Day 260 of 365

We live near a sugar beet dump.

Lots of farmers around the state of Idaho grow sugar beets. (Sugar beets are a root vegetable that look a bit like a turnip but are closer to the size of a bowling ball.) When they are harvested in the fall they are loaded in farm trucks and sent to sugar beet dumps. Morning 'til night, week after week after week, those trucks arrive and deposit those sugar beets on the ground.

When the beets have been all collected at the dumps and the sugar beet factory is ready to accept them, larger trucks come back during early winter to load them up for their trip to the processing plant where they'll become sugar. Those bigger trucks work days and nights and Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the dump finally being emptied and shut down around New Year's.

We've had a couple solid weeks of beets being hauled in and now it's quiet.

A pile of beets as tall as a two story house and as long as I-don't-know-what are sitting, waiting to be picked up.

Day 259 of 365

Well, Snake River Mart is no more.

I was so excited that the gas pumps there were converted to Shell pumps, I didn't realize there might be more changes coming. After almost 25 years of us shopping at Snake River Mart, our only little store in town, a name change has happened. I don't know if there is person named Logan who owns it, or if it's part of a bigger chain of grocery stores, but the building has been painted and a new name has appeared.

Logan's Market.

My husband reminded me about the good ole' days at Snake River Mart. Years ago when we first moved here we had a charge account there. No credit check, no credit card. Nothing like that. If you wanted to buy groceries, you just signed for them. And at the end of the month or the beginning of the month or the middle of the month or whenever you wanted to, you paid your bill.

We charged our groceries for years until that day when the building caught fire and burned down. It took a long time for them to rebuild a newer, bigger, nicer store just a block away. When that store opened, we just never started charging again.

Since then the store has had another owner (maybe two) and they've allowed grocery charging. But I heard today that the new owners have stopped the practice. And folks aren't happy about it.

I'm sure it was the same way when the local burger joint stopped letting people charge. (We used to do that when we first moved to town, too.) Go and get some burgers and fries, just sign for it, and pay it off later. Even as a teenager my daughter (responsibly) used to tap into our account occasionally. But we stopped going as often so we didn't charge. After a while we heard they had stopped allowing charge accounts.

Change is hard, particularly for people in a small town. We're used to doing things our own way - and by golly, we've been doing things the same way forever. I'm just fine to keep things the way they are, but I guess at some point we have to move into the modern age.

Another change? The weather.

While yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day, today has become a cold, blustery, cloudy day. When I left work this afternoon the temperature on one of the businesses read 33 degrees. It sounds like snow is on the way tonight. I imagine the only tree in the yard with any leaves left on it - the one outside my window - will be changing with this upcoming stormy weather.

But that tree against the backdrop of last night's sunset needs no changing.

Make Easy Drawstring Gift Bags - Day 258 of 365, Tutorial Tuesday

Looking for a homemade drawstring gift sewing project? Check out this quick and easy one!

I started this blog back eight months ago with a sewing project. Pincushions. In that first month of writing and picture taking I made a:

• flag quilt top 
• baby quilt 
• camera case 
• pillow cases 
• grocery bags out of t-shirts
• clothespin bag 
• fabric memory game with a carrying bag. 

In the food department, I made:

• M&M cookies 
• St. Patrick's day decorated sugar cookies 
• Coney-Island chili dogs 
• blueberry muffins 
• chocolate-caramel apples 
• chocolate covered strawberries.

Looking for more sewing and crafting projects? 

Click here to see all my tutorials!

Since then, I've done tutorials on a couple of those things and this week's tutorial adds another. On Day 8, I made the fabric memory game with a drawstring carrying bag.

A drawstring bag is a good way to wrap Christmas gifts, too, so today is all about the bag.

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

You can find the step-by-step how to tutorial for the homemade quick and easy fabric drawstring gift bags sewing project right here:

Day 257 of 365

I'm into before and after pictures. I've taken them of kitchen cabinets, the downstairs TV room, and look at them on home improvement websites. Slow and steady changes don't impress me nearly as much as the radical changes that show up in those kinds of pictures.

When I got up this morning, I planned on taking another set of before and after pictures. It's time for us to clip our roses down low for winter, and what better way to document what I accomplish in the garden but with pictures.

So I took that "before" picture, knowing the "after" picture wasn't going to be coming until I was finished with the roses - and that might be a week or more from now. Took that picture, then got to work for a while. Filled up almost a garbage can full of dead canes.

On the way out of the garden, I found something I'd never noticed before. In 10 years. Never knew it.

Usually in the fall, I'm not working in the garden much. School is in full swing and I've always been someone to put my all into it. Which leaves nothing for the garden. Or the family. (Yep, my priorities were out of whack.) Then two years ago, I hurt my back in the fall. Definitely no working then. Last year I was in the sling because of the shoulder surgery and no working in the garden.

So this is really the first time in a very long while I've done any type of work outside in November. And wouldn't you know it, I learned something new.

We have these burning bushes. One is out by the fence (that's the one on Day 224) and then we have a couple right at the entrance of the rose garden. They're a good bush in the summer, and I love their bright red leaves in the fall. But as I found out today, there are more to them than just their leaves.

As I was exiting the garden I noticed these bushes also have gorgeous orange berries with purple coverings.

In all the years we've had these burning bushes, I never knew it. And if I hadn't forced myself to work outside today for a bit, I would have missed such a colorful sight.

Day 256 of 365

While lots of things happen in the movie Thelma and Louise, there's a line that has resonated with me. My idea of happiness, contentment, bliss.

We'll be drinking margaritas by the sea, mamacita.

I always thought if I had no worries, no responsibilities, and could drink margaritas by the sea, things would be okay with the world.

One Thanksgiving I had the chance. My husband had a Social Studies conference in Florida the week before Thanksgiving. We traveled along and spent our days at DisneyWorld while he was in meetings. When the conference was over we went to Clearwater Beach for the Thanksgiving holiday. Stayed in a hotel right on the beach. And on Thanksgiving Day as we sat there by the pool, I drank margaritas. No worries, no problems, no responsibilities.

And yet, no bliss.

That thing I held up as the representation of what happiness would be, didn't turn out to be. I went all the way to Florida and had a great trip, but happiness in that very moment eluded me.

I think about happiness a lot. Or maybe it's contentment or bliss. I do know, now more than ever, that I'm more happy at home than anywhere else. It's not about the dollars in the bank, the stuff in my house, or the travels I've taken.

It's right here, right now. It's when I write, when I read, when I take pictures, when I sew. I'm just as happy sitting on the couch reading a magazine as I am sitting on a beach drinking margaritas.

Traveling through the town of Bliss with my mom, this sign (and the surrounding view) got me thinking about that happiness factor again. Dilapidated, run-down buildings and unkempt empty lots welcome us to Bliss, Idaho.

Not quite what I would define as bliss.