‘Ink Re-Cap 143: Sketches and Inklings of Life
‘Ink Re-Cap 143.
Sketches and inklings of life.
Unbelievable August weather
with the best monsoon season in years.
You’re wondering how monsoon season can be good, and most years it’s not. Lots of trees and cactus blow down or break in the strong winds. Many years it’s a lot of blow and almost no rain.
But this year we’re having cloudy days with cooler temps, and nice rains. Some rain even comes down without a lot of dust and turmoil. We have the best summer grass we’ve had in a long time. In July it was mostly brown, but when the monsoon season started and the rain came the green spread over most of the lawn.
The purple sage has bloomed about 3 times this summer. Last summer, maybe once. The interesting thing about sage planted in your yard, you can irrigate it regularly, and it will be nice and green. But it only blooms when it gets rain. Well, it’s annual bloom time is June. So June, and whenever it rains, is when it blooms. But only for about 2 days at a time. If it rained every 3 days, we’d have sage blossoms all summer, but of course it never does that.
‘Ink Re-Cap 143 Sketches and Scribbles
Weddings are raining thick and fast yet this summer.
Honeymoon destinations must be raking it in double from last year during the pandemic.
But weddings are expensive, and sometimes you need to be the hosts and planners and caterers all under one hat. So we’ve got a yummy potato casserole post this week to help plan for a crowd.
Our cooler nights make us think of fall, even if we don’t have colored leaves. (Not even close, as that’s usually in October.) But it’s so nice to think of autumn things, so we posted ideas for a vintage apple themed baby shower, and then kept the theme going with retro printable recipe cards.
School started for our g’littles this year, and if yours are starting, print this First Day of School Interview for your child to fill out, to file away in your memory box.
And this is the week for another Children’s Bible Lesson. This week’s printable lesson is The Garden of Eden.
Secret Sister Reveal
For the last year some of us Church ladies have been doing a secret sister thing,
and the coordinators decided we would bring this cycle to an end and reveal our identities.
We were all to bring a pitcher to give to our secret sisters as the reveal gift.
So it was fun to see all the different styles of pitchers… vintage footed fine china (my gift), modern Target Magnolia green water carafe (gorgeous), tall tin farmhouse style, splatter-ware in the new mixed colors splatters, and more.
My secret pal told the story behind the pitcher she gave me. She was doing her weekly client’s cleaning when she bumped this lovely little pitcher off a shelf and shattered it. Of course her client said no harm, that if she was okay was so much more important than a pitcher, and not to worry one bit about it. Well, my pal did worry about it, and actually found an exact match to the pitcher on Etsy. Happily, she brought it to work, only to find her client had also been shopping on Etsy or its equivalent and had already replaced the pitcher. So my secret sister was happy to use it for this reveal as she knew it was something I’d like. Several said it looked just like “me.”
I’m always amazed at what people think looks like “me.” Sometimes they’re so right, as in this little pitcher, and other times, well, let’s just say I can’t imagine what they saw that made them think that. That makes me a little leery about choosing gifts for people I don’t know very well, thinking they’ll just love it. Better to stay safe with things like tea towels that everyone needs, like the new Magnolia cotton towels from Target. They remind me of the bubble gauze they use for baby blankets. Just so soft and organic looking.
Even making a meal for a shut-in, like I did today, is scary for me. I’m always afraid I’ll make the one thing they don’t like to eat. So then I put more into the presentation, like wrapping everything in butcher paper and tucking it into a vintage dresser drawer instead of a picnic basket or 31 tote like normal people.
‘Ink Re-Cap 143 Most read posts of the week:
And now after that soul baring, we’ll be open about out most read posts of the week.
I’m not sure how it happened, because most of our Church ladies don’t even know we have a blog, but the most read post this week was 17 of the Best Secret Pal Gift Ideas: Plus Free Gift Tags. Maybe other groups are having reveals, too!
Another well read post was wedding oriented. Surprise, surprise. How to Make Dreamy Gauze Table Runners
Note: There’s a side bar on all blog pages that helps you get to the topic you most want to read about. The main topics are Weddings, Babies, Kitchen, Crafts and Inspirational Stuff.
* means it’s an affiliated link. If purchase an item through the link we get recognition for sending you over to Amazon. As if they need any help, but there you have it. They like us better if we do that, even though it doesn’t change any prices. Links without an asterisk mean they are not affiliate.
Inspiring Inklings of Real Life
Top Shelf Mexican Cantina
Our birthday group had a birthday to celebrate this week,
and she chose lunch at Top Shelf. I’d never been to one before, and I’d say it’s a variation of a Macayo’s or Rio Mirage.
Yummy chips and salsa, and basically the whole enchilada was typical and tasty.
Their free birthday dessert was fried ice cream, but it was just your cornflakes and cinnamon wrapped vanilla.
At least the ice cream was creamy and good.
And again we bonded for hours, until the workers were cleaning around us, getting ready for the supper crowd.
One of our topics was books, as it often is.
Recommended Inspiring Book: “Educated“*
by
It’s a memoir about a home schooled girl from a survivalist family who goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
“Better than you even heard,” was Bill Gates’ comment.
An equivalent for children that’s sort of a memoir:
“No, David“* by David Shannon.
When David Shannon was five years old he wrote and illustrated his first book. Every page has the words, “No, David,” and shows a boy doing something he shouldn’t. Fifteen years after its original publication the book is still popular with children, adults and teachers.
Miscellaneous
We thought you’d like a link to the kitchen towels the Church ladies were gifting today. That’s just one design. Look for more loveliness that is Magnolia.
This is like the splatter enamelware* someone got today, except the turquoise was mixed with lime splatters. So cute.
Inspiring Quote
No fridge quote this week.
Our printables for the week are the vintage apple recipe cards.
Get the cards free when you sign up here. (Comment “Vintage Apple Recipe Cards.”)
