fall – sassyfitnesschick

Welcome to another edition of Monday Musings, and not just another Monday but Labor Day here in the states. Labor day holiday weekend is the symbolic final salute to summer before heading into fall.

Unless you’re in south Texas then its just more summer till like…January.

I’m ready to send summer on outta here as it’s been crazy hot, with nothing more exciting than work and more work.

A change of season might offer up something a little more interesting.

Ah, Fall. It’s hard not to anticipate those cooler mornings, milder days, and favorite fall weather meals.

Speaking of fall… Starbucks needs to seriously cool their heels on the pumpkin spice thing.

They released it in August this year.

August.

I hate to say this but while I’m sweating just breathing I’m not wanting to cozy up to a warm beverage more suited to over sized cozy sweaters and boots.

They need to stop being so greedy and wait for their season to actually arrive.

Anyone with me on that?

And no, I don’t actually drink mentioned beverage as I find it to sweet.

I could be lured into temptation with a pumpkin spice scone though 😉

What beverage am I currently loving ?

The new nitro cold brew. I was informed I couldn’t get one larger than a grande due to the caffeine in it 😱

What is nitro cold brew you may wonder? It’s a cold brew coffee charged with nitrogen to give it a rich creamy head, similar to nitro draft beer like Guinness.

Whatever.

It’s chilled, rich and even black like I prefer, its smooth and almost creamy.

I pace myself though cause tasty or not, they are a little pricey.

Meh. So they butchered my name. I’ll still come when they call.

Speaking of work….

I’ve mentioned before I have a little vintage business with a large part of that flipping old, usually beat up, or discarded antique and vintage furniture. Not only am I doing pieces for my shop, I’ve been doing custom orders too. I did a rocking chair this week for a customer. It was her great grandparents and 100 years old!

I was privileged to work on this family heirloom.

This is what it looked like when I got it…

And then after…. Customer requested paint and finish and I was thrilled with how it came out…

I felt a connection with this piece and had to remind myself I had to give it back 🤣

I also got this cute antique half table this week.

It looked like this….

But then I did a little magic on it and now…

It looks sweet right?

Ok one more.

I scored this antique armoire today. It was a definite fixer upper. It had so many new things added to it…and things broken and needing to be put back together. At least she had all the parts.

This is what it looked like coming home…sad and needy…

I desperately wanted to jump into it but was committed to finishing a piece I was working on….so hubby jumped into it and…..

A couple hours later……

Doors glued together and put back on, mirror door rebuilt and mirror installed, and all of the added shelving removed inside.

The only thing long gone was the original back. We pulled off the cheap flimsy board on back ( which had lots of holes cut into it) and will replace with something a bit nicer.

I estimate this piece roughly turn of the century. I was happy it still had all of its castors (wheels)

Now it’s ready for me to do some magic on it. It just makes me happy seeing it more like it should be, closer to its original look.

In the world of health and wellness

Once again I noticed on a “health” product that it proclaimed to suppress your appetite.

Which kinda had me scratching my head. I never get that.

Can I make a wild statement here?

Your body gets hungry for a reason. Those hunger pangs are natural given signals to feed your body.

Food is fuel.

To ignore those signals or to attempt to suppress them is disordered thinking at best.

A healthy approach is to honor your body, it needs fuel. Eat an appropriate amount to satisfy your hunger with healthy foods and move on.

To ignore or attempt to suppress it will keep keep your mind on food and may lead to binge eating later.

Speaking of food

As I mentioned earlier, fall is coming and it’s hard not to think of tasty fall treats. I love baking so recently I went to my dessert file on Pinterest to see what treats might be a good experimental fall recipe.

So many choices! With pumpkin everything aways getting noticed I thought I’d dive into something apple oriented.

https://pin.it/6owwg6gciv3fv5

It had rave reviews….give it a try 😁 do you have any fall desserts that are a favorite?

Tell me …are you ready to wrap up summer? Do you enjoy changing seasons? What is your current ( new) favorite beverage?

Happy Halloween =) Time for ghosts and goblins and all things cute… and candy… free candy….as much as you want depending on your endurance and patience to hike house to house getting single or sometimes, double pieces at a time.

Let’s face it… the best and coolest places give out real chocolate 😉

Oh wait… hold on… I’m like… an adult now…. do I get to participate ??

Haha I still love having a costume and heading out with my kids… and they are all pretty much grown but I can still tag along ’cause now I’m in grandparent status.

I will shamelessly admit I still love dressing up. I love costumes and all things fun. I figure there are enough people in the world holding down the “sane, sensible adult category” I don’t need to take up space there 😉

So yeah… costume ready… and I do get to fish some good prizes outta the kids treat bags so it’s a win/win.

But I got to thinking…. hang with me if you will…. I was getting a little nostalgic thinking of Halloweens past and trick or treating when I honestly WAS a kid.

Times seemed simpler. The day seemed longer. There weren’t so many of the worries and concerns there are today. There weren’t crazy stigmas tied to it. You got to make tissue ghosts and spiders and have real Halloween parties in school before it became generically “fall” themed. It was just a fun time to dress up in cool costumes and roam the neighborhood hoping to get enough candy to carry you over till Christmas.

My younger childhood was spent in a classic low key typical neighborhood where all the kids roamed and hung out at various houses all year long. Even as a kid I got that it was a pretty comfy thing. On Halloween though it was always fun because the neighbors went all out to make sure we enjoyed ourselves. There was an older lady down the street who made real, honest super sweet popcorn balls. They were awesome. There was never even a hint we shouldn’t eat them. She was like the resident grandmother of the group. My Mom of course, cookie baker, as well as making those crazy red candy apples that threatened to break your teeth. Honestly, I never did like them. I love caramel ones though.

Costumes of course were simple affairs crafted by whatever you could pull together laying around the house. My brother and I were skilled at coming up with stuff…. and of course our Mom had to be dragged into it also. My poor brother, bless his heart, would pretty much go along with whatever hair brained ideas I came up with.

We would head out at dusk, orange plastic pumpkins with happy smiley faces in tow. The plan? Have them full before we returned home for the evening… or until our mom made us stop 😉

I don’t know why those evenings took on that “spooky” kinda feeling, but they did. You know…. where you spent time looking over your shoulder ? worried something might pop out and grab you ? Mom always said we shouldn’t worry ’cause whatever grabbed us would soon return us haha

One year we had hit up a small one floor apartment complex. It was perfect….just seamless moving from one door to another collecting our sugar high.

Until…. this small, evil, yapping Chihuahua came outta nowhere and started chasing us. ( seriously I think they have “little dog” syndrome. Must they all be so nasty?) My brothers pumpkin went flying, I bolted, that dog seemed like it was everywhere….candy flying…some screaming… the owner running after it yelling… “Frito! Come here!” ( yes. Frito)

We managed to get his pumpkin and then made a quick exit out of there. Thanks dog for ruining a good thing… but we weren’t up to wrestling with that demon anymore.

Those nights were a time of laughter and fun and high expectations. My brother and I would head home, dump out all the candy, set aside the ” not so desirable” fare and re-bucket the “good stuff”. There was the inevitable trading off for our favorites from each other.

Simple times that go by to fast. Actually, simple times that are lost and gone in todays world.

Maybe it’s just fun to me to still appreciate it on some level…. “Adult” or not. Actually in some ways, it’s more fun as an adult…. although…. the neighbors kinda frown when you show up on their door step looking for free chocolate 😉

What fun Halloween memories do you have ? Do you still like dressing up for it ?