fall redo part 1

I like to redo my living room/kitchen with the seasons.  I move the furniture, hang different curtains and change out the accessories. 


Cabinet between the windows.  The jadite was free, an old train case, a marble bowl for goodies and a faux cabbage that I'll pop a mum or aster in.  I keep tweaking things all season.  Adding different accessories and moving things around.




Wooden box stuffed with silks, a scale and wood recipe box on a wash stand at the end of the island.





Fall blooms in a vase on  the trunk in the living room.  Callie supervising.  The kitties get really nosy when I'm changing things around.



Close up of flowers.  I just stuffed these in the box when I brought them in the house, they still have the price stickers on them.  I love the rich jewel colors of fall but   I'm not a huge fan of orange.  it just doesn't go that well in my house.

These are all very simple things you can do quick and easy to keep your house looking fresh for the new season.



transformed gourds

I have a lot of people that ask me about the abundance of gourds that I display in the fall both inside and out.  Each year I start gourd seedlings and then give them to friends who plant them, water, weed and harvest them.  Some years we have an abundant crop, some years not so much.  The first year I just display the gourds as is.  Before freezing weather I put them in the attic to dry clear until the next fall.  Clean them up and paint them so they look real.  Easy.  i think I have 3 full garbage bags of them now.  I do give a lot of them away.



fresh gourds, not sure what kind, probably a mutant




Dry them for a year in a warm dry place that will not freeze.  When they come out they will be gross, covered in white fuzz, black gunk and dried skin.  They are suppose to look like this.  Discard any gourds that are cracked or broken.



Soak them for a couple of hours in a bucket or sink, turning every so often.  Scrape the gunk off.  I use the side of a spoon, paring knife and scrubie pad.  This is long hard work.  Each gourd can take 30-60 mniutes to clean.   Let them dry.



Use acrylic paint to base coat and add details.  It will take several coats to blend colors together.  If you don't like it cover it up with more paint.  In your world if you want them purple or black paint em that color.
















Continue to add details until you're happy.  Let dry and then spray with sealer.  Store them for the next fall in a warm dry place.



yummy potato salad

 I never eat potato salad out anywhere because it's mostly dripping in mayo.  I can't stand mayonaise so I avoid it whenever possible.  Here's how I make mine:

4-5 potatoes boiled, cooled and peeled
2 eggs hard cooked
1/2 onion chopped fine
1-2 ribs of celery chopped fine (optional)
1/2 C sweet pickle relish
1T mustard
1T mayo , yogurt or sour cream
Dump everything into a zip top bag, mush it around until it's the texture you like.  Check taste and season with salt and pepper.  Serve it up.  Great with fried chicken.

birthday boys

Thirty-five years ago today I got the surprise of my life when I went to the hospital to have one baby and came home with two.  Ultrasound was not available, at the time, and even the doctor didn't know I was having twins until the second one was on the way out.  What a shock to everyone.  They about had to pick AH up off the floor, especially when the Dr joked there was a third baby coming..  He ran around in a daze for days trying to gather enough things for another baby.  Fortunately we had fantastic family and friend support to help us through those first few hectic weeks. 
You parents of multiples know what I'm saying about the no sleep, zombie brain you have after months of being up many times per night.  Eventually we did sleep and they grew into extremely active little boys, teenagers and finally adults.  Today they are fabulous husbands, fathers and sons and I could not be prouder.  They still like to give their Mom a hard time and are as ornery as ever.  They still call us for advice and opinions and we are a close family despite the distance between us.  Rarely does a day go by that I don't talk to one of the three of them.  I love that.










Three weeks old.  We tried everything short of abuse to keep them awake, but they were not cooperating



1 year cute as can be





Nathan age 5 he's the oldest by 4 minutes

 


Richie age 5 he's the mouthiest by a bunch




So cool at 17 for graduation

 



 



 

DIL Barb and Nate



DIL Brandi and Rich

Parenthood is the hardest and most important job you will ever have.  Enjoy every moment you can and when times get hard, know that it will pass too soon. 


HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY PRECIOUS BOYS!!!

more flowers

On a roll with flower making.  Here's another version that is fast and fabulous.  Yo-yo flowers are really easy to make and add a nice touch to many projects.  Draw a circle at least 4" on your fabric.  I used a desert plate.  Cut out your circle and stitch around close to the edge with a running stitch, pull tight and tie off your threads.  Add a decorative button or bling.  That's it.  If you were making yo-yos for a quilt you would turn the edge under before stitching, but you don't need to for this.  Add them to anything you want for a touch of color and texture.  Sew or hot glue them on.

just stitch around the edges with a running stitch

a finished yo-yo just add a button, pom-pom, earring or jewel to finish the center

dryer sheet flowers

I'm always making flowers for one project or another.  You can use them on cards, collage,altered art etc...
I decided to make flowers out of used dryer sheets.  Just save them up until you have several.  Mix up a dye bath, here I used food coloring.  Dump the sheets in and swish them around a couple of minutes.  Take them out and lay out flat to dry.  Fold them in fourths and just eyeball to cut circles about 2-3".  Stack 4-5 layers and either run a needle and thread through the center taking a little pleat or use your glue gun.  Add a button or jewel to finish the center.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the final flower.  OH well, another time.

dye bath, don't make the color too strong



sheets soaking just a couple of minutes for pale color



note to self wear gloves next time so you don't look like a relative of the jolly green giant



stack and stitch



family good times

 Spent the holiday weekend with my parents in the big, big city of Fort Wayne.  It's a long trip, about 5-6 hours.  We try to get there as often as possible, but work schedules do interfere.  Saturday was my sisters birthday so we drove up to their house on a beautiful lake to help her celebrate.  Of course  our family celebrations always include food and lots of it.


sis, Paula and DIL Hollie.  Paula is a caterer and inspireingly creative.



cookies are a family must have at every celebration



Mom, Paula and hubs Bernie,  he does dishes and laundry without reminding, what a guy.




Vinnie, she runs the place.




Mom and Dad,  how lucky am I to have parents that are in such good health and mostly in their right minds.



great nephews Braden and Tyler



AH in his favorite position.  We had to wake him, his snoring was interrupting the conversation



nephew Matt and wife Hollie



Our parents were really mean to us as kids.  They brought us up to be kind, respectful and hard working.  They took us to church, made us mind and punished us when we didn't.  They taught us the value of education and working for what we wanted.  Mostly they instilled in us the importance of faith and  family.  God and family will be there for you whenever and however you need them.  How blessed are my brother, sister and I to have grown up  with such mean parents.  The one bad thing about being a parent is you don't know if you have done a good job for years.  The three of us turned out pretty well, so good job Mom and Dad.