summer baking

I admit, I sometimes fantasize about a pre-industrial sort of life. Then I bask in the cool air conditioning in the midst of summer's warmth and figure that I am ok where I am.

In summer's past, when I've not had air conditioning, the thought of cooking indoors, heavy foods, or turning on the oven and baking was not really appealing. But lately we have been craving comfort foods (I blame this entirely on the Food Network show, Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives. Dangerous, dangerous show ;) So last night we had home-made biscuits and sausage gravy for dinner.





I think air-conditioning might make me fat.

lavender's purple, silly, silly

not blue

the lavender plant I started from seed this year has it's first flowers!

catching sunbeams

Try as he might, Finn couldn't quite grasp the rays of light that shown through the window shade.

We had a nice weekend with visiting friends, a little bit of sunshine, and some good relaxation.

This week I'm without my sewing machine. Maybe next week too. I feel a bit sad without it. I'm filling my free time with planning the school year (which does not need extensive plans for kindergarten, but I would like to start the habit of planning our weeks now), reading books, and watching old episodes of Arrested Development. Such a time waste, that tv, I know, but that show was hilarious.

Time to tidy up. Happy Monday!

a mental image

Imagine you are walking along a nicely kept, quiet, suburban street, and you come upon a woman in her front yard. She's spinning wildly, shrieking, and all the while spraying with what looks like a Windex bottle into the air.

That woman was me.

Yesterday I discovered that we have a Japanese Beetle problem. They are devouring my roses and a tree out front and I'm terrified they are going to go for my dahlias next. I hate these bugs. I found out that if you spray them with soapy water you can kill them, so I went out armed with my Mrs. Meyers all-purpose cleaning solution. (Apparently it's a little more "all-purpose" than I realized.) When I was spraying the ones on the tree, they started flying around and I feared an attack, so I just sprayed away. My neighbors probably think I've gone Betty Draper.



Ahhhh.... the joys of gardening.

road knit

We're back from our visit to Uncle Ryan's. It was a very lovely time visiting with family, old friends, and blog-land friends too!

I got some knitting done in the car and finished this sweater.



Looks good, eh?



How 'bout this one?



Ok, the first two pictures are taken by John and the last is on the timer. I couldn't figure out why it was so blurry, but then realized that it was the wind. It's been so windy lately and it just kept shaking the camera. The sweater is not completely finished, there should be buttons somewhere and ends woven in, but over all, I like my "swingy" sweater (which I did in stockinette instead of a garter stitch, and shortened the sleeves - I think it makes a nice layering piece).

Well, cranky baby needs some bed.

a math equation

one

one plus one is two

and then one plus one is five



we're on vacay this week. Happy 4th, and see ya Monday :)

a new skirt

The J. Crew catalog came in the mail this week. Flipping through, I saw this skirt, and thought I could probably make something like it myself.



I used some black & white seersucker. (this pic is not the best - I'm all wrinkled from wearing it all day and too lazy to bother ironing and retaking the shot) I ended up not doing a drawstring and making it more of an a-line. And though I was shooting for avoiding maternity wear (which I am good at inadvertantly achieving) I used a thick piece of elastic for the waist that I had purchased for making maternity pants but never ended up using.



It's nice because you have all the comfort of an elastic waist band, but because it's so thick, it sits up without having to be cinched like thinner elastic. I think it gives it more of a polished look.

Happy Weekend!!