Currently / 2.16.18

It’s been a pretty good week. After starting off with another couple days of chilly weather, it’s been in the 70s for the last few days and signs of spring are definitely all around. I’ve been staying up too late binge-watching the Olympics every night, and slowly letting the state of the house turn into a disaster. But Olympics! I love them.

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On Tuesday while Jose was teaching, the girls and I joined our  neighbors for cookie decorating at a local cafe and bakery. It was a neat little event! We all got dinner, and when we were done they brought over the cookies along with pre-filled bags of icing and cups of sprinkles. The cookies would have been good enough on their own but that didn’t stop us from adding plenty of frills on top. Ha!

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My mom arrives tomorrow and Jose and I leave for California on Tuesday. Quiltcon is here at last and I am SUPER excited about the trip! I’m taking 2 classes — lino printing and screen printing, both taught by Karen Lewis — so last night I finally got around to figuring out what supplies I needed. I had looked at the list a couple months ago when she sent it out and knew that I had most of the items, but I needed to pick up a few things and of course it is now FAR past the deadline to order them from Karen herself and have her bring them to class. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime, right?

In addition to Quiltcon, this is also just a nice vacation with Jose so we’ve got a few other things on the trip agenda too. Our tentative plans are to hit the California Science Center on Wednesday to see my old friend Endeavour before going to Quiltcon registration that evening, and then spend most of Thursday and Friday in/around Quiltcon and Pasadena. (My classes are on those two afternoons.) Saturday plans are still TBD, although I know I’ll need to stop by Quiltcon that afternoon to exchange mini quilts with my partner in the MQG swap. And then on Sunday I think we’ll go to the Getty, and hopefully not forget to pick up my two show quilts after dinner that evening so I can bring them back home with me. Yay! Fun!

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I’m still on track with the Orange Theory transformation challenge, although I don’t think I’ve lost a single pound despite counting my calories. Oh well. I’ll only be able to get in 2 workouts at my home studio next week instead of the required 3 due to our trip, so that’ll disqualify me from winning prizes anyway. The only hiccup so far is that I’ve somehow lost my heart rate monitor! I know I had it last Monday, and it was sitting on the kitchen counter, and I’m 99% sure I moved it somewhere because the cleaners were coming the next day and I didn’t want them to misplace it as they straightened up…but now I can’t find it. Ironic, no?

I’ve looked in all the usual spots and quite a few NOT usual spots and it still hasn’t turned up. I asked the cleaners, and they don’t remember seeing it either. UGH. I really don’t want to buy a new one so hopefully it will turn up soon.

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I updated my pattern & graphic design portfolio site yesterday with my latest completed project — design work and tech editing for Emily of Quilty Love. I helped her format, update, and edit two great new patterns that she released yesterday. Both are nice, clean designs that I think will sew up quickly and easily. I may have to try one of them myself sometime soon!

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We finally got back into swimming lessons a couple weeks ago after being on a somewhat unplanned break since August. We switched from the old school — which was great, but too far away once we moved — to a new place about 5 minutes from our house. I had trouble finding classes for both girls at coordinating times on a weeknight, so we finally decided to do lessons on Saturday morning. That meant pulling Charlotte out of the parent/child gymnastics class she’d been doing, but swimming is a higher priority for me so swimming it is. Charlotte is enjoying her waterbabies class with me and Emma’s kicking butt in her “extreme beginners” class.