Two More Sleeps Til Summer...

Nothing says "summer vacation is coming" like a deluge of rain.  Well, what did you expect?  It's Western Washington.  Summer doesn't technically start until July 4th.  Or 5th, since it often rains on the 4th.  Then it goes from 50 degrees and dreary to 75, virtually overnight.  Or literally overnight...

Since Emma got out of school, we've been hanging out a bit...mostly shopping.  Before graduation, we went to several different stores looking for dresses for the big event, but of course the first three stores were a bust.  I couldn't believe that at this time of year, the only dresses the stores had could have doubled for a swim suit cover-up.  They were either drab, too informal, or what I would classify as hippy-dippy-trippy.  Nothing young.  Nothing you could go to a fine restaurant in (which in Western Washington terms means any place that has cloth napkins).  Certainly nothing for a celebration like a graduation or a wedding.

It finally occurred to me that there was a Fashion Bug store nearby that might have some decent options, so we headed over...only to discover that it was closed.  Dang.  However, just across the parking lot was Ross, and I remembered that this is a great place to look for dresses!  They have weird stuff all year long!  We went in and found six or seven great candidates out of dozens of options in her size whose styles ranged from "garden party" to "street walker", which we narrowed down to three favorites--a black and white dress with black roses around the neckline, a black and white floral print garden party dress, and a frilly pink number.  In addition, she found a pair of white pants and four shirts to add to her wardrobe.  The total for this haul was just under $100.  Today we went out and got her a new pair of shoes (Converse...which does not really go with the dresses, but whatever...) and a sketchbook.  Yesterday she came with me to visit the Girl Scout store to get badges for the meeting yesterday afternoon, but only with the caveat that I take her out to lunch.  We stopped for sushi and she ate me under the table, polishing off 9 plates to my 6.  We're going to have to run a credit check on her prospective dates before they take her out.  She's not one of them salad-eatin' chicks.

These flowery bushes were in the parking lot.  I don't know what they are, but the bees liked them.

We picked up the cake for the party, which went over pretty well--it was half chocolate and half vanilla and more heavily decorated than I thought it would be.  Like the last one I got from this grocery chain, it was lopsided...like they baked it on a crooked shelf in the oven.  I also stopped by one of my favorite places--the dollar store!  I picked up badmitten racquets and birdies, along with buckets and beans and little baggies (the kind they put mints into for weddings) to make bean bags for games.  I tried to find bean bags and hackey sacks, but you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find them.  Must be passe.  What do I know about these things?  My plan mostly worked, except the little organza bags ripped at the seams after a few dozen tosses.  I'll have to make some more durable ones out of scrap fabric.

I got my phone gizmo set on Pandora and played some Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson while they played games, ate cake, and ran in circles.  They had a great time.  I presented their badges to them and asked what they wanted to do over the summer.  We decided on a hike, a beach visit, sewing day, horseback riding, a camp out, and a few other things.  I hope we can get to do all of these things this summer.  I think I'll just schedule things and hope people can make it.  More than that, I hope that at least one other adult can come with--I can't drive all 10 girls in my car.

I quilted up Sharon's scrappy blue Goose in the Pond quilt over the last couple of days.  I finished it tonight and laid it out for a photo.  Ben decided he needed to give it a test-lay, and gave it the "splat" of approval.  I have a new quilt ready to load up and get quilted from Judy (the owner of the blue and green one I did the other day) who gave me one at the meeting on Monday.  It's a row quilt, which can present challenges for quilting.  I will have to look at it more closely and let it "speak to me", but I think I might want to do something row by row rather than an overall pattern.

Two more early mornings before the school year is over.  Both days are short--a half-day tomorrow, and a two-hour day on Friday.  Then I have a LONG weekend before shop hop begins next Wednesday.  I don't really need fabric, so I may just get enough to finish the shop hop quilt.  Linda and I may be the only pirates heading out this year, so we discussed the possibility of going to all the shops on the hop.  Every. Single. Shop.  There's over 50 of them.  We're talking hard core hopping.  I still have to figure out when we'll do which parts, but I'm thinking maybe starting on Wednesday morning and doing the Northern leg and getting back home in time for karate.  We'll see...

What I really need to do is spend the summer quilting up all my UFOs.  I have drawers and buckets full of them.  Sounds like a challenge...11 weeks.  How many UFOs can I finish in 11 weeks?  Bwa-ha-ha!  I'll assemble the unfinished objects, make a list, take photos and post them here.  Tomorrow...