A Time For Everything

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bees-with-project-peril

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

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Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

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I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

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In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

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And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

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And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

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Well have a super week. Catch you in two!

I'm so delighted with cooler temps and looking forward to sleeping with the windows open.

I might even have to break these out and make some pumpkin cake.

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I've also started feeling crafty/creative again. I've finished two cross stitch projects and am working on another. I've even been working on a pair of terracotta pots. Mom was awesome at this stuff (tole painting); me--not so much, but I like doing it.

I have one pot done but the other pot design presented me with a bit of a challenge. But DD will be coming to the rescue.

The Pride pot still needs a coat of varnish or something. And then I need to plant something in it.

Here are my finished cross stitch projects...

Here is the finished pot...

The other pot is going to have a bees and gnomes theme to it -- stay tuned.

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In other news, our guest room finally, really looks like a guest room. We'd had a big wood-framed futon bunk bed thing in there for years. It was Sonshine's, and though he's been gone for a decade (IS THAT REALLY TRUE?!?!), we've just never taken it down. Not even for Mom, bless her heart. But after she passed, we discussed whether DH wanted to move back into that room or stay in the garage. DH opted to stay in the garage for the additional space. And it's taken another two years to disassemble that bed, lol.

But here's the room now. It still needs a few more things on the walls, but that's just a matter of deciding what I want. Although one of those things will be the cross stitch sampler that I'm working on.

Rascal says hello and welcome!

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I have also finally started walking the dog. Not the dog I meant to walk for all those years -- sorry, Reyna! But little Rascal and I have been walking for a month or so. I needed to up my activity level and he definitely needed the exercise and the getting out of the house and I'm hoping it'll keep his little nails somewhat in check. He does need a trim though.

And then DD decided she'd start walking with us. So that was a nice surprise, and it's doing us both good -- we've both felt our pants fit just a tad more comfortably.

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And apologies for this not posting last Monday. I forgot to add images and I just wasn't ready for the post to go live on time. So I opted to hold onto it for another week.

Have a super October!! It's fall y'all! And I'm excited.

I'm off to my con tomorrow and then after that--hockey season begins.

Happy fall everyone, it's finally starting to cool down. We've even had rain.

Hope you're all well. Have a great week.