ah, summer

 mr. twinkle eyes

The baseball season wound up with success. The main success in my mind is kind coaches and good spirit of the game, plenty of runs, catches, surprise double-play unassisted (!), even a rainbow. A very dear young fellow who was sometimes kicking flowers and dirt and other times making some awesome plays, best smile on the team! And my very own sweet guy was a team leader, praised by his coaches for his sportsmanship and manners.

We spent the day as a family on Mount Desert Island to celebrate 13 years of marriage. We hit all the high points (ha!): Pirate's Cove mini-golf (I got a hole-in-one!), then lunch at our favorite beach with plenty of rocks to skip and balance, then one of our favorite hikes up Parkman Mountain, catching up with friends, ice cream, dinner, and a surprise chance meeting with a dear, dear friend on the street!

 these two beauties were collected, then lovingly grudgingly tossed back 

when informed of the "remove no rocks policy" of the park

 he listens to the rocks

 kiss sandwich!!!

And now, summer vacation. I made it through my first teaching year! WooHoo! And as it turns out, I have a new adventure coming for the fall... I will be the school librarian at a school for 8th/9th graders in the same district as last year. This is thrilling on a couple of counts. 

 red leather chairs for reading: 

yes please.

First, middle school (early high school) students are my favorite age group. They are prickly and interesting and hilarious and it's sort of a precious time in their lives, one that can be awkward and awful sometimes. (And I love reading YA literature.) There is so much that is possible in middle-ish school that becomes harder with older high schoolers.

Second: ONE SCHOOL instead of five! One learning community that I can be part of on a day-to-day basis! Hoorah! This is quite exciting, to think of the possibilities for spur of the moment exchanges and developing relationships with teachers and students that I will see every day. I feel so lucky. And am devouring a lot of YA books this summer, which is awesome.

I visited a very venerable library in Boston this past weekend and I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I took some before I knew... It was a librarian's geek-out holiday.

And finally, because we've had a lot of rain and gray already this summer, I wanted to show you something blue and summery. Rafter's delight and lots of silliness and the water was warm enough so I could even stay in and play and be part of the shenanigans. This was a rare moment of calm...

Two Sewing Questions

A long weekend is good. Since I usually work on Saturdays, it's nice to sometimes get two days off with everyone home. Yesterday there was sewing in the morning. No pictures because I was too busy doing it to document it. But my first border is done! Hooray! I am over the hump of fear. 

But now I pose a question: how does one go about (accurately) cutting such a long length of fabric, for my NEXT border (6.5" wide)? I just have never dealt with a piece of fabric this big and unwieldy. Help? Please? I own the big cutting mat and rotary cutter, if that's part of the solution here. Perhaps it's good, old fashioned scissors and chalk?

A clever person 

and her homemade grilled-cheese toasting stick

(note the grill lines!)

Also, for you true seamstresses out there, I am thinking of making some pajama pants for my boys. How thrilling that, although it appears I have a pre-teen on my hands (thanks, Lex!), when I told him of this idea, his response was AWESOME! I am thinking simple, perhaps using the Owl fabric we so adore. 

Wild lady slipper, rare and lovely

(why it's called a lady slipper when it looks like a scrotum, I am not sure)

My thought is to simply take two pairs of PJ pants that are comfortable (but now capri length, so fetching to see those boy ankles hanging out), fold in half so the crotch part is neatly pulled out to one side, then trace around and add some length. 

View from the top

Here's sewing question number two. Is there a reason why I shouldn't just fold my fabric and cut it so that there is no seam on the outer leg (that would be the fabric fold part), only a seam on the inner leg? I am asking out of laziness, but I will take advice to the contrary.

The trick to hiking with kids is: Food and Other Kids. We had both. Our snack up top was fresh pineapple and apricot-coconut-maple scones, displayed here on my Maine tea towel. With other kids, the grown-ups don't have to listen to whining and they are free to talk and visit! With your own kids, alone, it's nothing but "when are we getting there?" every other minute. It's our favorite summer blueberry hike, and I am happy to tell you there were many bees hard at work on the blueberry flowers.

It was a perfect hike on a perfect day: the sun was sunny, the bugs were deterred by the light breeze, it was warm, but not too hot. I felt especially lucky to live in Maine today and be on a mountain with friends.

So, please advise on those two sewing questions, if you are able to. And thank you!