Seasonal changes & a fun hobby!

This year we have had a very beautiful fall in Mississippi! Our trees don't put on the show that they do in New England and lots of the mid western states, but this year I think the leaves have been exceptionally pretty!

This is a view that I have from my front porch. I love the reflection of the trees in the lake in the late afternoon.
And of course after fall along comes winter! We usually have reasonably mild winters here...not too many days that are below freezing and a snow is rare.

A favorite winter hobby for many in the south is feeding the birds. Recently I took a quiz on the Better Homes and Garden site and was surprised at how little I knew about bird feeding. How much do you know about feeding birds? Click here to take the quiz!

During fall break, Connor and I made some pine cone bird feeders. This is a project we always did at school that is so easy! Cover a pine cone with peanut butter, and roll in birdseed...that's all there is to it!
Then use lightweight wire or fishing line to hang from trees!
This year, I would like to learn more about what to put out to attract different birds. If you have any bird feeding tips, please post a comment

Thanks for stopping by

Fall Porches On Parade

One of the first blogging posts that I did was a porch party post for Rhondi of Rose Colored Glasses. Now Melissa at the Inspired Room is having a fall porch parade. What fun! You can click on the icon at the top to visit other fall porches on parade

We'll start the tour at my front door. Here is a fall arrangement that my daughter Kelli of Sassy Southern Mom created using my Southern Living at Home container.
You might recognize these mums and this sign I bought at the thrift store-I've used them in my header. I've added a coffee can spray painted orange with a pumpkin face.
Here's the Parisian Luminaries I posted about a few days ago on the porch. They really look pretty in the dark.
Now we will move on to the neighbor's houses. When Connor stayed with me last week during his fall break, we got on the golf cart and did another neighborhood tour looking for fall and Halloween decor.

This little house had the most Halloween decoration and she has added to it since we made this picture. It is really cute at night.There are little orange lights all over the shrubs that light up the area.
I really liked this one. The scarecrow is a quilted hanging. Notice the unique pumpkin on the left. The man of the house came out when we snapped this pic....I was kinda embarrassed and had to tell him what we were looking for! He said it was okay!
This is another one that is really special at night. The door is outlined with orange blinking lights. I thought the scarecrow couple were adorable!
Then we got in the car and drove across town. The next three pictures are of a house that really went all out on the Halloween decor! The entire yard is full of Halloween inflatables! We are going to have to make it back by there at night before she takes all this down!
Hope you enjoyed a few of the fall porches in area! I'm looking forward to visiting the others. Please go to The Inspired Room for others on the tour. Thanks Melissa for being our hostess!
Diane

Hooked on Luminaries-Show and Tell Friday

For Show and Tell Friday I would like to show my new Parisian Luminaries I got for half price at my recent Southern Living party. I really liked these in the catalog, and am pleased with how they added a warm glow to the sideboard.

I took this picture with the flash off so you could see the candlelight.
Here's an upclose view of one of them with the flash on. The pair came in a set of two...one taller than the other. I bought two pairs.
Here's another closeup with the flash off. The reflection in the mirror adds to the effect. I also love the way the light from the candle dances on the wall.
These little luminaries can be used for other things too...they are the perfect size for a bottle of wine. Can you think of other ways to use them? I am going to try them outside on the front steps....maybe for Halloween night!

No, I'm not a Southern Living consultant! LOL...I just booked a party in a weak moment, and you know the rest of the story!

Thanks to Kelli at There's No Place Like Home for hosting Show and Tell Friday. Be sure to visit her for other Show and Tell posts.

I'm also linking this to Julia at Hooked on Houses. She is trying out Mr. Linky and you can click her site to see other posts called Hooked on Fridays!
Thanks for stopping by!

More Fall at the Shrimp Fest

It seems that the theme on so many of the blogs that I've looked at this week have had fall posts. This past weekend at the Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores you wouldn't really have known it was fall-most everyone was in shorts and cool clothes, and lots of people were on the beaches because the temperatures were still pretty warm.

For some reason, my camera seemed to be drawn to fallish arts and crafts. Here are a few things that I spotted that I really liked.

This first picture shows 'pokes' that are made to stick in pumpkins. There are tiny nails at the bottom of these little wooden painted shapes.
I really did like this wreath, and I think the price of 65 dollars was not too bad! It had been reduced...not sure what the starting price was. I really love the little squirrel peeking through the fall leaves!
This little scarecrow on a hay bale was at the same booth.
For all you recyclers out there-here are bird feeders made from old tires and screen.
Mississippi gardener Felder Rushing would love these pumpkin planters made from old tires. He has a tire tree in his garden!
And everywhere we went there were the cutest little girl fall outfits! We don't have a little girl, but I couldn't help taking this picture! We didn't see any little boy clothes!
I saw LOTS that I would like to have had, but didn't buy! Actually I didn't want to carry anything around and we had to park a good distance away. I did buy a CD with the Andes Flutes called Wind Rhythms-Pathways to Heaven. It is full of praise and worship songs. The flutist was performing Shout to the Lord when we were there, so that's the one I bought. It is really a beautiful collection of music. When we played it in the car, Cooper got so quiet..it's almost like he went into a trance! LOL

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day!

A Special Pumpkin

Jen at Sanctuary Arts at Home is hosting a Pretty your Pumpkin Party! Click on this icon to go to her blog and visit other participants!
I'm just about "Pumpkined" out here at my house. I really don't have anything new to show today, but I wanted to participate because I really love Jen's blog! So I scouted around and saw this wall hanging in my friend Beth's first grade classroom. This quilted wall art featuring a pumpkin was made by her friend Linda a few months before she lost her battle with breast cancer.

Linda was a great friend to Beth and to all of Beth's friends-including me! When she found out that she had cancer, she fought the battle hard not giving up til the end. She created and worked on her art as long as she was able. Her strength and positive attitude has been an inspiration to her friends.

This weekend we will have an arts festival in town, and two years ago Linda was sitting at a booth at this festival displaying projects such as this one. She died in February of 2007.

Her wall hanging looks great in Beth's classroom and has created some excitement and anticipation among the students. Linda would have loved that, and I think she would be honored that I posted a picture of her work on my blog.

So, it is to Linda and her memory that I dedicate this post! She left us all a wonderful legacy in her art work and also in her attitude toward life in general. Linda has been missed by all of her friends! Thanks for stopping by! Thanks Jen for hosting this blog party!

Quick N Easy Pumpkins

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land is hosting her First Ever Halloween party. Click on the icon below to visit other blogs participating. Thanks Kimba, for serving as our hostess! I look forward to visiting the other blogs and getting some great ideas.


Are you:

• pushed for time?
• not very artisitc?
• a little lazy?
• all of the above?

Then you might want to try to decorate some pumpkins like I did-quick and easy! I started with 3 faux pumpkins from Walmart, black and white spray paint, stickers, and free clipart from the internet. I covered the stem on the two I planned to paint with paint tape. The picture in front is from the thrift store. And I decorated the three pumpkins like this. From left to right:

• orange pumpkin-candy corn clipart printed from the internet, (it's easy-just right click and save, the paste into a word document over and over til you fill a page-print and cut out, and glue with modpodge)
  
• black pumpkin-pumpkin stickers with a coat of mod podge
• white pumpkin- ghost and Happy Halloween stickers with a coat of mod podge.
  

I spray painted the picture black to use as a tray and used stickers along the edge. In the picture below, I added pumpkin lights that I bought at a garage sale this weekend. And here they are with the lights off. I will probably use this at school for now and on my front porch a little closer to Halloween to greet the trick or treaters. If you are new to my blog, you can click HERE and see my other fall posts with pictures of some fall decorating I've done this year.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

A Free Arrangement (Almost)!

When browsing through blogs the other day, I noticed that Melissa from The Inspired Room used canning jars to make arrangements for fall. I really liked the casual, informal look she created with the jars.

I decided to 'shop' my cabinets and see if I had any and I ran across this wire container and milk jug looking containers I hadn't used in years.
My original plan was to buy some fresh flowers in fall colors to put in the vases, but I saw somewhere (sorry I can't remember-probably on someone's blog) a suggestion for using Nandina berries in fall arrangements. I have Nandina shrubs, but the berries aren't ready yet.

So when visiting my mom on Sunday, we went in the back yard and checked out her Pyracanthia shrubs. They were loaded with these reddish orange berries! So I cut a few and used them in my fall arrangement.

The arrangement was almost free! I already had all the materials on hand except the mini Tiger Pumpkins I bought from Walmart, and they had been purchased a few days before. The only cost occured at the time would be the gas to drive to Mom's house, and I would have visited her anyway!

I really liked the way the arrangement turned out. Thanks Mama!

Hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!
For more Fall decor visit lemonannie!

Blue Eyed Pumpkin

For Blue Monday, I want to show you all my little blue- eyed pumpkin. I made these pictures early in the morning after Cooper spent the night with us.

He is wearing a pumpkin suit that I bought for a dollar at a yard sale.
Even if he wears it only this one time, I think I got my money's worth with these cute pictures!



For more Blue Monday posts, visit Sally at Smiling Sally.
Hope everyone has a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

20 Things to Love about Autumn

Melissa at The Inspired Room is challenging us to list 20 things we love about fall! Since today is the first day of fall, here's my list-

1. Trips to the Pumpkin Patch. I can't wait to take Cooper this year and see his reaction!
2. Hay rides
3. Cooler Temperatures
4. Planting pansies
   
5. Planting daffodils
   
6. Buying summer clothes for next year on sale
   
7. New television season
8. Mums in flowerpots
9. Pumpkins from the dollar store and everywhere else
10. Fall birthdays...my son, both grandsons, my son-in-law, and mother-in-law all in the next few weeks
11. Changing color of the leaves
12. Grass stops growing so fast!
13. Candy corn
14. Brisk walks with husband or friends
    
15. Anticipation of all the holidays
16. Hay bales
17. Scarecrows
18. New season at the Riley Center
19. Arts and Craft Shows
20. Hot chocolate and apple cider

In Southern Lady magazine, I found this quote:
" Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all." -Stanley Horowitz
Please visit Melissa for other lists!

Thrift Store Decor 5 Ways: Show and Tell Friday

Recently I found these two little pumpkin people at the Hope Village Thrift Store for $2.00 each. I didn't buy them the first day I saw them, and noticed that they were still there the next couple of times I went by. Since I've started blogging, I have started thinking of new ways to use thrift store finds. I guess no one but me saw any potential here!

Here are 5 ways that I've come up with to use the little pumpkin people.

First, here they are as I bought them displayed on both sides of the clock on the mantel.
Here is a close up of one of them. They are in 2 pieces-like a jar with a lid. The little smiling faces have really begin to grow on me!
Here's another way-with fall flowers. The ones in the pic are faux, but I'll use the real thing. LOLOne of my favorite ways is to use them is as a pedestal for a votive.
Here is the base as a little lift for a pumpkin serving plate.
And finally, here is the base as a silverware container. Please excuse the spots on the forks. It's funny how the camera picks up these little details when you don't want it to!
Which way would you use them? Can you think of any other ways?

Thanks to Kelli at There's No Place Like Home for hosting Show and Tell Friday.