The Elephant Girls (and a boy) and the last Official Day of Summer

Here are the elephants.  They took forever, forever, forever, but I love the, love them, love them.  I put lots of details on them and I found some nice belt type ribbon at the fabric store in this little corner that was full of treasures just begging to be sewn onto pillow monsters. 

I'm still achey and that is part of the reason this group took so long.  I'm tired of being achey though, so I'm going to stop.  I say that in a sort of joking way, but I mean it too---I'm just going to will myself to be pain free.  People have done crazier things with their brains, so surely it must be possible.  Either way, I don't want to whine about it anymore.  

Joseph and I had a nice, adventurous weekend involving a surprise baby shower (not mine), spaghetti, aunts and uncles and then a trip to Cincinnati, which is delightfully hilly.  We went there because it was on the way back to Bloomington from the surprise baby shower and we wanted to see what their art museum was like.  I give it two, enthusiastic thumbs up, but that is partially due to the fun of the spontaneous trip, though their collection was nice, too, I was really drawn to the teeny, tiny victorian portraits.  They were sophisticated and a little uppity, but at the same time, because they were soooo teeny, tiny, the paintings were a little distorted and kind of quirky.  I stared at them for a long time.  Also, when we got there we were so hungry that we went immediately to the museum's restaurant.  We were the first ones there, and we ate outside, alone in this beautiful garden---it was like something out of a dream, and that dream involved non-stop refills of diet coke in a fancy glass.  It was a great time.  Now I am okay with summer ending---bring on the colored leaves, I am ready.