so much autumn goodness

Hello! 

Sorry the long delay in my posts. I've missed you all.

It is just now starting to get cold here. We've been lucky. My coleus, herb garden and even some annuals are still going strong. We had our first frost warning last night, but it didn't happen. Will definitely happen this weekend though - it's going down to 28 degrees Saturday night. I'm going to bring those geraniums inside and hope for the best with over-wintering them.

I celebrated the fall equinox (belated) at my First Best Friend's house. She has dinners to celebrate the start of every season. It's always the same small (anywhere from 5-10) group of ladies, all of whom have become very dear to me over the years. I just wish I lived closer to these women. They all live in Chicago, which is over an hour's drive from my house. Most of them still have kids at home; some work outside the home; a couple of others are single moms. Everyone is busy! These dinner gatherings are the perfect time for all of us to put our busyness aside for a few hours and take deep breaths, relax, and truly enjoy each other's company. We talk, laugh and cry late into the night.

Another slice of fall joy...spending time with my mom and aunt at the Autumn Drive. An annual fest held out in the country, we walked around to different farms and explored antiques and crafts and tons of pumpkins and squash and petted sweet dogs that rescue groups were walking around. 

Library book sales are going on in full force around here this time of year. You might recall that I cleaned out hundreds of books this past April. So now if I even go to a library book sale, all I look for is certain cookbooks, particular decorating books, and authors whose work I'm looking for in fiction and non-fiction. I don't bring any books home just because they look like a good read. As soon as I'm done looking through the cookbooks, I will pass them on.

This past weekend, I took a class at a neighboring Buddhist Temple. The building is 150 years old and so beautiful. I loved the monument outside where on one side it said, "Let Peace Prevail on Earth" and on the other, "May Peace Be in Our Communities." Interestingly enough, the upstairs sanctuary has stained glass windows with Jesus, Mary and an angel depicted on them. I'm not sure if the windows were there when the building previously belonged to a Unitarian Church, but the monk has said (and I'm quoting from an article in The Northwest Herald dated July 24, 2015), "The windows make some of the temple visitors more comfortable with meditation." And, "In this building, we are not teaching religions. We are teaching meditation, how to be happy. How to calm down. And Jesus and Buddha they are both very spiritual teachers." What a beautiful, loving philosophy! 

Some last minute antique shopping today. Me, my mom and aunt were texting this morning and those bad women asked to meet up for lunch and a quick trip to one of our favorite shops. Even though I was going to run some errands today, had a ton of laundry to do, was in the middle of writing this blog post, and was planning on making a pot of homemade soup this afternoon, I was off and running. ;-)

Just like with books, I am pretty judicious about what I bring into the house nowadays. It has to be something I can truly use, or else be so pretty that I can't pass it up. I found this Rowe Pottery plant pot for only $8. Found completed listings on eBay for $30 - $35. And I did need this plant pot. I have a plant in my office/yoga room that is still sitting in its original crappy plastic pot. I've been wanting to repot this plant, but couldn't find a small plant pot that I liked. Until today.

(Image found here)

'Til next time...

xoxo