Me, myself, and Irene

Somehow August turned into the biggest social whirlwind my husband and I have experienced since being married (lo, these 6 years). Trips to the beach, a plethora of sushi dinners with several different friends, a couple of date nights to ourselves...

And then a hurricane. New England usually gets good and clocked in some fashion or another by a hurricane roughly every 10-12 years. Connecticut, as it happens, is usually pretty exempt, maybe a little storm surge along the shore, but nothing we can't handle. As a result, our trees can be a rather wimpy lot. Blizzards aren't enough for these suckers. Oh no. But 8 inches of rain followed by 80mph wind gusts for 24 hours? And they come down like houses of cards.

A lot.

My husband and I were without power for just shy of 3 days. Just long enough to lose the contents of our fridge and most of what was in our freezer (we were lucky enough that the madman's folks kept power the whole time and let us use some space in their spare freezer). My library is still without power nearly a week later. I'd like to say it's been like being on vacation, but that would be a lie. I've been getting up at 6:30 every morning and getting half-ready for work, only to wait around for an hour to see if it's worth completing the process. Thus far, it hasn't. As I'm sort of unofficially "on call", I've been a bit of a homebody. While we had no power, I spent most of the days reading, and finished the 4th book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series (so, so good), and read Penny Vincenzi's "The Best of Times" for this month's book club--here's to hoping the library's open in time for our meeting next week!

However, once power was restored, there was finally a bit of sewing done.


What the... Ah, proof that my husband made the bed--kittens strewn over it, in the name of quality control. That would be Zoe to the left, and Ellie (also known as Beans) above. Zoe is not a monster, and Ellie is not a baby. Zoe is 11 years old, and weighs a sturdy 10 lbs. Ellie is 3, and is a perma-kitten--she was the runt of her mother's first litter, and is a whopping 5 lbs...

Ellie sez, I eat ur soul, kthx?

5 lbs of pure evil, that is...

Ok, but really, I did some sewing--honest!


Scrambled through the August blocks for the Peace Circle of do. Good Stitches--late blocks went out on September 1. Sorry! We used the Starflower tutorial from Jennifer over at her blog, Ellison Lane Quilts.

And after a loooong trip from Australia, Sheridan's fabric for The Beehive finally made it to my door (just before the hurricane). Took an unusually long time to get to me, nearly a month--normally, it's about 2 weeks or so, first class. At any rate, I whipped up Sheridan's blocks and sent them out, so I'm caught up with bee blocks again!


Solids and Amy Butler--love these quick blocks.

Readers, if you stuck with me during the summer doldrums here, I appreciate it more than you'll know. With a little luck, the cooler weather as we hit fall in New England will mean more time sewing, and more things to share in this space! And if you were with me last year, you also know that there's some fun to be had here in October (more so than usual, that is!), so thank you, and I promise to make it worth your while!