…And found some dress-up outfits in the attic while her mother and I rummaged around for patterns and fabric. Nothing screams I’m four like a red plaid dress over pink shirt and pants, topped with wings and halo. She considered adding overalls but decided it might be uncomfortable. Smart move.

K set me up with a baptismal gown (unmade) in a bag, with a cross that’s passed through a few hands without ever ending up being used, the leftover material from Q’s, and pattern that looks simple enough for a garment-novice like myself to not mangle out of recognition. Rather than a grandmotherly art, we’ll call this a godmotherly art.

More photos on flickr, including a tribute to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Tomorrow we go pick up little brother from college, a 4/5ths of the family whirlwind road trip with a possible detour to Crater Lake. I simultaneously dread and look forward to it. Fortunately, I had five million books come in on hold, so I’ll have plenty to distract myself should conversation falter (and I not be driving at the time).

  • Austenland, Shannon Hale (oops, I already read this since picking it up last night. I’ll have to leave it for Kitri. Did you know that “chick lit” is a subject heading? Yeah, yeah, shut up already about subject headings, you’re saying, it’s summer vacation.)
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
  • Farthing, Jo Walton
  • The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
  • Arcadia, Tom Stoppard
  • Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, R.L. Lafevers
  • Shug, Jenny Han
  • The Blood of Flowers, Anita Amirrezvani
  • The Wednesday Wars, Gary Schmidt
  • Roller Skates, Ruth Sawyer
  • Half Life, Shelley Jackson
  • The Nature of Monsters, Clare Clark
  • Now is the Hour, Tom Spanbauer
  • The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

Several of those were impulse “buys” after processing them (there’s nothing quite like typing a label for a book and then checking it out). I’m also currently reading Lullabies for little Criminals and The Art of Eating, and I didn’t list the audiobooks. Some of them I’ve had for a while, but 6 I just picked up last night. I still have 3 more sitting at work.

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