If this doesn’t say summer, I don’t know what does:

Those are not the first zucchini that we harvested! A couple of them ended up in a lovely quiche — so good. I think I spotted our first pepper from the bedroom window this morning. The flowers are at/from Ali’s! We’re constantly amazed — she has the most interesting collection of plants over there.

The kids have been busy:

The boys both had haircuts last week, and the girls are up next. Malina discovered my buttons — though not all of them yet! She was looking for pairs of buttons that she liked so we can make some earrings. I watched a couple of videos & bought materials for that endeavor last week… and we’ll get to it as soon as we can!

I’ve been working on my Alabama Chanin project — not every day, but most days.

I’ve been mostly concentrating on the bottom third of that piece. Progress is more discernible on the wrong side — the middle pic is from Tuesday, the one on the right was taken on the 21st. (Color, contrast, temperature, exposure, brightness are all over the place!)

I finally uncovered my copy of Elegant Stitches in a stack of books, so am reacquainting myself with the Decorative Cretan Stitch that is used on some of the “leaf” motifs. I’ll be dipping my toe into “armor beading” again soon, too.

I’ve also been working on blanket borders — crocheting the edge for Addie’s blanket, and knitting the edge for the Family Temperature Project blanket.

Rusty’s been teaching this week at The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, nearly at the top of the Door County peninsula, which he’s done for quite a few years now. He’s able to bring a guest, and it’s never quite worked out for me, so this year Ali went along. She wasn’t going to stay all week, so Kate, Maddy & I drove up yesterday to pick her up. (I also put my Florence Nightingale hat on & removed some stitches from Rusty’s arm where he’d had another excision to remove basal cell carcinoma.)

But guess what, Ali changed her mind and decided to stay for the rest of the week! So we went out for lunch & did a little shopping, then returned her to campus. She regrets that she didn’t sign up for a class, but she’s been drawing, reading… enjoying the quiet… “clearing.”

Oh, and we had ice cream — so many yummy flavors! This place has other food, too, but I think 90% of the customers are there for the ice cream.

On Saturday, Maddy & I are heading out for a little swing through the Northwoods for a couple of days. We’ll be stopping at Fred Smith’s Wisconsin Concrete Park, visiting a cousin or two, taking possession of my grandma’s old photos, meeting up with a high school classmate that I haven’t seen in 45 years +/- (and returning a book that I borrowed in 1976), stopping in to see my uncle, and possibly climbing inside a giant musky… and whatever else we find along the way.

Before it’s gone…

Last weekend (Sat-Mon), we all headed down to Madison for a couple of days for Addie’s graduation party. (I didn’t take a single picture at the party! There are pluses & minuses to that.) I didn’t finish his afghan, either, but I brought it along and I’ve been working on it!! He’ll have it before he heads to university next month.

We stayed at a “suite” hotel that had a pool & breakfast — very important when traveling with four kiddos!

There was an outdoor courtyard with plenty of seating, a gas fire pit, and even grills available for use.

The girls took the kids down to State Street on Sunday morning for smoothies and a stroll, while I made a big fruit salad to take to the party.

The party was great. My Aunt Arlene (my mom’s eldest sister), who turned 95 in April, was there, along with a handful of cousins. My Uncle Jim (my dad’s youngest brother) was also there. Amy & Bill, old friends of Sharon’s (and old family friends by extension) came, too. It was great to visit with everyone. Aunt Arlene brought me a little packet of photos of my mom — some I’d seen before, but there were a handful that were new to me, including one of her as a baby!

I haven’t been sewing every day, but fitting in what I can here & there.

I’m currently working on sewing a million whole bunch of seed beads in a circle.

Due to some scheduling conflicts, I had Wednesday off, so Maddy & I spent some time together. We went to a big local antique mall, and out to lunch. I found a bag of vintage American Bricks — actually, I found two, but only bought one. They are the “LEGO” of my childhood. We played with what remained of a set at my grandma’s, which had been given to my Uncle Bob when he had polio. I have that set, and now more…

It’s the kind of thing that Junah really gets into. (Plus, he left his phone at his dad’s yesterday!)

Engaged & occupied kids… playing in proximity together or alone…

…means chillaxing time for the adults! The weather was so great yesterday (and today) that we had a cookout, roasted s’mores, and enjoyed the Solo stove for the first time in a while.

The days are full… and flying by!!

The roofing project was just underway last time I wrote. It all went off without a hitch & on budget! They did a couple of little extras, too, such as patching a hole right under the uppermost peak at the front of the house. There’d been a small hole since who-knows-when, left when original ca. 1885 gingerbread-ish trim in the gable end was removed. It was barely noticeable until just the last few years, when likely a bird was pecking at it (probably after some bugs). There was no danger of a bird (or anything else) getting into the attic/house via that hole, but it was unsightly. FIXED!

When last we met, Rusty was doing some prep work in the basement for installation of a sliding door…

…it’s in!! There’s a new window just out of the frame to the right, too. The door to the left will be moved slightly, as well. We’re reclaiming an old room — apparently used as a bedroom in the ’70s — which we’ve always used for storage & wintering some plants. In addition to the new door, there will be heat tape installed under a new tile floor, a little bit of electrical work, and we’re calling it the Garden Room Annex and/or sometime guest room. It’s going to be a(nother) pretty great hang-out spot with a great view of the actual backyard garden, too.

And… there’s going to be a painting party at Ali’s house in a few weeks…

…there are some decisions to be made! Some of these colors have already been nixed, and there have been more samples applied since she shared this photo.

You may recall this photo that I posted a little while ago, in the midst of working on the girls’ bed pockets. I also shared it on FB/IG.

I received this wonderful comment from an old photography club acquaintance:

I love that so much!!

Speaking of the bed pockets, I have one of them all put together except for placement of the Velcro. I meant to take a photo to share today but, y’know, it’s been busy around here! I was also letting it sit because I wasn’t sure the cardboard (inserted to give it some structure) was sturdy enough… I did a little dumpster-diving at work & that all seemed a bit TOO sturdy. As I was showing Ali, I realized that the cardboard is easily replaced if it ever got bent out of shape!

I’m going to try to finish them both tonight… the kids will be over, anyway, and it’ll be great to get that off my table! Next up in the Little Working Museum is my Alabama Chanin car jacket project… only 21 days late to the 100 Days of Sewing (79 left). (I don’t really care about the number, just happy that the whole idea gave me a kick in the butt.)