The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"
The air was littered an hour or so,
with bits of gingham and calico"
(Eugene Field)

8.08.2012

Summer

What makes me happy in the summer?

•hanging with friends, lunching with friends, cards with friends, creating with friends, iced tea with friends, lemonade with friends...



•floating in the pool feeling my heart beat and my blood flow, appreciating my body's natural functions...  my favorite is to swim at nighttime by moon light and then to go right to bed all refreshed and alive.  (also swimming with the dogs to cool them off)

(photo by Kelsi Bitgood @2012)

•gardening and appreciating all that I've planted in our yard and all that nature brings...truthfully, I haven't been so good at this this year (weeds, weeds, weeds), but I'm trying not to beat myself up about it.

•quiet, dogs following me everywhere, time by myself.... no rushing, peaceful mornings.... no deadlines...

•cleaning up the annual summer basement flood caused by hurricanes, leaking water heaters, exploding plumbing, dying washers, over-watering of the gardens around the house...  Every summer something floods our basement, which is usually dry, and causes a huge clean-up.  This year the flood was in my workshop area of the basement and caused a HUGE clean-up and the washing of a couple hundred yards of fabric, re-organization (it needed it---I've been putting it off for a couple of years), the disposal of many school books that I haven't used in a long time, the drying out of other school books that I want to save.  It was a huge clean-up this year!  (This doesn't exactly make me happy,
but it does make me re-assess and appreciate my life regularly.)



•and creating.  I love to "moodle"---to play with various arts and crafts supplies and see what I can come up with.  I love fabric and paper and cards and scrapbooking and embroidery and hand-made objects of all kinds.  I try to follow no rules and to see what I can come up with. 




• I make hand-made birthday cards for many friends and family to send throughout the year.  Although I work on this all year, I try to get a supply together of about 50 to start the year, making each card appeal uniquely to the recipient, a little something that would make them happy on their birthday.  I address them and keep them in a box with a monthly file.







•I make Christmas cards and gifts during the summer, too.  For many years I made a new, unique, sewn ornament every Christmas to give as a Christmas gift.  One year I made crazy-quilted hearts, another year crazy quilted Christmas trees, covered with hand embroidery of all different colors and stitches, and each unique.  Each year I made 40-45 of them, made bags and tags to coordinate and also decorated a small Christmas tree in my kitchen with that same theme.  I haven't done this in about 5 years, but it's something I would like to bring back.  I have an idea for this year (no picture---it has to be a surprise!)

This is what I do in the summer.  What do you do?