Autumn is my favorite time of year.  I love being outside when the air is cool and a breeze is singing through the leaves.  Autumn is also the time for yard work and painting.  Here is a sample of my activity:

I’m not particularly fond of heights, but I also believe you can’t let your fears get in the way if you can help it.  This type of activity is my way of keeping healthy and, if I don’t step back, having a long healthy life.  I had one grandfather die of lung cancer young.  My other two, yes, I had two more, lived to be 89.  One retired at age 75, wrote a book, and was still acknowledged up to his death.   My other grandfather was still active, taking care of his houses, traveling, and on the roof painting his houses late into his 80’s.  (He was also still swimming in the bay, but that’s not my cup of tea as I hate wet bathing suits!)  So I’m there, scraping and painting in my sunglasses, and listening to The Time Traveler’s Wife.  You’ll note I’m holding onto the shutter hanger so I’ll keep from stepping back.

I’ve also been thinking…  When I retired from my main job, I started my small quilting business.  I guess I thought it was hard to jump from life being too structured, to not being structured at all.  I’ve mostly always had some type of small business on the side, whether it was a small antique business or writing historical novels.  However, I’m now thinking about whether I really need this small quiting business, especially with all the government requirements for making my Don’t Bore Your Baby quilts.  I love longarming, making tee shirt quilts and, particularly, my Don’t Bore Your Baby quilts, but there is so much to do in life, even the small tasks that we once did in a hurry as a nuisance seem more enjoyable and then there is my severe travel addiction.  Or is it my travel planning addiction?  Is there time for everything?

My mother used to make the best two crusted lemon pie ever!  Unfortunately, I never tried to make it when she was alive.  I do recall her telling me that the key was slicing the lemon as thin as possible.  Well, I have tried to make this pie through the years and have totally failed. The filling she made was real lemon and I could not duplicate the texture or taste.  This fall I decided to conquer her lemon pie.  I’m not the neatest cook: 

I am happy to say, I settled down, took my time, took each word she wrote extremely seriously, and was able to duplicate the lemon  filling.  The crust actually was pretty good as well, but I can improve upon it, I think.  So I am happy to say, our holidays this year will again have Mom’s lemon pie!  I actually think she was in the kitchen with me, slowing me down, so I would follow the directions correctly, which is something I don’t always do in the kitchen.  Slowing down is easier the older I get…

And to digress, is it worth marketing something to a population who is not interested in paying a real value for something?  Fewer, but better quality, vs more, but poor quality.  Is more really better?  To me there is no question about the value of a well made quilt.  A quilt that will keep looking good through the many washes it needs to go through.  A quilt that is not the same as thousands of other quilts. And a quilt that will help your baby to not be bored and to provide something for her to look at as her vision develops is important.  Just the other day, I saw another baby in a white outfit, belly down on a white blanket.  What’s up with that?  Stop boring your baby!  It really bothers me that parents do not seem to consider the developmental stage of their child when they are babies.  I, also, find most people don’t think about from where their products originate.  There are many people who can’t worry about that due to their finances, and that is OK.  But, I know so many people who don’t think about it, who should.  Those ridiculously cheap items from large stores are made with cheap foreign labor and from shoddy materials.   Too many people try to get my quilts on the cheap.  I think a lot of people conclude that I am retired, I don’t need to work, so why am I charging for my labor? (And a lot of women don’t properly charge for their labor, but that’s another subject.)  Or do people have no clue what good quality costs?  I would rather give my quilts away to people I want to give them to than to sell them to someone who doesn’t want to pay a fair price.  So, I’m thinking of closing my Etsy shop and sticking to tee shirt quilts,  longarming, and DBYB quilts by word of mouth.  And I’d have time for all the other things I want to do!

And I see the poor refugees in Europe and I wish I could just pass my quilts out to those little children so that I felt like I was doing something for them.

I’ve also been taking photographs, so I will leave you with one.  I love old buildings, derelicts, storefronts, etc.

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OK, and can anyone tell me how to get one of these copyrights off of my photographs?  LOL.  Happy Autumn!