Happy Fall!

Fall officially arrives today, and what a good time it is to announce the winner of the Vineyard Seasons book by Susan Branch. There were 30 entries, so 16 seemed like a good number right in the middle of the bunch--and number 16 turned out to be Julie-Julia who said, "HI Kim. Enter me! Happy all went well. Julie-Julia"

Congrats Julie-Julia! Let me know how to best get the book to you.

It's still WAAAAY hot here in Sacramento--100 degrees today. My friend Lisa picked me up this afternoon, and we went to lunch at the Flower Farm. (You can read about an earlier trip I took to the same place--with photos--HERE.)

Despite the heat, there was a nice breeze on the covered patio, so we ate outside and enjoyed the scenery of the nursery and the pond. I found two grasses to plant in our front yard to replace a couple plants that haven't done well out there, and Lisa and I each brought home some fresh heirloom tomatoes and basil from their farm stand. Yum!

I thought I'd share a couple more photos of the Halloween decorations. Remember Cackling Rosie, my thrift store buy last year? Well, she's back!

Tomorrow (today) I plan to make a pumpkin-buying trip--her lap is a perfect spot to hold a rather large pumpkin. And I have another photo of the living room--I wanted to share this idea with you. The framed "picture" above the fireplace is actually a fabric panel--simple to do if you have a frame on hand and the panel can be used later in a quilt or other project--or left in the frame if you prefer.

Happy Fall!

Guess Who's Here?

Our fall house guests arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and one of the first things Hubby wanted to know was where I was going to store them. He's SUCH a party-pooper!

I thought I'd just leave them in their boxes for a few days at least. Remember I told you they were coming in THIS post? I broke the news to Hubby a couple days later, and I've got to say, he wasn't too happy with my office manager. I told her, of course. I figured she needed to know before the next firm get together, which is scheduled for the beginning of October.

I love to decorate for fall and Halloween, but I haven't decided when to do that this year. Maybe the weekend after the one that's coming up--that will be just before my carpal tunnel surgery.

Last year I had a little contest to name my newly-acquired thrift store witch, and Pink Flamingo Dianne came up with the perfect name: Cackling Rosie. I may need to do something similar this year with these new additions.

If you love to decorate for Halloween, have you started yet? When do you think you will? Are you adding any new decorations this year? Inquiring minds . . . .

I Know I'd Be Excited If I Just Had The Energy

I'm seeing a real pattern developing on Friday nights--I'm just too pooped to do much of anything when I get home from work. I've been enjoying my new assignment at my office, although it's busy and challenging--or maybe I've been enjoying it BECAUSE it's busy and challenging. But no matter--by Friday night, I'm tired. And then there's that staying up too late thing--yes, I tried not to do that when I went back to work, but it seems inevitable, and I find I'm up later and later as the week progresses. Maybe I just need to plan an early night reading and relaxing in bed each Friday (although that might be hard next week because I'll be teaching Friday night AND Saturday day!).

Still, the weekend's here and I'm kind of excited because I plan to do a large chunk of my fall/Halloween decorating this weekend. The weather's cooled down a little, and while I know it's just teasing me and will get hot again, the cooler temps have inspired me. How about you? Have you started to think about Halloween yet?

I want to thank all of you who thought up wonderful names for this gal--

Your creativity always amazes me! I have to say that Cackling Rosie stood out, though, and I know from your comments that several of you agreed. Dianne can always be counted on for her clever imagination. Dianne, email me and I'll get some kind of little thank you gift in the mail to you next week.

I also want to thank you for the compliments on the Halloween "totem." I wish I could take credit for the design but the instructions were in the magazine I showed you. It's really fairly easy to cover styrofoam balls with the papier mache medium and decorate them. In fact, it's so easy that when I came across a styrofoam "head"/hat form at Goodwill today, I thought I'd buy it and see what I can do with a little papier mache. Stay tuned to see what I come up with--I have a couple ideas.

I would never WISH to have carpal tunnel problems, be off work for several months, and then have surgery, but if I could have done something about SCHEDULING the darn thing for the "right" time of the year, it would have been NOW. If I had my "druthers," just about now I would have been about two or three weeks into it, when the worst of the pain had passed and I was just going through the steps to get to the point where they decided surgery was the answer. Then I could have played with Halloween and fall stuff to my heart's content, followed closely by playing with Christmas and winter stuff. And then a return to work around January or February. Yep, that's what I would have done. Of course, that wasn't how it worked out because things like that don't happen to suit our own ideal schedules, do they? So I guess I'd better get to bed now so I can get up in the morning and get started--after all, it's back to work on Monday. But in the meantime, we have the weekend to play!