My August Flower Garden

Today is the first day of fall so what better time is it to say "Adieu to the flower gardens."  This is always such a bittersweet time of year for me.  I look forward to a reprieve from garden chores and an opportunity to spend time indoors pursuing other creative endeavors like quilting and paper crafting, but I will also miss my beautiful blooms and warm summer days.

What better way to start an August flower gardening post than with a picture of a sunflower?  This is the only sunflower I got this year, and it wasn't even planted by me but by the birds.  I did plant sunflower seeds, but with the torrential rains we had in spring, very few germinated and the ones that did, I stepped on and crushed.  I'm such an idiot.  😆

I know this is a flower garden post, but vegetables can produce pretty blooms too.

I was in the vegetable garden and noticed this beautiful bloom on my sweet potato plant.  It looks like a Morning Glory to me.  I never grew sweet potatoes before so I had no idea they produced such beautiful blooms!

When I came back from my vacation out west I was shocked to see how beautiful my begonias look.  Don't get me wrong, they looked nice all summer, but they seemed to thrive in the cooler weather I heard we had while I was away.

I love how my front annual beds turned out this year.  These sun impatiens did so well here.  The vine is a morning glory vine that never bloomed but did produce lush, gorgeous foliage.  I have no idea why it never bloomed, this is the second time this happened to me.  All I can think of is it doesn't get morning sun, only afternoon sun, but you would think what time of day it gets the sun wouldn't matter.

Since I've taken this picture it's probably grown twice as large.  This Morning Glory is seriously out of control.  It's hard to even get on the front porch! "Feed me Seymour". 😂

I've always loved "Magic Lily's".  They are so fun, and always a sweet surprise.  They produce gorgeous green foliage in the spring and then die back.  In the fall these tall green stems pop out of the ground magically and these stunning lilies appear.  They are a fun addition to any garden, especially if you have kids!

I buy the same red/white impatient every year for my garden shed window planters.  They just love this spot and they go well with the colors of the shed.

Rudebekia, a.k.a. "Black Eyed Susans" are the star of the late summer/fall garden in my yard.  I love this plant!  Its blooms last forever, and the birds love the seeds.

A close up of my favorite Viburnum bush, that my husband just cut down 😢. He did save me a sucker though so I'm hoping it'll regrow in another part of the yard.  It just got too big for the spot it was in, and he is working on a huge landscaping project where it was.

And here's the big beauty in all its glory.  It was so hard just to walk past it, it had overgrown onto the grassy path.

This is "False Sunflower" it grows about six feet tall.  I only have it growing at the back end of my garden as it's such a huge flower.

The deer eat my phlox every year, it's so depressing.  But sometimes I still get a few blooms like this bunch pictured below.

I can't do a garden post without including a photo of Jackson.  Here he is, lounging on the screened in porch, enjoying the last few days of warm air and sunshine.  It won't be long now before he is curled up in front of the wood stove.

And this is my front garden this year.  The deer didn't eat this phlox, I wonder if it's because of the marigolds I planted in front of them?  I need to plant more marigolds next year.

 I am still struggling with feeling overwhelmed ever since I got home from my vacation.  There seems to be so much to do, and I'm struggling to keep up.  The food processing is endless.  Every afternoon from noon to five pm I am in the kitchen canning or freezing vegetables from my garden, and there seems to be no end in sight.  I am getting frustrated because there are so many other things I want to do like paper craft, blog, tend to my perennial garden, or even just clean my house, and I can't even get to it.  I was planning on starting my new Yellowstone travel series this week, but now I'm wondering if I should hold off on it till this winter because we're going on another vacation to see the grandkids in a few weeks, which, will be awesome, but will also put me even further behind schedule.  I don't remember struggling so much finding time to get everything done before.  It makes me wonder if I'm slowing down because of my age.  Anyway, I say all this to let you know I'm trying to keep a regular blogging schedule, but I am struggling.  I'll post as often as I can.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

How to Transition your Summer Clothes for Fall with Ageless Style

Ageless Style is a monthly style challenge and link up for women of all ages.   Each month we pick a different theme and style an outfit based on that theme.  This month's theme is "Transitioning Your Summer Clothes for Fall" and was picked by Rosemary.

You hear the same phrase at the end of every summer:   "I can't wait for fall!".  People can't wait for the pumpkin lattes, football season, and fall fashion.  Being a Wisconsinite, I'm never in a hurry for fall because it just means nine long months of winter for me, and I detest anything to do with sports.  However, I do love "pumpkin anything", fall foliage, and fall fashion, so I do have some things to be excited about!  This year, fall seems very far away as we are having one of the hottest Septembers on record here in Wisconsin.  It makes fall garden chores very difficult to do and fall fashion is out of the question, at least for now.  

My usual way of transitioning  from summer to fall is to wear summer clothes in fall colors;  that way I stay cool but look like fall.  I have done a number of these posts over the years:  "Using Colors and Texture to Transition into Fall",  "How to Style Summer Clothes for Fall",  and "Transitioning a Summer Dress for Fall."  In all three of these posts you will see how I incorporate fall colors and texture into summer-like outfits.

So to meet the challenge this month, I'm showing you the same concept (fall colors in summer clothing), but I'm also displaying the art of layering as in the fall we experience cool mornings and evenings but can still have sultry afternoons.   This is an outfit I recently wore on a road trip out west where the mountain mornings were chilly, but the afternoons rose to a balmy 80 or 90 degrees.

I was in the beautiful town of Jackson Wyoming and although you will see all types of attire in Jackson, many people really dress up there, especially in a western style.  I picked this outfit for both comfort and it's western-look (western enough for this midwest gal anyway).  

My base started with a pale yellow sundress from Stitch Fix.  Sorry, I don't have any full photos of me wearing just the sundress alone, but below is a half body shot so you can at least see what the bodice looks like.  You can also go on the Stitch Fix site and see the full dress HERE!  This is such a cute and comfy dress, perfect for traveling.  The fabric is so soft and doesn't wrinkle.  I saw this dress on clearance on the Stitch Fix website and picked it up for less than $25.00.  In case you didn't already know, you can just buy items directly from Stitch Fix and not place an order for a Stitch Fix box.

I knew this would be the perfect fall sundress because of the pale yellow color and the creamy Carmel flowers in the pattern of the dress.  I based the rest of my outfit off the Carmel flowers and layered my new  Carmel Liverpool SPLURGE jacket over the top (See it was the worth the splurge, I'm using it already and fall isn't even here yet!  See last month's Ageless Style post HERE if you don't know what I'm talking about 😀)

The rest of the pieces in the outfit include a sun hat (that western sun is intense!), a saddle bag (to complete the western look), and neutral sandals for long periods of walking to keep my feet cool and comfy.  Looking back, I wish I would have worn my brown felt fedora hat as that would have looked more western, but when I was packing in August it was hot and my brain was in summer-hat mode so I grabbed a straw hat.  And if I weren't walking so much that day, I would have chosen a cute western bootie.  That would have looked so much more cute than these sandals.  

Even though I would have changed out the hat and shoes in this outfit if I could, I still really liked the outfit and I felt very cute and confident wearing it.  I got so many compliments on this outfit too, people especially loved the saddle bag.

Jackson Hole is such a cute western town!  The shops are pretty pricey, I stopped in a fur shop and the average coat was going for $10,000 😀.  So it is more of a place to window-shop than a shopping town for us regular folk.  It was still fun to see all the western store fronts and enjoy lots of huckleberry treats!

As the day went on, it did get hot, so I took the jacket off and just carried it across my arm.

Now before I end this post I have both sad news and good news.  Rosemary,  decided to step away from our group for a while,  but we also found a new member!  Jennifer decided to join us!  We are sad to see Rosemary go, but we are excited to add a new member.  

We are also making a new change to our link up.  We are announcing next month's challenge ahead of time so you can plan an outfit and join us in the challenge.  That is actually how we met Jennifer;  she joined us in the challenge and did a post on it.   So if you want to participate in next month's Ageless Style, the theme is "Cozy October"!  You can also email (my email address is found on my contact/follow page;  look for it in my sidebar) your photo ahead of time and I will put it in my blog post.  I just need the photos BEFORE the third Thursday of every month.  

Now be sure to see how the rest of the ladies are transitioning their summer clothes for fall and link up with us as well.  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Amy ~ Amy’s Creative Pursuits

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Bo ~ Bo's Bodacious Blog

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Jennifer ~ Overflowing with Thankfulness

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Joanna ~ My Slice of Life

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Jodie ~ Jodie’s Touch of Style

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Leslie ~ Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After

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Mireille ~ Chez Mireille Fashion Travel Mom

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Yes, I'm Alive!

Sorry I've been MIA.  I have been on a nine day road trip out west to see Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons.  I fully intended to return to a regular blogging schedule but then was so overwhelmed with the stack of household chores that awaited me on my return.  Even though I picked everything and was canning right up to the day I left, when I came home, I had an abundance of produce awaiting me.

This picture below shows everything I had picked the day after I got home.  I was a busy bee canning and freezing!  And the vegetable garden shows no sign of slowing down, so I will busy for a while.  Plus I have the perennial garden beds that need tending.  I feel my garden is such a mess right now!  It's so hard taking a vacation when I have gardens.  I would love to take vacations in winter, but that's not possible unless you go somewhere warm, so I'm left with this conundrum.

I will be back on Thursday with a new Ageless Style post, but I don't know when I'll be able to start a new travel series, or post garden photos.  Hopefully things will settle down for me soon...but then I'm off on another vacation in October to see the grandkids!  So, maybe not.  In any case, I just wanted ya'll to know "Yes, I'm Alive!"

Have A Great Day!  Amy