Is it just me, or did it feel like July flew by?! Summer was FULL for me, between work and motherhood and taking two college classes and the Mr’s new 2nd shift work schedule. So. Full. Today, however, is the first day that I feel like I can really breathe and relax. There’s no assignment deadlines staring me down or tests to study for, so it’s a peaceful few weeks in my future and I fully intend on soaking up all the crafting and baking and canning time… as soon as I can decide what, exactly, I want to do.

Things that happened recently that I’ve failed to post (in no particular order):

• Shortly after my birthday, we bought a fire ring thing so we could have campfires and s’mores at home. It is, by far, my most favorite purchase of the summer. I even hosted a “crappy dinner party” with pizza and s’mores and a bunch of my friends and it was so perfect – kids running around everywhere having fun, adults enjoying good company and beverages… I really should do that more often!
• We also bought a blueberry bush. I have long-term plans to redo the backyard and move the raised garden beds, so we planted it in a corner where we won’t have to worry about moving it when those plans begin. The Little Mr basically ate all of my raspberries, so I figured a small blueberry patch would be good, too, and maybe between the two I’d get enough berries to make SOME sort of jam!
• The garden is in full swing – we have peppers that are bigger than my hand, and tomatoes are finally ripening. It is excellent timing that my classes are over for a few weeks so I have time available to make some salsa with the tomatoes!
• Despite all of the class work, I have managed to make time to craft at least a little bit here and there. I spun some yarn for Tour de Fleece even though I didn’t officially participate in the event, and started making a Goldilocks and the Three Bears stuffies for a new grandbaby that is on the way in the family.

Sunday, we spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house. Literally. When I put my new furniture out I realized how awful and dirty the siding and trim was, so I grabbed a bucket and some soap and scrubbed the whole thing down.

A smarter person would have just rented a power washer… I am not smart, sometimes.

But the porch looks a thousand times better and cleaner. I bought some lanterns at Joanns that were 70% off, and I think I’m going to hang them above the table to give some nice lighting once it starts getting darker earlier.

Tour de Fleece began on the 1st, and while I missed out on spinning on Saturday I’ve been making up for it the rest of the weekend. I finished a bobbin of some teal that was in progress on Sunday, and then Monday I spent part of my morning spinning the other half on the porch. I’m working on my long draw method to get faster singles. Normally I’ve been an inchworm, pulling small amounts of fiber out of the fluff inch by inch to keep my yarn somewhat consistent. But this puts a strain on my wrists and takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The long draw thing lets me just kind of pull my whole arm backward and let the twisting single do a lot of the work. Much faster.

I probably won’t spin every single day of the tour, but I like that it gives me a push to use my wheel more. I’ve actually considered getting rid of my wheel – I messaged the girls in my knit group to see if anyone wanted to somewhat semi-permanently borrow it. The thing had sat for almost a year without being used and I saw no end to the perpetual fight with the kid over getting time to myself to use it. Thankfully, my lovely friends talked me out of it, and (also thankfully) I’ve tried to start forcing “me” time to spin. Now if I can just get someone to force me to knit the yarn I spin up… it’s all so pretty in the skein and no pattern ever seems worthy of it. Which is silly, of course, because #1, I can always make more yarn and #2, there will always be a better pattern to come along that I’ll later wish I had made and #3, life is too short to make things and then not enjoy them. So that’s the next thing I need to start working on.