Rainy Day

 It is kind of a rainy, dreary day here and the kind of a day where you just want to stay inside and do something comforting. A lot of times, for me, that means crafting and, since I started that witch pillow when the girls were here, I thought I might as well see about finishing it today.

So this is where it was last time we spoke. Once I got this far, I realized that my inspiration photo was probably a lot smaller-more like just a decorative pillow than an actual functional one. I considered just "calling" it but for whatever reason, here I am still moving forward. Lol

There is a lot of dead space here and, as I said last time, the embellishments on the inspiration were not anything that I wanted to use so I started playing around and here is where I am at the moment.

I started by ripping a small piece of muslin and making the tag. If I end up using the tag it will get distressed around the edges and maybe put on with a rusty safety pin. I used an old set of stamps and permanent ink to do this.

The "3" and "1" are stamps but I am thinking I will do them-if I use them-with paint instead of ink...we shall see. And then the other side was so unbalanced so I decided to go with the bats. I had originally thought about cutting them from fabric of some kind and sewing them on-maybe even leaving a bit of their wings free to "flap" but, I think I am now leaning towards painting them as well. And, because I ended up really liking the stripes I painted on the jack-o-lantern pillow, I considered more of those here as well.

 Decisions! Decisions! Not my forte so I think I am going to go grab some lunch and then I will be back at it. Lol

OK. I decided to stamp the numbers and I love the way they turned out.

 I wish I had been able to do the same with the bats. I actually considered cutting a bat stamp out of a sponge but I only have the cellulous sponges with all of the holes and that isn't what I wanted so I went ahead and traced my shapes and started to paint them in. As expected, the paint is too thick to flow nicely on the nubby drop cloth so I watered it down some and it was doing fine...until it wasn't. It was now so watered down that it started bleeding. I ended up doing what usually happens next-making your shape bigger and bigger to cover the "bleed"-which also distorts your shape. In the end, the large bat is much larger than wanted and definitely more close to the hat than I would have liked but.... and, me being me, the bleed that you could still see was driving me crazy so I took some tan paint and tried to cover it a bit. It was one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" kind of moments! Lol

I will say as I look at this closely I realize that the blurry edges around the bats where I tried to cover the bleed look similar to the frayed edges around the hat so I guess I lucked out. It isn't bothering me as much as I thought it would. Lol

Once I got here, it was later in the day and I had things to do and places to go-lol-so I left it at that but the imbalance bothered me. If I had sewn on the bats, I would have moved them but, since they are painted, my options were few. And so I left it for a bit and when I came back I played around with this.

Honestly, if I loved this pillow a little more than I do I might have kept playing but I was ready to be done so, out came the paint again and here is where I have landed.

So that is it for what has turned out to be a very LONG day. Something happened to my phone between last night and this morning and pictures that always transferred as jpeg were now HEIC-don't even ask. I now know way more about this stuff than I ever hoped. Thanks to my sweet granddaughter #3, who has been on the phone with me for hours and walked me through everything she could think of until she thought of this and VOILA! Still don't know what happened but I am finally back up and running and we shall see.

Off to take my furry friend out and then sit down, put my feet up, pour a glass of wine and call it a day! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Never Too Early!

 I'm back and I will admit that I had the time of my life but stayed up way too late and am now paying the price! I'm kind of working at slo-mo speed today so I thought I would sit myself down and tell you all about it.

Granddaughters #1 and 3 were here this weekend to replicate some of the memories they have from "Halloween weekends at Nana and Papa's". It always makes my heart so happy when any of my grands start talking about their childhood memories because we truly had some epic times! The girls got in touch with me a bit ago and asked if they could make this happen and nothing could ever please me more so...

They arrived on Saturday morning (after granddaughter #5 and the 2 grand dogs left on Friday night) and we got crafting pretty much right away. I had a number of things for them to choose from and they brought their idea as well. They chose to start with something I had done last year and quickly both put their own spin on it.

By the time these were done, we were moving on to dinner plans. The girls went with turkey "eyeball" meatballs, Halloween salad and mummy garlic bread. 

Me being me, I had to scramble a bit because I forgot that my house isn't currently decorated for Halloween and no self respecting Halloween meal could be served on anything other than Halloween dinnerware. It might not be up to October standards but it fit the bill. LOL

We cleaned up a bit and chit-chatted until VERY late. The next day we made a quick run to Walmart to pick up some things where I was very excited to find yet another "My Texas House" Halloween goodie I had been looking for and then the first of my mums. That isn't what we went for but...Lol We were looking for the framed picture I used last year to "add" the ghosts to but, after having it there for a year, it was completely sold out. I'm guessing that lots of people who saw that go viral last year are wanting to do it just as we were. We did find some that were possibilities and Hannah had also found a few before coming at Goodwill.

When we got home, the girls prepared one of their favorite "old" breakfasts-scrambled eggs and "witches hats"-cinnamon toast cut into points. The meal was delicious but not necessarily the prettiest plate so we skipped the photo op. Lol

Then we were on to the painting. Morgs used the ones we found at Walmart after we managed to get it out of its frame and away from the glass. Hannah used one from Goodwill but took the other home to paint when she has a minute. I love how they both turned out. Unfortunately, we never got a shot of Morg's after it was back in its frame.

And, of course, before they headed home we had to revisit a favorite-the chocolate covered pretzel rods. I'm not the world's biggest pretzel fan but I love these things. Just the perfect combo of salty/sweet. 

And then this morning, just as I was thinking about this week, I got a visit from grandson #2. He had come home from UF to pick up some more things for his dorm and he stopped by to fill me in on how life is going now that he is an official Gator. And it sounds like he is keeping busy and loving his new adventure.

When he headed off, I went into my office to think about where the rest of the day would go. My "new Halloween" pile is beginning to grow and I'm starting to think about where the new things will go. That framed raven picture that I found yesterday will definitely find a spot in the living room with the Poe vignettes.

The dark plum leaves can go anywhere and the pumpkin board has already found its way to the kitchen.

And that just leaves the witch hat pillow front. That is what I was working on as the girls were painting. Making a pillow was in the plans for the day except that no matter which pillow we were going to tackle or how simple it seemed, it took much longer than expected-or even what we had. And so, we came up with an even better solution-the girls are going to find another day they're both free and come back and their mom-my daughter-is going to join in on that fun.

That being said, I am going to go ahead and finish this pillow one day this week, I'm still deciding where to go next with it because it won't work as a functional pillow the way the inspiration was finished-a sprig of dried "sweet annie" and a large, rusty bell. I can't imagine leaning back on either of those things so I am going to see what I can come up with...I'll let you know.

I'm off to plant my new mums and then grab a quick lunch before figuring out the rest of the day. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Quiet Day

 I'm back sooner than I expected because my plans for today have changed. I had a very long to-do list now that the dogs and I would have a quiet day at home but I must have done something to my knee yesterday and I am walking around with a very uncomfortable limp-and, the more walking I do, the more things are hurting because of my off center gait I assume. And so, I decided to take a few more pictures and sit down to get this blog out to you. After that, I think I will be down with my feet up for the rest of the day...we shall see.

In any case, I did manage to get these pictures without too much of the Velcro dogs in the background. These two are up and at my side if I even shuffle in a chair so accomplishing much is a bit tricky. Lol Welcome to the kitchen.

Even though this framed piece has the book stack and would normally be in my living room, I thought it would look nice here because of its size.

And I still LOVE my pumpkin enameled cast iron Dutch oven so much. It will actually be out for the next three months and that makes me so happy!

 

There is just something about the deep tones of autumn that feel so calming.

I brought back this print from the late summer kitchen decor and used it on the top shelf of the baker's rack instead of a canvas that I used to put here. Once I brought in that dark brown squatty vase I just felt as if something "moody" instead of "cutsie" needed to be here. And I like the pop of orange that last year's pumpkin coquette brings to pop out that bit of orange in the print.

And, of course, some of my favorite Fitz and Floyd pieces. I never tire of them. They just speak autumn to me.

So that is it for this year's kitchen. I had to snap these pictures while granddaughter #5 was still in school because once she gets home, things in this room definitely become more "lived in". Lol

I think I have shared one or two of these before but I want to get them all in the same post. It seems that no matter how old your children-or grandchildren-get, first day of school pics are a must.

Presley ready to head off for her first day-very early-as in still dark. They have a senior gathering of some kind right after sun up and before school starts when she will of course need to change into her uniform. Both of her brothers were still in town to see her off.

Then her brother started his his year at the University of Florida...

...and her oldest brother started his senior year at the US Coast Guard Academy....

...and her cousin started her second year of law school at UF.

I'm so proud of all of them and we have lots of exciting things coming our way this year. I know it will be over in the blink of an eye but I am going to try to savor each and every one!

That's it for me today and I probably won't be back until after our "Halloween weekend" when I know I will have lots to share. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.