So my next door neighbor works at Goodwill and though she is not a knitter, she knows I am and she immediately saw the value in all this yarn and snatched it up for me. This is HAND PAINTED sock yarn, a lot of it is hand spun and it is all extremely high quality wool. This is like 15-40$ a hank yarn.

(This isn’t even half of it, by the way.)

I already started a pair of socks. I couldn’t wait to get it in my hands.

And the price per hank?

I know. Unbelievable. Actually, she paid less because of her discount. Still. Amazing. I love Goodwill. Thanks Jeneanne! <3

Expect lots of pictures of socks in progress from here on out.

I don’t know what it is with the perfect summer weekends we’ve got going on here in the Midwest but dang, I’ll take it. Makes up for the weeks and weeks of rain, I guess…

This past weekend Marky went up to Milwaukee with his boys to have a day off and I took the kids to my parents for a day of basically sitting around playing Bang and/or swimming in the pool. Caroline and Rox are here from Germany, plus my brothers are all home from school, so it was a full house. Perfect. We snacked, we joked, we played games and the kids wore themselves out in the pool and on the playground equipment. Like I said… perfect.

My little sister and I did a silly photo shoot while we were chilling in the hammock. Now that she’s getting a little older and is losing her baby face a bit, we’re actually starting to look more like sisters. It’s a strange thing, being 18 years older than your sibling. There’s such a huge gap there. I mean, I’m old enough to be her mother – my own kids are just a few years younger than her. But damn, she is growing up fast. Definitely not a baby anymore!

Also, please enjoy this totally adorable picture of my parents together on the swing set.

The weekend of the fourth I had a four day weekend which, I am happy to report, we sucked the life out of. This would be day three. The Milwaukee Zoo followed by fireworks.

We met up with my family at the zoo – my dad bought everyone explorer hats and we, being total dorks, wore them the entire time.

The zoo was pretty busy but the weather was perfect. Not too hot but definitely summer weather. We go here all the time so it wasn’t like we needed to see every single thing. We went where we felt like going and didn’t really rush. Afterwards, we headed down towards the lake and hit up Alterra for some early supper.

Then, homewards for fireworks! We were lucky enough to pull into a parking spot right next to one of Jeremiah’s little friends from kindergarten, so we sat with her family so the kids could play on the beach until the show started.

These pictures don’t even begin to show how utterly gorgeous this was. All the boats on the lake with their lights on with the sun setting in the background… as desperate as I am to move to the big city, moments like these I can’t imagine ever being far away from this area and the lake culture that surrounds it.

It was really a perfect day. The kind of summer day you wait all season for.

Believe it or not, this was totally unintentional. I mean, really, I was totally unpatriotic until at the very last moment, I grabbed a flower from my garden and stuck it in my hair. All of the sudden I was all color coordinated and stuff.

Fourth of July weekend began on Friday (which I took off) which involved a lot of catching up on chores and practicing for a little coffee house show Marky and I played. We hadn’t played a show in a while, so it took most of the day to pull some songs together. We did a lot of covers… Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, Rilo Kiley and Fiona Apple. We did some Venna tunes as well. It was really laid back; my favorite kind of show. Denise took some pictures, see?

Anyway, sorry I don’t have better pics of the outfit – we were so focused on practicing it wasn’t until the last second that Marky remembered to snap a few hasty shots, but nonetheless, here’s the rundown:

Dress: ModCloth (This is SO much prettier than these photographs show.)

Shoes: ModCloth (these are already trashed, believe it or not. And I’ve only worn them TWICE. Unexpectedly poor quality. Sad.)

Heart locket necklace: Antique. My grandmother’s.

Alright. I am flirting with a dangerously late bedtime for someone whose alarm goes off at 4:30 am. Off to bed with me!

Delayed outfit post. I had just finished reading Water for Elephants so I’m I guess you could say I’m a little bit in circus mode here. Our friends Steph and Nabeel got married so it was definitely an occasion to dress up!

Not too many pictures of the wedding/reception from me, unfortunately. I was way too busy doing the bride’s hair/makeup and then corralling/dancing with my children… Plus it was an evening reception and my phone does not take very good pics in the dark! Still, they had a professional photographer there so hopefully some pictures will surface soon. Stephanie’s gown was GORGEOUS. You have to see it. She was so beautiful!

Dress: ModCloth

Tights: Target

Shoes: Thrifted

Necklace: Gift from sister-in-law

Ring: Some clearance bin somewhere. I can’t remember. (I seem to describe a lot of my accessories this way.)

Total babe in picture with me above: Steff Bomb.

Alright, that’s enough internetting for the day! It’s PERFECT outside.

In case I don’t annoy you enough with this blog, thanks to my hubs, I got a tumblr. You can allow me to annoy you from there now as well, if you wish.

That doesn’t mean I’m leaving xanga. I don’t think I can, at this point. It’s been SIX YEARS OMG.