Longest Day Leads to Delight

I started off the day with a little sewing. It took me the longest time to figure out how the pleats in the front of this skirt were supposed to go. I am using an unprinted pattern and the skirt front had holes all over the place. What do they all mean? Which ones to match? The directions were just not that clear.

Maybe Nancy Drew with her sleuthing ability could figure them out. Where is she when you need her?

Gosh, all of those holes and nothing else, makes deciphering  the pattern and how you should construct it into a dress rather difficult for this beginning sewer?  This is not my first unprinted pattern but this one is causing me some headache. Butterick 2981 has pleats in the front, but no way could I figure out what the directions wanted me to do, so I fudged it. I have not added the bodice to the skirt yet, so I guess I will find out tomorrow when I do, if I have managed to do something acceptable.

I also have no idea what they are saying with the collar, so that will be a fudge as well. As many people have said before me, these patterns take it for granted that you know a thing or two about sewing.

I am impatient to have this done, but need to take the time and read a sewing manual and see some decent illustrations for it all to make sense. Wish me luck. As I was sewing yesterday, I realized sewing is not for the faint of heart. It takes patience, a certain spacial ability as well as common sense.

It was my day off and I took full advantage of it by sewing and reading a full Nancy Drew mystery, "The Case of The Whispering Statue". I forgot how predictable and innocent these novels are. I read through 175 pages in just a couple of hours. With my own set of sleuthing tricks I found that it had been read before, probably by me. Although I don't remember the story at all. It was all new and fresh for me.

I found fingerprints on page 93, 94 and 95. What might I have been eating as a 9 year old? If I were Nancy I would have a friend, who was willing to run a set of finger prints for free and test for compounds in the fingerprints to find food related molecules. I suppose I could ask my son, the police officer. Ha, imagine that? But in Nancy Drews world, that is just what I would do.

Hubby came home for lunch and surprised me by asking if I wanted to have a picnic at Jug End State Park for the summer solstice. Hubby loves the outdoors but it is unlike him to suggest such a thing. Of course I said yes, but realized I did not have much in the house as far as picnic food. Somehow I gathered enough ingredients to make a salad of Grilled Chicken with a Peanut Sauce. When I was done I felt as though I just finished a segment of the TV show "Chopped".

We ate our picnic in a field of Thyme.

Looking out at this.

And this.

 The puppies enjoyed it too!

Dalai enjoying the stream .

And then racing around like a mad women to dry herself off.

The moon at the park.

The moon at our house.

What are some of your favorite summertime activities?

It is 9:15 as I finish this post. It has been a long and productive day, but there is one more thing I need to do before sleep.

I am off to go watch the fireflies!!!