Well, I can wish, can’t I?
Here she is, the last of my arch-enemies for 2023. They say mosquitoes are especially bad in So Cal this year because of Hurricane Hillary. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Every year is a bad mosquito year for me. I’m like a mosquito magnet. I’m starting to notice their different personalities. The one from last week was especially aggressive. They can last 3-4 weeks in the house, probably longer in my house because I’m so tasty. I tracked it down with my trusty mosquito swatter.
This really seems to work. I’m too slow to smack them with my hand but I can wave the swatter around when I see them which effectively knocks them to the ground. I don’t know if they’re dead or merely stunned, but I quickly squish them. The mosquito in the picture above was less aggressive and ended up being seduced by our little bug whacker.
I always welcome fall but especially because it means the mosquitoes will soon be gone. We’ve been having such mild weather and cold nights, I assume they’ll be gone before November, the month the skeeters normally depart.
Time seems to be going really quickly. Can September be finished already? Claims have been made that this was the summer of girls. Very girly entertainment raked in the big bucks. Taylor Swift’s concert series was record-breaking. The Barbie movie hit the billion-dollar mark. If nothing else, Swift and Barbie are certainly girlie. Is this a sign of changing times?
The Barbie movie was great fun and really nostalgic for those of us in a certain age category. I liked the fact that in the end, Barbie’s choice was totally feminine.
Before I knew anything about the movie, I happened to find a reproduction Barbie at an antique mall. I snapped her up, certain I could finally display some of my vast collection of clothes.
She wasn’t complete. For some reason, I remember an awfully lot about Barbie clothes. But I had the pieces to make her outfit whole. I had the glasses, shoes (yes, those are actually navy blue) and portfolio.
And, like any great 9-year-old collector, the confirming documentation.
My mother refused to buy me a Barbie. She thought the $3 price tag was ridiculous. But when my Aunt Barbara came to visit from San Diego and found out I didn’t have a Barbie, she marched me right to the toy store and got me one. Aunts are wonderful. In retrospect, the doll was a bargain compared to the clothes, and I ended up with quite the collection.
Unfortunately, my Barbie clothes are not in as good a shape as I thought. Does anyone know how to launder such things? They were well-loved, that’s for sure.
More girlie stuff. We did a new tile backsplash and put quartz countertops in earlier this year. This led to the realization our wallpaper no longer matched. So we took it off and painted. Whole new look!
Since our kitchen is suddenly so neutral, I got the idea I could use any colors to turn it into something festive. Why not a Halloween valance? First, I found some great fabric in my stash, but then I found some entirely girlie Halloween fabric and couldn’t resist. Here’s the transformation:
This is the “normal” valance I made after we painted.
Ready for a party! I fell in love with that fabric. It’s called OWL-O-Ween. Even the name is cute. Here’s a closeup so you can appreciate the girliness.
There’s a few new things around the house, mostly stuff I’ve made. This is my Halloween tote. Now if only I could remember to take it along when I go out.
The following project was years in the making. I don’t know how long ago I bought the pattern. I spent the 2022 fall season coloring and embroidering. The piecing and quilting happened recently. It’s far from perfect but I like it a lot. I made the decision years ago that quilting was for fun and didn’t need to be flawless.
It’s October. We’re all decorated and ready to enjoy the season. Maybe there’s some Thanksgiving crafts in my immediate future.
Was that a mosquito that just flew across my laptop screen? Maybe I can’t retire the mosquito swatter quite yet!