Settling in

NOW it is summer!

Disney World was summer vacation- but the active part of the vacation. Now I am into my real summer mode- which is making a long, slow recovery from the rigors and difficulties of the school year.

I fell into teaching accidentally, then discovered I was good at it and LOVED it. Working again was a real transition for me after five years at home, 2 of them almost fulltime in bed. One of the only reasons I can teach is the schedule- the Christmas break gives me a little recovery time and the summer is the only reason I can continue to do this year after year.

I finally feel the adrenalin slowing down. Everything in my body is slowing down and going into repair mode. While still in high mode I made a lot of plans for the summer and now know that many of them will be attempted but not a lot of them completed.

Anyway, here I am past noon and so far today I have accomplished NOTHING! I did have breakfast, and read my emails, and checked out some favorite websites, but that's about it.

I brought the cross-stitch project and the quilt top to work on, but left the other quilting project- the one where the top is finished and I am partway through the quilting process- at home; I just didn't feel like hauling the hoop and the extra stuff. I also left all the scrapbooking stuff home.

I am looking at some interesting challenges with what I chose to bring for stamping and cardmaking. I *did* bring the Silhouette (electronic die cutter) because I recently ordered several CDs from Dover Publishing that I really want to try out. I brought about 30 stamp pads, about 100 stamps, some cardstock in various colors, some base cards, and almost all my coloring media- twinks, prisma pencils and alcohol markers, LePlumes watercolor markers, Derwent watercolor pencils. I want to learn a lot more this summer about water techniques. Almost all the stamps I chose will use or adapt to some kind of watercolor style.

What I didn't bring was my Cuttlebug, any nesties, any punches, any ribbon, any brads or eyelets, or the stuff to go with them- basically I brought NO embellishments.

I had made up my mind that I would participate in a lot of sketch and color challenges at SCS and on various blogs. When I opened the Sketch challenge for this week at SCS I realized that I could do it- but it would have been a LOT easier with some of the stuff I left at home. Oh, well. Looks like I am going to be doing challenges with some challenges of my own, lol!

It has been raining every afternnoon here, but the weekend days were taken up with DH and DS and various jobs around here to really BE settled. Today DH and DS are back in the city, working, and I am finally ALONE! Now, don't get me wrong- I love DS and ADORE DH and love spending time with them- but my real summer (and my very necessary recovery) is the time I spend alone here at the shore.

Right now the sun is still shining- showers and thunder storms to come later- and I am going to sit out back and just veg with my cross-stitch project until the rain arrives. Maybe tonight I will finally play with my stamping toys.

I seem to be rambling even more than usual-looks like my brain has decided to slow down as well!

The cross stitch project is a very old one that I decided to finally finish- called Watercolour Dragonflies. The chart is from Sekas & Co., and is from their Watercolours collection. Watercolours is a group of specialty threads from The Caron Collection, which are multi-colored variegated threads that give you really interesting patterns when you stitch with them. The project also uses Kreinik metallic braids which give it amazing texture and really POP!

Well, it is 1:15 and the sun is shining, so time for me to head out and relax with my stitching in the sun. I had 6 sets of dragonfly wings finished a long time ago, and I did another one yesterday before the rains came.Here is a picture of the chart cover, showing the final project, and a picture showing where I am with mine.







I'm off to stitch and sun!