Can't decide

Drive the new car out to the coast to try it out for a long drive, solo with both kids, on a grey and probably rainy day, but we can meet up with B. at his fishing tourney and distract him from his duties... OR drive around town pick up some strawberries (let someone else pick this time), try to hit the summit of awesome (craft show), and ?? play date? Loading and unloading kiddos multiple times.

I should say, we had a wonderful strawberry picking day last Friday with Val and family. WE did pretty well, but with both kids (though still with loads of berries), settled for one large batch of jam to split between us... sixteen cups, one box o' pomona pectin = 16 half pints IF four of the jars wouldn't have broken in the boiling pot... What the heck? Not entirely sure what's going on there. Otherwise, we probably ate a flat worth at home, froze and bagged the rest up for both of us. still need to deliver those, but will have to remember to do a good job eating strawberry shortcake this year... oh the things we do.

Update: Ended up sticking around town, and of course B. calls with a report that the sun came out on the coast... Had a really nice day none-the-less: Awesome play date with Val, Joaquin, Esme and Li Fong. Owen reports that Val and Joaquin are his favorite friends. Li Fong made him a pretty darned cool LED bracelet that won Ooos and aaahs at the Show of Awesome (craft show). After a fun morning, headed to the above craft show, got a few posters for Brian (Beer) and Ryan (Coffee), a cute winter hat for Gracie, and owen got to make a few fun buttons, Grabbed a coffee and an orange at Grendel, headed to Joann's for some gear for art projects, grabbed dinner at burgerville, kids in bed before 8, Heading to bed at a reasonable hour!

All in all, a good choice.

Roll it out

Another baby quilt... for Vanessa and Dave's baby due this month. I can't help myself, I gave it to them early in case I don't catch them immediately after they have the baby. You know, like immediately! I can't stand having the pretty peacock blue and the sweet plaid boarder around the house without some little one on it. Once again, a design borrowed from http://katiedid.squarespace.com/katie-did-journal/2009/1/27/quilt-how-to.html. I love her stuff, but the clothes are still beyond my skill/patience level. This quilt is easy peasy though and looks so cool... and gets even cooler after washing! Basically I had the blue and a flannel polka-dot (Next time I'd go for two solids though)

and sewed back and forth making big ol' zig-zags four times changing the top thread each time. It was perfect for putting my new sewing machine (YAY) through its paces... (story to follow).

It uses a ton of thread, a little more than a very full bobbin's worth every go-round. Top thread was orange, yellow, white and green though the last three are tough to discern in the end... too close in color. I LOVE the plaid floral boarder, it is just right with that blue. Sigh, happy.

Aren't baby quilts perfect, just the right size not to be too cumbersome, but still cuddly, and mine are getting large enough that they would be good lap blankets at least until that teenage growth spurt.

Okay, the poor sewing machine (owner). Brian and I finally decided to get one (europro reviewed on Consumer reports)... nothing too fancy, though much quieter and smoother than my last. Ordered it through e.bay got it set-up after it finally arrived from Canada and to my horror, had problems with it sewing backwards... not all of the time, just some of the time. Sometimes for just a few inches, sometimes all night (of course in the middle of a project, coming in and out of standard running when it felt like it). We just soooo hated to send it back since I finally had my hands on one and really didn't want to pay return shipping and wait....

Anyhow, I finally succumbed and after a few weeks of intermittent working and being infuriating (yes, weeks, I am stubborn) I wrote the dealer and complained asking how to proceed. While I was writing the e.mail, Brian was finally looking at it touching all of the levers and buttons (as I am trying to stop him, telling him to be careful, don't touch that and what everything was like a big ol' know-it-all) until he came across one in the back behind the foot... what's this? Uh, I don't know. Turns out it is a handy dandy new fangled button holer lever thinggy. "What does it do?" you may ask... turns out it controls the direction of stitching so that you can sew all the way around a button hole without much fuss. OR you can knock it occasionally with your fabric causing your machine to unexpectedly change directions because it is not locked like it should be and you have decided that sure, you can sit on the floor and sew so you can watch your movie and be oh so productive, but you can't really see a lot of those levers from your weird angle, so you can swear at your bad sewing machine mojo for weeks before writing a letter of complaint followed 20 minutes later by a letter of retraction and apology... yep, brilliant.