Getting Ready for Halloween Part 1

                The holidays are rolling in faster than I can keep up with.  How's that possible!!!
         I was sure that once I "retired" I'd have all the time in the world to do everything I dreamed
                       of doing for the holidays when I was working.  What the heck!

          I did get most of my indoor decorations up (minus a couple of projects I am working on).


                                                      First Up:  Halloween Mantel

My husband is the one with the Jim Shore Halloween collection.

He's been at it for quite a number of years now.

I added a Halloween banner this year.  I saw something very similar on line

last month but I haven't been able to find it again to give credit to that idea. 

 ;-(

just made out of layers of scrapbook paper and ribbon

and of course my pumpkin obsession

magically becomes jack o'lanterns this time of year

love how that happens

******************************

then the black crows start appearing throughout the house

just bits and pieces scattered around letting us know that magical 

candy day will soon be here

our little trick-or-treaters that a friend of mine (Ronnie) made more than 

20 years ago that my kids and now the grandkids really love

over the years we've lost track of each other but I wish she knew

how much joy they've brought us over the years

I saw this idea from Dixie Delight's blog last year and we're giving it a try

hope I can accomplish everything on the list this month

some may be a little hard to do since I live in Florida

but we've already half way through

Go by her blog for a visit.  She is absolutely delightful, sweet, lovely

and has the most magnificent ideas for parties and decorating.

my babies when they were little trick or treators

my grandbabies last year

there's more to do outside and a few projects I'm working on now

but we are are about ready for the treating to begin

and now off to finish some cookies for a special little someone's birthday

Linking up to Dagmar's Momsense

Remembering to be grateful in all things:

824.  remembering long ago friends

825.  a project with my mom today

826.  spending extra time with family this month

827.  pumpkin bread

829.  the color orange

830.  finally finding a box of chia tea latte for mike

831.  3 phone calls with Kelly, Makenzie and Brody this week

832.  Carrie taking the night shift for me on Friday :-)

833.  seeing my nieces twice this week

834.  Jessica's sweet friends celebrating Eli

835.  plane tickets made for a gotcha day

836.  moms who work hard to make their baby's birthdays special

First Annual GNO Crafting Sleepover

                             we just had our first annual gno crafting sleepover this past friday.
                        it was such fun that I barely documented (by pictures of course) anything.
                                                                    so unlike me.......

            even though I'm calling it first annual, we actually decided to change up our monthly
                            gno's for the rest of this year into a gno crafting night.  fun!!!

         we kept it light for the first time and ended up only doing one of the projects i'd planned on.

          we each got a canvas and either did mixed media or a painting of something fall themed.
        i actually didn't get mine done in time to document because I was "trying" to explain the mixed
            media concepts i learned in the "Creatively Made" online art course i took.  i think i make
                   a better student than teacher but my girls are talented so they did such a great job.


                                     we learned one very important lesson.  "it's only a craft"
                                                    (thank you carol for our new motto)

kathie

gail

debbie g.

my first students   ;-)

i really didn't want to post this picture

i'm not happy with how i look

how out of shape i am

no make up 

no hair style

however, i love my "girls" and wanted proof I was there

thanks debbie g. for the lovely flowers 

in my "favorite color orange"

by the way, my loving orange so much is gail's influence

i kinda stole her favorite color

and the coffee station you brought

****************************

thanks gail for making the pumpkin cream cheese ebelskivers in 

honor of fall and the harvest moon

yes, our crafting sleepover was on the harvest moon

how cool is that

****************************

and

finally, thanks kathie for making mike's favorite lemon bars

and yes he did share "one or two" with me

the best friends a girl could ever have

and now i'm off to a high school football game

                                               

Fall Football

One of the activities we get to enjoy in the fall is the high school football games.  Which I've pretty much done most of my life.  My brother was in the band and I was a majorette so all of our high school
years were spent at the "Friday Night Lights".   Then my younger sisters were also majorettes so I would go and see them.   One of my girls was in color guard and one did percussion so I was there for their high school years.  My first granddaughter is now a high school cheerleader and has actually been cheering since third grade in Pop Warner leagues so I've pretty much been going to the games, well forever.  I finally made it to my first game this season because of rain cancellations and far away games.  I'll be the first to admit, I'm not to big on actually watching the game.  Maybe it's because I've never had a football player to watch, but I try to watch, cheer on and encourage the best I can.  I got a few pictures of Taylor  (not my best and the lighting was really off) but I wanted to document it anyway.

                                                 So much fun to watch you sweet girl:

I wish I'd gotten the picture a second earlier, in mid air doing her 

back hand springs.  

                       

Her little brother and biggest fan.  He's constantly calling for her to look up at him.

"Sister!!!, Sister!!!, Sister!!!"

............................

and please disregard the mouth full of candy that I may or may not have 

bribed him with so he would  sit by me

Hoping you're fall is off to a great start!

Happy Birthday Boyscout

Today is my hubby's (aka: boyscout) birthday.  I had all kinds of plans for him today.  Lunch, movie,
a walk through Lake Eola (a landmark park in our city's history) and home for dessert.  But instead,
mypoor boyscout is very sick with about the worst cold/sinus infection/chills/yuckiness ever.  So I'm
just trying to keep him comfortable while still trying to stay as far away as possible.  I'm just saying...
I do have my GNO crafty sleepover this Friday.

So it's Panera bagels, lots of medicine, ginger ale,  tomato/roasted pepper soup, a movie at home and pumpkin pie for dessert.   Good thing the Avengers came out on DVD today.

                               
                                   A few pictures from our little family celebration on Saturday

And since I won't be taking any pictures today;

instead I'll put in one from last year on our tour 

of the northeast for his birthday at Thomas Jefferson's home.

Well, actually his grape vineyard.

Happy Birthday babe.

Pumpkins........

I've begun the annual placing of the pumpkins around the house.  Truth be told I'd probably keep
them up year round if I thought I could get away with it.  But on September 1st, the Great Pumpkin.....  Oh wait, that's a different story.  Anyhow, I've begun my pumpkin quest.  Every year I try to find a new one to join my "pumpkin" family.    Maybe this year I'll try to be creative a make one.  I'm really like the white ones that are so popular now.

The first thing I had to do was make pumpkin bread.  It's not fall until the pumpkin recipes

come out.  I'm am totally in love with my Nora Fleming platter.  I've admired it for 

quite a long time on Paige's blog (Simple Thoughts)  and I finally got one.  

The pumpkin decoration in the corner is interchangeable.  

I also have the turkey for Thanksgiving.  My sweet hubby ordered the 

storage case and a few more decorations to go in it for our upcoming anniversary but he's

doing a good job of keeping it hidden until then.  

And of course the candy corn flavored m & ms.   They're delicious but

very sweet so you can actually eat one or two at a time and stop.  

Aren't they cute. 

We've got our wreaths out.  I've seen such cute ones out there in blog world

but I kind of like the simple leaves.  I'm thinking about putting an initial in the center though.  

We were hoping that putting out the fall flag would bring on the cooler weather.

No such luck!!  I'm really jealous happy for all of you who

are blessed with weather in the 60s and 70s.  

my new center piece

lantern from Kohls (50% off)

owl from Kohls (50% off)

two small beaded garland strands  from Michaels (50% off)

I'm just realizing there's finger prints all over glass. 

;-(

and apparently I need to dust

My family tree that I finally printed the pictures for.  I've had it for one year already.

It's from Hallmark  and I really love it.  I might change the pictures 

out for black and whites.    Maybe next year.  

If you sign up for the Gold Crown card you'll get a 40% off  coupon on your birth month

 which makes the tree reasonable if you're a tree person, which I totally am.

Love my big resin pumpkins above and below.  We got them several years ago

at Big Lots.  Sadly they haven't had them since then.   If you turn it  around it's

a jack-o-laterns.  Great for Halloween.

Our golden wooden leaf was from our trip to Vermont when we visited a 

maple tree farm.  That was such a great memory.

I try to have at least a small pumpkin or two in every room.

This was my one "new" pumpkin from last year.  The velvet pumpkin with

the real stem.  

Of course my favorite little pumpkins come from "Our lil' pumpkin patch"

All our grandbabies in their pumpkin costumes when they were babies.

one of my favorite spaces

 where we watch our holiday specials and Disney movies and 

where we read our books and cuddle

with the grandkids

Lots of fun things happening this week.

we celebrated Mike's birthday on saturday

my nephew had a house warming party for his first house on sunday

having my GNO girls over for a crafting sleepover on this friday

spending the week getting ready with fun creative ideas

and yummy recipes 

I'm working on a project 

that I have in mind for November.

My blessing tree.  

I finished the tree.  It's made of felt.

I will be making leaves to pin on every day of the month and as we

 pin on the leave, we will write down a blessing, place in a jar and 

read it on Thanksgiving.

I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out so far.

It's 36" x 36"

and speaking of blessings, hopefully this time

next month our sweet little nephew will be home with his forever family

Meet Eli

we love him so much already

Eli and his mommy, our niece Jessica.

Remembering to be grateful in all things:

814.  Eli

815.  Jessica and Nick's heart for adoption

816.  counting our blessings

817.  pumpkin bread

818.  a young nephew starting out in his own place

819.  pumpkins in the stores

820.  family get-togethers

821.  birthday celebrations

822.  autumn

823.  re-reading 1000 gifts

Joining Ann's place for Multitudes on Mondays.