Just needed a change...

While I love my original choice for background, ~I'll probably go back to it soon~, I just wanted a little change!

 

I [heart] hot buttered popcorn flavored Jelly Bellys!

 

So when I found this background it was yummy perfect! Do you have a favorite Jelly Belly? I did a google search to find out the most popular flavor and it's been very cherry for many years. But hot buttered popcorn has interrupted cherry's reign! Woohoo! HBP Jelly Bellys have been on my Christmas wish list for many years and my children all know this and usually put a bag of the sweet goodness in my stocking! From there the JB's go into a jar in my sewing room and sit on my work table beside my sewing machine so I can suck and sew! I like to let them sit on my tongue for awhile to prolong the enjoyment then chew and have the flavor enjoyment without the hassle of popcorn kernel coverings in between my teeth!! My favorite pairing with the HBP JB is an equal amount of root beer flavored Jelly Bellys. What a concept a snack and a beverage all in one little snack package! LOL

 

We had a great weekend with TheOther#1Son and his girl K! Saw a movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, ate great BBQ ribs and sweet tater fries at Hickory Hut BBQ, did a little shopping for back to school clothes for the college boy, played Monop, Monop, Monopoly (inside joke) and enjoyed the general relaxed family time that always just happens! All these events while gray skies let rain fall and fall and fall! We received 2 and a quarter inches!!!

It's Monday and it's good!

Yes it's a Monday and the weather is beeeauuuutiful! We're still dry, really dry.... even with that wonderful inch of rain last week on Monday! It's going to take many, many more inches, but the lower temps make all the difference! Light breeze, from the east south east with the high temperature to only reach 85! That-- is my kind of weather and low humidity!!! What's really amazing is the evenings are really cooling off, down right blanket weather with some good snuggling for extra warmth!!
Yesterday, TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I enjoyed a picnic for a late lunch. We broke in the Wine and Cheese Cooler Tote DD gave us for a joint Mother/Father day gift! It features two acrylic wine glasses, two cotton napkins, one hardwood cutting board, one stainless steel cheese knife, one corkscrew, one "Life's a picnic!" bottle topper and space for three bottles of wine! Pretty upscale for us! It raised the level of our picnics to Ooh-La-La!! But space for THREE  bottles of wine!!!! That's an all nighter!!!!!! We'd have to pack a tent too! LOL Our picnic location is always on our land in one of several locations. 1)Up, on an eastern hilltop, under a mulberry tree, with a 360 degree view of the surrounding prairie, this is a good location for non windy days. 2) Down by the creek under a willow tree, so amazing when the creek is flowing, it feels romantic and is my favorite. 3) On the northern most boundary of our property under a line of oak trees and the farthest from everything with the best chances of seeing wildlife. Our picnics are an escape from all the to-do's that plague homeowners on weekends, and it takes several repeats of "Oh I suppose we should get back and finish ....fill in the blank before it gets too late". Then we pack up the picnic, fold up the blanket and return to the real world. Thanks again DD for the picnic tote!
It's the first day of back- to- school for two of our grown children! It's deja vu! Always brings the bittersweet memories of their early days back! How did all that time get away from me? Before I get weepy on this glorious day I just want to wish them both a great school year and semester, respectively. DD is a high school math and engineering teacher and TheOther#1Son is a grad student on his second year as student and Teacher Assistant, with plans on going all the way to a PHD in mathematics. There will be many more first days for both and a time for me to remember those long ago first days, of pictures, new school supplies and shiny smiles, with a few tears (from me) as I continue from a distance to send them out into the world.

Aww.. Relief!

It's finally happened, some relief from the heat, just this past weekend, and now some rain! I just went out and checked the rain gauge an INCH plus .10! With about .01 to maybe .02 of the collection amount as bird poop! We have a mockingbird that enjoys the view from the rain gauge with it's butt over the collection spout! I usually collect the rain amount in a used water bottle, for watering my African violet that sits in the kitchen window. The bird droppings make for an interesting look to the collection, bad to look at good for the violet!!! This is such a welcome "shot in the arm" for the garden, yard, trees, pasture, ponds etc.!!!
I've been reading more lately and not sewing as much. Though I did make a small "something" a little over a week ago and have gone on to make many more. Sorry I can't show it as I have close family members that follow my blog and what I've been making I've decided to use for Christmas stocking stuffers! I will take photos and post, maybe with each of the recipients, after the holiday!
I did find an interesting idea for a super quick quilt that I want to try very soon!
Link below:

http://www.heirloomcreations.net/sewing-tips/the-jelly-roll-1600/

It looks fun and I have lots of 2 1/2" strips I'd like to use, the problem though is my strips are not all 40" in length! That could take some serious math!!!!!!!! We shall see!
[Note to Jean; What do you think, is this something we could do when you visit in Sept? If we each purchase a jelly roll of our choice we would have the cutting already done for us so all we'd have to do is sew and chat. It would be easy and mindless so we can talk, talk, talk while we sew!!]

Hope it's raining where you are!!! I'm going to clean house and bake some chewy, raisin, walnut and date packed oatmeal cookies!! TTFN! (tah tah for now)

P.S. The books I've been reading The Walk series by Richard Paul Evans! Coming Spring of 2013 book 4 in The Walk series. Not my usual style of read but very enjoyable.  A quote from the back jacket cover "an unforgettable series about hope, healing, and the meaning of life."

A GOOD Memory

I hope you all don't mind if I do some reminiscing but I have the need to share. When I was cleaning the house up yesterday, Friday, it reminded me of the routine of my youth, for Fridays. Mom always did her grocery shopping on Fridays, so we girls, my sister B and I, helped with the chores of washing and drying the breakfast dishes and vacuuming. Usually around 10a.m. all was in order and we would head out to the grocery store. Where my brothers were in this mix I don't remember, I'm the oldest in a family of seven children, 3 girls the rest boys, so I'm thinking they were probably along for most trips or stayed at the home of their friends. Staying at your friend's house while your mom ran an errand was pretty common place back when I was a youth. The conversation always went something like this:
Mark: "I have to go Mom just hollered for me."
Gary: "Where do you have to go?"
Mark: "To the store."
Gary: "Let's go ask if you can stay at my house!"
Mark: "Ok"
Gary: "Mom can Mark stay here while his mom goes to the grocery store?"
Gary's Mom: "Sure but you boys go outside and play and take your little brother with you, and NO Mud!" If some action was not stated to be off limits then it was usually interpreted that it was Ok to do that action!!!!!!! Oh yea you remember, your defense statement!
"BUT, you didn't say we/I couldn't insert action here! Classic defense, never really held up against Mom logic though! Still used today by youth! I really thought my youngest son could grow up to be a great defense attorney he could twist any situation into a "It's not my fault because you didn't say I couldn't do that!" ~~~~~~~~~~Any who back to shopping. Mom bought groceries at Boogaarts, a chain no longer in existence, but one that had been my father's career choice since I was born. He worked his way up through the ranks, to become store manager, it was long hours, but had a few perks from my point of view. He would bring home overripe produce, I loved all the great seasonal fruit, leaky gallons of milk, dented cans, moldy cheese, crushed boxes of whatever, etc. you get the idea. So while you may be thinking EWW that's disgusting, it was a bonus to our large family. While some of the dented cans could be marked down and sold back then, if the label was missing it came home to us and was always a ?????? experience opening the can and finding a way to use whatever was inside!! The store received credit for the damaged goods and so instead of trashing it,  my father could bring home the "goodies" to us. But even with these occasional goodies, Mom still shopped once a week on Friday. At the store we always felt like celebrities.  Everyone knew us! Staff AND customers.   Small town folks love to talk, so it always took at the least an hour to shop with all the visiting that Mom would have to do. When we reached the checkout, Mom's carts..... yes it took two most times (I always pushed one) would be unloaded onto the belt and sacked into approximately 12-16 paper sacks and once again loaded onto two carryout upright carts for transport out to the car! The total for this shopping trip...... are you ready for it.......... $100! A lot then, but with bread at .19 a loaf it seems so cheap now!!
Well I'm going to stop here but in a later post I'll have to share more of my grocery store years experience, we helped stock shelves after hours, (lots of fun plus free samples of Brach's candy) and when I was 15 I started working as a checkout clerk.  My first after school job!

Sold the girls!

It's a mixed bag of emotions...we hauled the heifers to the sale barn last week for the Thursday sale, now the pasture looks even sadder :( :(  TheManWhoHoldMyHeart had favorites in the herd and it was hard to see the friendly ones go, the skittish one not so much!! No longer can we use the phrase 'till the cows come home!! But, it had to be done sooner than later (usually the last week of September), the dried up pasture grasses were just not supplying all the nutrients the cows were needing and the forecast was dismal for any good rains, soooooo...
Last Saturday night the skies looked promising for rain but what we got instead was a prairie fire! The lightening was SO bright and snake like in the sky, the air was hot, no wind, just an eerie calm. TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I were sitting on the front porch watching and waiting for the storm to roll in, when we both noticed an unusual glow in an area where there were no town lights in the distance. When a flame of red caught my eye I said "oh my that's a fire ( I probably used more explictives but will not repeat them here, lol) we should call the fire dept.", but the hubs thought we should try the scanner first and sure enough someone had reported it and trucks were being called up! We got in the pick-up and drove to the top of a hill, a mile from our place for a better look. It was two separate fires off in the distance about 6 miles from us. Lightening continued to flash and strike all around and I was worried that more dry pastures would catch, but thankfully no. We did get a splattering of rain .10 so I'm guessing that may have helped keep the fire danger down.
This summer is "brutal" and I'm so happy to see August, 50 more days till fall!!!