This Perfectly Imperfect Life

First off I'd like to thank everyone who visited my Practical Magic Blog Party post! (See prev). I had so much fun setting up & taking the photo's for the slide show then putting it altogether. And what a delightful time I've had dropping by other participants posts to see their creativity! And now for something completely different- For me, lugging out the Autumn & Halloween decorations is like opening presents on Christmas morning! Makes me down right gleeful it does! I'm battling my first head cold/sinus/throat thing of the season. Been sick since Saturday but doing much better today than I was. Par for the course as they say. We got nearly an inch of rain today which isn't enough but we'll take what we can get. (More rain tomorrow & Thurs - thunderstorms tomorrow!). Only bad part was that the humidity rose every time it Stopped raining! While raining, 70 something % humidity. When it wasn't raining, 90 something % humidity!...

Welcome to my post! To visit other participants, please head over to the Practical Magic Blog Party 2010 blog. I must say that while I think Practical Magic the movie is adorable, I think the novel is incredible. And that is where I gleaned my inspiration from for these festivities. Gardens are mysterious, magical and enchanting, don't you think? Now follow me out into the garden, I have everything all ready for you, including music! (Turn your volume on). *Update: Music has reverted to my regular Fall soundtrack, 9/28/2010* For all of you non Practical Magic Blog Party folks, head on over to NJ Through My Eyes where I've posted 2 new slide-shows today; one is a preview of a new project I'm working on!

Walk with me... The scroll down a bit. Below is a preview of a photo project I started working on today entitled "Porches."

(Pun intended) Head over to NJ Through My Eyes for my "Wordless Wednesday - Autumn's Light" post. Scroll down here to read this week's Monday Musing's "In The Works" post.

Head over to Diggin' Around for my "Wordless Wednesday - Autumn Joy" post.

Hello there Monday. We meet again. Comes too quickly, the start of yet another week, doesn't it? If you scroll down the left hand column, past "About Me," "b.w.o." and my countdown to Autumn button (which seems to be a little ahead of itself), you'll come to an enchanting notice about the Practical Magic Blog Party coming up this Saturday, September 25th. Having recently read the novel (by Alice Hoffman) for the first time, I jumped at the chance to participate after stumbling upon it but until this weekend didn't have idea one for my post. I'm very excited to get working on it this week! Have you read the book or seen the movie? I've done both now. The movie is cute but I loved the novel. I was enchanted from beginning to end, no pun intended! Oh, the idea for my Practical Magic Blog Party post, you ask? You'll just have to wait & see until Saturday my pretties... And then there's the Halloween (Blog) Party on Saturday Octo...

And a beautiful morning it was! Scroll down for 3 more photo's taken during our walk. Click on each to enlarge.

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For the second time this week, dangerous storms blew through NJ & NY. We had ring side seats for some of the action while we were eating dinner yesterday. Scary stuff. The winds and rain were incredible. We desperately need the rain. The other stuff? Not so much. Summer is going out like a lion this year. **Update: 3 confirmed tornado's touched down and did a lot of damage (along with several micro-bursts) from this system. 1 in the county immediately south of here, 1 in Brooklyn NY and 1 in Queens NY.

Happy September Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and Wordless Wednesday! To get in on all of the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day fun, head over to May Dreams Gardens .

(Please also scroll down to view my Labor Day Scenes of My NJ slide show in the previous post).

It is a beautiful Fall-like day here today, though the sky isn't as brilliantly blue as on the day that changed my world, our world forever. Nine years have passed since September 11th, 2001 yet, for me, it always feels like that terrifying day just happened recently. As I listen to the names of those innocent lives lost, the tears come as freely as ever. It's difficult for me to reconcile the fact that nine years have passed and so quickly. This is one of the times of the year that make me take stock in myself and my life (the others being my birthday in May, Halloween and New Years) and this year I find that I am truly disappointed in myself overall. It could be the lingering blah's from my Summer illness. For the most part, I feel like I could have done more with the time given to me since September 11th... But is that just a natural, human feeling even though you may have done the best you could with what you've had? I don't know. I need to journal on thi...

Happy Friday! Just had to share these pics with all of you, taken yesterday. My other blog abode, New Jersey Through My Eyes is back with my "Labor Day Scenes of My NJ" photo slide show. Head on over to take a look. Like other students in our area, I also went back to hitting the books this week. Since my Summer was derailed by my unexpected illness, I'm trying to get back on track and one of the first things I'm working on is my online Interior Design course. I'd like to finish it this Fall or this Winter at the latest. Our weather has turned cool, breezy and humidity free! I have all of the windows & doors wide open, no fans or ac on. This kind of weather and Fall in general gets me going and inspires me creatively too. I started purging again yesterday. I got rid of 7 or 8 mugs from the kitchen (they were all chipped) and reorganized 2 kitchen cabinets. (Yes, I still have over 40 (well over 40) but I love my mugs!) Then I went to work on the books ...

Taken in and around our home up north.

I awoke to find this beautiful Morning Glory blooming on the arbor this morning. What a lovely way to start a Saturday! The gusty breezes and low humidity are making this a fine day indeed. I was able to have my morning cuppa tea on the patio, something I really enjoy. Hurricane Earl missed us completely and while we're all grateful in this area, we could have used some of his rains with this drought we've got going and not another chance for rain for at least 7 days according to the weather this morning. We haven't had a hot & dry Fall in many years and I'm afraid we're due. (Hopefully Mother Nature flips a weather pattern switch with the official arrival of Autumn this month and we get out of this). What are your plans for this holiday weekend? We're heading to our place up north later this afternoon until Monday while one of our nephews has his daughter over here for the weekend. (Didn't I mention we have another nephew staying with us? No? He...

Happy September 1st! A little early for Autumn foliage like this, by a few weeks at the very least, (in my humble opinion), but it's here nonetheless. (I took this photo today at our place up north). Seeing the splashes of red & yellow make me happy and I feel the excitement for the arrival of our next season building. (I'll be so glad when this Summer is behind me and not just because of the horrendous heat & humidity!) Hurricane Earl is coming and supposed to arrive here early Friday. Right now we're already under a tropical storm warning. The weather people don't really seem to know what might happen which isn't surprising. Some reports say it might be on par with the Nor'Easter we had here in March which was bad, but if that's all Earl amounts to, we'll be very lucky. We went to our place up north to 'batten down the hatches' just in case Earl hugs closer to the coast and sends wind and rain that far inland. (Right now it seem...