The Countdown Begins

In a little over a week, I will be back to work.  I spoke with a friend today whose sister in law is a teacher and made an amusing and very accurate observation about summer vacation.  She likened summer vacation to a weekend: June is like Friday night, July is like Saturday, with all day and a night with the next morning to sleep in, and August is like Sunday, moving fast and with Monday to look forward to.   How true!

Some of my flowers are still looking good and blooming away.  My black-eyed Susans, pictured above, are spreading to a nice thick mass of bright flowers.  Gardening has been a bright spot in my summer break.  I learned all the names of the flowers I have.  This is a whirling butterfly in the back of this picture next to my house.   I think the name suits it. 

I have alot of projects on the go this week.  I have some sewing and some painting I want to do.  When the weather gets a little cooler, I will get back to my knitting and crocheting.  For some reason, my mind keeps drifting to Halloween projects.  I have always loved Halloween but I am surprised it is distracting me this year.  I haven't decorated much for that holiday in the last couple of years.  When my boys were little, I went all out but now, I just haven't gotten into the spirit.  I think I may have some fun with it this year. 

I wanted to share a project with you.  I forgot to take a before picture and I realize this isn't exactly a 10 on the difficulty meter, but I think this is a vast improvement.  I started out with a free vinyl footrest.  It was grey and my friend who moved out of state gave it to me.  The chair that went with it was cracked.  I then purchased a matching chair at a local drugstore for 14 dollars.  It was faded peach in color but the style was what I wanted-Adirondack.  I purchased a couple of cans of Krylon Fusion for plastic and voila-a matched set.

 My husband built me two wooden Adirondack chairs years ago and I painted them white.  They are very heavy to move around so they stay put out by our fire pit.  This is a nice light weight set to move around where I may want to read a magazine in the afternoon.  I can even drag them up on the pool deck.  The foot rest makes it a  very comfortable set.  That fusion spray paint is awesome.  I am looking around to see what other plastic thing needs painting!

Now on to something sweet!  I made cream cheese blondies today.  They are pretty darn good and totally satisfy that sweet craving plus they were super easy too!  Ready?  Take a yellow cake mix and add 1 cup chopped pecans and 1 egg and 1 stick of melted butter.  Mix well and pat in a lightly greased 9x 13 pan.  In the same bowl, take one 8 oz. pkg. softened cream cheese, 2 eggs and a 16 0z. pkg. powdered sugar and beat with a hand mixer until smooth.  Pour over the crust.  Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.  Cool and refrigerate.  Cut into bars and enjoy!

I think I will get back to straightening my craft room.  My husband installed a regular door on my craft room to replace the bifold door(big improvement at keeping my kitty out when I am using my iron!) and we found some storage for the games that were taking up most of the top shelf of my storage so I have been happily rearranging.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Take care.  Nancy