Life Lately | Late August 2016

+In My Head
Another summer is over. I know there’s three weeks or so until the equinox and more weeks after that in which it will still be hot here in Texas, but the sterotypical ‘summer’ is winding down. Forest’s birthday is next weekend and the little baby will be two! TWO! He’s becoming such a little kid and all summer, with an increase the last month, his language skills have been flourishing. I am really loving this age so far because there’s just so much fun surrounding it. Chris has already reframed two to be Terrific instead of Terrible. Let’s hope!

+Watching
As I type this we’re watching Peppa Pig. “Sorry Madame Gazelle!” It’s a nice change from Wonder Pets. For myself, I haven’t watched much this month. I did watch Tristan and Isolde the other night which was nice. Usually Masters of Sex has been on during the summer but it isn’t premiering until September. I was dissapointed with the last season so I may or may not watch all of this season. Homeland should be coming back as well later this fall so I am looking forward to that. I will probably be watching more tv again soon so there might be more of an update than this.

+Outside My Window
Sunshine and mowed grass! There was supposed to be a greater chance of rain this weekend but that seems, so far, to have not proven itself. Keeping our eyes on Invest 99L (welcome TD 9!) out there in the Florida Straits. Last week when everyone was really freaking out about it, Chris decided to get a small stock of non-perishable food for hurricane supplies. He also found a new generator on sale at Cabelas and ordered it. We haven’t done much or had to do much for hurricanes since we left Florida. Really, nothing. We live about 80 or so miles as the crow flies from the coast so the main effect from a hurricane wouldn’t be as harsh as closer to the coast but there would definitely be opportunities for a power outage with all of the trees around here. The last big hurricane was Ike back in 2008.

+In The Art Studio
There’s actually an update here! I’ve been in the studio twice recently and have plans to make it a more regular affair in the coming months. I finally finished cleaning out a storage container of papers that were from various things ranging from college, our wedding, to trips I was going to scrapbook over the years. After I finally sorted out the different types of ‘keep’—stuff to go in a photo album, stuff to keep in another box, stuff that didn’t even belong in the studio—and the stuff to recycle or shred, it is finally a lot cleaner in there. I still need to do some more organiziation. Next plans are to catch up and finish the scrapbook album I started last year that I was going to chronicle Forest’s 2nd year of life. *Insert maniacal laughs here.* I am not a scrapbooker anymore. I like the idea but I need to figure out another option. Mini-albums, certain seasons…something. I’m thinking the second album I have is going to be a December Daily album. I did a December Daily album once back when I lived in Florida. I prepped it all before December and all I had to do was print photos each week and stick them in the album throughout December. I really love having that album now. So, prep an album and take photos throughout December, that’s my goal with scrapbooking now.

When we were in DFW a few weeks ago I picked up my old potholder loom. I’m now interested in making something out of what I weave on that loom but also interested in making my own bigger loom to weave with yarn. Weaving has been a popular thing on craft blogs the last two years and I was always interested in it but I’m making strides in starting. I bought a plain wooden picture frame at Hobby Lobby last weekend and now I just need to measure out a row of nails on the top and bottom and get started. There are a ton of tutorials out there so it shouldn’t be hard to figure out.

Art…planning on doing small pieces this winter in a watercolor book I have. More on that soon!

Crochet…I made a quick pair of fingerless gloves. More on that soon, too.

+In The Garden
We had a week of rainy weather so my gardening wasn’t too strong recently. I need to get back on top of weeds in the vegetable garden. I’m also working on reweeding the first flower bed I weeded this summer because weeds are returning. I just need to kind of wrap up the gardens going into fall, clean up the paths, etc. It doesn’t look horrible but definitely needs some cleaning up.

I found an empty monarch chrsyalis yesterday so that made me very excited that there was some kind of success with our monarch caterpillars this year!

+Reading
See yesterday’s book report.

+Drinking
A menagerie of coffees. Target had a whole selection on clearance a few weeks ago so I stocked up.

+Loving
A few weeks ago Chris went to the HEB grocery store instead of Kroger to get groceries. He came back with Texas farmed shrimp that was on sale. I stopped eating shrimp in college when I learned how detrimental shrimp trawling was in regards to bycatch. At first I ate some farmed shrimp but most of it was from other countries and I learned how bad that was in countries with little environmental regulations. So, shrimp went off the list as did a lot of other fish. Well, we looked into the company that was farming it locally and I am much more comfortable eating farmed shrimp from the US than anywhere else so Chris has been stocking up on it since it is in season and priced on sale right now.

Fall decor. I haven’t decorated in a few years but I’m going to go for it this year. Not too much, mostly little pumpkins and such, but I’m really excited about making it pretty around here. Resisting urge to decorate too early, so waiting until mid-to-late September.

Being outside in the late afternoon I’m getting that feeling of my fall coming on. Florida made me really love September-March, well, there it was most like October-April. Aside from some dreary grey days mid-winter, for the most part I love this upcoming time of year. I might have to write an ode to the cool season. (note, cool, not cold. I don’t do cold. Ok, let’s just call it how I like it: 70* and sunny. 🙂 )

What’s up with you?