Feeling like the end of summer....

Now, it most definitely is NOT the end of summer judging by the weather here in Texas (102 today), but the overall feel to things just feels like the end of summer.  The kids have gone back to school, the college has started it's semester, pumpkin spice lattes are at starbucks, hobby lobby is filled with fall and (GASP) Christmas decorations, halloween costumes are on the brain, and I want to make harvest vegetable things like pumpkin bread and apple pie.

This is the one time of year I miss home. I grew up in a small town in upstate NY with the most picturesque falls.  There are rolling hills of brilliant oranges and reds, the smell of fresh picked apples and crushed grapes in the air, and a chill when the sun goes down by the end of August.  I wish plane tickets weren't so expensive :-(

Well anyway, today I'll have to get by with the smell of Autumn Leaves and Macintosh Yankee candles lit throughout my house with the AC still cranked to 74.

All week when Mimi naps, I'm not allowed to sew or have "me time." I'm supposed to be working on the ol' dissertation, so Saturday at naptime I crank up the sewing machine and bust out some naptime crafts. Here is yesterday's project.  An "End of Summer Dress" for Mimi in some really cute fabrics I found.  I had originally bought there to make a quilt for someone, now instead it will make 3 summer dresses for Mimi and her friends.  Mimi's is the prototype.  I didn't use a pattern and just winged it and fitted the dress to Mimi and made adjustments when she woke up from her nap.

Her friend's dressed will likely be the opposite, red at the bottom and nautical at the top.  They may have ribbons instead of buttons too, we'll have to see.

After nap we went for a HOT walk on this trail near our apt. Mimi had a ball picking up rocks and putting them in the stroller.  She would lag behind trying to pick up a large rock and yell to us "Pappa! Mama! Wait I got a new Idea!" then she would run over, put the rock in the basket of the Bob Stroller and say "Oh! That one is perfect!" She repeated this set of phrases until the cuteness wore off....

Then we went for Snowcones.  Mimi of course wanted a flavor that was bright red to stain her new dress....

I think in this last picture she looks like the kid in the True Blood intro.....

Alas, the new dress in soaking in her bathroom sink drenched in shout now....

Talk to you all soon!