Hmmmm, if this year was four pieces of pie, only one would be left to enjoy. Only one quarter of this year remains. There are 105 shopping days left until Christmas. Autumn is upon us. And I continue to record the daily drips and drabs of my life on my calendar.
Want to see more?
I planned out my apron making strategy.
My thoughts on this season's 1st episode of Project Runway.
Didn't we do this back in grade school?
My daily view.
Sometimes I draw on non-work pages too. Basically if I have a pen or a highlighter in my hand, nothing is safe from me.
My new alter-ego. She is not actual size if you were wondering....
She enjoys wardrobe changes and changing settings. She is willing to travel and she gets along well with others. She is a hard-worker...don't give her any pens or highlighters please!
She has definite opinions and likes a nice pair of pants.
There is a time for everything under heaven...even a daily dose of calendar scribbling.
Robyn from Art Propelled tagged me to list 6 unspectacular quirks about myself. Since I am an open book on this blog, I feel like I have already divulged everything halfway interesting about myself here and here and here. Also, I am basically a boring person, not bored, boring. But I'll try to think of something to pique your interest once more my bloggetty-blog friends.
I am mechanically challenged, scientifically challenged, spatially challenged, and down-right uncoordinated. I used to fall when going up steps all the time. Once I tripped on my way into a building full of people and slid into a plate glass window and wound up with all the people inside looking at me outside. I fell down a flight of stairs in high school.....you get the idea....I don't have to continue this litany of embarrassing situations.
When I was young I read a series of books about characters from Swedish Lapland. The books talked of staying up all night on a mountainside on the night of the summer solstice and watching the midnight sun set and immediately rise again. I have always wanted to see this happen.
I hate, hate, hate it when I am taking my shower and the plastic shower curtain billows into the tub and sticks to my skin.....eeeekk. That is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
I am fascinated by the human mind...how it works...how it malfunctions...the psychology and the physiology of it.
Back to quirk #1, nothing makes me feel stupid faster than when I can't get some simple machine to work or I can't open a box or I can't figure out the instructions for putting something together. Not so long ago when I was mentally beating myself up for once again having to get someone to help me with one of the above mentioned elemental tasks, it dawned on me...I can make anything I want to make from paper or fabric...I just need to take the skills I use to decipher how to make crafty stuff and apply that way of thinking to mechanical things. (I love it when the light bulb flickers on!)
I was served something similar to this recipe one time while I was on holiday. Once home, I decided to give re-creating it a try. I will call it:
Ravioli Salad
1 package of three cheese ravioli 1 package of hard salami Green olives Basil pesto Parmesan cheese
Prepare ravioli according to directions on the package. Drain off the water and mix in pesto sauce to taste. I usually coat the pasta with the pesto. Place the pasta on a plate. Cover the top with thin strips of salami and olive halves. Sprinkle cheese over the top liberally.
It takes 10 minutes to prepare this meal and everyone I have ever served it to has loved it.
I love taking photos. I'm not nearly as good at it as I wish I was. Part of the reason I'm not is probably due to laziness. The other part is because I am not bold enough to get out of the car and make a spectacle of myself in order to get the best shot. So I take a lot of "drive by shootings."
Here is a little taste of all I saw on my way to Florida and back last week.
As I drove further and further away from home, I left the mountains and rolling hills behind quickly. Once I past Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, my route was mostly along two lane highways through rural farmland. The towns were small with only one or two red lights.
I stopped for a sandwich and to stretch my legs in Florala. You might guess by its name that this Alabama city sits squarely on the state line. This old home was across the street from the Hardees. Notice the Spanish moss hanging from the tree.
This bed and breakfast was next door to Hardees. Both houses look like they are only shadows of their former beauty.
And here is the state line, only a couple of blocks away.
Florida is even flatter than LA (lower Alabama) and the sky is very big.
These are some drive by shots of Seaside. It is a lovely upscale resort town that was the setting for The Truman Show movie that came out in 1998 starring Jim Carrey. It is a great place to go for an afternoon of wandering through the cute little neighborhood on foot or on bike. I took 2 of the girls over there one afternoon for snow cones. There is an old fashioned grocery store/deli there where my daughter-in-law and I went to pick up lunch one day...deli sandwiches with tubs of pasta, olive and shrimp salads for the sides.
I don't know who made this YouTube video but you can get a sense of the market by viewing it.
On my way home I saw this Florida style camp home.
It wasn't far from this small river. I thought the piers and reflections in the water were gorgeous. I turned around and went back for this shot.
In DeFuniak Springs I caught sight of this great old Motel sign. It looks like something out of the 50s or 60s doesn't it....in the land time forgot.....
I stopped at a red light across from this fantastic home and quickly turned left to take a shot of it. If you are like me you would have liked to ask the elderly gentleman, who was puttering in the yard, if he would take you on a guided tour. But if you are like me in reality, you would take your picture on the sly and be on your way before you were noticed.
Before I knew it, I was back in Alabama again.
I drove a couple of blocks and caught sight of something I had missed in Florala on the way down. In front of what looked like municipal buildings, I saw four Greek columns. There was a marker underneath. Now that I am home and have had time to ponder things I am kicking myself for not getting out of the car for once and reading why there would be four Greek columns in the middle of an small Alabama town.
I bet they once held up the porch of an Antebellum home.
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at a few of the things that inspired me to take a second look on my trip.
This past year has been a downer for me. I have felt lethargic, depressed, unbalanced, achy, angry....in short, I've felt like a real curmudgeon. Please tell me I am not doomed to feel this way for the rest of my life.
I guess I shouldn't have been fooled by that old advertisement when it stated: "We're not getting older, we're getting better." Sorry, but I'm just getting frumpy, grumpy and dumpy! AND I DON'T LIKE IT!
I think the adage "Old age isn't for sissies" is closer to the truth.
Please tell me this bad mood isn't going to last forever!
This made me happy last week.
If you are charting your way through this change of life too, maybe a little hand picked bouquet is just what you need today.
The consensus seems to be for each person to send eleven cards and get eleven back. The due date to get all those cards to me will be by September 30th. Mail them to me in a bubble envelope or something equally protective. Make sure they have the correct postage for the USA. For anyone outside the USA I will add the postage myself to make it easier for you if you need me too. You can make your cards personal by addressing them to the recipient you have in mind for each card. I'll add the corresponding address and drop them all back in the mail to each of you. Pretty soon we'll all have lots of mail on the way to us. I will email you all my address very shortly. Any other suggestions please drop me a note.
A fellow blogger made a good point in an email to me. She wondered if like herself, others might be reluctant to give out their address en masse. I understand her thoughts completely. So my solution is to get everyone to write a note on their cards and the name of each recipient, mail them to me and I will add the addresses and disperse them.
That way I am the only person who actually gives out their address to everyone and the only one who knows everyone else's address. What do you think? It might be the easiest if each person who lives in the USA adds the postage ahead of time. For anyone outside of the USA I will be glad to do it for them. Please place your cards in a small bubble envelope so they don't get damaged in route to me.
Eleven people have expressed interest in participating. Would you like to send a card to each person and get eleven back or each person send 5 cards and get 5 back?
Let me know in the comments how you feel about this and I will act accordingly. If your email address is not on your profile please send it to me and I will email you my address. Let's get this postcard show on the road. Remember it can be any kind of card you want to send.
Sometimes I think the back of a postcard is more interesting than the front. This one is from a lot I bought on ebay a few years ago.
I'm home again, new freckles and all. Despite dropping into to Florida between two major hurricanes, we had great weather for the most part and a fun time was had by all.
I was happy to spend lots of time with my four granddaughters from Texas. Seeing them frolicking in the water and digging in the sand was extra fun for me.
Monday was our only rainy day. The girls and I spent it making memory books complete with pockets for found treasures and pages for artwork and lists of the things we saw and did together. I packed a bag of crafty stuff just for this purpose. We journaled and drew together off and on all week.
The baby didn't feel well due to cutting teeth, so she was slow to warm up to me. But I was able to teach her to give me five. Turns out she was happy to slap my hand anytime, just not interested in letting me hold her. Oh well, there will be a next time. She loved the water and played in the sand happily.
One last look at the beach.
We were all sad when it was time to go home, especially me.
My thoughts on this season's 1st episode of Project Runway.
Didn't we do this back in grade school?
My daily view.
Sometimes I draw on non-work pages too. Basically if I have a pen or a highlighter in my hand, nothing is safe from me.
My new alter-ego. She is not actual size if you were wondering....
She enjoys wardrobe changes and changing settings. She is willing to travel and she gets along well with others. She is a hard-worker...don't give her any pens or highlighters please!
She has definite opinions and likes a nice pair of pants.
There is a time for everything under heaven...even a daily dose of calendar scribbling.
