Regular days...

Those are the best kind! I'm settling into more of a routine here on my own after all the company.

The last couple of weeks I've finally gotten around to painting some walls. I'll see if I can come up with some before and after shots. I realize I should have removed light switch and outlet plates. I did do that in other places. I'm so impatient! I decided to just move furniture a little bit and finish one wall at a time.

Before (with some painting around windows, etc.):

After:

 I had purchased a pretty kantha quilt to cover my sofa with, but after having kids around I decided the loose quilt stitches might not stand up to their exuberance. So, for now I've replaced it with this old patchwork quilt. I like to be able to just wash the quilt instead of cleaning upholstery. My house has that thrift store decor look, lol.

I've also painted the kitchen/dining room and have done one coat on the hallway. I have one more coat for the hall and then the bathroom. That may be as far as I get for now. That just leaves the larger back bedroom and the laundry room. I'm not too concerned about them for the present.

I was pretty impressed with this group of mushrooms by my driveway. They've pretty much rotted away now, but they were huge when I took this shot. Are these puffballs? I should look it up

It's fallish here. It was in the lower 60's today, and will probably be in the 40's tonight. One of my favorite times of day is evening when the shadows are getting long (and sunrise!).

 The photo below was taken a couple of days ago. We had a rainstorm with high winds. The rain was coming down sideways, in sheets so thick you couldn't see the trees to the south of me. A few minutes later the storm clouds were disappearing into the distance.

 

Do you guys feed suet in the winter? We have woodpeckers all winter, but I was wondering if it freezes too hard for them. We've had some goldfinches in the last few days. They've been away for a while. I wonder if they're headed south and they're using my place as a refueling station.

There are no birds in this picture. You can stop looking, ha ha!

Most of the tourists have headed home for the year, though we'll get some weekenders as long as the weather is decent. We've kind of got our quiet little town back, which  is nice. I've been a little lazy about the walks lately. The painting has left me sore from bending, stooping and kneeling on the floor. I need to get outside while I can and enjoy the nice weather. It's cool, but I like that better than extreme heat.

I've done a few ATC swaps lately. So, just for my records I'll put them here. I've mostly been doing collage.

These seven cards were for a swap called "Clearance!" It's a swap where you can use any "left over" cards you made and didn't use for other swaps. They should be decent quality, but no required themes. I don't really make "extra" cards, so I started from scratch and made some new ones. Don't fret if you can't figure out what the cards are about. We do some weird things in the name of art!

This  next set was for a zentangle swap called "Alphabetical Zentangle Adventures." The zentangle patterns have names, so each card had to have at least two different zentangle patterns. The patterns on the first card had to start with the letter A. The second card-the letter B. And the third card-the letter C. I'll put the pattern names in the captions. (There will be more swaps until we reach the letter Z.)

The patterns for the card on the left were Checkmate (top) and Charlie (bottom). The card on the right is a gift for the swap host, so we could use any patterns. I used Auraknot for the cross and Beadline behind it. The host is a Christian, so I know she'll like the cross pattern.)

The patterns for the card on the left were called Borbz (bulging orbs?) and Bateek. (They like weird spellings.) The card on the right used Auraknot, Ahh and Antidots.

If you'd like to give zentangle a shot these patterns and zillions more can be found here. :)

Micah and family got together with in-laws and cousins for Labor Day. Their usual tradition is to visit the headwaters of the Mississippi, but they decided to change things up with a family picnic. These ten cousins were all born within a span of 8 years. Talk about chaos! :)

Here they're in order according to age. Audrey (8 in July), Cali, Hazel (7 a few days ago), Damien, Adele (4), Maximus, Sully (3 in a couple of days), Jaxon, Griffin and Thatcher (8 months).

 The five whose ages I don't include belong to Micah's two sisters-in-law. I don't know their exact ages. Suffice it to say, they can all play together, lol. Maximus and Jaxon belong to the same family. They are, of course, called Max and Jax.

Hazel is sporting a smaller cast these days; in her school color.

In other pleasant news, the neighbor's guinea hens paid us a visit yesterday. They live across the road. I sometimes hear what sounds like little children's voices down the road. Or sometimes, something that sounds like clanking machinery. Both are the guineas. They also like to run around in the alfalfa field next door. They're a lot of fun to watch, though they don't hang around long. They're always dashing about.

That's about it for now. I hope you're all enjoying the cooler weather!
Shalom to all!