Now, If The Leaves Would Just Start to Turn . . .

Fall is HERE! In my house anyway--outside, it's still summer. But we'll just pretend it's fall, okay? With quilt classes to teach the next couple of weekends, if I hadn't taken time this past weekend to decorate, it would have been awhile before I had time again. Probably Christmas.

I wanted to show you the wooden plates I've been painting. They're usually fairly inexpensive and available at thrift stores, so I'd been "collecting" a few. Dianne (of Cacklin' Rosie fame) mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she was waiting to see what I was going to do with mine, so here are a couple Halloween-ish ideas. First, I turned a small divided dish (it looked like it would have held nuts or something like that) into a pair of owlish eyes--

Then a round wooden plate with a raised, scalloped edge became a pumpkin--of course!

I painted each wooden piece with two coats of white acrylic paint as a base and went from there. The white base makes the colors of the other paints clearer and more true. I finished each with a coat of spray varnish. (Painted wooden plates are decorative and shouldn't be washed other than with a damp cloth, so they aren't suitable for serving food on.)

I bought a lantern "kit" a couple years ago and made it into a haunted lampshade. The darn thing gets pretty squashed each year while it's packed away but I hate to get rid of it. Still, I've seen scrolly cut out paper in the scrapbooking section of Michaels and JoAnn's recently and it occurred to me that a piece of black cut out paper with yellow tissue paper behind it would make something quite similar.

I used a heavy but bendable wire for the frame of the shade and taped the wire into place. I bet you could do something similar if you're interested! (And that's our 100 calorie snack basket there on the counter--having that available helps curb temptation.)

The Halloween tree is up! And there on one of the shelves of the hutch are the jars of candy and other "stuff" I decorated last night. I still need to get a better photo of them--I'll try to remember and post it soon. It's another inexpensive but cute decorating idea that I'm happy to share. The Halloween tree, by the way, is made from a dead bush that we spray painted black and stuck into an orange vase. It doesn't get much cheaper than that!

This year's mantle with Cacklin' Rosie sitting next to the fireplace, holding her broom. The "picture" on the mantle is a fabric panel that I've framed for now. A couple years ago I did the same thing with a Thimbleberries Cover Story panel--really a simple idea.

Last year's Buggy Barn witch quilt. I pieced the crazy cat quilt top too, but I haven't quilted it yet. I may try to fit quilting that in somewhere if I have a little time--it's a fun one! I wanted to teach another stack and slice class this fall but I just couldn't figure out when I'd add another class to the schedule, so maybe I'll do one in the spring.

That's it for the tour--here we are at the front door. Mr. Squirrel says he's sad to see you go, but it's time for bed. We hope to see you again soon!