It's Beginning to Look a lot like Halloween!

Fall is our most favorite time of year, but has never brought about a flurry of fall decorating.  Some pumpkins on the porch, a few little jack-o-lantern lights inside, a big bowl full of candy for Halloween that seems to disappear before the 31st, and we are good to go.  After all, we go full on for the Christmas season!

This year, our fall season has started out very dreary and super rainy, so we tried to lighten the mood a little with some cheerful yellow mums and bright orange pumpkins.  (And the most awesome geraniums ever.  That crock was from my grandparent's house, and my grandmother was a pro at growing geraniums full of blooms.  Every geranium we have ever put in there has bloomed beautifully.)

The mums are just starting to open up, so we are hoping that they last a while!

And, then it rained and rained some more.  Being cooped up inside during the fall is not my favorite.  But, an idea grew in my head of a fun halloween decoration that we could make inside and hang in between showers.  During a trip to see a friend out of town, we were driving around a beautiful neighborhood and saw the coolest spiderweb/spider decoration hooked to the trunk of an old tree.  The idea turned over and over in my head until I thought of a way we could do it at our house.  This is what we came up with:

And, we absolutely love it!  For a grand total of $5.50, we have an oversized spiderweb to grace our front porch!  I think the irony is my husband just painted the ceiling "haint blue" to try to keep the spiders away.  But, more about that when we finally get to hang up our new porch lights.  (Did I mention it has been raining and raining?)



To make the spiderweb, we just took a roll of clothesline rope and worked and tied until we had a basic spiderweb form.  Then we suspended our two spider friends with fishing line from the hooks along the ceiling for holiday lights.

After that, I was in the Halloween spirit and added bats flying up to the belfry on our wall pocket planter using some vinyl with my Silhouette machine.

So now, we are all decked out and hoping that the spiders don't fly off the front porch in a wind storm!

And one last glimpse of the geraniums with their creepy crawly friends!

How are you decorating for Halloween?

Time for a Pink Out!

At work today, we are having a "pink out" in support of Breast Cancer Awareness and to kick of the month of October.  It was a great time to reflect while sitting at our dining room table, making all of the little pink ribbons that we would be wearing--while thinking about all of those that have lost loved ones and all of the fighters and survivors out there.  Our prayers go out for a cure!

The Apple-Jack Sandwich

I am not usually one to try to create my own culinary masterpiece.  I leave it to the true professionals and carefully follow their directions.  But, one day, after watching way too may episodes of "Chopped," I thought of a sandwich creation that might actually work.  It also incorporates an ingredient that I truly love--apple butter.  There is not too much to this, but it sure does change it up when you eat a peanut butter sandwich everyday!

Ingredients:

Sourdough bread

Apple

Apple Butter

Cheddar Jack Cheese Slices

Spread the apple butter on the bottom slice of bread.  Slice the apple into thin pieces and layer on top of the apple butter.  Lay the cheddar-jack on top of the sliced apples.  Top the sandwich with a piece of bread.  Pop in the toaster over to let the cheese melt.  Then, gobble it up!  It is fall on a plate!

The Magical Disappearing Nine Patch

I am very excited about the small quilt piecing project that I just completed.  The results are so incredible, but it doesn't take too much to excite me when something actually works!  I had seen a tutorial on the disappearing nine patch quilt design and loved that it takes something so simple and makes it look so complex.  I used a charm pack (with 5x5 inch squares) to make the sample.

Step One:  Lay out your pieces placing the fabric you like the most in the corners.  These will be the largest blocks in the completed pattern.

Step Two:  Sew the 9-patch block together.

Step Three:  Cut the nine patch blocks into quarters.  Then arrange in a pattern to piece that you find pleasing.  I like the "random" look that I tried to achieve.  You could place the pieces in a way that also appears as if everything is sashed.

Step Four:  Sew the new blocks together, and enjoy the finished result!  I am going to border it out and make it the center of a baby quilt.

Stop and Smell the Clematis

We have been waiting for months and our Clematis vine has finally bloomed!  Hooray!  We purchased it this past spring and it carried with it a pretty hefty price tag for something that I would probably kill, but the color of the flowers was so beautiful.  So we brought it home and planted it as we were revamping the area around our mailbox.

Then all of the flowers fell off.  For a really long time...

Then a couple of weeks ago we saw this:

Hooray for the clematis!  It survived it's initiation to the land of the red clay.  We have certainly enjoyed seeing it thrive a long last!  As for stopping to smell the Clematis, I really didn't.  Those of you who know me know I would have sneezed and blown all of the flowers away again!  ;)

An Afternoon Quilt

I'm pretty proud of myself--I managed to piece most of this quilt this afternoon.  Of course, this is the size of a baby quilt, so that helps things along.  I also kept the points on almost all of my squares!  Definitely progress!  (Don't worry, I won't get a big head!)  I was a little worried that the purple would weigh the quilt down, but it actually helped make the aqua and yellow pieces pop.  I just used a charm pack and cut 5-inch white fabric squares to sew into half square triangles.  Then, I sewed the rows together.  Now to find some backing fabric and binding...Hopefully, the completed project will be ready to show off soon!

Our Craft Space

To take on the commitment of homemade, we created one of my favorite rooms in our home--the craft room.  This room drove me bonkers for two years, until we painted over the peach walls (yikes!) and created the calming, organized space I want to spend hours in working on new projects.  Come take a look around!

Of course, I had to include the seam ripper.  I think I use it more than any other tool!

The storage solution with the drawers and shelves is so versatile.  We simply added stained boards on top to give it more of a built in look.

I love the pegboard.  We had it on hand as a leftover from installing sheets in our utility room.  We simply added spacer boards to allow me to hang pegs on the board to organize sewing and wrapping supplies.

We have two cushy chairs for dreaming!  The addition of casters on a dining chair made my sewing chair super functional.

Of course, polka dots are always required.  I think I would put polka dots on the refrigerator if I could get away with it!  This room is small, but the storage solutions have packed it with potential

I can't wait to see all that we create!