I'm Bacckk!!

Which is a cause for great rejoicing (at least by me!) because it means that my poor little laptop has a new power cord! Hallelujah!

It's been a busy hiatus for us. Dear Big J was here last weekend, and hung out with us. We went to the Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts, we saw a movie (sans children)(Terminator. That's why it was without the kiddos.) we went for lunch at Carrabba's (Yummy! Anyone have recipes for their Chicken Marsala or Pollo Rosa Maria?) and we drove Little Sister to camp.

She's been to this camp for the past two years, but this year she was doing a different program, "Adventure Camping". It sounds as if it would be lots of fun in good weather...they camp out every night, in tents, and they drive for off-location activities like rock-climbing, canoes down a river, and cave-exploring. However! While Little Sister was there, it rained into their tents 3 nights out of five. I think it makes me feel old, I would not have been able to move after nights like they had. But she said that they had a great time (actually, she said that SHE had a great time) and she talked about it the entire drive home. For an entire hour. Really.

Big J had to fly back for more supersecret classes on last Sunday, and since Little Sister was at camp, the little ones and I hung out, went to the grocery store (and the toy store) and spent lots of time together. One day we made popsicles (banana-strawberry) and it was a rousing success. I also took them up to the craft room with me. We cleaned and tidied, and I finished off a few projects while they were dumping magazines and buttons on the floor.

The first project, was two big floor pillows. I've had them sewed together for ages (Really! Since before I was married) and I finally stuffed them and sewed the openings closed. They look pretty good on our big beanbag. The other project I rescued from the craft room is a skirt for me. I maybe started it two years ago? and whoever labeled that darn pattern as a "2-hour" pattern, deserves to burn in a crafter's hell. It was a floor length skirt, with tiers of ruffles. I HATE ruffles. but i really wanted that skirt when I started it, so I had started at the bottom so that I would have less sewing to do as I went up. Good idea, right? Hah! I found the other pieces, and sewed them together from the top down, and decided that two ruffle tiers, stopping at just above the knee, was going to be the right length. If I had originally sewed from the top down, I could have stopped much sooner, and been done with it a long long time ago. It's a quick (reasonably) and dirty sewing job, but it's finished, and I can wear it to church tomorrow. I really hope I didn't miss any more pins...

Let's see...oh, I finished up a summer scarf for me, of a recycled sari silk-yarn. It's pretty, and fuzzy. Maybe I'll take a picture of it tomorrow before church...stay tuned, same bat channel, same bat time. ;)