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My famous pirate Aunt gifted Will a full body dragon tattoo that we had squirreled away for a heatwave, and lo we’re having one!

Will dawned this as we walked out the door to go camping, and it certainly saw a lot of sun.

Summer means it is cherry time, here, and those cherry trees I have wanted my entire life have started producing! We’re not talking bushels yet, but I feel in a year or two we could be. This year’s harvest was about 17. That doesn’t go a long way with the eaters I am raising.
The cherries from my tree that survived the long walk into the house past two hungry babies:

And just because he is cute and I like to look at him:

Speaking of pirates, we might try to drag our scurvy mugs to the Pirate festival in Vallejo on our way to Chetan’s big three-oh.

On an entirely different note – Sewing – I’ve passed by a kazillion color wheels in my life thinking, “What would I need one of those for, I have an eye for color” but I’ve been humbled. Since I picked up the sewing machine, again, recently, I’ve wanted to do very creative things, but have been rather conservative in my color choices, and now that I have amassed a pile of my favorite fabrics, I admit I need some help piecing them all together. Here’s an article I read on ScrapJazz (by way of Craft) that has me reconsidering my color wheel snubbing.

We had a wonderful weekend in Santa Cruz at New Brighton State Beach with Syvie’s buddies, Stella and Theo. We drove down Friday afternoon at nap time, arriving in time to set up camp before dinner.

The camp is in the woods on a bluff overlooking Monterrey Bay. The camp sites are large, but most are not very private. Ours was large enough that the kids had plenty of ground to cover before they ended up in the street or in another campsite (and we had enough warning!). The downside was the unobstructed view of our middle-aged neighbor sunbathing in his speedo.

This was true urban camping with Friday night dinner catered by a local pizzeria and our fires stoked by duraflame. Despite the requisite S’mores, everyone was in bed by 8:30.

Saturday was a beach day. After a more legitimate camp breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and veggie sausage, we headed down to the beach. The dads dug sand structures that the kids quickly destroyed. There were a few crab sightings. (non human kind) And we buried 3 of the 4 kids alive. One of them over and over and over.

The highlight was glo-sticks. No fights over color. The low point was the water balloons that the kids loved, but quickly became controversial.

We packed up Sunday and then headed home after a sentimental drive past dad’s college (for Will) and lattes and steamers at Coffeetopia.

The bummer about camping is all the work that goes into packing and unpacking. Thankfully we had a great day, Sunday, and the kids were occupied lounging about the kiddie pool eating popsicles and drinking homemade lemonade long enough for us to wash 5 loads of laundry and all the camp dishes.

On the sewing front, I knit a sweater for Sylvie and finished half of the nap room curtains for KNS. The waxed paper pattern is working out well.

There are some interesting things at Anthropologiethese days. Here are a few I like:

Sent my friend Cindy some macaroons from Miette as a congrats on finding a new job. The verdict is these are more like non-stale petit fours than macaroons, as they are cakey. Apparently the real thing is crisp on the outside, chewy in the subderma and creamy in the center and has a french temperament.

I’m hungry.

On a happier note, I also found a recipe for chocolate ice cream at have cake, will travel that sounds wonderful!

And have I told you about ravelry? It is an opensource knitting community. Very akin to my favorite sewing site burdastyle. There are quite a few pieces from both sites that I want to make when my curtains and the japanese have lost my interest.

Was taking a break for lunch and came across the link to a state run disaster preparedness site. According to them, we need a plan and I probably ought to keep my cell phone charged.

We’ve got our requisite food, and know the plan at Will’s school, but we don’t have a meeting place or local/out-of-state contacts. … Ought to figure this stuff out, soon. Good news is that all of our important documents are in disaster proof containers, which given a crowbar or worst case a match, we could get to easily enough.

I’ve made a kazillion curtains in my short life – short ones, long ones, roman shades, shower curtains… The roman shades and cafe curtains are quite manageable as everyone has enough uncluttered space to lay out either of those. The long curtains are troublesome. Not my favorite. And I volunteered to make 14 panels of them for Will’s preschool.

Perhaps you heard me mention this months ago right after the school spring work party. I spent a few weeks finding the right fabric. Then another several acquiring enough fabric. I’ve washed, ironed and cut the fabric into general lengths long ago, and it has been sitting on my shelf waiting for inspiration. I did pull it all out and dutifully re-measure and iron a hem into several lengths, but after struggling to get the panels the same length, I re-folded and re-shelved the material. The problem is although I have plenty of floor space the size of my panels, these curtains are 72″ and 92″ in length which is unmanageable to cut and hem accurately. The fabric inevitably wrinkles or shifts as you measure and cut making your cuts imprecise. I had a eureka the other night – what I need is to make full length pattern pieces from waxed paper! Yesterday I bought a few rolls of waxed paper and will attempt my patterns sometime over the next few nights. I should be able to lay the patterns over the fabric, pin, and either follow my pattern markings or re-mark the fabric based on the waxed pattern. I’ll let you know if this works out.

Found these at Knitphomaniac made from recycled starbucks gift cards. I read a few craft blogs and see a lot of junk, but I thought these were nice re-purposing of what is otherwise garbage.

It was like Christmas, today. We mailed our custom shirts to cousins far and more far, and then arrived home to find two gigantic boxes (“ship sized” according to Will). Will and I eagerly unpacked the first, a box from Zappos full of shoes for everyone but Doug. Will got new field cleats for soccer.

Sylvie received a couple pair of mary janes and some canvas loafers – trying to find a shoe that will keep her hot feet from baking. I got two new pair of mary janes, because I’m wearing out my others running after Will.

The OTHER box was full of fabric, and Will, ever so enthusiastic, was ever so enthusiastic about this box. “Oooh mommy, who is all of this for?” He has claimed a particularly pretty blue floral fabric.

Some others in the stash:

The best thing about the arrivals today was probably the boxes. Sylvie and Will had boat races in their boxes until hunger turned them rabid.

On another note, we went to the chocolate and chaulk festival on Shattuck this past weekend. I could see how this might be a fun thing in the future, but this year it consisted of 10 booths and maybe 5 participating restaurants dolling out chocolate. Because we have a lot of genetic enthusiasm, we steered clear of the chocolate and focused on the chaulk and musicians. Will has a thing for zydeco, which I captured in disappointing 4 second clips. Are all babies dancers? My kids haven’t yet figured out they didn’t get rhythm in their genetic inheritance.

Friday afternoon we leave for Santa Cruz to go camping with Sylvie’s pals, Theo and Stella. We bought a family sleeping bag so this time when both kids want to curl up in my sleeping bag, no one is left out on the cold plastic tent floor. Our new bag is so large it could sleep the whole family comfortably. Don’t tell the neighbor kids as apparently, kids think I’m snuggly and this thing isn’t *that* big.

you just have to see this: