Of this and that
How to tell it's fall in Phoenix- the pyracantha berries are developing color. They might be a nice bright red for making church bouquets in November. The temperature was however in the 90's today.


















This is a project I finished yesterday. The pattern was much more difficult than I had expected but turned out nicely. I'm discovering that attractive pictures are not so easy to do either.

And lastly, I discovered this tasty little flavor over the weekend. If you like a little peppermint ice cream over the holidays, this one is yummy.

Sadie
This is Sadie, 14 years old on her nice Orvis bed that her man found for her on bulk trash pick up day several years ago. Sadie does not like having her picture taken and takes off every time I get out the camera. She is my beloved companion.

A big gripe

Why is it always so hard to return something? I have been carrying a green towel and a box of wrong sized trash bags in my car for a few weeks. Today I took them back to good old WalMart. When the greeter scanned them, he said "I don't think these are our merchandise." And I informed him that they very well were. Then the girl at Customer Service seemed unable to handle my transaction making me somehow feel I was trying to pull something. So I wonder-is it just me and my abhorrence of returns or does this happen to everyone?

A special day
Happy Birthday to Evan- 8 years old and very precious to me. My firstborn grandchild. This is a picture my daughter Becky took a while back and is one of my favorites. I admire very much Becky's picture taking abilities. I love you, Evan.

Today is Sunday
My major project for this week was this set of burse and veil for the altar at my church. The sort of cross/star symbol is the "logo" for the church I attend which is the Episcopal Church of the Nativity. I have been a member of the Altar Guild since the church was formed a bit over 2 years ago. It's a nicely satisfying feeling to make a few things to be used for this purpose. The 2nd picture is articles in place for church this morning. The flowers today were very lovely


3rd picture is a salad we had for dinner last night. I have never before used pomegranate as an ingredient and I was very pleased with its appearance. The pomegranate seeds sparkled like little garnets.











And lastly the dogs just because I love them.

My favorite things
This is my favorite piece of jewelry that I have ever made. It is disc shaped fresh water pearls (which I actually suspect are pearlized hunks of plastic), joined together with silver wire-wrap. Between each segment are 4 little dangles attached with the tee-ninciest little headpins. The bottom picture is just to show how idiotic a person can actually look. I am aware that I usually have my tongue hanging out but didn't know how really silly it looks. Plus the view up my nose and the light-bulb earring hanging off my ear add a real touch of class. Oh, well-I am getting over being so completely camera shy.

Definition of smug
When I actually take my bags with me when I go out and then remember to take them into the store with me.

When Papa's happy
I used to have a refrigerator magnet that said "when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Around our household that's usually papa we like to keep happy and he has been lately since he started this airplane out in the garage (that was built for this exact purpose about 7 years ago). He had it in mind to build a kit plane upon retirement and then gave up the dream for various reasons. Made the decision to go ahead and has been working on this RV12 for the past few weeks. This process that is now taking place is putting the "skin" on. The skin is shiny sheet metal and I had to use gloves to touch it. It's a rather exciting process to watch this go together. I am envious of this long wall of cabinets and papa gets a little testy if I try to sneak things in to them.

Favorite things
If I could be transported any place on the planet for lunch, I would go to the Vintage Fare in Lincoln, Illinois. In this green bowl is my attempt to copy the fruit compote that I have sometimes been able to have. Vintage Fare is run by a lovely lady named Joyce Kinzie. She is in my opinion one of the best cooks anywhere. She is only open at lunchtime and always seems to be doing a comfortable business. Other favorites of mine that she makes are pickled beets and an incredible cream of tomato soup. I have recently nearly duplicated the beets but am unsure of the soup and afraid I would need too many "fattening" ingredients to really make it work. Yeah for Joyce!
(And this green bowl is one of my favorites, too)

A few of my favorite things
If I ever learn to use all this stuff it will be a miracle. Can only seem to add 1 picture at a time. So what I had was a little grouping of pix from my favorite grocery store which is Trader Joe's. It used to be a small chain mainly out here in the west but I think it is slowly moving east. At any rate I love shopping here. Their fresh cut flowers are usually a delight. I had my favorite friendly cashier today and found everything I needed. Doesn't take a lot to make me happy.

Big Jake
This is Jake when one of us is finished playing ball and one of us isn't. Guess which is which.

The dogs in my life
These are the 2 critters that take up lots of our time and provide us with a whole lot of love. Foreward is nearly 3 year old Jake and aft is 14 plus year old Sadie. They bring me much joy.