July 16: Happy N's B'day!

Well, Nate is now 15! His wonderful Grand Camp friends have been making much of him and steak tips are marinating in the fridge. On Thurs/Fri night/morning they all went to see the last HP movie, getting home around 2, and Andy also flew back from his LV conference on the same night, so last night they both went to bed by 9. Today is a quiet, still, sunny, going-to-be-hot morning, and I thought I'd post, partly to help me grasp the summer, which seems to be slipping blithely away!

I have certainly been ENJOYING the summer--since it arrived around July 1, really--before then it was truly a fleece and bonfire summer, grey and chilly. That is done! But I'm also a doer and I've got a list of things I wanna DO, so here they are:

--I have finished Andy's Christmas socks (he got the yarn and a promissory note; there was no time limit) and a bonus pair of booties that I started at the Retreat when the orange yarn was too stringy for adult socks. Pic to follow.


--I have made three batches of strawberry jam, tho we were foiled in our attempts to pick our own berries.


--I have cleaned Silas's room within an inch of its life in preparation for its reincarnation as MY room again.

--I have finished Caroline's b'day nightie. I discovered that I can set up sewing on the back deck, thereby enjoying the lovely weather AND sewing, so that turned me on to all kinds of sewing dreams. . . see PENDING below!

--I have finished all 782 pages of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Suzanna Clarke, and also read a very inspiring AP Lit. teacher's guide.

PENDING I have

--two dress patterns I hope to play with and make a few dresses from;

--7 yards of lovely decorator fabric from Marden's for curtains in the study as a preference to repainting the room;

--done one sleeve cap on Nimbus (which fits PERFECTLY in the body, yay yay)--too loose and bunchy; dug around for advice and then done a second--a little too few stitches so there are a few gaps and some pulling, and therefore I have plans to take out cap #1 and redo it with about 48 stitches so it is JUST RIGHT and then ditto that for cap #2 (whereupon I have a hunch I will have run out of yarn and need to track down more!). . .

--AND my b'day cashmere, which needs to be made into a hat for ME and I'd also like to make some Norwegian mittens! So!

Upcoming are Dad's 80th b'day celebration in Casco with the family, several curriculum work days (money, money, money!), Aunt Joan's 80th in PA with Ann and Mom, and then Julie's week up here too. So there will not be too many uninterrupted work stretches, but that's okay. I am enjoying being Crafty McCrafterson, so here I go. Gotta love summer!