Caution-Halloween in progress

This month I have slowly been putting out more and more Halloween. I'm taking it slow, letting things develop as I go. And I want to spread out my posts about the Halloween decorations this month as well. So here are some in-progress shots to whet your appetite.
This cat is a cutie from Mom. She had a booth at craft fairs for a while, selling paintings and wooden things that Dad had cut out and she painted. This cat is too sweet!

Another cutie, this bat was a Target find last year. Isn't his little smile cute?

Here is the front porch in progress. It consists of branches (painted black) in planters behind the bench and strewn with cobwebs, pumpkins and gourds, my skeleton wreath and a light-up spiderweb on the window. I have more to add too! Can you see my two big helpers in the doorway?

And here are more of those pumpkins and gourds, this time on the dining table. They aren't arranged the way I want yet, some will stay here and some will go on the buffet. These are all from my garden, from seeds I have saved over the years. I love gourds!

I submitted this post to Tip Junkie's Talk to me Tuesday. I love that blog!

Wind-Fall

I visited my parents Sunday. They still live on the farm where I grew up, and on the next farm live my sister and her family. I love the farm and I love my parents. My mom is such a kind person and dad is such a codger! I was glad I made it out there before noon so I got to see him (home for lunch). Do farm people ever really retire? Not when there's grain to haul!

While we sat on the porch, watching the afternoon go by (there were no hummingbirds to keep us on our toes, they've all flown south) I realized a striking difference between my family and Mike's family. A large part of what I like about visiting my family is that we are all comfortable with silence. Just to be together in one place is enough, no one needs to keep up a conversation. You can get lost in your own thoughts while enjoying the company around you getting lost in their own. Don't get me wrong, I love Mike's family. A girl could do SO much worse when it comes to in-laws. But sometimes the chattering gets to be too much for me and I wish I could turn the volume down.

Visiting the farm in the fall means going home with lots of treats! Mom, Sully and I ran around the whole place on the (new, shiny) golf cart picking apples, peppers, herbs to dry and a special fall treat: hazelnuts! Yum, I'm looking forward to making some homemade hazelnut-filled chocolate goodies!

Above are husked nuts, ready to be taken from their shells and roasted quickly in the oven. Below are what they look like in their husks.

Mom also gave me two jars of her rhubarb jam! Delicious! And I had asked a week or so ago if she still had a picture I remember her hanging up every Halloween because I wanted to make a copy to hang myself! She did the mom thing and gave me the original. And a companion print to go along with it! This picture always hung in our entry hall an I remember being scared by it until I was old enough (and tall enough) to see the lady at her dressing table and understand the title "All is vanity."


Next time I'm out at the farm I'll have to take some pictures. The apple tree nearest the milking shed (where we kept chickens and the mules) was SO full of apples and against the white pealing paint of the barn it was quite striking. Also, the "big" barn (think classic barn shape but white, not red) might not be there much longer. Mom is corresponding with someone who buys old barns, takes them apart and relocates them, turning them into houses for (I'm sure) extremely wealthy people. But here's what made me feel wealthy last night:

Some of those apples became skillet apples which I ate over ice cream!

Free motion quilting

Here it is, my very first attempt at machine quilting. No, it's certainly not even throughout but I kind of like it, it's very childlike, like crayon scribbles on a piece of paper. Hopefully the recipient will like it and it was great to get my feet wet and experiment! The next one will be one for me. Or maybe the one after the next one, I do still have one more Linus quilt to finish.

Now available!

In the store now, Yo-settes for Halloween. And soon I'll have some for Christmas and some for everyday that are customizable with your initial!

Swap news and more swap news!

Hooray, I made it into one of Club Little House's juried spots this round! This is doubly good because I couldn't possibly purchase a spot on Friday when they went on sale-I was in the dog show ring! So it was either juried or nothing for me. Now to get to work on my little masterpieces!

In other swap news, I have organized a Swap-Bot swap for pressed pennies. If you like those hand-cranked souvenir squiches pennies then join me! We'll be sending 2 partners each one penny. I squished mine while we were up north! The picture is of some of my pennies in my "Penny Passport" which is a plastic binder made specifically for keeping pressed pennies.

In ever MORE swap news, sign up for the winter round of Lucy's Sassy Apron Swap before Monday and get your name in the drawing to win a copy of my Pillowcase Pinnie Pattern!

Too early?

Ok, so I had the Halloween boxes out of the garage on September 15! Is that too early?

What can I say, I get excited! We do up Halloween big at work, decorating the library and hosting a trick-or-treating party for employees and their kids with hot cider, apples and caramel dip and apple cider doughnuts! And I get to help decorate since my office is IN the library! This year I started gathering ideas early for quick, simple things that would also have a big impact. I've learned that small, cutesy things get lost in a public space. You need to make a statement if you want your decorations to really say "Halloween!" And I've tried to adopt this rule to my home as well, though I do still break out some smaller cutesy things.

One of my first decorations up this year is a new wreath! Inspired by the Hallo-Wreath Challenge, I whipped this one up yesterday. In the past, my wreaths were usually a grapevine wreath with cutesy ghosts, candy corn and some spider webs. I am going for a more spooky/decrepit/haunted look this year so this one is made with branches from our Hawthorne tree (VERY thorny), a dollar store plastic skeleton and a string of orange lights.

It hangs above the mailbox by the front door and is my first outdoor decoration for ANY holiday at the new house! (Well, besides the American flag on flag holidays.) It will be joined by some super-spooky large-scale decorations on the front porch including a giant plastic-bag spider, lots of pumpkins (grown in the backyard) and more of those thorny branches! Pictures later this month.

Craft Contest

Voting has started at the Instructables Craft Skills Contest. I would really appreciate your vote if you are a member or don't mind signing up (free and fun!). Make your own yo-yo table runner!

Here is my entry:
Quilt with yo-yos

Simply click the vote button if you like it. And for any other entries you like, because there are lots of prizes!

Home again, Home again, Jiggity-jog.

We're back home and we had a fun time! Sully earned a second place in his only class. First place went to Sully's foster mom and her lovely little boy, Carl. This being Sully's third leg of his Rally Advanced title, he put a new abbreviation after his name. He is now:

(That means he has his Companion Dog, Rally Advanced, Rally Level 2 (APDT) and Canine Good Citizen titles.)
After the show, we visited family in Wisconsin. Here we are in front of a cow, of course.

Before we left for our trip, I had the brilliant idea that it would be fun to go to garage sales in a different state! So on Saturday morning, we checked the paper and headed out! I got some neat stuff like vintage beaded fruit:

And these three aprons for cheap! I never find aprons so this was a super find!

The one on the left is commercially made and has a tag that says "WISCONSIN HOME CRAFTERS" so it's also a souvenir!

Off to the show

You may not hear anything from me for the next few days because this weekend, we will be at the Lakeshore Pembroke Welsh Corgi Club Annual Specialty Show. This is a regional show just for Corgis that we go to every year! This year we will only be competing in one class, Rally Advanced B, but it's worth the trip to see all of our Corgi friends like Sully's foster mom and the wonderful woman who drove him from WI to his foster home.

And then after the show, we're driving up to see Mike's family! I love Wisconsin, everyone is so friendly and it's such a laid-back pace up there. I hope to get some yard sales and thrifting in and I also want to get some serious knitting and crocheting done in my downtime this weekend. I have a doll dress for a swap and as many hats as I can whip up for Warm-a-Kid!

Wish us luck! And when I get back, Halloween preparations begin in earnest! I am so excited, I have signed up for several Halloween blog events! First up, a wreath for Hallo-Wreath Challenge!

Yummy giveaway!

Lisa's having a yummy giveaway over at her blog! Go check it out!