More Fall Decorations

The kids are wondering 'why all the decorations?" Since I've had to slow my pace because of my knee injury, I've had more time for the crafts and art I used to do pre-kids. I've re-purposed some of the things I have to decorate for Fall. It is so nice to have some "Fall-ish" weather! I'm talking mid 70s instead of 90s! Cool nights instead of it never getting below 80! The leaves haven't turned. There's no nip in the air, but it is getting closer to Fall! I took a jar that Damien won a few years ago in a race and filled it with cheese popcorn (the jar had been filled with M&Ms. The kids ate 2 bags of the cheese corn and are eye-ing this!) Do you recognize the two little pitchers I bought recently at a yard sale? We filled these with un-popped corn and added an Indian corn pick in each one. The candle was on sale at Target for $1. The leaves are silk.


This is a little scarecrow wreath I got at Eckerd's a few years ago. I miss Eckerd's! They were owned by Penny's and had great decorating items for a drug store! We did nothing but hang this on the back door.


I made these little cone shaped decorations from Dollar Tree items. A roll of brown wrapping paper with little gold stars (you can use brown paper bags too) and a fall pick with a bit of twine tied around. I hung these on the shutters on the front of the house.

Finally, my last Fall wreath! This one is made of pumpkins and a crow plus more of the stinky leaves I bought and a feather pick. It is hanging by the front door of the house on the porch. My front door has a full glass screen door so it is difficult to hang things on the actual door. I have a wreath of red berries hanging there. It is small, flat and matches the color of the door, so it stays up year round and I decorate the wall next to the door. Guess I am done for a while with decorating. We'll bring out some of our Halloween stuff in a week or so. The kids love to do this decorating. Then we'll trade out for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Last year I let Becca do all the Christmas decorating. She enjoys picking through all our stuff and deciding what to put out and what to use on the tiny tree we put up!

Homecoming 2008

Collins Hill High School had their annual Homecoming this week. The football game was Friday night and Homecoming Dance was Saturday night. Here is Becca and her date, Hunter.

This was Becca's 3rd year for Homecoming. She was looking forward to a good time dancing! Hunter just moved here from Ohio. They both had a great time!

This was Tony's first Homecoming Dance. He invited his friend, Tatiana. It was also her first dance. They are both Freshmen. They have been friends since 4th grade.

They had a great time too! They said the dance was a lot of fun. I had a wonderful time chauffeuring. Damien accompanied me for the drive. He was checking out just what you did when you went to Homecoming, in anticipation for his first one in a couple of years!

Fall Decorating

I've been in the mood for fall - all the summer heat is getting pretty tiring! So, when fall decorations started appearing in the stores, I thought I'd re-purpose a couple of things into a new fall wreath. My brother made some grapevine wreaths a few years ago. Mom gave me two. I had decorated this one with silk magnolias and some blue flower and ribbon that was navy with gold suns and moons on it. It went well with our country blue house. Here, Lily and Teddy are supervising as I start taking it all apart and cleaning the vines of all the dust and cobwebs.
I also had a HUGE vase of grapevines (silk) and fall foliage -pussy willows, sea grass, etc. It sat on one side of the mantel. I decided to use some of this for the wreath. I moved it to the kitchen so I could get the dust off (it's been a while since it had a good dusting!) Rich and all 3 kids came in that afternoon and asked where it had came from! Three years it has sat in the living room on the mantel! Guess it is time to change some things around!

Here's the vine with the grape leaves added. It's looking better!

After studying it for a while, I decided it needed a little more "fall" stuff. So on a visit to Michael's craft store, I picked up some fall colored leaves and a few picks of fall gourds, etc. and added it to the wreath. Here it is on the front door inside. Problem is, the leaves were sprayed with something and they smell! Musty!!! I let them air out overnight. I sprayed them with Lysol! They STILL smell! Right now, the wreath is airing on the back porch carport. If they don't improve, I guess this will become an outdoor wreath!! I have one more vine wreath - maybe I can make it with some foliage that dosent smell!

Gwinnett Braves Mascot Name

Our new Baseball team and local paper, Gwinnett Post held a contest to name the new Mascot for the Gwinnett Braves.
The name was announced at a press release at Lawrenceville Elementary School on Monday.
Rich was one of three finalists for the naming of the new Mascot for the Gwinnett Braves.
The new mascot is a Groundhog.

The winning name was "Chopper". Rich's entry was "Pop-up". Still, it was good to be in the top three names out of over 4,000 entries!
Well, here is the mascot again - I put it in twice and can't get the little rodent off the screen! We had a good time and Rich got an official Gwinnett Braves baseball cap and tee-shirt.

Yard Sale Siren

The call of the yard sale beckoned me last week! I rarely go to the sales. We seem to have them year round here because of the warm weather. Each Thursday and Friday, the handmade signs sprout up on all the corners and intersections. But, I already have too much stuff, so I usually ignore them. But this sign kept calling to me. So, when I had to pick up Damien early from school, I dropped by. It was almost the end of the first day, but I still found some good bargains! These little cream pitchers were only $1 for both. The scalloped one has a chip on the base, but is still usable. I think they are old, they do not have seams like pressed glass.

The lady having the sale said her mother had recently passed away. Her mother was an artist. I think her dad was re-locating and together they were holding the sale. this was a small watercolor that her mom had painted.

Here is another watercolor, same size as the first. $5 each.

I thought the purples and greens in the paintings would look good in my master bath, which is also purple and green. Here they are hanging on the wall. Tony helped me clean them and hang them.
They also had a lot of old linens. I got this 50s style table cloth for $1 and napkins for .50c. We started using cloth napkins this year in an effort to "go green" and not waste so much paper. It turns out that cloth napkins are closely related to socks! They go to the laundry, but then somehow disappear and never make it back to the napkin basket we keep on the table. I don't know why this happens. I have a feeling that somewhere in my attic there is a squirrel with a great sock and napkin collection!
Here is a handmade mirror that I purchased for $12.50. It is about 3 ft. wide and has blue leaded glass worked all around it. It is wired so I can hang it either way.

I also got a huge 9 x 12 blue wool rug with carved floral pattern all around for $35. It is still rolled up until I can move things around and get it on the floor. It just about gave us a hernia and ruptured discs, trying to get it in the house!

Overall, it was a good sale. I also bought some pen and ink drawings of cats and wooded landscapes for .25c each. I like to think that the artist's spirit called out to all fellow artists to come and buy her lovely stuff and that I heard that call. I have not had the urge to go to another sale, but her daughter said she was going to have another one in November, because her mother loved Christmas and had a ton of decorations and several trees each year. I'm going to make a point to go back early on the day of that sale to see what other treasurers I can find!

Bucket List

Last week we received the movie "The Bucket List" from Netflix. The kids were a little disappointed. They are always in hopes of a kid or teen oriented movie. But, there was nothing else for them to do (yeah, right!), so they sat down and watched it with me. It was a pretty good movie.

It must have touched something inside of my youngest (he is 12, soon to be 13 in a few weeks). He watched the movie two more times on his own! It gave him serious pause for thought. A few nights later, he came to me (when I was on the phone, of course) with his own bucket list. I was surprised at how much thought he had put into it. I told him we would keep it and he could update it every year, crossing off things he had accomplished and adding more things he wanted to do.

I thought I'd share it (and a few of my comments and explanations) with all of you!

THE BUCKET LIST
Do til I Die (means before he dies)
1. Help a good friend for good.
2. Skydiving (this was in the movie)
3. Draw a good Picture
4. Win the lottery (me too!)
5. Go out with a grin and a kiss!
6. Get married and have kids
7. Be a good trumpet player
8. Shoot a gun at plates (I think he means skeet shooting)
9. Drive in a Hummer or a F 150 (his favorite vehicles)
10. Walk on the wall of China (me too! especially after seeing pics of Debbie & Kenny's visit there!)
11. Have very good friends. (He has already checked this off)
12. Be at least 15 yrs old or older before dying. (15 seems really old to a 12 yr old! What does that make me?)
13. Sing a very good song to a lover. (I TOLD my husband that the girl friend thing was starting!)
14. Never forget Nana or Papa, even at 75 yrs old.
15. Pass all of my schools very good. (I think he means classes or grades)
16. Kiss the hottest girl I see in school. (See comment on #13!!!!)
17. Kiss the hottest girl out of school. (I think this was also a goal in the movie, but anyway, see comment on #13!!!!!)
18. Never stop loving monkeys. (He collects stuffed monkeys)
19. Laugh until I (we) cry!
20. Be the best skateboarder on my block.
21. Look at a very good place (I think this is also in the movie - to view something magnificent.)
22. Never drink at all.
23. Never smoke.
24. Try to be a math teacher.
25. Never forget best friends forever (then names all friends)
26. Never forget Ivy, Bitzy, Teddy, Lilly, etc. (names all of our pets).
Last: Kick the Bucket!!!

I hope that we are giving him all the tools and all the support that he needs to reach and accomplish all of his goals throughout his life! Nana

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” ~Elizabeth Stone

Grab Bag Catch Up!

We had a lot of rain last week from the tropical storm that came up from Florida. Afterwards, there was a huge double rainbow! It was beautiful! By the time I hurried home and got the camera out, it was almost gone. You might be able to see a tiny bit of it just above the trees in this picture.


The sun started coming out while it was still raining, making the whole yard misty and foggy!

It had rained so much that our huge Dogwood tree was soaked and bent toward the ground. We had a small stream running through the yard! Exciting for drought ridden Georgia!


I was telling a friend through email that Rich often brings me flowers for no reason. We must have some sort of mental connection, because that afternoon he brought me two bunches of Gerber Daisies! They've lasted all week -probably because I've had to keep them on the kitchen counter, away from the cats!

I read a recipe called Chicken Noodle Casserole. I started craving homemade chicken noodle soup or chicken and dumplings! So, I decided to put all the stock veggies in the crock pot and then add some chicken. Tonight, I'll make homemade dumplings (like thin noodles), using the stock from all these goodies!