OK. This is not my best work, but considering that it's taken with my phone at night through a thermopane window… not the worst.

I didn't plan on taking a photo of another spider, but when Rusty said that it's grown a couple of sizes…

I like the lighting in this one. (Whilst shivering a bit because, really, EW!)

In other news…

I was thrilled to find my new Zennis in the mailbox on Friday!

I'd lost my computer glasses on that busy Thursday during Auntie Camp when we went to Bay Beach and Titletown… I contacted both of them and Lambeau Field, too (because we'd parked there), and nothing. Almost immediately, I ordered some prescription readers (new lenses in some old frames) from my local optician, because I cannot live without them now, but didn't like/never got used to the single-vision thing. So then I asked Facebook for some recommendations and Zenni Optical was the clear favorite. Zenni offers two different versions of "computer glasses" and, including the special UV/blue light blocker, the entire pair was less than half the aforementioned lenses. And I love them!!

Alison, a long-time blog reader, contacted me a couple of weeks ago when she realized that she & her husband would be passing through on a trip across Wisconsin. One thing led to another and, long-story-short:

We met up at the coffee shop, went out to dinner (with our husbands, too), and they were our guests in the apartment on Friday! It just happened to work out that our next Airbnb guests weren't arriving until Saturday afternoon. (If you ever find yourself in NE Wisconsin, hit me up! You never know…)

Pumpkin from the kids' pumpkin patch!!

Junah & Ginny arrived later Friday evening for a sleepover, and so we could get up & go — it was the fall City-wide Rummage Sale on Saturday! We slept in a bit, though, and had breakfast… and our first (very good) stop was a block away! My neighbor, Nancy, who owns the antique mall downtown, was clearing out some stuff at home and we ALL found treasures there. I stopped the car maybe three more times and we were able to walk to a few sales at each stop… and soon enough they'd had enough, and were ready to go home and play with their new stuff.

One of the items we found was a Curious George DVD, which I popped into the DVD player in the apartment so they could watch/relax while I changed over for our Airbnb guests arriving from Texas later that day… our first for a Packer game at Lambeau Field!! (They were so excited… all of our guests for Packer games are positively giddy!)

This was the mood on Sunday:

Super-chill. That's Duncan on our bed (I love the outstretched paw) — a place that he's usually not allowed to be — but I let him snooze for as long as he liked.

Ann and I had our first virtual Craft Date on Sunday morning! It was already wine time for her, but still solidly coffee time for me (I attended in my PJs).

I can't believe it's taken us this many years to do this! She pulled out her long-languishing Alabama Chanin Swing Skirt and made good progress! I finished a little mending project and then worked on my Car Coat. We stitched and chatted for almost two hours! And we plan to do it weekly (as much as possible).

Beverly mentioned a few weeks ago on FB that on September 22nd there will be 100 days left to the end of the year! Since I've been thinking of launching another 100-day project, anyway, and I've brought some of "my stuff" out, I think that's an excellent time to start again. Between that (at least :15/day) and weekly craft time with Ann, I should make another pretty good dent in that project!

How was your weekend???

We had the majority of our house's exterior painted last month — all the siding, the 2nd/3rd floor windows, and the 2nd/3rd floor gables. The lower windows & trim and the garage were left for Rusty; he got started on that job last week and has been working on the front/north side of the house.

Once upon a time, there was a big wrap-around porch, but it's been a small "Greek Revival" style porch ever since we moved in. It was well used, back in the day, our kids and the neighbor kids played with LEGOs, Barbies, American Girl dolls, and stuffed animals, among other things — every inch of that porch would be covered with stuff some days! You could barely open the door, and our former mail carrier still talks about it! Sometimes the kids would set up on the back porch, or either of the neighbors' porches… I'm not sure what determined the location each day, but it was very fluid.

Anyway, Rusty found this yesterday in the dirt next to the front porch:

While he was working on this:

That's both the up-side and the down-side to DIY! I'm happy that he knows how to fix it and is still willing… and not even grumbling about it!

It's all looking very nice and fresh with a new coat of paint. We had a lovely weekend, too!

First of all, HELLO!! It seems a lot longer than six days since I've been here, but WHAT A WEEK!! Auntie Camp v.5 was fabulous, and I have a ton to share about that in the next week or so. But first, it's MACRO MONDAY!

Water droplets nestled in a succulent near the garage door caught my eye.

And these are amaranth microgreens atop some lovely roasted potatoes from yesterdays Kaukauna Coffee & Tea/313 Dodge collaboration brunch. What a wonderful way to spend a few hours on a Sunday.

It was about as perfect a five days off as one could ask for — family, food, and tons of fun! I had the weekend mostly to myself for Auntie Camp recovery, and I accomplished a few things, too. I hope you had a great weekend, as well!

Last week, I completely forgot about Macro Monday and I never found the time (or maybe inspiration) (or possibly energy) to do it on another day.

I just returned from a weekend with two cousins, a cousin-in-law, two first cousins once-removed and the girlfriend of one of them, my sister, my brother-in-law, and two nephews. (A good time was had by all!)

There was a parcel on the porch upon my return, and this week, I'm very excited about the possibilities presented/promised by this:

Three photos of three new colors of embroidery floss from Alabama Chanin. Charcoal, Slate, and Eggplant. I'm not sure the Eggplant will work with my Car Jacket, but the other two most definitely will. I'm ready to get back to that project for another 100-200-300 however-many-hundreds-of-days it'll take to finish it.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a good Monday (macro or otherwise)!