desperately seeking summer

(Please see end of post for weeklygiveaway info!)

Just a little bit. Ahhh, I want sunshine and birds and butterflies and flowers and yellow. I want it to be warm and bright and barefoot-weather. I want, I want, I want.

“I want …" sobbed Mig. "I want… I want …"
"What do you want, Mig?" the princess said softly.
- The Tale of  Despereux by Kate diCamillo

I want summer. I was browsing through some lovely sites this morning and for some reason found myself aching for summer. (Weirdly, as I was searching for that above quote — I couldn't quite remember the wording — I came across this site with the exact same theme as Kittenhood. It was pretty sketchy because I'd been thinking "oh such a pretty theme" like five minutes earlier.)

I want bright colors and tank tops and shorts without tights underneath. But for now it's merely early spring, and though the snow from yesterday has almost completely melted away — thank God — I want to visit a garden store in a sundress and sip lemonade from behind big sunglasses and a floppy sixties sunhat. I want to paint my bicycle yellow and ride around like this.

I want to pack away my coats and boots for a later date and break out the flip-flops and sandals. I want the gold paint on my toenails to show, and I want it to match the sun. I want to run around with a butterfly net, even if I don't catch anything.

entomologist. by oh*livia

I reallllly want this dress from ModCloth. Of course it's one of the most expensive ones out there... sigh.

We had tech rehearsal for our theatre club's spring production yesterday night from 2:30-9:00 pm (and that's a very early end time, the tech rehearsal for the fall musical ended at 12:30 AM the next morning...) and we were all watching the gorgeous moon. It was cold. I want it to be summer so you can watch the moon without freezing your buns off.

I want teal and orange and strawberries with sugar, straight from the garden. (The strawberries, not the sugar.) I want sunflowers and seagulls and sunlight all day long. And sometimes I want rainshowers, making everything wet and sparkling and beautiful. I want to ride around in a yellow taxi cab with the roof taken off and wave and throw flowers at everyone I see. I want to take a daysail out to one of the Casco Bay islands and wander around and touch things, snakes and seashells and stones and feathers. (You know I used to live on one of those islands? Yes. Great Diamond Island, actually. It was lovely, if a pain to go on the ferry every day to school.)

via weheartit

I want it to be sunny but also not 36º F (ahem, today, ahem ahem). I want the weather to match Owl City music. I want to open my eyes in the morning and be able to step outside into the dew and the sun without getting hypothermia.

(Are you noticing a trend here? Sun. Yellow. Color. Warm. Sun.)

I want to travel around to other summery places. I want to play guitar and sing made-up songs on street corners with my friend Samantha (this is a shared dream...) and harmonize and not care if we make two dollars or two hundred. I want to learn to play piano and flute because those are summer instruments.

I want to sew my own dresses and purses and shorts. I want to throw flower petals over my head and say that it's raining. I want to take pictures with a fisheye lens and laugh.

Groan. Whyohwhyohwhy must I live in Maine? I want summer. I am desperately seeking summer. Severely wishing for summer. Truly yearning for summer.

I want summer....

xoxo.

(PS: anyone catch the 80s reference in the title? *wink*)

listening to: Rainbow Veins - Owl City

About the weeklygiveaway:

I'm shuffling some things around to plan for our 500-Follower bash. Please excuse that we won't be having a weeklygiveaway this week or next week (because next week we'll have so much more!). Last week's winner of the three scrapbook kits was #2, Lauren! Lauren, you know the drill: please email me and we'll get you all set up. :)

Goodbye, Summer.

despedida

     totsiens

           وداعا

                näkemiin

                       au revoir

                            再見

                                  Lebewohl

                                        paalam

                                              ลาก่อน

                                                     zbohom

                                                           αντίο

                                                               kwaheri

                                                                     नमस्ते

                                                                          farvel

                                                                                خداحافظی

                                                                                     goodbye

Today is the real last day of summer. True, Autumn Equinox is a while away still, but today is the last day of freedom, the last day of real sunshine.

Tomorrow, I start school again. Tomorrow is September. Tomorrow the leaves began to dance and show their redorangeyellowbrown underskirts as they do high kicks. Tomorrow the wind comes whirling down from the North, bringing frosted windows and small tornadoes on the sidewalk.

But today... today is summer.

Today, the sun shines and it's a mite too warm out. Today, the leaves are green and fully alive. Today, I am woken by ten noisy chickens demanding insects while my mother gardens.

Today is August and summer is ripe in the air.

This post is a tribute to summertime. Most photos are from my family's three-day mini-vacation we got back from yesterday afternoon, bobbing around on our sailboat, but a few are from earlier in the summer.

You'll notice that I've added overlays onto some photos... what do you think of them? I love them (I think it gives a nice vintage touch), myself, but I always want feedback. I only had a few patterns I used this round, but I have many more for the future.

Beautiful rocks are pounded by the surf at Damriscove Island.

The birds there just love having their pictures taken... {this is my favorite pic of the batch!}

...but you have to be careful of thistles!

Swarms of butterflies swirl around the island.

I love the detail on this one! (A close second favorite to the bird.)

Smooth rocks create a very Zen beach.

This stream from the summer's earlier mountain hike is also quite calming.

I have no idea what this seagull was doing, but I just had to hop in the dinghy and get some pics!

There's nothing like an island sunset.

A vintage-y favorite from earlier in the year.

Mmm, beets. (Another early-summer photo)

Damriscove grasshoppers are quite adorable. *Rawr.*

Sorta reminds me of this frog back in July. (There is a lovely background made from it, yours free.)

An eerie memory of the island's past.

Finally, I think this photo just about sums up summer.

خداحافظی ، تابستان.

{goodbye, summer.}

Adventures Overseas

... well, okay, by "overseas" I mean "a 15-minute boat ride", but still. :)

My dearest friend Elránia and I just got back from spending a whopping 50 hours together... eep! But wait. I can explain: First of all, Elránia's birthday party started at 2:00 on Monday. The Cornet Crazie and Elránia's friend Serena were also there, and we had a terribly fun sleep-over including Lord of the Rings spoofs, the beach, and me getting stung by a bee. (Serena and I, as it turns out, have totally identical personalities. No, we didn't kill each other... we threw Hannah into the ocean instead!) I gave Hannah a drawing I did based on a photograph of her... perhaps she'll put up a picture... *wink wink nudge nudge*

So after everyone had left, Elránia and I went up to my place and waited for my dear grandmother to pick us up. This is a woman who at about sixty climbed a crabapple tree and has a large collection of skulls (animal... I think) and stuffed animals — not the fuzzy cuddly kind, either. Yes. That grandmother. Anyway, she lives with her boyfriend/fiancé/dude on a lovely little island said boyfriend/fiancé/dude privately owned called Snow Island. It's pretty small — maybe only 2 miles around — but full of beautiful woods, ocean, and ospreys. We spent the night and had lots of fun.

Naturally, I brought my camera...

Elránia did too, and I believe there will be a post on her blog sometime soon. But for now, here are some incredibly random quotes that came up in our conversation and some photos (the ones of her are obviously by me, and the ones of me obviously by her).

"Plink Famingos... a new breed of awesomeness." - Olive Tree

"I used to pretend that my life was a movie, and I was just acting..." - Elrania

"Fluorescent pink trees. That would be *so* sick-nasty awesome." - Olive Tree

So yes... we went exploring, got soaking while kayaking, ate about a pint of ice cream each (did I mention it was in the upper 90's for pretty much this whole week?), and watched approximately five hours of crime shows.

A final quote, that's kind of a joke between Elránia and I:

"Daaadddddd!" - CSI: Criminal Intent season finale

Have a lovely day, everyone! Keep cool!

A (Belated) Happy 4th of July!

Wow... can you believe it? HorseFeathers has hit 101 followers! I'm still trying to decide what do to for our party... please vote on the polls to the side.

I wanted to hold off on my 4th of July post because a) I was insanely busy and b) I was sure of some amazing photos... and I think I got what I needed!

What happened was this... my family, my dear friend Samantha, and I went sailing on the very boat that my family and I lived on for two years in the Caribbean. Sammie was quite excited. We went out to a lovely little place called Sand Island, which is quite small with no structure to speak of other than a little driftwood lean-to that people add beach-combing finds to and a stone campfire area. I know that the Cornet Crazie and Elizabeth have been there, and possibly Elránia too...

My dad hooked up something called the "bosun's chair", which is a little fabric seat hoisted up the mast for repairs and lookout. I remember swinging very far out as a child... I think Sammie had more fun than me, but I went and (as I put it, a quote from the Wind in the Willows) "messed about in boats" (aka, zip around in our inflatable dinghy {my little sailing dinghy, Éowyn, wasn't with us} and get into all sorts of boat-related trouble).

Then we came back to the marina where my dad works and watched the spectacular fireworks from out slip on the dock. The marina is actually the *best* place to watch them. :)
There was a bit of a delay because the symphony was behind schedule, and then a bit of a crisis because there was a HUGE fire (many prayers that no one was hurt...) but overall I think it was worth it.

Anyway. Thanks to all my wonderful Followers; vote on the poll and let's PARTY!