October Is Here!

The months of October and November have always been my favorite time of year.  When we lost my dear Dad, 11 years ago this month, I found it hard to enjoy those things again for a long time.   I still miss my Dad every day.  But the happy times far outweigh the memories that brought sadness.  He was full of life, love, and joy.  A truly remarkable man.  He would not want us to be sad.
The weather is cooling here.   Last weekend was beautiful. We had gone to the kids soccer games, and then the girls came back here so that their Daddy could help Geeps with bringing some furniture here that had been moved out of the cabin.  It was too nice to be inside, so I took a couple of big blankets and spread them out on the cool grass beneath the shade of the sycamore trees.  I brought out some of my vintage toys, and a tea set.  Hannah set the table for us, and we sipped tea.  The girls spread out the toys, and I laid there next to them snapping pictures.  Listening to their imaginations soar, and their little girl giggles, filled this Gramma's heart.

They had the best time.  But I think I had the most fun.  Just listening to them play.

It was so nice to be outside in a cool breeze.

We don't usually have all of those cars on the street, but our neighbors are having a new front yard put in so the workers cars were all out front.
I did a walkabout in the grove yesterday morning.  We are going to have a nice orange crop.  They are large this year.

My avocado tree by the coop is once again loaded!  I will be picking them soon.  I have already picked some last week when I trimmed the limbs by the coop door.

I found some bones
I left them since we are close to Halloween.  Wonder what it was?
Yesterday I spent the majority of the day in my sewing room.  Both sewing, and cleaning.  First I made some  Fall pillows, using placemats from Walmart.  A few years ago, I made some leaf pillows with placemats I had also gotten there.  These were tapestry placemats, for 1.96 each.  I got one of the pumpkins, and one of the owl.  I used a piece of fabric that I already had for the backs.

I stuffed them with fiberfill, which is much cheaper than using a pillow form.  I buy my fiberfill in the big box from Joann's.  Always using a 40 to 50% off coupon.  It goes a long way, and I can make a lot of things with it.  I put these pillows on my living room sofa.

After the pillows, I made some more sweater pumpkins.  I had found the perfect shade of orange sweater when I was gathering them for making these.  I made the large pumpkin out of the body of the sweater, and the tall one out of one of the sleeves.  The green was out of the sleeve of another sweater.

For the stems on the orange ones, I made a sort of topknot with the sweater material, and tightly wound some jute around to form the stem.  On the big one, I wrapped some jute that I had moistened with Mod Podge, around a pencil, then held  my hair dryer to it to dry to form the tendrils.   I took some marbled flannel, and free cut leaf shapes.  I put a piece of batting in the middle, and then using a variegated green thread, I stitched the leaf veins.  Then I put a dab of hot glue on the stem to attach.

Some of the pumpkins I put a stick from the yard in the center for the stem, and used a silk leaf.  My first pumpkins I had used chenille fuzzy sticks for the tendrils, and hated how unnatural it looked.  So I snipped all of those off, and added some loose jute instead.  I swapped out the pillows I had on the family room sofa and put these two that I brought down from the cabin.  They are down, and comfy, as well as pretty.  I removed and washed the outer slips and they are good as new.  I love that sort of rusty/red color in my house too.

I put the other seasonal pillows on the ottoman that hides the cables and cords to the telly and dvd player.  I crocheted those Autumn leaves last year, and attached them to the pillow to fill dead space.

This morning my daughter brought over a pillow slipcover that she had purchased and a pillow she wanted me to cut to fit.  I knew I must have a pillow in my stash that would fit it perfectly, so I used one of mine, and  since she was going to toss this one, I got to keep it.  It is that perfect rusty red that I love.  It looks nice with my quilted basket pillow against the quilt my Jae Bird made for me.

I got my candles all dressed for Fall with some pretty leaves and twine.

These battery operated flicker candles are one of my all time favorite thrift store purchases!  I love that they all come on automatically at 5:00, and flicker softly for 4 hours, then shut themselves off.  Best 8 dollars I ever spent for 4 of these candles.  One is in the guest bathroom.
I brought this pretty wreath home from the cabin and hung it on a post by my front door.

I still need to add my corn stalks and real pumpkins to the front porch this weekend.

The Great Pumpkin light will go up on Saturday.  The Fall flags are waving in the wind.

They are forecasting triple digits again for the next few days.  Surely this will be the end of the heat though, I hope!
I did pop into my favorite thrift this morning.  Looking for more sweaters for pumpkins. No luck there.  But I did find this beautiful, large glazed piece of pottery.

The lid is the prettiest shade of aqua!

I couldn't find a single sweater to use, but I did find this, oh so soft, 100% Cashmere sweater.

It has one tiny hole in the right arm.  I am not sure what I will use it for yet.  I might just touch it occasionally!
The label says it is from London.
So, October is here.  The days are shorter. The evenings are cooling off substantially.  I added another blanket to our bed even.  The chickens are all molting.  Here is Blue, looking mighty scruffy!

Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer is back.  Scented candles fill the air of our house.  Comfort foods are being made.  I made a delicious pot roast the other day, that we feasted on for three days!  I made a huge pot of pinto beans, that I then mashed into refried beans.  

My new glazed pottery would have been perfect for this!!!  I made tostadas for dinner one night.

Can you believe I didn't have a single ripe avocado either?  I refuse to buy them!  Then I made a bunch of bean and cheese burritos for the boys to grab and go.  

I have a loaf of good bread torn into pieces on cookie sheets, drying out to make stuffing this weekend.  I think I will buy a turkey breast to cook.  I always get a hankering for that well before Thanksgiving.  And then hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, served open faced.  Oh yes!  It is going to be a good weekend!

Happy October Ya'll

Kris