Summer's End

Colette patterns Ceylon dress

Piping along the back yoke.  Fit issues here... meh.  :)

Just after  we got home from the wedding

My soon-to-be kindegartner!!! 

Susy's shot of the sky

Little J-Boy!

Surf girls :) 

Busy beach babies

Summer is coming to a quiet close.  I can't believe that the girls will begin school THIS Tuesday!  I'll really miss them.  I know I'm weird. 

The last few months have been fairly uneventful, which is kind of okay with me.  My body needed a summer break-- some permission, if you will-- to take it easy.  Now I'm feeling pretty good-- Glory to God!-- at least, good enough to tackle the beach with four kids and go on a family day trip to the local amusement park (last week).  Day trips.  I can do day trips!  I even joined my kids on some of the kiddie rides, which is the extent of my risk-taking  :)


The ocean was so relaxing.  I know I get teased by my family for not "doing much" at the beach (I'm okay with napping/ people watching/ and poking a toe or two in the water).   But I love the fact that my ever-nagging sense of self-consciousness seems to disappear when I'm close to the water.  I feel like a kid again, even if it's a lazy kid who'd rather poke around the tidepools than roll around in the sand and get drenched in freezing cold water).  One of my psychology college professors liked to assure us that, once you turn 30, you just stop caring what people think... in a good way.  Well, I'm 30.  Perhaps I was expecting an overnight sort of metamorphisis-- an immediate flushing of my inner self-critic, straight down the drain.  Needless to say, I'm not there yet.  :)

So until that happens, I'll have to remind myself to make more trips to the beach.

 The dress?  The dress!  It's my most recent selfish sewing project.  I wore it to a wedding two weeks ago.  It's yet another Colette pattern, the Ceylon dress.  I made another version of this dress about 3 years ago, right after Joseph was born.  That first dress has since been dyed, taken in, and worn many many times since then.  Clearly, it's a favorite!  I'm not sure why it took me so long to make another, but I finally did!  The pattern has such great instructions, and sewed up nicely.  I'm sure I could fuss over certain "fit issues", but I'm lazy.  The fabric?  A thrifted bedsheet!  No joke.  I did add some piping to kick up the classiness a notch. 

Now I'll spend the last shreds of summer finishing up sewing Vasi's school uniforms, spending time with family and god-family over the weekend, and of course liturgy on Sunday morning.   

Happy be-lated Feast of the be-heading of St. John the Baptist.  This feast day happens to be our parish feast day, and St. John's bold example is never more needed and applicable than it is today.  I never tire of hearing about his fascinating life and earthly ministry.  May God have mercy on us, through his mighty intercessions!