Our burning bush has turned a beautiful red. I said to Don yesterday: it’s as if Mother Nature gives us one last vivid splash of color to remember as everything else is becoming muted.

More rain today. Sigh. Though, the rain is also a little muted, usually in the form of gentle showers rather than downpours. Today we get our septic tank pumped out. Exciting, right? I’ve left all that to Don.

I finished Victim 2117  this morning. What a great read! Truly one of those “I can’t put it down” reads. Excellent writing as always from Jussi Adler-Olsen. I’m going to start John Connolly’s newest, The Furies, later today after I have a good go at the current jigsaw puzzle.

I did quite a bit of cleaning yesterday which was very satisfying. There’s much more to go. I’m not a deep cleaner. I keep things dusted, vacuumed, and try to eliminate clutter, but deep cleaning? That’s where I slack off. I can always think of other things I’d rather do. My sister, on the other hand, is an excellent deep cleaner. She puts me to shame. But now, I am on a bit of a deep cleaning tear and I realize that I need to do it section by section. So each day, I’m going to try to figure out a small area I want to tackle and have at it.

My friend Natalia, who customizes as VegaDolls, posted these sweatshirts about two weeks ago. They are made by a friend of hers and Natalia mentioned she was going to start including them with newly purchased dolls. I wrote her and said I wanted one and would happily pay for it, but she insisted on sending it to me gratis. Olivia won the chance to model it, as she was the first VegaDoll I purchased.

This is Natalia’s logo. Her beautiful young daughter, Vega, is in a wheelchair.

I adore Natalia. She has a big heart and is so kind.

I’ve met some pretty wonderful people through this hobby.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

I call this “Still Life of Plants, Cow, and Ukelele.”

When it warms up in the late morning, I’ll move everything back outside. So far, there are no frost advisories for tonight. In the next several days, the lows at night won’t be nearly so cold.

There are two more large plants in the den and one of the planters is sitting on the stool in front of the egg cup cubby.

There’s not that much room around here to begin with!

Don felt very achy and flue-y last night and is still feeling it a bit this morning. That’s the reaction he gets to the covid vaccination. I’m fine now, save for the usual allergy/sinus crap, but that has nothing to do with the shot. My arm is still a wee bit tender, but much better on the whole.

I spent some quality time with two of the girls yesterday when I changed a couple of their eye chips. Maeve had one set of chips that were what I would call ‘fantasy chips’ and I never showed them because I didn’t like them at all. And Sophie’s blue eye chips that I installed a month or so ago were too intense in color, so I replaced them. Sometimes, eye chips are very difficult to remove; that might be because the maker used a certain kind of glue, I’m not sure. Maeve’s fantasy chips were a pain in the tush to remove and it took me over 2 hours and several tries to get them out.

Here are my brown-eyed girls:

Maeve has the slightly lighter shade of brown eyes. Sophie’s are darker. I think they look very good in brown. I’d love to replace one more set of chips on Maeve because she has three sets of blue chips and I think a redhead needs some green eyes. But I don’t have any on hand.

These were made by AmaFlickerDolls, who lives in Ukraine.

I’m enjoying these little tweaks to the two girls that started this collection. They have neck joints now and some new eye colors. I just need to trim Maeve’s bangs a bit and they should be good to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Another  frost last night. And another tonight. The coleus didn’t make it, nor did the morning glories. This morning, the zinnias are looking pretty brown. After having put all the plants back out on the porch yesterday, we had to bring them all back in last night. They’ll stay here until tomorrow morning when the weather will get warmer. Unfortunately, the gardens will be dead. Depressing.

We got our boosters yesterday and the drive to and from the neighboring town was gorgeous. I don’t know if we’re at peak color yet, but we’re awfully close. Mountains in the distance, leaves drifting down, color everywhere. It was sunny and beautiful. Then the weather turned cloudy and windy after we got home. But we sure appreciated the drive.

As for the shots, late in the day my arm got really sore and I was tired, but I only took a brief 5 minute nap. I conked out for an hour after my previous shots. Don’s arm is also sore and he feels minor flu-like symptoms, but that will go away after today. We’re taking it easy today.

When I’m a bit tired or down, I dress a doll.

No, Imogen hasn’t turned grey, that’s sunlight reflecting on her hair.

She’s taking Bertie for a walk. I made both of the hats. Bertie’s hat was the result of a crochet experiment that didn’t work out. But it did work out for Bertie, who can now take a walk without his ears getting cold.

If only I had the wardrobe these girls have! Although, I don’t think I’d look nearly as cute as they do.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.