Laowai

My sis, Jennifer, and her husband, Chris, bought a new boat. Yay! for them. And yay! for this beautiful photo that they shared with me.

The girls and I are really hoping to get our landlocked legs onto that boat later this summer. Stay tuned.

It’s Summer! We’re having all the Summer feelings – hot, sunkissed, relieved, bored, content.

We made pie for the Father on Father’s Day.

The girls and I have been hanging out at the lake. Here’s the view from my spot in the shade. My girls are getting old enough – I don’t have to keep such a close eye on them. I can sometimes just completely zone out reading a book. Aaaaah.

I’ve also gotten to do a lot of sewing. 

We went fabric shopping and Claire picked out fabric for PJ pants and for a nightie.

And I made my third Gelato blouse in a month. This time I made the short sleeve version and I used a narrow hem because the fabric is a lightweight cotton. I also skipped the buttons on the back of the shirt – just to simplify. I think it goes without saying – I like this pattern! I’m hoping to get some fabric when we’re in the US and then I’ll try the dress part of the pattern.

While I’ve been relaxing and entertaining the girls Brian has been so busy and quite stressed! His work always seems to get extra crazy right at this time of year when he deserves to be enjoying the summer weather. We’re off to Croatia this weekend so I hope he can enjoy himself and take a breath.

We’ve taken in a bit of Swiss sport and Swiss culture recently. 

Last week the girls and I went to the Tour de Suisse bike race. It’s route came close by to our house – to Einsiedeln – so we had to go.

It’s too bad Brian couldn’t come because he makes things like this more fun. But we did bring along Claire’s friend Lydia and we were all smiles. 

There’s the race leader below – Peter Sagan.

The race ended on the cobblestones right in front of the big beautiful Einsiedeln Abbey.

On to our bit of culture. Yesterday we went to a Yodel Festival. Just saying Yodel Festival makes any non-yodelers laugh but it was fun and interesting. So we heard a bit of yodeling – there were performances going on all over the town. And then we went to the yodel village to get some lunch and a beer and take in the atmosphere. 

I got super excited when I saw all the costumes and I started creepily taking a bunch of photos. The details and fabrics were great. Lots of lovely linen, embroidery, wool and fine pleating details and interesting lace head decorations and delicate knitted stocking and shawls.

Oh and lots of traditional hair – put up in braids.

It was raining pretty hard but Bea and I took a ride on the ferris wheel and we could hear alphorns below. I want to come back when it’s not raining. Here’s a video if you’d like to hear a little yodeling and see some costumes.

I finished a new-to-me pattern today. The Extra Sharp Pencil Skirt from Liesl and Co. I’m afraid of zippers and hardly ever attempt them but this pattern may have gotten me over the hump. My invisible zipper is actually nearly all invisible. I’m very happy for a first try with this pattern. It has side panels that make fitting the skirt really simple and it has a kick pleat that turns out so sharp looking. I used a Rifle Paper Co. designed fabric from Cotton and Steel. kinda hate seeing pictures of myself but I am pleased with my new skirt.

Also, we had a big beautiful rainbow tonight.

A bunch of photos (befores and afters and works-in-progress) of my big project.

GO HOME!

Brian took me to see the opera Norma on Saturday.

Especially now that school’s out I can relate to Norma. Here are some of her words:

Many passions torture my soul.
I love and yet I hate my children!
I suffer when I see them,
I suffer when I do not,
I feel pain
Together with joy, as never before,
In being their mother.

And then later she stands over her sleeping children and comes thiiiiiis close to stabbing them to death. Summer is hard. spending endless sunny days with my own children often leads me to stand over their beds with a shiny knife.

But don’t worry, I won’t end it all by jumping onto a pyre. We’ll just go for a swim in the lake to cool off.

Ha!

And look the opera house was lit up with a rainbow for the Pride festival that was happening in the square.

For Father’s Day Brian and I went on a hike… without the children. Yes, that’s right. After that soggy march through the mountains last weekend we could not convince them to go for a hike. Plus Bea has a bit of a cold. Oh well – Brian and I had a good time. He rode his bike there and I met him with the car. Bonus – I was able to get some photos of him on his bike as I was arriving. 

Here he is dashing up that mountain road – just a 27 mile ride. 

Here’s a cow watching my husband ride by. Moooooo!

So then we went on our hike. We went to Obersee – a lake about 40 minutes from our house. There were lots of cows! I just realized I don’t really have a picture of the lake but I sure did take a lot of cow photos. And they all had their bells on – it was the definition of cacophony.

And chickens. Happy mountain chickens.

After our hike Brian road the 27 miles back home and he didn’t even have to make a trip to the hospital like last Father’s Day!!!

Claire is going to play cello next school year so we went into the city to rent one today. It’s bigger than she is and I feel like it’s so fragile – like I’m not qualified to touch it.

We went for a hike today – to Ägersee. It’s a nice big lake about a half an hour drive from home. It started out lovely and I was all blissful walking through the colorful meadows. But by the end we were completely soaked. It had started raining part way through our seven mile hike (!) and by the end we had squishy shoes and soaked jeans. Uhg. Our girls are troopers. Some of us came home and immediately jumped in a hot shower, put on our cozy PJs and snuggled into the couch. 

Here’s a nice spot to stop and have a picnic complete with the most charming little wood shed. There are places like this all over Switzerland and the wood for your fire is free for the taking. I guess we’ll have to bring our marshmallows and sausages next time.

Getting wet.

We saw about a hundred salamanders. Salamander weather. Toward the end there were so many slithering around we couldn’t look up from our feet or we would risk stepping on one.

Oops I took too many photos. Can’t help myself.

I’m moving along on my quilt. I’ve finished all the half-square-triangles and now I’m ready to start the curved portions. First I had to lay out all the pieces and choose which petal colors I wanted to match with each flower center color. Fun!

As the girls wrap up their school year they always have a “Leavers Assembly”. Leaving – it’s a part of being a kid at an international school. Each teacher and student who is moving on gets a little cow bell to remember the school and then everyone sings the sweet farewell song. Claire doesn’t even have any close friends leaving this year, but it still makes me cry a little bit. 

Must do some baking to cheer myself up.