Now

I complain about the weather for all but two months out of the year – November is one of the good ones here in Kansas City.

It’s cold, but usually sunny, and the first snowfall is exciting (as opposed to the thirteenth one in February when I’m “enough already!”).

Daylight Saving ending is a hit and a miss – I like the early morning light, but hate the drive home in the dark. Why do people feel like they need to take their evening run at rush hour, on the darkest streets with no sidewalks AND dress in all black to do it?

But the best part of November, by far, is Thanksgiving. It’s our favorite holiday at SuzerSpace, and I have a Pinterest Board (actually two) to prove it.

This month I’m also working on my Etsy shop – this is my first holiday season so I’m not sure what to expect.

I’ve also been practicing my lettering, and my embroidering skills – a craft that combines both is coming up on the blog soon, and it’s perfect for hand made gift giving, so be sure to check in!

Airplane is my very favorite movie. There’s a series of scenes in it where the Lloyd Bridges character says “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit _____” He fills in that last bit with “smoking” “amphetamines” and “drinking” – it goes on throughout the movie. It’s funny, I swear. And if you don’t like that movie, I’m not really sure we can be friends 🙂 .

At the risk of sharing too much personal information, September here in Kansas City was the wrong month to pick for quitting Aluminum deodorant. I’ve been bombarded with information proving and disproving the health risks of Aluminum, and I’m still not sure it’s a real thing. But I figured it’d be safer to quit it, and I decided September would be a good one to make the switch to a lower chemical based beauty product.

It’s normally a month where the weather is perfect – no need for air conditioning or heating. Not so much this year. Several days were over 90 degrees. We had severe weather from high humidity and high heat – hail and thunderstorms in September! The trees are dropping their leaves because of the change in daylight hours, but I’m wearing shorts to rake them up.

Besides being hot and sweaty, September was Mr. SuzerSpace’s birthday, and we celebrated with our normal monthlong activities.

Hopefully, October will bring us a little heat relief. I’m already crafting up a storm of Halloween items for my Etsy store, and working on my Thanksgiving menu.

Apparently, I say this just about every year, but August went by in a blur. I know I was busy and happy, but when I try and conjure up the highlights, two things stand out – 1) we hired someone to clean the gutters, and it was glorious; and 2) we bought a new toaster, and it is red.

Neither of those two things really sound amazing, but that’s just #reallife.

September is always big around here because so many things happen – college football (On Wisconsin!), NFL football (Chiefs/Packers/Cowboys divided house here), cooler temperatures, and most of all – it’s Mr. SuzerSpace’s birthday month and we celebrate that all month long.

Right now I don’t have big craft projects planned, but I bet I find something fun to paint/sew/letter/glue together.

How about you? Big plans for the start of the new season?

Hello July!

June historically is a super hot and humid month in Kansas City, but we sort of caught a break this year with some nice cool temperatures at the start. And right about the time I was thinking “Gee, we are saving a ton of money on our air conditioner bill,” the air conditioner completely stopped working.

We kind of knew this was coming, in that we’ve lived in this house for more than 20 years, but like most people, we also didn’t see it coming. After the sad trombone noise that accompanied the realization that were were not going to be saving money this month, and two nights camping out downstairs under a box fan, we were able to see the bright side and get bids for a new air conditioner AND a furnace since we didn’t want to repeat this experience on the coldest day of winter, too.

The new system came with a fancy WiFi thermostat, and while I originally thought they were just a shiny gadget, the fact that I can make the house comfortable from upstairs using my phone means that I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night and find my glasses and turn on lights and go downstairs. I can also cool down the house right before I get in the car for the commute home, so that’s a plus, too.

Other things I’ve enjoyed in June:

I used to really like a certain brand of frozen Chinese egg rolls, but all the stores locally appear to have dropped the vegetarian version. Apparently I was the only one buying it? Turns out they are embarrassingly easy to make. I didn’t actually use this recipe, but it’s a good starting point if you like instructions. Instead, I made a batch using bagged coleslaw mix and oven baked them, then froze them so it’s like having my own version ready and waiting for me. Double bonus – these are baked, not fried, and I know exactly what is in them.

It’s Iced Coffee season.

The Stanley Cup ended with the St. Louis Blues winning for the first time in history. Kansas City doesn’t have an NHL team, but Fox Sports Midwest shows all the Blues games all year, so I’ve been a fan for several years (it’s easier to pick a team you get to watch vs. picking say a West Coast team that is only on TV every once in a while and way past my bedtime).

Coming Up in July:

July is my birthday month, and the rule here is you get to celebrate the whole month. We call this one SuzerFest (obviously) and it’s full of special treats like breakfast out, the restaurant of my choice for dinner and I always take my birthday off from work as a vacation day.