Monday, September 3, 2018

It's September!! Fall is almost here!!!

Hi everyone,

Well, my last post was the end of July, so I totally missed August, and here it is September already!  Labor Day is over and the fall season is nearing which is fine by me!  I love the cooler temperatures, lower humidity, the changing of the leaves, the Autumn decorating that I love to do each year if only for Bernie and I to see!  This time of year means that its time to put up some corn-on-the-cob which I did at the end of August.

Blanching it
I purchased a few dozen ears from a local farmer that has the best corn around, and I blanch it for 4 minutes, then plunge it into ice water to stop the cooking process, cut it off the cobs, put into plastic freezer bags as a hefty 2 servings per bag and freeze.  It's really nice to open up a bag at Thanksgiving and Christmas and even for Valentine's Day and enjoy the sweet taste of home-grown corn.  Here is what my process looked like this year!

Ice Water to Stop the Cooking

Cutting it off the cob

Ten bags ready for the freezer

We also celebrated on August 25th, two birthdays!

Jess had her birthday on July 28th, Bernie on Aug 20, so we celebrate them together!!
Yummy!!  Cake and ice cream!!!  Love this picture.






Also, wanted to share a finish that I had in the sewing room!  I had to wait until after the birthday celebration to show you the finish.

Here's Jess opening up her new quilted Christmas Tree Skirt.  I think she likes it!  She actually designed it by coloring in a template that I gave her so I would know how to sew the fabric and picked out the fabric from a few choices I showed her online.  It turned out beautifully.  Below are pictures of it prior to our giving it to her.




There are so many birthdays in August in our family.  My sister-in-law, Tess, starts us off with an Aug 8th date, then Bernie's sister's husband, Tom, on Aug. 11, then my sister, Peggy on the 14th, followed by Bernie on the 20th, my niece Angela on Aug 23rd, my brother, Bill on Aug 30 and my cousin, Donna on Aug 31st.  Oh, almost forgot, Macy's birthday is Aug. 17th.    What a month!!!

I'm still walking each day, usually early in the morning before it gets too hot outside and I am happy to say that the weight keeps coming off.  In the past 6 months, as per my doctor at my last semi-annual checkup on Aug 27th, I am down 31 lbs.  Wowzers!!  I'm still not done though, I have 6 to go to be at my super healthy weight and with my BMI in the normal range!  I've got this!! 

So, I have to show you a pictures of a new home being built in our neighborhood!  Supposedly the guy is in his early 30's and either he hit the lottery or he has fallen into some old money!  He bought the farm a few years ago, refurbished the old barn and now began building this huge house.  It is so out of place in our neighborhood which is modest to say the least.  Mostly their are camps for fishing.  I only had one neighbor up to this point across the road and now this.......................  we figure our taxes will go up, but so will our home's value...................

The far left is the garage which they kept, but are remodeling it and the doors now open on the left side as before it was the front, then a breezeway into a little room and then the hugmungus house.  There are two fireplaces we noticed yesterday going up one of the right side all brick and one on the backside behind the highest peak.  So now we are wondering what will be the exterior, brick, stone, or siding.  Heck, if your spending that much money, I'd go with the brick!!!!

Lamping is continuing on.............Bernie is way ahead of me now, I've been a slacker of late.  Not really, but last week I went and did something I said I wouldn't do again.  It went like this, Bernie and I went to a car show at Pymatuning Valley High School over in Andover on Sunday, Aug 19th.  While there I ran into the school secretary that I've known from her coming into the post office.  She asked me how I liked retirement and I told her it was good, then she asked me if I'd like to become a substitute secretary for the district.  She said she would hire me and to stop over at her office.  So, the next day I stopped by, filled out an application, the superintendent approved me and by Wed, I went for my criminal check, that came back within the half-hour and then last Tues-Wed-Thurs was my training.  I went to the high school first, wow! talk about a boring day, the secretary there has two high school student aides each period.  Nothing there for a secretary to do except taking care of substitute teachers in the a.m., answering the phone and then I was handed off to the attendance secretary and now she was a busy lady.  I enjoyed working with her.  The next day I was off to the middle school.  After being welcomed, I was left standing---literally!  The secretary continued what she was doing, not showing me what she was doing or how, I had to keep asking her is this something I need to know, which it was, but.........................  Once again, my day was saved by their attendance secretary who gave me a folder of what to do for her and I was elated.  By the time afternoon rolled around, people were getting friendlier towards me.  Lastly, the primary school!  This was my favorite place out of the three, and probably the least likely place I would get to substitute as both of those secretaries work all the time and never take off.  The kids were great, and so cute.  They are unscathed at this level by all the weird hair, piercings, tattoos, etc! that come with the older kids.  These secretaries were wonderful, showing me their jobs and actually letting me help them with projects for the day.  I so enjoyed this!  Now the training is over, and I'm on call if they need help.  I think this job is more in tune to what I wanted to do.  Not too much work, but yet perhaps a paycheck every now and then.  Wish me luck on this new endeavor!

The lamping, as I said, is continuing as I worked on some today until a storm passed through shutting down my radio station and causing the lights to flicker on and off.  No tunes, no work!!  Ha Ha, I just used my phone favorites to continue on for a while.  The show in Andover was a decent one for us.  I sold six lamps in two days!  This is good for a small show like this one.  I've been pretty consistent with the sales either 5 or 6.  The show is not as nice as it used to be though, so perhaps next year will be time enough to try another show.  Bernie was kind enough to see the need for me to have a new tent.  I used a patio tent with tarps around the sides for several years, but now that I'm doing more shows outdoors, it was time to have a professional tent he said, with zipped sides to protect us from the rain or too much sun.  I love it!  Thanks, honey!  It does look professional!!!

I did finish up a small Erie stone lamp, but didn't quite finish up the large one, so that pic will have to wait until next post.

With that, I'll say have a Happy September!  Enjoy the changing of the season!!  And hopefully, I'll have more to show you next post.

Hugs,

Debbie

8 comments:

  1. The tree skirt looks nice. That house is huge.

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    Replies
    1. It is a huge house. So out of place for our road.

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  2. I understand how it is to miss a whole month! All your corn looks so pretty!! What a blessing to be able to put up your produce for over winter!! And that tree skirt is gorgeous!! :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Denise! The corn will be delicious come winter. The tree skirt is so easy. I’m going to make more.

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  3. Love the Christmas tree skirt, great design by your daughter and great sewing by you! Wow, that house looks amazing! xx

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Joy! The skirts are easy and fun to make. Yes, the house is really big, but they disappointed me by using vinyl siding instead of brick. Not even a little designer stone. I’ll have to take another pic of it for my next post.

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  4. Beautiful gift. Love the tree skirt made by a very talented lady!!

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  5. Hey, Donna, just saw your comment. I'm bad! I'm only 4 months late. Hope you both are doing well!! Happy New year!

    ReplyDelete

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