Living in flip-flops.

Ahh, summer. Once I finished all the laundry from our trip to Rochester (which took DAYS), I felt like we could really get into the swing of things. I found some various activities for the kids to do: sports camps for Betsy, summer school for Porter (two weeks through his preschool AND it's free AND they will bus him), and swimming lessons for the both of them (which will be its own separate blog post because there's a really long story behind that!) Matt and I felt like we were walking a fine line between overscheduling the kids and not doing anything productive with them, but I think we've hit the perfect balance. There actually isn't any overlap between the various activities, and everything was either free or really cheap. Betsy started softball camp yesterday, which is free and staffed with no small amount of enthusiasm by the girls on the high school team. But, we've also left plenty of time for riding bikes/swimming/going to the park/playing in the backyard. Our zoo membership is expired, so we won't be heading back there for a while, but we've still got the Childrens Museum. And the IMA has free admission every day, so I'm hoping we can make it down there as well.


Our garden is going crazy with all the rain we've had lately. Matt built a second garden bed this year so we have one for tomatoes/peppers/lettuce, and one for zucchini/squash/broccoli/cauliflower, plus the bean plants Porter brought home from school that I totally thought would die but didn't. We also have strawberry plants growing around the patio, which are in their third year and are producing really well, plus a bumper crop of various herbs. Betsy picked the first red tomato this morning. I can't wait! I've found that tomato plants seem to be ideally suited for the Indiana humidity so we usually have more than we can handle. Maybe I should make gazpacho...


And as for me, I've been getting up early and going walking before Matt leaves, which gives me more energy to face the day. I spend as much time in the basement as possible (and not just because it's cooler down there), pretty much alternating between paper crafting and sewing. My camera did turn up - it got left behind in Rochester - so as soon as I have that back, I will have tons of wedding pictures to scrap, which I'm really excited about. (In the meantime, why not peruse these?) I actually finished a dress for myself, and as I was thinking about it I realized it's been at least a year since the last Joni-dress. I made a couple of tops for me and FOUR dresses for Betsy, but that's it. Anyway, this was my first ever vintage project (sure, I've been collecting the old patterns, but not so much making them) using one of the patterns that Mom gave me while I was in Rochester.

I'm even using vintage buttons (I felt slightly guilty cutting them off of the lovely button card, but then I got over it)

Gorgeous, no? I think that the Butterick from the 1950s have the best pattern illustrations. Once I finish the belt (and have my camera back) I'll do a blog post about it. Sewing vintage was not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be, and it turned out really nice.

As if that weren't enough, I will very soon have a new toy to play with:

Yes, finally. If you've been reading my blog for a while you've caught on to the fact that I've wanted a serger pretty much from the moment I started sewing but in the past, I've had to rely on my mother bringing hers every time she comes out. (Hey Mom, now that I have one of my own, you won't have to visit any more!) The combination of finally establishing a serger fund and finding a really good deal ($200 on AllBrands.com) have allowed for the fulfillment of a lifelong dream that I've had for the last three years or so. I've been trying to kill the time waiting (yes, even with 3-day shipping it's hard to be patient!) by haunting the thrift stores and such in search of yet more vintage patterns. I picked up a huge stack at a church sale last weekend for, I am not kidding you, a little over two cents apiece.

So, that's summer around here. What's everyone else's plans?