Went to Portland yesterday with my friend, Sue, to do a little shopping. Discovered this fabu fabric line by Shell Rummel for Blend. I know! I never heard of her either! But, I am loving the colors, the design. yummy We both bought some.

And, I wanted to share this picture of my little Lulu, aging gracefully. She is waiting patiently for her walk this morning.

Shout out to Canada!

I would like to thank our friends to the north for sending this lovely cool air our way. In the 70's today with low humidity. Maine is back to the way life SHOULD be!

Summertime and the livin' is sweaty

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT ?????

Hey, if I wanted to live in freaking 90 degree humid weather, I would have stayed in freaking Florida, right?  Oh, it is so wicked hot here in Maine right now, the way life should so NOT be.

So, I have made me a hillbilly cooler.  Yayah!

Supplies: styro cooler, small fan, plastic plumbing elbow pipe thingy

Trace and cut holes in top of cooler to fit pipe and fan

Fill cooler with everything you've got frozen in your freezer (thank you, Annie, for forgetting your cold packs!)

And, Voila!

Position in front of chair and turn on fan.

I swear I am not making this up, but it works! I've spent a lovely evening with a book in front of my "AC."

Had an unexpected day off and tackled a few jobs with the best intentions but ended up blundering my way through them. Just one of those days, I guess. Went to Lowes early to avoid traffic and ended up in the Thomaston 4th of July parade. Tried to attach the ladder to my dock and watched one of my favorite earrings fall through the cracks and float away. Nothing quite like handling the drill with itty bitty drill bits and screws and washers and nuts over water in the 88 degree heat while being buzzed by a deer fly. Tried to attach the tightener to my new pulley clothesline and whapped myself in the face with the bitter end and now I look like I'm in a constant state of frown. Big red line down the middle of my mug. Went to get some water and dropped the glass in the sink and broke it. Tried to install some solar lights and broke two of them off trying to put them in the ground. Couldn't figure out why my front was soaking wet and finally figured it out when I set the watering can down on my newspaper and realized it was leaking. You get the idea . . .

work in progress

solar clothes dryer 

hotdogs on the 4th of July

Just checked and sure enough! Mercury is in retrograde until July 20th. Well, that explains a lot.

Sophie and I sat on the dock and watched a thunderstorm roll in last night.

 Pretty spectacular

 Started looking like a dog with misty breath

Blew through leaving us with a beautiful sunset

    HAPPY 4TH!!

Frida Quilt update

As Annie frantically sews the final borders on her quilt before she bolts back to Philly (and no one has EVER stitched in the ditch faster), I go out into my garden - rain has finally ended - and see it is about to burst into color.

Hot humid days are on the way so the blossoms will be busting out all over the garden and I wait with pleasant anticipation.

My beautiful fabulous niece, Annie, drove up from Philly for a sewing weekend with Zia (that's me!) Not really a weekend per se but my days off from work, so may as well be. So. Darn. Happy. to have her here!! First of all, she brought me my updated necklace, with the newest grandbabies added:  Roman, Benjamin, Michael. Nine altogether so a little disc was added to the middle. Here it is and I'm so happy to have it back. I treasure it most of all my jewelry. (and that's saying a lot because I do love my bling)

Annie brought her Elna and a bunch of fabric and finally embarked on the abstract Frida quilt that's been percolating in her mind for a few years now. We took time out only for a necessary trip over to Alewives and oysters at the Pub and then back to work. And, she was still working when I went to bed last night.

Here is what she has so far. I think it is so lovely. You can see the suggestions for flowers in the hair, eyebrows, necklace.

 Sophie, of course, slept through the whole thing. No surprises there.