Happy August Saturday!

It’s been a busy week here! How is your August Saturday going? Is it time for a rest or an adventure?

So, for our first August Saturday?

We chose the adventure route. Early we headed out for our local St. Jude’s Dream Home. Although I felt this home was less my favorite in style than last year’s, the coziness with color and textures were lovely.

Next? The cooler August Saturday temperatures took us to the flower festival.

I had never been to Sugar Creek Flower Farm before. It was lovely. So many sweet sections for photos, music, vendors, food trucks and there were of course, rows and rows of flowers.

All types of flowers from sunflowers, zinnias, lavender, marigolds, and so many more I had never seen.

There’s no admission for the festival; but, if you want to pick flowers? You have the choice of purchasing clear jars, painted jars or decoupaged ones.

I chose a lavender decoupaged jar to fill that was lovely. A bit of water and more flowers from my garden added have helped me enjoy them even more.

Inspiration from handmade items from vendors gave me more Christmas gift ideas to create.

Conversation with new friends was wonderful.

My friend, Kim, from Cottage in the Mitten, shared these great sleeves for gardening. After the flower fest and harvesting zinnia seeds in my own garden, these may have to be my next purchase.

This week was “Jam Proclamation” Week.

You see?

I realize that not everyone who follows this blog cans OR makes jams…

But, several of you have asked about jam on the blog recently.

So?

I proclaimed this week a Jam week of sharing on Facebook and Instagram. If you love to can OR just read along the stories for each jam? You can always use the search button on the blog to find things…”jam” will take you to many recipes that I have shared through the years. To make it easier, just click on the links below to go directly to those recipes…Here’s a few:

• peach jam
• tomato jam
• apple jam
• pepper jelly
• carrot cake jam
• pineapple jalapeno jam

Yesterday, tomato jam was added to the pantry. This weekend, carrot cake jam will be made for gifts and pantry addition.

In the next couple of weeks, I have a trip planned with a friend to an orchard in Southern Illinois to walk through their zinnia fields and bring home apples for apple jam and applesauce.

Applesauce will close out the canning season here. If you need an easy recipe for homemade applesauce, click here.

Back to projects and favorite recipes next week..Stay tuned!

What else have I found on the week to share with you today?

I’m in the mood for a great peanut butter cookie recipe. Click on the link to find “A Happy Nester 1950’s version” that fit the ticket…I’ll have to try mine with Jiff peanut butter…instead of Skippy. Wish me luck!

Last week, during one of the Olympic winner’s conversation with the media, came this quote…I didn’t catch it all, but my friend, Kristen, from www.whitearrowshome.com, captured it. A great quote from Winston Churchill that reminds us to keep going…

What’s on your Saturday agenda?

We had a great morning with great nieces and a full agenda downtown with the Farmers’ Market, Kids Street Fair, and downtown activities. So MUCH FUN!

Hope you are taking advantage of opportunities with events in your area to share with family and friends.

Somehow, fall cleaning became highlighted this week.

I don’t know about you…but, the list of things to get done before winter is showing up on my “to do” lists. Things like the cleaning rugs, power washing, and harvesting seeds are just the beginning.

With all of the canning, my kitchen needed a little more deep cleaning—cabinets washed, floors cleaned, stove and oven deep cleaned.

Suddenly I realized the screened porch had an onslaught of stains on the rug from dinners and a new fall influx of spiders who want to take up residency.

Since that porch rug needed a refresh, out came that rug. Then another rescued rug and the family room rug for shampooing and/or powerwashing was added to my husband’s agenda.

The siding on the back deck got a bit of cleaning from the power washer, too.

Do you garden?

I think the early beginning of spring here has put so many of my plants, vegetable and flowers, on a trajectory to end earlier. Harvesting coriander seeds from the spent cilantro and trying to keep the basil from blooming have been my latest challenges.

The salvia and hydrangea appear to be struggling to stay their best…even with lots of watering and rain.

It’s time to dry hydrangeas and another wreath may be need to be created. You can find the link to that DIY here.

Harvesting of zinnia seeds is in full swing. They appear to be drying and ending their season soon, too. If you have zinnias and would like to save the seeds to plant next spring? Just click here.

This week I have salvaged a few hydrangea and zinnias to add to my antique vinegar decanter iin the featured photo. A gift purchased from Frenchtown Station this summer that I am truly loving.

Is your garden still glorious?

I am frantically picking tomatoes from our raised bed garden. Lots of cherry tomatoes have been added to the freezer packets. Other beef steak tomatoes have been roasted and made into sauce for the freezer. Then there’s nothing like a great BLT during the summer months.

And the tomato jam helps with the overflow, too.

This week also brought more joy.

It was a joy to take a new friend from that Flower Festival to lunch on Wednesday. Since she was new to the area, sharing an introduction to her new home was wonderful. Off we went to Frenchtown Station, Slim’s, Lamon’s Antiques and a renovation of a home of one of my most favorite friends.

How’s your weather where you are?

Here? A storm brought in welcome rain that was so much needed.

Our temperatures have been gloriously cool with less humidity. Today, they are returning to hot and humid.

But those cooler days brought thoughts of fall…are you going there yet?

My thoughts are going to front porch redecorating ideas.

Last year, a DIY project shared on the VUE magazine here, stayed on my front porch from October through January. He was the cutest…and the littles in our lives loved him.

During October and November he stayed on the scarecrow side.

December and January he flipped to the snowman reveal. Such a fun DIY!

Then there’s menu planning and anticipation of cool weather gatherings and holidays in my mind.

Keep following for fall inspiration here, soon! I can feel it in the air!

Happy Saturday, friends! Thanks so much for joining me to share a moment of your day,

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