It’s a lovely holiday…

Bug visiting with Grandma G

This summer has proved to be one of the most crazy, happy, miserable, nutty summers ever. On the one hand, my little family started out sick and wasted the first month of summer vacation eating chicken soup, cough drops, and antibiotics instead of swimming, grilling, gardening, going to the beach, and painting the outside of the house. (Okay, the last item, not so much fun, however the finished results are so satisfying, that I really wanted to include it in my little group of stuff there.)

Onto our trip to Chicago, where, truth be told, after arriving I needed one more week of prednisone (yuck) and antibiotics to become reasonably well enough to really do anything that required more activity than lifting my hand to my mouth. For the last couple of weeks we’ve been doing a small variety of visiting and sightseeing.

Bug in the John Hancock Plaza

We had filming for the Bug’s and her cousins’s drama, “Beautiful Blades,” by my darling cuz’s kiddo (young director–poor guy, I think all those girls made him a little nuts).

Finally, I’ve had a bit of time to make some new jewelry, finish a couple of knitting projects (both so-so in terms of how satisfactory I felt they turned out—my “Just enough Ruffles scarf  has been renamed “Hardly any Ruffles.” It was a limp and floppy disaster, and it will be ripped when it arrives back in CA…Enough said.). I also ripped another new project, and started a couple more. But nothing too major. It’s just been too hot, muggy, and rainy to do much outside.

Hardly Any Ruffles...a floppy disaster

But at least we had some thunderstorms. I lovelovelove thunderstorms!

Certainly, one of the things I’ve been anticipating most of all was the secret trip I mentioned a couple of posts ago…a trip I’ve been yearning for ( and I do mean yearning for) since I was about 5 years old: A trip to London. So it seems that since CR has a business meeting in London, and since we are currently kittenless, and since our intrepid housesitter can stay an extra week, we are winging our way to jolly old England in just a few days and I am overcome with excitement. Even better, Momma and Poppa will be joining us!  We’ll be staying in an old white rowhouse turned mod hotel in South Kensington—looks like it’s just around the corner from Mary Poppins and Wendy Darling. Those of you who’ve known me forever know that seeing the movie Mary Poppins as a wee kiddo got me started with my obsession with England.

A goofy memory: Can you imagine my excitement back in High School when during homecoming week one year, our class got to dress up as characters from Mary Poppins? I made myself a white lace dress like hers and spent a good part of the day I wore it  posing for my art teacher’s drawing classes.

Typically I plan our  vacation activities within an inch of their lives and this trip is no different. However, no one else in my clan seems to share my obsession with this planning of mine. So I decided instead of making everyone follow my schedule of things to do and see, I’ve made a list of stuff with necessary info (you know, like time sights are open and how much they cost), and figure that each day we can decide what we’re in the mood to do.

By the way, if there’s something you’ve done in London that you’d recommend doing, I’d love to know about it.

And as usual, I’ve been busy planning plane knitting for our trip. Item one, a Swallowtail shawl made from Malabrigo Silky in the Indecita colorway. I’m about a third finished and drooling over the color.

Yummy yarn!

It’s moving so fast, however, that I’m thinking I’d better bring a second project and am trying to decide between doing a “Traveling Lady” with this luscious HandMaiden Camel Spin in the Sangria colorway (scored as a giftie from Momma while on a trip to Knitche in Downers Grove), or this Liesl top thingy

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/liesl-2

(pattern purchased from CocoKnits at the last Stitches West) in the Louet Euroflax (ripped twice now–after my failed Jordan, I made a feeble attempt to design a lacy cardigan for myself out of this linen…just blah. Rip! Good thing this stuff is truly like string!)

Blue Puppy models the insanely gorgeous Hand Maiden Camelspin in Sangria

Also, Momma is having me teach her how to knit a sock on the plane. Joy. She really wants to do it—I mean, she asked me to show her  how—but she also keeps telling me she doesn’t think she can do it. I know better, however. She’s really a good knitter. We’re starting with a worsted weight, even though she told me she wants to make a fingering weight sock because I know my dear mother sometimes has the attention span of a 7-year-old when it comes to knitting and it’ll take too long for her; she’s the Queen of UFOs. Poppa just rolls his eyes when he sees her casting on for a new project.

Well, I’m off upstairs to pack a bit.

Mary Poppins, here I come! Wish I had her carpetbag…