This and That

Hi Friends, Sorry I've been away so long. Several things have been the reason, number 1, my camera has been in the shop being repaired after I dropped it, and it took a while to get back but it seems to be working fine now, which makes me very happy! Then secondly, I have been very busy with my online Medical Transcription course. I am now at the end of all the curriculum and am working on my final exams. I really like the typing and I find the reports very interesting as I have always been very interested in medical things. It is challenging work but so far so good. I haven't had as much time to play around with decorating and art things as I would like, but this I think is a good anwer to wanting to earn some extra money and yet wanting to be at home. I'm excited about it!

Do you like my little black boxes? Aren't they cute? I found them at the GW a few weeks ago. Not sure just what I'll put in them, I guess a little of this and a little of that!! he, he.

Veterans day is coming up and I found this really neat flag case at Michaels this summer. Since we lost my father-in-law last January, I thought this would be a nice gift for my husband to put his Dad's flag and some of his medals, awards, ribbons, etc. And it also has a place for a 4x6 picture! This is such a great display I think, and my husband if very proud of it. It will hang in his office.

This year has gone by so fast, it makes my head spin, and Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!! I always feel a little conflicted about Thanksgiving, as sometimes I feel the need to go ahead and start putting up my Christmas decorations (BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM) to get a head start on December which always seems to end up with me thinking that if I just had ONE more week, I would be ready. Do you all do that? I'm going to try and get some things done ahead, cooking, wrapping and such. But then I say that every year!

One more thing, I went to the Goodwill last week and Guess What? It was CLOSED because of mercury contamination indefinitely!! Wow!!. Do you suppose it was one of those new CFL bulbs that got broken? I've heard some bad rumors about Haz-Mat teams being called to clean up after those things. I do not like the light they give off AT ALL!! So, guess who is hoarding light bulbs? I buy them everytime I go to Walmart and I've noticed that the cheaper ones are getting harder to find on the shelf. Four bulbs for $.77 is way cheaper than 4 for $7.50 or more, and from what I've heard they don't last quite as long as they are saying. Oh well, just thought I'd mention it. Let me know what you all think.

Hope you all have a very happy and safe Halloween. I have made Chili and Apple Crisp today, as our kids are coming over to celebrate birthdays.

Blessings, Linda

Fall decorations

Hi friends, Today I'm joining the blog party at Rhoda's Southern Hospitalityblog.com to show you what I spent my day doing. It was a fun and relaxing way to spend a beautiful fall day. I had all the windows open. There is a cool breeze and the leaves are falling. Just a generally good day. If you want to see all the other blogs participating in the party just click here.

This is my family room mantel. Things changed here were the greenery with berries in the two vases. (I really need to to something about that ceiling fan!) Play like you don't see the dated globes, okay?

Added some beaded pumpkins here and a brown willow plate. I have had two of them for years, I never see them anywhere else. They must be rare.

A close up of some items on my buffet in the dining room. The fall frame holds a framed greeting card I have had for years. It has such a beautiful verse!!

This is the first thing you see when you step inside the door. I found the window at a garage sale before we built the house. Since our entry is small I wanted to use it to open up the space. The little tree is a Christmas clearance item from Michaels that I decorated for Fall.

The dining table holds two new cage lantern things I just recently found at Hobby Lobby for $10.00. I love the lanterns that are so popular right now, but they are pricey. With these, I just put hurricane vases inside to hold the candle or any other item I want to use inside. At Christmas, they will be pretty with "snow" and Santas or angel figures. I put the vases on top of two blue and white saucers to add some color. Then arranged a "Berry vine" garland around them. They are sitting on my thrifted gold chenille afghan.

Various items arranged on the buffet over one of those sparkly netting garland things used for Christmas trees and such. My three tiered stand just has little pieces of floral materials, leaves, flowers and I tucked in a couple of small pieces of blue willow.

A closer look.

Do you recognize this weed? It grows prolificly along the road sides and empty lots here in Kansas. It's called curley dock.. If you cut it when it's just beginning to turn a light brownish pink color from green, it will stay that way. It ultimately turns dark brown so, you have to get it around the first part of June. It's a great filler to use for arrangements, wreaths, or just by itself like here.

Over the kitchen stove, I may put some apothecary jars up here also with maybe hedge balls or dried Sumac berries.

The front door, I found a great buy on these Mums yesterday and they looked so healthy. I tucked in brances of bittersweet cut from our property and also some of those great looking hedge apples. Do any of you use these in your fall decorating? They are such a pretty color.

Do you see the hedge apples?

Kind of strange looking, Huh? But they do look great with all the other colors of Fall and at least on our property, they are EVERYWHERE!!!

Happy Fall to all of you. May you enjoy every minute of this glorious season as it goes by sooo fast!!! Thanks for visiting me today!! Blessings, Linda