August is the Sunday of Summer

I'm so happy to finally have time to come back for a visit on my blog!  And, I actually have some rather good news: my husband will be starting a temporary job tomorrow.  It is of unknown duration, and right here in town.  It's not a great job, and it doesn't pay much -- but it is the first job he's been offered despite his herculean efforts, so we are happy!

We found out on Friday, and that evening we'd been invited to a karaoke night at a nearby venue; I hadn't been to karaoke in 20 years, I think -- it hasn't really changed!  It was fun to be out with friends on a night we really felt like celebrating!

We had way too much fun and, gosh, did we need that!  To my left is Rebecca, her husband Conrad, and on my right is Vonnie, her husband Bob, and Dennis.  The sparkly lights on us are coming from the karaoke guy's fancy light set up.  Don't I look like I'm giving Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer a run for his money?!  We closed down the show that night and got up and sang many times!  I do love to sing, and learned in adulthood that I don't fear performing, or public speaking in front of a crowd.

Just the week before we'd managed to pull off a surprise party for Rebecca's 50th birthday!  I made the banner above over a couple of evenings the week before.  It says, 50 & Fabulous.  Which she is!  The fluffy tissue flower above the banner came from Hobby Lobby, and was one of a set of three.

I used mostly vintage elements.  It was such a joy to put together!  I love the neutral palette, but Rebecca also likes color so I threw in some splashy bright colors, too.

This was my favorite part of the banner; the little image is a shattered silk crazy quilt piece made from a cigar silk portraying a woman on the beach.  She has long dark hair, like Rebecca, who happens to love the beach like I do -- so I just had to put it on the banner!

We used the banner as a photo prop and most of the guests posed with her in front of it!  This photo is my favorite, I think!  Can you tell we're all mommies of grown-up kids, and not grandparents yet?

One last surprise was a little album of all the photos from the party that I made for Rebecca!

Do you remember the wooden piece I mosaic'd and painted that I showed you in my last post?  Well, here it is -- improved.  I like it for its cheeriness.  I would like to learn to letter better, someday.

I'm still working at my full time temporary job, and enjoying it; there is always a lot to do, everyone is chill, and the days just fly by.  At home, we're continuing the decluttering we started when we were going to show the house and move.  It's such a great feeling to let go of things!

This is about all I'm keeping from my ginormous collection of McCoy pottery!  I took it down from atop my kitchen cabinets and now have it in a display cabinet, which I like better.  I'll be listing all the other McCoy pieces in my Etsy shop as soon as I can.  My Christmas in July sale in the shop wasn't a huge success, but I did sell 6 or 7 Christmas items and there was lots of traffic to the store, so I'm as pleased as can be about that!

Another result of the almost-move is that we finally packed up Ben's childhood bedroom (I cried BUCKETS) and made it into an office.  As a matter of fact, this is where I'm sitting right now!  It is so cozy and conducive to writing; every time I come up  here I stay longer than intended -- and that's a good thing.  Another positive change.  And I'm using this area to pack up my Etsy purchases for shipping, too.

We have been having TONS of rain -- they are calling it monsoon season, and I can't remember a summer with so many heavy storms since 2004!

Of course, the plants are loving it, and everything is GREEN!

They say August is the Sunday of summer -- and that is my check in with you on this August Sunday!  How are you doing?