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

winter blues but weekend fun

I'm finally at the point where I'm so sick of winter that I'm practically climbing the walls.

We're still having the bitter cold here ~ it's -9F here this morning. I was looking at some

of my Instagram photos from last spring where the trees were budding, Brian was grilling

outside, and the patio furniture was uncovered and actually being used. I am so longing 

for that again. And yesterday, my throat started getting sore and scratchy and I knew

what was coming. I immediately started taking Allibiotic (natural herbal supplement for

 immune system strength) and drinking herbal tea with fresh lemon and raw honey. Frankly,

I'm peeved at my body for being sick again since I normally take good care of myself: I

eat very healthy, I exercise, practice yoga, and take herbal supplements. I also wash my

hands immediately when I get home from being out in public. So, what gives? I was joking

with my mom this morning and told her I was going to start eating Hostess Ho Hos and 

Doritoes again. (Totally kidding - I stay away from stuff like that.)

 

We did get a chance to escape for awhile on Saturday. Brian had the day off (a rarity on

a weekend) and we first headed to a library book sale. This stack of books and CDs

are all Brian's except for the Apartment Therapy book, which has wonderful design ideas

for small spaces (not just apartments). I've always been a fan of their website. I'll eventually

read the "Dearie" book as I'm a Julia Child fan and have several other books by her and

about her.

 This stack of novels is mine. Before I bought them, I quickly scanned them on my phone

on the amazon app to look up the ratings and reviews. If a book has anything less than

4-5 stars, I don't buy it. We got all these books (and thetwo CDs) for $22 ~ less than the

 price of one hardcover book these days!

 Our tummies were then signaling it was time for lunch and we found this small, quiet

Argentinian place nearby.

 I had a cheese and scallion stuffed empanada with tomato bisque soup and a

lovely mixed greens salad with a sweet balsamic vinaigrette. 

 Brian (the seafood lover) had a shrimp wrap, clam chowder soup, and salad.

The food was absolutely amazing. Everything at this place is homemade - even the

pasta. And so reasonably priced. Our lunch bill was less than what we would've paid

 at Panera! (And much tastier and not mass-manufactured food.)

After lunch, we went to Mariano's to pick up some groceries. It's definitely not one of those

grocery stores where you can run in and out. It has a cafe, a huge salad bar, impressive

wine and artisan cheese sections, and aisle upon aisle of every ethnic food you can think

of. This was a sampling of their olive oil selection. You can see all the different country's 

flags in the background. Maybe because I'm such a foodie, but I find it thrilling to walk up

and down all these aisles, looking at all the unfamiliar-to-me foods.

I'd never seen such a diverse selection of organic chocolates. How could you ever

choose? I'd like one of each, please.

I hope that your weekend was filled with some of the things that delight you, too. 

 

for the love of books

 I love me a good library book sale. I traveled 23 miles to get to this one today.

I read somewhere that it was either THE largest library book sale in the country, or

at least one of them. There were over 110,000 books organized into 115 categories.

It was awesome, but a little overwhelming. And the one thing I didn't care for with

this sale was that the books were individually priced. Every other library book sale

I've been to - and I've been to a lot of them - the books had set prices, such as $1

for softcover and $2 for hardcover. Most of the softcover books here were $2 or $3

each which isn't terrible, but a little higher priced than other library book sales.

Sorry for the bad photo quality (I was using my phone), but as you can see, it

was row after row of books. The sale was held in the gym of a big recreation center.

Notice everyone is wearing coats? Yep, it is cold here. It's only been in the 40's the

past couple of days. With clouds and bursts of rain on top of it. Very yucky. Way too

early for this nonsense. Good thing it's not supposed to last long. 

 

Someone sure came to the book sale in style. Too bad it wasn't me!

 

So, here's the stack I came home with. The Dennis LeHane book, Sin in the Second

City, and the Frank Sinatra CD are for Brian. I've already read The Snow Child - this

copy was picked up for a friend. I saw on Goodreads that it was on her Want to Read

list. Speaking of Goodreads, are you on this site? It's a great way to keep track of

the books you've read, what you want to read, and see what your friends are reading.

 

 What are you reading right now? I just finished Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton,

which was excellent. She reminds me a little of Anne Lamott (one of my favorite authors),

but with a little more Christianity thrown in. I just picked up a non-fiction book called,

Inventing the Rest of Our Lives by Suzanne Braun Levine and so far, it's just "OK". I

got the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens in the mail yesterday, so I'm looking

forward to delving into that. Looks like it's full of autumn goodness. 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! We're heading up to Madison, Wisconsin

tomorrow for a day trip. Will be back on Monday to share it with you.