1
First of all, my baby girl is back! Three weeks is just too, too long! She came back a whole lot taller, I swear. Full of lots of camp stories and giggles and a whole lot of dirty laundry. I'm just so glad she's home!
2
After a quick hello to everyone else, I stole her away for a date night. Brandi Carlile at Thompson's Point on a lovely summer night, was just the dreamiest of ways to welcome her back and reconnect.
3
She's not the only one growing up. What is it about summer that makes all that growing seem so much more obvious? Is it all the lake swims, the giant amount of food they're consuming, the bike riding or the trips away to camp? I don't know, but it seems to be true. There's also the anticipation of fall, and a coming new academic year. That makes the growing up pretty obvious. We've got some changes in that realm happening here too, and I'll share more about that soon, when I can find the right time and the right words.
4
I'm kind of in love with the new little sewing nook I have going on. It feels so central to the house and activity - something I wouldn't have wanted years ago (when it would have been hard to work with very little ones underfoot) but now it feels so right. I'm welcoming the visits to my studio and the requests for help from the unlikeliest of sewists. It's fun.
5
I've been knitting! Gosh, it had been a while, and all of my projects were in funky places where it just wasn't easy to pick them up. But I started something over the weekend, on a rainy and rather damp day. It felt so good to hold wool in my hands and plot a project. A sweater for Annabel (I'm nearly casting off on one for Harper).
6
I found so many things in the process of moving my studio things. Mostly, I found a whole lot of mending that needed to be done. Mostly for children who would no longer fit those intended mending projects. Bugger. But I also found some things that have been languishing for a while and just had to be moved on. Like this quilt, my college quilt that my grandmother and I made my senior year of high school. It needed mending, and I've been waiting for the moment I felt patient enough to do the meticulous mending that I should. But, looking at it in the move, I realized it would be far better off used as a quilt than taking up space in a pile in a corner of a room. So I just went at it - mending it in a hack of a way, but one that makes it useable. I'm so happy with this decision. I got a little sentimental and wordy about the whole thing, actually, and it turned into my editor's letter for GRAIN, our next Taproot issue. I got so darned wordy that it had to be cut in half. And that is something that our designer has NEVER had to say to me before. So there's that!
7
I'm having such an amazing stretch of good books this late spring and into early summer, I can hardly believe it. So good that I get nervous about what to pick next for fear of breaking the spell. But at the top of my list, and all highly recommended though all quite different, I have to suggest: An American Marriage, Alternate Side, Educated, The Great Alone, and Something in the Water. I just started The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Calvin's required summer reading that I snatched up when he was done. I don't like hearing too much about books before I read them so I won't say more except to say, check the summary of those out, and they might just work for you too!
8
It's that point in the summer - the garden has officially tipped over into the category of "wild!" The weeds are high but so is the harvest! It's such a pleasure right now, this height of summer with all the goodness coming inside. And we're getting so much rain this week, which was so needed. It's delightful. I'll bring you on a proper garden tour soon!
9
We had a long week at Taproot last week with getting an issue out the door, and making a big announcement, and we all arrived to the office on Monday feeling a little fried, I think. So I took the crew to the movies. A Monday afternoon showing of Won't You Be My Neighbor? Which, oh my gosh, you must see! What a flashback to my childhood, and that of my own children, for whom Mr. Rogers was their first TV experience (Mr. Rogers and Little Bear, oh how I miss Little Bear!). Anyway, the documentary was wonderful, and I highly recommend it for a good cry and a good feeling about people in the world.
10
Oh, the yurt. It's had a busy summer with guests here and there - whether for the night or a weekend, or for a few hours! I really love sneaking out there for some peace and quiet. It's only a few hundred yards from the house, but it is tucked into the edge of the woods just enough, and totally out of cell range, to be just the perfect spot for a mid-afternoon escape! Backyard vacation indeed.
