O is for Orange and October

I feel the need to apologize up front by saying that my Halloween decorations remind me of my friends. I mean that in a good way, not a scary witchy way. The cute little bear in the witches hat was painted many years ago in a class at Kent Commons. In that same class was a lady named Valerie and we worked in the same office building and showed up in the same painting class. I still can't believe I ever painted like that. But step by step instruction really helped.

 Ah, the Beanie Babies. It was probably back in the 1990's when my coworker Lynda and I did the mad dash on our lunch hour to hit a couple of stores in search of the most recently released Beanie Baby. We were so proud of our finds and rationalized what we were going to do with them. But hey, these are holiday ones, that's good. Now as for the other 287 packed in totes in the garage.....

These cute little wood painted pumpkins were done by my friend Yvonne. They were a Super Saturday craft that I never had time to finish. And the pumpkins were my first cutting project on my little band-saw that my husband set me up with.

Love, love, love this wood birdhouse. We call it a birdhouse because of it's shape. I have a different holiday hanger to put on each month, some months I have a choice. It was a Super Saturday project and took a couple of years to complete all the months. Once again Yvonne coordinated this. See that little orange painted light bulb? I'm not 100% sure, only 92% sure that my friend 

These are all good memories and good associations. Happy October!

Dusting the Dust Ruffle

It's been a very nice October weekend. I've been doing some "spring" cleaning. I'm a procrastinator, what can I say?

Here are some things I learned while cleaning this weekend:

• Dust ruffles collect dust they don't ruffle dust and they must be washed
• Dust ruffles can easily be removed out from under the mattress by one person, but are nearly impossible to put back on with just one person (and balancing a mattress on your head (while wearing a red headscarf) while stretching your arms out underneath it to pull the dust ruffle across, may not be the best idea)
• Learned the meaning of data plan versus Wi-Fi on my cell phone, while streaming part of a conference session live. Thank you AT&T for texting me the count down as to when I would max out 100% of my monthly data plan (took me three messages from them to figure out what it meant and realize my Wi-Fi was turned off and has probably been turned off for days)
• It really is fun to wear random things you find while cleaning, such as, if you find a large red head scarf it should be worn while finishing the dusting
• One can never own too many pairs of shoes
• If I alternate my shoes in the shoe rack one more pair will fit on each shelf
• When you find a book you bought in 1997 titled "The 5 Day Miracle Diet", chances are it did not work then and will not work now (that said, you know I'm going to look at it anyway)
• Reflexology sandals bought years ago at the State Fair are still fun to own, but must be vacuumed to remove the dust from in between the beads
• Rereading a wonderful letter kept for a few years, from a friend thanking me for helping her with something made me feel really happy and I was able to also let the letter go
• Was reminded that unplugging alarm clocks is not a good idea, dust around the cord (my clock is all set and my alarm is set, however my clock now thinks I live in the Eastern time zone and sometime when I least expect it, it will automatically reset the time three hours ahead)
• As you are rearranging your shoes and your husband asks if you need a garbage bag a simple no thank you is the most appropriate response