Summer Crush

So, okay. I have a summer crush. I am prone to having summer crushes, though. The last couple of years it was that lifeguard where the kids take swimming lessons. He collects old books (and actually reads them), has lots of tattoos, and writes poetry. But, alas, he's no longer there. So, how's a girl supposed to find a harmless crush? I found him today.
It's Wall-E. Yeah, that little robot in the movie. I absolutely adore him. We took Drew and a couple of buddies (and Emma too) to see Wall-E today in celebration of his birthday, which isn't until next week (but everybody is out of town and this was the only day we could get more than one kid that was available!). And the movie was great. I won't offer an amateurish review here. Just know that I loved it and I think you will too.

After the movie, we headed to my mom's house for a little swimming and some ice cream cake.

Our thunderstorms this afternoon took forever to roll in. It rumbled and rumbled for the longest time and finally, just when you thought it was really going to let loose, it decided to just rain gently and rumble quietly and hang around for a while. An odd sort of storm for this time of year. So I sat on my porch steps with my knees sticking out, just past the protection of the eaves and let it rain on my toes and my skirt. And I just stayed there a long time.
And Chris noticed the hummingbirds. I've never seen them this late in the year before, but there they were - probably four of them - feasting in the lantana. I ran to get my camera, desperately hoping I could get a picture of one of them, which I did. None of them were great photos, because I don't know my camera very well yet and they move around awfully fast....but here's one nonetheless. Just so you know I was telling the truth:
A little disappointing, huh? It's hard to know if that isn't just a leaf. But I have multiple shots of him, so I'm pretty sure it's a hummingbird. And, really, in real life it's hard to know if they aren't just giant moths floating around your flowers. That's what we thought they were the first time we saw them.
Sweet little hummingbirds. They're good for whatever ails you - even if you're not quite sure what it is and you were hoping to find out by watching the rain for a little while and getting your toes wet. Not that that's what I was doing....

DAILY BLISS: well, hummingbirds of course!

Train Up A Child

This is a confession, of sorts. One in which I prove that children see everything and we had better be prepared to justify the things we do.
Emma came to me with a temporary tattoo in hand. She asked me if I'd put it on for her. I said, "Sure. Where do you want it?" And she lifted up her shirt in the back, exposing her low back. She said, "Right where you have your Selah one, Mommy."
Okay.
We did have a talk about being a grown up before you decide to get a real one, because the real ones are forever ones. I told her that I waited until I was more than 30 so I could be sure I'd like the ones I picked.
She reassured me that she probably doesn't want a real one anyway - ever. Because they hurt and she's not into that.

A Little Somethin' I Made This Week

I've seen so many cute little pillowcase dresses for little girls on blogs and such, like here and here and few other places that I can't recall now. I wanted so badly to make one for my little girl, but she's not quite as little as a pillowcase anymore. Then I found this cute gingham king-sized pillowcase at the Goodwill for $3. Yahoo! So, I cut the armholes a little big and she has to wear a tank top underneath it, but I sitll love it. The ruffle was already on it, so I didn't have to even hem it. Here's a few pictures and a few gratuitous shots of my beautiful girl.
Sorry this one's so bad, but it's the only full shot I managed to get of this squirmy worm:

A little touch of sweet lace:


My darling girl:


DAILY BLISS: sitting out on my porch steps at dusk - just the right time to watch the street lights flicker on

Tea With Two Emmas

Last night, there was a grand tea party at my mom's house. Emma and I were invited, of course, and Gma (my grandma) was there and another sweet girl who has the same exact name as mine - Emma Grace. We met this other Emma Grace when she was very small and we marveled at the fact that other people were as clever at name-choosing as we had been. These two Emmas play so nicely with each other and both of them love a good dress-up tea party.

There were treats


And, of course, delicious tea.


When it was over, there was hardly anything left. At least, hardly anything that didn't already have the chocolate and frosting licked off of it....

A Start...

Hopefully, I'll have time to post a bit more later. Mindy always tells me that when I haven't posted in a couple of days, she knows I've been busy. Well, I think she's right. It's been a little nuts in my neck of the woods. But only in the best way.
I wanted to clue you all in to something fun we kicked off this week. In a family-wide effort to reduce our energy expenditure, be generally aware of how dependent we are on technology and electricity and, chiefly, to gain quality face time with our ever-growing, slowly-disappearing children, we have instituted a weekly Blackout Night.
I realize that this will not make a big dent in our energy bill, but it's the principle of the thing that's the point anyway.
This week didn't go very smoothly, as we had chosen Tuesday night to be the big night and that coincided with the weekly meeting of the Lakeland Chess Club, of which the kids' coach is currently president. I sent Chris and the kids off to play what I thought would be 30 minutes of chess and they came back nearly two hours later. So, disappointment abounded, but we will have another shot next week. And maybe we'll try for Wednesday night instead.
Here's the idea:
After a certain cut-off time, say 6:00 or so, we turn off all the lights and prepare a dinner that doesn't require the use of electricity. As it gets darker, of course, we will light candles. We plan to play board games and card games, read (this summer's wish list includes The Hobbit and the Little House on the Prairie books), and make things. Emma and I are both planning to knit by candlelight and the boys can do...well....they can find something to do. Then the kids can carry a candle (in a tall glass container, for safety's sake) in to their rooms when it's bed time.
Sound fun?
It was - what bits of it we were able to squeeze in by the time the chess champs came home on Tuesday. But, being Blackout Night, it is also going to be a no-blog night, which is why you didn't hear from me on Tuesday.
Wednesday gets a little more complicated, but no less fun....

Just Checking In.....

Here's me tonight:
More tomorrow, I promise.

DAILY BLISS: a tea party with two Emma Graces

Happy (Mon)Days are Here Again

In a lovely comeback from last week's disaster, Monday has been enjoyable and productive, but not too much, of course. I did a little sewing (half a skirt) and a little knitting (two pattern repeats) and grocery shopping. The kids went to vacation Bible school and had a great time. And Emma and I made pizza together for supper, which the boys ate up.
No pictures. No instructions. No other things to write about.
Just right.

DAILY BLISS: happy children getting along with each other all day long

Everybody's Got an Angle

That's what Bing Crosby said to Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas, anyway.
I thought a few words should be said about the seemingly magic camera angle from the post about cheating with that pair of pants. I will attempt to give all you amateurs (that is one step above the level of photography that I have attained) a few pointers on achieving a slimmer-than-you-really-are appearance in photos.
1) Wide waist band. It hides a world of evil and last night's chocolate. I realize this is not a photography tip. It's all I have to offer.
2) One thing about wide waist bands is that if you happen to be wearing, erhm, underpinnings as, say, a fun little experiment, they can kind of sink into your hips at the sides and give you sizable jelly rolls on the top and the bottom of the, well, dainties. Right in the middle of that smooth, wide waist band. It's important to flatten those out before you take a picture. Also, that's maybe not a photography tip.
3) Vertical stripes on the pants. It cannot be overstated that this is helpful. More of a shopping tip, there.
4) Maybe the only photography tip here (and it's one that pretty much everybody knows anyway): It's always more flattering to be photographed from above the focal point than below it. Try this out at home. You'll see. Unless you're going for that whole 70's-era, looks-like-my-feet-are-as-wide-as-my-bell-bottoms look. Then you want to shoot up, as it were, otherwise known as "from below."
5) Take 73 shots, adjusting the folds of the pants and smoothing various bubbles in the "fabric" until you achieve the one "money shot." That's the one that makes your ample size, well, let's just say it's more than 10, hinie look like a size 8. Okay. More than 12 too.
Note to Mindy: they're not seersucker, though now that you mentioned it, I kind of wish they were. They are kind of a pillow ticking denim-y fabric and I've always associated pillow ticking with summer for whatever reason, so I do love them anyway. Maybe, on second thought, the pillow ticking kind of contains my, um, folds and bubbles (see #5) better than seersucker.
Inspirational? Probably not. Do you now know what a dork I am? Probably so.

DAILY BLISS: Coke Zero, a suitcase full of passed-down embroidery (I think I'll learn that next so I can finish my great-grandma's tablecloth....), and lots more rain

Summer Solstice 2008

It's time to celebrate the changing seasons again. Summer always brings us a trip to the beach, though we didn't have a lot of time to spare this year. We made it in time for a bit of shore-line walking, shell-hunting and sunset-watching, which is always enough to satisfy me anyway.
Come on in, the water's fine!

Happy kiddos:


Better than dessert:

Of course, there was lemonade and ice cream too. It's just not summer without those two. And I may be inspired to a little poetry, when I have the time. Whether I'll share or not is yet to be determined.....
Had fun learning about my macro lenses, too......I probably looked like such a tourist!


DAILY BLISS: thunderstorms in the morning and lunch on the porch

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater

I had to go to the dentist today, which turned out to be the cause of some very nice events. I know that seems unbelievable, but it's true. I was there. I can vouch for it.
My appointment was at 11:00, which seems a very awkward time and I can't imagine what I was thinking when I scheduled it. Too early to go to work first and almost too late to go to work after and definitely in the wrong spot for "long lunch." So, I took Emma to swimming lessons and left her in Denise's charge after that while I took Andrew to photography camp, which is at the museum. Which is right by the lake with all the swans. And I fully planned to grab a loaf of bird bread and sit on a bench, happily knitting and feeding sweet feathered friends. But there were people all over the place at the museum, which is weird because it wasn't open yet. We passed a particularly cool-looking cluster of young adults on our way in. As I came out, I noticed one of them giving me a weird look. I kind of brushed it off and then I realized that it was the singer from my brother's band. But he doesn't know who I am....I mean, we've met and all, but, you know. He's the lead singer. It's not his job to keep track of people who aren't cool. It then occurred to me that Andrew was wearing his tee shirt from their last album. That must've been the reason for the weird look! Aha.
But seeing him made me remember that my brother is actually at home right now, which is actually across the street from the museum, on the side. Literally. I mean, instead of a house across the street from his porch, he has the museum. So I called him and we sat on his porch for a while instead of knitting. Not that he had plans to knit. That sentence was a little awkward, huh?
And the other thing is that the dental hygienist told me I had beautiful teeth, which is nice to hear because I don't think they are at all. In fact, I still have one baby tooth. True story! It's getting a little bit discolored by now and sometimes makes me look like I'm missing a tooth when I smile. I hate that. But having beautiful teeth is a nice way to get started on the rest of your day. Oh, and my dentist is the flirting type, which always makes you feel a little better when you're sitting in a chair with drool and grainy tooth paste dripping out of the side of your mouth.
I went on to work and when I came home, I hosted a buddy for Andrew (they played lots of XBox) and made honey-lime chicken for dinner and totally invented a nice vinaigrette dressing for the salad and I whipped up some of those chocolate/oatmeal no-bake cookies that everybody's mom used to make. Whew! I got the sauce for the cookies going in the pan and realized I haven't any cocoa powder. Guess what? Nesquik will do, in a pinch. I think the Nesquik was left over from cocoa mixes at Christmas. I'm not sure why it'd be in there otherwise.....
Now, for a confession. I cheated. I mean, I know I promised to wear only skirts and dresses, I know. But that's for summer and summer hasn't officially started yet, right? That's Friday - the Summer Solstice. I'm trying to talk myself out of the guilt of breaking my Vow of Total Pants Abstinence (thank you, Becky, for coining the phrase). But these pants - they were only five dollars! They needed a little hemming because my legs are a wee bit shorter than most legs. But - five dollars! That deserves a place in my summer wardrobe. Five dollars - and they're striped like pillow ticking, my favorite. See? Wouldn't you cheat with these pants?

DAILY BLISS: Devouring too many Chapi and Chapo cartoons with Emma. They are so dang cute - I used to love them on Pinwheel (on Nickelodeon) when I was a kid.

He's Getting Better and Better

I love sharing about my son's growing sense of humor. He really can't help it, having grown up in this twisted hodgepodge of people we call a family. But he really topped himself today. But he has approached it from such an academic angle. I remember when he was little and was just catching on to things, having studied my sense of humor and my husband's very closely and asking lots of questions about what was funny and what wasn't. He used to point and yell out, "sarcasm!" when I made snide remarks about things. Not that I've done that ever. Since five minutes ago.
My honey was sharing with me the most interesting part of his day - a pretty funny story. He had ordered a chicken sandwich from the Golden-Arched Feed Trough for lunch, no mayo (he's dealing with the grave sorrow of a few extra pounds). He brought it back to work and tucked in, getting about halfway through the thing when it was discovered that the chicken was not cooked through! Bleah!
I asked him how he was feeling - was he queasy or anything? He told me no, but that if he did puke, he was going to do so into a paper bag. Then he'd set it in front of the door and light the bag on fire. Clever, clever man.
We were all laughing when Andrew blurted out, in the style of one of my favorite games (long-ago pilfered from Dave Barry):
"Flaming Puke! That'd be a great name for a rock band!"
Dang, I love that kid!

DAILY BLISS: peanut-butter-and-apple waffle sandwiches for supper and 10 minutes of silence on my way home from work today.....in the car.....by myself.......not even the radio on!

Real Life

Today was my Blessed Monday Off - the second one in a summer-long series (I hope to offer it an extended contract once school starts). Perhaps I have just put too much expectation on my Mondays. I have long looked toward it for peace and crafting and feeling on-top-of-things-around-here. And it didn't happen that way today. It all started out well. I had a very interesting conversation with some other parents today at swimming lessons about church and the different way that we worship and also about how marriage relationships mirror our relationship with God in unexpected ways. That was awfully invigorating for 8:00 in the morning.
But after I took Drew to camp, I came home to do my checkbook make my grocery list. Checkbook stress is a given and I can get over checkbook stress. It happens to me a lot. But here's where the expectation comes in: I am always trying to be mindful of efficiency, particularly now with the high price of gas and food. I shop at the Super Wal Mart because it saves me a lot of money, but it's kind of a drive out there. So I tried to organize all my errands today around the one trip. But I'm also trying to shop for two weeks at a time in order to cut down on gas. So, I had to plan out two weeks of cooking, household items, sewing, summer activities and celebrations and bills to pay and such. As soon as we were far enough away from the house, I realized that I'd forgotten the all the equipment for one of the stops - my checkbook and a gift for someone at the school office. So that means I'll be making two trips anyway. So much for efficiency.
We stopped for fast food because it was better to just get a move on and try to get home at a decent time. That was fun. Here's the evidence and a rare glimpse of the Tweenage Male in his native environment (i.e. anywhere french fries are found):



But Wal Mart. Oh, awful, awful land of crowds and flourescent lighting! I spent two hours in there with children who wanted anywhere else and who bumped into me every time I stopped (out of sheer boredom) and who wanted to "help" push the cart (straight into other peoples' hinies) and who "joked" about wanting to buy that big bag of sugar-frosted white-flour cereal (that I have never said yes to) and who "didn't complain" by groaning and moaning....
By the time I got home, I had flunked the efficiency test and flunked a lot of the mommy tests too. This is the point at which I put my "real life" on display: I have been a mean mommy today. I didn't play board games and I didn't watch a cartoon with them and I didn't laugh at all of their jokes and I even snapped some - or more than some. I said "no" more times than I can count today and I said "hush" more times than I think I should have and I answered the question of "why?" with "because it's annoying," even though I have never thought that an appropriate response to a child.
But for all my disappointments today in myself and in my environment, I am still glad it all happened on my Monday Off. Blessed Monday. If I'd had to deal with this on, say, a Tuesday night, all would have been lost. At least now, it's all done. Two weeks' worth of it is done. And I have the hope of next Monday Off for fun and games and I have a husband who stopped by home to say "hi" and caught us in the middle of the chaos. He's a good one, that man. He brought home chocolate and a movie.

DAILY BLISS: $5 pants at Old Navy and easy-to-fix hair (just mess it up and go!)

Dad's Day

It has been a wonderful day around here, if you are a dad. Homemade biscuits with sausage gravy were served at breakfast. The non-dad males grilled out for dinner and I made my lime and cilantro salsa and shortbread cookies with berries for dessert. And there's a basketball game on tonight. I don't get the basketball thing, but today, my hubby deserves some un-complained-about time in his recliner enjoying the exciting world of professional game playing.
One life-changing moment: My kids had their first cups of coffee today. I know. Some of you will think I'm a terrible mother for letting them drink (gasp!) caffeinated, grown-ups-only bean extract, but I started drinking coffee very young and I turned out okay, right? Right? Anybody? While Drew is hard to catch on camera these days, my Little Ham is always willing to model and emote. Here is how she felt about her first sip of her own cup of coffee:

And I finished a dress. I won't be making many dresses for a while. They're pretty hard and make me swear a lot. Skirts. I think we'll regress to skirts. But, see what I made???

Isn't it cute? Here's the back:

Guess what else happened that was wonderful? It finally rained!


DAILY BLISS: forgetting about most of my "special diet" today and having a cookie, having the storm wind whip my messy haircut around and make it even messier and a cute, new dress that I made

Daddy's Home!

Life is good.

We made our traditional Fathers' Day treat today - caramel-and-chocolate-covered pretzels! Yum!

Mayhem ensued:

It's always a mess, but it's always fun. I do love making messes...

DAILY BLISS: an exceptionally good pot of coffee (all to myself) and noise cancelling ear buds, coupled with Led Zeppelin for house-cleaning

Rebuffed

Said I to the storm clouds: "You look wild and powerful. I think you'd love it over at my house. I could sit on the porch and we could chat while you unleash your mysteries on my pink lemon tree. It's only two blocks over. It's not far at all....Please?"
Said the storm clouds to me: "You're right, I'm wild. Just to prove that you can't tame me, I'm only going to come one block over. But since you're nice and I think we have a lot in common, I'm going to give you 317 rain drops to smear into the dry sand that used to be your lawn."
Do you see that carved-out notch with no rain? That's where I am. Dry Gulch Historic District is what I think I might re-name my neighborhood.

(um...if it matters, that radar image was from weather.com)

DAILY BLISS: those storm clouds, even though I didn't get much rain and finding new jammies with cherries on them and ruffles on the shorts hem....I could not leave them in the store!

Flippety-doo-dah

Here's part of m'new haircut. It has lots of fun flippies. The rest of my face didn't want to be in a picture today. I tried to convince it, but I had to bargain hard just to put the eye in there:

And here's a photo of Emma's finished painting, as I promised some time ago.

And this is what living with an artist is like. There are papers like this all over my house.

I am particularly interested in the person with snorkeling gear, apparently under the water (note the bubbles) and holding a limp, maybe even dead girl. Death is a big theme for my drama queen. Also, I like the person foisting the huge baby with the pointy hat into a stroller. We have a couple of themes that run around on paper here. Wild Girl, Golden Hawk and Future Emma are the main characters of late. They are always having grand adventures. Why, just yesterday, Wild Girl was living at Lake Morton and riding on the backs of the swans. What a lovely life she must lead. Andrew observed that he certainly wouldn't want to let any of that gross water touch his skin. It was determined at that point that Wild Girl is used to that kind of thing and doesn't even mind if it gets in her eyes.

DAILY BLISS: Mom took me and the kids (our lonely selves without Daddy in town) out to dinner and I'm relishing the thought of some "me" time tonight - no productivity whatsoever - and that also means no sewing. Not even on the dress that's turning out pretty cute. None.

Today

Today, I'm on my own. The hubby is out of town, which used to happen all the time, but doesn't anymore. So, I'll be all alone-ly until Saturday and if anybody wants to call me and keep me company, feel free (hint, hint).
My big excitement today? There was a really big spider in one of my boxes of paper at work. I reached in to grab a fistful of paper and we were equally alarmed at each other's presence, the spider and I. I tried to offer her a way out on a piece of paper, a free ride to the front door, but she was entirely too shaken to trust me, so she just scurried out of the box. I looked for her because I wanted to take a picture so you could see just how big this spider was (amazing, really) but she was quite gone. I crawled around on the floor of my office in my secretary dress and shoes with my camera and a big, retro flashlight that I found in a cabinet somewhere. She wasn't even under the sofa. I think it's funny that you can see me and my camera reflected in the flashlight...

I never did find her, but she left me singing, "Paper Box Spider" a la The Beatles. However, that's not one of my favorite Beatles songs, so I only know the title lyrics and could only sing Paper Box Spider over and over and wonder if there was really a song called "Paperback Writer," or if I had just made it up for the sole purpose of turning it into a song called "Paper Box Spider," until it nearly drove me mad and I looked it up.
That's what life's like in my head. It's really a shame.
That rain never appeared yesterday. It didn't today either. I tell you, the sky stomped its feet and rumbled about glumly and made so much noise but couldn't work up enough of a fit to squeeze out a single drop of rain on my yard. Pity. The wind was very nice though. I spent a good portion of my afternoon like this:

It is so dry that, even up high on my porch, the wind only managed to blow dust into my eyes. You may be able to see in that photo that my hair is shorter now. I might try to get a picture of it, but I can't seem to make it quite as cute as my wonderful hair guy did...I had to go out and buy some "product," and we'll see how that goes. I'm not exactly a "product" kind of girl. My mom was kind of a hippie and so there are lots of kinds of girls that I am not, because I was not raised to be such. Some of those are problematic, in particular the fact that I now, since taking the No Pants Summer pledge (that I made up), have to carefully consider my choice of underpinnings. We shall just say in a tidy and delicate manner that this is a new type of consideration for me. And we shall not discuss it further. Unless it is deemed absolutely necessary to do so, based on the comments that are sure to follow.

DAILY BLISS: a quiet, overcast sky and the night all to myself

Still Catching Up

So, I'm still trying to catch up with life here. I'm sure it's obvious. I feel like I'm standing in the dressing room of life, hollering for an attendant and asking, "Can I get this life in another size, please? This one just won't slide up over my hips...." or something like that. There just isn't enough time to squeeze everything I want and am into what I have available to me, y'know?
In the interest of trying to keep things brief, here's a rundown of the highlights of our last week or so.
Thursday was the last day of school. Remember the first day? It wasn't so long ago, really.

So, summer is here and I'm not quite ready. My schedule chart is done and decorated with pretty clip art, but that's as far as I've gotten. I have not bought supplies yet for all the fun activities....I'll spare you the details. I am just trying to roll with it, but am rather frantic. However, I have managed to get Mondays off "for the summer and to save gas." This is not really a financial savings for me, as I won't be making up the hours. But it will help me to be more sane and to spend a little time with my babies, which is all I ever want in life anyway. I hope I can talk my boss into a three-day work week with one day at home for all the publishing I do. That could be a good trade-off and help me out a bit. I'm going to ease him into it, though. We'll start with this and try another phase of it once school starts.
Also of note, I finished the dress that Emma designed for herself.

It's orange, because that's her favorite color, and it has an apron made of vintage hankies for which we rummaged around in a bin. The white one is actually a biscuit towel. It says "hot biscuits" on it which is why I absolutely had to buy it and use it on her dress.

Excellent for twirling. Check out those sweet little bare feet!


The pattern was a little harder than I expected and the finished product is not very good. I am frustrated that I am not instantly good at this sewing business, but that's probably why I am now obsessed with it. Must. Conquer. This.
Let's see.....what else? I am enjoying the return of swimming lessons. This means that I get to sit at a table for 30 minutes every morning of the week and knit. I really do wish I could show you pictures. The yarn is absolutely delicious - it's a cotton/modal blend and it's silky and drapey and I'm really enjoying it. It's also Mary's gifty, so, it shall remain a secret until it is finished, sent and received.
And....since I have Mondays now, there will be sewing. Hancock's had an 88-cent pattern sale a couple of weeks ago. I have found that I really love the vintage re-issued patterns that several companies have. Dresses from the 40s and 50s were so lovely. I bought more patterns that weekend than my husband even knows about. So, don't tell him, 'k? But, as they roll off the machine (at a sickeningly slow pace and with many, many "opportunities for learning"), I'll let you see 'em all. It'll be fun.
I think that mostly catches us up.
Andrew started a photography class today. He really enjoyed it. It's at the art museum downtown and we stopped to feed the ducks at the lake with my brother, who lives right across the street from the museum. It was just what my heart needed. And there were baby ducks and geese just everywhere peeping and following us around. My favorite were a pair of baby geese that came up behind us just as we were leaving. Their honkers weren't quite developed, so they made a sort of warbling whistling noise and they even let the kids pet them! There was a baby duck that was tagging along with them. He didn't know that he was so tiny compared to his buddies.
And I'm off, now, to start preparing for the summer today - on my day off - you know, the summer that's already here? Maybe I'll be ready for it by tomorrow....

DAILY BLISS: local blueberries for lunch and the anticipation of a little rain

What A Weekend: Fourth and Final Chapter

In which a tiny artist is discovered.
Well, she's quickly un-tinying and we knew she had it in her all along.
Emma had her first art lesson with my aunt, the aforementioned entertainer and also a painter. They set up easels and canvases and Emma donned her beret. We were stunned at the results, but at the same time, it was not entirely unexpected that something like this would happen. But with just one lesson? Here. Let some photos explain it (some images are courtesy of my aunt, some courtesy of my mom - I was hosting knitting night on that evening).






This is not a shot of the final painting, but you can already see how amazing it is! I haven't been home in the daylight, so have not gotten a good picture of it. That's partly why it's taken me this long to post this....this final chapter in the tale of a weekend, just in time for the next weekend to begin. I promise a photo soon....
In the meantime, I will be getting my hair done and digging into my pile of paperwork. Oofda. It's big. Once I get it all in one place (it's hiding in little corners and tucked in small places throughout the house), I will probably take a picture of it. Seeing all the things I have been neglecting in one place, in concrete form, will probably explain the chaos that is my brain-over-the-last-couple-of-weeks. I have two dresses that I want to make for myself in the next couple of weeks, too. But I must, must, must take care of some of this other junk first.

DAILY BLISS: dinner out with my parents and black patent secretary shoes with white piping around the Mary Jane strap - bliss in each downward glance!