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.

The Shelf of Ugly

I'm only going to show you a part of the shelf because it is not deserving of being fully presented to the blog world. This shelf... this ugly shelf... this $20 build it yourself shelf... is finally going the way of the yard sale.

I've owned it for almost 10 years which is 7 years too long. It was a fixture in my college apartment and unfortunately, has been an eyesore in my young adult house. However, I've cleaned it off and moved it out.

You see, I've got a HUGE estate sale to prepare for in three weekends. It is my personal goal to pull everything from my house that I want to include in the sale out of hidey holes, back rooms and from under beds and price it to sell. I don't want it back but I'll take a few dollars in the mean time.

"What about that kitchen I was going to organize?" you ask? Shush. It's not done. I was sidetracked. How dare you bring that up. I'm sure the organization of that kitchen will aid my yard sale pile effort. I'll report back on that in a month. You can wait until then.

Shame on you for bringing that up.

I have a very good excuse as to why my blog hasn't been updated (and why my kitchen didn't get cleaned out like I had planned). I've been busy.

See? It's a great excuse.

Actually, I have been busy. Besides the usual work stuff I went to Houston for a few days for a conference. Woo... conference. Woo... Houston. Actually, the conference was about 43 kinds of fabulous and Houston could have been worse. If the conference taught me anything, it taught me that there is an entire world of opportunities for me as I build my career. Guys, and entire WORLD. It also taught me that IAAM conferences have better food and drink than any of the other conferences I've been to in the past.

I think I gained 3 pounds.

Hopefully I'll get back to crafting and cooking and gardening soon so I can post about things all of you are interested in and not just work.

Things Said

Here's a snippet from a conversation with the Sweet Boy that I'd never though I'd overhear:

Sweet Boy to his best friend "We'll all three have to travel to Austin in the next year so you can see how cool it is"

Sweet Boy's best friend "Maybe next spring?"

Sweet Boy "Sure... but Erin and I will probably go again before that"

Ummm... did hell just freeze over? Is the Sweet Boy actually looking forward to going back to Texas? This conversation was had during a discussion about moving there. I know, that's shocking enough for one lifetime in itself, but his giddiness in taking more than one trip there in the next year just leaves me confounded.

Completely and utterly confounded.

The Little Kitchen that Could

See this mess above? That's one half of my kitchen cabinets (yes, I think I have the smallest kitchen in town). Those cabinets are a wonderful thing. Open so I can show off my lovelies.

There is one small problem though.

I'm not showing off my lovelies. I'm showing off my free cups from concerts, scratched up Tupperware, mismatched dishes, booklets from appliances and koozies for gosh's sake. KOOZIES. So tacky.

(note: I do not mean to offend any lovers of koozies out there - they are wonderful when on a boat or around a camp fire - but in a kitchen, they are a major mistake)

I've been pretty good about completing a home organization project each weekend. I've organized my wool work space, hung cabinets for my yarn add ins, folded towels nicely so they don't clutter up the bathroom shelves, brought in cabinets to hide my non-yarn crafty stuff... perhaps this weekend will be project kitchen cabinets. I claimed my mom's set of nice plates and glasses after she skirted on out of here almost a year ago (I'm sure she's glad someone loves those dishes as much as she did... she worked VERY hard to get them all, going from Dillards to Dillards all over the DFW metroplex in search of each piece). I love those dishes and have been overly upset with the fact that I have no where to display them. I've even gone so far as to try and find room for yet another large piece of furniture on which to showcase them.

And then it came to me. Don't display them... use them.

Ah, the simple realizations in life. That should have been an easy solution but it has taken me weeks and months to come up with. I blame it on my cluttered brain.

So, this weekend I shall attempt to retire the Tupperware to find room for the nice, adult type dishes and then have an after picture that is much nicer to post to this blog. This would be easier if fun, bright colored Tupperware didn't represent my mom so much. Darn you plastic, brain cancer giving dishes.

Sorry about that...

Sorry that my last post was so mundane. In fact, I'd put it on the same level as a conversation had over stale oatmeal with a roommate you don't really like the morning after you've had a bit too much to drink and can't remember where you lost your left flip flop.

I'll try to make up for it in future posts and hopefully you'll forgive me and continue to check in for excitement, wit and humor.