Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Summer Projects & a lil' bit of fun

Mid -July already! Before you know it, it'll be time to take out the Autumn decorations; and don't think I'm not already thinking of them! I actually have some *new to me* Halloween decorations in my parlor right now! I acquired them from a dear friend who happily LOVES Halloween but sadly is in the middle of a divorce. She has a huge amount of old fashioned style and unusual Halloween stuff and must part with a good deal of it now that they are selling the house :(  So sad to see a marriage end. I thank God for what I have and the husband I love.

Anyway, she has been parting with some items from her home and giving them to me so I am in such a Fall mood even though it is VERY hot outside. She collected traditional Halloween (what I like) 
I am grateful for all the goodies. I want to start EARLY this year! I don't decorate for Halloween until the end of September but I do completely prepare my home for Autumn. My favorite time of year is Autumn--the colors, the smells, the things we do ---- my favorite time of year! I thrive in it! I want to prepare my centerpieces and wreaths and tablescapes ahead of time so that I can just put them out instead of just starting to create in Septemeber! We are supposed to have some heavy duty storms this afternoon/evening and that is going to break our heat wave so this is a good time for me to pull out my idea note books to find all the clippings and notes I keep for decorating and crafts and see exactly what I want to do this year! I love a good storm! But I didn't care too much for them Sunday night! We lost power for 6 hours and "Praise in the Park" was postponed. Our church was having a worship and praise event in Northport Village at the bandstand out under the stars....Postponed due to weather.

The sun hasn't stopped my son though. He may be only 13, but he has an interest in our home and yard like no other kid I know! As I always mention, one part of our yard suffered from extensive damage last year from Hurricane Irene. We lost 5 trees and it uprooted our large brick patio in many places and ruined bushes and plants. My son decided to fix the patio on his own (like Father, like Son) and that boy worked outside long and hard. No thought of going into our neighbor's pool even though he was repeatedly invited. No thought of coming inside to the air conditioning where I was :) nooooo he had to get it done and do it right and what a great job he did. He was beaming when his Dad came home that night and saw his work and complimented him! All those brickwork pictures...that's courtesy of my son's hard work.

I've been doing some little projects around here...I repainted and weathered the little chair I bought from Stormville. I haven't put it out yet but when I do I will show you! Billy and I cleaned up our old woodburning stove that we have for many years from Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania. We bought it at a salvage yard a good ten years back and it's very rusted as it has been outside for about thirty years! We transferred her to a garden bed after she was cleaned up. Next year I think I will have gerraniums in pots coming out of the open spots on top. Wouldn't that look sweet?  Originally we had planned to clean her up and use her as a table somewhere but when we placed her in the garden, she looked like she was home!

I made some chocolate bananas the other day! The kids loved them. I hadn't had them since I was about 5! I was buying fruit one day and some times the kids like strawberries dipped in chocolate. Then I saw the bananas and thought I will make chocolate frozen bananas so I bought the box and made them! Yummy! We had them when we came home from the beach and it was so refreshing. My husband has been working 7 days a week and when he came home one night he wanted to take his jet skiis out for a bit to cool down and unwind after a long, hard day. We went down to the beach which is the next town over,(literally 5 minutes away) and we had such a nice time. The kids enjoyed the water and then they took turns riding with their Dad.












We've also been moving my Mom into her new senior living apartment. That's been a long ordeal as my Mom is like me and has lots of stuff! It is taking a while but we are almost done.I borrowed some cookbooks from her from Bisquick. I  love "brand" style cookbooks...I have one that I love from Hidden Valley, Old El Paso, Hellmans and I subscribe to Kraft Food & Family. I look forward to sitting on my porch going through those Bisquick recipes! I know my Mom always made a number of their "Impossible Pie" recipes.

I sure have been enjoying Pinterest! How about you gals? Have a lovely day!

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