Bohemian Cool

Streaming:  Mash season 1, episode 1.

The weather lately has been ridiculously hot.  95+ temps.

My air conditioner wasn't able to keep up two days in a row and I KNOW it's not a low freon issue, although I'm sure that will happen eventually, and I should get a guy to look at it.  It got up to 77 degrees when I had it set to 72.

The upper windows in my living room are the culprits.  The morning sun heats up the room and the air conditioning has to work overtime to try and keep the temps down, unsuccessfully.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I was inspired by this photo I'd seen a while back.

I'm not interested in crocheting that many blankets and don't have the right tools to hang it up properly.

SO...

I got a ton of this fabric off the ASG free table several months ago. I sewed them together into a huge rectangle and strung them up with twine to the wall speakers and then upstairs banisters and through my office window, tied to the leg of a heavy dresser. done.

I basically made a huge awning for my living room.

It looks like we live in a circus tent.

Cue Big Top Pee Wee theme song...

I'm not entirely sure I like this and this fabric could easily also become curtains in my office before fall.

And of COURSE, the weather turned around by the next day so it'll be rainy and chill all week.  The proof is in the next 95+ degree day.  Maybe Saturday, maybe August.

And I just hope the cats don't get the idea of a giant hammock in their heads and jump onto it from my office window, which is currently closed.

The rest of the family doesn't mind it and thinks it looks rather bohemian, which is their style anyway.

Crossing my fingers for success!

I also found THIS recipe on FB.  Yum, huh?!

And Aggie girl is finally interested in dolls!  I knew she would be.  She's into "baby wearing" these days.

OK, back to work!!!

Creating my own Winter Wonderland dnag it

I got sick of apologizing to our neighbors about my lame lights.  I mean, they never said anything about it, but I felt I needed to if I saw or messaged them about anything. The lights stretched on the ground around our front fence behind the weeds, came across awkwardly to the deck and then kind of went here and then there.

Nothing special about them at all.  I felt like the Beverly Hillbillies living next to the Griswalds.

So yesterday over lunch, I ripped them all down.  It was a balmy 50 degrees out and it wasn't hard.  They were only tied up with bits of yarn anyway...  found the center of the ginormous strand and started at the front of the posts.  

Wrapped them up on the way back to the deck plug in, sh-whist, sh-whist, sh-whist. The sound I made when describing to Meri what I wanted to do with the lights around the poles...  She couldn't envision it.

But here it is.  Now instead of an airport runway, it's the North Pole runway for Santa's sleigh.

Ha!

Surprising Visitors

Who am I kidding?  I slowed down to smell the roses yesterday for ten minutes and realized that it was already Wednesday!!!

AIIIGGGHHHH!!!!!

Feverishly working on gifts in my spare time.  Stuff happening already on Saturday, then Sunday, then a big deal on both Monday and Tuesday.  Not sure if anyone will let me hide away and sew on any of those days, so we'll see...

In the meanwhile, enjoy Leon's additions to our nativity.

Even Pokemon went to see Jesus!

and some sort of superhero...

Chortling Softly

I just finished the first season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and I'm feeling like I might be funny.  Leon doesn't think so.  MERI sure doesn't think so.  

 Oh well, chuckling over here on my own.  At least I'm amused.

The Christmas lights on the house look like a landing strip from space.  I didn't realize that the lights from the wedding tents were that bright.  No wonder everyone came away from the wedding with a tan...

The only thing not lit up is baby Jesus.  I need a light bulb for his glow mold.  

The tree is done unless I find another box of ornaments in the garage and it's been cold the last couple days, so that's not happening.  I guess it's done.

OH and the leg lamp is up in the front window, so our Christmas decorating is complete. 

 Just need to clean the house and bake a bunch.  

and don't forget SEW a bunch...

I will be in the car a lot in the weeks ahead, so I'm getting a bunch of hand sewing projects put together for that.  Since one of our cars is acting up a bit and leaking something that I'm afraid to taste and see what it is, we're going to rent a car.  And it's actually going to be cheaper for this trip!  Yay!

Well, back to work and all the fun that that entails.

I won't give up my day job...

The Fall Is Strong In This One

 

 I found the rake that Leon left in the yard when I was mowing last week (chopped off two of the metal prongs) and at Leon's request, did a little raking with something that looks like a first grader... *missing the two front teeth*

He wanted a big pile so I could bury him in it.  I'm not opposed to that!

He meticulously undid my raking with some awesome throws. 

I LOVE this one!

 

 We pulled out the 3 bags of webbing and did up the yard.  He wasn't the best help as he kept getting his head caught in the stickiness of the webs...  But it got done.

 The spider webs wound all around the porch and any tree we could stick it to.

 

 I plan to make a giant spider on top of the pergola again.  Just trying to come up with the best way to do the legs.  

I don't have enough cans around right now to do the ones like I had years ago.  

2006 monstrosity.

Well, MAYBE I do..... hmmm

Because that would work perfectly.  We'll see what I'm in the mood to do on Saturday...

Halloween on the cheap for the hordes...

We've got the ghost...  

What house isn't complete without that?!

We've got the spooky black stuff waving in the wind...  

And pumpkins.  

We spent some money on those, but the kids love cutting into them, so it's a win!

And then I dug in the garage looking for other Halloween-y stuff and found the little pumpkin face candle holders.  We got rid of a LOT of our spooky stash roughly 9 years ago for reasons I won't get into here so we're accumulating a little bit back now.

Last night I made the ghost and black stuff out of cutting up way too many garbage bags and stapling things up.  I'd LIKE to get the spider thing made again, but Ryan wasn't feeling like it.  That looked so cool that year... and freaked a lot of kids out. ;)

Oh well, maybe next year we'll plan ahead a little earlier...

 I plan to have the fire pit going on the other side of the pumpkin bags and Ryan was talking about making a scarecrow type stuffed body and hang it somewhere...

Probably tie it to a tree with a W on the forehead.
Only those who watch The Walking Dead will get that reference...  

Getting ready for the hordes of children to pass by. :)  Fun!

Norman Rockwell Wannabee

My soon to be niece in law thinks I'm crazy.  Which probably isn't totally a bad thing...  I can say whatever I want now and she'll just say, "Oh.. don't listen to her, She's crazy!"  and I can get away with it!

Heh heh heh...

She posted on FB yesterday or the day before that she thought it was crazy that people are skipping right over Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas already.  In some respects, she's right...  I'm not skipping Thanksgiving!  You guys know me and how I love Christmas, and I actually celebrate Thanksgiving year round too.  Maddy just won't let us put out the freaky pilgrim people until after Halloween...  And THEN it's even a fight!  

I paid good money for those!

So I replied to her that I would keep Christmas decor up year round if Robb would let me, but as it stands I have to wait 10 whole days until I get to.  sigh.  So yeah, she thinks I'm crazy.  

Ever since the show North & South, I've always wanted to quote Virgilia (Kirstie Ally).  "The kids can remember me as Crazy Aunt Virgilia"  

I always thought of myself as Crazy Aunt Val.  I've also been known to be called the Candy Aunt and even Auntie Val, which if you say it fast, it sounds like Aunt Evil.  But only one niece calls me that on a regular basis because she thinks it upsets me.  

I guess I should stop tickling her when she says it...

Anyway, before my mind went off on a tangent...  My town has a few Christmas lights up!!!  They had the decor up a couple days ago, but this morning there were 5 lit instead of just 1!!  

Can't wait to visit Maddy's college town during the Christmas season.  It's a very German old fashioned town and from the looks of their travel guide, it looks like a picture perfect Norman Rockwell kind of town...  And I'll bet it does in real life!

LOVE LOVE loVE This time of year!

A Peek Into The Future...

Yep, this one of my cabinets... My usual and good recipes are taped up there for safe keeping.
I'm lazy... I don't want to have to dig through my recipe stash to find it when I want it.

If I could tape them to the counters I would. But then I'd spill something on them. Anymore I use the Stir-fry recipe as a guide line.

I'll be guest hosting over at Annie Jones but I don't know when yet. I'll let you know and you'll get to see my absolute favorite recipes explained out on there.

Send her some love today. She's had a rough week.

Have a great Thursday! The weekend still seems so far away...