Cooler Weather at last my friends, cooler weather at last

This California girl is so over the hot summer months and has been enjoying these two past days of cooler weather. I've been so busy that all I want to do when I get home is just sit on the computer and play my games. Mindless games that waste time and require no thought. Last week at work was just ... difficult. You wonder about humanity when you see what the next generation is doing and you question where the direction of that humanity is headed. So enough about business let's have some fun.

I have been busy, busy decorating for fall. I love fall. It's my favorite season. I suppose you could say we don't get a true fall here. We do get some color but not for awhile yet. I suppose it's more that long sigh after all the summer heat before fog season starts. I really shouldn't complain because our winters are very short and very mild. So.... After doing much thought this past year about my seasonal decorating efforts I decided that it was time to scale way back. I only decorated the front room buffet area and the china hutch. I used to take everything down and redo the whole main living areas of the house. But between work, homeschooling and various other activities (read here cooking, cleaning, laundry, taxi service, etc., etc.) I didn't have time and it felt more like a burden than a pleasure. It was taking a month or longer to get it all done and then it was time to move onto winter. Besides hubby and the kids could have cared less. The kids used to get excited when they were smaller, but not anymore. So I do this just for me. I actually got done in two days and I felt so great. I thought it might annoy me that the rest of the house didn't flow or match, but it doesn't and I'm just pleased with it. Here are my fall efforts.

This old salt glazed crock is a family piece.

Some pictures I took in the morning and some in the evening with ambient light. Did I get that right, the kind of light I used?

So after cleaning one evening I thought our little sitting area off of the kitchen looked really nice in the lamplight and I took a few pictures of that.

without flash

with flash

The other project is the on going arbor. Seth has all the cross members up and will do the support members next.

Here's the carpenter and his creation.

Last but not least I've been busy chasing this little guy around. Monday he went to the vet and got a little procedure. I'm sure he didn't think it was little. More life altering if you know what I mean. :-) He's doing great. Little goober figured out how to get the collar down far enough to lick and chew at himself. So forget the collar. He's doing great and acts like nothing happened.

So I've been busy and I haven't been visiting. I promise to get around to all my pals and leave a little message. I'll try to post a recipe tomorrow of one we had a couple of weeks ago. Sorry this is long but that's what happens when you get behind, you have to cram.