Make-up, Apples & Old Things

At the bottom of a make-up bag, there’s always ancient things I haven’t used in ages. Creams, masques, lipsticks and such have shelf life. If I can’t remember when I bought it or last used it, then in the trash it goes. 

My recent thrift store find is a lovely apple peeler gadget. Dutch apple pie is on my mind. I also want to freeze chopped apples to use instead of applesauce. 

I’ve had that paint scraper tool since early 1990s. I have others in various sizes. That one has an old friend vibe. 

Clearing out things brings with it a lot of memories. 

What is your oldest go to gadget? 

Day 255 of Week 37 September 2025

There is an abundance of news in broad subjects that we can separate into a positive group for each. If we narrow the range, then, I feel, the gathering of good news loses weight. 

A healthy balance, IMHO, requires that the bad news not be so obese that it pulls down our effort to nurture our lives with positive information. 

On day 255 of 2025, the negatives are overwhelming. How do we adjust life for better balance? 

Faith. 

If you have faith, be it with a religion, mindfulness or meditation, having a place to go to comfort your soul might be what you need. 

Shopping List Dropping

Shopping has taken a turn for the worse on prices.

I like the place mats from the local Dollar General store. They are easy to use and clean. For a dollar, they were a good purchase. 

This year, the price is $2.00 US dollars. I want the orange ones for fall decor. I am dropping them from my fall decor shopping list. 

On grocery shopping, my list is being adjusted. Condiments, (since my sense of taste is nearly wiped out by the 2022 covid booster), are very limited. Not buying ketchup is the new norm. I buy cream soups for easy recipes. If the cans are any smaller, then I will not buy them. I will make my own. 

To help prevent lost food in the back of the fridge. a plastic tray will be added for meats go until ready to cook. The difficult to get to fruit drawer will be used anyway. 

Small living adjustments don’t feel unreasonable. The issue is why so many are now necessary. I don’t recall ever dropping so many items off my shopping list as I do today. 

Meanwhile, learning to make bread is added to my to do list. 

Have you made a lot of adjustments to your shopping list?

Meet Pumpkin One of 2025

The fall rituals that I like to follow, this year are pressed flat by the depression episode I am struggling to manage. 

As the deal with it best I can goes, turning a negative into a positive works. Thus, the autumn pumpkin hunt for a country roadside stand also includes: Just buy a pumpkin! So I have. I may also buy from a roadside stand, if I have the energy to do that. 

Pie Pumpkin #1 2025

Catch Up On a Saturday

Moon at 95% Waxing Gibbous
Behind the clouds 9:58 PM EDT
5 September 2025

What’s been going on?

Stuff mostly.

A recent purchase of an over the door rack is the reason I’m rearranging my storage areas. The galley kitchen is too small to store can goods that close to an oven. Thus, out of the bottom cabinet and on the pantry shelves they go. 

The door rack is where spices, cereal, teas and light things will be placed.

That frees up overhead cabinet space for soup bowls and such. So now, instead of moving left to right, I can twirl around to get my favorite little fruit bowl. Also, the bottom cabinet now provides pans a new home that’s off the stove and counters. 

The whole process highlights for me how very important good organization is to having a healthy interior environment. 

A word about low fat foods. 

Low-fat cottage cheese is horrible! With my limited sense of taste, due to covid 2022 booster, I treasure the few flavor levels I can enjoy. I dislike even more the flavors that are horrid. 

I feel the same about most low-fat foods as well as light beer. 

What else? Oh, Instagram has become the babysitter to my bored-self. I spend too much time crying and laughing as I scroll through a tremendous variety of video shorts. 

Let me just say that bravado is in vogue. It can be healing, but too much can cause you tell feel a lot of it is hokey. 

Art. Being busy with moving things around, I’ve been falling asleep for some righteously good naps instead of painting. Now that I’ve finally repotted the pothos and English ivy, the table can be clear for creative endeavors. 

How is your September going?

Day 247 of Week 36 August 2025

In a philosophy class, early 1990s, the instructor is explaining the time line of life in philosophically, step by step out into the universe. The end thought, the end question left to us is what is there beyond, beyond life, the universe?

The air in the room is dead silence until a voice in the far back corner provides the answer:

“New Jersey”

That answer, having spent the majority of my teen years in New Jersey, I felt in my bones to be true. I wasn’t trying to make a joke. But the class laughed and do did I. 

In a way, it is funny. In a bigger way, it is a true answer because, I believe, the proverbial, out there, can be wherever a here may be for us. 

More than any age decade of experience, I feel that our teenage years carry the strongest vibe of being our home-land. Other stages may be as nostalgic, as well loved but not in the same way as our transition out of childhood into adulthood. Ten years is a long time.

Have a Wonderful Weekend 

wherever your here is

Change your wall decor

Browse bird statues online

Read about philosophy

Shop for a soap dispenser

Bake bread

Embroider a favorite word

Take photos of sidewalks

Wind
Watercolor sketch

Summer Photograph: Roses

Climbing Roses

As kids, neighborhood roses

were havens of beauty

that we’d admire, smell and

sometimes pick. 

Reflection Monday September 2025

 

A Watercolor Sketch

Charm

Quick sketches have a charm that a painting does not have. As we draw a location, we are there feeling the environment. Even if we are plein air painting, as we process all of it onto the canvas, the charm element is gone. 

Capture the charm

Sketch

Summer Photographs: A Country Road

 Summer doesn’t feel like summer without two lane country roads, bordered by cornfields, to travel down. 

Route 17 is such a road. The 40.409 miles (65.032km) stretches from Route 100 in Waitsfield to west and ending in Addison at the border of Upstate NewYork by Lake Champlain. The scenery from out of the Green Mountains to the flat land of the Champlain Valley is spectacular. There is a vibe if traveling through a part of New England’s geological history.

Day 227 of Week 33 August 2025

Cooler nights are a  reminder autumn is nearing. However, early this week the 90°Fahrenheit ambient temperatures stirred no foliage dreams. 

Leaf peeper season this year (without foliage tour plans) will be see a maple tree, buy a pumpkin at the grocery store and wear a scarf on a frosty morning. Since my summer plans didn’t happen, I’m going light on autumn.

Have a Light & Bright Weekend!

Roast & glaze veggies

Draw a field of sunflowers

Browse nature tee shirts online

Write a 5 year plan

Brew a spicy tea

Read poetry aloud

Talk a walk with friends

Laugh

Summer Photograph: Sun On Water

 August sun on water

New Haven River

Lincoln Vermont