It's Fall, Ya'll!

It's Fall, ya'll!

Or, as Lisa likes to say with glee, "We're in the "er" months!"

Indeed we are - and just like Lis, it's my favorite time of year. I'm ready to switch over my outdoor summer wreath and doormat, get a few mums, and maybe even a pumpkin or five.

Bring on the cooler weather, the falling leaves, and flocks of migrating birds.

Yeah, that's going to be a while - we're under a heat advisory (again) with indexes in the 100s and high humidity. Even at 5:00 this morning when I took Pepper out, it was warm and muggy and missing the usual refreshing early morning coolness.

I started off Fall with a birthday celebration with local family. With help from their mama, Ian, Mila, and Lukie went through their childhood artwork and made me a collage.

It is really cool and Pepper is in there as well as five horses that are scattered about. What a great idea and way to keep and display childhood artwork!

(That was actually Sunday, August 30 but I'm counting it in the "er" months. You know, "Auguster", right?)

Then I got a little injury that looks far worse than it really is. I'd had an early morning physical therapy session and afterward decided to drop by and visit someone who lived close by the physical therapy facility.

Their pup was very excited to see me, jumped up, lost its balance, and grabbed my arm as it slid down and backward to the ground.

The owner felt terrible but honestly, the dog was not trying to harm me; it was greeting me and simply lost its balance. In its defense, I bruise and bleed very easily, and the injury isn't as bad as it looks.

I've had some fabric problems in the sewing room, too. Block printing is a hand done process, and part of its charm are the little errors that you can find occasionally.

Well... I have a piece that has more than a few little errors. And it was whoever was responsible for adding the black dye who made them.

Aside from the initial black outlining, there is no black color on this part of the fabric.

Here's how it should look.

Another spot, this time a camel, that the printer missed.

And how it should look.

Another missed elephant.

and how it should look.

I'd already gotten a lot of work done on the trade shirt before I discovered those mistakes.

The good thing is that the errors are hard to find and that errors are a normal and accepted part of using block printed fabrics. 

I will go ahead and finish the shirt, but I will also put a note on its tag about some of the missing color and let the buyer decide if they like it or if they want to look at a different block print shirt. (One person I've already told about the errors said, "Whoa! That is so cool!" Go figure.) 

Of course, the very next block print I opened had an issue on the selvage edge. 

That's an easy work around, but still smarting from the elephant/camel block print, I did a careful inspection of the piece.

A pulled thread, a noticeable issue on the wrong side of the fabric.

But on the right side, it's not very visible and is another easy work around for me.

So, hot weather, an overly exuberant pupper, and issues with block prints...

How are your "er" months starting off?

Stay 'tooned!

"Wahoo!! .... Nothin' "

Sometimes you feel like Yukon Cornelius.

You walk into an antique or thrift shop full of hope and anticipation.

You wander around, looking for HSOs

and you find them

but they just aren't the HSOs you want or need.

You find real horse-life items

and cool vintage horse-related games.

Bookends

and salt and pepper shakers

and vintage trophies from real horse shows.

Framed prints

and more framed prints (someone liked paints and pintos!)

and old metal clocks.

Rubbery horses,

cheap plastic knock off horses,

and giant horses for giant dolls.

A few things are tempting

and make you second guess your decision to leave them behind. (They look like Mortens Studios, they feel like Mortens Studio, but are they Mortens Studio?)

And when you do find something you are interested in, the seller's price is often more than the piece is worth and so you leave it behind.

"Wahoo!! ... Nothin' " indeed.

This time. 

But Yukon Cornelius kept looking and he did eventually find what he was looking for.

I'll keep looking, too.

Stay 'tooned!