We went fishing today with Toby’s brother, George. It was great. Well, if you don’t mind not catching any fish while you’re fishing…which we don’t of course! Fish schmish. We’re all about hanging out.

We woudn’t really eat the fish from this fishing spot anyway. George told us they used to build boats here back in the 50’s and the water is quite contaminated with mercury. But all that didn’t stop it from being a beautiful place to sit and enjoy the best weather.

There’s been a bit of a heat wave inland and it’s drawing all the cool ocean air up out of the sea and across the land producing the most pleasant breeze ever. It’s not too hot or too cold and it smells like ocean in a good way. I really liked being out here in the morning as the mist and sunlight flitted back and forth for control over the day.

Any reason to be outside in the sunshine and away from our boring old living room and the ever-present Noggin channel is a good reason to celebrate. But this time we had a very good reason to celebrate. It was Uncle George’s fiftieth birthday!

Actually it was his birthday last month. We’re just running a month behind.

Happy very belated birthday, Uncle George! We made him some cupcakes (with green icing, of course) and then ate them on the pier while we waited for the fish to show up.

Which they didn’t. Some tiny smelt showed up and swam around in schools but nothing big enough to catch. There were a lot of jellyfish though. The wind blows them to this spot and they just stack up on top of each other—kind of like that scene in Finding Nemo where Dory and Marlin bounce on the tops of the jellyfish.

I tried to take a photo of the crazy hordes of jellyfish but this is really the best I got. I’ll just blame my lack of photos on the bright sun. I couldn’t see them very well on my little camera screen. Also, the water was pretty silty (murky) due to the fact that they have been dredging the back bay lately.

I learned that little dredging detail from George along with a lot of other fish-and-game trivia. The great thing about hanging out with George is that he is pretty much a walking encyclopedia. He’s like your own personal book on tape. He’ll even stop and let you yell at your kid so she doesn’t topple into the water and then carry on right where he left off when you are done yelling. I love that about George. He would make a great history teacher.

So even though we didn’t catch a single fish, we learned a lot. Baby Bug learned about GREEN fishing bait.

And I learned a lot about the art of fishing. It turns out that the seasons in the water are different than they are in the air. Did you know that? While it’s June here, it’s April in the water and fishing won’t get exciting until August or so.

George and I are talking about organizing a kids’ fishing trip then. If anyone is local and interested, email me about that. It could be fun. And don’t worry, we won’t make you eat the fish.

We got the watercolor paints out again the other day. I LOVE watercolors. We haven’t been painting with them as much ever since I introduced the wonder of acrylic paint to Baby Bug. She thinks watercolors are for sissies now. Who wants to paint with the wimpy watercolors when there are messier, goopier, gooier paints to be had?!! So I had to hide the acrylics for a while.

Thankfully, if I seem to be having fun with the wimpy paints, Baby Bug is likely to join in the fun. So fun we did have! We blew the paint around the paper with straws and made funny many-limbed monsters like this green monster:

We painted marbles and rolled them around on the paper. That was a lot of fun. I read about doing this in an old issue of Wondertime Magazine. They have great photos that instantly sucked me in. I never even really read the directions but got the gist of what to do by just looking at the photos.

Then we painted some leaves from our neighbor’s Japanese maple tree. It was a little tricky for Baby Bug’s little hands to hold the leaf still but that didn’t really matter. She’s more about the process than the end result anyway and anything that combines her love of paint AND leaves was a win-win situation for her. I think she would have painted every leaf on the tree if I would have let her.

When we were done, we had quite a gallery of paintings to hang up on my make-shift drying line—that is actually the party lights we have strung from the rafters of our patio roof. I’ve been eye-balling the art gallery clotheslines (can’t find a link right now but I’m sure there is one somewhere) that many artistic mom-bloggers have been writing about lately but I’m a little short on wall space so the party lights will have to do. I actually liked the dangling art decorating our patio so I left it up for a couple of days.

That's not the end of the story of course. We cut up the art and re-purposed it! Re-purposing art is my favorite thing to do these days. I'm dreading the day that Baby Bug cries out to stop me from butchering one of her masterpieces.

It’s just fun to collaborate with her this way. I’m sure we’ll keep doing this for years to come but it will probably be more of a push and pull than it is right now where I just take over and do whatever I think is best.

We sliced and diced and then had some fun with the stick glue. Two hours later I made made a whole passel of fun little graphic cards. They are a little more modern than my usual fare but I like them.

I had father’s day in mind as well some sympathy cards for some relatives of ours. Toby’s aunt passed away earlier this week and I thought they might appreciate something that celebrates life but is not cliche like something you would buy at the grocery store. Toby’s got plenty of artists in his family so I think they will get it.

In fact, his aunt was quite the quirky artist herself. That’s her on the far left. Check out her pants. I didn’t know her well but I loved her because of those pants. That and her house was the most amazing house ever. I wish I would have taken pictures the two times I visited. I’m sure it’s been written up in a magazine somewhere. It’s that kind of house. She will be missed I’m sure.

So these cards are sort of a tribute to her and all the people out there who wear funky pants to weddings. I think she would have liked these cards.

There was a flurry of activity out in the sticks this morning and yesterday. My sister-in-law, CC, made an apron! She needed to re-stock her etsy shop and decided an apron was just the thing. Finding retro fabric in my mom’s over-flowing cabinet of fabric is always fun. (Though this particular combo did not come from my mom’s closet.)

I was supposed to make one too. I picked out fabric and everything but somewhere along the way my wind blew out of my sails. I’m just not really a sewing girl. I can be at times but I had my mind on illustrations. It’s so much easier for me to sit down at my laptop and make things with my mouse than it is to spend three or four hours playing tug rope with fabric. Seriously, that’s what sewing feels like to me sometimes.

But enough about me! Check out CC’s apron? Is it cute or what?!! If I didn’t ruin every apron I own, I would buy it myself. It makes me want to bake lemon scones and drink iced tea in a tall frosty glass. She named it June which makes me think she should make one for every month. How perfect would that be? A new apron every month? I think I might just take up baking if I got a gift like that.

We had fun photographing it out in the yard this morning. CC is a great model, turning her head whichever way I tell her to. I love it when models cooperate with me.

So if it’s not snatched up already, you can go buy this apron yourself and model it around in your front yard. If you buy it, call me. Let’s do tea. I’ll bring my camera.