Weekend Stitches
I'm baaack! And it feels good. I have big plans, BIG plans for my time today, starting with sharing some pictures from our weekend with you.
Our annual weekend camping trip to Hunting Island, on the southern coast of South Carolina, is a huge deal to our kids. I'm not a total fan of camping, but the beach makes my day, plus we always go with friends. When we arrived on Friday night, I road my bike out to the front entrance twice to get this picture. The first time I found that the only camera we had brought had a dead battery. Darn. My friend, Erin, let me borrow hers, and some of the pictures in this post are her shots.
Unfortunately, the dead battery was kind of a foreshadowing of the entire weekend. Things just kept going wrong (like when Brandon and I climbed into our tent late on Friday night to find that our inflated mattress wasn't holding air).
Saturday morning was beautiful, but cold. We always go to Hunting Island in May, and the weather ranges from 80 to 90 degrees. This weekend it was in the 70's, which is nice in general, but too cold to swim with a strong wind blowing.
So we flew kites until it was too gusty.
And played in the sand, while mama stitched. I was bummed it was too cold to swim, but at least I made some really good progress on my Alabama Chanin dress.
There was Uno and smores and lots and lots of bike riding. So, altogether not a bad trip, but lacking the beachy goodness that we expected.
My favorite moment was sunset on Saturday. Even the kids slowed down a bit to take it in.
There was a storm coming in, causing the horizon to fill with purple-gray clouds. A rainbow broke out over the gray-blue waves. It seemed like the whole space was infused with dreamy colors.
I noticed that where the waves broke I'd spy flashes of olive green. The creamy sea foam was rushing onto the shore where little hands were scurrying to grab it up.
After the water pulled back, the shore would gleam orange and dark blue, reflecting the colors of the sunset with a breathtaking iridescence. I thought to myself, "I never work with subtle, muted, pearlized colors like this. How peaceful it all feels."
Those clouds weren't joking. The rain started as soon as we zipped up our tents to go to bed and continued into the morning. We decided to pack up and leave since there wasn't a dry surface to be had for cooking or eating the next day. My little girl was really bummed that our beach vacation turned out so different and, honestly, so was I. But, I told her that we'll just have to take a day trip to the beach sooner rather than later to catch our time in the waves. And, also, we're fortunate to be able to visit the ocean at all! It was a lesson in focusing on the positives, I suppose, because there were plenty of positives to our trip!
I've just about finished my first of four panels in the Alabama Chanin DIY dress kit. It was a nice, relaxing project to take along.
This is emerald green over white jersey, spray-basted together for pin-free stitching. After I finish this panel, I'll cut out the green inside each of those stitch shapes to reveal the white through the reverse applique holes. It's my motivation to keep stitching!
Our annual weekend camping trip to Hunting Island, on the southern coast of South Carolina, is a huge deal to our kids. I'm not a total fan of camping, but the beach makes my day, plus we always go with friends. When we arrived on Friday night, I road my bike out to the front entrance twice to get this picture. The first time I found that the only camera we had brought had a dead battery. Darn. My friend, Erin, let me borrow hers, and some of the pictures in this post are her shots.
Unfortunately, the dead battery was kind of a foreshadowing of the entire weekend. Things just kept going wrong (like when Brandon and I climbed into our tent late on Friday night to find that our inflated mattress wasn't holding air).
Saturday morning was beautiful, but cold. We always go to Hunting Island in May, and the weather ranges from 80 to 90 degrees. This weekend it was in the 70's, which is nice in general, but too cold to swim with a strong wind blowing.
So we flew kites until it was too gusty.
And played in the sand, while mama stitched. I was bummed it was too cold to swim, but at least I made some really good progress on my Alabama Chanin dress.
There was Uno and smores and lots and lots of bike riding. So, altogether not a bad trip, but lacking the beachy goodness that we expected.
My favorite moment was sunset on Saturday. Even the kids slowed down a bit to take it in.
There was a storm coming in, causing the horizon to fill with purple-gray clouds. A rainbow broke out over the gray-blue waves. It seemed like the whole space was infused with dreamy colors.
I noticed that where the waves broke I'd spy flashes of olive green. The creamy sea foam was rushing onto the shore where little hands were scurrying to grab it up.
After the water pulled back, the shore would gleam orange and dark blue, reflecting the colors of the sunset with a breathtaking iridescence. I thought to myself, "I never work with subtle, muted, pearlized colors like this. How peaceful it all feels."
Those clouds weren't joking. The rain started as soon as we zipped up our tents to go to bed and continued into the morning. We decided to pack up and leave since there wasn't a dry surface to be had for cooking or eating the next day. My little girl was really bummed that our beach vacation turned out so different and, honestly, so was I. But, I told her that we'll just have to take a day trip to the beach sooner rather than later to catch our time in the waves. And, also, we're fortunate to be able to visit the ocean at all! It was a lesson in focusing on the positives, I suppose, because there were plenty of positives to our trip!
I've just about finished my first of four panels in the Alabama Chanin DIY dress kit. It was a nice, relaxing project to take along.
This is emerald green over white jersey, spray-basted together for pin-free stitching. After I finish this panel, I'll cut out the green inside each of those stitch shapes to reveal the white through the reverse applique holes. It's my motivation to keep stitching!