New Do

I was in moldy type of mood this morning with tons of things on my plate and just letting the stress of the everyday things get to me. Tried on some winter pants and felt the tug of a few extra pounds and that made me bummed and mad at myself. But really what was I pouting about. I ate the Halloween candy and can get those pounds off and my life is busy because I have this big family and we are all busy and living life. I sent my husband a text that I felt fluffier and was unhappy and he smartly sent me a text that he thinks I look good. What else could he say and still come home at the end of the day? Poor guy. I am lucky and he is smart and keeps me grounded. 

So I decided after tackling a couple items I would walk. That is what I need to do. Eat less, walk more. It was the perfect day. Then my SIL came over and did my hair. Boy does that give you a pick me up. I decided to cut it shorter and then straighten it today. I love it. I needed a change. It was hard to get some sort of shot of my head while holding the camera myself and not show four chins or something. More items are checked off the list tonight and tomorrow is a new day with more appts. and errands but these are things I need to remember to be thankful for. My daughter comes home from the hospital and always needs to decompress and her stories remind me that the busyness of life is a blessing and not to be cursed or taken for  granted. Thank God for my busy life.

Gobble Gobble

Want to show you a few of my Thanksgiving turkeys. I love to scatter them throughout the house. These two are candles and really pick up the light in my front window.

Just tucked a few on the dining table.

I am in dire need of a new tablecloth. I want a light off white/taupe check and can never find one long enough.

Don't toss your Indian corn. I have had this lot for more than five years. Just store in your house so critters don't get into it.

Linking to:
Met Monday
Tabletop Tuesday
Coastal Charm
Wow Us Wed.

A Perfect Saturday

This weekend I had a wonderful day meeting and playing with some fellow bloggers. Sweet Patty from Lemon Lane Cottage invited me to tag along with her and her sister in law on a little road trip down to meet another blogger I know many of you will know, Maryjane with The Beehive Cottage. What a fun day. First we made a stop at Patty's sister in law's house. What a treat. Shelly is not only one of the nicest people ever but her house is just eye candy you can't believe. Think of the cutest cottage you have ever seen in red and white. I just couldn't take it all in it is that cute. I didn't take pics because we were in a hurry but oh how I wish I would have. We want her to start a blog to share her darling home. You would love it as much as I do I am sure. Shelly it's time!! Share your home with us!!!

Anyway we headed down to Murrieta to Ivy Street Market where Maryjane had her vintage cutie trailer and all her wonderful vintage paper goods. We shopped and chatted and she is just the sweetest, warm lovely thing ever. She gifted us each with some wonderful items from her goodies and we were just overwhelmed with her generosity. We hope to see her again soon so we can get together and visit. If you haven't seen her darling paper goods you can visit her etsy shop here http://www.etsy.com/shop/beehivecottage?ref=em.

And the day kept getting better. As we were visiting with Maryjane who would we see also visiting the little trailer but Kris from Simplify. I was thrilled. She hugged us all and went along with us for lunch and we had the best time getting to know her. I am good blogging friends with her so to see her and give her a hug was wonderful.

Last Patty, Shelly and I went to the new Hobby Lobby for the first time. Patty and I had not been yet so it was so exciting. Boy was it packed. They have so much in there it is overwhelming. I wanted to post pics I took but I had my old camera and for the life of me cannot find the cord I need to upload my pics. I am already having one of those weeks. You know the kind, if you think of all you have to do you might cry. Yep one of those. At the end of the week we are heading out of town so I have to throw packing into that.

Thanks so much Patty for including me and to Maryjane for our wonderful gifts and to Shelly for sharing your home with me and to Kris for showing up at the perfect time so we could meet. Blogging has opened such a lovely group of women to me that I otherwise would never have met. I love you guys!!! I wish I could meet all my blogging friends. That would be so awesome!!

Rainy Day Puttering

We have had a glorious rain today. Yesterday we were in the 80s and today only in the 50s. I am loving it. I pulled out all of my Thanksgiving doo-dads and have been playing around.  Read some under a blankie and then put dinner in the crock pot. Hubs and I have an appt. when he gets home so I wanted to have dinner all squared away. It is called Supper in a Pot. And it really is a complete dinner in one dish. The family loves it I make it in the cooler months.

It is simply layers of meat and veggies. I use ground beef or turkey browned, then layer with sliced potatoes, onion, carrots, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms, corn. Whatever you like. Hubby hates peas so I use corn.
Little salt and pepper with each layer and then about 1/2 c. milk and one can of cream of whatever soup you have poured on top with melted cheese. Add a little liquid and cheese between the layers too for extra creaminess. Set on high for four hours and serve with a salad.

Here it is already for the lid and to cook away. When we get home, dinner will be ready.

I will share my pilgrims later as I am still tweaking. I like to buy a pair every year to add to my collection.

I am blogging on my couch in its new spot. I knew I would love it here so I could look at and watch the rain fall.

Linking to:
Show and Tell Friday
SNS 106

Thankfulness

Just got in the house from doing my weekly yard chores. The lawns are mowed and the front planter is on its way to being cleared out and ready for winter pansies. I work until I fill our green barrel and then I am done.

Hard work just clears your head and really does release the good juices in us. Though I am filthy and on my way to a shower, I am happy and content. Rain is supposed to be on the way so yard chores are done and I can stay in and be cozy tomorrow.

Ever thankful that I have food to eat and my kids have never gone to bed hungry. My mother went to bed hungry many a time as a child so she made sure we never did. I am so thankful my kids have never had to either. It might get a little slim around here between trips but there is always food for the making.

 Thankful my 13 yr.old will indulge her little sister and play dolls with her. It warms my heart when I see this scene.

I divided my Dutch Iris bulbs. I love how every year they give me more and more. These were originally in the yard from our old house. Now I have about 60-70 bloom every year.

Linking to:
The Charm of Home
Potpourri Friday
Inspiration Friday
Common Ground

Frugal Challenge - Fresh Baked Bread

The other day I was plum out of bread and had no car to get to the store. Mine was in the shop. So what's a mom to do? I thought, hey let me bake some bread. With my Kitchen Aid it is so easy because it does the kneading for you. So in just a few minutes I had bread dough rising on the stove and by lunch time I had two loaves of bread.

Now, I don't know about your family, but ours eats a lot of bread. Sometimes four loaves a week and it is getting so expensive along with everything else. I have been wanting to start baking some of our own bread to save money and because it is probably better for us without all the preservatives.

Recently Frugal Makes Cents did a post on the breakdown of the cost of baking your own bread. I love that she did this because her mind works well with numbers and frankly mine does not and I had been wondering about the cost of making my own. I think it is well worth it. The kids loved it and it sliced so well. This was an oat recipe as I was trying to use up oatmeal that I had stockpiled. I will definitely use this recipe again but what I am hankering to do is make my own sourdough starter. I think I will start it this week and let you know how the bread comes out. Can you smell it? Fresh homemade sourdough bread.

Linking to:
Thrifty Thursday
The Charm of Home
Inspiration Friday
Thrifty Things Friday

Fall Simplicity

 I am in love. With some new chairs we just bought that is. Four of these lovelies are my hubby's and my Christmas gifts to each other. I wish we could have afforded all eight right now but that would have blown the Christmas budget. Maybe for my birthday we will finish off the set. Don't look at my yucky baseboards. They will hopefully all be done by January but with the way projects and hub's schedule goes who knows. I refuse to paint them though if they are just getting ripped out.

I love the simple lines of shaker style furniture and especially primitive decor. I try to get away from it but cannot. It is where my heart lies. I have always prefered simple lines and rustic finishes. My dining room table is not my style but was here with the house and was free so I live with it. I have thought of painting it. It will be a while before it can be replaced.

I decided to just leave a simple runner on the table. Does it look terribly mish mash with those red chairs too? Not sure if I should put the table cloth back on it. I am very undecided today aren't I?

But oh my I love my new black chairs. We don't buy much new furniture around here so this is a real treat.

Linking to:
Transformation Thursday
Tablescape Thursday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Time Travel Thursday
SNS 106

Extending the Life of Your Favorite Candles

I love to burn candles and melts so my home smells nice and especially love the seasonal candles. Looking at  the wax at the bottom of a candle that would no longer burn gave me an idea. I thought what if I could get that out and use in my warmer thingy. So I did just that and it worked wonderfully. I just took a knife to the last bit of candle wax and broke it all up.

Then I grabbed one of my warmer melt things. What do you call these anyway? Just poured the pieces in and lit a candle underneath and wah-lah!

Worked great and is still giving me great scent when I light it two weeks later. Why had I not thought of this before? I even used some in my Scentsy warmer and that worked great as well.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
Rednesday

On to November

Here is Dorothy or "Dorfy" as she called herself.

You saw my two oldest the other day and here are the two youngest.

We had ghouls and ghosts but now I have packed it all away. I am exhausted. Anyone else feeling that way?
Halloween is a lot of work. This year I vowed to thin out the Halloween decorations. I threw away a huge garbage bag of stuff and will donate some other items. I want it thinned down to only a few bins so I need a few more of the orange ones. Makes it so much easier to store in those color coded boxes.

Now onto what is becoming more and more my favorite time of the holidays. The hectic time of Halloween parties and prep is over and onto the season of Thanksgiving. I will get my Pilgrims out tomorrow I think. We always have a quiet day at home with all the trimmings and movies afterwards. The time before the real hustle and bustle of Christmas is upon us. I have read a few of you also that are feeling the same way. When a holiday is full of a lot of work and prep it does sort of get overwhelming. I need to try and get as many Christmas things done before Thanksgiving so I can enjoy December more.

Halloween Party

Just some quick pics of the Halloween party at my sister-in-laws. We were Trekkies.
My attempt at an up-do. I added hubby's toy enterprise to my hair. He has had it since he was a kid.

My SIL's house...

My daughter.

My SIL rocked the black swan.

My two oldest.

Linking to:

Met Monday

A Stroll Thru Life

Halloween Preparations

We are carving pumpkins in shorts as always. It is always hot for jack-o-lantern carving day. Guests are coming for our annual potluck tomorrow night so we are busy bees around here. If I don't get a chance I want to wish you all a fun and Happy Halloween. Save me all the Mounds bars.

Haunted House

Took one of my girls and some friends to a local house that really goes all out. They even had a haunted house to walk through this year. Very cool. Screamed twice.

Now for a really scary house....

Hubs and the kids decorate the outside. On Halloween night a fog machine and spooky sounds will top it off.
I have to look out at this guys backside every day when at the kitchen sink.

The glowing orbs in the tree are all jack-o-lanterns but they didn't photograph well.

Then this guy creeps me out right outside the front window. Will be glad when he comes down on Tuesday.

Happy Halloween everyone. Off to a party tonight though I am not thrilled. Not a party person. I am a lunch out with girls or dinner with hubby and home in jammies by eight kind of gal but I have to go. We are going as old school Star Trek characters. Captain Kirk is my date.

Linking to:
SNS 105
BNOTP
Dittle Dattle