I am Glad I don't have 20/20 Vision

Because if I did, I would not have these new eyeglasses. I think they are going to be my favorite pair ever.  These are truly a fashion accessory. Just take a look:

These are all the same pair of eyeglasses. The sides just switch out. Genius! I had no problem  quickly finding five items from my closet to pair with each insert.  Of course there a dozens more that you can buy for $10/set. Fun, fun, fun!

These glasses remind of the Miche handbag. I don't own a Miche bag, because I already have quite a few handbags in different colors and I love to make one-of-a-kind bags for myself.

Last night I went out and cut off the dahlias in flower.  For lack of want to find an appropriate vase, I stuck them in a plastic coffee container thinking I would arrange them later.

I kind of like the jumble of colors, so I think I will leave them as is.

What Not to Wear

This is what NOT to wear

 when climbing these:

Even with good shoes, these steps are difficult to climb. They are very narrow and winding. This the top

You have to go backwards and duck to begin the climb down. You really  need to hold on tight to that handrail!  I removed the shoes on the way down (DH carried them for me).

  We had no plans to check out a new lighthouse when we left Friday night.  If we had, I would have worn sensible shoes.
Saturday night we sat with one of our concert-going friends who told us she had stopped at a place  near Mackinaw City to see a huge rock. We could not hear her very well across the dinner table  over the loud music so we did not get the exact directions.

We have been to this city a zillion times, but have never heard of this huge rock, said to be at least five times larger than Plymouth rock.  As we were driving home and crossing the Big Mac bridge, we, decided spur-of-the-moment, to drive along the shore of Lake Michigan and search for the big rock.
It did not take us long to find this:

We were not sure if the rock was here, but she did mention this lighthouse, so we turned in to explore.

The steps lead to that tower on the top, which had a nice view.

Here it is zoomed in:

While talking to a lady inside the lighthouse, she told us where to find the big rock.  We had to walk about a 1/4 mile down this path:

I love this mossy vignette:

At the end of the path, we found the giant rock. 

It is known as the McGulpin Rock and it was discovered about 400 years ago. Just like  Plymouth Rock, this one was used as an aid to navigation by French explorers and native Americans.  At one time this whole rock was under water.  It is 9 feet tall and weighs 54 tons.

Here is a pic of Plymouth rock to compare.

This whole shoreline is loaded with rocks.

It was a fun excursion on a gorgeous 80-degree autumn day!

Breathtaking Autumn Color

I cannot think of the words to do justice to the spectacular colors we saw this weekend in Chippewa county in Michigan's upper peninsula. I will leave you with few words and these awesome scenes --I think it's the best color I have seen in years.

In the car below the lady is sticking her camera out the window to get pictures.

I had DH stop the car and I walked over to the sand path so I could be closer to the color.

In upper Michigan even the rest stops have lookout towers for scenic views!

Tomorrow I will show you a little side trip we took on the way home from a Fleetwood Mac tribute concert, which I did not enjoy at all. But the great weather, the color tours and the freshly-caught & broiled whitefish we had for dinner more than made up for the music. Overall, we had a great weekend.

Autumn Colors in my own Yard

The burning bushes are just beginning to burn. If you look through the arbor, you can see another one beginning.

The Sedum had darkened and all the bees have left. Have you noticed that as soon as the light pink color fades, the bees are gone?

At my place the bees just moved to the asters.  I have removed most of the weedy asters from my  gardens.  I do plan to keep this patch behind the small rockwall, where their scraggly legs are hidden.

In the backyard, I have one maple among the pines.

The yew hedge is loaded with red berries.

I can't believe how long this cardinal flower has been blooming. It's been in flower almost four months!



'Myrtle's Folly' is also still putting out flowers. She was the first dahlia to bloom and is still going strong.

We have had a gorgeous week with temperatures around 70 degrees. The weekend is supposed to be just as beautiful. I hope you are all as lucky!

Fall Containers

While storing garden items I came across three wooden Halloween ground stakes and decided to stick them in the plants out front.

 I had forgotten that I had this cute ghost

 and two pumpkins

With hardly any effort at all, they gave my container plantings the seasonal change they needed. I did remove the sweet potato vines in the two flanking the garage. The cold weather from last week did them in. This is all the fall decorating I plan to do outside.

I still have not planted a single fall bulb. I will probably regret that next spring.

Rustic Frames

Love these twig/bark frames!

Not really feeling the love for this..

Really, must we be subjected to these ads on blogs?

I kid you  not, this popped up while I was surfing some decorating linky party blogs. I took a screen shot just so I could prove it.

 This blog was overloaded with advertising, enough to  cause my computer to bog down and stop before it all loaded.  As I was X'ing out (as I tend to do immediately on ad-filled blogs), this pop up got through. I will never know what sucks more than bridesmaid shoes because I refuse to click on a blog advertisement.  I will not return to that blog or any other that invites me in and then inundates me with advertising--especially the universally hated pop-ups.

Fall Harvest Days

We spent a hour or so at our local museum this weekend. This cute hay bale bear welcomed everyone to Fall Harvest Days.

They had a nice quilt display.

I was very interested in the underground railroad quilt display telling the story of how quilts were used to help runaway slaves... 

The homeowner would hang a quilt of a certain pattern on the clothesline and the runaway would know that they could seek shelter in that home.  There  is still debate as to whether this is folklore or truth.
Many years ago the museum recreated some of the old shops that used to line the street of our town.

You walk through it as though you were walking downtown.

I bet the millinery was quite the popular store for the well-dressed ladies of the era.

Outside they have moved actual buildings and reconstructed them. We enjoyed this one-room school house that was in use until 1961.


DH enjoyed the old bank.

This man was whittling corn stalks into dolls and fiddles. 




.
I thought of Patti from Missouri when I saw this blacksmith display. Patti's husband is a very talented blacksmith.

This blacksmith's wife showed us a snake that her husband made from two of the files she is holding.

We were  amazed how that file turned into the snake! Who would look at the file and see a snake? Such talent!
After explaining it all to us, she looked up at me and said how familiar I looked. Then asked when I graduated...two years before she did.  When I told her my maiden name, she figured it out. She went to school with  my sister, Delynn.


The  museum has an new quarry exhibit where you can search for fossils.  DH found the fossil in the last picture.

We are always attending festivals, etc. in other places. It was fun to attend a little event in our own town for a change.

Breaking the Mold....

and going for gold!

For the past few years I have purchased only white sheets.  I like the crisp clean look and feel of white sheets. When I decided it was time for a new set, they did not have white so I chose "honey".  The picture looked more like a light tan, so I was pretty shocked to see that the color was really gold when I opened the box.

I washed them and put them on the bed today with a heavier green/gold quilt.

It's not the clean, crisp look, but they do go with this quilt. The darker color feels more like autumn.

We will sleep on them tonight for the first time. I think they will be just fine.



DH and I have been busy all weekend bringing the outside tables/chairs/garden birdhouses, milkcans, watering cans and other assorted objects inside.  It is so much work!

We wash them all and then let them dry before hauling them to their various winter homes.

I have not yet cut down the deck plants because even though we have had a lot of frost, they have not been hit.  They are quite sheltered by the house and big trees overhanging the deck.  The plants also need to dry out before they get stored away.  Last week we had a lot of rain and they are still very wet.  That actually worked out well because DH and I are not as young as we used to be and we were quite pooped after two days of just removing these items and hauling them to the basement or to the under-the- house crawl space.  The tables/chairs, etc.  are now all stored away so it will be much easier just to do the plants in a couple of weeks.  We have always done it all in one weekend--what happened to the days when we could work eight to ten hours straight with just a break or two in between?  Those days are gone for sure.

While we were making room in the basement for the glass deck table, I came across a partridge (? some kind of bird) flower vase and decided to bring it upstairs.  I went to the deck and cut down 3 dahlias and some sage............yes, sage! The sage still looks great in my herb pot.  Sadly I did not even use it once this year.  I intended to make chicken saltimbocca with it, but that never happened.

So instead of eating the sage,  I used  it to make an aromatic flower arrangement.

So easy and so cute....I will enjoy these flowers every time I am in the kitchen.  I rub the sage between my fingers to release its fragrance.  Too bad our Thanksgiving is not until late November. The sage would be great in the dressing.

I did not accomplish any major tasks on my blog break. I did a little bit of a lot of things.....a little garden work, a little cleaning, a little organizing, a little cooking (lasagna soup and stuffed chicken florentine),

and a little sewing.

I now have three quilt fairy godmothers...


I do love making these ladies. I have no idea yet what I will end up doing with them. I love the scissors necklace on the newest one. 

I also bought a new pair of shoes this weekend.

I needed  (at least that is what I told DH when he rolled his eyes as I dropped these in the shopping cart) a pair of brown shoes and I really love these backless slip-on styles.

I have been reading blogs all week and I am really having a problem commenting on many of them.  I keep getting this error...

It causes my comment to disappear.  Is anyone else getting this all of a sudden?  I am trying to remember if I changed any of my settings recently to cause this. If you know what causes it, please leave me a comment. It is very frustrating!! I have tried 3 or 4 times on some blogs and I just can't leave a comment....on other blogs, I have no problem.