What I Did Last Summer

It's September. SEPTEMBER!!! I feel this way with every turn of the calendar page but the change of seasons is sometimes shocking. It seems as if we were just welcoming summer. But that's how it goes for everyone.

There has been a LOT of activity at my house, unfortunately not much was needlework. But news nonetheless and I'm certain at least someone is interested! 😂 Where to start. June, my favorite month of the year. My birthday month. My son's birthday month as well. He is getting so old, but I remain the same year after year (yeah, right)! I worked in my gardens quite a bit, Chuck rebuilt the raised beds, and I bought new perennials.

Unfortunately for my garden, after a cool and cloudy spring we entered into a brutal drought. We are still under water restrictions although we have had some rain the last few weeks. Hopefully we will have snow this winter to add to the low water table. All the spring beauty turned into brown stalks once I was no longer able to water the gardens. Hopefully my perennials will return in the spring!

July brought sadness and family fun. Helen our sweet, sweet lab celebrated her fourteenth birthday in May which surprised both Chuck and me. We had her longer than expected. The middle of July was as long as she could go and suddenly was unable to walk. We said goodbye and let her cross over pain free. It's so very hard to let our beloved pets go. She gave us much joy for fourteen years.

We went to our family reunion later in the month at Tygart Lake State Park in WV. This was our fortieth year of our gatherings. We had beautiful weather, lots of talking and laughing, swimming and fireside fun. My cousin, sister and I visited a graveyard with my paternal grandmother's family plots. Look how cute my brother is! I love my family!

Chuck and I spent a lot of time with the kiddos and at the end of the month we went to Myrtle Beach with Chuck's brother and sister in law. We had a blast with them as we always do!

See that freaky fish? I grabbed the photo from google so I would remember. It's called a Sheep's Head...not sure why but I ate one on the last night we were at the beach. Delicious! It was the special and once I was assured that the fish head would NOT be included on my plate I was all in. What a funny guy!

Suddenly, it's August! I'll share a pic later because I've put it somewhere....but here is the backstory. Last year at my family reunion, we all brought old letters and pictures. I found a pic of my mother and Dad when they were newly married in the 50's sitting in front of their apartment (my mother passed away at age 37 from breast cancer and I never knew her). Beside my mother was a golden retriever named Junie (short for Junior). I am the carbon copy of my mother in voice, body shape, coloring and craziness. I LOVE animals, especially dogs and when I saw the picture, I knew my next dog would be a golden and I would name her Junie. Say hello to my new obsession. She is the best and sweetest puppy I have ever had.

I wasn't planning on getting a new dog so quickly but the stars aligned and we picked her up on August 10th. She is a wonderful girl. Very cuddly, just rotten enough but comes when called and is by my side 90% of the time. How lucky I am!!!

And finally, after the kids went back to school in August, we packed up and went to the camper for a few days. Junie loved everything about it! She was so good. Then we found a dog sitter and left for the beach earlier this month. We went to Emerald Isle NC and it was delightfully empty of tourists, the sun shone very hot each day and the water was beautiful! I got fish tacos twice (my favorite) and had a great time. Courtney and John, Matt and Bri, Chuck and I spent the week together in an oceanside house and it was perfect!

Now that traveling, gardening (mostly), grand shuffling is over it's time to get serious. Many ideas have been floating around my brain and I'm working to get them charted. I am cleaning up my office this week as it tends to be the dumping ground for items that need to be moved quickly. You know what I mean...quick! Company is coming! Clean up! So I'm organizing, donating, filing....all the things that need done that I've put off for way too long.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! Watch for a couple of designs to be released soon.

BTW, I'm thinking of offering some reproduction samplers for sale from my site. These would be paper charts only as I have way too many printed and need to move some along. Since I stink at self promotion, these samplers haven't gotten the attention they deserve. They are quite pretty! I will put out a notification when they are available.

Happy Fall my Friends!

Tracy