anaritaiam
- Oct 10, 2018
- 8 min read

Obsession Number...

It's time to say GOODBYE to summerTOBER! Mother Nature is menopausal and I believe Father Time has finally put his foot down. Tonight our temps are FINALLY suppose to drop and I do believe this time it's for real. We had a good week of cool temps a few weeks ago and in menopausal fashion, Mother Nature gave us a dose of Indian Summer. I was a bit confused and to be honest should have paid more attention to our visiting birds as they tell us more about the weather than any weatherman can. Last week I saw a bird visiting our suet feeder that I haven't seen in our yard for about 6+ years. I was elated, but haven't seen him since. I'm not sure if he was just passing through or if he'll make a home here. Four days ago I put out more nectar for our mama hummer and her babies because they were STILL here. Normally the family has fled to warmer temps by the first day or two of October. Then wouldn't you know it, the very next day after putting the nectar out, they were gone! hmmmm...So yesterday I took in two of the three feeders. I left a nice size one up that is suctioned cup to our kitchen picture window so any migrating hummers can stop for a drink or two. Sure enough, today a new female stopped by. How do I know it was a new female? Well, the poor thing couldn't figure out how to use the feeder lol. Also, in September, we usually get cedar waxwings that flock to our dogwood tree and eat all the red berries. Last year the robins beat them to it so we didn't get any. But this year October had rolled around and not one bird touched the berries...until two days ago! I noticed a couple of robins in our yard. They had been MIA most of summer, but now a few had shown up. Next thing you know, they're all over the dogwood. TONS OF THEM! Then, Bill goes out to grill our dinner and we both heard a BANG on the window. I ran out to the deck and low and behold a cedar waxwing had arrived, but sadly crashed into our window and didn't make it. I picked him up and he closed his eyes right there in my hands...😞 Poor guy...they are just beautiful birds with their little masked eyes and yellow tipped tails...I keep looking, but I haven't seen any others around...

So what does this all mean? Well, I do believe it means Fall is here and it's time to have some bonfires! And don't shoot me when I say this, but I went out on our deck this morning and I noticed the air smelled different. Not like dead skunk different, but not like summer anymore. That's when it hit me...It smelled like winter! And by winter I don't mean like ice and freezing dead winter or Christmas snow winter, I mean Thanksgiving winter. Here in Kentucky it's been known to snow at Thanksgiving (not all the time, just sometimes) and it smelled like a winter November night! If I could put a picture to the smell, it would smell like a Terry Redlin painting...like these

So what have I been doing since the middle of September? A lot! At least my mind has been going non-stop! Not sure if you remember since my last post, but I was hoping to be able to go to the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio. And guess what! Bill made it happen! He took off work that Friday and we headed up (2 hour drive) early to beat the heat and the crowd. Well, we beat the crowd, but NOT the heat. Super frustrating that it was as hot as it was. If you know me, I despise humidity so I was basically stopping at only the vendor booths that really grabbed my attention...which happened to be food booths!😂 I even made mention to Bill that every time we go somewhere it seems that as a family we seem to congregate around FOOD vendors...hence why we love the Amish getaways this time of year lol. However, when we left the "food aisle", I did happen to see a few vendors with super cute ideas. Of course they have to make a living so a lot of crafts weren't cheap. And, being the person that I am, I ALWAYS think I can make it cheaper...I just can never come up with the idea to make them first. Here are some fun pictures that my camera happy self took for you!

Below is a picture of the cutest dandelions. I thought these were so neat.

Oh Lord, and if you don't have at least one sign in your home, you seriously are out dated! My goal is to make a Christmas Tree Farm sign for our house. 🤞🏼Yes, I am loving my Cricut!😉

And stuff! and more stuff! House stuff, yard stuff, just lots of stuff!🧡🍁🍂

The antlers, which of course are the 'in' thing to decorate with, about did my husband in! He made a point to tell me that we were way beyond our years in decorating as we've been decorating with antlers long before they started selling them at the fair. When he picked up one and saw the price I seriously thought we were going to be escorted out of the fair! He's not a loud man, by nature, but he is a little hard of hearing (hey, we're 80s kids! We liked our music loud!) so I'm pretty sure two things happened. One he got very very loud and two, he didn't care! At that point all I know is he was convinced that he and our son could become millionaires with their supposed hunting skills and friends that hunt...💰💰💰

And we ALLLLLL have an old chili pot or two or can easily pick one up at a yard sale...so how come I never thought to put a cute floating candle in one with little pumpkins and cranberries and light that puppy up? Sit it out on a little coffee table or window table and BAM!

I see this(above) and I think...DAMAGE NIGHT. Do you remember damage night growing up? Some called it cabbage night (that never made sense to me), but when I was a kid the night before Halloween was always known as Damage Night. All the unsupervised teens or young adults would go out and vandalize homes that were decorated for Halloween. I remember once our small street was lined with smashed pumpkins. In a creepy way it was almost exciting to wake up just to see what got destroyed lol. Bill and I will make mention of it now and then, but of course our kids have no idea what we are referring to. Anymore, Damage Night could be any night of the week or month!

Of course, no Country Living Fair or country ANYTHING would be complete without the old Red Truck...this time of year makes me want one so bad!

We finished up the fair by having a nice lunch on the way home. I was so excited to be able to spend time and a FRIDAY with Bill that we made the most of the weekend by going to another festival the next day. I mean, the weather was hot, but it wasn't raining and little getaways are what we love to do! So off to Midway, Kentucky we went. It's about an hour south of where we live. This little railroad town is about as quaint as it can get. Homes with inviting long front porches and welcoming lights in their windows to

streets with a little church for all the neighbors to congregate on Sunday mornings before sharing brunch with neighbors that

have picket fences that separate their yard from the one car streets.

Some homes literally line the downtown street like this one below. If you look at the orange cones (they were there for traffic purposes) you will see the railroad!

But look at this little town! How cute is this? The buildings are old, but they are well maintained. Little shops everywhere 😍

And this handsome guy makes every picture PERFECT 😍

There were vendors galore with some really cute crafts, but like the day before, the temps were climbing and we were trying to rush without rushing if you know what I mean! Of course, right when we needed it most, we found this vendor...

And walked away with this...

MOTHER OF ALL CREATURES, it was amazing...which made us both SMILE☺️ Again, we ended up stopping at the food booths and ended up bringing home some award winning infused honey (now hidden deep in our cabinets from our kids!) After taking in the sights and the vendors, Bill was craving some BBQ from our favorite little BBQ place. It's about 45 minutes south of our house, but on our way home so we stopped to have a delicious lunch and to end our perfect afternoon. I had to take this picture while we were eating lol. The little sweet older woman that always greets us and talks with us is undoubtedly who this sign was put up for!

Of course, heading home meant it was time to do some serious fall decorating! Pumpkins had to be bought, twinkling lights had to be placed just right, and autumn candles and wax tarts needed to be burned!

October 1st finally rolled around which meant all the Halloween decor got to come out and play! I'm not a "scary house" Halloween decorator. I like to have ghosts and jack-o-laterns dot the house here and there. I even found this cute metal ghost at the Country Living Fair that now rests in one of the front windows. Can you see his happy face in the reflection of the window?

The other front window is home to my two favorite ghosts I found at a yard sale last year. And I found the little guy in the photo after, at a yard sale this year...weakness number 529...👻🤦🏻‍♀️

Pillow?...yea, garage sale☺️

So of course I had to have some decor outside...I don't have much, but I really like these plastic things like the ones below. They remind me of being a kid. We used to have plastic everything lit up at Halloween or Christmas lol.

And here's our house at twilight.

Like I said, it's been a bit busy around here. Bill made me a new potting bench. He used the old one I had as a template and I'd say he did a fantastic job. (He is so dang handy!!!) The wood just has to weather now. At least this one isn't going to fall down any time soon!

And lastly, I finally finished the painting on the main floor. All that was left was the entrance from the garage to the house and our little 1/2 bath. Of course, to save money, I chalk painted (obsession number 477) some of the decor. But I HAD to keep my shiny red vanity. (Roosters, obsession #5)

Speaking of chalk paint, I finally painted this little entertainment station for our loft/landing area! I didn't want anything too tall, but it needed to have drawers and/or cabinets and BOOM I found this on Facebook Marketplace (obsession number 310)

And today I need to tidy and do a little cleaning! I got to mop the other day and I don't know about you, but that's huge for me. I don't mind mopping, but I hate doing it just to have it dirty by the end of the day. So far it's still looking clean (because it hasn't rained!) Notice how mopping didn't have an obsession number behind it!?!? lol

And after I clean and tidy up, I'm making MEATLOAF!!! YES, the favorite kind that I listed the recipe for. Click on the homepage and scroll to recipes if you want to give it a try. The temps are dropping and like the calendar below, I AM READY for the October winds and blowing leaves!!