Sunday, August 31, 2014

Swim class at Cottage Lake Pool

Elliott took a 2 week swim class at Cottage Lake Pool, "pike" level. 




It was the first time we had been to that pool and it closed for the season on August 29th, so we went as a family to the last 2 hours of their open swim. We'll be back next year :)
 
 Arlin, noodle-rider:


Elliott made a lot of progress in the 2 hours. We even saw his swim teacher on her rotation as one of the lifeguards so Elliott showed her his new skills of swimming with a noodle.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Taughannock Falls

Taughannock Falls, in Ulysees, NY, but very close to Ithaca. The river carved a large, wide gorge as it flowed toward Cayuga Lake.
 The riverbed was wide and had many shallow pools to wade and swim.
 Here are the cousins sitting on a great example of the unique way the stone splits and shatters. As the shale (?) erodes, it splits in right angles. I noticed this the most in Treman gorge (no pics this year) where it creates hundreds of rectangular pools...like a naturally occurring Roman bathhouse.





 My first time at Taughannock Falls.
 Elliott was in undies only on the way out of the gorge. Then we crossed the road to play at Cayuga Lake. We rented paddleboards and swam around.

 Arlin loves his Grandma and Grandpa!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Ithaca 2014

It had been 2 years since we went to Ithaca, NY as a family, sadly (last trip July 2012). We had a great trip in mid July and loved our time with Adam's parents, siblings, and hometown.

There are a lot of photos, so I'm grouping them into different posts:
Watkin's Glen

Here are the cousins outside Maxie's Supper Club, first stop home from the airport.
And here is the grand meeting of cousins Arlin and Darwin Barlow - born just 4 weeks apart! They will be essentially the exact same age their whole life :)
 Two Barlow families:
 Jump time at Grandma's
 Playing at Stan Barlow Nationwide Agency!
 Elliott ate all the office mints
 Last hugs with Grandma Ka

 Flying home on the airplane:

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

sewing with vintage linens

A few days after we came home from California, Adam was gone for a week on a 50 mile backpack trip with the scouts. It was raining for some of that time** and I decided to take the week off from painting shiplap and use my personal time at night to sew and eat chocolate. I like the two items I made: linen zipper bag and linen tote. How do you like my shiplap wall? I love it :)

I have a collection of embroidered vintage linens, which I added to this summer from my favorite antique store in Ithaca (next to Moosewood Cafe). Here are some of the recent spoils:
I will use the "knives" and "forks" rolls to store my extra silverware. The embroidered runners will be project bags (to protect current knitting projects) for me a la Dottie Angel. I have been inspired by her beautiful project bags.
shell/ivory? belt buckles. I see these on a sweet, belted blouse for me....
Detail of the white and blue embroidery; it has a Japanese feel. I thought it could be nice to use the embroidered part as a collar on a girl's dress or a pocket detail on something for me....or both, I have 6 crescents. 
White handiwork looks stunning with natural linen backing. I could frame this.
 Elliott helped me put the "fences" back on the toddler bed to make it a crib for Arlin. Right off, Elliott showed Arlin how to use his new crib: throw out all the blankets, jump and shout. Arlin took careful notes.
I mentioned Dottie Angel...another fun personal treat was to visit her at TOLT, the new-ish yarn store in Carnation. I bought a few prizes for me which hurt Elliott's feelings. The black yarn is for my skotthufa!  

**The first night on the 50 miler, it rained. Second day, huge thunderstorm terrorized the scouts and some ill prepared leaders. Third day, all but 2 scouts and 4 leaders went home early. Sixth day, the rest of the crew came home and I heard many colorful stories. Here is a photo of the food I lovingly packed as per Adam's precise directions. 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

NW Summer Life

June




 July




 Our home!
 So beautiful!
 Popsicles at the lake


 summer fruits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

I have lived in the moment and enjoyed the entire, unbelievably beautiful summer..but I just started worrying about it coming to a close. Did I enjoy it enough? The pictures show I did. Sadly, I was a little excited today when I though of chili, stew, hot tea, jackets, and Halloween :)