November felt rough and busy, and I wondered if I learned anything. Some of these things may have been acquired in October, a more educationally productive month. Perhaps the continued filthy air has muddled my thoughts. It certainly messes with my attitude. Sigh.

But let not your heart be troubled; learning continues. . .

1. Barkthins – these are scary good dark chocolate treats that come in 6 flavors. Supposed to be 9 servings per bag. Fall down laughing. Barkthins available on Amazon
2. Tomatoes – Some plants just don’t make fruit in the heat. We planted 4 tomato plants in the spring and harvested about 6 tomatoes during the summer. The bugs and birds got the other 6. Then, when the heat subsided, the tomato plants went nutso. They now contain about 3-4 dozen tomatoes and are taking up twice the space. Guess I’ll have to learn what to do with green tomatoes next month, because we will have to pick them before it freezes. Wish I could remember the variety so I don’t do this again next year.
3. New words: Chatoyant and druzy are 2 words (adjectives) that I learned from my friend Elizabeth, who makes jewelry using beautiful stones. “Chatoyancy” refers to an undulating luminescence, and druzy refers to a stone that is covered by crystals. (I don’t feel equipped to use these words in sentences yet, but I like the sound.) Cruft: a noun that means a. Anything old or of inferior quality; b. Redundant, old or improperly written code, especially that which accumulates over time; clutter.
4. Hand-lettering is a real thing. I volunteered to do some verses on signs for a church event, and holy guacamole, I could not believe how slow and difficult it was to do a good job. This is more about design and drawing than about typography. Turns out that these were practice for the Perfect Gift Boutique! (Need any signs hand-written? Ask me, but please give me more than 2 days to do 17 signs.)
5. Family weddings are the best thing ever. I already knew this, but it was reinforced when we had one in November. Here is my favorite candid photo, not of the bride, but oh so beautiful.
6. Clean Happens is the name of an all purpose cleaner that comes in a spray bottle made by Better Life. I like to keep things very simple, and try to only use 2 cleaning products: ammonia and bleach. Trouble is, those 2 can’t be mixed, so I have to really pay attention. Clean Happens is supposed to do the trick of both those other things. I don’t know what it is made of. I don’t know how well it works yet. November is too busy for messing around with mops and rags – shows to put on, weddings to attend, signs to letter, paintings to complete. Clean Happens is available on Amazon

If you order these 2 products on Amazon by using these links, I will receive a few pennies. That’s called “affiliate marketing”, something I learned about and told you about back in June’s Things I Learned post.

P.S. Today’s oil painting at Anne Lang’s Emporium (YOU’D BETTER DROP WHATEVER PLANS YOU HAVE FOR LUNCH TODAY AND GO HAVE A TURKEY MELT!! – last chance ever)