Slowing it Down

For what seems like months, I've been moving in the fast lane--busy, busy, busy. This week, or so I hope, I'm slowing things down a bit. You might be tempted to think I have a full time job. Well, to tell you the truth, sometimes it feels that way only there is WAY LESS pay involved!

Here's our  little guy who definitely knows how to live the slow life:

Sniffing around the beds is about as hard as life gets for Mr. Baxter. Before her last visit, I asked the groomer to cut his hair a little short around the face, and she definitely took my instruction to heart, so much so that, if you can imagine, he did not look nearly as cute as you've come to expect. The leaves are falling like mad, and although the yard looks wonderful after Bruce spent two full hours on it yesterday while I was at the market, the pool, not so much. Tomorrow I'll tackle the house and pool after about a week of neglect.

Are you wondering how FAVO went? Wonder no more my friends--it went well. Looking at my watch during the night I was surprised it was already 8:35. Why's that? Well, when you have loads of guests, the time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking into your future.....

Earlier in the day Bruce, mostly with me watching, hung the pieces while I set up the table for the snacks. Granted, not a fair trade, but hey, he's much better at it than I am! Plus, he likes to do it. You don't see me much in jeans, but the morning was chilly.

Oftentimes when I'm having "guests", I over-think the food. In a rare instance, I thought: brownies, roasted pecans with rosemary, a new delicious recipe, and a big bowl of ripe strawberries, speaking of which check out the amount of strawberries Bradley (the produce guy) had for sale at the Winter Garden Market on Saturday:

There is a little bit of someone's head peaking out--do you see it? All gone in a few hours! But, I digress....

They prefer that we not serve wine at FAVO; while chatting with Matthew, he suggested some Italian fruit sodas, which I purchased, served chilled, and everyone seemed to like very much. Good call Matt! After filling the bowls, I took one little walk around the village to see what others were showing. Brandy, my sweet friend, is encouraging me NOT to take her photo:

Behind Brandy you see the tables where the visitors eat their "food truck fare." Bill, David, and Michelle came and thought the food was great, the atmosphere and space nice. Whew! It's always good to have your children's approval. After everyone left, we took it all down, packed the vehicle and got home around ten at which time I had a glass of wine. :)

Dragging myself up in the morning I did Winter Garden, came home, did my photo album, and an order, the bane of my existence!  After last weekend, and Friday night, a few of my baskets contained some very slim pickings. I was in bed by 8, asleep by 8:30 and did not get up until 6:30 Sunday morning. Now that is a long time to sleep isn't it? I rue the day that I ever have trouble sleeping.

Sunday was nice weather, slow sales, all to be expected. I tried hard not to think about how the same time last year I was selling like mad at the Mount Dora Art Festival. :(  The Super Bowl party we were invited to canceled Saturday afternoon, and truth be told, I was fine with that because Bruce had to leave early this morning. The game was pretty dramatic in more ways than one! I'm no fan of commercials, no matter how clever. The half-time show--a big blah to me. Those girls need to wear more clothing in my opinion. There was a time when if you wanted to see girls dressed like that while performing you had to go to Las Vegas. I'm not going to get all preachy, but seriously, impressionable children watch the game...

Before I left for a litany of errands this morning, I got back on my bike. You've already guessed the weekend was a bust in that regard. Well, drum roll please....

So, I'm riding along Pershing Avenue, noticing how close it is to turning over, so I stop to take this photo. Well, duh--here's what happened when I got back on a pedaled a bit:

So, I begin again....by the time I arrived home, the odometer reads 1.4 miles. I wonder how long it will take me to get the second 1,000 under my belt, or maybe I should say, under my bottom?

On my way to the library today I took this photo of the performing arts center which is coming along. Once completed, it may be fun to go back and take a look at some of the photos I've taken during construction. I'm super curious to see how the roof feature turns out.

Dearest ones, I'm still tired. I'm calling it a post, eating some dinner and heading to bed with a book of short stories from Ron Rash. He's the bomb.

Gail

p.s. Matt and Tom arrived safely yesterday, today--who knows with the time difference. They are here. In a short message, Matt said he had loads of fun reliving his childhood while body surfing in the Arabian Sea--a far cry from Cocoa Beach.