September Update

After a hot, dry, humid, and busy summer, things started to let up a bit in September. The second half of the month brought cooler weather, and the lessening of gardening chores meant there was more free time for exploring. We had the most amazing rainbow in the backyard, a full arch! It didn't last long but we all ran outside to enjoy it while it was there. 

The light is changing. Cora sat on the couch long enough for me to take this photo, but don't let it fool you, within a minute she was back setting up horse jumps all over the floor. We got a new couch! After the previous one being abused for 14 years, I did a ton of research and found my dream couch. It's a beautiful color (more forest green than how it looks in the picture) and it's high enough off the ground that cat toys and dust can't hide away for years underneath it.

So far the cat has stayed away from scratching it - he just scratches the carpet instead, but that's fine, because the carpet was 10% of the price of the couch. I've always thought of rugs as disposable in our house, because eventually they become so ruined by cat claws, spills, and scissors-wielding children that they need to be replaced. This is not the season of life for wall-to-wall carpeting.

I love working from home so much. I have a beautiful home office with lots of light, and cozy bookshelves, plants and candles. I have an adjustable desk and can move around during meetings while wearing comfy pants. I get super grumpy on the days I have to go into the actual office, which is dark, gray, and cold. I come home exhausted and headachy. Ugh! Ideally I'd have a fully remote job, but after 13 years with the same company, it's hard to walk away from the benefits and responsibility I've earned over the years. If anyone has ideas for making office life better, let me know!

Inspired by Karen I deadheaded my marigolds and made this garland. It was so pretty! Unfortunately it lasted less than 24 hours, and I found all the flowers lying in a pile on the ground. I didn't use thick enough thread, so I'll have to try again with better supplies.

I dry as many extra flowers as I can throughout the year. There are so many beautiful crafts you can do with them, but you know... time. I sell them as dried bouquets and they do pretty well. These flowers are from last year and still going strong. Most of the dried flowers sold in craft stores have been dyed or otherwise chemically preserved.

The kids and I went to the local community fair, which we do almost every year because it's close by and free. I didn't enter any knitting this year because I haven't finished many projects. It's Mary's life goal to win a blue ribbon though, so she got all kinds of ideas about what she wants to make for next year. Because it's a small local fair, the competition is not... fierce. As long as she can follow through, she has a good chance of getting that ribbon. Also: miniature horses!

We also went to an RV show. Now, we have no intention of buying an RV. The ones that can fit 4 people are too big and expensive, and I do not want a house-on-wheels to maintain. They are basically playhouses, so the kids LOVED them. They pretended that they lived in one and cooked fake dinner. If you haven't seen an RV lately, they are NICE. Some of them have multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, and SECOND FLOORS. Inexplicably they seem to all be designed in a "farmhouse" style. Oh, and the most expensive one we saw cost $230,000!!!!

Motivated by my relatively quick finish of my last quilt, I continued on to working on my last remaining quilt in progress. This one is made up of t-shirts, and if you can't zoom in to see, most are at least 20 years old. I have another t-shirt quilt that I made of even older shirts (circa 1996) that I've used for so long that it's literally falling apart. I had to completely replace the binding a few years ago. This one should be equally cuddly. I don't have any scraps big enough to do the sashing and backing, so I had to order some fabric, along with batting. I am trying to whittle down my fabric collection as my tastes have changed over the years and I want to make room for the new. A big scrap quilt is likely needed to finally use everything up.

At the end of the month I had my real vacation: a relaxing trip with my friends to what we have started calling the "craft cabin" (although it's a different rental house every year). This year we went to the mountains in Virginia. The view from our balcony was stunning, if cloudy most of the time. The quiet and birdsong made me fall in love with this place - I will definitely be back to this area. 

I could stare at this view all day. It was wet outside the majority of the time, but I made sure to sit outside as much as possible. And the fall weather made it seem extra cozy inside.

We made candles! It was fairly easy and I plan to keep an eye out for interesting containers at thrift stores to fill with wax.

The house was marketed as "ski-in", which obviously we couldn't do, but that meant we were a walkable distance to the ski slopes. The resort runs the lift for mountain bikers, but it was closed that day, leading to a very quiet and lovely walk. Can you see the brown mountain bike trails crisscrossing the slope? Going down one of these must be terrifying. Most of the runs require full-face helmets and displayed all sort of concerning warnings. (This is also why I don't ski!)

I hope everyone is having a lovely fall. I find that transitional seasons give me the most energy, meaning lots of projects planned for the future; but who knows when they will actually get done. The fun is the planning! Wishing you all beautiful weather and fabulous reads!

Things in August

There seems to be a great societal debate about what constitutes "fall". I'm of the belief that weather dictates fall; if it's 97 degrees in September, as it has been, it is not fall, I don't care how many pumpkin spice flavored items the store puts out. There are also people for whom fall is merely a state of mind, the end of August being fair game for spooky and autumn decor. Which type are you?

Let's travel back to August, a quintessential summer month. The first week was spent at a lake in Virginia with my entire family: 8 adults and 7 kids from 2-9 years old. All of the kids cried at least twice, as so happens when the cousins live off marshmallows and exhaust themselves playing. They did have a great time running around in a pack and swimming in the lake; as per usual, the adults continued to cook, clean, do laundry, and break up fights just like at home.

No one complained about being cold. Because this lake is HOT. Now is when I tell you that's used for cooling a nuclear power plant, but that's fine. Right? The water is nearly 90 degrees, which is just a little cooler than a hot tub. You had to get out of the water to cool off. I love kayaking almost more than anything, and I was able to escape a few times out on to the water. Other than that, we stayed at the rental house most of the time, due to the impossibility of wrangling that many people.

After vacation #1, we came back home for a week, then packed up and left again for vacation #2. Now that the kids are a little older, we took the risk of driving 8+ hours to western Massachusetts (the Berkshires area.) I just love New England, with the beautiful scenery, history, and architecture. The girls were surprisingly cool with all the old houses we visited. The first house we visited was Naumkeag, which definitely had the best gardens. And that view!

They had several cut flower gardens, which I examined closely. Their zinnias looked great; I definitely need to grow some lime colored ones next year.

Our rental house was on a lake! I spent as much time as possible on the screened porch looking at this soothing view. Although - photos lie. There is a highway on the other side of the hill, and it was quite loud with traffic day and night. Otherwise, this might have been my perfect lake spot. The lake was fairly small which meant no motorboat traffic. I even went kayaking a few times and was the only person on the water. {Sidenote: My dream lake is in the woods, free from motorized boats and annoying neighbors, and quiet. If you know this place, let me know! I have yet to find it.}

The mornings were consistently misty and rainy, but the view remained beautiful.

The quaint and quirky house was built in 1925. It was so charming and cozy on the inside. My favorite part of vacations is getting to stay in different and unique houses, and this one did not disappoint. If only we could have transported it away from the road!

We also visited a mansion called Ventfort Hall. Despite its imposing presence, only portions of the interior have been restored. There were no gardens at all! Eventually this will be an amazing place to visit, so check it out in about 10 years.

My main reason for wanting to visit the area was to see Edith Wharton's home, the Mount. Wharton is one of my favorite classic authors, and because of her interest in interior and garden design, I've wanted to visit for years. The house did not disappoint! Of the homes we visited, this one was the most well-preserved and presented. There were ample signs explaining the history of the home and about Wharton's life.

The gardens were smaller than I had imagined, but still very well done. We even lucked out with a blue sky when we visited.

The lake house came with kayaks and a paddleboat, which were a hit. After one try, the kids refused to swim in the lake that was filled with vegetation, so the boats were used every day. Mary completed her first solo kayak outing!

Our final destination of the vacation was to the Hancock Shaker Village. Oh, I loved it! Don't get me wrong, I prefer to live in an era with antibiotics, but the idea of making your own living and creating your own buildings, food, baskets, textiles, and tools is completely fascinating. 

Particularly dangerous for me was weaving on this loom. Mary even tried it out. Why dangerous? Have you met a fiber enthusiast? I might be a prolific knitter and already own two spinning wheels, but that hasn't stopped me researching looms. There is very likely one in the cards for me.

At this point I should mention that I had been starting to feel sick with a sore throat. I was tired and hot while walking around the buildings, more so than the temperature would cause. So yes, my friends, it turns out I caught Covid on this vacation. Whomp whomp. I managed to escape its claws for over 3 years, but it finally caught me. It was miserable riding back in the car for 9 hours the next day, with only gas station toilet paper to blow my nose with. Luckily, no one else got sick despite being trapped in the car with me for an entire day.

The flowers continued to bloom, but took a hit from the super dry summer and heat. I had a wonderful friend come water a few times while we were gone to ensure their survival. I'm going to take some time this winter to really think about how much work I can afford (time-wise) to put into my flower business. I was incredibly busy this summer, often working at least an hour in the evenings after working a full day at my job and attending to children. 

And then, just like that, summer was over. BOTH kids are in elementary school this year. I won't lie, leaving the daycare that we have been going to for over 9 years was emotional. Some of the same teachers and staff helped raise both girls, and we'll miss them. On the bright side, I've gained an hour and a half of time back every day because I don't have to drop off and pick up, and we don't don't have that large bill every week.

The fact that this point is coming halfway in September shows how the month is going. With back to school and everyone scheduling work meetings after labor day, I haven't had a spare minute! My job is very meetings based (unfortunately) and it's not uncommon to have blocks of 3 hours with no break. But, I do have a short trip coming up that I am very much looking forward to. I hope you are all back in the swing of things!

Flowers and Parades

Fresh off our August vacation, I will attempt to test the limits of memory and recall what happened in July. Of course, there were flowers. In July things really get kicking, including the weather. If you are familiar with the mid-Atlantic, you know that it's the humidity that really gets you. We had several days of 90+ temperatures with 80-100% humidity. On those days I usually don't start working in the garden until it's starting to get dark, which is a race against time now that the days are getting shorter again. The flowers though, the flowers are amazing.

We live in an odd location. The county is a suburb of Washington, DC, contains about a million people, and is one of the most diverse in the entire country. But if you travel to the edges, you're suddenly in farmland and the vibe is completely different. There is a local 4th of July parade that we go to every year that features the odd tradition of every float throwing masses of candy to the kids. It's a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras, with children going nuts and swarming the street. It also features Santa at the end, as all parades in July should. 

Literally anyone can sign up to be in this parade. It's mostly local businesses and fire engines. One year there was a grocery store delivery semi truck. This year there was a bunch of kids hanging out in a dumpster. The bar is low, my friends.

The dahlias have started producing and I'm reminded why this is such a popular flower. They are truly showstoppers. The bugs also love them which necessitates putting organza bags over each bud to protect the flowers. The bag strings are always getting caught when I try to pull them off which leads to much colorful language. 

The above is "Edinburgh" which is my favorite. Below is "Hollyhill Black Beauty" which is also my favorite. The cool thing about dahlias is that they just continue to get better and better as we get into fall. The same plant will produce flowers that look completely different from the first blooms.

It's all about the angle, right? If I crouch down in the corner of the yard, I get get a photo that disguises all the weeds and McMansions, making it look like the garden is a lush paradise. You can't even see all the bug damage!

For some reason my workplace decided to have Take Your Kid to Work Day in the middle of the summer instead of on the actual day in April. Mary was already signed up for camp that day, but I took Cora and she absolutely loved it. Between making slime, putting Mentos into Coke bottles to make a fountain, and watching fun science tricks, she did not get an accurate picture of what work is like. I have never gotten to make slime at work! The whole thing must be to trick kids into wanting to have a job one day, and then when they get there it's like, "HAHA actually you just have to sit at this computer all day and listen to people complain. No, you can't just make fire turn different colors."

I managed to escape giant zucchini for years, but this year the girls wanted their own garden. They planted some seeds and watered them a few times, and then proceeded to forget about the whole thing. Still, zucchini grew because this plant will survive the apocalypse. They resulted in some delicious chocolate zucchini "bread" (i.e., cake) and something called a zucchini pie, which was like a crustless quiche. Both were delicious.

At the beginning of the year I set out to finish up some lingering projects, and I've finished most of them! I completed an art journal, and this month I finished the last page in my watercolor sketchbook. Almost all of the paintings were from tutorials, so I'm hoping to branch out now and start painting my own compositions. 

I also finished my quilt! The quilting went way faster than I thought because I ended up with some free time over the long 4th weekend, when the kids were at their grandparents and I was blessedly alone in the house. I got the whole thing done in a few hours while listening to an audiobook. I had originally planned to hang it on the wall, but it's migrated down to the couch for now. Next up, I have ANOTHER unfinished quilt to work on. After I finish that, you can guess what I'll do. Start another and then take 10 years to finish it.

On to the last month of summer break; school starts in 21 days!