Summer is almost over and Ripley the Cat is aptly named!

I remember (ok, vaguely...) when I was a child and the only instance in which time went by fast was during Summer vacation from school.  The rest of life, especially the school year, seemed to go by in slow motion.  NOT ANY MORE!  I see that it's been many weeks since I popped in here to my blog/journal, but I guess I'll just take up once again in my usual haphazard fashion!

The newest addition to the farm is....drum roll please.....Mr. Ripley!  Above is a lovely shot of Ripley wondering what on earth I am pointing at him....and to the right is one of the REAL Ripley doing what kittens do best - getting into mischief!

Who couldn't love a face like that, though!  He's already been to the vet for his necessary shots & alteration, and now he's starting his life as a house cat.

Being attacked by a flying bundle of teeth & claws is hard to get used to, but we're working on it.

 On September 30th and October 1st, we'll be in our booth at the Country Chicks Fall Fair at our fairgrounds, so I am busy making bunches of primitive things to sell.  Be sure to come and see!

These are just a few of them.  To be totally honest, my camera chip is full and I've been either too lazy, too tired or too forgetful to take care of it.

Call me ignorant (but not to my face!), but I found out the hard way that the little memory disc/chip that goes in my camera has a teeny tiny little lock on it that slides up or down.

I mean, really!  Who can even see that well?  Why on earth would you lock the camera chip?

We spent a couple days camping at the beach and I couldn't take a single picture because I couldn't get my camera to work.  Of course I would have Googled the solution if I'd been home, but we had no Internet service while camping.
Hard to live without Google, lol!

I entered some of my primitives in the Fair, which the girls and I worked at for a couple of weeks.  One week we were there on a Wednesday so people could check their entries in to our Living Arts department (think quilts, canning, baking, crocheting, sewing...) Thursday for judging and ribbon awarding and then Friday to display all those beautiful items for the viewing pleasure of the fair-goers.  Fair started the following Tuesday and ran through Sunday.  Very busy, lots of fun, ever so tired!!!

This was my birthday present to my husband.  Yes.  It is indeed, a Spock monkey.  Everyone should have a Spock monkey, Captain.  It is logical.

 We've actually done quite a bit more canning than just carrots, but - remember the camera chip?  Yeah.

Today we canned a dozen jars of green beans and started the applesauce.  I'm aiming to can about 48 pints of applesauce, maybe a dozen apple butter and then a bit later, apple pie filling.  We're working through the Gravenstein apples at the moment and waiting for the Kings to get ripe for pie filling.  We will not starve this winter.

The garlic is dry & braided and the onions, too.  There are actually quite a few more than pictured and we're thinking of canning carmelized onions.  I'm also thinking of painting the entire inside of the house, washing all the windows inside and out and quilting all those UFOs (Un Finished Objects) lying about, HA! HA! HA!
One can only accomplish so much, which is quite a bit, but then we run out of gumption.  Wonder where you can get a nice big pile of gumption?

The weather has been amazingly hot, even hitting 100* here in the good old Pacific Northwest, but now you can feel a change coming on.  It was warm today again, maybe 85* but the wind is picking up and it's already chilly enough to need all the windows closed!  Before you know it, we'll be filling the woodbox and starting up the first fires of the season!

Here are the girls at our tables, set up with vintage sewing machines at the Fair.

 I'm so absolutely BLESSED by these daughters the Lord chose to give me!  MAN I love these girls!  They are truly my best buds.

 Rebecca entered her Labyrinth Walk quilt and on the third or fourth day of the Fair it won People's Choice!  So happy for her and what a lovely quilt, don't you think?

 While we were working at the Fair, a casual acquaintance stopped by to say hello and mentioned that he had a serger that he no longer used and that he really should give it to us.
The next day, this little beauty showed up in the kitchen at our building with my name on it!  What an unexpected blessing!

 Here's another of the items I'll have for sale at the Fall Fair.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  I make old-fashioned kinds of Halloween items along with my other primitives.  I stay away from evil or scary stuff - my stuff is more reminiscent of times gone by.

When I was a kid we would gather in costumed groups and stop at as many houses as we could to Trick-or-Treat and gather up as much candy as possible.  I remember many happy moments spent later in the evening, our bags dumped out on the floor in front of us as we all examined and compared our loot!  The neighborhood was a safer place back then.  Oh good grief!  Here I am, talking about the 'good old days'...and me so young!  (DO NOT LAUGH AT THIS POINT!)

Well, I was lazy and didn't make dinner, so now it's almost 8:30pm and about time to make some nice toast and hot cocoa (from scratch, naturally!) so I'd best stop this catching-up-on-the-blog stuff!  Before I go, you can see a pic of my newest little addition to the collection here---------------------->
It's a tiny chainstitcher machine.  Isn't it cute?  It's very small.

My hubby has a nasty cold (at this time of the year!) and I have to go to the dentist tomorrow for a night-guard fitting because I clench my teeth.  Life is full of such things, but God is good and blesses us every day.  Until I write again, may He hold YOU in the palm of His hand and may you know Him better!