Monday, Monday...

My goodness~ I don't know where the time has gone!  It's been a few days now since I've done any blogging. What's been keeping me from this little spot?  Read on, and I'll let you know.

I've been doing  a little Fall decorating.....rummaging through the garage for my berry vines, gourds, pumpkins, leaves and Autumn flowers. There are touches in the living room, the kitchen, the sunroom and the half-bath.  Somehow, even though the weather is still hovering in the upper 80's, it feels cozier in the house. I took part in a primitive decorating site's Fall ornament exchange, and was blessed with some bowl fillers (now in my wooden bowl), a couple of fabric crows, a large calico acorn and a little black cat. It was fun making, sending and receiving these little Fall touches to put around the house. 

We'll be doing a Christmas 'ornie' exchange too....as well as a secret Santa exchange.  What a fun group this bunch of ladies is!  I've already started my ornaments for Christmas. I'll share photos of them after they've been received by the girls. I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Aside from making some of the ornaments, I've been working on a lot of cards. My friend loves them and asked me if I'd share her table at her church's craft sale in early Dec. So, I'm working hard to do those. Since I'm trying to make some of my Christmas gifts too, I've got to keep at it.

At the beginning of the weekend, after four mornings of rain, I got the shutters out of the garage. Those babies have been standing around for years, awaiting a bolt of some sort of creative lightening to strike me. Well, without having that bolt hit me, I've decided to clean,sand and paint them in a 'distressed' manner, and I'll hang them on the wall, each side of the two windows in the kitchen. (The windows look into the sunroom)  I think I'll paint them black, and scuff 'em up really well....so that they look as old and used as they really are.  "Why don't I put them up as they are?" you might ask. Well, I would, because they are perfect the way they are except  they are white, and so are my kitchen walls. Therefore they must be painted. Knowing me, they will be painted red over the black, and then scuffed up.... let's see how well I know myself~

I've been whining to myself that I should have gone back to my home town this month...only 900 miles from here...one way.  My daughter had surgery the other day for removal of a pilonidal cyst.  These are nasty buggers that attach and grow on the tailbone. The are quite painful, as are the 'boil like eruptions' on the buttock that signifies that there might be a cyst inside.  Anyway, I knew from my son's surgery for the same ailment many years ago, that it's really not a big deal surgery, and that her sister was planning to care for her. So, I didn't go. Then I got the 'guilts', thinking, 'What kind of Mom doesn't go to her daughter when she's having surgery?"  One who's been socked with extra expenses this year, and who is living on limited budget...that's who.  Still, the guilts.

As it turns out, it was probably a good thing we didn't head for New York. The van decided, out of the blue, that it didn't want to start on Friday afternoon. Our beloved friend and mechanic came by after work to look at it, and after an hour and a half of dismantling the panels under the dashboard inside the van, he was finally able to get to the faulty part.  Since he had to work on Saturday, he towed it to his shop, and we've been carless ever since. Well...until said friend/mechanic came by last night with his own car for a loaner. We are blessed with great friends!

I had better get back to my stitching or I'll still be making Christmas ornaments in April!