Routine

“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

This week is "back to my routine" week. And there is comfort in that. I love my company and the activity involved but I'm glad this week to get back to the sameness and quietness of my life. My daily routine consists of getting up every morning by seven and meeting my friends for coffee at nine. This little get together has been happening ever since I retired fifteen years ago and gives me a reason to get dressed in the morning. After coffee I usually do my chores which include groceries or stops at stores or sometimes doctor appointments. Then it's home, read the paper and it's time for lunch.

   After lunch comes the daily clean up of the house and those household chores and projects which need to be done. Any phone calling or bill paying happens during this time.  By late afternoon it's time to sit down with a cold drink and a good book or my ipad for blogging. It's my "me" time. Soon it's time to prepare dinner, clean up the kitchen and then I enjoy a few tv programs. Since we switched to Direct tv and have a DVR my life has really changed since I record a lot and can watch whatever I please when I please. Now by the way, I have the Direct TV app which allows me to watch tv (and also programs that I've recorded) on my ipad just like on the tv. Amazing. I love my new ipad, it is soooooo fast with my upgrade of my internet to cable. 

   About nine I head to bed to watch a few programs before listening to pod casts to put me to sleep. It isn't an exciting life but one that I love.

Now people who know me will tell you that I won't be satisfied being in my routine very long. Soon my feet will start to twitch and I will get the urge to find an adventure doing something different than staying home every day. Yes, that is part of my soul. That need to be refreshed. And I will be off again. 

Dan and Gretchen

My grandson Dan lives in 

Pittsburgh and has a very active life so I don't get to see him very often. But his wife Gretchen blogs and I can keep up with their activities that way. Gretchen is a runner and had a race yesterday. 

The last summer month

Now we are turning to August, the last summer month. Even though fall is my favorite season I'm not anxious for it to come. I have enjoyed every minute of this summer.  It has been a busy one with a lot of traveling and a lot of company.  

Now that my company has departed it is very quiet in the house. Friday night and last night I attended my 55th class reunion.  I was on the committee to plan this and was in charge of the poster making and the centerpieces. Everyone loved the tables with red geraniums in black pots with a black and white ribbon around it sitting on a piece of red felt. (Our colors were red and black).

Now I plan on catching up on my rest and doing only the necessary chores around the house for soon the colder weather will be here and I'll have plenty of time to be inside and organize. Now I want to spend every moment I can sitting on my porch swing and reading. Have you read anything great this summer? I recommend Behind her Eyes...a good twist ending.

Do you have any last minute things you want to do before the summer is over? I'd like to go on a picnic to our local park. We are so lucky to have it just a few miles from our house but yet I never take advantage of it. I'd like a restful day there. 

Who knew?

There are some things that you just didn't know existed. I was complaining to my daughter in law that I love my stainless steel refrigerator but the handles always got dirty. I said what I needed was a cloth cover that velcroed. She immediately grabbed her phone and said ..let's see if they have it on eBay. Would you believe they did?  Then she said try Amazon and you know what?  They sell them. Since I have Amazon prime I oresered them right away and they came yesterday. They fit perfectly and are exactly what I was looking for. Who knew?

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Hidden Figures

I love the relaxed pace of summer. Sitting down with a good video is part of that. I knew Hidden Figures was going to be a good movie when I saw the previews but didn't get a chance to see it in the theater.  So I really enjoyed sitting at home and watching it. Looking back to the sixties reminded me of how predudice the world was then with separate bathrooms for African Americans. Women and Negroes faced such discrimination. We have come a long way but still in this nation there is a long way to go to realize equality for all. 

Sadie

This is my painting of Sadie. I took the month of July off from my painting class since it was such a busy month. Next week I am looking forward to getting back. 

Summer is filled with activity

Most of the time my home is quiet. Don and I keep busy with our daily life and have a sort of routine. But when it's summer and we have company it becomes bustling. This week is like that. Monday we went to the Zippo/Case museum. Our town has Zippo lighters as our claim to fame. The factory is still going strong and the museum is excellent. Not many companies have the slogan...if it doesn't work we fix it free. There are also Case knives on display. Yesterday we laid low and stayed home resting. 

This is a great picture of Diane dressed to go out Saturday night to her fiftieth reunion. My 55th is this Saturday night. 

Linda is helping me spray paint a statue that I got. I named her Francesca.

Diane and Linda are making peach cobbler an homage to our Southern roots. Our Aunt Ruth made the best cobbler in the South. My dad always took my mom home to Elberton, Georgia every year and as kids we made that two day trip every July. 

Linda by the campfire on our vacation. 

I call this a seaweed chopper. The lake has a lot of seaweed so they clean it up in the summer. 

Sean

Sean is certainly all boy which means he is into superheroes. His uncle Chris gave him a play sword. 

Give a kid a bubble...

Kids and bubbles just go together.  I found an art project book for the kids and one of the projects involved blowing bubbles. What fun.  Jenny is helping Sean make a mask. 

When one door closes...

On Sunday morning my sisters left to go back to Virginia....and on Sunday night my son and family arrived from Tennessee.  Yes, I am the only one in my family to stay up North.  

    The weather has turned colder...in the low seventies..and they are enjoying it. They have a few things planned for this week, mostly outdoor activities like visiting Rimrock and Allegany State Park. I am enjoying the kids being here. I bought a chess set and taught Sean how to play. He is nine and caught on quite quickly. Then later he taught Sara who is six. 

Ryan and Sara playing chess.  

Sisters on the Move

My friend Joan calls us “Sisters on the Move” and we proved her to be right this past week. We were certainly on the go every day making the most of our time together. We filled our days with art class, traveling, wine tastings, laughing and hygge.
We had to stop at this huge weeping willow tree in Mayville to take a few pictures.

What would I do without sisters?

It’s a wonderful thing to have sisters and I am lucky enough to have two of the best. This week they came from Virginia to visit. It will be my sister Diane’s 50th class reunion this weekend.

We began the week with a relaxing time sitting outside and roasting marshmallows. On Sunday Linda and I visited her in laws while Diane and Don went to the Casino. On Monday we had a long shopping day in Erie.

Our activities began on Tuesday when we went for a watercolor lesson on the shores of Lake Chautauqua. We first had lunch at the Sweet Spot in Mayville and enjoyed a sandwich of blue cheese, apricot jam and turkey on the best whole grain bread ever. The class was held the  Depot, a historic building which was once a landing spot for steamboats from the lake was a spectacular setting with large doors which opened up to a view of the lake. Our instructor was amazing and encouraging and we spent three hours practicing our techniques.






On Wednesday we left for the Finger Lakes region of New York to visit Hammondsport a small town on the southern end of Keuka Lake. We first went to Bully Hill Winery. We lunched right on the premises then Diane and Linda had a great time sampling wines. The young (and handsome) bartenders entertained us with stories and samples. I am allergic to alcohol and cannot drink but the setting of this winery on top of a hill overlooking the lake was spectacular.

We did a little local shopping and in the evening we sat by the fire pit just relaxing.

This has been a great vacation with my sisters. We have just a few more things we’d like to do before they have to leave on Sunday. Then my son and family are coming to town so I will have company all next week too.

Flower video

flower video 2017 from Peg Karrasch on Vimeo.

The Graphics Fairy

If you love beautiful images I hope that you visit the Graphics Fairy. I’ll let her introduce herself:

I'm Karen and I blog at The Graphics Fairy LLC.  I love all things Vintage and Handmade. On my blog, The Graphics Fairy, I offer thousands of Vintage Stock Images for Crafters, DIYers and Designers to use in their projects, and they're all Free! I also post Craft and DIY projects and tutorials, blog about image transfer techniques, and share photos of my Home. I love decorating, shopping at flea markets, and collecting French Ephemera! I'm also very fond of Corgis!

Karen is very generous and offers free….that’s right…I said FREE!….graphics for any of your projects or if you just like pretty pictures. There are thousands of vintage images for you to enjoy. Stop by.

Lake House video 2017

Lake house 2017 from Peg Karrasch on Vimeo.

AT HOME WITH NIKKI

Today I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite bloggers...Nikki from At Home WIth Nikki. This is one fantastic lady. If you want to know how to be organized and keep your life in order this is the blog for you. It is full of helpful advice with videos on YouTube and in her blog. She also sends out a newsletter. Just telling you about it doesn't do it justice. You must stop by and see her for yourself.

One things that Nikki has recently started is a subscription box.

If you are not familiar with the concept the boxes are sent to you monthly and the contents are a surprise. Nikki's first subscription box arrived last week. I knew it would be great because Nikki has such excellent taste. I had been anticipating its arrival and couldn't wait to open it up.

The first thing I saw was a big white box with her logo...NStyle on the top. I carefully picked off the top of the box and saw papers on top of white tissue paper sealed with a round sticker. The papers introduced welcomed me to the box and introduced the contents.

As I peeled back the white tissue I saw small boxes packed perfectly into the big white box. I gently picked up each one and marveled. I had faith that Nikki would send something great but I had no idea at the attention to detail that she showed.

The first thing that I opened was a large white cup with a lid that had a hole in it from Tea Forte. The lid allowed the tea to stay warm while seeping.

When the next small package was unwrapped there were two onyx square tea holders. Just perfect.

She also included a sampler box of tea forte teas which are delicious. I loved that they were for rebooting, relaxing, regrouping, resisting, retreating and results.

And to set your tea table Nikki added four plain white classy napkins and four rhinestone studded napkin rings.

The last thing in the box was a do it yourself project....a beaded pen and a small sack of beads complete with pictured directions so you could customize the pen the way your wanted. She also included thirty pages of a to do list to go into a planner

This box brought me so much joy. It was nice to get a surprise in the mail and every one of the items were thoughtful and showed Nikki's suburb taste. If you would like to subscribe to her boxes visit her website. They are priced at only thirty five dollars and are sent our every other month. The August one is closed already..sorry. I hope you will love Nikki as much as I do.

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