Camp Days

My husband was working full-time at a 4H camp this summer and had a few weekends where he had to stay overnight. We don't live too far from the camp, but the hours, ending at 10 at night and getting up at 7 the next day, meant that it was just easier if he bunked with the counselors than came home to snuggle with me. On these days, I had nothing to occupy myself than whatever I wanted. I watched a lot of tv I had never seen before, and made a point to watch a couple movies I knew hubs wouldn't be interested in (lots of period films, or movies where I cry a lot).

I spent as long as I wanted in the fabric store. I worked on multiple projects at the same time and left them lying around. I ate pesto pasta three days in a row. I was a bachelorette with a cat in a one-bedroom apartment by myself. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, and I missed him every day--but it was a pretty neat opportunity to have the place all to myself.

I bought this purple-y satin fabric at Hancock's, thinking it is going to line a pencil skirt for me someday. And of course, kitty wanted to jump up on top of it and nap in the photo shoot.

Draw me like one of your French girls!

First successfully machine quilted piece: a wall-hanging/mini quilt in my favorite color combo right now. The teal I had in my stash, the white was purchased for this project, and the beautiful yellow was part of a dollar grab bag at an estate sale. 

I found this fun fabric at Walmart of all places. Tried to make a shirt out of it. Failed. Or rather, made a successful piece of wearable abstract art.

On one of the longer camp stretches, I hitched a ride with my parents--north, to Indiana!--to visit family. My aunt and uncle have a pretty nice setup on the lake.

And my parents are adorable. 

A leftover tomato became part of a spaghetti sauce experiment! I followed this guy's tutorial on how to peel and seed them, but just sort of peeled them my own way, since it was sadly already sliced.

All peeled and seeded! I have never done this before. It was a little more labor intestive than I expected, but fun!

A perfect meal for just me! Meatless homemade spaghetti sauce, penne, and cast-iron skillet foccacia bread. This was also the night I discovered Land Girls on Netflix. A period show where I cried a lot so it's a really good thing hubs was not home.

I learned how to dehydrate unused mushrooms. The internet is a beautiful thing.

And kitty saw a friend outside.

And stared very impolitely.

Now that camp days are over, I'm incredibly excited to have my husband back and free to hang out with me until school starts. But I'm not going to lie, I'm not quite as productive as I was during that time...

Aaaannnd... it's over

As a high school teacher, I started to feel the end of summer creeping up on me in that last week of July. Inservice will start on Tuesday for me: a week of meetings where teachers prepare themselves physially, spiritually, and emotionally for the new year. I've never been very far from the school during the summer months, but something about going back full time makes the end of the season so final and tangible that I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with it. I am incredibly excited to meet my new students and to see what new relationships form this year. It's my second year teaching, so I'm also super pumped to walk into that building on the first day with at least an inkling of knowing what I'm doing.


So now that it's August, it is really final. Did I do it? Did I live up to my summer to-do list and enjoy every minute of my 2.5 month paid vacation? I think so. I may have missed a few items along the way, but on the whole, it was a very enjoyable time and I'm happy everything worked out the way it did.

I spent a lot of time in this space this summer: my teeny tiny "studio." At the time, it was really just half of our bedroom. It has since been taken down and stuff into various boxes. We're moving apartments in just a week! ...And guess what the guest room is going to be? (a studio/office/guestroom)

My little library of sewing books got taken over with library books for a time.

Here is my dress form, whom I have named Lucy, wearing one of my favorite sale purchases from Target. Sometimes if I have nothing I'm currently making, I will put a random dress on Lucy so she doesn't feel too naked.

And of course, further down the bookcase, a mess of fabric and slightly organized patterns. See that cute pink and yellow floral off to the side? It was a beautiful flannel I bought at Hancock's that I envisioned making into a beautiful fall Wiksten top. However, I cut my pieces bigger than I should have, expecting to do french seams, which I couldn't make work.

It's all in the way you look at these sewing "failures." If I was trying to make a slightly loose-fitting tova dress to wear with leggings and boots this fall, I didn't meet my goal. But if I was trying to make a billowy, never-wear-in-public house dress/muu-muu, I was incredibly successful.

My sewing machine is a brother. As in, when it acts a little fidgety, I exclaim, "oh brother!" My serger, however, needs a name. 

Here are the library books that didn't make it into the bookcase. I didn't read half of them, but this stack made me feel pretty scholarly, so of course I took a grainy iphone photo.

If these pictures indicate anything, my main activities this summer were sewing and reading. Specifically, Agatha Christie, George R.R. Martin, and Douglas Adams for fun, and lots of stuff on Revelation and reading the Bible as Lit for work. 

I'm on the last book of Game of Thrones, and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared to finish it. When I do, it will be years until I read the next one. And he's got two or three more to write, I believe. I have never read a series that is so current that it's not completed yet! I'm not sure how I'm going to cope.

I hope your summer has also included lots of library trips and days inside crafting! Or maybe I hope that you had more days outside than I did. I am, admittedly, still really pale.

Progress

Progress is one of my favorite words and concepts. I love the idea of being able to visually see forward movement on a project, an ambition, a goal. That's why I like lists so much, I'm sure. The visual representation of checking something off of a list gets me so jazzed, and I'm excited to share with you today that I have been ticking off a few things, despite my blog absence!

I am one of those people who can't stand to sit still for long. It's a trait I really like about myself and I feel like I can always be making “progress” on something. I'm often making jewelry or embroidering something while watching a movie, folding laundry, or making something. I can't not do anything--and it drives people crazy sometimes.

1. Read Books 

1a. Design Sponge at Home: Grace Bonney.

(loved it, the photos were beautiful and the projects were fantastic. I did a couple of them, but more on that later.)

1b. A Clash of Kings: George R.R. Martin

(obsessed over it, cried about a lot of it, and freaked out with my husband, who has read them all before. He likes to take my predictions of what is going to happen, and then I get to see if my ideas line up with George. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. Once I finished this one, I just couldn't stop, so I picked up the third one from my local B&N and obsessed over that one too. I spent an entire glorious Saturday doing nothing but reading, and now I'm only about 50 pages away from the end. I have obsessed, cried, and freaked out through this one too. Sometimes these books are hard to read but maybe that's a mark of how well Martin has written these characters—I care about them so much!)

1c. The Western Canon: Harold Bloom

2. Be Active

2a. (free!) Movies at the Park

2b. Make my own clothes

(made a couple circle skirts! Will show later....)

2c. Host some Crafternoons

(Proud of this one. My friend Lori and I have had not one, but TWO crafternoons together and they have both been incredibly productive!)

2d. Art Lessons with my Nieces: Because I have some really awesome nieces.

3. Follow Tradition

3a. Pool time/attempt to tan/fail as tradition dictates

3b. blueberry picking

(I picked blueberries when the in-laws were in town and made Smitten Kitchen's blueberry crumb bars. They turned out fantastic! I ate the remainder of my blueberries too fast, however, and didn't end of freezing any of them... oh well!)

3c. float trip

3d. catch a lightning bug

For more on the crafternoons, check back in a couple of days! May your summers be productive and full of fun and relaxation!

3e. visit family