Sylvia Simple Shots

These days with my living room window facing east I get a very short time that the sun hits northern end of the patio door.  

This is a shot trying to take advantage of the last rays of sunlight on the table before it disappeared.

It was shot for a challenge of light and dark on Flickr.

I love how the glass shot some light into the dark just above the flame.  A reminder that a single candle flame can banish the dark.  

Continue to have hope against dark circumstances.  The light will return in full measure of time and things will be brighter and happier.

The Welcome Committe of Butternut Creek by Jane Myers Perrine was a light read.  A new pastor Adam Jordan arrives in town with his few possessions in his small car.  Miss Birdie and her friend Mercedes are the welcome committee who are there to show him the ropes about the parish and how things are run.  Of course, they have been at this church for years and it's more like this is how we have always done it so that should continue. He is a bachelor so they decide he needs a wife.

Sam Peterson has recently moved into his late aunt's house in town. He is veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan and is struggling to find his place now he is not in active service. Sam wants to be left alone. Willow is a physical therapist who works at the hospital and leaves nearby. She is divorced and her two boys came to play in Sam's yard unaware that someone new had moved in. 

Birdie, Sam and Willow have to make adjustments in their lives to make the changes which will make them happy instead of staying stuck in their comfort zones.  It all works out in the end.

I have been using essential oils for a long time.  My favorite is Bergamot and Grapefruit which I bought as a body butter and a bottle of oil years ago at a craft sale. It was great.

During COVID I started using Lavender oil to help me naturally relax and get to sleep.

Of course, I chose to make some passive essential oil diffusers recently.

My sister gifted me a wool felt tree ornament for adding scent to my artificial tree so I needed Spruce essential oil.  I took a trip to the health food store and purchased a small bottle. It will last a long time. I bought some empty bottles as well so that I can mix up some bergamot and grapefruit diluted which I use during my morning exercise routine.

I found the book above at the Thrift store. I gather it came in a kit with essential oils. 

I found the book very helpful and very thorough ranging from how is essential oil produced, categories of oil, grades of oils, and which oils can be used to help with health issues.

I felt it was a very worthwhile and the price was not crazy high.

I had this low tire pressure warning message show up on my car a while back and it threw me for a loop.  I had the puncture of a tire in May so I think I was hypersensitive about the issue.  I really had no idea what was going on. My last car did not have sensors and I did not have this issue with the original tires from this car. 

I made an appointment with the car company who installed the tires in June and I told they could not look at the car for 4 days. I checked the tires every day and I did not have a flat tire. So what gives?  I learned from a you tube video that this can happen when the weather changes. After talking to a couple of my siblings they have manual resets once they have checked the air pressure in their tires.  You tube recommended checking all 4 tires and the spare if it has a sensor, filling to the recommended tire pressure documented on the inside of your drivers door and it should just clear the message. I check with my dealership when it opened Monday morning and this was confirmed. So, armed with knowledge I was able to resolve the warning. I called the tire place back on Monday and cancelled my appoint. I am disappointed that they did not make this suggestion on Friday instead of just saying we can see you on Tuesday. What a waste of my time but I guess they had suggested that I leave the car for the whole day. They could do just what I did in five minutes and charge me a couple hundred dollars.  That would have been 5 days of my time without feeling safe in my vehicle. Yeah, Youtube!

While I was waiting and worrying about my car I made myself useful and cleared another round of card stock, designer paper and embellishments from my craft space. 

I had an IKEA Trofast Kids Wardrobe which I used store mostly 12x12 paper.  It was really too deep of smaller stuff.  With the goal of getting all the craft stuff to live in the craft room I pulled most of the 12x12 designer paper from my drawer storage and then decided to could keep that much 12x12 card stock from the shelving unit.  The rest had to go. 

I decided the shelving unit had to go as well because it was not conducive to paper storage and too big for my to handle and I needed to clear stuff from the craft room. This was it.

My sister picked up the shelf and the boxes of paper and craft supplies which will be used in her daycare. A win win I say.

F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton is a book I finished recently.

Another bit of time spent with Kinsey Millhone.  She is hired by Bailey Fowler's father to find out who really killed Jean Timberlake 17 years ago.  The murder his son was convicted of and the soon have he escaped from prison and has been on the lamb since then.

The murder took place in Floral Beach, a town a distance from Kinsey regular area of operation.  She travels and takes a room offer by the father who owns the hotel.  It is a small community, people are wary of a stranger asking questions, some people have moved away. There are a lot of dysfunctional family dynamics going on in this family. There's a mother who seems to be troubled with many health problems, the father has a few too, the sister had ended up being care giver for her parents as well as the hotel.

It was a great read with an interesting conclusion.

The couch was taken away on Sunday. I need to clear the living room and dining room with the goal of replacing the carpet with a hard surface flooring.   With the couch gone there is more room in the living room and less big stuff to manage when it comes time replace the flooring.

Of course the clearing in the craft room was also important for this upcoming project.

All the little steps will lead to the final outcome. As usual it takes longer than one anticipates. Just keep moving forward and I will get there.