welcoming august plus a backyard update


I hope everyone is enjoying the summer months!

My visiting family flew home yesterday (sniffle).

During their visit I somehow managed to end up in urgent care (with what I thought was strep throat, but turned out to be a sinus infection) just two weeks after my emergency room visit which was one week after my 'sliced my leg open' injury, so am hoping I am done with medical emergencies for awhile.

On the bright side the strange left leg rash I have been trying to avoid thinking about for the last two years has miraculously almost disappeared. Is this all TMI? I agree ... I just can't help myself though.

We finished the semi-inground pool just in time - hopefully in September we will figure out what to do about that concrete block wall under the ground and open area (yikes) next to the pool wall before someone gets a foot stuck in there!

The extra depth in the middle of the pool (it is 5' deep in the center) was well worth the extra money - it makes the pool feel so much more like an in-ground than above ground. I highly recommend it to anyone planting an above ground pool in the ground like we have.

New post over on my other blog - the Armchair Astrologer today if you are following the stars. Now it's time for me to get back to business (my retail has been open, but my wholesale peeps have been extremely patient with me this July!) - it would have been nice if hubs and I had taken an actual vacation for us, but hopefully we will have a few evenings in the backyard pool in August that make up for all this summer work. As my grandma would say I am bone tired, folks! xo all

Jupiter Moves into Leo - do you feel LUCKY?

Jupiter changes signs on July 16th; moving from Cancer into Leo. Jupiter loves drama. Leo loves drama. The drama will be IMMENSE - pull up a chair (yes, a recliner) and make some popcorn (not the kind with the fake butter though)!

Jupiter takes about 12 years to circle through the zodiac so spends a little over one year in each sign. He is masculine energy and rules both Pisces and Sagittarius; the 9th and 12th houses.

If your age is divisible by 12 (24, 36, 48, 60, etc) you were probably born with Jupiter in Leo (check your natal chart HERE) and this year will be even more special for you - it's your Jupiter return, you lucky duck!

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system - in fact if we put all the other planets and the moon and all the asteroids and all the meteors and comets together on a scale - mighty Jupiter would still outweigh them. Astrophysicists believe he was almost our second sun (and he definitely thinks so, too).

Jupiter graciously generates more heat than he receives from the sun - and is associated with expansion, generosity and abundance.

Jupiter is the space that views our life as a journey of prosperity and expansion - from the moment we are born he is widening our vista, nudging us toward new horizons and whispering shouting in our ears GROW dammit!

So we have the planet of abundance and more moving into the sign (Leo) of abundance and more!

This is an especially powerful year for Leos (sun, ascendants and moons - they need only be brave to have Jupiter with them every step of the way) and also the other fire signs - Aries and Sagittarius (and the air signs, too) and everyone will find the house in their natal chart holding Leo expanding in a good way with this transit!

Read more about this on my Armchair Astrologer blog.