BOO!!

It's been so long since I have posted to my beloved blog, I have forgotten how to use it. Bear with me as I really have missed this outlet and plan on posting more often. It will be a learning process all over again.



We  need a new computer, but right now I just had a tech come and help me update this one so I could load pictures from my phone.

Here goes.

I'm starting with the decorating of my entry way. Lots of inspiration on social media led me to think I wanted to decorate it for Halloween before I do my traditional Fall and Thanksgiving. Also two years ago, I made a Halloween bench pillow that just sat on the bench by itself because I had no other Halloween decorations.

I really struggled for a couple of weeks. I shopped and nothing seemed right. I finally decided on a black and white scheme as the pillow has a lot of  black and white. Then there is my white wicker bench and white shelf. But nothing was working or coming together. Then my friend Suzanne said something that really resonated with me as I was just not coming up with anything. She said "It's because you don't like Halloween". Well, I guess she knows me better than I know myself. I was loving seeing all the clever Halloween decorations on social media, but they just weren't me and my entry.

 I found this Black and White throw on Amazon really cheap! It's scratchy and not cozy at all, but perfect for my bench.

This little quilt I had made a couple of weeks earlier was perfect for over the bench and added some much needed color.

 Now when I went shopping I had a plan and it all came together. I found a few things at Hobby Lobby and some at Beverly Fabrics. The rest I just shopped from my own stash.

This wall is directly in front of the door when you open it. The bench and shelf is back to the right of the door. I usually have blue and white dishes here, a welcome sign and a couple of pictures, so I tried to use the nails that were there. Decorating around our alarm system is a challenge.

 Mr. SS put this shelf up for our first Christmas in the house, so I always decorate it for the holidays.

 I found this at HL and have always wanted a Gather sign. I will use it after Halloween somewhere else in the house.

I had the white pumpkin and think the polka dot one came from Marshall's. I planned on using gauze on the shelf, but forgot to pick some up, so used a fabric I had. I always like to add a candy jar so I have something to put another bow on.

Love this sequined black pumpkin and not sure why I picked up the jar. I guess I was getting my spooky on or trying. 

The checked plates were from HL.

 You will find this little bear and chair in my house somewhere at all times. It's very sentimental to me, and I just change his bow accordingly.

One of the things I love about my bench pillow.

So, Boo, a black cat, fabric called Spooky Delights (used for the little quilt), a black pumpkin, a spooky black crow on a jar and a lot of Black and White checks is about as spooky as this girl gets, but I am so pleased whenever I look over at this corner.

Happy Valentines Day

It seems the only time I post any more is on a holiday. I had so much fun decorating for Valentines Day, I wanted to take pictures and post so I have them for inspiration next year. My table decorations were inspired by my longtime good friend Suzanne.
You've read about her many times here. She is the retired owner of my favorite quilt store Strawberry Patches. She moved to Kansas last summer and I miss her more than I can say. We have been friends since college. She dated and married a high school friend of my Mr. SS's. We married these friends the same year, had our baby boys about the same time, cooked, sewed and shopped together. She has been my inspiration for most of my adult life in more ways than decorating and sewing. Her love and zest for life, her determination, courage, and strength have always been a shining light.  I could go on, but let's get on to Valentines Day. Love you, Suzanne.

This is a glance at my hutch. There are a few Valentine's specific decorations, but mostly just everything I could find red and white in my cupboards.

The three tiered stand is new and I found it at Home Goods. I love it because it looks like tart pans and fits my country farmhouse, cottage style. Again, most everything here came from my cupboards.

Here's another view.

Suzanne had posted her 3 tiered stand and cookie jar on face book and I totally copied. Who knew it would take so long to place each cookie in this jar. It won't take nearly as long for them to come out. 

All together.

I even tried to make the back of the stand look good.

See the scrabble X O. They were given to my by a good friend Ruth.

A little dark, but this decoration sits on top of the stand and was made at friend Sandi's house last year. She is sitting on a favorite thing of mine, a wooden spool.

I wanted to add pictures of a Valentine's pillow I did, but I'm having technical issues with this dinosaur of a laptop accepting pictures off my new phone.  I get a new phone so I can take pictures again and now can't get them on an old computer.  

On to happy days. We celebrated Mr.SS's birthday with all but one of the grands on Super Bowl Sunday, as we always do. The one missing is our college boy, Kyle who now lives in Oregon. The young man with the dog is our Drew's new friend, Evan and our new friend too. My son's old 1958 red pickup was not only seats on the tailgate for football watching but my favorite photo prop.

Hoping to post next about our weeks of camping. Mr. SS has been on a job in Ventura since before Christmas and we have endured many rainy days in a campground, but you know how I love my little blue trailer.

                                               

A Busy, Fun Day

I got to start my day doing things I love, canning and baking.

I made 12 jars of Apple Butter and 16 loaves of pumpkin bread.

Some of them are being gifted tomorrow, some later.

The house smelled so good. Imagine...cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg times two. In the oven and bubbling on the stove. 

Then at noon, my sweet DIL Lialani came over to give me a pedicure. This sweet girl has been doing this for me for at least 7 or 8 years. She does a wonderful job and it makes me feel so pampered plus it's about 1 1/2 hours of good catch-up time for us.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, my Mr.SS came in with a surprise. I didn't think we had any roses left on our bushes, but he found 5 late bloomers. Two red, two lavender and one yellow. The lavender ones smell so, so good. As he always does when he brings in roses, he said "Will you accept this rose?" He knows my obsession for The Bachelor. (I know, not a good thing to reveal about me, but I do watch)

Yesterday morning this is what the "new" front of our house looked like.

Today Mr. SS hung the Christmas wreath on my...

New Red Door.

Oh yes, it was a fun, busy day and  now time to

close this and go to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone.

                                                   

Sunday Afternoon with a Few of My Favorite Things

This past summer, my son built cabinets for my sewing/office/laundry room. I had been using  folding tables and plastic containers for quite a while. Later I will do a post of the before and after of this miracle makeover, but for now, I'll just show you what I did today.

I unpacked a box of toy sewing machines that I have had for a long time. At one time I had at least 20 of them, but with each of the last 3 moves, I pared them down to just 6. These have been in storage for 6 years. It was fun getting them out and cleaning them up. They are anchoring my little vignettes.

I wanted some open shelving to display some of my favorite things. These are L shaped. You'll see the other part later. 

The top shelf has the sweetest little book about the button boxes or tins we all grew up with. My grandma had a Cigar Box, but my Mom's were in the little Apple tin can you see here. She never threw away a piece of clothing without  pulling off the buttons.

 Besides a little toy machine, this shelf has an old jar of threads and vintage needle cases among other goodies. The small vintage metal trunk holds all of my embroider floss.

My bible on the right, my hand sewing basket, a picture of my oldest granddaughter and the little pin cushion that was given to my by my Aunt Lola the last time I visited her before she passed away.

 Now the other half of the L shelves. Just some pretty fabric, books and more button jars.
I have a lot more button jars and baskets. Someday I'll do a post on my buttons...oh my!

 My little black Singer and an old machine that isn't a toy, but it is a hand crank and is dated 1883. My friend MariEllen gave me that one. As you can see, these are up on top of the cabinets.

 This is the first little toy machine I bought. I got it at an antique store and paid way too much for it. Then I discovered I could find them in flea markets for a lot less. But it is a treasure because it was my first. The button tree was given to my by my cousin and has a lot more buttons than it looks like here.

 So after my knees couldn't take anymore ladder climbing I settled down to working on a project I started 6 years ago for my then 6 year old grandson, Cade. It's going to be finished this year for Christmas. His room is still red white and blue and I think the stars are still age appropriate for a 12 yr. old. I'm backing it in Red Minkee. He loves Minkee pillowcases and gets a new one every year or so, so I know he will love a quilt to match.

Its a twin size. I only have 4 more rows to go. It's very labor intensive, but fun. I've never been good at "scrappy" quilts, but have enjoyed this one, probably because it in my favorite colors.

Mr.SS is still working on the front of our house. Maybe I'll have more progress to show you next time. We put wood blinds up on the inside this weekend...now that was an accomplishment too, but not one of my favorite things to do. Haha!

                                          

A Little Fall Decorating

Even though we are having an Indian Summer (Is that politically correct?), well we are, with temps in the high 70's and even 80, fall is in full bloom around here, at least inside the house anyway. Not many leaves have changed on the outside, though.

The nights are a little cooler, so I put flannel sheets on the bed and added a blanket. Nothing I like better than clean flannel sheets.

Changing my hutch out with the seasons is one of my favorite things to do. I love the warm colors of fall and had fun with the few decorations I have. I say few, because I literally had almost as many tubs for fall as I had for Christmas until we moved from our bigger house into the RV  Small Cottage. Now I have added a few things back into my collection of fall fun, since now we are really in a small cottage 

I still had my all white decorations in the hutch, so some of them stayed.  I like the sparkle of a little white with the fall colors. Well, let's face it...I just like white. 

The mirrored window was placed there to cover up some nasty holes. It was just a plain window until Mr. SS got a hold of it. He added a shelf on top and a window sill and knobs on the bottom. Just to the left is the door going into my Sewing Studio/laundry/office. The plan is to take the "window" down and put up a sliding barn door. It took me a while to make that seem like it was Mr. SS's idea. lol

A few candy jars that my grand kids head for when they walk in the door.

One of my treasures here is the tiny postal scale that my friend Gail gave me. I love it because it's little, but also because I worked for the post office in my younger days.

A few more decorations...thinking about Thanksgiving now.

You can barely tell, but the platter is a vintage milk glass turkey platter that I treasure.

The plate on the bottom right is the last thing my sister made and sent to me before she passed away. It is a pretty fall scene with fabric under glass.

A cute fabric pumpkin I made at Strawberry Patches a couple of years ago.

My table setting with the newly added Pioneer Woman Amber Goblets and Cowgirl Lace Flatware.

Coffee Table with a Dept. 56 Church and my white Pilgrims and Turkey. Mr. Pilgrim suffered a broken neck in our last move, but a little super glue and he remains a part of this little vignette.

I haven't changed this display for years. It was all Home Goods purchases  and they used to have a site where you could post the way you used things you bought from them.I posted a picture similar to this.  So many years ago before I was a blogger, I started following my first blogger ever from that site. Tracey from Notes from a Cottage Industry

Okay, here's my entry bench. I put a pretty fall fabric and vintage buttons on the back of my "Boo" pillow, so it went from Halloween to Fall with just a flip over. I did the little embroidered pillow last year.

Last year a friend, Sandi, had our friendship group over for some crafting. We made this fall button picture.

The same evening we made this garland. She had printed vintage Thanksgiving cards and we glittered them, strung them and added the torn strips of fabric. It was a fun fast project. I love having it hang in my entry.

That's all for fall inside. I did a little decorating outside too, but we are still in the construction phase there, so not too much to share.

Speaking of construction, the outside of the windows are trimmed out and columns started on both sides of the garage door and at the far right end of the house. Today's  progress doesn't show yet. Electrical had to be run in the attic for the lights that will go on the columns. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Thank goodness for my Mr. SS.

Terrible picture, but this is the bedroom window all trimmed out. We put up Faux wood blinds today, so I wanted to get a picture before they went up. Now I have to put some curtains up. Maybe just sheers on a pretty black iron rod. I don't want to hide the window trim to much.

I saw a quote on Face book that I liked.

It reminded me of the way I sign off on my posts.

It was something like:

God is Great

so

Life is Good.