Fall Colors

I love the colors of Fall. In fact, my livingroom is done primarily in Fall colors. It's still hot outside, but I'm looking forward to cooler weather and decorating with warm colors. The little wreath and stars hang by my back door. (I had to shrink the photo because it shows where I need to wipe prints off the outlet cover) The crow ensemble is a blogger prize I won recently from My Yellow Farmhouse. (http://yellowfarmhouse.typepad.com/yellow_farmhouse/)

If you haven't already, you should check out her blog. She always has wonderful things going on in her world. The fabrics are from a quilt (a store bought one) that hangs over my loveseat. I just love each fabric in the quilt...so vintage looking! Come on Fall!

Is that really a bike?

This is my grown son and his new toy! He has been talking a lot lately about wanting a bicycle. Well, a girl at work sold him this one. Have you ever seen such a thing? If you look them up online, they are very expensive, and he got it for next to nothing from her. We have had a lot of laughs watching him and his sister ride it!

Summer Splash

How about a nice summer splash today? It is so hot and it would feel so good to let nature cool us off! This little picture is actually a P. Buckley Moss painting that I saved from her website. I love her work and hope to visit her museum one day. This picture reminds me of when we used to take the kids to the river when they were about that age. We have some good memories from their grandparents' place on the water. They sold their place after a big hurricane came through and caused a lot of damage there. We certainly understood them not wanting to deal with the big mess, but boy, do we miss having a nice place to cool off!

"B" is for Blueberry

I have to admit that I'm not much of a baker, but I wanted to share my favorite blueberry muffin recipe with you. Do you see that box of Krusteaz blueberry muffin mix? All you do is add a cup of water and it makes a batch of yummy FAT FREE muffins! I cook mine in a jumbo muffin tin, which makes six large muffins. (each jumbo muffin equals 4 points for those of you familiar with Weight Watchers) You can find this mix at Food Lion and Wal Mart. My whole family likes them and the house smells so good while they are baking!

Gingerbread Quilt

Here's another of my "favorite things" made for me by my mother in law several years ago. She had never even made a quilt before and made these cute little wall hangings for Christmas gifts that year. She is very talented and can do anything she tries.... cooking, sewing, flower arranging, decorating, etc. I've always thought this quilt belonged somewhere in my kitchen, but really don't have a good spot for it in my current home. I keep it on the back of a chair for now. Does it make you think "Christmas"? You know it's just around the corner!

Free Stuff!

Look at all this stuff I got for practically free! My friend, Debbie J., at Homemaking Dreams (http://homemakingdreams.blogspot.com/) is educating me in how to use CVS pharmacy sales to my advantage. By buying these products, which my family will use, I was awarded $26 in "extra bucks" to use at the store by September 10th. If I will purchase "extra bucks" items with my "free money", then I will receive more "free money" to use again. It is really fun! Thanks Debbie J. for explaining this to me! I spent $26.83 yesterday and will get $26 in free merchandise .... so basically, I got all these goodies for FREE!

S u N f L o W e R s

Look what had bloomed while we were away on vacation. I could tell they were about to open before we left for the week. I was so afraid they would open and lose their beauty before we got back home. My husband remembered and mentioned them to me on the way back home and this was the first thing I looked for when we returned. These are the only two that grew out of the whole pack of seeds. I have told this before already, but I'll tell it again: I planted the pack of seeds in different areas of my yard. After a few days I went out to see if they had sprouted. To my shock and disappointment, I found a nice pile of sunflower shells piled neatly near the fence! I still don't know what ate them, but we do have a lot of ground moles in that area. These two flowers grew from the only two seeds they didn't find... I just love sunflowers! (Does anyone know how long sunflower seeds are good for? I ran across some in a ziploc bag the other day that one of my little mountain ladies gave me when I was working in home health a few years ago. I would love to try them next year.)

Beach Bums

Here's a picture of our beach bums.... my children and their future spouses. (I remember when I used to be young and gorgeous....ha ha!)

... and a good time was had by all!

We are back from vacation and now headed back into the "real" world. It was a wonderful time and I was sad to come home, even though it does always feel great to be home again! Today I am doing laundry and trying to get things back into order. Both puppies are at the vet today. B.B. is getting neutered (poor boy) and Sweet Pea came back with intestinal problems. She ate a flip flop part, some decorative sequins from Ashley's shoe, and possibly a bread tie while we were gone. Her mommy and daddy weren't fast enough to catch her before these things happened. Anyway, we had a great time and us girls did a lot of what you see in this picture..... sleeping, talking, and sunbathing. This is me and my future daughter (Ashley) in law in this picture.