Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We had our monthly video chat with friends. Everyone had relatively upbeat updates to share, from remote preschool to exercise habits to interviews.

2. Isiais did not bring the fury here that he did in some other places. Indeed, in his wake, cooler temperatures have stuck around, which have been welcome after the 28 days of 90+-degree days in July.

3. The midweek farmers market included a man who heads back to his father’s village in Greece each February to harvest olives and bottle micro-batches of olive oil. It was a pricey splurge, but I’m looking forward to sampling it on Sunday’s capreses.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

The dusk really shows the pooling on my second sock! I was going to say I didn’t think it was that obvious in normal light, but I just went back and looked at previous week’s photos, and it is. That’s fine. I’m getting closer to being done. If tomorrow and Friday’s multi-hour Zoom calls allow for knitting, I could be done by the weekend! (I will definitely be done by the weekend after the next few days of calls. It is possible my sock may not be.)

Oona Out of Order is overdue to the neighboring library system, so I decided to focus on it more heavily. I’m also nearing the end of The Library Book — something ridiculous like 15 months have passed since I started it. On my phone, I’m not crazy about the reader (accents) for my current audiobook, The Gilded Wolves, so I’m thinking I’ll ditch it for a print copy. I already have another one checked out and ready to go — Sonya Lalli’s The Matchmaker.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what else is going on with the Unraveled crew.

Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! Would you care for one? They’re still warm!

My (ahem) 3000+ tbr list on Goodreads includes, as you might imagine, more than a few books with colors in the title. Here are ten of them I’d like to read sooner rather than later, per this week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl:

1. White Oleander by Janet Fitch (I’ve owned this for two decades…)
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Ditto to this one. Hardcover from the year it came out.)
3. Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy A. Taylor (I’ve read two novels in the past couple years where The Green Book has played a role, and I feel like I’d like to know more.)
4. Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge (Superheroes and superfrenemies)
5. Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl (My favorite Avenger!)
6. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (Everything she writes is great.)
7. Bluecrowne by Kate Milford (A prequel to the events of the Greenglass House series.)
8. Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy (raidergirl, do I want to read this one?)
9. The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke (Time travel back to the 1980s — I am old.)
10. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (Potentially dangerous magical orphans and a middle-aged introvert set in his ways.)

Have you read any of these books?

Most people would be surprised by how many colors of nail polish I own. Rudi would be surprised that neither do the bottles multiply when we close the bathroom cabinet door nor do they lie in wait for when he next opens it.

Shekerbura from Sharbat, the Azerbaijani bakery that opened the next neighborhood over from ours last month. We also sampled two types of savory pastries and two types of cake.

I mean, it’s as good a reason as any. Also, we were impressed with the percentage of people we saw wearing masks while we were out.

I won’t get out to the sunflower fields in Maryland this year, so this was a nice yard to come upon.

Be a beautiful cupcake.

How was your weekend?

Back in May, when it seemed like going back to the office might be the kind of thing we’d all do in the fall, I bought a suit.

I’d been stalking Betabrand* for months, because I’d heard great things about how they had managed to make dress pants that were actually comfortable to wear. But I hadn’t splurged, because it was buying clothes on the internet. I prefer not to do that, because I’m terrible at returning things that have to be shipped.

However, this time, not only did I buy it, but I bought it knowing that it hadn’t actually been made yet. Yes, I preordered a suit, knowing it wouldn’t arrive until July.

The blazer arrived earlier this week, and Rudi and I were impressed with the length of the sleeves. Since I have long arms, that’s often a problem area for me. I thought I might have been able to get away with a slightly smaller size, but since I might like to wear this in the winter, I’ll want the ability to wear it over a bulkier top without looking like a stuffed turkey.

I was worried about the pants. They were only offering the print in straight leg, rather than bootcut, which is what I prefer to wear. They had a long option, which I worried would be a smidge too long and tight, particularly if I weren’t wearing heels. But too short would be worse, since I’m tall. I mean, I like people to admire my hand-knit socks, but not because they can see several inches of my leg above my shoe.

Given I’ve put on some pandemic weight (no volleyball, no bike commuting, LOTS of couch sitting), I don’t think the whole thing looks too bad. (Please note, I was so excited that the pants arrived today that I just pulled off my shorts as soon as I walked in the door with the package and tried on the whole ensemble. This relaxed tshirt and weekend bra are not the most flattering, although they are comfortable. The color is good with it, so I’ll keep that in mind whenever we all go back to work. In the meantime I have a magenta-hued fitted tee I’ll pair with it if I’m going to Zoom while wearing it.)

The pants have two hand pockets in the back (my favorites — I often resort to sticking my hands behind my back) and three in the front — one with a zipper — all of which are deep enough to completely hide my cell phone. The blazer also has pockets, although I’ve left them stitched closed for the time being.

The real reason I really wanted this suit to fit? Check out a close-up of the pattern:

It’s Catstooth!

*That link gets me a referral credit. But feel free to ditch it if you find a better discount.