Valerean

Since I was recently diagnosed with yet another health problem, it's become even more important for me to exercise as much as possible. I like walking with my guy by this lake near our home at sunet. No matter what happens, nature always manages to restore my calm. This time of year the sky tends to be spectacular, too. The new diagnosis did not surprise me. It's been a long, rough, and pretty ugly year, and the pressure on me has been constant, unrelenting (and at times overwhelming) for the last nine months. Of course there would be fallout from it, especially at my age. Happily that's over, and my life has returned to the quiet serenity and simplicity that I will forever onward appreciate. If I can spend the last three months of 2026 in peace, I will be grateful.

While we were in Cocoa Village I stopped by Hello Again Books , where for the first time I discovered their clearance section way in the back of the store. When it's "buy two, get four free" (which is their wonderful idea of clearance) you know I'm in trouble. Six of these came from that section. :) They also gave me this reusable bag for free. I love this bookstore. I'll have to show you the fourteen books I picked up in two batches; otherwise they won't fit on the table. I didn't need another cookbook, honestly. That said, I am not going to be eating red meat any longer due to the diciness of what it being dumped into stores these days, so I figured why not try more chicken recipes? The Louise Penny and Anna Stuart books are new editions from the front of the store, and I paid full price for those two. :) So I have fourteen more books to read, and there are thirteen weeks left in 2026. Can I get them read before 2027? We shall se...

Last month we took another day trip to Cocoa Village. If you'd like to walk around town with us, see what we had for lunch, and find out what a live demo of an old hospital looks like, check out my album of pics here .

I'm looking at the possible quilting and slow stitch projects I'd like to make this month, and mostly they will be practice pieces and/or something for the house like table hot pads, dog bowl mats, market bags and so forth. I also should make some holiday bags. For the backing and linings I'll be using up more of this thrifted fabric bundle. I've gone through two-thirds of the basket of vintage fabric making my September tote, and I'd like to use up what's left. For Halloween I'd like to make some primitive stuffies out of old quilt pieces. I quite like these two that I acquired this summer, and I can see them and a few more having a Halloween party on the mantle or the coffee table.

For my calendar project's October tote I wanted to do a Halloween theme, of course. I'm trying to stay away from black totes for this project (I've already done two) so I purchased an inexpensive orange bag from Amazon to serve as the foundation. For the elements and embellishments I went shopping over at The Fabric Path on Etsy, and saw a lot to love. I picked two bundles with a Halloween theme; this being the first. Here's the second. If there is enough fabric I may make a crazy quilt type tote, or I may just stitch the elements in layers slow-stitch style. I'll know more once everything arrives. Image credits: tote image from Amazon.com; the two slow stitch pack images from The Fabric Path's listings.

My first quilting project in September was a simple hand quilted mug rug. I crocheted a little pumpkin out of thrifted variegated yarn. I made the September tote for my calendar project out of vintage fabric strips. For the first time ever I did the sewing and quilting entirely on my sewing machine. I hand-stitched stamped fabric embellishments to this tea-stained muslin bag and replaced the drawstrings with hand-dyed ribbon. On the crochet blog I demonstrated three ways to make an inexpensive DIY Advent calendar. I crocheted this hexagon blanket, Happiness, because I needed some, and that's what it brought me. I made a clone of my favorite winter hat in gray, pink and silver yarn. With all of my caregiving duties this month I didn't get a lot done, but I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish -- and having these projects really helped me get through a terrible time. On to a hopefully happier October!