Summer's End

That school bus rolled up the street right on time this morning, signaling the official end of summer.  The first day of school happened to fall on an auspicious day this year: my birthday.  Since the house was quiet and I wanted to combine some errands with some celebrating, I took myself out to brunch!  I've always wanted to indulge in a plate of decadent cream-cheese-stuffed french toast, but for some reason I never did it - til today!  This is "frittered french toast" from the Everready Diner in Brewster, and it comes dusted with cinnamon and sugar, and drizzled with raspberry sauce!  Wow!  I couldn't even finish it, so I'll have the rest tomorrow.

Another present I got for myself was this set of 36 colored pencils, below.  I use colored pencils more often than you would think, and the basic 12 color set just wasn't doing it for me anymore.  I don't need a fancy artist-quality brand or anything; for my purposes, these will do just fine.  Now I have a variety of shades of each color to use for sketching or on shrink film charms.  Sometimes just a little, inexpensive thing like that gives you just the lift you need!

 I also made a bit of progress on my fern piece.  I decided to use the same fern batik as sashing around the larger fern block and some smaller squares.  I fused on a variety of leaves and stitched around all of them by hand with a blanket stitch.

 When I first looked for ferns to trace for this pattern, I really wanted to go with one of the more divided, feathery looking ferns.  I knew that would be a hassle to cut out and stitch so I took the route of ease and simplicity.  I was going to simply free-motion around the edges of the fern, but the idea of a blanket stitch popped into my head.  I think it gives it a feathery appearance without all that work.   I also like the touch of shine the metallic thread adds.  For once, I followed my gut without overthinking and it worked!

I'm not sure how I'll finish this piece.  It's about 13" square, so it might make a nice pillow cover, but it will probably end up getting too much wear.  Maybe just a small wall hanging.   I think I'll call it "Summer's End."  The colors capture this time of year, when it is really still summer and everything is mostly green, but you begin to see tinges of rust and yellow here and there.

And although the summer is ending, this time of year is also a beginning - another school year and, for me, another year of my life.  Maybe it's a good time to revisit and revise the goals I made in January and plan the next few months accordingly.  One of the things I really want to get serious about is dropping a few pounds and exercising a little more.  I did start the day with some stretches and exercises, but the diet will have to wait until tomorrow - after the birthday cake and frittered french toast are all gone!