Oh Fall, How I Love Thee!

This is the view outside my front door.  Even though it’s drizzling with dreary grey skies, I can still enjoy the fall colors of my Marigolds.
I was going to pull them all out this past weekend, but decided to wait until after the first frost. 

Soooo…lots of stuff going on around here.  I’ve been really busy with watching the grandson and fighting the Stink Bug battle.
Thank you to all of you who have offered suggestions on how to best battle them.  I actually did try spraying them with vinegar water just to see what would happen.
They didn’t die but they did move/crawl away from the wetted area, so maybe the smell repels them.
Vinegar really is a useful thing to have around.  I use it when I dye my wool, so I always have a few big jugs of it around.  I use it for cleaning the bathroom too because it cuts through the hard water stains.  So yeah, if by chance vinegar will repel some Stink Bugs, the outside of our house is going to smell like vinegar.  I don’t mind.
I know the vinegar smell won’t repel Rachel.  After the last time she cleaned the bathroom, using vinegar,  she wrote “Lays Salt & Vinegar Chips” on the grocery shopping list because the vinegar smell made her hungry.  Silly girl.

So hey,  I thought that perhaps I had a computer virus because my computer has been so sluggish lately.  I virus-scanned my computer and nothing showed up though.
Thanks to Google, I discovered that I had waaaay too many things running in the background, which was taking up the processing time.
So, I spent a few precious hours going through my start-up menu and disabling things that didn’t need to be running and WOW … my computer is almost back to being like new again.  Thank you Google.
Ok, business stuff now …
Thank you all for the wonderful response to my newest pattern, “Christmas Sugar Cookies”.  I hope you all have started working on it because Christmas and holiday baking time will be here before you know it and you’ll want to have that candle mat ready!
Also,  I’ve finally taken the time to figure out how to do a newsletter.
This is something that I know that I’ve needed but just delayed it simply because I’m really not a business person.  I have trouble motivating myself to being a business person simply because it takes precious time away from doing what I really love to do which is the actual sewing. 
But, it’s done and I’m excited to announce that I’m taking sign ups for my newsletters now!
Now, don’t worry that I’m going to bombard you with even more junk mail in your inbox.  I promise that my newsletters will only be to announce things like new patterns and upcoming specials.  I’ll be offering special pattern discounts to newsletter subscribers too.
I have the newsletter sign-up right up there on the left sidebar.  Just type in the email address where you wish the newsletter to be sent.  You’ll get a notice in your email telling you to verify your address and then Voila`, you’re on the list! 
And just so you won’t have to scroll up to find the Newsletter sign-up button, I’ll put it right here ……

Cath’s Pennies Designs Newsletter Sign Up!

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Happy Day Everyone!