Rain rain go away. . .

Gee whitakers. . . I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. I'm not at work. I'm with family and relaxing. But I want to swim and go for crazy long walks and spend tons of time outside in the sun. I thought my hair might bleach out a little. I thought I might get a little tan.

But the rain just won't quit.

I want a whole day of hot and sun, durn it!

Until then, here are the pics that I could eke out yesterday and today. . .



Please somebody, tell me what this is. If no one has an answer, I'm going to assume this is an underwater mailbox that was swept to shore.


Got a short respite from the rain. Took a walk, then sat on the beach for a while and read. This little green hoppy frog jumped right on to my foot. A huge beach, almost no one on it, and this little Einstein manages to jump on a person. He's lucky I wasn't a seagull.

Beachcombing

So, it looks like a fair amount of rain is in the cards for this first week of vacation. But it's the beach, so the rain comes and goes and there are periods of lovely sunny weather. And so far, during the day, the rain has been light and gentle. Yesterday, for example, I went to the pool to get in a workout session and it rained half the time I was there and no big deal.

But yesterday, we all got out to the beach late in the day for sitting and reading and I even took a little walk down the beach. .. and here are the things that caught my eye:

Dan swims!

I have been a big fan of ghost crabs since I was a tot in Pensacola, Florida. They're crabs without all of the pinching because they're too wee to do any harm.

Rain storms, at the very least, bring really impressive skies. Getting to see this keeps me from holding a grudge for too long.

Really?

Maybe the title of this post really ought to be "WTF?" because both discoveries surprised me to that point. . .

This is a sign I saw for a pizza joint in Raleigh as we were driving through on our way to meet Scott:


No way the only thing that's getting baked in this place is pizzas.

And in the Food Lion out here on the island, I saw this not-so-tempting wine option. Please note that on a shelf of wine, there are two bottles that contain an opaque mid-brown colored liquid. What could it be?

Holy cow. Chocovino.

Beware Chicagoans, I may have to buy a bottle of this frightfest and then you all might have to try it. How can I let this horror just slip through my fingers? And how bad most the original wine have been for the makers to want to forever suspend chocolate in the wine?

At Last

On the road for vacation. For the last month, it felt like vacation would never get here. . .but at last, it has arrived! (That's also the name of the beach house my parents rented ("At Last". . . so, you know, cool.)

Two days' driving--a stop in Charleston, WV overnight and then on to lunch in Raleigh with Scott and then the final destination: Avon, NC on the Outer Banks.


Nice to be out of prairie lands. Sometimes Dan and I forget to miss the hills of our childhood, but vacation is a nice reminder as we swooped into Ohio and then the mountains of West Virginia.


This picture is mostly for my dad. Gorgeous round hay bales just outside of Charleston, WV.


Lunch at The Pit in Raleigh. Super yummy N.C. pulled pork, collard greens, steamed squash, hush puppies and biscuit. 95 degrees in the hot sun out on the porch (so that we didn't cook L.P. in the car during lunch), but it was still yumlicious. Thanks, Scott!


The road between Raleigh and our final destination gets prettier and prettier with every mile. . . before long, we entered the Albemarle Historic district which bounces back and forth between marshes and fields of wild pampas grass and then acres and acres of cotton nearly ready for harvest.


L.P., after two days in the car, was less and less easily bribed into happiness with huffing wind through a cracked car window. . . until we hit the Outer Banks and then all he wanted was to breathe in the ocean air.


We arrived just before dark with just enough time to take L.P. out to the beach and throw a tennis ball around. The time right after sunset was lovely.

I mean, geewhitakers, that's pretty.

Embroidery Bug

I've got the bug and I enjoy every part of it--setting up the canvasses, picking embroidery thread colors, making a plan, embroidering it.

Usually, I'm a much more illustrative embroiderer and work on pre-painted canvasses that give my work depth, but I've been trying something a little more free form this past week. And now two new pieces and a number on the way as a result:

Birthday

Lovely lovely birthday week. . .

Truth be told, this week was, in fact, a pretty mixed bag. It started with an EMG on both hands and my left leg, which was a little like torture, except I had to pay for it and my doctor didn't get an useful intel from me, no matter how many times she shocked me or stuck a needle in me.

But the week ended with a lovely dinner at Nandu that Dan set up with good friends. (Dieting hasn't been hard, but it was wonderful to take a break for a night and eat whatever I wanted--which ended up being 4 empanadas, 2 varieties of potato salad, more bites than I should have had of Timberland's amazing steak, 2 margaritas and a thin slice of tiramisu.)



And then last night I got a whole suite of Etsy gifts from Dan made by some of my favorite folks:

Laura George. . .I already had her "tree hug" piece below, but Dan got me her bonsai tree illustration as a companion. yeah.



And Hine who I have loved pretty much since first discovering Etsy:



and lovely earrings from Lara Lewis that look like thees:



Dan is a good good man. I knew that before the gifts. . . but they didn't hurt his standing.

Night Blooming Sirius

Ridiculous. Mine has bloomed every year ever since it turned four. I think the trick is to abuse it a little and to put it outside for the summer. As soon as the fall days hit highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's at night, it buds up.

And I'm not sure there's a prettier flower on the planet.

Tiny Mum

I've prepped a bunch of embroidery canvasses for my impending vacation to the beach--where I will craft up a storm. But I don't want to start on them, but also kind of do--like when you were a kid and your mom bought you a new book or a new tape cassette or a new magazine to keep you occupied on vacation and you weren't allowed to have it until you were buckled into the car and had left the city limits. You both wanted to get your hands on it and also didn't want to--anticipation was king.

So, I'm holding off, but in the meantime, I knocked off this simpler piece just to satisfy the embroidery bug. . . because I'm not a kid any more and I can do what I like. :) Plus, it's the season of the mum and we should celebrate it, no? Fall's last flower.

Hope everyone had good vacations this year. . . I'm counting the seconds until mine.

Mitts and Mittens

I have spent the last days of summer making mitt after mitten after mitt. In the last few years at the Chicago Holiday Renegade, people always ask--looking at my table filled with dolls and rattles and scarves and pin cushions and and and--"So, you really don't have mittens, huh?"

So, I have bowed to the people's requests and have made a plethora of mittens and mitts. Production will continue until mid-November.


This year, without fail, folks will probably say, "So, you really don't have any hats, huh?"

Fruit or Vegetable

Two new rattles at fivetrees. . .

apples

carrots

Salt Box

I want a Bee House Salt Box. . . preferably in white, though Carrot would also do. I've always dreamed of having a grey, white and orange kitchen.

Let's be honest, though. Don't we want a Bee House anything? Their design is so simple and clean and modern. Beautiful colors on teapots and creamers and mugs.

Next Zapruder Point Album

Dan has been working hard to put together the next Zapruder Point album--this time with help from Larry Brown and John Aselin. I can't wait to hear the finished product.

In the meantime, I've been working on a cover for the album at Dan's request. I can't show you the final artwork, because the album's not done yet, but I can show you a few elements that went into the album cover. . . a little sneak peak!



It's been a great fun to work on this. . . The new album should be ready in a few weeks or less. Check the Zapruder Point website in the meantime for streaming music to tide you over.
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Ingenious Lounge

When the weather was crazy hot here in Chicago, I found this ingenious couch on ruffhouseart's shop on Etsy and thought how lovely it would be to have a couch with cold enamel sides.



During the winter, though, I'd either have to retire this particular couch or make a giant woolen cozy for it. . . Just so long as I could still see the juxtaposition of red feet to sky blue exterior. Brilliant!

Summer's Shutting Down

It was a pretty good summer this year and I have next to no record of it here. Living overtook blogging in such a monster way that I can't even apologize. Crazy work demands, busy social life, annoying health problems, farmer's markets, long, hot, humid summer days and now suddenly it's September with highs of 65 degrees and clear crisp skies. Before long, the leaves will turn and drop.

Where did the summer go?

Luckily for us, our vacation comes at the end of September and we chase the summer south, extending it through early October.

One of the greatest things about this summer was the food. I had more amazing meals than I can count. . .

Dimitri's Mama made the most amazing Southern Dinner--ribs, sweat potatoes, fried okra, collard greens, spaghetti, corn bread, salmon cakes, andouille sausage, green beans, sweet tea and for dessert, an oreo ice cream pie. Gee whitakers.

Brunch for Tom and Casey and the gang. Homemade everything: strata, cinnamon streusel muffins, home fries, cantaloupe and blueberries from the farmer's market, coffee and mimosas.


Shrimp for my first shrimp tacos. Holy cow were those good! The secret was in the sour cream--mixed it with a little mayonnaise and the juice of one lime. Amazing.


The worst part about losing summer, is losing the farmer's market. We have another month and a half and then no market for 7 long months.