Blog Challenge - Scentsational Memories

From Tracilouwho: I read recently that our sense of smell is much stronger than we realize. For many people a specific scent can trigger nostalgic memories from years and years ago. For others, a whiff of a specific scent or odor for that matter can bring back awful memories. Is there a scent that does this for you? Talk to me about smells that you remember, from childhood, your teenage years, or even more recently, and be sure to tell what these scents mean to you when they resurface in your life now.

Just yesterday I was standing outside and smelling fall. There's just a certain scent in the air for this season. I'm not sure whether it's partly due to people burning leaves, fires in fireplaces or what, but I know it's fall when I smell that scent.

The scents that evoke memories of the past are so often associated with food. I can't prepare Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner without being reminded of the past. The cloves in the Christmas ham, the nutmeg on the brandy alexanders, the cinnamon of the pumpkin pies always make me think of my mother and all the times I helped with preparing our family feasts.

Sometimes, the scents take you back to special places. When we were on vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this summer, at one point we were at a beach on the shore of Lake Superior. I told Michael that it smelled like the Great Lakes. It's a different smell from the ocean. It was the same scent I remember from going out on the boat with Dad on Lake Erie.

Blog Challenge - catch-up mode

From Sarah: What is your favorite color and why. Add a picture so we can get the "feel" for your favorite color.

RED is my favorite color. I call it my power color. Whenever I wear red, I always get lots of compliments. Consequently, there's a lot of red items in my wardrobe.

Reminding myself that Autumn in Wisconsin is beautiful...

I love the trees whose leaves turn a shimmering golden orange-red.

Pumpkins and apples at a harvest festival

Leaves at The Ridges Sanctuary in Door County

It's a New Look!

Thanks to a thread on ScrapShare, I checked out Pyzam.com and decided to go with a more colorful look for my blog. Let me know what you think.

I don't want it to be October yet!

It's dark by 7:00 p.m.

The temperature outside this morning was 48 degrees.

The leaves are changing color.

Freaky signs that point to it actually being autumn. And we all know what that means...

Winter will be coming right after that.

Blog Challenge #32 -Countdown list

This was posted by Joan and was a fun way to get back into the blog saddle again.

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:
1-Complete a Book of Me scrapbook
2-Complete my family heritage scrapbooks
3-Travel to France, the UK and Australia
4-Travel to each of the 50 states
5-Visit every US National Park
6-Read all the books I have waiting to be read
7-Reach my goal weight
8-See my children happily married
9-Welcome grandchildren to our family
10-Learn to play the piano

9 Places I Last Spent Money:
1-Barnes & Noble
2-Michaels Crafts
3-JoAnn’s fabric & crafts
4-Waldenbooks
5-Subway
6-Scheel’s sporting goods
7-Pick ‘n Save grocery store
8-Custom Crops online scrapbooking supplies
9-Creative Memories

8 Sounds I Routinely Hear Around My House:
1-Husband snoring
2-Cats meowing
3-The television
4-The radio
5-The dishwasher running
6-The washer & dryer
7-The telephone
8-The rattly noisemaker inside the fake ferret cat toy

7 Real Restaurants Where I Last Ate Out:
1-El Azteca
2-Subway
3-TGI Friday’s
4-Third Street Diner
5-Applebee’s
6-Wendy’s
7-Perkins

6 Things I've Recently Scratched Off My To-Do List:
1-Order my SSTX5 t-shirt
2-Daily household chores
3-Prep for CM conference call
4-Run errands
5-Work on updating Outlook contacts
6-Finish a double page spread

5 People I Don't Know but would Like to Hang Out With:
1-Tom Hanks - I’m dying to ask a question about “That Thing You Do”
2-Steve Carell & the cast from The Office – I bet the laughs never end.
3-Ellen Goodman &…
4-Leonard Pitts – I would love to sit down with these two columnists & discuss social issues in the USA
5-Bunches of people from ScrapShare – too numerous to mention

4 Songs That Make Me Happy:
1-Charmed Life by The Divine Comedy
2-I’m a Believer by The Monkees
3-Hey Jude by The Beatles
4-Hollywood Nights by Bob Seger

3 Things I Hate To Do:
1-Work in Quicken
2-Change the cat litter
3-Clean out the refrigerator

2 Things I'm Really Good At:
1-Logistical planning
2-Organizing

1 Bad Habit:
Procrastination

I've been away so long ...

Life has been craaaaaazy & blogging just didn't make it onto the to-do list. But I'm back and plan to be writing here on a more regular basis.