Summer has officially arrived with a hot and heavy hand. Time to stay inside and sew, read, watch Hulu and enjoy the AC. Yeah it’s already July–I’m a little late “wrapping” up June.

I’m changing it up and doing a wrap up every month instead of just my book reviews–which might include books, gardening, thoughts, meanderings, and all the mundane stuff just thrown into one monthly post.

On the sewing front I felt that these were not worthy of their own posts…..

My serger and I are good friends. Not besties yet, but good friends. I am now just leaving it set up on my sewing desk all the time and ready to get to work! So quick and easy to use. I’ve made this pattern two times and thought I’d try it again. For the first two dresses I didn’t have a serger, therefore they were all machine stitched with a little hand hemming thrown in..

Using the serger was so much easier and I really like how it turned out. I changed it up a little by making the sleeves elbow-length and added 3 inches to the hem. I used the Celebrate Baby Lock serger for most of it. The only time I used my Baby Lock Unity was for the neckline and I really messed it up. Went back and fixed it with the serger.

I love this dress and I wear it a lot. The jersey knit from Riley Blake is soft and comfy. I’d like to make it again but I want to add pockets. Not in my skill set yet. How hard could it be? I’m a confident sewist!

I planned on making some onesies with leftover jersey knits for my new grandson. Using Simplicity pattern S9390. I made the first one and the elastic in the legs was too tight. I am unable to unpick knits so I just cut off the bottom and turned it into a middy shirt for him. Then I tried again and ended up cutting off the bottom before I even added the elastic. That shirt was a little longer. This pattern makes no sense to me. Redundant silly steps. Does anyone out there have a baby pattern that they would recommend?

I also made some burp clothes which are easy peasy pieces of flannel I bought at Walmart. Before I got everything sent off, Athena thought it made a good bed. I warned my daughter there might be cat hair in the package.

I’m totally bored with my posts about what I’ve read every month. Five of those so far for 2022. If I’m bored, I’m assuming you are too. So the books are no longer getting their own posts–they will be in the “wrap up”. In June I read “Crying in H Mart”, “Recitaf” and “Where the Crawdads Sing”.

I saw “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zaunner on a “every woman must read these books” list. But that didn’t move me to read it. Then I saw the author on Jimmy Fallon. She is in the band “Japanese Breakfast”. I like listening to different genres of music. Hers is kind of what you hear when walking through trendy young hip stores–where I have no business shopping but somehow I still go in. Then I went to the library to reserve the ebook and it actually popped up almost immediately as available. It is an interesting read–a memoir about her relationship with her mother and how she handled her mother’s death. And there is a lot about Korean food. I read it relatively quickly for me. It’s a good book. Funny thing is, my daughter listed to the audiobook and she said she cried a lot. I did not. Since I read the book, the author has popped up on several places that I watch regularly. Like “Cup of Jo” blog, Tiny Desk Concerts, Saturday Night Live. She is interesting. The book is being turned into a movie.

Next up I read “Recitaf” by Toni Morrison which is an essay. I read about it somewhere. I don’t know. Some magazine, newspaper, website. It was months ago and I ordered it on Amazon and it wasn’t yet available so when it showed up months later it was like a little present. Like a surprise birthday gift! Anyhow. In the article I read, this edition starts with a review by Zadie Smith who is a well known author. The review said to read the story and then the intro. That’s what I did. And really enjoyed both. I read it twice. Just to compare my thoughts from before and after. I sent it off to my daughter. Like a little present! She’ll be surprised!

Then I started reading “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. This was an impulse buy at Sam’s Club. Another highly rated book. My daughter started reading it while she was at my house before I did and quit. I asked her what she thought. “Abused child”. I enjoyed it at first. But whoa. Not my kind of book. I know that I’m in the minority but I found it boring and predictable. I was talking to two friends that read it and they loved it. I forced myself to finish it. It will be a movie soon or may have already been released. I think the movie has to be better than the book.

One last photo. We usually go for a golf cart ride in the evening. We like to check out the wildlife. Sometimes we see as many as six deer. One of our most recent jaunts we saw two big turkeys and about 8 chicks. We don’t often see turkeys because they tend to stay in a dryer habitat and we are surrounded by marsh land. Here’s a photo from one of our favorite spots.