Getting Ready for Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the change in the weather, as well as the focus on getting back to a routine after a busy summer. I always start out the fall season with a nice deep cleaning of our home, similar to a spring cleaning. I wrote a post a few years back about my Big Fall Clean Up. I love getting everything cleaned up and ready for a new season.

The garden had some nice fall offerings this week. I went out and picked all of the mini pumpkins that I grew this year. I ended up with two little orange sugar pumpkins and four little mini white pumpkins. I love little pumpkins and was exited that I was able to grow some this year. Next year I plan to plant even more! The marigolds and snapdragons are still blooming and are just perfect for fall color. Next year I plan to add quite a bit more snapdragons, they do so well in our garden and provide blooms for such a long time compared to some of the other flowers. I love all the oranges and yellow and coral colors of the fall flowers. :)

Another exciting thing this past week was the lunar eclipse. This eclipse was the last of four eclipses in a row, and I was able to see all four. I wrote posts of the last two as well, the one earlier this year, the April 2015 eclipse, and the one last fall the Eclipse of October 2014. Here are pictures from this year. The moon was really low as the eclipse began and hadn't risen high enough to see at first. I was unable to watch the eclipse at the beginning stages as I had been able to easily do for the other three. We decided to drive to a better viewing spot at a nearby park, and were able to see it just as it was completely eclipsed. It was really difficult to capture any photo, but it was a wonderful dark red color. We went back home and watched the eclipse pass and the moon return to normal, the moon had risen more and we were able to see it perfectly from our backyard. Thankfully the sky was clear and we had a lovely view! :)

Last night, although the moon was not full, it was still very large and bright, and looked very cool through the clouds in the sky. Definitely looks like a fall night sky! 

I have been having a lot of fun finding new decorations for fall, I found a bunch of cute decorations at the Target discount section. You can check out my video below if you would like to see some of the decorations I found.

Here is another video with all the decor and fall soaps and candles that I found at Target and Bath & Body Works when I went back for another round of fall shopping. I have found so many cute decorations, I love updating our holiday decor from time to time, and am super excited to start decorating for Halloween and fall this week. 

I am hoping to finish my fall cleanup and decorating soon so I can post pictures. I hope everyone else is enjoying the fall season! Here is one last picture of one of my tiny pumpkins, this one was such a perfect vibrant orange color!

Come back on October first for a fun Giveaway. I thought that it would be fun, in honor of the Halloween and Fall season, to giveaway a set of Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas Tsum Tsums. I have been having so much fun collecting Tsum Tsums this year, and I thought this was such a fun set for the Halloween season. 

Thanks for stopping by!

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Welcoming September and Signs of Fall

This past week the rain finally returned, and it was very welcome. The weather has been so hot this summer, and even though I love sunshine and warm weather, I was very happy for a nice pre-fall rain storm. We had lots of wind and rain and the clouds were beautiful, it was nice to get a little taste of fall like weather. Here are some of the pictures I took of our cloudy and rainy weather, we had the most beautiful full rainbow over the neighborhood, my camera had a difficult time catching its beauty, but it was quite a beautiful sight.

I really loved this picture, the tree looked really pretty against the stormy clouds.

My garden was also happy to have a bit of rain. Fall is starting to show its signs out in the garden. The birds have planted sprays of millet everywhere, I pull them up selectively and leave some to watch turn beautiful colors in the fall. The succulents have done really well this year, my hens and chicks are really spreading nicely, and are starting to turn a reddish orange on the edges. The Nasturtium and snapdragons are rambling through the flower beds and I love their bright autumn colors.

The maidenhair fern did really well this summer, I would have thought it wouldn't do so well in the heat, but it actually grew really well, the top right bright pink flower below is my favorite new flower this year, it is a sedum that has flowered almost all summer, I will definitely be planting more of it next year. The bright purple petunias, at least the ones that survived the heat, are very pretty right now as well. I also spotted some morning glories that have planted themselves in the holly bush, I will  have to watch that they do not strangle my holly or get too out of hand, but morning glories used to grow everywhere when I was a child and I loved looking at them, so I was surprised to see some had made its way into my garden.

My little pumpkins are doing nicely and starting to turn a nice color of orange, and I have two little white mini pumpkins growing nicely that will be really cute as decorations. I love seeing pumpkins out in my garden, next year I hope to grow more. :)

Speaking of decorating for fall, this past week we have had some early Halloween fun. Long time readers of my blog may remember from years past that I collect Yankee Candle Boney Bunch Candle Holders. You can see some in my Halloween Home Tour from last year. Anyway, every year in August, Yankee Candle has a premier party to kick off selling their Halloween candles and Boney Bunch products. Usually it is in early August, this year it was at the very end of August, which was nice since it closer to fall. Every year there are a few pieces that I am excited to add to my collection, and some years the favorites sell out pretty fast. I was very excited about the phone booth candle holder as it reminds me of vintage Doctor Who Tom Baker, with his long scarf, so I knew I really wanted that one.  The glittery bat cat sold out online rather quickly, however since I arrived at the preview party early, I was able to get one of the three that they had in the Yankee Candle store, which made me really happy. I originally wasn't planning on getting the cat, but he was so cute, I'm glad I did, he will look really nice in my Halloween display this year. My daughter got the Piano Boney Bunch since she loves music, and we got some other pretty Halloween candles. I am looking forward to decorating the house for fall and Halloween next month.

If all of that early Halloween shopping wasn't enough, today the Disney Store released their newest little dolls called Tsum Tsums, which are darling tiny little stackable plush dolls. Most are in classic Disney characters. I have been collecting them for a few months now. Anyway, every month on the first Tuesday (Tsum Tsum Tuesday) they release a new set based on a line of characters. This month was A Nightmare Before Christmas the classic Tim Burton movie. We are big Tim Burton fans around here, so I knew they would be fun for Halloween. Last night we watched A Nightmare Before Christmas, which has such a great bunch of music and is actually really interesting, although a bit creepy for little ones, we all enjoyed it. Then this morning I was again at the mall before they opened, waiting in line for our Tsum Tsums. I love our Disney store, the whole store is decorated in animated displays that are really fun to look at!

I was happy to have arrived early as the set sold out online very quickly, as well as in stores quite early as well. They are a little spooky looking for sure, but they will be fun to have around for Halloween. My favorite is the little ghost dog ( bottom left) named Zero, he is cute. Most of the Tsum Tsums are of course quite a bit cuter, being as they are based on characters like Pooh and Mickey and Chip and Dale and what not, but these Nightmare Before Christmas ones do match the spookier tone of the movie they are based on, and will go quite well with our Boney Bunch candles and other Halloween decor.

In keeping with the Halloween theme, I thought I'd share about our fun anniversary day. Last month we got to go to a wonderful show, we had purchased tickets to see the Broadway show Wicked a while back, and the show date happened to coincide with Gary and my 21st anniversary. So on our anniversary we all got dressed up and drove into Portland to see this wonderful show. Wicked is the untold story of the witches of Oz, and is a wonderful musical Broadway show. The songs were all catchy and fun, very wonderful music and performance. The lighting and effects were also really well done. The whole family really loved it.

We brought home some fun souvenirs. We save all of our programs from the shows we see, I like to find a nice magnet for our fridge to remember the occasion, we got some pins and buttons as well as the soundtrack, and my daughter got a nice key chain. I splurged and got the plush dragon puppet, I don't collect too many larger plush dolls, but this dragon was a pretty gold color and was a really well made doll and hand puppet. I thought he would be a fun reminder of the event. Overall it was an amazing show, I would highly recommend Wicked to anyone who has the opportunity to see this show if it comes to a city near you.

My sweet hubby is always surprising me with flowers, I had to take a picture of this bouquet because the colors happened to remind me of fall. I love all of the vibrant orange and the bright green Bells of Ireland. Flowers always cheer up the house. :)

When Gary and I were grocery shopping the other day we even spotted Halloween Oreos which Gary decided to bring home to snack on. Even though Halloween in almost two months away still it seems as if we have definitely turned toward fall. It is so strange not having school age children any more, all of our kids are college age now and they don't start school for almost a month. So it is weird seeing all of the back to school things going on, our local high school football even has a home game any day now! Usually I am in back to school mode, so now I will have to make new traditions. I love the this time of year as fall approaches, I am looking forward to my favorite season. The cooler weather has already prompted me to make a big pot of homemade soup, which everyone really enjoyed, and getting back to baking is on my agenda for next week.

I have also recently started a new hobby. I have always collected little toys, I love miniatures, and toys that remind me of my childhood. I love collecting little figures and things. One type of toy I have been collecting for years but haven't discussed much on my blog are Japanese miniatures called ReMent. The are extremely detailed little tiny miniatures, most often of food or household objects. I used to have fun setting up little dioramas or scenes, sort of like little dollhouse rooms. I thought I would share a little about my miniature and toy collections, but rather than just blog, I have had fun learning to make videos. I love learning new things, and have just started learning about video editing and such, I am not technical, so some of the editing process is a bit tricky, but definitely fun and challenging. Reviewing toys provides information for other collectors who are building their collections, as well as allows one to connect with that collecting community, so it has been a pretty fun new hobby. 

Here are a few pictures of my newest little Re-Ment miniature set. This set is a Sanrio set and based on the character Gudetama, who I shared a little bit about in my post about the Hello Kitty Super Cute Friendship Festival, Gudetama is a little lazy egg character and slightly odd but very cute. 

You can see some of the detail in these miniatures, they are very fun to look at and collect. This set is supposed to be a little cafe, with lots of cute miniature foods.

I made a video of me opening up and unboxing this miniature set if you would like to get a closer look. Mind you, I am still very much learning how to film these videos, so it isn't as smooth as I would like, but it was fun to make. My niece and nephew love to watch videos on YouTube of people reviewing toys and talking about games and such, that was also part of what inspired me to try out vlogging a bit. 

So that is what we have been up to around here. Lots of fun pre-fall activities, and definitely enjoying the cooler weather. This week I am starting to tackle the garage organization, we got so much decluttered this spring, but never completed the garage, in the summer it is too hot to organize the garage, so with cooler temperatures this week I decided to get started. Already I have sent off a small load to the Goodwill in my continued goal to declutter and keep things organized. The garden will be next on my list, definitely time to start prepping for fall, finish off the harvesting of the summer garden, get some things planted for fall, and finish up weeding and pruning. With a new season comes new household projects. :) What are you up to this time of year, has the weather started to turn in your neck of the woods? 

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Autumn Backyard Birds and Happy Thanksgiving

I am really looking forward to this holiday weekend, as well as the start to the Christmas season. We have all been busy this week, the kids have been busy studying for finals week, and Gary and I just finished a garage organizing project that we were glad to get done. During all of the busy activity I often need a little downtime, and one of my favorite ways to relax is to sit down and watch all of my backyard birds at the feeders out in my yard. Now that the colder weather has arrived the birds are happy to visit our bird feeders, and we have had quite a variety of different birds as well as our resident sparrows all through the garden.

The sparrows live in our garden year round they are always flying around through the garden and enjoying the feeders as well as any bread I put out for them.

I don't see the red headed finch much in the summer, mostly it is gold finch, but in the fall and through the early spring, the red headed finch show up at the feeders. I love the beautiful red coloring on their heads and touches of red on their back feathers, they are so pretty!

Also when the colder weather arrives we have cute little black capped chickadees hopping around eating at the feeders as well as cleaning up seed that the finch and sparrows have kicked out to the ground.

The blue jays stop by from time to time, it is definitely time to put out suet for them which they really seam to enjoy. We also have visits from crows when I put out bread or crackers. The crows are so intelligent, they walk around carefully investigating the yard, and then hopping down for bread or crackers. We have seen some of the crows pick up crackers and stack them in their beak when they get three or four crackers they fly off, it is really something to see! :)

I just love their cute quizzical little expressions like this little bird below, so cute, I could watch them for hours!

To get ready for Thanksgiving, I have set out some of our favorite fall decor. In my dining room, which also serves as my crafting space, I decided to set out my new favorite crafting supply, washi tape. I put it out in one of my wooden bowls, with pine cones and wooden spools of twine and ribbon that I will need for holiday wrapping projects. To organize the washi tape I have put the rolls onto drift wood sticks so I can easily pick them up and decide what pattern I might want to use. The colorful tape looks pretty among the natural objects and adds another element of color to my already colorful bookcases! I am looking forward to crafting with my washi tape for Christmas!

I also recently got this cute little wooden music box from Magic Cabin, I enjoy Magic Cabin's selection and have found many treasures there over the years. I thought this little music box, with its dancing royals and bright orange color, would be nice to set out for fall.

The rest of my decor are my favorites that I set out every year, you can see some of them in my Autumn Home post from last year. :)

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving celebration, stop by this weekend for the Christmas Blog Hop I will be hosting. :) I am looking forward to all of the fun Christmas projects I have in mind!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

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The Beautiful Fall Sky

This fall the sky has been putting on such a show. Just about every other day the sunset or sunrise has me running for my camera. Midday storms with dark and rainy skies and the evening moon have been equally mesmerizing. I love watching the sky, and I especially love it during the fall, so I thought I would share a few of the pictures I have been taking since the beginning of fall last month. (Click on the pictures to see a larger picture.)

At the beginning of fall I had to pull over and take pictures when I saw the big round moon rising over the foothills over a recently harvested grain field.

This sunset again had me pulling over and getting out of the car to snap a few pictures, this time I only had my phone's camera, the sun was so massive, and the sky was so pink, it was truly amazing.

In September, on the drive to church one Sunday morning, I noticed a huge plume of smoke off in the distance. When we arrived at church and got out of the car the air was filled with the smell of forest fire and little bits of ash falling! I soon found out that a town about half an hour away was having a very serious forest fire, it was unnerving how bad the air was, I can't imagine how it was for the people living closer!! My son has asthma so I was really concerned about the air quality. The smoke in the air however made for some amazingly vibrant dark orange sunsets. We had a very dry early fall and I was glad when the rain finally arrived to help the air and the fire!

Early on October 8th I stayed up nearly all night long to catch the second of the lunar tetrad full lunar eclipses, also called a blood moon because the moon can turn a reddish hue. I was lucky that I could keep watch on the moon right outside of my office window, so I was able to keep myself awake by staying busy in my office. I have seen a few lunar eclipses over the years, and they always amaze me. I was especially happy that we had clear skies! I woke the whole family up when it was just a sliver of moon left so they could see the moon completely cover, it was a really neat thing to see. We saw the last one back in April as well, and hope to see the third one in April 2015.

Lately the rain has arrived, we have had lots of stormy cloudy skies, however the sun always peeks back out, and we have had some remarkable rainbows lately, quite a few double rainbows as well.  :)

The clouds have been so big and puffy, I think they look so pretty against the crisp blue fall sky!

One thing I always think is interesting, is when you can see the whole round sun filtered through a very cloudy sky, sometimes it almost looks like a moon. I look forward to sunrise and sunset every day.

I also have been enjoying the moon, the last couple of days the moon has been a beautiful crescent.

I am looking forward to the rest of fall, the weather is definitely moving into the more stormy and rainy time of year, and the temperatures have been dropping. Such a beautiful time of year!

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Easy Air Plant Terrariums

This summer I was the lucky winner of a $30 gift certificate to The Air Plant Shop in a contest hosted at Crafty Moms Share Blog. I was so excited to have won, I had been eyeing different air plants in the stores and seeing them online, and I thought they would be really fun to try out. So I placed my order and a very nice selection of air plants arrived.

I knew I wanted to make some simple terrariums for around the house, so on one of my trips to the craft store I picked up some pebbles and pretty moss as well as a selection of glass containers. Air plants are easy to care for, despite their name "air plants", they need more than air, they need a little half hour soak in water once a week. I use bottled water since our city water is too chlorinated for these little plants. The Air Plant Shop  also sells air plant food which I will feed them during their next bath. Here they are getting their water. When they are done with their bath I let them dry on a towel.

First I gathered my terrarium making supplies. :)

Making these terrariums was super easy, since air plants don't need soil I just poured pebbles into the various sized glass containers, "planted" the air plant among the pebbles, then tucked in a little moss for some different color and texture. I made four small terrariums in little glass candle holders that I found for a dollar.

I also thought these mini dinosaurs that the kids got me for my birthday would be perfect hanging out in the terrariums.

Then I made a larger terrarium in this larger glass bowl.

Here they all are, I think they look pretty with the sun coming through them from the dining room window, later today I will find spots throughout the house to set out these cute little terrariums. This whole project took less than an hour and was fun, they would be very easy to change up with different colors of rock and types of moss or other found nature objects and miniatures.

I plan on making a Halloween one with some of my Halloween minis which I will share in October. :) I really love these little air plants, I love having plants around the house, and air plants are nice and low maintenance which I think is especially nice.  There are so many wonderful ideas on Pinterest for using air plants in your decor, I especially love the idea of planting them in toy dinosaurs, I may have to try that next! :) Thanks again Crafty Moms Share and The Air Plant Shop for the fun giveaway!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Garlic Planting and Fall in the Garden

We are having a beautiful fall.  The leaves have begun their autumn show with the most beautiful colors.  The sun was shining all last week, and it was the perfect weather to make progress on our fall garden projects.

Last week my garlic finally arrived in the mail, and I was eager to get it planted.  I saved some of the garlic from this year's harvest, I have no idea what variety it is, I bought a couple garlic plants a few years ago, and the label just said garlic, it has been growing very well for the past few years, and it tastes wonderful, so we got that planted.  I also ordered some new varieties this year, Killarney Red, which is supposed to do well in wet conditions, so I thought it might do well here in the Pacific NW, it is also supposed to be good for it's garlic scapes.  I ordered some Chesnok Red Garlic but they were out, so I was sent some Early Italian, it sounds like a nice garlic.  I also planted my first batch of Elephant Galric, each clove is huge!  I ended up having far more cloves than space to plant them, so they found their way into another raised bed, as well as some of my large pots.  I look forward to watching it all grow!

I wasn't able to plant the fall garden I wanted to, I had a mishap with my seedlings, and they were all seriously over heated, oops!  I probably could have started more, but I decided to wait and just get an early jump start in spring for the greens I want.  There are a few things still growing though, like my tiny plot of leeks, which seem to be doing pretty well.  They do take quite some time to grow, but I love leeks so it will be worth the wait!

leeks

The peppers are still producing and I hope to get a few more over the next week.  We got the rest of the garden beds all cleaned out, and harvested the last of our squash.  

The rest of the garden still needs some tidying and pruning, I let some of the birdseed millet grow, it looked so pretty, and the birds seemed to enjoy it, and now it has turned a pretty golden fall color.  I think it looks nice with the red barberries, and red holly berries peeking through, so I will give it another couple of weeks before we tidy it up for winter.  :)