Week 13: Project 365, the 2015 Edition

Thursday, March 26

Back in Sta. Rosa for a couple days. Took a walk this afternoon and snapped photos of the new houses that I mentioned in last week's post.

The house on the top left is the only one that's finished and you can see they've started adding some landscaping.
Right next door is the one with the bright red exterior. Although I'm not normally a fan of dark colors on a house, I think it works here. Looks like the outside is done and they're finishing up inside.
Bottom left is the most recent project, started about 7-8 months ago. It's right next to the red house, and we were interested to see they're using an aerated cement block with a higher R value. My guess is they'll start plastering the exterior soon.
The house on the bottom right is hard to photograph because of all the trees. It's going to be the biggest house in the neighborhood when it's done. They started it before any of the others, but because it's so big it's also taking the longest to finish. They have an amazing view of the river which is close enough that they built on a raised foundation.

I'm also including a photo of a remodel that looks nothing like the original structure. Too bad we don't have a before to show you, but honestly the previous house was seriously unphoto worthy. They've done a fantastic job of remodeling and adding some square footage, including the lovely porch.

A porch is something we wish we had out here. Maybe some day we can build a gazebo or something.

Saturday, March 28

Today I finished and ordered an ABC book for Adalyn!

I had so much fun putting this together! I already had enough photos for most of the alphabet and Jon and Nat were kind enough to take a few more pictures for the letters I was missing (like this one with the umbrella).

I failed to mention that the week before I took advantage of a brief Shutterfly offer for a free 20 page 8"x8" photo book and quickly made one for my friend Magdalena, whose husband died recently.

I used photos we've taken over the past six years of them, their family and us. They pretty much adopted us, including us in all their family get-togethers and holidays.

If you've never made a photo book, you can do one for free. Just go to my Facebook page and scroll down to March 28 where you'll find a link for the special deal. I highly recommend Shutterfly; I've used other companies to make photo books, but Shutterfly is my favorite. I wait for special deals or buy groupons and have never had to pay full price for a book.

Monday, March 30

I'm totally borrowing the photos for today. I could not resist sharing this one of Simon and one of his little buddies who had a birthday. I just cannot handle all the cuteness of these two boys stuffing their faces with cake!

No, Simon doesn't photo bomb all his mom's photo shoots. This was taken after the shoot was over, and the boys were just having fun. Doesn't Tina do a fantastic job?! If you're in Indiana or Michigan and looking for a photographer, get in touch with her!  

Tina also posted a close-up of Simon, which prompted Rita to comment "Little Ivan here" and then Tina posted an old photo of her dad. You can definitely tell they're related, don't you think?!

Tuesday, March 31

I have a nasty head cold. I find myself pushing through each morning and afternoon to get as much done as I can, and then collapsing into a sneezing, sniffling heap on the couch in the evening. I just don't have the energy to do more than is absolutely necessary. But I can't just sit like a lump as I go through box after box of tissues, so last evening I found myself thinking about the next quilt project. I want to do a geometric quilt but I don't want to do something that's already been done. At the same time I don't want to reinvent the wheel. So I pulled a bunch of photos from Pinterest and a couple of graphics for inspiration, opened them all on my screen and then started doodling on graph paper.

I don't love my first design (which I'm not going to share). It's just too busy. But I like the general direction I'm heading and think that if I pare down and clean it up, I'll end up with a design I'm excited about turning into a quilt. This time around I plan to blog it all, from the creative process to the finished product.