…who can be totally lifted by a good mail week. “Getting the mail” was one of my favorite hobbies as a child. This week…a box of vintage fabric and notions from Erin; a gifted book from my mama; a HEAP of vintage bird books, crafting books, and handmade goodies from one of my favorite people I’ve never met – a family friend of Drew & Kathy’s who has supported my Etsy endeavors for years, and who reads my blog and knew I was on the lookout for bird books… thank you Donna! AND… a package full of buttons from Andrea (she keeps me in supplies that I can ONLY find at Fabricland in Canada – gold and silver anchors, penguins, white rabbits and trees)… AND… these. In case I forget which way is north. Want one? They’ll be necklaces and up for sale in my Etsy shop by the end of the week – except the one that’ll be around my neck.

Mikey and Hazel are making creatures out of play doh. She can’t keep her hands off of it but mutters “yuck” every few minutes. Who is this kid? Sparkly shoes and doesn’t like messy hands?

- Crocheted several rows of the stressed-virginia blanket this week. Have I mentioned how huge this thing is? It’s so wide that I’m considering making it vertically striped instead of horizontal… because at some point I’m just going to have to STOP… and that would let me stop sooner.

- Hazel has the hookup in our soon-to-be-town. Her new library card came in the mail this week :)

- They DO sell my favorite yogurt in this town! Thanks for the tip, Angelina. Too bad I’m leaving in a month. I’ll have to start the hunt all over again.

- Hazel is eating pirate’s booty out of the halloween bowl that she uses all year long… only the weather at night this week IS halloween-ish. And I can’t tell you how excited I am. Even though Mikey will be at a conference halloween weekend – boo.

- This magazine came weeks ago and promptly got buried under a pile of books. The pile got moved around and around. I found it today. It’s like getting a new ReadyMade all over again. Maybe this time I’ll actually read it.

- The juxtaposition of adult stuff and kid stuff usually doesn’t catch my eye. We’re a totally kid-centered house. There is no “playroom”. There is a “living room” and we all live in it. But the drain basket made me laugh today.

There, I made a blog post.

Oh, for those keeping track of these things, Luca has been upgraded from “Ca-ca” to “Yucca”.

…just as fast as my feet can fly…

August, please don’t leave me as fast as July is seeming to slip through my fingers. How is it possible that we were just digging ourselves out of more than three feet of snow and now we’re making piles of stuff to pack for Clifftop, and this morning Maggie and I trekked to our favorite consignment shop to get fall clothes for our little ladies? How how how?

It has been insanely hot for the past couple of weeks, and over the weekend our godfamily came to stay over night as heat-refugees from their inferno of an apartment. We had a delicious feast that reminded me that in the summer, really all I want to do is roll around in the delicious food and mourn the fact that there is no rational / logical way for a family of drifters to put food by for the winter. We just… don’t eat tomatoes or strawberries for months on end. Will I buy a four-dollar pint of strawberries from California in December because my precious, fruit-fly toddler pleads for them with her big brown eyes in the grocery store? Probably… on occasion.

And also, I really just want to have another baby so we can have more compadres. They’re all the fun and awesomeness rolled up in love and funny of real family, but, you know… you hand-pick them. Ha!

(delicious little rainbow of tealights / PJ-homebrew and Kate-made butter / the essence of summer / a feast / ohmygod I love comparing the aesthetics of a meal on several different colors of Fiestaware / the g-fam)

Bring a song and a smile for the banjo
Better get while the gettin’s good
Hitch a ride to the end of the highway
Where the neons turn to wood…

- CCR

(I know that song is supposedly about draft-dodging, but really, I just feel like it’s about summer.)

Listening: CCR
(I am) Reading: Never Let Me Go (which so far I totally do not understand, but it seems really amazing in a The-Giver-for-adults kind of way, possibly…)
(Hazel is) Reading: Freight Train
Working on: random little things – I need to try to make Hazel a strap for her little toy banjo, but I’m still pondering this one. Sew? Crochet?

We’ve starting to seep in, a little bit, to this house that is not our house. It’s much more colorful. And it might almost be time to collect it all into boxes and go.

After topping off a bag of stuff for Goodwill yesterday, I went through our closet putting together outfits for the wedding festivities this weekend, and I ended up with another full bag to donate. I’m on a roll! Maybe I’ll be caught up the week after next, after we’ve gotten back from Toronto. The turnover rate of stuff entering and exiting our life, even since we unloaded the last uhaul, is astounding. Particularly because we DON’T SHOP. We know people who shop as a hobby and are constantly acquiring new and better things, and we’ve never done that in our entire adult lives. So why do I feel like we always get so much new (or newused) stuff between moves?

Week fourteen.

At this time tomorrow, we’ll be on our way to our beloved city. Friends, a wedding, music, playdates, chinatown beads (for a custom project and for my mom – I WILL control myself!), the dollarama, Tankhouse Ale… aahh! We’re coming back home next Wednesday. See you back here then :)

Listening: The Avett Brothers
(I am) Reading: just finished Jesus Land – brutal, and very good
(Hazel is) Reading: Gallop!