cloth.paper.string

snippets of summer

What we did on our summer vacation...

...wove wildflower crowns...

...waded in the salt marsh...

...celebrated the graduate...
 
...rocked out in the hammock (in a ridiculous little yellow suit)...

...shared time with the family...

...rested (holding tightly to our new friend the horse)...

to the salty sea

We're heading to the ocean.  We could travel like a message in a bottle -- across the Great Lakes, through the locks and dams, into the St Lawrence Seaway, out to the big Atlantic Ocean, and down the coast where we just might wash up onto shore of the little island my parents call home -- but we only have ten days and we're keen on reaching our intended destination, so we're hopping a plane. 

While living by the lake is in so many ways like living by the ocean, I miss the saltiness of the sea -- the smell, the taste.  After her first experience eating briny olives last night, I have a hunch my little salt-loving daughter will too be smitten by the sea.  Enjoy the coming days!

diversion

The stack of to-fix and to-finish in the sewing room is piling up.  My sweet's pants need patching, the hound's pack needs mending in preparation her upcoming backpacking adventure, two pairs of pants for the little one need stitching, and a shirt for me needs finishing.  But after seeing the little miss swaddle a doll in a scrap of flannel, I realized that the very most important sewing project was a little quilt for the little one's baby doll.  She's just started taking interest in feeding her, putting her to bed, and giving her a bath (by tossing her into the tub while I'm taking a shower - oops!).  The blanket is a quick quilted sandwich of flannel and superbuzzy fabric.  The little miss let out a giggle when she realized she could put the baby to bed.  A perfect thanks for her mama.

sunporch pucker

We've finally begun to make our sunporch a place where the little one can roam without visions of extreme lead poisoning running through my head.  Every surface will be painted -- from floor to ceiling, as well as three walls of huge sliding windows.  Of course, the rest of the house is in complete shambles.  A sunporch couch that came with the house is in the dining room, and because it's in a new place it's suddenly THE place for the cat and the babe to be.  They're loving it as they love each other (or at least as the little one tries to show her love for the ever-so-patient feline). 

And see those cushions?  I'm aiming to recover the faded floral with a fun sunbrella stripe as soon as I muster up the nerve.  Stripes, zippers, and fabric that feels like it is thick enough to be an awning.  Why not?  I'm sure I'll find plenty of reason real soon.

to the beach

Finally, after weeks of fog and rain, we've been lured out to the beach for the first shoes-off toes-in trip of the season.  So so good!

And, after what seems like ages away from cloth.paper.string, I'm looking forward to sharing a bit of the backlog in the coming days.