Summer Is Officially Over!

The weather is still hovering around 100 degrees here,

but fall has officially arrived!

We've had some beautiful clouds lately, which is odd for us.

Usually it is cloudy and we get a storm OR it's not cloudy at all.

Our huge cactus has been blooming, but we never have seen the flowers

because it only blooms at NIGHT!

All we see are these amusing buds . . . 

 . . . these flower remnants,

. . . and these dried up flowers dropped on the ground.

 After a monsoon storm, this arm broke off and was just dangling.

I pulled it off and let it dry.

We'll plant it against the back wall.

Look at him!

He's as tall as the house!

His arms are the shape of stars.

Our little white-flowered cactus bloomed after a few monsoon storms in a row.

These flowers look sort of like spiders.

We don't have any palm trees in our yard, but some fronds blew in from

someone else's yard!

On our way to small group one night (a Bible study),

this storm was a-brewing.

We drove kind of right into it.

It looked like this over the house when we arrived,

but all that happened was some wind.

After a big monsoon storm, trees are down all over the place.

First they look like this:

Then crews come along and cut the tree part off,

leaving the stump in the ground to get later.

These stumps are everywhere still (especially in the southeast Valley

where our church is).  It's a little more rural there, and they get more active weather

than we get in Chandler.

I created some storms inside the house lately!

I decided our silverware drawer NEEDED some help.

TA-DA!!!

I re-organized our baking pans and food storage containers, too.

I also decided there were a couple of murky dark corners in the house and I

filled them with LIGHT!

I found 2 of these cute little cactus lamps on Amazon.

You can see one to the left next to the chair, and the other to the right under the window.

They are adorable, fit in great, and add a lot of personality and light to the great room.

We have most of our lamps set on timers, so most of them go on and off by themselves.

Here's a pulled-back picture of our cozy great room.

Wanna come over for dinner and a movie?

I get REALLY bored with clothes during our long, hot summers

because I pretty much wear the same thing all the time.

A skirt, a top, and ballet flats.

I spice it up as much as possible.

I got a new bag, and wore shirts with some interest.

This one has a lace yoke and back.

This one has an illustration of a canoe, pine trees, and stars.

The canoe says MN on it (Minnesota!)

I found some extra cute ones at Target (thank you, Target!)

that are striped, elbow-length, and that have a deep scoop in the back.

Pretty good price, too!

I liked this raincoat in the picture, BUT in real life, it bunched up

and wrinkled weird and was unflattering.

I found a different one on Poshmark.

I have some vegan t-shirts like this one 

(it says, "herbivore" as in "one who eats plants"):

This one says,

"Vegan for health, for the planet for the animals".

And that's why I do it!

And I have some cute patterns to add interest.

I pretty much dots, stripes, and small (ditsy) floral prints.

Fall is coming, though (eventually!), and I have some things on my to-buy list

as budget allows.

I put this dress on my Macy's watch list after seeing it in the store because

I like the tiered sleeves, the dot print, and the v-neck.

I haven't tried it on, though, so I don't know how it fits.

I don't have a nice, fancier dress for more formal events, and

this one might do the trick.

dress: Macy's

I LOVE THIS BLOUSE.
It's still too expensive for me, but I am watching it avidly to pounce when it gets
low enough in price!
This is exactly the type of floral print I like best.
Black or white background with contrasting small floral print.

blouse: Macy's

Here is the other option, which I ALSO LOVE!
Hopefully they will both still be available when they are marked down,
because they will get a lot of use in my wardrobe!

blouse: Macy's

I recently sold some older jewelry that I wasn't wearing anymore, and was able to accumulate some
extra spendable money.  I spent some of it on these beautiful vintage Danish earrings (being shipped from Denmark!)  I found them on my favorite place for jewelry (Etsy).
I'll show you how they look once they arrive (but it'll probably be awhile).

earrings from Etsy (vintage Danish solid 18k gold)

There's actually a funny story about these earrings.

I ordered them about six months ago, but when the package arrived,

the wrong earrings were inside!  I sent them back and requested the proper earrings be sent, but there was some confusion and the seller refunded my money and then told me these earrings were no longer available.  I kept watch on his shop, though, and when these earrings popped up again, I snapped them up!

Hopefully when the shipment arrives, the appropriate earrings are actually inside!

I usually celebrate fall by buying a couple of new sweaters,

and this fall is no different.

Target has wonderful sweaters!

I sort of keep to a loose color theme in my wardrobe to make things easier:

black, white, light pink, light blue are my main colors.

I found this sweater in a delicious icy blue, and I ordered it last week.

sweater: Target

And I found a white cable-knit sweater that will be GREAT!

sweater: Target

This is a long-sleeved t-shirt I decided to investigate.

t-shirt: Target

I've been cooking a lot, of course, as usual.

I made fries (only they're baked and oil-free, not fried!)

I usually eat them with ketchup, but sometimes I make a pineapple sauce.

I tried out a ratatouille pasta sauce that was made with red bell pepper,

zucchini, eggplant, and some baby tomatoes.

Very good, but it needed something extra.  I'm not sure what - flavoring of some kind.

I will probably make this again, but I'll play around with the recipe more.

I modified my favorite recipe from when I was growing up: "saucy steak" from the Better Homes And Gardens cookbook (the plaid one).  I made the sauce significantly more full of  veggies

and I didn't add any animal products.  I served this sauce over mashed potatoes.

I didn't love it (though every bit got eaten!), so if I try anything similar, I will make sure

it's different.

I made a vegan mac & cheese, which I really didn't like.

I didn't eat it all.

And I tried a chili mac, which I LOVED.

I really like casseroles, and this was sort of like chili, but sort of like spaghetti,

and it was filling and full of flavor.

Will definitely make again with no changes.

Of course, I regularly make pancakes because they're tasty and fun and easy.

These are blueberry and chocolate chip ones.

I also made pumpkin scones.

Very pretty, but I remembered that I don't really like pumpkin as much as I always think 

I do!

And here is what happens when I eat cereal.

Two boys (Allistair & Stephen) ask if they can lick the almond milk

out of the bowl when I'm done.

Of course, the cats have been cute lately, too!

Stephen often gets so relaxed that his little pink tongue pokes right out!

So sleeeeeeepy!

He also likes to droop off everything.

I don't understand it, since it's still pretty warm,

but sometimes Allistair just wants to be under the covers!

Allistair likes to sleep, of course, because he's a cat.

Because we love cats in the Priem household, we offer lots of soft

and cozy places for them to cuddle up.

Claude:

Stephen:

Stephen has decided he LOVES to be brushed.

Do you see his brush on the bed behind him?

Claude again, licking her nosey!

Allistair on the desk of my exercise bike!

It's always much more fun to exercise when that soft belly is right there,

ready for a nuzzle!

Due to color challenges, black cats are often difficult to get good photos of.

We keep trying!

Juvy:

Greg caught me snuggling two black cats at once!

Until Stephen moved on and I was left with this sweet purrbasket (Juvy):

We all like to pile in bed in the evenings and read/sleep.

It's the best place to be!

Have a wonderful evening yourself, and don't take ANY love for granted!