The 45th Friday of 2016

The 45th Friday of 2016!  How can this be?  I was supposed to have a post every Friday this year, and now the year is almost over and I am seriously lacking in the Friday post department.  I haven’t even been keeping up with a daily journal so how will I ever remember my 2016?  Oh, wait, I still have an overwhelming amount of pictures that I take almost every day, so those should serve some purpose in helping me remember my life these days.

How has everyone else’s life been?  I can’t complain.  Although, I feel as if I am not getting as much done as I would like lately (it feels like I am behind with everything), but I am enjoying a little bit of down time so there is that.  I am more rested also and that is a always a plus.  It’s also been nice not having to be so much on the go as I regularly am.  I have enjoyed the last two weeks of my life very much so, even as out of the norm as they may have been.  I can’t keep up with this laid back pace though, so next week I am back to it all once again.  I have plenty to catch up on.

Today I am going to use those pictures I mentioned to help elaborate with what I have been up to lately.  Not my regular routine, for sure, but still there is always plenty going on.  And here is what I have been up to these last couple of weeks…

Surprise parties and photo gifts.  I have some dear friends that are going out of town for awhile, and several of my other friends have been super busy making sure there are plenty of going away dinners and surprises for them before they leave.  I love how creative my friends are!  We were all busy putting together a nice last minute scrap photo book that ended up being filled through and through.  There are lot’s of memories and fun times in that little composition book we put together for them.

Of course there has been wine making.  This actually has been on the back burner since harvest ended at the end of September.  Through the month of September, in addition to picking, I was also starting lots of wine from the summer’s fruit.  Most of October was spent with the working wine sitting in the secondary fermentation stage.  Now that it’s been close to two months, I am starting to have to rack all that wine – 45 gallons of it.  Once I get this out of the way, it will be time to start making some more.  I still have a good amount of fruit sitting in two freezers that needs to be made into something… My wine making downtime won’t be lasting much longer.

Window shopping and antique browsing.  I have done a lot of window shopping in the last couple of weeks, both in Memphis and in the Nashville area.  It is always fun to have the spare time to get out of town and walk around looking at places that you don’t normally get the chance to go on an everyday basis.  For me this means looking at antique shops and boutique stores in downtown Franklin.  It is usually once a year that I get to do this, and this was my week for it this year.  I didn’t buy anything, we are trying to keep to a bit of a budget for the next couple of months.  And even if I did find something I just couldn’t live without, I would had to have seriously contemplated if it was worth having more than the things on my ever-expanding IKEA list (Memphis IKEA is opening in a month!).

I sewed last week and then decided I didn’t like the way this bodice fit – it was way too baggy and gaping at the front and back neck – so, I sewed this week and made it into a different dress with a much better fit.  November is when I seem to sew the most – hunting season is in full swing so I have plenty of early morning Sundays to myself.  I have a few things on my cutting table, and a few more on my sewing wish list…

And that is about it from me for now.  It’s time I get busy with my day.  I have grading to do and a house to clean.  Have a wonderful Friday, readers, and enjoy your weekend!