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This photo is from a walk around Creamer's Field, where R and I went to see the sandhill cranes and canada geese on their southern migration. The weather was spectacular, warm with bright sunshine and a just hint of fall in the air. The colors were so nice, with the bright blue sky, and the reds of the changing leaves. Soon the world will be sparkling and whitewashed, which is hard to imagine in August. There is a definite fall bite to the air, though.

Creamer's Field was once a dairy farm, but is now a migratory bird refuge. Huge numbers of geese and cranes pass through in the spring and fall, along with ducks, plovers and others. There are many nature trails through the property, and you can walk, cross-country ski, dogsled, or skijor along them. (Skijoring is a mix of skiing and dog sledding, where a dog pulls a skier along a trail. I've never done it. It looks like fun.) R and I stick to walking, but it's a nice a place as any in Fairbanks for it.

tags: fall, Creamer's Field, Fairbanks, AK, barn

I've been making these little onesies and baby shirts for the baby niece, who is due in mid-September. They are really easy to do with this super product called wonder under, made for quilting appliques. All you need to do is to iron a piece of wonder under to the printed fabric, making sure it is larger than the shape you want. Once it's ironed you can trace a shape from a stencil or draw it freehand and cut it out. Then you can iron it onto the shirt/quilt/whatever you are making. Afterward I sewed some of the edges by hand and some by machine. I am anti pink, so I made these shirts and onesies to match the red and yellow baby pants. Now if she just wouldn't spit up on them!

Patti (R's mom) and I also worked very hard on this mediocre baby quilt– not bad for my first quilt. With no quilting experience I pretty much made things up as I went along, and it isn't perfect. Still, it did come together in the end into something…not bad. My sister in law is decorating the baby's room in peach and lavender, so the quilt will fit with the color scheme.

Before I signed up to make the above quilt I made this simple baby blanket. It does not have any batting, just a cotton front and a fleece back. The colors were very boyish, so I girlied it up a little bit with the pink ribbon and rickrack. Nothing against pink, really, but must all baby girl clothes be 100% pink? It makes me a little ill. (And don't get me started on "princess" attire…) I plan to dress her in red and denim. Won't that be cute?

tags: baby clothes, baby quilt, quilt, blanket, baby blanket, applique, wonder under

Apologies, but no lame excuses for my long absence– I'm fresh out.

I finished with the longest week ever ™ of camp on Friday. The director was out of town so I worked the whole week (7:30-5:30 M-F) , open avec close. I also engaged the children in slave labor, forcing them to pack up the classrooms and clean and haul things, as the rooms we used for camp needed to be returned to the first grade teachers. The children were just one teensy step this side of atrocious, and I pretty much wanted to strangle them by week's end. But I am done with all of that and have sent them on their way with a (gentle!) pat on the head and will not waste time with possible lawsuits and jail time.

The owners of the house we resided in this summer (the dirty one with all of the animals), returned home a day sooner than planned, and we did not have time to return the house to its previous sparkling lustre. (We did actually want to leave it nice and clean for them.) We also lost cat in the process of loading up our last few belongings, and after 45 minutes of searching had to leave him there and take our carloads of frozen foods before they melted. The owners promised to call when the cat turned up, but he never did. Two days later we were finally able to go by the house while they were out and call for him. Poor little dork had barricaded himself into a corner behind some empty frames and couldn't get out. Amazingly, he seems quite OK after spending 2 days hidden in a house with strange people, and is even becoming more affectionate and less skittish. Who'd have thunk it?

I shall be furiously job hunting, laundering and sewing this week. Baby niece is due in September and I have not made any of the things I've planned. Also, I saw my breath outside this morning, what do out think of that? Please, let the leaf raking insanity (we have at least 10 birch trees) wait for a while longer…

tags: lost cat, job hunting, overtime, fall