8.11.2010

A much-needed break

Tomorrow my sweetie and I will head up to beautiful Maine for 10 glorious days of vacation. I'm seriously giddy with excitement. It seems like we've been counting down to this trip for a loooong time and it's hard to believe that it's finally here. While the packing is mostly done, I thought I'd check in and tell you what I've been up to lately.

Erica's tee-shirt quilt is basically done. I finished the binding last week and now I just need to go over the whole quilt and trim threads, add stitches, etc. I also need to make a label. I'll definitely be able to give it to Erica before September 1st - can't wait to see what she thinks! For those of you interested in more process details, I usually make my own binding out of 2.5" strips sew on the bias. Julie has a great tutorial about binding that I've followed for a while now - check it out here.

In other quilty news, I scrambled to finish the backing, quilting and binding for our beach quilt. It's WAAAAYYY sloppier than I would have like (we're talking crooked fabric, some gaps in seams, etc.) but I'm just so freakin' happy to be heading to the beach that I don't care. Besides, this is by no means a glamorous vacation - lots of flip flops, jeans, beer, and laziness. A sort of sloppy quilt fits. (Pictures to come AFTER vacation - you'll get to see the quilt live in action!)

I'm getting more and more into embroidery. I was debating what type of crafty project to bring with me on vacation and embroidery won out. I was going to bring hexies but decided that I wanted something a little more engaging (though I'm still plugging away at my hexagon stash and have started to think of some actual projects!). I'm working on this awesome quote AND an abstract piece. (Again, due to the state of my apartment - eek, filled with suitcases and basically just a mess - pictures will come after we return.)

A lot of blogs that I read have been very self-reflective lately, many with a common theme: simplify. (Amanda and Brooke have written some beautiful, thoughtful posts about this). Our lives are busy, complicated and stressful and many people have become aware of the need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and take each day one at a time. This idea seems to also be paired with more of a focus on local initiatives, healthy lifestyle choices, and quality time with loved ones. Maybe these tough economic times produced something positive: a larger community reflection on what's important. I know that I've felt the need to re-examine my life and priorities and am vowing to focus on being healthy, happy, and thankful. I've blogged about this before and will continue to do so as I work on myself and my life. Thanks to all of your supportive comments, suggestions and for simply following along. :)

On a less serious note, I have an absolutely adorable 4-year-old cousin who has the vocabulary/language ability of a 6-year-old. This past weekend I got to spend some time with her and she cracked me up for hours! Her mom (my 1st cousin) invited us to hang out at their house for the afternoon for some swimming and BBQing. It was so relaxing to get out of the city (they're about an hour train ride away) and definitely entertaining! My little cousin talked NONSTOP (obviously related to me) and mused about everything from boys to favorite words to floating. One of the cutest things that she said was in response to her dad asking her if she was floating (she's learning to swim/float and wore a floaty vest but mostly hung on to the wall of the pool). She stated, "only my toes are floating." Too cute!

So, I leave you all for a while here, as I will not be bringing my computer on vacation. Here's just a few things on the vacation agenda:

~ blueberry picking
~ trip up to Freeport (L.L. Bean!)
~ hanging out in Portland
~ see "Eat, Pray, Love" on a rainy day
~ LOTS of reading
~ lobster. 'nuf said.
~ beach snuggling!
~ yoga/meditation

I'll be checking email but will mostly be outside enjoying nature and goofing off with my sweetie and Louie. We'll be back in 10 days - until then, stay cool, have fun, and enjoy these last few weeks of summer!


Find life experiences and swallow them whole. Travel. Meet many people. Go down some dead ends and explore dark alleys. Try everything. Exhaust yourself in the glorious pursuit of life. – Lawrence K. Fish


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