Pumpkin Carving

We have not carved pumpkins in a long time, but we thought it was time to change that.  I'm glad we did, because it was so fun!

 Christina and I have been friends for about 34 years.  If you ever wonder how we've stayed friends all that time, now you know.  It's because I'm afraid not to!  Scary! ;)

 I found this pirate ship idea online and decided to try it.

 There's a lot of concentrating going on here!  Pumpkin carving is serious business.

 I'm pretty happy with the way the pirate ship turned out.

 Todd's pumpkin is on the table.  David's is the one under it.

 Krista made a really neat cat, and Todd did the Fins up on the bottom right.

 I also did the owl on a branch.

 Christina's ghosts are in the upper right of this one.

It was a very fun night for pizza and pumpkins!

Har-ber Village

On Sunday, we spent a beautiful afternoon at Har-ber Village in Grove, Oklahoma.  Mom and I had talked about going for several falls, but had never set a date and made it happen. 

 It was much bigger than I expected!  David and I had never been, and my parents went a long time ago when it was much smaller.

 It's a neat village/museum type place with lots of old and old-looking cabins that are set up as display homes, a post office, jail, millinery, general store, doctor's office, etc.

 It's right on the shores of Grand Lake.

 I liked the little school house best.

 This was one of the cabins set up to look like someone's home.  Doesn't that mannequin on the porch look real? ;)

It was really a neat place!  I especially loved seeing all the antiques - ironstone, crocks and jugs, quilts...And David enjoyed the trucking history of the family that built and funded it.  I'm glad that we finally got to go!

October is My Favorite Color

Christina and I had plans to go to the Antique Festival of the Ozarks on Saturday, and we did eventually get there, but we detoured on the way to enjoy the fall leaves.

 A cemetery might seem like an odd place to look at fall leaves, but the cemeteries in town have a lot of maple trees, including the one we drove through, aptly named Maplewood Cemetery.

 It seems like the trees are exceptionally beautiful this year and just in the last week have really exploded with color.

 We oohed and aahhed with each turn.

 The sun made some of them seem to glow.

 From a short distance, this looked like a feather bed exploded, but on closer inspection, they were small purple flowers.  I don't think I've ever seen these before, but they look a little like a crocus.

The antique festival was fun, but the real highlight was spending time with my dear friend and enjoying the pretty fall colors.  It's true...the best things in life are free!

Weekend at Home

 We had a nice quiet weekend last weekend.  I had time to make chili...which at our house is at least a 4 hour process. It was well worth the wait!

 Also had time for a little craft project.  This stocking made from an old quilt was a steal at the Ozark craft fair, but it was more bright white than I wanted.

A large cup of Sonic coffee did the trick!  Now it's nicely coffee stained, and smells yummy too!

 I made a delicious (if I do say so myself) chocolate cake, which we had for dessert when Mom and Dad and Jim and Patty came for dinner on Sunday night.

 I got busy and distracted by fun and food once everyone got here, so this is it for pictures of our evening.  We had a great time though!

Birthday Weekend

We had a fun, busy weekend...I could really use a day at home for laundry and napping!

 On Saturday, I celebrated my friend Jenny's 40th birthday at her surprise birthday party.

Riley went to the groomer Saturday morning where he got all cleaned up and received a nice orange scarf.

 Sunday we went to Silver Dollar City.  We thought it wouldn't be crowded because of the weather, but we failed to realize that it was a long weekend for some due to Columbus Day.  It was pretty crowded!

Sunday evening we celebrated another birthday - our friend Ian.  He had a local food truck - the Vienie Vagon - park at the end of his driveway to serve brats and other German food.  We thought it was a really cool idea!

Guest Room Update

While I was window shopping (ha ha!  Get it?), I found a neat spray of orange berries for the pitcher in the bathroom.  I added a few real twigs and really like it.  

 Without further ado, here is the newly refreshed guest room.  Anyone coming to stay?

 A cozy new quilt, fresh new sheets, and a sweet little accent pillow.  I think the colors in this quilt will make it easy to add a little Christmas cheer in here.

 Here's the little white dresser, which I painted gold before I knew that the color I thought was gold in the quilt was actually green.  Now the dresser is my old stand-by - Eddie Bauer wicker.  The window and wreath was a pinterest inspired addition, and pictures will be added to the frames soon.

 I've taken everything out of this white cabinet twice trying to figure out the best way to arrange it.  I think I like this version.  I had some loose pictures, so rather than buy and find space for more frames, I got some tiny clothes pins and made a little display of the loose pictures by clipping them to some twine strung between two thumbtacks.

I'm not quite finished with this project, but I think I'm finished for now.  It has been a lot of fun...for me.  Maybe not for the guy who got tasked with hanging the picture. :)

Fabulous Fall Weekends

There's so many fun things to do on fall weekends.  So many, in fact, that I took a vacation day on Friday just to squeeze them all in .  On Friday, Mom, my aunt, my cousin, and I went to the Ozark Craft Fair.  You could go to a craft fair in the area just about every September and October weekend, but this one is my favorite.  

 Sure, there are plenty of scary crafts, but there are also about a dozen booths that I just love.  I've seen gourd garlands on Pinterest a lot this year, and was pretty excited to find the one above made with gourds, corncobs, and walnuts.  It smells kind of good too!

 I also found this neat pumpkin made from an old quilt with a feed sack used for the back.  I'm a sucker for pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and materials!  I got a stocking for Christmas and stocked up on my favorite soy candles.  We had a great time, despite the cool temps and cloud cover.

 Friday night, David and I went to one of our favorite pizza places for dinner, then walked around First Friday Art Walk downtown.  On Saturday while David worked, I continued my quest for the perfect window for the guest room wall.  And I found it!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Farm Fest, where we ate corn dogs and looked at tractors.  There's always lots to see at Farm Fest, whether you have a farm or not.  Saturday night we went to dinner at Bair's for the best burgers in town.

Sunday we went to breakfast (no...I didn't cook at all this weekend!) then to check out the swap meet.  It was good for people watching, but easy on the wallets as we didn't find a single thing that needed to come home with us.  There's a lot of junk out there, and a few neat things that people are really proud of based on the prices. :)

It was such a fun weekend that I really hated to see it end.  The good news is that another one is coming soon!

Guest Room Facelift

I've been pondering doing something a little different in the guest room for a while, so when my friend Krista asked if she could stay with us at the end of October, that was the motivation I needed to get going.

 Here are a couple of pictures of the room as it is now.  I love this quilt.  I got it about 16 years ago, and will get it back out in the spring and summer for this room, but I wanted something with darker colors for fall and winter.

 The picture below is blurry, but I included it because it shows the little white dresser, which will soon be a new color.

 Here's a small sneak peak at the new quilt.  The piece below Raggedy Ann's arm looks very similar to her dress fabric, but in a larger print.  My Grandmother made that Raggedy Ann for me when I was about 2, so I think it's neat that the quilt has a similar fabric even though it's...ahem...a few years since Raggedy's dress was made.

Pumpkins

These pumpkins grew voluntarily in a ditch on my parents' property.  Aren't they cool?  I think they look neat in front of this window, and I'm a little obsessed with taking pictures of them as the light changes from day to night.

I think they need names...what do you think?

Alley Springs Camping

Last weekend we camped at Alley Springs State Park.  It may be one of my favorite places to camp.  There weren't many other campers, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

 We checked out the mill, which has been worked on this summer.  It looked freshly painted.

 The blue water looks almost unreal because of it's color, but it is a really picturesque place.

 The kids (both big and small) explored some caves.

 This was spring water, so it was cold cold cold, but Riley didn't mind.

 Child labor laws don't prevent children from helping set up a tent, do they? ;)

 Emily, age 4, might be a budding photographer.  She snapped this picture of me.  There was also a picture of my knees, one of my shirt, and another of her own forehead. ;)

 The kids were lots of fun and there was lots for them to do, like climbing this rock.

 And this rock!  Matthew, age 3, is a talented climber.  If his mama would let him, I think he'd be happy to do some serious rock climbing!

 After some trail and cave exploration, the kids and dogs cooled off with some wading.

 I have long threatened just to tie Riley to Emma, since Emma will come back when you call her and Riley generally does not.  On Sunday morning, when David, Todd, Scotty, and I were the only ones in our section of the campground, I finally tried it.  It was pretty entertaining and they didn't seem to know or mind being connected.  I felt sorry for Emma after a little while, as Riley kept pulling on her, but it worked well for a while!

 We weren't quite ready to go home and face the post-camping laundry and unpacking, so we checked out Devil's Pool and rode the Akers Ferry just for fun.

 It was a really great, relaxing camping trip.  It's a pretty rare occurrence that I'm not ready to go home after camping, but I could have happily stayed another night.