October is Coming!

October is almost here!  Fall is really starting to roll along now.  Kids (and teachers) are back in the swing of things down to school.  The weather is getting cooler, and windows are being opened.  On Tangier lots of waterfowl are beginning to pass through.  The last of the tourist season is winding up.

Here are some fun things to welcome October in.  


First some more free font links.  


Cute fonts with an October theme:

 Link to Misfits font download

Link to Nightmare font download

Link to Sketch Bones font download

 Link to Wild Wood font download

Link to Witched font download


And here were two new ones posted this week that will be nice for crafts and lettering:

 Link to As Long As You Love Me font download

Link to Chalk It Up font download



Next, a pretty October poem to inspire us:

OCTOBER

Crispy air and azure skies, 

High above, a white cloud flies, 

Bright as newly fallen snow.

Oh the joy to those who know October! 

Colors bright on bush and tree.

Over the weedy swamp, we see

A veil of purple and brown and gold.

Thy beauty words have never told. October! 

Scolding sparrows on the lawn, 

Rabbits frisking home at dawn, 

Pheasants midst the sheaves of grain, 

All in harmony acclaim, October! 

Brown earth freshly turned by plow, 

Apples shine on bended bough, 

Bins o'erflowed with oats and wheat, 

And satisfaction reigns complete. October! 

Radiant joy is everywhere.

Spirits in tune to the spicy air, 

Thrill in the glory of each day.

Life's worth living when we say, October!

by  Joseph Pullman Porter

And last a recipe to make us fat.  LOL

If you read my post Deep In Amish Country, at the bottom I mentioned some things that are our favorites to buy at Mrs. Lapp's farm stand.   One of the items was Whoopie Pies.  If you are not familiar with Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch cooking you might night know what these strange sounding things are. They are actually small cakes (or fat cookies) which are put together with a sweet filling, kind of like a giant Oreo.  There are different flavors of both the cakes and fillings.  Chocolate with white filling is traditional.  I have also had chocolate with peanut butter filling.  In a word, they are yummy!  Here is a link to a fall Whoopie Pie recipe (courtesy of Martha Stewart) that sounds delicious:

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies w/ Cream Cheese Filling 

Beaded Christmas Ornaments for Saturday Craft Day

Every year our school has a Fall/Christmas Bazaar.  Local businesses, artists and craftsmen, and the PTA and school clubs sell their wares, snacks are served, and island kids have pictures taken with Santa.  It's a good time and a great kickoff to the holiday season!  For the past few years I have had a table and I have already started getting together some things for this years event.

At the end of the summer I place some bead orders, and they have begun to trickle in.  I like to make beaded jewelry and Christmas ornaments.  I get most of my beads off ebay from China,  They have good prices and I can buy in bulk.  I also deal here in the states too, mainly with Beadaholic and Kathee Killingsworth (and of course Hobby Lobby).  At times Walmart can have really good bead deals in their craft section as well.  They have these $1 and $2 grab bags, and I have gotten some really nice items.  Unfortunately this is hit or miss - they don't have them all the time, and when they do the selection gets picked over pretty quickly.

Last night I sat down and tried to organize my beads into color groups.  I try to keep them separate and sorted in small Rubbermaid containers from Dollar Tree, but believe me it's not as easy as it sounds.  And you don't even know the pain of stepping on a faceted bead that got away in your bare feet.  Not quite as bad as stepping on a Lego brick, but it's up there...

Today, I decided to try out some ideas I had for beaded ornaments using some of the charms I also use for my jewelry.  Here is what I came up with.  I had to hurry and take the picture before clearing the table for supper, so no tutorial today.  But I will try to post one sometime this week.  I am pretty happy with how they turned out.  Wish I could have spent more time on crafts today, but after being at school all week my Saturdays are pretty busy around the house.

Thanks for checking out my blog!  Happy Weekend everybody!

Fall For Your Walls... Beautiful Autumn Paint Colors

I love to paint.  Several of my walls have had about 4 different colors in the past 18 years since we built our house, and my poor front door about 18 of them.  LOL.  

In the past few years I have started getting up the nerve to paint darker, bolder colors - but I have never tried a red or orange shade.  I love fall colors, so maybe after looking at these inspiration pictures I might have try one.  I think a bathroom with spice colored walls and white trim and vanity cabinets would be nice.  Too bad I just painted mine pewter gray and N.'s sage green last year.  I don't think the hubby is up for another bathroom paint job just yet.  Sounds like a next year's school summer vacation project to me.

Here are some very pretty "fall colored" rooms I found on the internet:

But first, let me share this paint palette grouping from Behr. If these colors don't say Fall when you look at them together I am not sure what does!

and here is a small grouping from Sherwin Williams.  Most of the colors in my house are either Behr or Sherwin Williams (along with some Pittsburgh Paint because that is what the closest hardware store in Crisfield sells).

Some Fall themed Behr colors used in various rooms:  (you can click the individual pictures to make them larger)

Behr Antique Copper

Behr Bolero

Behr Falling Leaves

Behr Pumpkin Patch

Behr Glazed Pot

And some from Sherwin Williams:

SW Spiced Cider

SW Copper Mountain

SW Earthen Jug

SW Brandywine

SW Eastlake Gold

SW Tiger Eye

I am liking the looks of that Glazed Pot and also SW Earthen Jug and Tiger Eye!  What do you think?  

Well just a short post today, but I do want to share one more thing, a recipe I happened to see while I was Googling (is that a word?  It should be!) that fit right in with our Fall theme. It got 5 stars from Taste of Home so it can't be bad.  It did make me laugh though that it called for fat free caramel topping - like that is somehow going to control the calories in this.

Caramel Pecan Cheesecake Link

Celebrate The Arrival of Fall!

Happy Fall Y'all

It's the first day of Autumn!  And today certainly feels like it! There is a cool breeze (almost chilly!), the AC is off, and the windows are open.  And to help us feel further inspired, here are some beautiful fall photos to remind us of the beauty we have to look forward to.  But first a quick fix recipe that will put you in a fall mood.

Pumpkin Cookie Dip

8 ounce block of cream cheese, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (or more to taste)

1. Using an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and pumpkin puree.

2.  Add in pumpkin pie spice and vanilla, beat until smooth.

3. One cup at a time, add in powdered sugar and blend until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber scraper.

4.  Place in bowl.  Decorate the top with a little more pumpkin pie spice and some crushed gingersnap or graham cracker crumbs.  Serve with gingersnaps or graham dipper sticks.  Also good with apple slices!

There is a tutorial here, Recipe @ Rachel Cooks, where she has both a "naughty" and nice "version" of pumpkin dip.  I laughed when I saw "fingers" on her list of things to dip and serve with.  

Now, On To Those Photos:

These photos make me want to go on a trip.  I took some really pretty fall pictures a couple of years ago on a trip to DC / Northern Virginia, maybe it's time to go back!  Here is my favorite:

Oh, and this one.  :)

Autumn Leaf Projects For Fall

Fall is right around the corner now ( like tomorrow!) and I am making plans for catching some of the gorgeous sights to be had when the air gets crisp and the leaves begin to change. This led me to a search for fall leaves (did you know there are actual "leaf peeping" websites that predict the time of best color for certain areas?) and I found some wonderful projects I would like to share.  All images below came from either Google image or Pinterest.  I have tried to tag with the website or blog if it was listed.  

But first, let me share with you one of my favorite pictures EVER of N.  He was about three and I was taking a portrait for another family when I turned around and saw him playing in leaves on the ground.  I just fired off a couple pics, not knowing what I had until I got them developed.  Yes, my younger readers, there used to be something called film that went inside cameras to take the pictures on - and you had to wait to see them.

And now that I am sad over "where did my little boy go" let's move on to the projects.

This one caught my attention right away.  Love it!

Leaf art on a wooden panel from Just A Girl blog

These luminary jars are lovely!  There is a tutorial at this link:  Fall Mason Jars @ spark&chemistry

Images from Google image search

Love the framed leaf on plain burlap, the other would be nice on a piece of sheet music, a special verse, etc.

These leaves turned into butterflies are a great idea!  Thanks Martha Stewart.

I saw several ideas for leaf paint rubbings.  This was pretty, and would look great framed.

From bloombakecreate.com

And lastly an idea for an initial for your door.  There is a link to a tutorial at The Thrifty Abode that follows:

Leafy Initial Tutorial Link



And if you are getting married this fall, I think you should seriously consider this cake!  Gorgeous!

Do you have any fall leaf projects you'd like to share.  Please leave a pic or link in the comments and I'll share.

Saturday On The Bay - Trip To Smith Island, MD

With R.'s schedule and me being in school, we don't get to go out on our boat as much as we would like.  For the past few months (he works 2 weeks on 2 weeks off each month) we have made plans to go boating only to have the weather be bad, have other commitments, etc.  Well today when we woke up the weather was cool and the water was fairly calm, so we decided this was our day.  I took along my camera and some bug spray (they are HORRIBLE again) and we were off for a day of "sporting around".

First we watched two of our neighbors a while as they worked the bay, both fishing crabpots for blue crabs.

Then we went exploring around some of the small islands and sandbars just outside Tangier.  Lots of waterfowl and seabirds out today.

Besides Tangier, there is another inhabited island in the lower Chesapeake Bay - which is Smith Island in Maryland.  It's about a half an hour away from us.  Sometimes N. goes up there with friends.  He always comes home talking about this sandwich shop they like to go to, and how good their pizza cheesesteak subs are.  Since it was getting to be about 11 o'clock, we decided to head to Smith Island to find Ruke's for lunch.

Seen on the way in...

  
We tied up at the dock and went off in search of Ruke's.  We didn't have to search long, it's fairly near the dock and across from a little visitor's center/museum.  Smith Island also has a tourism industry, and you can catch a tour boat there from Crisfield, MD too.

Ruke's is not fancy, but the food as promised, was very good! We sat on the patio.  Besides subs they also had crab cake and soft crab sandwiches; also kid favorites like chicken tenders and cheese sticks. N. got his pizza cheesesteak, while we got the regular cheesesteak, all of which were stuffed full.  Yummy!

And you can't visit Smith Island without having a piece of world famous Smith Island Cake.  Don't you wish you were here?