v

basking in the glow of the bedside lamp.

theater and blueberries

a fun-filled sunday starting with my niece's theater camp play, which was great!  that's her up front in the green neck tie. so proud of her!!

then brian and i decided that it was perfect blueberry picking weather-overcast, a bit drizzly and coooooool. we are possibly the world's slowest blueberry pickers, so cool weather sure beats beating down sun!   this place is great-they don't spray the bushes. they use those bug pheromone collecting bag thing-ys, and when we arrived we heard some cacophonous bird song! we found out that they are broadcasting the sounds of birds in extreme distress which keeps blueberry-eating birds away from the bushes. really interesting! they started doing this in california where birds were eating up to 40% of grape crops, and after using the bird songs, they were only losing 2%! pretty cool!

so we picked 6 1/2 pounds(those buckets are fuller than they look!) , and came home and made blueberry crisp. yuuuuuuummy!!

so nice to have this cooler weather. i know it's summer and it's supposed to be hot, but this year has been a killer!!

happy sunday!

dumb in dummerston

on sunday we took a road trip to dummerston, vermont where there was a vintage camper rally going on. we went to it last year and there were so many cool old campers. i was excited to get some great pictures!  so we drive into the campground, which is looking suspiciously empty, only to find out that everybody had left around noon time and we were there at 2:00!!!!! so disappointing, but we did see this cute little coleman camper that looks like it could fit in your back pocket.

so we did some exploring and stopped at this covered bridge in dummerston where lots of folks were cooling off in the river. we also got some cheese  at the grafton village cheese shop-seriously delicious !

i have, however, smartened up a bit in the quilting department. i originally found a great tutorial for the x and + quilt here. it's a great tutorial, but the blocks are only 7 1/2" square. at that rate i would never finish the quilt! so in the middle of the night the other night i started figuring in my head how to make it bigger and got up and wrote all of the measurements down, rather proud of myself and my mad math skills! the next day i made a paper mock-up, thankfully, because my figuring was complete bull$*&#! was i dreaming or what?!

so i have since found this 
which yields a 13" square. that's more like it! hopefully after i make a few more blocks i'll have this out of my system for a while so i can return to my secret project, which i should be working on!!

happy hump day!

uh oh, new obsession...

inspired by this.

andddd...tonight is a FULL MOON!! july's full moon is called the "buck moon" because young buck deers' antlers start to poke through this month. also called a "thunder" moon .

happy monday!

summer knitting

last summer i went to a yard sale and struck gold. three skeins of blue sky 
yarn for $2 each!!! wow! (ok, sometimes when i make a link and then continue to write, all of the writing becomes the link too, so i had to go to a new line...computer dummy here, folks!)

so i've been thinking and thinking what to do with this absolutely gorgeous yarn, and i finally decided on a scarf. i thought that i should make something extravagant, something fancy, something lacy. 
but when it comes right down to it, i am not a fancy kind of girl. so, i decided with my new-found love of garter stitch, i would just make a very very luxurious, amazing, soft garter stitch scarf! i know i will wear this a lot, and it will be an easy breezy summer project.

happy thank god it is cooler sunday!!!!!

a dapper lad

the other day, as we were going from air conditioned place to air conditioned place, we stopped into
nahcotta . 

i saw something there i HAD to have...

i went home and  counted out the two big jars of coins that i have been saving forever and came up with a
 big part of the cost, so i got it! he now hangs in our kitchen, and i just LOVE this piece!!!!! the artist is kelly vivanco.

i think he is very dapper and sort of bavarian looking. maybe again it's the influence of reading "the wind in the willows" this summer , although "toad" was my least favorite character. i don't know, i've never had a frog thing before!

 as i was picking this bouquet of flowers this afternoon, a hummingbird was only a couple of feet away from me, going flower to flower. i held very still and hoped it would land right on my bouquet, but he finally noticed me and flew off. it's so interesting to see all of the life that exists around the garden. the bees and spiders and hummingbirds. its own little universe.

tonight it's a bit cooler and sooooo nice, but tomorrow is supposed to be brutal. i cannot wait for this heatwave to end!!!!!

keep cool!!

violet says hi

 

helloooooo.  i'm ready for my close-up!!!

rosco's got the right idea!

dog days, for sure.

new skirts at g. willikers!

 

i spent yesterday afternoon making a few skirts for  g. williker's . 

these skirts are easy and fun to wear, no matter the season. they are so cute over jeans or just alone with sandals! i started making skirts for my niece when she was about two years old, and she still wears them now at 6 1/2.  they just go from maxi to mini!

if you're in the portsmouth area, check them out!

it was all yellow

with that title i should be linking to coldplay. or i was going to give you a justin townes earle song since last night i stood out in the rain under my umbrella for an hour, waiting for him to come on stage at an outdoor concert, only to have it cancelled.

*sigh*

BUT, yesterday i heard this song which blew me away, so here it is! hope you LOOOOOOOVE it!!!

swooning

i started a secret project yesterday! 

i am giving a sneak preview here but will have to leave it at this for a while, so as not to give it away!

meanwhile we are all quietly suffering through this god-awful heatwave and looking forward to a forecast for this week of  *say it isn't so* more hot days and thundershowers. y-a-y. the black raspberries are gearing up, so that's a good thing, and the garden is enormous!

happy sunday to you all!

steamy 4th of july

hottest hot 4th of july! super fun family reunion in lyme, nh. thankful for a cool stream, a great family and a shady porch to sit on!

here is the recipe for my grandmother's "no bake cookies". i always make them for the family reunion(and lots of other times because i LOVE them!)

MIMI'S NO-BAKE COOKIES

2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter

put together in a medium saucepan, and bring to a full boil over medium heat. (NOTE: boil just long enough so that there are bubbles over the entire surface of the mixture and then turn it right off . you boil it only a very short time!)

remove from heat and add:

1 t. vanilla
2/3 c. peanut butter
3 c. quick oats

mix all together and drop from a teaspoon onto cookie sheets. i line mine with wax paper to make it easy to get the cookies off. put into the refrigerator until they set up, then try not to eat all of them!!!

keep cool!!!!!

art at rye public library

brian hung a show saturday at the rye public library in rye, nh. they are featuring his letter and crossword pieces, being a library and all. picture taking was a little difficult, but you get the idea. check it out if you're in the area! you can see more of brian's work here.

also, if you go down to the childrens' room, you will find a show of kids' art. here's a piece by my 6-year-old niece which i think is pretty amazing!

 it's a jellyfish!

happy monday! stay cool and dry if it's possible..........