Looking Forward!

 

A nice Summer evening over Northport Harbor !

Yesterday, the kids got their classroom assignments for the new school year. Billy got his schedule for high school (can't believe it's 9th grade already!) and Caitlin was assigned her 3rd grade teacher. I am so happy that we are ALL happy cause that sure makes a difference when starting a new school year. An after dinner visit to Northport Village was where this sunset was . We took the time to enjoy the evening and have ice cream before heading home for the night. The kids were excitedly calling and texting friends to see who had what teacher, etc. I couldn't even get my turn on the computer this morning to blog with all the activity! That's okay~~if they're happy, I'm happy!

I took out my haunted house today to freshen it up a little. I'm not keeping it out yet; I just wanted to re-glue or touch up anything. I have to take better photos of it. My camera is not the best for close ups as I get a "shine" mark (?) kind of....Anyway, as I have posted in the past, this haunted house and my Christmas Santa's Workshop are very special to me as my Dad made them for me, and I lost my Dad back in 2005. Today my parents would have been married 60 years! This very day. Here I am thinking Billy & I hitting 25 years in two weeks is a big deal!Anyway, Dad  first made the Santa's workshop and then a few year's later I asked if he would make me a haunted house or a "room" type structure for a witch. He created this for me!

He made the structure and the furniture, and I decorated it. Like I said I have to take better pictures as their is a lot of little details he put. Between crooked windows and a creepy fireplace, he also made a rickety staircase! I just don't know how well it will photograph. He made the grandfather clock in it too if you look towards the right rear... and a dresser and chairs, tables, a bed. It also lights up. My Dad made it just for me and I cherish it so much. My kids look forward to seeing it! It just wouldn't be Halloween without it!

Odds, Ends, & Wishlists!

The weekend is just around the corner! We have some nice things planned so I hope the weather works with us! The temps got warmer but not HOT. Thank goodness. Still cooler than they should be in August! I'm waiting to see what the Farmer's Almanac predicts for us this Winter. Are you a believer in the Almanac? I am! I would not use it as my only source of weather info but I do think that as it applies to our section of the weather map, they are more times than not accurate--they may be off by a couple of days but I think they are doing something right! I think they are more accurate than the actual tv/radio weatherman sometimes! I have heard it is going to be bitter cold! I like the cold but not when it is that biting cold that nips your nose! I am hoping for a cool Fall. I loved when we were kids and you were wearing a sweater or a jacket in October. Fall is for sweaters, and candles and soup, and NESTING! I'm just keeping on with the Autumn decorating!

A friend of mine continues to scale down her Halloween decorations and generously has passed a few more items to us. She downsized  from a large home to a condo and just won't be doing the decorating for Halloween on the scale that she used to. She said she knows how I display everything and she can visit the pieces at my house!

I'll be finding a place for him when I put up the Halloween decorations. She also gave me a smaller ghost.

Thinking about my next trip to Lancaster County, I have a few things on my wish list. Have you seen the planters that make the pots look crooked?

It's actually  very inexpensive little  metal rods that you positionand  add your own pots and it makes them look like they are balancing or teetering! I took this photo of one in PA and had every intention of purchasing it and for some reason got distracted and didn't buy it. It was adorable. I need that for next Spring!  I think it would have looked so nice to do ornamental cabbages and mums and have that "teetering" look for the Fall though. I'm sad I forgot to pick it up.  I also would like to purchase this birdhouse.

Now that we finished that other side of the yard it will fit in nicely. I already bought the little wooden Amish bridge that  I am going to do a garden around next year, and I think this birdhouse would look so nice in the garden. I take pictures so I remember things! Between my lists and my pictures, I can't function without them! In the rear you see the outhouse. That's on my husband's Spring To Do List! We took these last two photos at Lapps Coach Shop on Rte 772 in Intercourse, PA.

Have a great Wednesday!

More Fun Fall Stuff!

Every time I go near the shed or one of my storage closets that holds my Fall and/or Halloween stuff I feel like it is just as anxious to come out as I am to take it out! A few pictures from last year show my favorite three witches, whom I call "the ladies", just waiting to greet Halloween visitors once again in the foyer. Being sound activated , they cackle and rock side to side in happiness to see you! (by Day 3 my husband wants the batteries out...he just likes to tease me)

Can't wait..I went into the shed yesterday to get a cultivator for the pumpkin patch, and I also store the large Halloween items on the top of the shed. The ladies are wrapped securely but I saw them up there kind of peeking down as if to ask, "Is it time yet?" My big light up figures and blow molds all looking down (I think they were looking at me .. or maybe it was my imagination). The big metal Halloween tree asking " now? are you ready for us?" Patience Halloween tree, PATIENCE!

Robin is ready to unpack everything! Sitting on or in the crates is his way of helping. Inspiration!

My husband is even getting ready by moving some of the larger cartons down from a big closet for me....he is one of those guys who is sad to say goodbye to Summer. At least he'll have some support from those two friends in the picture!

We have so much coming up this Fall. Apple picking, pumpkins, our favorite haunted house, our Halloween party, and (one to go to as well), a short trip, and of course a visit with our headless friend up in Sleepy Hollow, which if you are in the New York area, visit the REAL Sleepy Hollow! It is only an hour or so  from me . It's in upstate NY in Orange County and well worth a visit to the town. We are NOT into the gore attractions of Sleepy Hollow but the traditional ones such as a visit to Phillipsburg Manor, Sleepy Hollow  town, Headless Horseman Bridge, the famous cemetery and just the beautiful grounds where author Washington Irving lived and worked and wrote the classic tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". There is also the Great Pumpkin Blaze!

Sometimes, you'll even meet a family friendly guide along the route, as Caitlin did two years ago. Oh, and she isn't  scared or crying in my photo--the sun was in her eyes!  The horseman obviously didn't have that problem :) 

For now I'm sticking to just some Fall decorations. It gets us in the spirit and eases us back into a routine. Halloween must wait till the end of September...I really have to focus on school opening September 9th...Have a Great Day!

Tranquil Weekend

Monday again! Why is it the only two days of the week that speed by are Saturday and Sunday? I feel as though I was just excited it was Friday :)   The weather here was cool and lovely. In the mornings it was in the 60's but by afternoon it was in the lovely 70's! Since my son was busy doing concrete work with my husband, Caitlin and I decided to try those ghost leaves  I posted about!

We did a bunch and it seemed to take a little longer to dry then I thought it would but it was fine nonetheless! She painted a bunch and then we added eyes and mouths with a black sharpie marker. We just have to glitter them now!

She enjoyed doing these and it only took minutes. She is excited to do the glitter! But who wouldn't be? :)
                                                          Glitter makes them magical!

With only two more weekends till school starts, we wanted to make the most of the beautiful weather and spend the day outdoors. We went for a great hike through a really cool designated and preserved nature walk. It was so nice not only for the scenery but for the gathering of nature for my Fall displays!

I gathered cattails and other straw-like greens that grew along the water. I lagged behind my family and friends to gather as much as I could! These will be getting a coat of my acrylic spray! My son was walking ahead and he noted how loud the bird calls were. It was truly paradise in the woods, and we all took in every sound and sight!

I wasn't alone as a friend had also joined us!

He stuck with me even though he knows I'm a cat lover! I have to say if I was going to get a dog, and I might in the future, black labs would be the breed I think I would go for! He was so great! Our friends told us what great companion/family dogs they are. Besides being so darn cute!

We hiked along the water's edge, and saw beautiful sailboats and kayaks before me. Sometimes I forget we live on an ISLAND! How silly of me. This is only ten minutes from my house! We then ended the day with dinner at the beach and other guests to join us!

A beautiful outdoor day with family, friends, nature and good food! and the next thing you know........it's Monday and....

I'm looking out my rear porch with the first cup of coffee of the day! Have a good one!

Prepping for the Decorations!

It's a very chilly morning here! Perfect day for me to clean my windows cause the decorations will be going up shortly, and I like good clean windows to hang my decorations on! Billy caved in on the "no leaves before Labor Day" proclamation but then again he always does. Love that man!

As I was taking some things out yesterday, I noticed a few things could use a bit of a fix up and I spent time  doing that starting with my scarecrow wagon.

I added a new string of white lights and changed out some of the floral picks. Ready for the porch!

 

Hanging up just a few things, not much yet.....My Scarecrow girl loves her place on the family room slider doors.

 

 

Thinking of placement and planning.... and what has to be put away till after Christmas cause the day after Halloween  it's Thanksgiving decorations and the day after Thanksgiving it's Christmas decorations so a few items we won't take out again till January...

 

 

There's a method to my madness! Oh my favorite Halloween wooden plate. I wish you could see the orange glitter glow on it. You'll just have to come and visit!

 

Happy Saturday!

 

Little Touches of Autumn

Not yet Robin! Not Yet! But soooooon!  I was digging through my boxes of Fall decorations and I saw this picture of Robin from last year. I love it! If black cats are supposed to be scary for Halloween, well Robin didn't get that memo! His nickname in the house is Mr. Lovable! He doesn't have a scary or mean bone in his body! Well every year the cats need to investigate every box or bag that comes out of the shed for decorating and yesterday was no different. I had taken out a big Fall wreath that I wanted to spruce up but I had to wait till Mr. Red Cat was done taking a nap on it! I had it stacked on the floor on top of its open box and he decided to nap...can't be too comfortable sleeping on a twig wreath but whatever...Wish I got a photo of him sleeping on it, but here is one when I just added some fresh silk flowers to it and a little Fall banner:

I redid my pumpkin basket...oh and it looks so shiny cause it got a coating of my acrylic spray :)   I have an old wooden scoop in the basket with the bird's nest; don't know if you can see it. And also put a "Autumn" banner in that one.

A string of small leaves to the table in the family room:

Like I said, just LITTLE touches to get started and ease the kids back to school and out of Summer!

A hallway that will soon have ghosts hanging from it for now has some scarecrow friends!

And a few friends for the kitchen!

And this was just one box....I have a lot to do yet!

I just can't wait! Halloween will go up the end of September. The scarecrows and all the Fall items just stay mixed in with them! It all comes together well.

Yesterday I saw a little visitor to my sunflower patch! Pollinate, little bumble bee! Pollinate! Yahoo!

Have a happy day! It's FRIDAY!!!!

200 POSTS! & Sunshine On A Cloudy Day!

SURPRISE!

Here we are! The first of six and maybe some more!

Happy, joyful sunflowers! So worth waiting for! And in the same garden, we added something else special!

This lovely VERY HEAVY metal bird bath! Added to the garden by my wonderful and ALERT son who always has his eyes open for good stuff! He was walking to our nearby playground and saw this on the curb for trash! (Yes, another curbside treasure). Amazingly someone else hadn't scooped it up for use or for recycling. He carried it home for four blocks and we placed it in the garden of roses that has the backdrop of sunflowers. Perfect spot! Another one of Billy's amazing finds!

I have now hit 200 posts! Thanks to my cousin Jo who introduced me to this incredible pastime, I have made the nicest friends, been influenced and inspired by countless others and learned so many incredible things! I always loved cooking and crafting and housekeeping and just being a Mom and Wife in general but all the wonderful bloggers who love what I do have taken it to the next level for me! I thank you all for all that! Thinking of a giveaway! Not yet...but soon to be announced!

Yesterday I had a few inquiries as to the directions as to how to  make the Martha Stewart Witch candy bags. I was having a difficult time copying the link but I will tell you this: go to the Martha Stewart Living webpage, click on Halloween and at #26 is "Halloween candy bags" and just flip through that. It comes up after a few. The website shows them with green cellophane bags for the face. Back when I started doing them when she first showed us how on her tv show many moons ago, she used a regular printed cellophane candy bag (as I use). She also used thin ribbon for the bow through the hat. I have found using twine rips the hole you make in the card stock. I purchase the little spool of ribbon from AC Moore for .59.

I have made tons of Martha Stewart crafts for my Halloween parties and to me the best ones have been the Halloween Party Crackers, the Witch's Broom gift bags (with the brown paper bag and the twig), the crepe paper pumpkins and I'm not sure if these were hers or not, but I make mummy cups too with wrapping the gauze around a can and adding the eyes. Make it a creative Halloween! You'll enjoy your party or your holiday so much more! Even if you don't have a party, make some special things even one or two for yourself or for someone special to you! I started having a Halloween party for kids the year after I was married in 1989. I didn't even have kids till 1999! but still had my party every year. It started with nieces and nephews. Then a couple of neighbor's  kids. Then a few children of close cousins. It has gotten really big and then small as some got older, moved away or moved on. For the last 12 years or so, it has been family and friends and friends of my children and my Brownie troop. We usually have about 20. There are some things I make year after year too...besides the witch's hats I make the lollipop spider. My neighbor's daughters told me last year "It wouldn't be Halloween without them." So sweet! A simple thing like that means Halloween to someone.

Last year I made these fruit roll up bats which were a big hit. Just a fruit roll up with a hole punched at one end, a bat I cut out of card stock or heavy black construction paper, added some eyes of course and black tulle to tie it together. I had them hanging from various parts of the house for the kids to pull down and take cause bats need to hang from somewhere, right?  

I remember my party last year was a Saturday and two days later we were hit with Hurricane Sandy! Then two days after Sandy we had a snowstorm!! There was no trick or treating last year! No power for 17 days! It was awful. This year I think it's gonna be okay! 

It's almost Friday...have a great day and keep thinking of the Fall!

Making Their Moment Last! And A Really Cute Craft!

 

With all the attention I have been giving to these sunflowers, I think they are feeling their own awesomeness (!) and have decided to delay their debut as much as they can and enjoy the adulation!  So this is what they are offering me as of 5:30 am.....I've got my suspicions about these two below:

                                                                                   
  I think they are in cahoots! They're conspiring....Notice how they are trying to act like they don't know each other....I'm on to them.

On the other side of the garden we are seeing more apples and pumpkins and birdhouse gourds! Indian corn too!

 Back to the garden a little later...

Little by little I am going through my  supplies for my Halloween crafts. I need all this time to make stuff for our Halloween party, which is going on year 24! I always like to add some new things to it and also keep some of my traditional favorites such as my witch bags; one of the greatest Martha Stewart party favors to make ever!

 

Just got me some more ribbon to make some for this year!

The other day I saw on a crafts site for Disney these adorable ghost leaves. This will be a nice activity to do with Caitlin. Silk leaves, white fabric paint or even white spray paint, glitter, markers for eyes or anything you feel like being creative with to make eyes out of (black sparkles?) and look how cute!

 

Make 'em as sparkly as you like it! For directions you can google "Rosetta's Frosty Ghost Leaves" or just go to www.disneyfamily.com and search Halloween. Incidentally, "Rosetta" is one of Tinkerbell's fairies.

Once school begins in September, I am always so excited to see the displays at the supermarkets of all the Fall cooking ingredients. Our Stop & Shop supermarket and IGA set up lovely displays of different ingredients to make all our Fall favorites from apple pie to a hearty chicken soup and a Thanksgiving dinner! I love seeing that! It begins when  you walk in. You will pass displays of Autumn mums and then see the display of boxes of graham crackers crumbs, bags of apples, cans of pie fillings, bags of nuts, crisco, etc along with leaf printed napkins and plates. I find that so exciting! It just makes me want to go home and make a cobbler. The nesting bug comes out in me full throttle! It's those little things that make me soooo happy!

Carol & Frankie strolled the garden after dinner...

They love walking through the grass and under the apple trees. Carol the rooster is always the boss. 

At least Miss Frankie lets him think he is!

 

Have a terrific day!

Peek-A-Boo Sunflowers

Early this morning I went outside to check my sunflowers to see if they opened ~~not yet! But they are peeking at me! I'm guessing it should be before Friday!  I will have a total of six! And they are taller than me! I am 5' 5" tall and I would say these sunflowers are about 5'7'' high! What a joy it has been to grow them. This is a definite for me next year only MORE! They are a nice backdrop for the roses. I also love the idea of a new flower opening at the end of a season and the start of another! Think of how excited you were around Mother's Day when you were planting and waiting for things to bloom or you bought that first hanging basket of the Spring? By mid August that blooming excitement is coming to an end. The Summer blooms are finishing and the leaves are falling. BUT NO.....Now you have sunflowers! They are just beginning! It's all how you look at things!

I always loved the Holly Hobbie picture at the very top of this post. It just reminds me of the loveliness of the Fall season. Playing outside and dancing in the leaves as they crunch beneath your feet!

If anyone has a Stop & Shop supermarket near them, check out their Fall and Halloween aisle. They always get really good seasonal stuff. Yesterday I found these:

They are rub on transfers for your pumpkins! How cool is that? Only $2~what a buy! I love rub on transfers and have countless projects using them so I was so happy to see them for pumpkins! Stop & Shop had lots of owls, lanterns, signs...check 'em out!

I didn't realize our cat could read but here is the proof!Mr.  Red Cat, I'm so happy you decided to sit a spell on the glider! Can I get you anything? A cold drink? A blankie?

My cousin Johanna had given me these great plaques. I really loved the colors and they matched my house completely (My house is painted in all prim colors) I wanted to hang them in the kitchen but couldn't find the right spot but I didn't want to put them away either. So, remember I told you I use that clear acrylic spray for lots of things? Well, I sprayed them! They hardened up nicely and I am using them on my counter as trivets! I wouldn't put anything HOT on them but to place a small bowl of candy or potpourri on them will be adorable. Plus I can think of Jo every time I see them! They make a great accent!

And here are those hydrangeas I sprayed. Two of three fresh big bunches. Plus I still have more outside!

I'm thinking a nice big floor basket to hold them. It will look nice next to the base of a table or next to a loveseat. See what I happens when I have a can of acrylic spray in my hand?I start looking to see what needs a spray coat.... Everything is shiny and seal coated....don't come too close!