We went to a family reunion this weekend, and you couldn't ask for a better weekend, weather-wise. The sun was shining, and the kids could soak each other in a water balloon fight.

I am truly amazed by the pictures my camera takes...when you click on the picture to see the large version, you can see every drop of water.


Besides meeting new people, and visiting with ones that we already knew, and eating a ton of food, we also won two handmade afghans with our bingo-playing skills.

One of the afghans has a lot of purple and green in it, so it looks just right in Olivia's room.

Olivia also has a new purple washcloth. Aunt Eileen finds cotton sweaters from thrift stores or garage sales, cuts them up and crochets an edging around them. I'd take a picture of it, but it is hanging up to dry. It was put to the test when we got home.

On Holidays!

Well, I am now officially on holidays for a week. Actually, it works out to more than a week, because of the August long weekend. Canada loves its holidays. I think every month has a long weekend of some sort in it. February didn't have one, so the government created Family Day. Just because. So, on Tuesday, we set off for Drumheller, Alberta, to go to the Royal Tyrell Museum, because Olivia is obsessed with dinosaurs: the girl was a stegasaurus for Halloween. I tried to get her to be a fairy, or a princess, or something that was an elaborate, girly costume. Nope. Dinosaur.

Sigh.

But, anyways, we are off to see the dinosaurs, and then we'll hit Calgary and then Edmonton for the weekend. We have a wedding to go to up there, so it should be nice.

My idea of roughing it...

We were at the cabin for the last couple of days. It was so relaxing and peaceful. Well, when this is the view from the upper deck, how can it not be?
It has all the amenties that you want in a cabin: electricity....running water....indoor plumbing, it just doesn't have a phone, television, or an internet connection.
Years ago, my parents had a cabin at this same lake, but on a different beach. It was one of those things that I didn't appreciate then...I hated going out there and being away from my friends. But then, when we were out there, there was a never-ending list of things to do, which completely defeats the purpose of having a place whose purpose is to be an escape: to get away from it all and to relax.

Last night, we all sat on the deck and watched the birds in the trees. We had some prosciutto and melon, and drank some champagne. Just because it was Friday. Olivia told stories about the sandcastles she built that day on the beach in front of the cabin. It was a nice get away, if only for a few days.

Our Adventures in Kool-Aid Dyeing, or Why My House Smells like Grapes, Limes, and Sheep

So, a long, long time ago, I won a contest on Laura's blog. I was the winner of one skein of dye-your-own sock yarn from Knitpicks. I've been meaning to do something with it for a while, and since it's been so nice out, we could do it outside. Plus, Laura's done some amazing dyeing, so we were inspired. Ok, I was inspired. Olivia's just game to try anything new. So, this past week, we finally did something with it. They were going to be my football socks...since Donnie is big into football, I figured that wearing hand-knit socks in his favourite teams' colours would be my contribution to the game.

So, Rider green and Cobra purple was the plan.I wanted the colours to be very intense, so I used eight packages of each flavour.




It's looking stripy. And bright.

Except I forgot that the excess dye would pool underneath. Next time, I would do this on a cooling rack, so the excess could drip away. Our bright green and purple got a little mixed up, and the end result was a mottled purple and olive green. Not the exact look I was initially going for, but I like the result. And, Olivia absolutely loved it. The only bad part was steaming it to set the colour. The combination of grape, lime and wet wool is a little nasty. I think next time I'll zap it in the microwave.

Everything is slowly getting back to normal around here. We've all run through a nasty round of the flu, and so things have been at a very slow pace. Yesterday, I felt well enough to go out and hack at the weeds in the garden, and cut some flowers for the kitchen table.

There was a little boutique-y type store in Monroe, Washington, where we used to live, that sold some really neat things. I can't remember the name of the store, and it's since closed up, but it was the kind of place that sold handmade soaps, and fancy pillows, and various other neat things. I remember hanging in the window one time was this linen 'gardening jacket'. It was rather expensive, made of different coordinating floral prints. It was the type of thing that I would imagine ladies would wear out into their exquisitely manicured gardens to cut roses, or pluck the lone, errant weed that dared to appear. I was thinking about that jacket yesterday, as I hacked away in the hot sun, sweat pouring down my dirt-spotted face, that maybe when I get old I will be one of those little old ladies.

Maybe.

Almost done the first sleeve...

I've actually done some stuff since I last posted (well, a real post, that is...). I made my rhubarb strawberry pie. Wow...it was good, although after I made it, I said we couldn't eat it....it was too pretty to cut into.

Donnie said I should take a picture.

So I did.




I've almost finished the sleeve on Olivia's coral cardi. We watch one of the bazillion Law and Orders that I Tivo'd, and I plug away at it. I was worried that since I started it last year, it would be too small by now. And I've only had to rip back six rows to correct a mistake.





It still fits. It needs to be blocked, with a button band, and sleeves, but it will fit her for a while. She can still wear a sweater that I made for her when she was 18 months old...it's a little shortish, but the body width is still fine.

Happy Canada Day