HAPPY NOVEMBER 1ST

I hung out at my daughter's house

last night.

One of her best friends was there

and we shared lots of 

giggles over past escapades

(theirs not my own).

The teenagers in the group were

especially interested in

WHAT DID MOM DO 
WHEN SHE WAS MY AGE?

Sadly (or not so sadly)

they had not done much of anything

they weren't supposed to do-

although they had 
"mouths" on them sometimes
and managed to get scolded by teachers
for things like cutting across 
several blocks to shorten their
'GYM WALK FOR EXERCISE'.

I do have some pictures that I need to get downloaded

and share with all of you.

But for now- I will leave you with this...
Marty McFly-

The Scuba Diver-

Dorothy-Wizard of Oz--as a blond!

Off they go~

The convicts-

and
The Cat!

I won't mention that she couldn't find
AN EYEBROW PENCIL
so she drew her whiskers on with
NAIL POLISH!
"Mom" might (or might not)

have had a word or two to say about that!

And- let's not forget
ELVIS!!

Ain't no hound dog at his house!

I am proud to say I only ate
FOUR PIECES
of 
HALLOWEEN CANDY!

AND
NO THEY WERE NOT GIANT CANDY BARS-
Thanks for asking!

I hope everyone has a wonderful first day of 
NOVEMBER
(and no sugar hangover).

See you soon!!!

FALL HAS FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP.....

Whew!

Just so you know right upfront
I lied about the 
"I can't get up" part.
How I WISH I COULD sleep in.
Apparently my DNA is tied to the
whirling dervish rather than
a fat lap cat.

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind.

Fall is finally here,

after a long hot summer,

 and the leaves have started to fall.

I have been putting bits and pieces 

of FALL around here.

They will stay up until the day after

THANKSGIVING.

(except for the Halloween stuff)

This is the little slate I painted

when my kids were little.
These are the youngest three-
my older son was "too cool"
to dress up anymore.

I sold a lot of these slates back when

FOLK ART CRAFT SHOWS

were popular.

This is the only one I have left 

for Halloween.

Love this soft side of fall.

I will do some overall pictures this weekend

of the new place and I will post them

this coming week.

I found an opaline pumpkin that is gorgeous!

I have never seen one like it

so I need to get a picture of that 

on the blog here so 

YOU CAN SEE IT,

too!

On the last warm nights of autumn

the kids liked to go down 

to the beach by the bay.

Their Mom took these pictures.

SweetCheeks said they are 

MAGIC PICTURES.

Cooler nights bring

sunsets like this!

Oh!!! How I miss this view.

I hope to have some sort of 

water view when we figure out

where we are going.

We have fall colors all over.

Wisconsin is a wonderful place to 

take a drive to see colors

like this.-

Or this-

However,

Please remember-
DO NOT TEXT 

while driving...

or in MY CASE-flying!

The kids say I have found

the perfect sign for my

front door.

I need to hang it there this weekend.

Wonder if I should paint

The Witch Is Out

and turn it over when I leave?

Nah....let 'em be scared!!!!

HAVE A WONDERFUL

FALL WEEKEND!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ---MY ALL TIME FAVORITE HALLOWEEN PUMKIN PICKIN' PICTURES!

Those of you that have followed me

for a while

will remember these pictures.

They are some of my

ALL TIME FAVORITE

pictures of 

SWEET CHEEKS.

She would have been 2 almost 3

when these were taken.

Here she is proudly holding 

HER OWN PUMPKIN!

She was so happy

UNTIL

Big pumpkin--Little Hands

spell disaster!

UH-OH

NOT GOOD!

I smile every single time I see those pictures of her.

Wishing you all a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

and

WHOOOOO said PUMPKINS

have to be scary?

WHOOOO?  

Not ME!

marthastewart

Of course,

I CAN be a LITTE SCARY

just ask MyHero

Care to join me for a little 

PRACTICAL MAGIC TEA?

I promise I won't cast a spell on you---

OR

WILL I?

You may ONLY drink what I serve you!

image

BOO

HAPPY HALLOWEEN -SWEET CHEEKS AND THE SMASHED PUMPKIN

I couldn't resist

posting this again

for Halloween.

This is SweetCheeks

at two years old.

She is 9 now.

She will not appreciate 

seeing this at her age..

BUT

Here she is holding

THE PUMPKIN

she picked out.

Ummm...

Here she is about 

15 seconds later.

(look at the knees of her tights)

Ummmmm.....

Let the crying begin...

Poor SweetCheeks.

I love that we have a

moment like this forever

frozen in time.

Someday she will show this

to her own granddaughter

and smile a sweet/sad

little smile.

I hope you have a

Smashing Halloween..

and I mean that in the

NICEST WAY!;>)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

image

GOOD-BYE HALLOWEEN! Hello Sign Winner &Happy Birthday to my Son-In-Law!

Time to pack away the

BLACK CATS

and say 

GOOD-BYE to HALLOWEEN!

Time to pack away the

HALLOWEEN COSTUME

that my son so lovingly made for little CJK.

CJK wanted to be a BOAT---

NOT A SAILOR 

Nope!  A BOAT!

As you can see, he is pretty happy with

the boat his Daddy made him.

(I overlaid his real name with 

CJK'S Lil' Boat)

And he can walk around in it.

So-

GOOD-BYE HALLOWEEN!

HELLO- SIGN WINNER!

Kim- Exquisitely Unremarkable-

I need your address and this is 

Your Sign!

 Hope you like it!

If you don't know Kim-go visit HERE.
She is a great person!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone

that entered and signed up to 

follow the kids on Facebook and Etsy.

I wish they could send

EVERYONE A SIGN

but they won't let me

the brats!

Thanks again and I hope you have a 

GREAT SUNDAY!

We will probably do this again

in Spring with another giveaway.

Meanwhile, please look at their site

79north 

and consider a sign for a 

Christmas or Birthday present 

for someone you love.

Speaking of Birthdays!
Happy, Happy Birthday to my wonderful
SON-IN-LAW   -  Big J!
Love you, buddy!

Did you remember to set your clocks back?

And you thought I never posted pictures

of myself and my dog!

HAP-POE HALLOWEEN-Come See The Giveaway I Won!!! It's Spooktacular!

Do you LOVE 

Edgar Allen Poe?

Did you read him when you were young

and find his stories horrifically macabre?

I did!

I think I was about 10 or 11 when I read

THE RAVEN

for the first time

(ah-maybe THAT is what's wrong with me)

and from there I went on to  

The Telltale Heart and

The Pit & The Pendulum.

and then the rest of his works.

Well, guess what?!?!

I WON a book that contains four of his best stories!

It has POP UPS

 I signed up for this give away over at

Vera's Row Homes & Cobblestones Blog

I hardly ever sign up for giveaways because I 

am so richly blessed already...

but...POE?

Oh!  I had to do it.

Now-not only did Vera send the book~

You should SEE the packaging!

Sadly, you can't!

Why?  WELL-because I was 

SO EXCITED to get this baby that I 

TORE ALL THE WRAPPINGS OFF

before I photographed it.

I know- 

BAD BLOGGER!

But here is what was in the package.

I tried to neaten it up a bit for you.

Two copies of his original works on velum.

The Raven & Annabel Lee.

and oh- Vera made wonderful tags

and there were cards in the package-

The pops up are quite "spooky"

Thank you SO much, Vera!

This is a GREAT addition to my library.

I am reading it tonight.

I have been saving it for 

HALLOWEEN!

My 12 year old grandgirl, Lulu, 

was here and asked if she could read

The Telltale Heart.

I let her.

She said- Well, that is weird, spooky.

Not scary spooky like movies today.

You got that right, Lulu.

There will never be another

EDGAR ALLEN POE.

He was scary before scary was cool.

Personally, I think he is a little 

SCARY LOOKING 

myself...but that is just a personal opinion.

Hap-POE Halloween to you.

Watch out for 

THE RAVEN

that might be over your head 

while you are out and about.

image

The chair is empty but the 

legend lives on.

source

BOO

Last chance to sign up for the giveaway

Sweet Cheeks will do the drawing tomorrow.

I am in Milwaukee today visiting some

babies and their Mama & Daddy.

Catch ya later!

A Bit Of Halloween In The Family Room

I do quite a bit of 

FALL DECORATING

but not so much for Halloween.

We don't get any 

Trick-or-Treaters 

where we live.

I usually go in town and enjoy all 

the HALLOWEEN DECORATING my 

daughter does at her house.

On Halloween night I go 

door-to-door with the grandkids.

That will change this year, too,

because they have moved

out into the wilds country.

sniff-sniff

So, I will content myself with 

bits and pieces of

Halloween here and will show you
just one little corner of our 
family room.

I painted this years ago when 

my kids were little.

It's propped against my 

CHRISTMAS CACTUS.

That's kind of a joke in itself, isn't it?

Halloween/Christmas- get it?

Nevermind....

It sits on a trunk in the corner.

I park most of my inside plants here

for the winter.

The little old runner is there to protect

the top of the trunk from water damage.

I love this old trunk.  

I have had it for about 15 years.

Love the corner detail, too.

Speaking of trunks and Fall!

Look what I found at the base of

another tree.

Is that cool, or what?

I told you it was cool!!!

You KNOW it is a FAIRY HOUSE, right?

I fell into a prone position to take a photo

of what was INSIDE this tree.

YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT!

HONEST!  You won't BELIEVE IT!!!!

Let's look through that hole!

Ready?

source

 Is that the cutest little fairy house

you've ever seen?

Didn't I get a great shot

of the inside of that tree?

What do you mean 

YOU DON"T BELIEVE ME????

Well, as SweetCheeks would say....

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT!

If you haven't signed up for my 
giveaway yet-you still have time.

Miss SweetCheeks will do the drawing
on November 1st.
Sign up here.