Feels Like Fall to Me!

Feels like October here this morning and that sure makes me smile! I just love crisp, cool days. It makes me energized to do all the Fall things I love! It makes me want to decorate, craft, nest, cook, be outside in nature...everything! We are looking forward to a few festivals happening around and then soon it's upstate for apples. I saw the above sign on the internet and LOVED it. It turns out it's a doormat. What a great sign it would  make. There must be one around somewhere. I'll have to check the next time I'm in Sleepy Hollow. We recently had a great dinner in Sleepy Hollow and the stores were already getting ready for the season.

How far have you gotten with your decorating? I have all my Fall up but I still add things. Halloween boxes are down in the shed and ready to go but not till the end of the month. I was lucky thrifting this week and picked up a  few goodies to add for Halloween and just some stuff in general...

An adorable cloth wall hanging: 

A ceramic ghost (sorry, a little blurry) and this great old felt pumpkin bucket type item:

This was a great find still in the box. Dept 56 Up Up & Away Witch for only $3! The witch revolved around and around circling the ground below. Perfect for my Halloween village. This originally retailed for $50 so that was a great buy!

She revolves around by electric. So cool to see.

This little yarn pumpkin guy. I have a love for pumpkins with felt faces. Like the bucket above too. Look how sweet he is. Couldn't pass him up for 25 cents!

Non Halloween items include these sweet little piggies in a sack. I kept passing them by on the shelf and looking at other things. 

Then I saw the eyes.... Look closely..they are saying "take us home, take us home.." Home they came...

A great ceramic turkey for Thanksgiving! Love me some turkeys!

And this ceramic rabbit. I know she's from the the 90's but she was still sealed in her box and I thought she would look pretty sitting in my parlor especially since I am getting a new couch today. I'm gonna sit her on the edge of the couch. She has a ceramic head and lovely clothes.

Not bad, right? I was happy! My friend Mary added to the collection of collectible shops she gave me (if you remember from an earlier post they are musical and the items in the window revolve. )This  time she gave me the Soda Fountain. It plays Rock Around The Clock and the door opens and a lady exits with a tray.

She has, I think, one more to give me and that is the auto repair shop. I need to find a place  for these. I had them on a shelf but now they don't fit as the collection grows! 

Caitlin and I are making plans for our Halloween party. We are just in the planning stages but have decided to make it a small Halloween party/sleepover. Maybe ten girls. We are going to have games,crafts,  food, and then movies...with lots of little frights for them throughout the evening once they settle down for the evening to watch.... We are thinking spiders in the sleeping bags, bumps in the night and foot steps...nothing terrifying just a little scares to make it fun! Plus a few tricks! 

Have a great weekend!

More Fall Decorating!

Good Morning! It's just like an Autumn morning here today! Cool and crisp. I am loving it so much! I hope you are all having weather you love too! I've been decorating for Fall (not Halloween yet) and I'm just about done. Below is some of my front porch:

It's so much fun to open the boxes and take out some of my favorite things.

Everything lights up with small white lights. I love that.

I had some cousins visit this last Saturday and made that apple cake I told you about. If anyone needs a nice apple loaf cake recipe, shoot me an email at blackbird365@aol.com and I'll pass it on.

It was perfect with a nice cup of coffee. 

Hope you have a great day!

Saturday Surprise

This past Saturday, my sister-in-law visited and gave me this incredible surprise! A Halloween pumpkin coach! She saw it in the Christmas Tree Shop and said it was all by itself in the middle of an aisle and there were none around it... the only one...She snatched it up and put it in her shopping carriage for ME! She said as soon as she saw it, she knew she had to buy it. Funny thing is, as she was walking through the store, people were asking "where did you find that?"  and "what aisle was that?" and she said "I don't know. It was just there!" Isn't it cool? It has a place for a candle in the center so I got a large battery operated pillar for it. There is a seat for a driver so perhaps I will find just the right witch! It's pretty large and made of metal! A wonderful surprise from a wonderful sister-in-law! Thanks Linda!

I've gotten some more Fall decorating done. I keep adding and changing my foyer table:

I also decorated a little chair in the foyer:

Little by little, box by box! I also completed a couple more rooms in my tower but I have to get better photos. The ones I took have a glaring shine and you can't see the image well.

I'm making a new dessert recipe for some company I'm having for lunch on Saturday. An Apple loaf cake with brown sugar! I'll let you know if it's a keeper!

Have Fun!

This may be the last official weekend of Summer but never fear! You'll get another one next year! :)   Enjoy this lovely Labor Day weekend. I hope you all are doing what it is you would like to do and that the weather cooperates with your plans. Bbqs perhaps? yard sales? We were sitting on our porch last night talking about what a great Summer it has been though it did go by very quickly! We packed in a lot of fun. A couple of short trips, day trips, bbqs, beach, bowling, library programs, VBS,  garage sales and lots of crafting. I read several books I wanted to in between my house work and fun stuff. My husband got to take some extra days off this Summer which is always great and we had some days where we just stayed home with each other and had firepits and smores. A fun time! There's still this weekend for more fun and we have some nice plans. School begins Wednesday! 4th grade for Caitlin and 10th grade for Billy. Let the Fall begin I say!

Today I am putting up all my silk leaves on my windows and doors. I've been dying to do this and also put some more Fall around. I was trying to hold off so that the kids didn't think I was rushing them back to school! I just love my Fall and have a hard time containing my enthusiasm for it and the colors and decorations.  I crafted two more rooms for my Halloween candy tower...I have to photograph it today. One of the rooms is pumpkin patch..wait and see.   I made some ornaments for my Halloween tree. This is one of them almost done..

Some Fall decorating...I love decorating my foyer. This is just the beginning.

I picked up these great woven placemats at a yard sale. Four of them for $1.

This grainy looking picture is through a screen in my window. It's the chestnut tree in my backyard. Leaves are falling off at a rapid pace. Fall is coming! Yippee!

Here's Missy Moo Moo and Jinxieboo relaxing....don't you wish you could sleep so soundly at night?            

         

Monday, Monday!

Another Monday upon us..I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. My son has been working with my husband as many days as he can this Summer and so happy learning my husband's craft and earning money as well. It warms my heart when I see the two of them leave the house in the morning together as buddies even though I hate waking them up and disturbing their sleep :(  When I open my son's bedroom door in the darkness of the early morning, little Jinxie comes running in too meowing and meowing as if to say "wake up Billy! wake up Billy!"And then off they go to start another day! School opens September 3rd so I want the kids to enjoy their remaining days. I find (with Caitlin) that I can ease the "return to school" with telling her about all the fun things we have to look forward to in Fall! Apple picking, pumpkins, Halloween, leaves plus we are going to be visiting  a new flea market we never went to in September and more. You have to give them something to look forward to no matter how small! It helps! Trust me!     

Last year I decorated an unpainted bird house I had purchased from AC Moore. 

I had so much fun! I discovered I had one more to do so that's what I worked on yesterday. 

                                                                                       

Here is the rear view:

Simple and easy....Today if I have a chance I want to work on some ornaments for my Halloween tree too and I have an idea for another section of my candy house tower...

Caitlin was in the toy closet the other day and pulled out an old family favorite--Lincoln Logs. She spent a rainy day building and playing. Sometimes it's so great to rekindle an old friendship  Caitlin/Lincoln Logs! 

Amazing toys that build their imagination no matter what age cause when my husband came home that night, he was building log houses too!

Have a great day!

Halloween Crafting Has Begun!

It's another chilly night here! We've had some nights go into the 50's...I'm loving it! The house is cool, and I love sleeping with the windows open. Turning off the air conditioner in August! Amazing! It just accelerates my eagerness for Fall too! The cats were all snuggly cause they were chilly! Little Jinxieboo was in a deep slumber on the couch. He's such a cutie.

So back to the crafting...remember when I received the candy display from CVS last year? Look above...I had decided to do each space into a vignette and I did my first one! I had been putting it off because I couldn't pin myself down to actually start it....I wanted to do something so badly but started over thinking it. Finally I just started and the fun began. My first room is done. How does it look?

I love the witch! She's flying high above! And the ghost lights up too.

Room #1 complete...planning for room #2....Have a great weekend!

Shorter Days and Lemonade Stands

The days of August are going by quickly. Trying so hard to slow them down and savor each day but the days are marching on. Let them be filled with the last of all that Summer offers--warm days and cooler nights, fireflies and bbq's. We had lunch on our porch yesterday. This week included walks through a beachy town and icecream. Simple days and quiet nights. Billy and I have sat on our porch many nights this Summer in our rockers enjoying the evening. We watch Caitlin do her cartwheels and feed peanuts to a blue jay who knows how much we enjoy sitting sitting  outside. He visits us every night. I always look forward to my favorite season Fall, but I have enjoyed this Summer. It has had its share of troubles with my Mom's health and my son's stomach disease but overall a very nice Summer. Thank you Lord! You always coax me to see the positives.

And who could resist buying drinks and snacks from these two? Not many because they made $43.00 in three hours! That's my Caitlin in the pink and her bff Jackie. They sold drinks, popcorn, chocolate chip cookies and rice krispy treats! All .25 each! So much fun!

Everybody needs a bff, right? I have a few. One of them, Cheryl, brought me over this lovely bouquet of flowers all from her garden and look what she put them in? One of those special Coke bottles with words and this one says "Friends"....

Really touched me...but I'm sensitive like that. 

We visited Michaels the other day...oh my goodness, there were such good sales and so many craft projects I would like to start. I was so happy to see they are now stocking some miniatures! How nice it seems that more and more people are crafting again because I noticed such a large variety of new craft ideas and oldies brought back. Perhaps because our weather situation has changed dramatically over the last few years where we get even more snow and our cold weather starts sooner that people are thinking of nesting? Crafting on a long cold night? Who wants to leave their cozy house when the wind blows when you can stay home and spend a nice family evening and make something special? It's just my guess. Even Walmart by us is back to stocking a full craft section and they brought back fabrics and materials last year. They had been missing for a long time. Hurray! I'm so happy to see that. From long range weather predictions, we should be having a very cold September and may even have our first snow by Thanksgiving!! I would like a very chilly Fall..more excuses for hot apple cider and pie...You now I'm right :)

I picked up this mason jar with the tea light candle suspension in the lid from Michaels. It also has a little chalkboard on the front so you could write something. I filled it with some mini pumpkins.

 

More fun things I picked up were these wooden signs to paint. Caitlin and I each got a few. We picked up some Martha Stewart Craft Paint too to make them Halloweenish.

I had a couple of other things to show you that I took out from the attic....

My swan received a new neck ornament complete with Fall leaves....and my friend Mary had given me these adorable little shops. They are musical and what is in the "window" revolves.

 The pet shop plays "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?" and the Sport Shop plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

Mary said she started purchasing these when she first got married in 1982. She would find them in card shops. She said she has some more for me. She's downsized all her collections. 

Have a great day friends!