I had Friday off, so my weekend started early! Man, what a scorcher… the heat is supposed to break today, thankfully.

Junah hung out with me for most of Friday. He was overdue for a haircut, and possibly influenced by the weather, he went total buzz! This is one of the photos I snapped after I told him to “look at the camera like you love it”! That’s something my mother would always say, and the resulting expressions are always amazing (even if it doesn’t exactly read “love”)! Isn’t he adorable?

Love you, Mom, and miss you!! Eleven years. sheesh. xoxo

On Saturday, Kate & I had our long-awaited birthday shopping/lunch date with Malina & Ginny. They’ve been patiently waiting since March & May (respectively), but part of the delay was waiting for them to move into their new house. They each picked out a few super-cute outfits — Malina very sporty, Ginny very frilly — and a blanket for their beds, along with some cute hair clips & a few other gee-gaws. I’m not sure if Ginny’s been in a fitting room before, but it was definitely Malina’s first time & she was very excited about that. We all had so much fun! They chose Noodles for lunch and it’s been quite a while since I’d been there, so of course it was pretty tasty.

On Friday, I cut out all the fabric pieces for the girls’ bed pockets and started sewing up on Saturday. The printed instructions were great for cutting all the pieces (pretty good visual) but I am so grateful that there’s a video tutorial for the making-up!

I spent quite a bit of Sunday in the apartment getting ready for Maddy’s arrival — which is happening later today (WOOHOO)!!! It’s not all done, but Ali will be coming by to clear out the rest of their stuff today (or tomorrow). I even found the lost remote for the DVD player & got all the components working again. Even with lots of water/sit-in-front-of-the-ac breaks, I was sweating buckets… it’s so flippin’ hot.

Anyway, while Kate made spring rolls for supper, I spent a little time at the sewing machine again last night (thankfully, I didn’t need the iron). The exteriors are all sewn up, except for sewing in the bottom. After that, I have to make up the linings, assemble them with cardboard inserts for sturdiness (I’ve already cut them), and then figure out where to sew the second piece of velcro on the straps. I’ll have to do a home visit/consultation to figure out the best placement.

I attended my first protest on Saturday, and I wore my mom’s favorite pin.

It was Rusty’s first protest since the Viet Nam war!

We drove down to Oshkosh to attend the protest there, as there wasn’t one in Appleton* and Green Bay’s wasn’t until much later in the day. Attendance was estimated at 1,500!! The energy was amazing, and there wasn’t much of a counter-protest. We saw some friends, some great signs & t-shirts… and Captain America skateboarding up & down the main drag! Many people drove by honking their horns and waving flags & signs.

It was very well organized, with volunteers helping to keep crosswalks open & others distributing bottles of water. The weather was much better than predicted, and quite warm!

We made our signs on Saturday morning, and affixed flags before we left home. Kate also pulled out some yard signs from artist Patrick Martinez a few years ago — they were 2-sided, which was great. Kate carried one that said, “People Give Up Their Power By Thinking They Don’t Have Any,” a quote attributed to Alice Walker, and mine said, “Hate Is Too Great A Burden To Bear,” which is attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.

There were a couple of “leave one/take one” bins in the square for signs, and we left our handmade signs. Later, having lunch just up the street a ways, Kate spotted one of them!

*There wasn’t a protest in Appleton due to the 74th annual Flag Day parade — the nation’s oldest. I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t some protesters there, but I haven’t seen anything about that.

It was one of those weekends with a good balance of relaxation & productivity.

The two productive things I’m most happy about are cleaning the oven & getting the rest of the garage sorted so my car could park inside! I also cleaned out/organized some of the kids’ toys (this in prep for the Christmas tree that will be put up soon), took a few more bags of “stuff” for donation, and did some laundry. I was able to remove a big buttery stain right in the middle of one of my favorite shirts — it thwarted me the first time through the washer & dryer (probably should have not put it in the dryer), so I was very happy to succeed (thanks to OxiClean MaxForce Stain Remover)!

The kids were over for a few hours on Saturday night, which is always fun. The girls made a countdown Christmas garland & some ornaments (one of the wire trees is up in the kitchen already)… I’d been to Target, y’know, and always get hooked by those Mondo Llama craft kits!

I saw the ISS fly over a couple of times…

…even with the full moon. Look at how green the grass still is!

I somehow managed to squeeze in an almost 2-hour nap on Saturday. I was so surprised that I slept that long, but I think the stress of the previous week-and-a-half caught up with me.

I have been knitting absolutely nothing, though I am gathering some items for a little creative play (not knitting). I’ll be sitting at Ann’s for a while later today doing laundry and I threw the small tote with the Temperature Blanket in the back of the car… seaming shall commence!??

The weather continues to be mild… the sun is shifting…

The Garden Room positively glows in the morning — especially when so many golden leaves are still holding on outside. The amaryllis were brought up from the basement last weekend (on the square table, among other things), and there are already two with visible leaves! I think it’s a little late (oops!) to expect blooms at Christmas, but hey… I’ll take blooming flowers at any time this winter.

That sunlight also illuminated my breakfast on Saturday morning.

It was as delicious as it looks.

After work on Friday, I stopped at an estate sale that advertised “yarn galore” and “fabric galore.” I arrived a little after 4p and the sale had been going on since 9a… and there was still yarn & fabric galore. And it was the good stuff! So many kits, books, magazines. It was mind-boggling, really, and also a bit pricey for an estate sale (IMHO)… but it was quality stuff, organized & kept in excellent condition, so I get it. There wasn’t anything that I had to have. But everything under $50 was half-price on Saturday, so I went again.

The only yarn I was interested in, really, was some Rowan Felted Tweed… but I didn’t really need it, y’know? Luckily, it was gone by the time I arrived. There was still plenty of Kaffe Fassett fabric, though, and that’s what really caught my eye, and what I returned for. There’s my array — the cuts are all a yard or less. I have no plan.

I never wrote about my Jet-setter Birthday Trip to London two years ago… a few weeks after we returned from our epic island-hopping trip to Scotland (which I also never wrote about). The trip to London was quick — I flew over on Sunday, Oct. 30th & back on Thursday, Nov. 3rd. The main impetus for the trip was a show at the Fashion + Textile Museum, Kaffe Fassett: The Power of Pattern.

That’s a snippet of the main exhibit floor — pattern, indeed! Anyway, I think I might have a few fat quarters of KF fabric from a while back, and now I have more. Honestly, it just makes me happy to look at it! Instant mood-lifter.

Here’s a mood for ya, a text message from the other day…

Apparently, FU means the same thing as STOP! haha. Naturally, I reported it as junk. Just over a week of this to tolerate. Hang in there, y’all!!