Good morning my friends....

It's an overcast day here in northernmost Indiana and still humid as heck but not quite as hot.  We're supposed to get a big cool down in our area (and many others from the look of the map) starting tomorrow & I must say it will be welcomed.  The leaves are just beginning to turn and fall to the ground in our woods, which is a tad bit early.  I think the extreme heat from this summer has caused it.  Usually we're wrapping up our raking round about Thanksgiving but I have a hunch it will be sooner this autumn.

I'm almost finished with a rug hooking project I started a few days ago.  It's a part of the Mystery Art Project of 2025, where you get a small kit every month & then, at the end of the year when you have twelve, you hang them "salon style" (they form a rectangle even though they're all different sizes) on your wall.  This one is called "The Mystery of Us Being Better Together".  Deanne always offers a video for each month, explaining what the title means and then showing us how she hooks it.

Have you ever had a friend that just makes your life so much better than if you had to live without her?  She's not a spouse or anything... she's a dear friend that you've known for what seems like forever (or close to it) and with whom you share life's ups & downs.  That's what this particular kit is all about.  It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling as I watched the two friends, who have a long history together, come to life under my hook.  I will finish the sky today, take the project off the hoop, and give it to hubby for constructing the frame.

I'm almost done with a book from the library called "Down The Hill" by Susan Hendricks, a former anchor for HLN & former substitute anchor for CNN.  The book tells of her covering the murder in Delphi, Indiana, of the two teenagers (Libby German & Abby Williams) and how a small town grieves when such an unthinkable thing happens in their midst.  The book also sheds a light into how the families of these girls handled this tragedy as well as the hunt for the monster who did it.  It's a very good read & I highly recommend it, if you're into that sort of genre.

There's a motorcycle festival of sorts in the next town over today but I don't think we'll be going.  We attended the last couple years & sad to say, we were a little bored.  Maybe it was the time we went (daytime) and maybe things got hopping once dusk set in, I don't know.  It's outdoors, the bandstand has constant live music throughout the event, and there's a bunch of vendors selling their wares, along with food & drink tents.  In times past we've always seen a lot of folks we've known but then we took a break from going (5 years or more) and now the last couple years we haven't seen any of our "rat pack" in attendance.  The crowd was very sparse but again, maybe that's due to the time of day we went....about noon.  With the overcast skies today, I wonder if that will put a kabosh to attendance even further.  I told hubby that I have a sneaking hunch that if this year's festival isn't well attended, they might just quit the thing altogether.  He agreed.

Oldest daughter & her husband are having their annual pool party for their friends' families today & I hope the weather holds out for them as well.  She always invites her siblings too so son, his wife, and our youngest daughter-still-at-home are attending.  According to weather-dot-com, the skies are supposed to get brighter & be only partly cloudy, with warmer temperatures, starting at noon...so that will be perfect.  Youngest is taking frozen strawberry daiquiris which the group always seems to enjoy.  It was the recipe that our little card playing group used to make all those years ago, when we were all newly married and would get together on Saturdays.  It's a simple & easy to make ahead recipe that you serve in a glass with a spoon.  I'll leave you with the recipe.

Have a beautiful weekend, one and all.

Much love, Andrea xoxo

Strawberry Daiquiris

Mix in blender:

2 cups white rum

4 heaping Tbsp. powdered sugar

12 oz. frozen but thawed container of limeade concentrate

6 oz. frozen but thawed container of lemonade concentrate (you may not be able to find the 6 oz. frozen lemonade so get the 12 oz. & only use half.)

(5) 6 oz. containers of water or (2 1/2) 12 oz. containers

A container of frozen but thawed sliced strawberries (they can be sweetened, unsweetened, sliced fresh & frozen from your own garden, it really doesn't matter... but I'm guessing the container found in the store's freezer section is about 12 oz. or so, give or take.  The amt. of strawberries doesn't really matter either...put in as many as you wish.) 

If your blender won't hold all of this, you can leave the water out & just stir it in after whizzing the rest of the ingredients.

Put into a plastic container with a tight lid (such as a Tupperware-type container) and place in freezer.  The mixture will be spoonable because the alcohol will keep it from freezing totally solid.  It will keep in the freezer for however long you want it to.  

Enjoy but remember....it's really good so the alcohol can sneak up on you if you're not careful. <3