::wandering:: a halloween dichotomy

just flew back in from portland where I spent the last four days with Mom and Jill.
we stayed here and spent our days here.

apparently, not much happened last week.

no little pictures throughout the week -

they're all from the weekend:

l-r:

movie screening at the st. george book festival; dixie state football (last game - we won!)

judd's lunchtime soup date;

we did have a great weekend - just packed with goings on.

saturday morning was the book festival where i listened to Mark Spragg speak,

followed by lunch at Judd's,

followed by football,

followed by a visit with my aunt and uncle who were in town,

followed by cupcakes,

followed by the movie screening

::home:: changing of the seasons for fall

In the george, we go from summer to winter pretty quickly - which is a shame since i love the autumn so much. While I was talking to sister earlier this month, we were talking about all of the things we had coming up, and how much we wanted to do during October. We began brainstorming a list of things that we should do during this season...it turns out that much can be done in October OR November and most of what I look forward to includes FOOD! So here's some ideas of things to do before the snow hits and it's freezing cold outside.
_____________________
1. Important things first: bake up some yummy pumpkin treats including: pumpkin cakes and
cookies, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin roll, pumpkin cheesecakes, pumpkin alfredo and pumpkin
shakes. And apple crisp. And the warm comfort foods: namely, soups and chilis!
2. Decorate the house - change over to more neutral colors, earthy colors. Ideas include:
manzanita branches, candlesticks, wreaths, and pumpkins... and bats!
3. Carve jack o lanterns and eat caramel corn
4. Host a party - a soup party like this, or a "Pumpkins, Porridge, and Pies" party, or an
outdoor dinner party under the stars like hers.
5. Drive up in the mountains to see the leaves changing colors.
6. Go see our family in Boston - even though we missed this year :(
7. Pumpkin patch? Corn maze? Apple picking?
8. "Boo" your neighbors
9. Butch Cassidy Race in Springdale (not me, but it's becoming a tradition!)
10. Lunchtime soup date at Judd's
11. This year: Portland with Jill and Mom!
12. Change out the quilt on our bed for our down comforter
13. Get a list together of good books to keep cozy during the winter months.
14. Make those cutest little pies in a jar
15. Wear sweaters and wellies.
16. And the less fun: Go through closets and donate to DI.
17. And the most least fun: Spring cleaning. The fall version.
____________________
That's it for now, but I'd love to keep this list and add to it every year, so if you have any
other ideas, or anything that you try to do in the fall, please let me know!
*photo in Concord, Mass 2009

::home:: the halloween version

For some reason, this year I did a little decorating for Halloween. Usually, if we're lucky, we do jack - o - lanterns, and that's it. Halloween isn't really my thing, but after I cut out my bats last week, I was in the spirit, so Tuesday I went out and bought a cartload of punkins, got my spray paint on, and it just went from there. The most simple thing I did? Pull out our fall wreath, which usually goes on the front door, and hang it on the mirror. In addition to the geometric shapes you can see, there's a circle shape in the mirror that's just about the perfect size for our wreath, so it was kind of a no-brainer (tho the wreath was a little off-kilter when I took my pics). I see many seasonal wreaths in this mirror's future.

The spray painting came into play in a big way this year:
I got some metallic paints at Wal-Mart (just the Krylon brand) in the silver and gold, shiny and
satin finishes. I can't believe how crazy reflective the gold is! Sadly, blogger is refusing to upload
that picture rightside up, so maybe another time. Imagine a boatload of large pumpkins, in different sheens and colors that booted the piggies out of the way.

___________
I didn't paint my favorite pumpkin originally and had planned to keep him orange and in his natural beauty. AND then I decided not to. I've seen tutorials (I'm talking to you, Martha) for glitter pumpkins that talk about powder glitter in colors with pretty names and brushing on glue (what does that even mean? what kind of glue do you brush on?) and glitter glue (again, no clue what that is!) but I just used the old cheapo regular orange glitter from JoAnn's and it worked fine. I adhered it with Elmer's "spray craft adhesive" that I had on hand from this quilting project, and it worked beautifully. Thinking back, though, I'm not sure how pricey that adhesive is, so you may be better off brushing on school glue if you try this (???).

I added some of our candleholders that we kept from our wedding reception,
threw down a burlap fabric as a table runner (frayed by yours truly), added some of the metallic
pumpkins I mentioned above, and called it good for the table.
________

And lastly, my favorite project, the boo pumpkins.
Again with the spray paint... this time white. Sharpied on a couple of letters, added some little vines
and the pumpkins were done. Chad suggested using this pumpkin that wouldn't stand up straight, and I absolutely
love the "whimsy" of it. I crooked-ed up our pictures (I told Chad the ghosts messed them up - I'm so my mother's daughter),
added a bat garland and called that, too, good.

I know four pictures is a lot for this little spot ("Eight is a lot of legs, David"), but I just love how
this area turned out. This week, I also finished my black and white pillow covers, so I threw
those over there as well since I liked how they looked with the black and white pumpkins.
Halloween better come quick before I go buy more pumpkins to spray paint.

I am not this creative. Inspired (copied?) from here and here.

::home:: pretty perfect pumpkin

it's not just me, is it?

this pumpkin has pretty much the most

perfect stem i've ever seen on a pumpkin.

i love the super bright green that fades out.

and that curly-q.

oh, geez. i love this pumpkin.

::sunday:: more little pictures

it's been a quiet week - chad's been feeling a little under the weather,

so we tried to get to bed early every night and beat the cold.

pictures from this week:

watching amazing race (finally displaying chad's family bows above the TV!), walking the redcliff reserve,

overlooking the george at night, another weekend project!

the desert through rose colored glasses (my sunglasses!), local used bookstore (seen here, too),

waiting for a call on the radio, Veyo Pies (a MUST try in our neck of the woods).

hope everyone had a good week!

::home:: old-fashioned bus scroll

I finally finished the project that I've been alluding to over the last two weekends! I've seen lots of these old fashioned bus or train scrolls on the world wide web and finally decided to make my own. The possibilities are endless with this project: cities visited, cities lived, favorite restaurants, favorite songs, etc, etc, etc. I think it would be fun to have one in my parents house with all of the street names they've ever lived on. But it would be an eighteen foot board, so maybe not. :)

I made ours to commemorate (some) of the places we've visited so far. Our anniversary is close to Christmas, so we usually don't do any gift giving - instead, I try to make something for our home during the year that is kind of special for us. This is my 2010 project. Some are big cities and some are smaller places with more familial significance. I love that it includes Cherry Lake (Chad's boyhood summer cabin) and Kalispell from our most recent Montana trip. I didn't realize until it was finished that we left off Boston!, one of our favorite places to visit...

 

::home:: our weekend

between the two of us:

paper writing, painting, stenciling, cutting, eat pray love (did you see it? what'd you think?),
closet cleaning & outfit decisions, major laundry, walk to the supermarket for a bagel run, pillow planning,
quilt blogging, studying, reading, studying, reading, farmers market, snow cones, quilt along pick up,
mirror hanging, cleaning, halloween bats, dog walks, jalapeno jelly, great amazing race, photo organizing,
and the highlight: our friends' beautiful outdoor springdale wedding

this wedding was gorgeous!
the bride is a potter and threw 140 bowls for each guest to eat their soup from
...and then take it home!
ps. recognize our little project from last week?
the bride and groom rode away on the stick horses at the end of the ceremony...

::sunday:: a week in little pictures

some explanation:
apparently we were in the mood for burgers?
smash burger on the left, in n out on the right,
(see the in n out burger? no meat patty - called a grilled cheese. that's my order!)
some cuh-razy rain in the desert this week!
nyabo enjoying a little run in the wet fields, the view from work
cooler weather, and i'm back in the mood for projects!
on the left: bats hanging in the doorway; on the right: last weeks project cont'd
(it would have been finished friday if i hadn't made a huge spelling error!)

::sunday:: week in pictures

this little series is a lot of fun!
i hadn't realized how easy it is to forget by sunday what we did on monday.
our week felt slow till i reviewed these little phone pictures!
l-r: thursday night music in the square (last of the season!), volunteering out at Tuacahn,
evening walks, the sign we made for our marathon-running-friends who came for the weekend,
september in the george means 103 degrees and lots of popsicles,
a little craft project for an upcoming wedding,
a little project for our us (not finished), welcoming october with apples and carmel sauce!

*click the photo to see it larger