An appropriate 10 on Tuesday prompt as fall is on the horizon and the weather seems to keep trying to hang onto summertime…5 summer highlights…and 5 autumn anticipations…

This summer….was filled with…

– weekly visits to my favorite farm stand…tasty produce to spark kitchen creativity…simply beautiful bouquets to cheer up the mantel…

– a quick trip to Happy Valley to see my girlies…

– a fair amount of stash knitting that was a jump start on gift knitting…

– achieving my summer reading goal…with a Tervis of icy goodness by my side…

– “sneaking in” family fun around several of my work trips so that even though I didn’t have a real vacation this summer I did have some R&R…

This fall…will be filled with…

– stocking up on winter squash at the farm stand…fall flavors in the kitchen…more than just pumpkin is on the horizon…

– more trips to Happy Valley with the girlies…a new way for us to Halloween?

– the return of hand knits into my wardrobe on a regular basis

– diving into some deeper reads…with a mug of warmth & before too long the fireplace will complete the scene…

– between now and the end of the year taking some larger chunks of time away from work for extended R&R and time with family…

What were your summer highlights? What are you looking forward to as the season changes?

On this Tuesday after a long weekend, a simple list – 10 things I did this weekend…Friday was the 1st big milestone of the months of big project work and by the time I left the office mid-afternoon, I was spent. In fact, I was not surprised when I fell asleep for a 20 minute catnap on the sofa while watching the 6:00 news on Friday. The weekend was a combination of “laboring” around the house and taking some “R&R time” to rest up…

• Slept in till 8:30 on Saturday morning – with the busyness of work this summer, even my weekends have meant waking up early with a brain that won’t shut off…
• Read…finished a fluffy mystery…met my summer reading goal…started a memoir that I’d been holding for since June via Overdrive…dabbled in a few other books…
• Scrubbed the kitchen floor – full on, on hands & knees, a long overdue cleaning of all corners of the floor; also, the gel mats got a bubble bath
• Switched from summer kitchen clean scents to autumn scents – this new Mrs. Meyers Apple Cider is perfect for the upcoming season!
• Made a simple succotash with delicious farm produce – giant Lima beans & local garlic from last weekend…corn & tomatoes from my local farm stand…
• Made a batch of “Essential Spray” (water + white vinegar + peppermint, tea tree & lemon oils) and won the battle with the ants at the front door trying to set up residence indoors.
• Pulled together a bit of Konmari clean-up for Green Drop pick-up this week!
• Emptied, cleaned & restocked my pantry cabinet. Along the way I downloaded the Pantry Check app so I can keep on top of what is on my shelves & in turn be cooking & shopping smarter.
• Escaped to Oxford as I continued to stream through the Inspector Lewis series…
• Prepped food for the week ahead: roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, roasted & shredded chicken as components for lots of easy pull together meals; a pan of my go-to shepherds pie; chia pudding for breakfast; fruit cleaned & ready to grab…

And as it always seems to be after this sort of long weekend, I could easily use 1 or 2 more of these types of days…but alas, this week looks to be busy…

How did you spend this “last” weekend of the summer? 

Connecting up with Carole for Ten on Tuesday. 

As school days are drawing near for so many (my sister has already started back to her 18th year of teaching!), Carole’s prompt this week is a variation on the classroom classic exercise, the acrostic: 10 words that describe you (& begin with the same letter as your first name).

Artful & Aromatic: Zinnias & Basil from the Farm Stand

Adept…I think I’m skilled in many areas – both at work and at home…

Attentive…to my family and friends…to the environments I’m in…always aware…

Amiable…I think I’m a friendly sort of person…

Adaptable…how else do you “survive” entering your 8th school as you start 10th grade when Dad’s career had us moving around?

Anthology…of course, my curiosity send me to thesarus.com to find an “A” word for bookworm or reader…

Astute…building on my attentiveness, I am perceptive and able to connect the dots…

Assured…my confidence has helped numerous times in “fun” situations during all my years consulting and in various work projects…

Authentic…there’s too much going on to not be real in who I am and how I approach life…

Auntie…actually, I’m M’Amy or Miss Amy to the dear ones in my life…but the sentiment is the same…

And of course as a bonus, Artisan…when I was looking to begin this blog I thought long and hard about the name…when I came across this definition, I knew it was “me” – a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft…

What words best describe you? 

A timely prompt for this Tuesday that is in the midst of our 4th heat wave so far this summer…10 ways to beat the heat!

Farm Stand Flowers from early morning errands

• Drink plenty of water – My S’well water bottles are used just about every day of the year. During these heat waves, an extra bottle is in the car with me no matter how short the run.
• Batch food prep/oven use – Turn on the oven once & do as much as you can in as little time as you can. On Sunday, food prep included an early morning oven run & an early evening oven run – and viola, food stuffs for 6+ meals this week were ready to go!
• Run cold water over your wrist pulse points – I first read about this years ago when I lived in Chicago with only 2 window AC units in my apt. Even now, I do this before I go to bed as well as if I’m up during the night.
• Avoid errands in the heat of the day – On Saturday I was up before 7am & so I pulled together my errand list for the day and was at Target as they opened – my list was finished & I was home well before the worst of the heat descended on the day.
• Eat lighter – Farm stand produce is prime these days…making it very easy to have all the tasty fixin’s for all sorts of great salads!
• All the iced drinks – While iced tea and iced coffee are in frequent rotation year round for me, even more is consumed in weather like this – although I do make sure to balance these with water! On Sunday & Monday, iced candy cane coffee was a bit of Christmas in July!
• Take in a movie in a well chilled cinema – I was more current on summer blockbusters when I lived in my last Chicago apartment…many a Saturday afternoon was spent at a theater.
• Splash your face – Whenever I’m at my bathroom sink here at home, I take a moment to liberally spray my face with my favorite rosewater tonic – just a moment and so refreshing!
• Be grateful – In the midst of the seemingly extreme temperatures, take a moment to be thankful that we live in a time and place where we have so many options to help us pull through the heat waves.
• Take a mental snapshot – Capture the heat in a memory for those snowy and bone chilling cold sorts of winter days that have you wondering if warmer temps will ever return. And remember, to everything there is a season…

The forecast shows that later this week this heat wave may break with a high of 88 on the horizon. In the meantime, many of these tactics (and more!) are in rotation to keep the heat at bay – as best as possible.

What do you do to beat the heat?

Linking up with Carole for Ten on Tuesday. 

For this Tuesday, a prompt to share 10 things from my long weekend…

Saturday morning started with a road trip the Newark airport to complete the process for my Global Entry access…

…On the way home, I stopped at a new to me organic farm stand and picked up some beautiful things…and then stopped to snag a picture of this huge flag at an equipment rental…and stopped at a fave produce stand for more local goodies…

…while watching Olympic trials, I knit on dishcloths from the red/white/blue skein…

…I finished up one read (meh) and started on a book (fittingly, a presidential biography) from under the Christmas tree…

…I was on a mission to go through the “stuff” in my spare room which yielded some delightful finds…and also the joy of getting rid of lots of stuff via donation/trash/shred piles…

…I readied 8 large totes of “no joy” stuff for Tuesday morning GreenDrop pick-up…

…while sorting, I streamed and enjoyed TURN: Washington’s Spies – which seemed appropriate for this holiday weekend…

…I roasted radishes for the first time – delicious when paired with roasted onions, green beans & a farm fresh ham steak…and had tasty meals from my farm stand finds…

…I baked a delicious Blueberry-Rhubarb Cobbler because the 4th calls for red, white & blue desserts…

…I closed out the weekend watching A Capitol Fourth on PBS as is family tradition…love their 1812 Overture and Stars & Stripes Forever, each year…

Before I knew it, the long weekend was over and it was time to ready for another busy week ahead. This weekend was a good combo of tackling the to-do list and also getting some much needed relaxation.

What did your weekend hold? 

Linking up with Carole for Ten on Tuesday.