…we have rain!
It’s been promised for several days, and never panned out. It was gray and the clouds promised rain this morning, but it didn’t finally come until 1:30 or so. The air outside is COOL! I’d forgotten just how lovely air cooled by Mother Nature can feel. I’m tired of the need to be indoors most of the day just to deal with the heat. I’m ready for Fall!

Almost all my family qualifies to be called “Clothes Horses.” Most of them also qualify to be called “Fashionistas,” too. My youngest niece, who will be 17 in just two months, may now be the leader of the pack!
This weekend the ladies of the family decided that they would do a little shopping. We all got ready and headed for the car, and I was amazed at what she chose to wear. I SO wish I had a picture, because she was beautiful, and trendy, while still having a very personal look.
Her astonishingly curly long hair was piled up on top of her head. She had boutique sun glasses that made quite a statement. She was wearing a plum ribbed knit skinny top, and stovepipe jeans that looked like they were painted on her size 2, five-foot nine or ten-inched frame. I think there was a fashion belt and a jacket, too, but I’ve forgotten what they looked like. She wore a long strand of turquoise beads with two tight wraps around her neck and one long drop of beads.
But what blew me away were the shoes. These shoes had high heels, perhaps three inches, spike heels, not the platform kind. The toes were pointed, and there was a little decorative strap-like piece across the opening over the top of her foot. And the shoes were turquoise to match the beads!
I have given up heels. Since Dear Husband is shorter than I am, it was a kindness at first to him that I gave them up. But, as time passed, it became a kindness to me that I no longer had to squeeze my feet into fashionable shoes and hobble around painfully. Yes, there are times when my outfit cries out for heels, but I no longer care. The ability to walk is more important than the need to be fashionable. So, when I looked at her feet, the first thing that came to mind was, “You’re going SHOPPING in those shoes???”
She smiled at me, and acknowledged that it might hurt, but she really needed to have that pulled together look. Heck….she’s not even 17 yet. She’ll learn in time, and she’ll enjoy herself along the way.
I can’t wait to see what she’s wearing the next time I see her! *G*

Too often, we get wrapped up in our lives, trying to deal with all the appointments, and chores and surprises that come our way, and I think we forget about the simple things in life.
Here are some of the simple things that have brightened my day, today.
There is a German-style bakery/restaurant in a small town in Indiana that is on the way to my sister’s house. We feel compelled to stop there whether going to visit, or returning home. They have the most amazing loaf of cinnamon bread! The night shift baker must roll the bread out to paper thickness, about five feet long. Then he spreads it with this wonderful cinnamon-sugar mixture, and rolls it up to make a loaf that will eventually be six or seven inches high. Each bite of the bread is filled with that lovely cinnamon taste. Nan and her family brought us a loaf of that bread, and we finished it off this morning. What a lovely way to start the day!
Speaking of sisters, I suspect that she, or one of her family members, picked up the weeds for me. I was weeding the front beds last week, and got to the point of gathering them up when I ran out of steam, and time. So there they sat as my guests arrived. I tried to ignore them, hoping that Dear Husband would save me and take the weeds to the back. Uh-uh. As I left for exercise yesterday, I noticed the weeds and the wheelbarrow had disappeared! Someone……was VERY good to me. Thank you, Secret Santa!
It’s been a pleasure to wake up to an overcast day, with the promise of more RAIN!! YEA!!! WE GOT RAIN!!! We seem to have broken the pattern of only one rainy day a month, at the very end of the month, and the plants are thrilled! I’m not good about hooking up the hoses and letting them run. We are only allowed to use sprinklers on even days, and I can never keep in mind when it’s my turn. I can, and do, water with a hand-held hose and watering wand, to keep the gardens going until Mother Nature comes through. We really needed the kind of soaking rain that goes into the soil, rather than running off, and I think we’ve had at least two sessions like that in the past four days. We’re hoping for more, today, so that the trees get the drink they need.
What simple things please you, today? A baby’s kiss, a child’s hug, help around the house, patient drivers? We just need to think about the simple things to brighten our days.

This is just to remind you that Shelly at “This Eclectic Life” is looking for people to crochet 6″ granny squares for afghans for kids going to cancer camp next summer. If you know how to crochet, or know someone who crochets, won’t you please stitch a square and send it on?
There’s a button somewhere on this page that says “Share a Square.” Click on it, and it will take you to Shelly’s blog for all the information you need.
Shelly, I have perhaps fifty more squares from my exercise group to send. I have to count them all. I’ll try to get them into the mail on Monday morning.
And, I bought more yarn, so I’ll be sending a few more of my own. Good luck with your project!

I’m pressed for time today. My sister, Nancy, and her family are coming to visit for the weekend. YEA!!! The house is clean, most of my weeding is done. I have some office work to finish and shopping to do before they arrive. Would it be too, too mean to have the scent of chocolate cupcakes wafting through the house as they walk in the door?? *G*
We have two silo type feeders hanging from a flower “crook” at the back door of the garage. I can see the feeders if I am at the kitchen sink, or if I’m working on laundry. These feeders carry the medium chipped sunflower hearts that just about all our visitors (feathered or furred!) like. This morning I saw two house finches at those feeders, and realized that the house finches have been missing for the better part of two months. Usually we are inundated with them, but they have been conspicuously absent. I wonder if they went further north to try to find a cooler, wetter habitat?
I have been piecing blocks for two Birds in the Air Quilts. There are pictures of the blocks in the late July archives. I started out making 70 blocks with red, green and a range of neutrals for what I hope will be a quilt I can use to decorate the couch this Christmas. True to form, I cut enough patches for probably three quilts, so I cut MORE patches, this time in a range of mid to dark blue, to make a lap quilt for the church bazaar. All the blocks (110 in all) are finished and ironed open. Now, I need to lay them out on the floor so that I can decide how to assemble the quilts. I may put my visitors to work on this. As soon as the larger top is done, I can send it off to be quilted. AND, I have the outer border and backing for the Halloween quilt, and I could finish the border and send that, too! I LOVE it when a plan comes together!
I’ve been reading about how to keep day lilies blooming. It seems that there are varieties, like “Stella d’Oro” that will bloom all season. The trick to keeping them blooming is to dead head every other day, and to clip off the spent stalks. This may work for some of my other day lilies, so I need to get out into the gardens again to do some pruning. I think the perennial salvia would re-bloom, too, so it’s going to be snip, snip, snip!
I get to go out to lunch on Saturday with the ladies of my family, and again with my favorite CPA on Tuesday. When it rains, it pours (so you know how often I get to go out to lunch)!
Speaking of rain…..we SO need the rain! I know there are lots of places where you’re praying for dry. Please send that rain our way. August is going to be hell if the drought keeps up like this. (You can check, but I think I’ve had the same complaint for the past three Augusts.)
Did I mention that we saw one of my nephews perform in “The Fantastiks?” I am SO impressed at what high school kids are doing these days. This was an amazingly polished performance. All nine actors (incoming Freshman thru incoming Senior) did a fine job, well above what I might have expected. This particular school is only four years old, and it has an exceptional theater department. We’re lucky that my nephew lives in that school district. He has been in every single performance that has been staged since the school opened.
Sooooooooo….I need to do some accounting, clear off my desk, shop, and get those cupcakes in the oven. I hope all of you have a great weekend, doing whatever makes your heart happy!