Rainy Days and Mondays

It's a rainy day AND a Monday.  Score.

I love a good rainy day.  And I love Mondays -- the beginning of a new week.  Kind of like New Year's Day, but on a smaller scale.  A time for renewed energy, resolutions, and goals.
If I fail, I only fail for the week.  There's another one right around the corner.  

Yes, I think that's why Mondays are a favorite.

Between Friday and today, I have managed to sew four (4) pioneer skirts, three (3) aprons, and five (5) bonnets.

Did I mention that I am NOT a seamstress?

I meticulously picked apart the bonnet Britta used 4 years ago, made for her by an ambitious Laurel classmate completing a value project, to use as a pattern.  It worked reasonably well, although when I tried them on, one by one as each was finished, I noticed that my head looked flat on top, and poofy on the sides.  Nice.  

I'm a girl that likes a big top, you know.  A product of the 80's.  I might just be wearing my bonnet hanging around my neck, draped down my back, just to create the pioneer aesthetic, without appearing flat-headed.  

Unless it's raining.  Then I'll wear it.  Because wet hair is the flattest hair.

Tomorrow I will be sewing two more skirts (for a total of 6) for our soul-sister Cheyenne, then I am DONE.  I will NOT be sewing pioneer clothing again.  Maybe for forever, since I will have a quite a stash when it's all said and done.

Saturday we had a swim meet.

Mar's feet...

 Shi's foot.  A different perspective, since I post swim pictures aplenty.

It was our last regular season meet of the summer.  Tomorrow will be Prelims, then Championships are on Saturday.  The All-Star meet will be the following Saturday.  So even though "the season is over," it's really not over.

And a quick ice cream recipe update:  Yesterday we tried peppermint stick and coconut ice cream.  (We made two batches because there were conflicting opinions on what constitutes a "good" ice cream flavor.)  They turned out yummy, as usual, even if I only had 1 cup of cream per batch (vs. 1-1/2 in the original recipe).  I made up for the difference with milk.  This is good news, as less cream very likely means fewer calories, which can only mean more can be consumed.

For the peppermint stick ice cream, we crushed up 4 leftover-from-Christmas candy canes (saved for such a time as this), and added them to the mixture at the get-go.  THEN we crushed up 2-3 more to add the last couple minutes, so as to have crunchy peppermint bits in the finished product.  DE-lightful.

The coconut ice cream was made by adding 1-1/2 tsp. imitation coconut extract, (in addition to the vanilla), and a small handful of sweetened coconut flakes.  Britt had made coconut ice cream earlier in the week, and we both determined that you really don't need to add a lot of the coconut flakes, unless you enjoy chewing your ice cream.  Just a few are perfectly and deliciously adequate.

I think we're painting closets for FHE.  Good times.