slow, lazy, kick-back summer

It's almost the middle of July. I'm trying to truly savor each day of the middle-of-the-summer. We finally had some rain here and I loved the dark evening of rain. And the garden enjoyed it even more.

I had made a bunch of stitch markers so I decided to take some photos and sell them on etsy. To sweeten the purchase and provide more functionality (I'm always misplacing stitch markers myself) I ordered some summery beach-safe screw-top containers and they will sell as a package along with the stitch markers.

I'm really enjoying making my socks for my sockapalooza pal. I had a rocky start and some panic-y moments with the first pattern I tried but now I've got yarn and pattern that I love. I'll post pictures soon. The pattern is from Knitty and has some bad errors and since no one has posted the solutions (only lots of posts about the problems) I am hoping to post the pattern WITH the solution so others can benefit.

So I need to take and post photos of
- my garden which is now refreshed - today there were two goldfinches and a cardinal at the birdbath (really a bird fountain with water I keep fresh for them) at the same time! I loved the color!
- my sockapalooza socks and pattern
- my studio which will have new shelves that my son and I painted today in LIME GREEN :-)
- my lab Scout who has a fancy-shmancy hairdo after a bath and brush this week, she is gorgeous

I am also having a wonderful time getting in a lot of reading time this month. I'll update my reading list on my sidebar this week. Our library has a wonderful webpage where I can just "order" the books I want and they send me email when they have transfered them from another county library to my local library. Then I just stop by and pick them up. Same for renewal, automatic email that a book needs to be renewed and the 'click' I renew it! The libraries in the U.S. are just wonderful.