Happy Fall!

                                                             "I'm so cute, it's scary!"
                                                So much fun, having a baby in the house!

 We went to a local harvest festival, mainly because we saw that they were offering free hot air balloon rides!
It was tethered to the ground, so it only went up a few feet---maybe 20-30 feet? I'm not sure. Hard to judge!

 This little guy has just been noticing the sky the past month or so.  So, you know that when we heard about this opportunity, we had to take him "Up in the Sky!"   That's one of our favorite sayings, right now! We'll say it, and he'll point his cute, chubby little finger up in the air, and tilt his little baby head back so he can see up high!

                                                      The view from inside the balloon!

                               A photo of my husband, with his son and his girlfriend and baby girl.
This was the first day we got to meet the 2 girls! Baby Ella is 7 months here.... {4 months younger than my grandson.} And so cute. She sure looks a lot like her daddy! {And he sure looked a lot like his daddy's baby photos!}

                                         I love these pumpkins... not sure what they're called....
                      Somewhere, on someone's blog, I think I read 'pink pumpkins'.... But, I don't know...

                                           Big Sister, and Little Brother. At the pumpkin patch!

                                                Nanna {me}, with my baby and her babies!

 Pumpkin carving time! {This reminds me of an old blog post photo I posted... gotta look back at it... I think it may have been 2 years ago!}

                            At age 10, Arianna did such an awesome job carving her own pumpkin!
                 And what better carving than a kitten? {Her little brother is in love with kittens right now!}

                                                              Happy Halloween! So cute!

                                                      Painting whiskers on a baby tiger!

 The CIRCUS is in town! There's the RingMaster, holding a Baby Tiger! And a Clown with a Dancing Bear!

                                           a close-up of the dancing bear! Love the eyelashes!

                      Trick or Treating at the mall..... JCPenney's windows were great mirrors!!!

Happy Halloween to all! Hope it was all treats and no tricks for you!  
Is anyone else excited to start listening to Christmas music????  Only 54 days! 

Autumn Candle Giveaway!

http://www.mooreminutes.com/2012/10/goose-creek-candles-cozy-fall-giveaway.html

if you haven't seen this already, head over to Lisa's blog and register for a great scented candle!

Autumn means pumpkin!

autumn....

I love the colors of fall. 

Here's some of my favorite autumn fat quarters, in front of a beautiful Vermont Fall photo....

 A friend of mine went up north this summer, and brought me back some Pumpkin Butter from Intercourse, PA / Amish Country!  And my daughter grabbed these Thomas' Pumpkin Spice Bagels for me, yesterday! YUM! Breakfast was yummy this morning!

Last week, for my birthday, my daughter, Beverly, sent me this Pumpkin Spice liquid for my coffee! Yummy, she knows pumpkin's my favorite!

Carrot/Pumpkin Cookies, with orange icing

Rainy days here, make me want to bake! Since I had found a carrot cookie recipe online last night, and scribbled it on a piece of scrap paper, that would be what I'd be baking today....

 First I threw dinner together, including preparing some carrots...{this recipe I'd found said they'd used canned carrots for the "1 cup of mashed carrots" that it called for.  We don't do much of any canned goods here, but always have fresh carrots around.}

 Once the mixer was running, Arianna came to see what was going on... By this time, the dough was ready to spoon onto sheets... She helped do that, and together we made the orange icing.  In 10 min. the first sheets were coming out of  the oven, and the cookies cooled quick enough that she was put to work icing them...

  I pulled out some of my cute fall dishes to put the iced cookies on.

 Here's a link to the recipe~~~
http://easybaked.net/2012/08/14/carrot-cookies-with-creamy-orange-frosting/#

raining on my flowers....

more Glads, blossoming... {these are my daughters, mine in the background, have already come and gone.}

 a drizzling rain, all day here... cancelled our plans of a day at the beach!

       one of my favorite flowers, is this---a Gerbera Daisy.  I'm so happy to see another blossom ready to open on this one!                       

and the invincible vincas.... through out the hot, HOT, HOT Summer Days, they've blossomed continually.

fabric stash

     I love fabric~~~ 
Especially fall themed, or even just fall colored fabrics!

                     Jewel tones get me, too...., oh yeah, jute, too!

        At Christmas time, I can always find something cute!

These are scraps left from items I've made for my grandbabies. 

and here are some tiny scraps left from dresses made for my daughters, back in the mid-90's, when they were young.
                                             

counting down the days...

5 days til our 7th anniversary.

This man I have loved since the moment I met him {back in '94, when we both were married to others who would eventually cheat on us with others.}  We were friends for a few years, then he moved away in '96, and I saw him once in 2000, and not again until 2004, when I was right in the midst of my nightmare. {I had just found out a few weeks prior, that my husband of just about 20 years had been screwing around with a girl that my parents were godparents to!---and that's only the beginning of that nightmare....but it's enough about it for now.}    When this man came back into my life, at just the right time, we were just friends.  I was enjoying riding on the back of his motorcycle, and just starting to breathe again, after weeks of crying all day and night.  He taught me so much {one of the qualities I'd always admired about him was the wisdom he had--I could sit and listen to him talk for hours}.  Anyhow, one night, at the top of the ferris wheel, our lives changed with one kiss.  And exactly one year from that kiss, we had a beautiful wedding with many friends and family around us.  That was 2005.  We had a couple of fun years together, and then a summer was spent with him having heart operations.  That slowed us down a little, but the big slow down came the following year--2008, he had a major stroke.  He didn't lose his ability to speak {but he lost his beautiful singing voice}. He didn't lose his wisdom, though he doesn't share it as much, and he gets tired so easily now.  He did lose the use of his left side, both arm/hand and leg/foot.  And his lung problems have intensified since the stroke, so that slowed down any physical therapy he's been able to do.  But, he still is my love, and such a wonderful caring person.



21 days til I turn 46. {I feel like I've gained a year!--I thought I was 46 already!}

Wow! How did I miss a whole year of being only 45? {Only 45...what?!! ONLY!!! only should be used for ages under 25!}  The only request I have for my birthday is for someone to make me a 'pumpkin roll' {recipe on the Libby's can of pumpkin!}.... and maybe some unexpected little surprise gifts!


and....


Can you believe it? It'll be here before you know it!

the culprit!

                                                           
                                        see next post for details!

Bombs Away!~~~

This is a magnolia seed pod.... They're falling all over my lawn, now that the flowers are done blooming.  {Yeah, that's sand, not snow! We're in Florida!}

 Here's one, still intact, it hasn't dried up enough yet to see all the red seeds inside.

 I was relaxing for a few minutes, in my hammock, and was being bombed by a squirrel! He was chewing up these red seeds, and spitting them at me... okay, so maybe he dropped them, but he sure did drop alot!!!!

 I finally had to turn around, and let him drop them on my feet... I'd had enough of slimy chewed up seeds falling on my FACE!!!!

**had to add a little note---I'm sitting inside at the computer, and I now hear these big pods being dropped onto my roof!  He just won't stop!

Remodeling with my mother

oh, no! I'm gonna have to re-learn how to blog.... I have yet to figure out this new way... So, here goes!

It's been 2 weeks since my mother flew back home.... ---She had been here for 3 weeks, and just about every day of that time she and I were working on the house my parent's bought nearby.

Here's a few pix of the work we did....{If I can figure out how to post! ---Hope they'll be in order!}


 ok, so this is the BEFORE picture... {in case you couldn't tell! --Definitely Yuck!}
 This house hadn't been lived in for at least 3 years... Stood empty {and open!}.
They got a great deal on it!  {I kinda wish I bought it myself!!!}

This bathroom was disgusting. Looked like a 'camp' with all the 'wainscotting' on the walls... This 1 piece fiberglass tub/surround was RUINED by amateur 'wanta-be' plumbers!  They had a huge hole cut for the hot and cold water supply and covered it with a piece of thin formica like stuff.... and they didn't even seal that, you could pull it away from the tub to see in behind the wall!   Also, there was no exhaust fan, I was really surprised to not find any mold on that wood!

 Here's a picture of  'in process'...   That is--- In the process of ripping out the old tile floor, and old nasty wood that was on the walls, and some of the old sheetrock, and of course, putting in new moisture resistant sheetrock, and installing all new fixtures!  ---Including, our masterpiece--

 Tile surrounding the new steel bathtub.  With 2 inset shelves. My mother and I did all this tile work ourselves.  {She had a contractor doing most of the other stuff.}

 Here we are, finishing up the tiling of the floor {and baseboard} with Arianna {age 10}. She came over near the end, and helped lay in some of the baseboard. {We used bullnose tiles for the baseboard here.}

And, here is the finished project... painted, and with the 'finish plumbing' done {faucets on tiled walls, toilet/sink installed}...  Now, we'll be adding towel rods, etc. And my mother thinks she wants 2 handicap bars in the tub. One will be horizontally on the back wall, and one will be vertically on the left side.

Today's Garden Photo~~~~

those are radishes growing by my toes...and kale in the front... and 2 sweet grandbabies with one of my garden statues!

how my Japanese maple looks in the early spring... The little helicopters look kinda like fairy wings, or ballet slippers~ *Thanx, Carolyn! She's a friend that gave these descriptions!
Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies.... Melt in your mouth goodness! They're like a 'shortbread'. We put apricot jam in some of these.
What's better than homemade macoroni and cheese? =nothing!

We add broccoli, cauliflower and carrots to ours.
The last Saturday in February: we spent in the garden.... One week later, I'm happy to say--From seeds: green bean plants have sprouted, radishes, onion sets, cucumbers.... And our plants are doing great...they are--tomatoes, basil, kale, and many varieties of peppers.

a bit late, but here's some pix of my village~ after not having any of it out since 2006, it was nice to have even just a few houses and accessories to enjoy... Hopefully by next Christmas, I'll have a shelf ready! ---Since I did buy a 10 foot long pine board already for it!

And, here's my Mister~he takes such lovely Christmas photos!

 

 

a visit with Santa~

what's on your nightstand?

Here's mine!

Kind of a mess, right now... but that's because I just got out some of my Christmas books!... Been reading a Belva Plain novel {Harvest}, just finishing that...And I'm looking forward to starting that Susan Wiggs novel next.

Also on my nightstand... 2 remotes for our sleep number bed, a box of tissues, a photo of me and my first 2 grandbabies, a mini flashlight, and a container of emu oil "Purple Rub". {Ever heard of that? check them out... http://www.vtemu.com/}

what i accomplished this week!

Well, after taking a leg-cramp pill that my father had left here, I slept for 11 hrs!!! {midnite til 11am}.... As soon as I got up, I started on this..... Sliced up a bunch of gala apples and threw some flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on 'em... and tossed them into a 'cheater's pie crust'.... in no time I had the kitchen smelling good! Next, I worked on a big ol' pan of stuffing! {I made another turkey the other day, and we ate all the stuffing already!}.... Oh, and I had 2 huge butternut squash-es to use up or throw out! Half of that went right in the freezer, ready for soup!

Yum! This pie looked so good with the sugar on top... Can't believe I didn't have a piece until after dinner! {...like 6pm!}
{I love Gooseberry Patch! And Ribbon Candy!}
And today, just now, I finally got my tree up, and lit! Now to get all the decor. out of the shed!

Maybe by the end of this day, that'll be done! ........ I so want to get out all my houses!!!!!! Gotta get a shelf put up for them first....

Meanwhile, it's time to go pick up 'the little girl' from school.... And take her home to her momma and new baby brother.... Can't wait to see him! ....Gotta run!