Feeling the blue

When I was in my thirties, I wore shades of aqua blue all the time. I've always thought it suited my colouring and, besides, I love it.

Then, as I got older and put on weight, I started wearing black all the time, because it's slimming (or so they say), it's easy to mix and match pieces, and it looks professional when I am working. I quit wearing my favourite shade of blue for a couple of decades and a small part of me was sad.

On the way out to the Ranch a couple of weekends ago with Lori and Lige, we stopped in Sisters to peruse the stores. I found a shop that caters to women and men of a certain age and makes all of their clothes here in the USA. It is called Drawstrings of Malibu, and is only open in Sisters in the summer; the rest of the year they are in Mesa, Arizona. All of the clothes are crinkly cotton, which I adore (especially for traveling) and I found a few items that made me happy. The website doesn't show anywhere near all of their clothes, for some reason. The two tops are the same shade of aqua and the skirt is cream. I was thinking about our upcoming trip to Hawaii in September, but dang, I love these clothes, and wear them whenever they are out of the laundry basket! They aren't cheap, but I am way past caring more about price than about looks and comfort. That attitude was for my poorer, skinnier self!

Funnily enough, my current yarn projects both use the same shade of blue. I picked up some Martha Stewart alpaca blend and wool blend yarn at Fred Meyer on clearance, so it was hardly planned, but here they are. 

A knitted, wave-patterned afghan, that I can already tell will need more yarn or it won't be big enough.

And a crocheted baby blanket for our wee Victoria. The blue is softer and I love the colour combination, even though it isn't very traditional.

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Our garden out at the Ranch has been full of surprises this spring and summer. The best of all are these poppies that have apparently re-seeded from last year. I did some research and I am pretty sure they are opium poppies. Conventional internet wisdom says that as long as you're not growing them commercially, you're probably safe from the DEA.

Unless they come to visit and find little slits in the stems below the seed pods.

And then you're doomed.