Soooo

 So, apparently you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. I woke up this morning thinking I would head out to do a few more outdoor chores-yes, there are still a few-until I checked the weather and saw the "feels like" temp at 110 degrees! I stuck my head quickly out the door and then back in again just as quickly. Now what? I had almost finished a good mystery so I grabbed another cup of coffee and the book and sat down long enough to get to the end. Now what?

I have been toying with the idea of going ahead and getting my autumn decor out but I just wasn't quite ready. And so I mulled that over just long enough to decide I would go ahead and do it but by then it was about 10 a.m. and everyone who knows me knows that when I start big projects, I want to start FIRST THING in the morning and keep going until I drop. And so I had a conundrum...until I got a brilliant idea. I decided to go back through the pictures of last year's decor-which I always do-but do it with the mindset of remembering where everything had been stored since it last made an appearance. And then, if things were stored anywhere other than a Rubbermaid for just the autumn season, I decided to bring it out and have it ready. I am blessed and cursed-lol. I am blessed in that I have a fairly large home with a good bit of storage but, I am cursed in that because I have so much room, things seem to get stored in all sorts of places. I definitely like to keep photos, fabrics, canvases, etc. in the house where it is temperature controlled and glass, ceramic, etc. in the garage where temps don't matter. But, because of this, things can't always be stored just by their theme. Once I found everything I got out the glue gun to fix anything that may need a little help. These are all things that I usually do on decorating day and, I must say, I almost always run into a snag where I can't remember where I put something and a lot of time gets wasted while I search.

That actually happened today and it took me a bit but I found everything-except for one framed photo that I WILL find before tomorrow. Usually things are stored in the same places year to year but occasionally I move things around and find new places that seem to make more sense at the time-until I can't remember where I changed it to. Lol

And so, I have this mess right now.

I think I will get the pillow forms into the covers this afternoon and maybe even get some of the vases and jugs brought in from the shelves in the garage.

Another brilliant thing I did was to bring the autumn Rubbermaids in from the garage to the sunroom. Usually I just open them in the garage and walk that many more steps in and out of the house-and, I must say, that is because that is where a lot of my ceramics and dinner wear are stored and they are really too heavy to move farther than just in and out of their slots. But the autumn stuff was manageable and I think I will be very happy tomorrow when I actually start decorating not to be in the outside heat that is supposed to be here again!

So I will hit the ground running tomorrow and I will be back to show you how it looks. So far I only have a few new things to work in so it should be pretty straight forward. I'm actually very excited thinking about it now. I might have to turn the thermostat down a degree or two to help get me in the mood but autumn will be at my house soon! Stay safe and stay tuned.

And just a quick follow up on yesterday. After everything calmed down, I headed out to see what things looked like and I haven't seen this much of the back property since maybe 45 years ago. When we bought this house right after it was built (50 years ago), the 17 acres behind us were known as "Jordan's Farm". Mr. & Mrs. Jordan had a cute little cottage-which is still there-and two old horses named Gary and Shorty. And, there was just a simple little fence separating our properties. My girls used to love coming home from school and rushing right out there with apples and carrots to call the horses over. The girls and those horses became great friends and it was sad when the Jordans got too old to stay there any longer and moved away. That was about the time we put our pool in and decided we needed the fence for safety and privacy...and that was the beginning of the start of the "forest" back there as well.

So, this kind of took my breath away. Don't know what is happening back there or how long this might last but it sure looks good for now.

Out my gate and to the left

Looking straight out the gate. Everything you see back there was what was right up to my fence and the family and I would go out there and chop back 10'-12' feet of it a number of times a year! It was a job and so thick you literally couldn't walk and had to chop as you went. I can't say I'm sorry to see it go!

Out my gate and to the right

Ahhhh!