After more than 30 consecutive days with temps 110+ (and a record number of those hit 115 and above) we are cooling off <g> today; the predicted high will 'only' be 108.  But by Wednesday we climb back into the Extreme Heat numbers.  

I should have been at the hot springs in the mountains of Colorado these past couple of weeks, but sadly decided to cancel my annual trip due to concerns about my back/leg pain.  At least I can brag that I survived July 2023 in Phoenix!  And while we never did reach 120 here, we did make it to 119 several times.

I filled up with gas this morning while it was still cool (that's recommended, has something to do with helping the air quality.)  My odometer is just about to hit 100,000, which is usually when I get a new vehicle.  But since I'm hardly putting on any miles these days, I've decided to hang onto this vehicle.

While I was hibernating inside, hiding from July's blast, I did whip up a number of baby quilts for charity.

The colors are really off in this photo.  The rail fence fabrics (not really bright enough for my liking) were in one of the scrap bags I was gifted, and both border fabrics came from my stash.

Also in one of the bags was a stack of already pieced 9-patches, though in "blah" fabrics.  It was easy enough to rifle through my brights, cut squares to set between them, and voila - a much more colorful quilt emerged.

Babies see black & white first.  When I found some miscellaneous black/white/red blocks in one of the scrap bags, I added some of my ladybug fabrics.  Because what kid doesn't like ladybugs?

Everything for this top came out out of my stash (and I still have more of the red and blue versions of the baby toys, which I used some years ago to make a couple of twin sized quilts.)  I also have plenty more of the coordinating rust, blue, and tan fabrics, though I am running low on the brown border batik, which worked great to pull out the rust and blue.

I used some of my leftover blocks and fabrics from Sammy's quilt to make these two.

Scraps from a cute cat panel were enough to create the center of this one, and after adding some paw prints and a bright border it turned out large enough for a baby. 

One remaining pinwheel was the 'inspiration' for this.  Everything pulled from my stash, and the dark border is actually a deep purple; sadly the color is off in the photo.

U.S. Dogs are special and there are oodles of national (and international) holidays to prove it. But unlike most of our doggy days, National Mutt Day, on July 31, focuses on the mixed breed dogs who sometimes get overlooked.

The happy day back in 2019 that this mutt joined the family!

Amazingly Brownie has still been sunbathing all month, despite 24-hour access to the air conditioned house via his dog door (that's his welcome mat at the bottom of the photo) plus plenty of shade on the porch and on the grass under the trees.

THIS was the air temperature in the shade on the porch as he was basking in the sun -

and of course the cement is much hotter than the air.  In fact the news has been full of stories about record numbers of patients in hospitals with third degree burns (!) after coming in contact with roads and sidewalks.  This graphic is only goes up to 97 degrees, so obviously the concrete and asphalt numbers have been much higher this past month!   

 

And speaking of dogs - today is National Mutt Day.

U.S. Dogs are special and there are oodles of national (and international) holidays to prove it. But unlike most of our doggy days, National Mutt Day, on July 31, focuses on the mixed breed dogs who sometimes get overlooked.