A LITTLE CRAFTING

There was this little table in my storage room.  Wouldn't it be cute painted a funky trendy color?  Maybe lime green.  Here she is after about two weeks of painting and sanding and painting and sanding.  She is kind of cute.

The sides lift up to make a nice big table top to use my computer on.  Just the top was painted and the rest is the original industrial gun metal look.

We have a bumper crop of pine cones in our woods this year, so I used a few to make this wreath and painted it flat white, but I think I will redo it in high gloss for a richer look.  I have a paper mache' reindeer which will be painted white and mounted in the center of the pine cone wreath.  The whole thing will be lightly sprinkled with angel dust for a little glam.  I think it will look nice at Christmas.

STILL ENJOYING FALL

I just couldn't resist sharing a pic of a few of the young bucks in our back yard hiding from those pesky hunters. 

This is the very last of the garden bounty.  We had fried green tomatoes, stuffed peppers and stewed okra and tomatoes last night.  Yum!

I am drying the parsley to use during the winter.  The left over peppers I didn't stuff were chopped and put in the freezer to use later.  Since we'll be on the road for the next few weeks, I had to try to use up all the perishables before we leave. 

We're flying out to Oregon tomorrow and RV'ing back across the country to Mississippi with my sister and her hubby on their way home to Florida.  God willing, my little sister and I will have a great time giggling across the US. 

Enjoy the fall, y'all.

FALL IS FINALLY HERE!

Ahhh, beautiful fall in Mississippi!  Summer was TOUGH this year, but now . . . .

I was just driving along the other day to get some paint at the local Home Depot and there they were - about a gazillion birds on the power lines and it just looked like a Kodak moment. So, I did a whoopee-do and pulled out the trusty camera which stays in my purse most all the time.  Thought they were worthy of sharing.

I like the lone white one.

The shape of the one in the middle of the pic is nice.

The last of the zinnias from my yard.

One morning I was out taking my early morning walk and there were spider webs all over the woods floor - a rather strange phenomenon - lots and lots of them all over the ground.  Maybe they are always there, but not visible because of the dry air.  There was a very heavy fog this particular morning.  Go figure.  Kind of looked like I went to Hob Lob and bought some of that Halloween spider web stuff and spread it all over the place.  

This huge web was hanging between some trees and looked quite spooky with our old shack in the background of the pic.

This one was over in the woods hanging from some trees and was about 7 feet wide and tall.  I almost walked into it.  Ooooooooooh!  I could not find the spider, but I hope she was not sized in proportion to her web.  Double oooooooooooh!!   Pretty neat to look at.

Nice shadows on the secluded leafy path on the back of our property where some of our neighbors ride their four-wheelers and the deer use it to go for their daily drink at the swamp about a quarter of a mile away.

Even though the garden looks like it hasn't been tended to in years, I do check on it almost daily.  The prettiest bell peppers of the season are on the vines right now as well as some nice okra and Sweet 100's tomatoes.  Yum!

 

A great friend and I plan to check out the Canton Flea Market tomorrow and soak up some more of the beautiful fall weather.  Should be a great place to recharge my crafting batteries and catch up on some local news.    

Hey y'all, hope you enjoy fall as much as I do.

SATURDAY BLESSINGS

Saturday was one of those nice little gifts from God that can just pass by without your giving it a thought, but luckily I have some pictures to remind me.  A brisk walk in the early morning cool took Johnny and me by some pretty wild flowers.  When we were in Oregon last year there were signs everywhere to destroy noxious weeds (some wildflowers/weeds).  ;(  We just mow them here in Mississippi.  

It may be hard to tell from this picture, but the entire field was covered in the pretty yellow flowers.

After the grands arrived, we spent the day outside on the back porch watching them play.  Until the battery ran out of juice, Baker chauffeured Sidney around the back woods in her princess car.  A great time was had by all.

While Ginger and I were watching we realized that they were going to destroy all the spider lilies that were in full bloom all out though the woods.  So I took a quick sprint to get a few pictures before the flowers were history.

Just seeing spider lilies brought back fond memories of my childhood.  They remind me of the start of a new school year.  Every year I would take my teacher a huge bouquet of them and that made me feel so proud all day when I would see them on her desk.  I don't think there was such thing as paper towels, but my mom would take an old rag and wet it, wrap it around the long stems and then cram it down in an empty can.  I loved all my teachers and was one of those little annoying girls that just did whatever it took to please the teacher.  Lots of the other kids must have wanted to sock me or something.  Oops.  Back to the subject.

I have no idea who the info came from, but I was just sure that if I pulled up the spider lilies granddaddy long legs spiders would come running up out of the ground.  Heaven knows I would never have pulled up mama's spider lilies! 

As Ginger and I were talking about them I asked her what they made her think of and remarkably she told me that she thought spiders lived in the ground under them.  I promise I did not tell her that. 

Later in the afternoon Baker had a friend come play and they had a splendid time picking up sticks in the woods and building a "bonfire."   When he called us out there to take an up close look at their handy work, low and behold, they had pulled every spider lily they could possibly find and put them right on top of the wood pile to look like real red flames.  Boys will be boys.

 Those boys were so proud of their work. 

What a fun day just relaxing and listening to the cicadas make their somewhat annoying noise while we talked and enjoyed the porch swing.  For those who do not know about cicadas, the story goes that they will not be back again for 7 years.  Weird, huh?  We found the empty shells they had already shed attached to almost every pine tree out there.  I think they bury back into the ground after shedding until time to reappear in 7 years.

Ugly, noisy little rascal I must say.  We all had fun finding all the empty shells on all the trees.  Every tree we looked at had at least 4 shells.  There must be millions out there chirping.  Surely sounds like it.

Thank God for the big blessings and especially the little ones.

HANGING THE BANNER AND THE WREATH

Last week after tropical storm Lee brought us a blessed weather change and much needed rain, (LOTS AND LOTS OF RAIN!!!!) the weather was just too great to waste in the house doing the cleaning and washing.  However, it was perfect for some heavy outdoor crafting like a pine cone Della Robbia type banner for my front door.  Those pine cones are little buggers to work with.  My hands are still raw and look like I have been wrestling a small bear.  Because of the extreme humidity and warm temperatures in Mississippi even during the winter months, I opted for only pine cones and gourds with no fresh fruits and nuts - just too expensive and too much spoilage for me.  After Thanksgiving  the gourds (we grew them several years ago in the garden) will be replaced with something for the Christmas season, maybe I'll spring for a pretty fresh pineapple. 

With the weather still so beautiful today, I just had to finish up one of the muscadine vine wreaths I made some weeks ago when Johnny brought home the mini excavator and did a bit of underbrush removal out in the back woods.  I spotted all those vines he pulled up and just couldn't stand them going to waste - 4 nice wreaths out of all those vines - free!  Anyway, I had a couple of extra small gourds that I had just never done anything with.  After a quick washing, sanding, wiping with some paint wash and spraying with polyurethane - viola, another quick fall wreath to go by the carport door. 

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Since we will be going back out west for a few weeks, my mind seems to be on getting preparing for Christmas before we leave, so I'll share these thoughts with you.  I have a big "gift box" labeled as such in my attic. When I find a really good buy or something that I think will make a good gift on the spur of the moment (forgot someone's birthday or just need a "happy") I just put it in the box and I know where it is when I need it and don't have to make a mad dash to the local all night store.

Also, write down possible gift ideas when those special people mention something they like or would like to have when you are talking with them between now and Christmas. I always try to keep the tiny notebook in my purse. You just never know when grandma will mention something and you just can't seem to remember when the time comes to get her a gift.

Remember 911 - Don't forget to stop tomorrow and thank God for this great country we live in and all the blessings and freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  Remember our public servants and military personnel that keep us safe everyday.  I am so proud of the jobs that my son-in-law Joe does as he serves in the Army in Germany and my oldest grandson Nick as he is serving as a new police officer in Texas.  

Place your faith and trust in the Lord, not any man.

TOO MANY PROJECTS GOING AT ONE TIME!!!

It seems like I just can't get my mind to stay focused on one thing sometimes.  Surely I am not alone in this problem.  There are just so many things I want to do (crafts and things like that, not housework and things like that) and I find myself jumping from one to the other without totally finishing any of them.  I am going to blame it on the weather.  It is still the tootiest long, hot summer I can ever remember.  I am just praying that hurricane Lee will be kind to New Orleans and surrounding areas but give us at least three or more inches of rain along with some cooler temps in the next few days up here in the middle of Mississippi.   Thank God our oldest daughter's inlaws faired well in Rye, New York last week when Irene roared up the east coast. 

If it gets COOLER and rainy, I am totally ready.  I have gathered a huge wash tub of pine cones for a project that I am about half through with.  Maybe I can get it finished in a week or so.  It is a messy project that has to be done outside and I can't wait to blog it, just not yet.  I hope it will turn out like I think it will.   

If it stays HOT and rainy, then I will have to work indoors and finish a huge sewing project I have been working on for several months.  It really needs to be finished by mid October and I will have to really boogie to get it done by then.  Several days ago there was the crazy urge from out of the blue to paint some fabric for a pillow top.  So now that is laying around half done until I can remember to buy the pillow form or re-purpose one I have laying around the house. 

 One project we did finish (actually, Johnny did this one) was to rescue a thrown away slide which was perfectly good, except for a missing leg.  So, being the handyman that he is, Johnny performed surgery on it and Baker and Sidney had tons of fun before taking it home and using it in the swimming pool - even more fun.  Yippee and it was FREE!

Baker especially enjoyed the other project I did manage to finish - the floorcloth.  Perfect for putting his train track together on, even though it was about 100 degrees on the back porch at the time.  Kids don't really care.

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

I saw an interesting, cheap idea the other day at an antique shop.  It was an old chair with a torn up caned seat.  Someone long time ago had re-purposed some old rags and wove a new seat.  It was so cute!  So, here is my version for my old porch rocker with a ratty seat.  Actually I wish I had used monochromatic colors in dull tones.  I may redo it when it's time for another new project.  That would be NO TIME SOON.  Anyway, if you have an old chair that needs a seat, drag out the rag bag and put one in.  It is FREE.

Have a wonderful, safe labor day and enjoy making something.

FLOORCLOTH FINISHED

After six long weeks of working on this little project, actually about eight if you count the time I stewed over what I was going to paint on the piece of canvas I bought, I finished the floorcloth to use on the back porch.  I don't know that I am altogether thrilled with it, but it is what it is - finished.  I like it and yet it seems a bit too folk artish or juvenile or something like that.  Maybe the colors I used are a bit too "happy" or bright.  At least it doesn't clash with the swing cover. 

I will admit, if I had it to do over, I surely would not have undertaken a project this large (about 3'x6') without several small ones under my belt.  A lot of things were learned about what to do and not to do in the future.   It's been a long time since I made one back in maybe the late 80's.  It was fun all over again!

 

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Now is a great time to think about Christmas shopping.  So many things are on sale right now because of school starting.  New crayons, cute pencils, markers, etc for stocking stuffers   Just think how nice it would be to already have most of that done before the holiday hubbub starts.  Don't forget to write down in a little notebook or something what you bought, for whom and where you hide it so you don't re-buy.

JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF

With a tiny break in the heat and humidity - rejoicing over just 94 degree weather, believe it or not - the shutterbug has me and I just can't help myself. 

This beautiful butterfly was attracted to a rug I had laid out on the back porch to shake out.  I have no idea what may have been the attraction, but he spent hours flitting back and forth to it.

The next picture is not particularly great, but it was a rare sighting of two mama turkey hens with a combined 12 young fledglings in the church yard.   They were running as fast as they could away from us, but you can still see about 10 of them in the picture.

Dragon flies move so fast and are so hard to get a focused shot of.  This is just one of about 180 shots I took.  Patience, patience, patience paid off. 

I never tire of looking at the beautiful creatures God made.  Get your camera and go enjoy a bug or something.


PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

I try to always keep onions on hand and especially like to buy lots of them when they are on sale.  However, it doesn't take long for them to go bad, so I freeze them for quick use later.  Just chop and saute' in a bit of bacon grease, olive oil or just plain water.  Once they are cool, place spoon fulls on small pieces of wax paper and loosely place in a Rubbermaid type sealed container.  Make sure you label the container.

 

You'll always be ready to throw a casserole together.

WILTING SUMMER ROSE

Summer, 2011 will definitely go down as one of the toughest this old gardener can recall - persistent heat reminiscent of opening the oven door when baking biscuits at 400 degrees without the promise of a single yummy bite, hair-curling humidity and dehydrating drought.  You gotta love Mississippi summers! 

Having finally made it to August and the little kiddies back in school, hopefully some of us can go to a local football game and manage to sit on the bleachers without getting bun blisters.  But for me, I am just an old wilting summer rose waiting around for the beautiful butterflies that are everywhere this time of year. 

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

All lovers of birds, you just must give them a nice cool place to drink and get a good bath.  It's such easy, cheap fun to watch them come and enjoy themselves.  Use a container that is at least the size of a large dinner plate and about 2 inches deep.  I have been using an old plant saucer for about 15 years.  It sits on a big stump of railroad cross tie and is near a bush they can hide in until brave enough to perch for a drink.   They drop in everyday about mid morning and late afternoon.  Cardinals are the most frequent visitors and usually come in as a couple.  He always takes the bath first while she patiently waits.  Very interesting to watch.

Enjoy the free joys in life.

FREDDIE FUNGUS

Thanks to some much needed rain the last few days, I had a grand time tromping around in my pine thicket with the trusty camera, sweating my buns off in the heavy humidity and high 90's, in search of the mushrooms which popped up all under the trees in the damp blanket of pine straw.  I wallowed around on the ground with the fire ants and mud and loved every minute of it.  Isn't God just awesome?

Our grand kids all detest eating mushrooms and so all mushrooms (those we eat and those we take pics of) are known as Freddie Fungus at our house in an effort to get them to try the spaghetti sauce with mushrooms in it.  Actually some of them have tried Freddie Fungus sauce and found it pretty tasty. 

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you just despise all the junk that gets hung on the fridge?  In an effort to cut down on the clutter, I came up with an idea that uses found/free magnetic pieces.  Every so often we get a free telephone book and it always has an advertisement for a local lawyer (ambulance chaser) or some other type of business which is on a 5" x 5" magnetic piece.   So, I print out current pictures of the grands and attach them with scrapbooking adhesive dots to the free magnetic pieces.  The kids love to see themselves on the fridge, the little ones love to play with them and constantly rearrange.  It would be such a shame to throw old Richard Schwartz in the trash and waste a good magnet.  Several years I managed to come home with about 50 of the magnets from my office phonebooks and used them for children's Sunday School projects.       

  

TRAINING A COUNTRY GIRL GRANDDAUGHTER

My older grandchildren, boys and girls, know how old fashioned, square, country, non-techno, uncool, non-movie watching, ipodless their Nonnie is.  I think that about covers it.  The two youngest still just love me the way I am and think I can do no wrong. 

This week our just-turned-11-years-old granddaughter Amber spent several days with me.  We decided to do some different things together and had so much fun.  We spent a couple of hours one afternoon in a local consignment store.  A new adventure for her.  She really has a pretty good eye for what she likes and is a fair price.  She has Bieber Fever, so of course we were in search of something purple to use in redecorating her room.  Amber was a bit pleased that I know who JB is and that purple is "his" color.  I guess I can understand her infatuation, my first real star infatuation was Paul Peterson.  Wow, that really dates me doesn't it?   Anyway, she had a wad of money ($15.00) in her new purse from Paris that Aunt Paige sent for her birthday.  She was ready for business and determined not to go home empty handed.  The picture frame was just the thing to put Justin's picture in and cost only $4.00 and was purple.  Perfect! 

Next we went to an antique store.  She loves old fashioned stuff and is very interested in the great depression; not the one now, but the one in the 40's.  She enjoyed looking at everything in the store and was plum full of questions about everything she saw and then she saw it - a bling, flat-bill cap.  Love at first sight and it was only $6.00.  The whole thing was covered with sequins and beads and had a zebra/leopard pattern.  I must admit it was very cute on her and went perfectly with the duct tape bracelets she was sporting.  Amber is our little "Amelia Bedelia" and sometimes wears some of the strangest get-ups you have ever seen. 

All week we have been enjoying our meals on the back porch in the swing with the new cushions.  We watched the birds and butterflies through my binoculars and tried to get pictures of them.  We even trekked through the woods to check out the game camera - nothing but raccoon pictures on it.  Here are two of the big butterflies we watched, a monarch and a zebra swallowtail, I think.  Getting a good picture of a butterfly is really hard.

AMBER MAKES AN OREO PIE

Note the duct tape bracelets.  Don't you wish you had thought of colored/patterned duct tape?  Me too.  The kids love it and have spent a young fortune buying every color and pattern they make.  They stick it on everything imaginable, no matter how much it costs.  We all know that duct tape sticky never, ever comes off.  Is it duct or duck, anyway?

Amber loves Oreo Pie and I talked her through the recipe.  She made it all by herself with her own personalization - colored sprinkles! Of course we had to lick the beaters and spatula!  You can get the recipe at nonniesgoodeats.blogspot.com. 

All you grandmas out there, go enjoy a grand kid.  They will be too busy with their own social life to want to spend much time with you before you know it.

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Save the leftover juice from your cooked vegetables to use this winter in making homemade soup.  It is already seasoned and makes a wonderful soup base and it is free.  I start out with a fairly large container and add to it until full.  This winter I'll put the frozen juice in the crock pot with other ingredients, craft or shop all day, and supper will be ready when Johnny gets home from work.

  

ONE CRACKED POT - 3 NEW TREASURES

You will learn something about me today that I am not very proud of.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not a "pig;" but then again, I am not the greatest housekeeper.  My least fav things to do at home are sweep and vacuum.  Oh yes, did I forget dusting.  There I have said it.  Along with all that is the fact that sometimes things can just sit there for awhile before being cleaned under and behind.  In this case it is a very good thing. 

A couple of weeks ago we had a huge gust of wind shoot across our front porch - minus any rain which was desperately needed - and it blew everything over.  As we lay in bed wondering what all the crashing noise was, little did I know that I had a cracked pot out on the front porch!  My large Mexican style pot with tall curly sticks and a bit of Ting-Ting in it was laying in a big ugly heap.  The arrangement in the big pot was not exactly pretty, but it suited me and was just the right thing for the porch.  It required absolutely no upkeep and was a bit rustic looking.  I was sad when I saw that it was all cracked and I just didn't want to deal with the clean up right away.  It has been too stinking hot lately!
Finally I decided it must be cleaned up, remember I hate to sweep, and I would just have to deal with trying to replace it or rearrange the porch decorations.  What in the world was that thing down in there?  Oh my word, a HORNET's nest!!!!!!!  Yikes!!!!!!  After waiting, poking and checking the thing out, it was decided there were no angry tenants still living in there.  See, if I had been a great housekeeper, I probably would have been eaten alive by those hornets!  Now that they had had plenty of time to move on, I began to get excited.  The nest was pretty small but very interesting looking.  What a great find!  Yet another natural thing to decorate with.  At least all was not lost when mayhem blew through the other night.  We've all seen what kind of ugly things Mayhem can do on TV lately.
With new interest I realized the jug was broken into only four big pieces, a huge chunk of the top, about a half of the bottom of the pot and two pieces which made up the middle of the pot.  How great that the top could be used as a piece of yard art in my flower bed around a stump which we are watching slowly rot away right in our front yard.  Then I turned the bottom half to check for more cracks and to my astonishment it was sitting perfectly level on the rough jagged edges.  Yippeeee, I had a new little table to use beside the old rocker.  What a happy accident and three new treasures.

This chunk just looks great nested right in among the pieces of old rotten stump.

This is the bottom of the little hornet's nest which is attached to a thin stick of Ting-Ting (a curly wooden stick covered in gold glitter).    About seven years ago my son-in-law brought me a large hornet's nest he found in the woods.  I really love the natural look and cherish both of them.



The new one looks really tiny compared to the one Joe found in the woods.  Actually it is about the size of a man's fist. 

COMFY PAD FOR THE OLD SWING

Hancock Fabrics has great sales and I am such a sucker for fabrics and sewing/craft notions on SALE!!!   You just never know when that sewing urge will hit, so by all means you must squirrel away a little bit of everything, just in case.  Anyway, I decided it was time for a nice comfy cushion for my old swing on the back porch.  Back during the cold, cold winter (Oh how I am missing that cold rainy time of year.) HF put their indoor/outdoor fabric on sale for about 60% off and I found a stripe piece and so now was the time to get busy and use it before I decided I no longer wanted blue stripe.  Actually, I already am not as fond of it as I was in January, but it is just a swing cushion and I will only be looking at it everyday through my kitchen window for the next five to ten years.   Oh gosh, it sort of smacks of nautical and I have never really been a fan of nautical motif.   Oh mercy, just stop this now!!

Not only did I use the sale fabric, but I managed to re-purpose an old wool Army blanket as the padding inside the cushion.  Who in the state of Mississippi will ever be able to sleep under wool anyway?  The feel is just what I wanted - not plush, but comfortable.  More than comfortable was the fact that it was very reasonably priced - free.  I needed a cute pillow to add to the look and didn't have anything on hand that was exactly right, so I just cut apart the stripes and pieced them back together to make a solid color pillow top and used another scrap accent color for the backing.  Now all I need to do to complete the look is totally redecorate the other things on the back porch.  As soon as we get a good break in this heat wave - 100 degrees today, again - I plan to tackle that - maybe about October.

Don't you think a cute cushion or something was needed?

       
This will be a perfect place to sip a tall glass of Crystal Light lemonade in the cool of the evening and plan my redecorating frenzy.