Rayen

I have not enjoyed a summer vacation as much as this one in a long time. Not only did I get to spend sixteen days with my favorite person, but I celebrated my birthday in a beautiful place and got to do so many fun things. On the last day my guy and I went to the beach to walk and bask in the sun and wind down from a busy but happy vacation. I do like lake country a lot, but I'll always be a beach girl at heart. There's something about the salt air and watching the waves that soothes my soul. Before we left we walked the pier, where a bunch of fisherman were trying to catch something bigger chasing the schools of shiners (the wee little fish on the pier in the pic) that had come in close to shore. We watched a flock of pelicans diving for their lunch and it was one of those unexpected, spectacular sights that you often experience by the sea. Perfect day, perfect end to a lovely summer vacation.

My lot of three quilting books arrived, let's see if they were worth what I paid. All three books are in pristine condition, and chock full of ideas for making bags and small quilted projects. The projects are beautiful; here's one from bags book. These projects are interpreted from quilting traditionally done in different countries. I love the crazy quilt book, which not only details how to make the projects, but offers stitch maps for the embroidery involved. Smaller projects are more doable for me now, so I'll like find a lot of inspiration from the Japanese quilting book. Let's look at the numbers. Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece by Yoko Saito retails for $32.99. Foolproof Crazy Quilt Projects by Jennifer Clouston costs $27.95 to buy new. Yoko Saito's Bags for Everyday Use appears to be out of print and runs around $44.72 for the cheapest used edition. I'd pay $105.66 retail total for all three, so paying twelve bucks for the lot...

A belated birthday gift just arrived, and it seems someone else in my circle decided I need more mystery dice. Notice I am not arguing. These really are such fun to open. An instant mood booster. I got a beautiful set of dice, too -- green, violet and white. Thank you, my pal.

On the last day of my favorite person's visit we went to Wildwood Antique Mall , one of my favorite places to scour for treasures. I admit, I let myself indulge in one last round of retail therapy, too. It's always hard to say good-bye to my girl. I've officially started getting ready for Halloween. Okay, not really, but I couldn't resist this haunted house framed picture. The bats kill me. :) This watercolor bird is going to hang in my home office. I also bought myself and my favorite person a mystery bag of jewelry. Here's what was in mine. This shabby prim cat decided to come home with me, too. He'll keep my shabby prim bear company. Hey, at least it's not dolls. Fed my bunny obsession as well with this adorable trinket dish. This 86" X 60" tablecloth is an odd size, but I can use the fabric, possibly for my calendar project. Finally I picked up a bunch of quilt blocks, fabric, precut squares and ...

Despite a long stall my calendar project eventually went well in July; for my August tote I still need to decide on a design. The shabby prims are nudging me toward a Halloween themed project but it's a little too early for me to celebrate that -- next month would be better. I picked up this tablecloth to use as fabric last month, and the pretty colors do appeal to me. I'm just not sure I want to do another flower-themed tote. I also found a bunch of vintage textiles and quilt blocks at the antique mall in Wildwood last month (more on that shortly.) One or more of these might be the way to go. I'm going to look through everything, and if I can't decide I might roll the dice. Works for my crochet projects. :)

During my vacation last month I worked on making the bag project from the Summer issue of GreenCraft. For mine I skipped the driftwood and twine, and instead used a key I'd gotten on a mystery bracelet bag and left the drawstrings of the bag I tea stained intact. It's not easy stitching a bag in the bottom corner like this, but I managed by folding the top down down. I also couldn't get the haphazard look of the stitches in the project photo, but I prefer my version anyway. My finished bag next to the project photo. I'm using mine to hold my current personal journal. This was a fun and fairly easy project. :)