A Glimpse of Autumn

Believe it or not, the days are beginning to get shorter. The mornings have actually been a bit chilly this week. The mega stores have hauled out fall themed decor items and it goes without saying that Hobby Lobby already has their Christmas stuff up (I think they do that in July). Believe it or not summer is coming to an end.

I'm never one to be sad about that. As much as I love living in the southern half of the United States, I'm not a huge fan of hot. This summer has mocked me with day after day of heat indexes above 100. I've been left inside, lethargic, not interested in playing in my wool and yarn piles. I haven't even wanted to cook... or garden... or anything. It's just been too hot.

The shorter days are something I welcome with more than open arms. I'll even let those shorter days be an extended WANTED guest.

Shorter days mean I can haul out piles of yarn, oodles of knitting needles, and pages after pages of patterns. It's time to start knitting again. Knitting can be one of two things. It can either be completely relaxing or it can leave me ready to stab the next person that asks "haven't you been working on that row for hours now?". Thankfully, the beginning of the cooler weather is dedicated to knitting scarves and cowls for the Farmers Market and the seasonal craft shows. Typically those are routine and hypnotic. Not much room for error with rows like "knit, knit, knit...".

We'll reserve the stabbing responses for November and December when my pattern attempts become more involved as I attempt to find the next best gift pattern.

Those are some fine looking pickles

Did you miss me? I bet you did. I even cried a little when I remembered I hadn't blogged in ages. I probably don't need to say I've been busy with summer type things. It seems taking a break from updating blogs is a trend amongst bloggers this time of year.

However, I will say it.

I've been busy with summer type things. Let's see... I went on a trip to Philadelphia for a full week and I think that was JUST what I needed. A week long vacation allows you to be relaxed. You don't need to rush out at 8AM each morning to cram as much as you can into a day because you have many more days left to do stuff. The Sweet Boy and I slept until we decided to wake up, walked my brothers dog, ate breakfast each day at this cute diner just around the corner from my brother's house (in front of a cemetery too... I always go for the quirky), picked up coffee at the local Starbucks (don't you judge me, Starbucks is always good, you can count on that and they have humongo cups of caffine) and then we'd head out to do stuff.

What stuff, you ask? Well, toured Eastern State Penitentiary ('cause it's creepy), hung out in Historic Philly (you know, the birthplace of These United States), walked a BUNCH, ran through the Italian Market Rocky style, visited museums, rode buses to NYC, chilled with EVERY European on vacation at the Museum of Natural history (who knew they were all on vacation in NYC while we were on the East coast), took a train back to Philly, ordered pizza a few times, and walked to the local custard stand a few times as well.

We had fun and Delta lost our luggage. So all in all, it was a successful trip... right?

Oh, Delta found our luggage but it was 24 hours later... at least they found it. I wouldn't want them to have a bad name because of my blog post (they also broke two of our bags, one which we intended to carry on but they force everyone to gate check bags just so they can throw them around and break them, they also made us stand in line for 45 minutes until to close that line for everyone except people flying to Paris and then made us go stand in another long line - but I don't want them to have a bad name because of me).

I don't like Delta.

Besides vacation, I also joined forces with my sister and put on the best estate sale Goshen, Arkansas has ever seen. I don't lie. It was the best.

I also made the pickles in the picture above. Okay, so maybe they aren't done yet, but I've started them. I think they are going to be delicious... more delicious than any pickle I could buy at Walmart and we all know Walmart has a ton of pickles so I think that is an accomplishment.

And last, but not least, I bought a car. For those of you who have known me for a while, pick your chins up off the ground and quit being so dramatic. I couldn't drive around the little Civic that could forever. I figure 10.5 years was long enough to drive the coupe, it was time to move up to a big girl car. I bought a 4 door Civic (and don't tell my dad, but I bought a new one - sorry, couldn't find a used car with as good of a deal as the new one).

So, there you have it. Vacation, selling tons of stuff, making pickles and buying cars. It's been a full summer. I'm ready to find those lazy days of summer everyone talks about. If you have a few extra, send them my way.