in.  The boys were just hiking up to Whiskeytown Falls, so I said I could go with them, it isn't that hard a hike, but it would give them a chance to try out their backpacks.  The reality?  The boys that needed the practice didn't bring their full on backpacks, and the other Mom that volunteered had problems with the hike.  Luckily, AJ had gone with me, so he could be the second adult that's required.  We still had to hike very slowly, and the boys were eaten up by mosquitoes all they times that they had to stop and wait for 'us' (I was with the slower boys - and we eventually stripped them of their backpacks so they could make it up the trail.  We probably should have made them hike it with the packs, but......I was out of patience - and blood!)  

Other than having to hike with the whiny ("I can't make it, can't we just go back??"  "I need to eat my energy bar now." (less than a quarter mile into the trip) "Can we stop for more water?" 0 "Can we just stop here and wait for them to come back?") boys, it was a good hike.  The other Mom was able to eventually make it up the trail to the falls.  She had stopped partway up and decided she was just going to wait there until she felt better and then would try to come up, or just meet us back at the cars.  Needless to say, her son was one that wanted to go back.....We left at 8:00 a.m. so it was nice and cool (unfortunately, the aforementioned mosquitoes were out at that time of day.  They were pretty much gone by the time we went back down.)  Once we got the boys to the top of the hike - to the actual falls, they had a good time.  We got back around 11:30, and then I went shopping, etc.  My ankle ached the rest of the day, so I eventually took a quick nap before dinner (which didn't help my ankle, but I felt better!)  Luckily, my ankle doesn't hurt (much) today.  I was a little worried!  AJ has a shopping trip scheduled today - oh boy!

Book club was last week, and I forgot to take pictures of the bookmarks after I had them done.  I had two left, so here are the book bookmarks for The Book Thief.  Our next book is In the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes.

Today....I HAVE to finish the quilt.  The wedding is next weekend!  I worked on the toy for Elora last night for a bit.  I'm not as worried about that - I'll mail it up to her, and she won't know that it was late for her birthday.  I can get by with that with her for a couple more years......then she'll start to notice that I'm always late.

AJ's sporting his new 'do - and pretty nicely I think.  (And his new RayBan sunglasses - the man is stylin'!)  He does look more grown up now - my baby is pretty much gone.

Sewing machine 2 - Deni 0.  Not the best day for sewing, I'm afraid.  I was hoping that since I had a day off, I would get a couple of projects done.  It started out well - Alli got off to school a little after 7:00, I started a load of laundry, played a few games on the computer, and then settled down to finish up the quilt for Steve (the weeding is the 29th - I think I'm in trouble!)

Things were going well, but I was having issues trying to move the quilt around on my smallish machine.  After a few tussles with it, I noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with my stitches.  All of a sudden, my stitches looked .... odd.  I had moved one of the controls on the machine to a slight zigzag.  Time to rip out.  Bummer.  Not long after that, my thread started breaking.  Every few inches.  For no reason I could see.  My tension looked good, the machine was threaded correctly.  I was out of ideas and patience.
 
Thank goodness for Google.  The first site that popped up said to check to make sure the machine was threaded correctly (it was - I had re-threaded it like 30 times already!) and then next to check the needle.  I pulled my needle out, and it was slightly bent (probably from me tugging all that material around).  Eureka!!!  I changed the needle, and sat back down to sew.  For about 6 inches, and then the thread broke again.  ARGHHHH!

My next thought was that it was because of the thickness of all the material, so I decided to test it out on the regular quilt blocks I had to work on.  It seemed to work just fine for the blocks......until I had the block competed, and realized that it was the wrong size.  Finally, the light bulb lit up.  Not only had I hit the zigzag button while moving all the material around, I had moved the needle from center to the left, so my seam was off by an eighth of an inch - which made my block about a half inch too small over all, and....I'm thinking that the extra strain from the different angle was causing the thread to break too.  I reset all the controls on the machine, and.....so far, no breaks!  Of course, I also quit right about then too - before I could throw the machine out the window.  I went in to town and did the grocery shopping, and finished up all the other 'weekend chores'.  Maybe I'll be able to finish the quilt yet!

I stopped at the quilt shop and picked up the blocks for the next month (and I haven't finished last months yet~) and they had the (almost) finished quilt up. It still needs one more border row put on, but this is what the finished quilt will look like.

One more done!  I got the elephant finished last night - only two more to go!

The game was fun last night!  Ralph ended up staying home - he didn't feel too great, and it was a hot evening - about 102 when AJ and I left home to pick up Chris and Meredith.  None of us had been to a game at Tiger Field before, and were all pleasantly surprised. They've done a bunch of work at the field (which is in a park known as a homeless hangout, and doesn't have a great reputation - very few parents let their kids play in South City Park).  The bleachers are new and are in the shade, tickets are $5.00 to get in, and the teams are college kids that do a good job of baseball.  They even missed hitting my car with a foul ball - though one player tried very hard.  He did hit the car parked behind me, and he bounced one in front of and the over my car.  Whew!  (He was from the visiting team, so hopefully they don't hit it the next time!)  The seats that the bank reserved were great - top row of the bleachers, almost right behind home plate.

AJ had fun - not only watching the game, but chatting with Meredith and Chris, and David (our daycare provider's son, and a friend of AJ's) was working there, doing the music, and sat almost right behind us.  Even though the evening started as a bit warm, it was still worth going.  I can see another game in my future, and I'm sure I could talk Meredith into going again, even if Chris is out of town.

According to the app on my phone, Dawn and I walked over 14,500 steps, and 6.7 miles this morning between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. for Relay for Life!  Woohoo!  Our team "Support Bankers Raising Awareness" - aka Support BRA - (I didn't name it - really!!!) raised over $4,000 for the American Cancer Society.  Double Woohoo!  Check out our shirts.....

(I didn't wear mine - I needed a bit more coverage for my support bra.)

It was 82 degrees when I left my house at 4:15 a.m. to go pick up Dawn - good thing we were walking while it was cool!  It was a little bit cooler at the college - 79 degrees.  It is supposed to be 105 today.  Ralph switched us from swamp cooler to air conditioning yesterday evening - it's too hot for the swamp cooler to cool anything down - we just get hot and humid.  There is just something wrong about the AC coming on at 9:00 a.m. though.

Since it was so hot yesterday afternoon, I sat on the couch and watched movies and worked on my crochet project.  I have the giraffe done, and I only need 6 more leaves!

Today is quilting - if I ever get around to starting.   I'm doing laundry, etc. this morning, and got a late start due to the Relay.  I think I just have vacuuming left to do, and then I'll be ready to start sewing.

Alli's second morning of summer vacation was a little bit better - she woke up at 5:40 - so I got to sleep in a bit.  Woohoo!  Tomorrow is a different story - this is the weekend for Relay for Life, and I'm walking at 5:00 a.m. out at the college.  That means I'm up very early!  Then, tomorrow night, we're going to baseball game for the Colt 45's - the local college/semi-pro (I'm not sure which) team.  The game starts at 7:30, so it's going to be a long (and hot) evening - but fun!  The "new" bank president had the bank buy season tickets for the local team, and offered the tickets to staff.  Meredith, Chris, Ralph and I are going Sunday night - which will make it a lot of fun.  

I "almost" finished the giraffe last night,  I ran out of embroidery thread for the spots - just a few more needed on the head.  I find it easier to sew them on before I stuff the parts and sew them together, so.....I have the body all done, and the head almost done (and I don't knot anything off until I get the whole thing put together - just in case!).  That leaves the tiger, monkey and elephant to do.  The monkey and elephant just need to be sewn together, and the tiger will needs some strips added to it.  The end is in sight!  (Yes, I know, I still have a million leaves to do, and get them sewn on to the tree, but.....the animals will be finished!)  I don't think I'm going to make it by Elora's birthday.  I still have Steve's quilt to finish before 6/29, bookmarks for book club, and I'm off to Susanville next weekend.  I'm sure I'll get most of the things done - maybe,,,,,,,

It's the first day of Allison's summer vacation, and I got to sleep in......10 minutes.  Kind of what I expected, but I did set my alarm for a (much) later time than normal n- ever the optimist.  I may never get to use it.  Alli only has one week off right now, and then she starts Extended School Year - a 3 week session.  It starts next Thursday, and runs to July 9th, and then she gets the rest of the summer off.  (Note to self - go look up when the school year starts - they didn't send home a 2014-15 calendar this year!)  I really don't mind getting up early - it was 103 already here yesterday, and is expected to hit 109 on Monday!!!  I'll take my (relatively) cooler mornings.

I looked over at Alli yesterday, and she had crashed on the couch.  How she can nap like this, I'll never know.  My neck would hurt!

I finished the lion yesterday for the jungle stackables.  I changed the pattern up a bit to suit me (as usual) and he turned out pretty cute.  I would have liked to use real 'eyes' on him, and a nose, but since it's for a toddle, I figured it would be better to embroider the face on.  I have really cute attachable glass cat eyes and a plastic nose, but they aren't designed for little ones to play with.  Embroidery and crochet don't go well together, but....it works.

The giraffe is the first animal to stack, and the lion is second, so, the lion doesn't fit just on the soon-to-be a palm tree yet, but....you can tell that it's going to work!  (I hate it when I get to this part of a project and realize that something went wrong somewhere.)

I also had a brain-storm for the bookmark for The Book Thief, and took a stab at creating a book bookmark,.  My first try is the one on the right - the closed book with white felt in the middle for pages.  The one on the left was my second try, has felt sewn onto it for pages.  AJ told me I should crochet the pages too, instead of using the felt, so that will be try number 3.  All together, not too bad, and I think it will fit the book well.