Nothing says summer like sunflowers and lemonade. When I ran to the store to grab a quick item I saw a woman coming out of the store with several bouquets of sunflowers. I beelined to the florist shop and saw the sunflowers were on sale. I grabbed a bundle knowing it would brighten the kitchen.

The flowers are so sunny and friendly.

On a recent Bath and Body works order I received a free candle and I chose a lemon scent. It was called Sugared Lemonade. How yummy sounding is that. The fragrance notes are fresh lemon juice, sugar crystals and crushed ice. The scent is heavenly. Really reminds me of lemonade.

Speaking of lemonade. I bought a bunch of lemons with the intention of making homemade lemonade. I have never made lemonade with fresh squeezed lemons. I tend to just buy the stuff premade.

The recipe was super easy.

1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. Heat on the stove to dissolve the sugar. Once desolved, cool down for at least 10 minutes.

Squeeze fresh lemons to get 1 cup of lemon juice. Hint: roll the lemons back and forth before cutting in half. This helps release the juice.

Add lemon juice and sugar water together. Add 5 cups of water. Chill. If you cannot wait, pour over ice and drink up. It was so refreshing.

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I love a good jigsaw puzzle. Usually every Christmas I will pull out a holiday themed puzzle to do. This time I thought I would do a mini one since I really don’t have the space to lay out a large puzzle.

I thought I would do this mini California puzzle since I do live in California. It was small enough I could do it on my wool pad where I iron for quilting. With only 100 pieces I figure I could do it in one night

And I was correct.

Amazon sells these puzzles and there are multiple states. Very cute and not so easy with its odd shaped borders.

I might do one of the Puzzle Professor literature puzzle since it is small. I bought two of them for less than $5.00 a piece. Not exactly summer themed but very enjoyable. One side is a page from the book, and the other is an artist rendition of a typical scene.

I got both Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein. I might wait to do Frankenstein around Halloween.

Looking at this puzzle reminds me I do have that Neil Patrick Harris game Box One that is a puzzle solving game that I started but did not finish. I do so enjoy a good puzzle.

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I can usually find seasonal coffees at Aldi’s and this summer had their Summer Blend. A medium coffee with a fruity kick. I was able to get the ground coffee as well as the k-cups. I made some the other day and it was a nice mellow coffee. Not sure I can taste any fruit, but it had a nice smooth taste. It did not disappoint.

I actually tried a cold brew drink from Starbucks which I normally do not branch out and tend to stick to my favorites. I like a tried and true classic. It was worth the try.

Besides my coffee I was able to start a new book. This book was one of my Book of the Month selection by Abby Jimenez called Just for the Summer.

I am only 100 pages in and so far I am enjoying it. I like the characters and the premise.

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.  

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

Not a bad start for the summer.

I have never been a huge fan of Summer. Maybe if I lived somewhere else where the temperature was not so high and just doing anything results in sweat pouring off my face. But I live in a hot area, and electricity is sooooo expensive in the summer months. So many time I just sit and sweat during the day until after the magic time zone starts again where I can turn on the air without having my bill double.

But summer does have its charms. When I think of Summer in the traditional way, I think of going to the beach, picnics, pool parties and enjoying long days of sunshine. When I was a child, the summer vacation was the best. No school, just fun. But when you are an adult, you work thru summer and there is no block of time to just have fun. I think we ought to implement this type of schedule in the workplace. I would vote for that.

For the first time ever I am doing a summer bucket list. Maybe it will get me to embrace Summer and all its charms. I may not be able to go hiking anymore but I can do virtual hikes and enjoy the scenery. I can also learn about lighthouses which I associate with summer and beaches. Not to mention the pretty flowers and summer drinks.

I have already started a few of these items and plan to finish all of these by the end of August. So basically I have a few weeks to finish out my summer and start on my Autumn bucket list.

Going to go read my summer book and watch a video or two before going to sleep for the night.

Enjoy your day or evening!

I do not really do anything for Christmas and even more so as I have gotten older. Decorating the house is just too much for me. But I do like the feeling of Christmas so I do little things that don’t require a huge effort on my behalf.

I wrote up this “non bucket list”. Basically meaning maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But it does help me celebrate the season.

I probably spent more time trying to get my old computer to rev up so I could use some of my Christmas pngs to create the art work on this document. Please excuse any misspellings on the document. It fought me tooth and nail that old pile of electronic junk and I ran out of patience trying to get the programs to open and work, more or less typing them out. But I think you get the idea of the things I do during the Christmas season.

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It is my final post on the Autumn Bucket List 2023. Although I finished this project before the deadline I did not get a chance to photograph it.

Again, this is another Primrose Cottage design called Autumn Rules. My sister also did this design as well as the Christmas Rules design. She even managed to mount them on long boards with ribbons and Autumn picks. She did a wonderful job. Ahh to be retired and have some extra time.

It is a little hard to see the design so here are some closeups. I used a Lugana fabric which is so easy to stitch on.

I just need to finish this project. I have the board but I need to choose a background fabric and use some autumn picks and ribbon. But no rush since Autumn is officially over. Hopefully I can do the Christmas Rules next year. So much to stitch, so little time. But now I am all about Christmas activities now so I closing out my Autumn Bucket list for 2023.

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Halloween is my favorite holiday, all the pumpkins and bats are exciting to me. So it comes as no surprise that I cross stitch Halloween designs.

I decided to do a couple of Primrose cottage designs. The first is the Salem Sisters Apothecary on linen. I was hoping to get the frame from Etsy but it sells out before I even have a chance to see it on sale.

Then I decided to do a bunch of smalls from Primrose Cottage book called 13 Halloween Smalls. I just did 6 of them. Not sure if I am going to make ornaments, small pillows for a dough bowl or frame them.

These were quick and easy to stitch up. Maybe next year I can do the other ones in the book.

Now I am off stitching up Christmas designs.

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Well officially my bucket list deadline has passed since today is December 1st. But I doubt the Autumn Bucket list police are going to arrest me.

Today I did my simmer pot. I would have done it yesterday but did not want to have a pot on the stove when I was going to run an errand.

I bought this simmer mix from Etsy. It is called sweet cranberry and has cinnamon, apples, cranberries and orange.

It made the house smell yummy. Even my brother asked what smelled so good.

This is the first time I have done a simmer pot. Easy to do and the scent is just heavenly. I will use this for a few more days before tossing. Technically I have no idea how long these last so I will play mit by ear, or nose. Lol. I will have to get a Christmas scent for December. I am sure there are many great simmer packets available on Etsy.

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This year the trees around the neighborhood seemed to wait until the later in the season to change. Many of the foliage I was used to seeing in its Autumn glory still have not changed and yet some trees have already lost their leaves. 🍁. Very odd indeed.

I drove around looking for some trees in their glory and found a few trees and leaves 🍁 to admire.

I did take the opportunity to go down streets I have never been down before. There were a few houses all decked out for Christmas that I will have to check out in December.

I am not one to hike but here is a photo from Placerita Canyon in all its glory. So I guess we do have the autumn season here in sunny Southern California. Who knew.

Thank you for checking out my blog and happy Autumn to all who visit. 🍂🍁 ☀️

One of the things that make autumn feel like autumn is the aroma of fall scents. Whether it is rain on leaves, pumpkin spice, apple pie, cinnamon, heavenly smells of breads, soup or casseroles cooking in a warm oven. Fortunately our friends at Bath and Body Works makes it easy by creating “wallflowers” of a variety of autumn scents in fragrance plugs that twist into beautiful night lights.

I decided to add the Pumpkin Pecan Waffles fragrance plug that smells like maple syrup, golden waffles, pumpkin spice and brown sugar. Yummy.

A nice little glow in the kitchen at night with a yummy scent. Welcome Autumn.

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