Autumn's Last Hurrah

Isn't this time of year magnificent? Three of the shots taken on my street and in front of my home were taken on a drizzly day. The colors still came out rather nice despite the lack of sunshine.

Although this time of year heralds the coming of a bleak landscape in the not too distant future, I still love and appreciate the vibrancy of the fall foliage.

If anybody has any suggestions for what I could do to improve these, please let me know as I am eager to learn how to capture good shots and also to edit them.

Happy Fall!

Did You Know They Use Flashlights In Heaven?

I have the proof. I saw it with my own eyes. This is what we saw while driving. Sunday afternoon. Who says God isn't watching us...






I have my autumn photos to edit and post and will do that tomorrow, which also happens to be my husband's and my 19th wedding anniversary. I hope to post more pics tomorrow.

I hope everybody had a good day today. I did.

Beagle Emotions, A Quick Tutorial

It's Friday, it's not raining and I'm hoping for a bit of sunshine tomorrow to capture my autumn photos before ALL the leaves are on the ground. In the meantime, I decided to take the lead from Pioneer Woman and also the photo study Angie did of beautiful Snow Cone and do an entry on Freckles, our beloved almost 11 year-old beagle.

I've spent the last year and a half trying to capture each and every possible expression/emotion that Freckles is capable of emitting and while you may look at each picture and think, gosh, he looks the same in all of them, I, the expert on beagle facial expressions, can distinguish between them.







Surprised







Concerned





Confused





Pensive





Sad






Unfortunately, I can't get the words to line up with the photos quite the way I would like. However, there's no way of denying this last expression of Freckles:








Unbelievably happy he's part of our "pack".

Husband Revealed

There is so much I could say about the man I chose to spend the rest of my life with. If you have several hours, I could share it all!! LOL. Seriously, I could never have picked anybody else who was more right for me than this man. The youngest of six (his oldest sibling, his only brother, is 17 years his senior), he is adored by his sisters and his brother and he's someone they always turn to when they need help or advice. To me, he's a friend, a partner, and a hands-on dad from the get-go. He's the calm to my not-so-calm, he's always there for me, the kids, his very elderly mom and elderly aunts. He's always willing and mostly able. Yes, he snores like there is no tomorrow and can fall asleep mid conversation sometimes - like tonight when we were supposed to watch TV together and he was sound asleep BEFORE the program even started, but he's my guy and I love him dearly. I'm not always the easiest person to live with but he's stuck by me through those "worse" times. He encourages me in my hobbies and is genuinely interested in all that I do.

Pictures Below:

Fathers Day 2007; June 2008; Hubby and Big Brother 1962; Hubby and his late father in 1959; Hubby and kids in Williamsburg in 2007.












Be sure to get the latest on all of our better halves at Living Locurto!

Stinky Towels and Other Stuff

For years, I have tried laundering our bath towels in hot water with OxyClean and detergent and have made sure to get them right into the dryer after the wash cycle in hopes of getting rid of that awful musty/sour odor. When they first come out of the dryer and are folded, they smell wonderful but after they sit folded on the shelf for a few days, that smell comes right back and it really bothered me.

After reading up on various testimonials on different remedies, I combined two of them and came up with the very first solution that has worked for me.

First, I filled the washer with hot water and a cup of white vinegar. I then put the towels in and actually had them run through the entire wash cycle with just the vinegar and hot water. When that was finished, I then filled the washer again (with towels still in there) and added my detergent along with a cup of washing soda.

The towels came out smelling wonderful and now, almost two weeks later, they still smell good! I hope this helps someone else out there. In the grand scheme of life, smelly towels don't rank very high up in importance but if it can remove one tiny little annoying thing in one's day, then it is still worth it.

I'll post the "Other Stuff" portion of this tonight.

Here is a bit of the "other stuff". I was trying to find some words to summarize the outcome of yesterday's election. I read different things on the internet and found the quote below on another blogger's site. I guess it's okay that I nabbed them for my blog as I really wanted to acknowledge this time in history on my blog.

“We worked hard, and we fought hard, and I wish that things had turned out a little differently.

“But in an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans. And that — that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.

“With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work together for the good of our country. In the days ahead, we must find common cause. We must join in common effort without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion.”

– John Kerry

Catching Up

Will be posting later today. Work, doctor's appointment, and voting must come first, though. I will share a tip on getting that darn musty odor out of bath towels that really did work after many years of experimenting.

Wish me luck. Having jaw/back problems - today we are dealing with the jaw issue - mouth keeps getting stuck either open or closed and face hurts - not good.

I know I don't have a lot of people who read my blog but those who do happen upon my blog today, how long did you wait in line at the polls today? I'll post mine when I get back..


UPDATE: Went to vote at 11:45 AM, I was #237, no wait at all!

Halloween of the Past

Having spent all of Halloween night pretty much by myself, I had a lot of time to reminisce about how it used to be - my mother-in-law staying with us and doing the official counting of the number of trick or treaters, the kids hurrying through dinner so they could get dressed in their costumes, makeup application where needed, the appropriate bag/pillowcase selected, my makeup, my husband's makeup, hustling everyone out the door, etc. Last night, there was none of that - and I missed it.

So, I dug into one of the cabinets where I keep old photos and found these two pics - one of my daughter dressed as a witch and one of my son in a pumpkin patch. Both pics are from the fall of 1997.

I looked at the picture and started feeling sentimental about how things were, but then I realized that this is the normal course of events and this is how things are supposed to be and then I felt very happy that I did take all of those photos back then and that I did manage to capture those happy memories - forever.




It was a beautiful yet quiet evening - and I loved it!







A couple of photos from my search for autumn foliage a week ago. I will be getting more as the colors are really starting to appear in my neck of the woods now. Hooray!