It's Moving Way Too Fast!

I really dislike the tricks my mind plays on me! I know there are 24 hours in all days and 30-31 days in most months! That being fact...why do June, July and August simply DRAGGG for me and September is over in the blink of an eye! I swear it just began and today's calendar is saying that it is already the 27th. How do I stop this? I love my autumn decorations so much but I know that as soon as I have a few uninterrupted days, it will all be going away and out will come Halloween.

Now, you know me, Halloween is my absolute favorite and my heart beat increases just seeing orange and black...and purple and green added with it now too. But, once October arrives, the calendar is crazy and I know that it will zoom by even faster. I'm trying hard to slow it all down, take it all in and enjoy every minute. I have been working on a family Christmas gift this month in any spare second that I have and also looking forward to a family football weekend. The gang will be here for the boys' games with a cook out back at daughter #3's house in between and then back at night to all watch the Gator game together! Always a fun time when this gang gets together and always lots of good food and conversation!

I did take a minute to look back on last year's decorations to see where I could once again fit in the laboratory. It will take a bit of finagling, but I think I will do it. I also think that I will keep my Poe vignette, mantle and dining room picture gallery pretty much the same. I liked the change to them last year and, once again, if it ain't broke...

I have also been asked by Presley to re-instate the ghostly chandelier that she and her cousins made several years back. I truly don't know how she remembers that, but she does and she wants it in the living room again this year. I am nothing if not all about making memories for my family so if the youngest remembers this and asks for it back, back it shall come!

I just found the pictures and it was actually from 2011!

I always loved my picture gallery. It was on the family room mantle for years. But then, last year I just decided to change it up. And, since the dining room niche is always so challenging for me to decorate, I thought I would give it a try. I had to get rid of the frames that I always had hanging askew and figure out a new way to use the attic light, but I ended up really liking it so, you shall see it again this year! I always have a few new little treasures to squeeze in so who knows where they end up and if anything you are looking at right now may change?!

I think this is the LEAST I have ever had on the mantle but I kind of like it. We shall see how the mood strikes as I actually hit the ground running. Just looking at these pictures makes me want to start pulling out the 10+  bins of Halloween that I have but I may have some company coming by and, believe me, the process for this swap is nothing any sane person needs to witness...Lol. Everything else is up for change but, as I have said before, my brain and my body are getting older and slower so we shall see! In any case, a week from now I will be missing my leaves but basking in all things witch, skeleton, jack-o-lantern and orange and black...and purple...and green. It just dawned on me that with thenew furniture placement, a bit of this display might have to move but that is the fun of it all! Stay tuned.

"Falling" Into Autumn

What a perfect weekend this was! It once again started at the football field. Our first game was at 8 a.m. and the temperature was in the mid 70s with a lovely breeze. We were on the side of the field where we were looking into the sun but that is a small price to pay for the beautiful weather! And, a victory!

Game number two at 4 was a bit lot hotter and, once again, we were on the side looking into the now setting sun...but, another whopping victory made it well worth the glare!

As we were on our way out, my youngest grand daughter told me she and her brother were coming to spend the night at my house...which was news to me. I guess they had arranged it all-just forgot to ask. Lol Of course, it was fine. We had a simple supper, watched a movie and I got to catch up on the Gator game (victory #3 of my day) while they played a video game.

Sunday was another beautiful day and the kids and I took advantage of it. After a large breakfast where we were entertained by all of the birds and squirrels outside the sunroom windows, we had a typical lazy Sunday. We got in lots of games, swimming, another movie, lots of snacking and lots of talking. Presley and I also found time to go through all of my files of our past Halloween hijinks and decided on the games and food for this year's traditional family Halloween costume party. Plus, since she and her family are coming over the weekend before to help me tackle some heavy duty chores, she has plans to squeeze in more Halloween fun that weekend too.

It fills my heart to see how important all of these family traditions are to even the youngest of my grand children. Every time I try to convince myself that we can let go of some of our traditions, the kids remind me that they're having none of that! They love it all. And so, we will do our best to squeeze it all in. I can't wait.

And, I'm so excited to see that not only do I have a Meyer lemon growing on my new little tree but the tree has bloomed again. I can't stop myself from sticking my face in those blossoms as the scent of citrus blooming takes me straight back to my childhood and the wonderful aromas of orange groves that surrounded us all of the time! My cousins and I loved it so much that we always bought little bottles of orange blossom cologne every time we visited McKee Jungle Gardens near our home in Vero Beach. Not sure I would wear it any more but I sure would sniff of it!

I have a fun week ahead but I think I might see if I can't at least get a start on my Halloween decorating. This one usually takes a full 4 days, so we will see if I can accomplish anything without those dedicated days. I'll be back to share as soon as I have something to show you. I will say, I may have to make a few changes on last year's decor. It was the first year I didn't dedicate a huge area to my spooky laboratory...and I heard about it. I was trying to keep with my new "simplify" mantra but, since Presley has mentioned it no less than 5 times already this year and pretty much beseeched me to bring it back, what's a Nana to do? Now I'm wondering if I didn't get rid of a lot of it at the garage sale...boy will I be in trouble. Here are some pictures from the past of the kids really enjoying this area. The one thing she keeps mentioning is the beaker of eyeballs...and I'm almost positive I got rid of the eyeballs...maybe even the beaker. Sure hope they still sell those things!

I think I see another laboratory in my future...lol Stay tuned.

New Kids on the Block

Even though Autumn decor will only be up about another week in my house, I seem to find myself still tweaking. A lot of the autumn stuff will be back in November so I figure there is still lots of bang for my buck to come. Here are the latest "new kids on the block".

It might be time to put this poor mum outside but make note of the olive bucket. I found it in WalMart in their autumn section. It certainly meets the test-metal and rust!

Here's where the new frame landed. I like that it has a lot of the same muted greens and oranges as the bowl set and place mat.

And my absolute favorite newbie is this watercolor pillow from Pottery Barn. They offered me a deal and with my daughter's decorator discount I really couldn't refuse. Lol The only problem is that since it is an outdoor pillow, it doesn't have a cover. I will probably be taking it apart after the season and adding either a zipper or some VelCro. With the number of seasonal and holiday pillows that I have, covers are so much easier to store and take up practically no room. When I look at this pillow and then the plates that I bought the other day, I can see that I am nothing if not consistent-the style and colorations are so very similar. There is something about the orange of the pumpkin, purple of the berries and soft greens of the foliage that just speaks to me!
 

And, lastly, the green urn that Kohls was almost paying me to take off of their hands. Kohls is not my favorite store but there are definitely times that I can find a lot to buy in there-especially when they are having a sale and then I have an additional 30% off and get back $10 in Kohls Kash for every $50 I spend. This urn spoke to me and since it started at $60, was on sale for 50% off and then I had an additional 30% off, how could I pass it up? Really, except for Valentine's, Christmas and 4th of July, it will probably remain out all the rest of the year. Now if I can only remember to go back and buy something with my $30 in Kohls Kash before it expires, it will be a super deal!!

I have had such a fun week. Our weather is improving so I enjoyed doing lots of gardening-and still able to enjoy my pool as well-, spent a full day with an old friend and got an impromptu invite yesterday to tag along with daughter #3 as she did some shopping for her clients (and I definitely picked up a few of her decorator tips) followed by a lovely lunch before heading to pick up the kids from school. Today has already seen one early football game and I am just about to head back to the field for the other. Today is the official start of fall and I think Mother Nature is finally starting to co-operate with us. I couldn't be happier! Stay tuned.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

I have had a super busy week. I have managed to fit in two minor surgeries, dinner out with some friends I taught with many years ago, and a visit from daughter #2 with lots of talking until late at night and a wonderful lunch the next day. Today I needed to run all of the errands I've been putting off all week. I will admit that some of those errands included some shopping. I decided that if Mother Nature wasn't yet ready to bring autumn to Florida , I would do everything in my power to find what I could and at least bring it to my house. I found everything "pumpkin" that I could and even threw in the beginnings of some Halloween.

I was in Lowes buying still more mums when I spied these LED flicker candles in orange. They aren't as large as I would like but I was so excited to finally find any that I bought all that my two closest stores carried. The older I get and the more I seem to forget to blow out every candle at night, the more excited I am to have these candles around-they're truly the closest thing to a real flickering candle and so much safer. I still burn a few Yankee Candle jar candles so those and my plug-ins keep the house smelling of pumpkin spice as well.

I've already been through a box of pumpkin spice K-cups and couldn't find any more so I moved on to the ground coffee. Since my machine has a permanent K-cup filter as well, it is easy enough to fill it with ground coffee-just not quite as easy to clean up-but, a lot less expensive so I guess it's a wash!

I bought all of the pumpkin cereal I could find and even threw in a box a Spooky Halloween cereal for the little kids. I've been having lots of company on the weekends so it's always good to have some tricks up my sleeve. I also grabbed the glow-in-the-dark Halloween nail polish when I saw it. I know my youngest grand daughter will love it and even though it's a bit early to be thinking of Halloween for most people, I have learned that some of these special things sell out quickly-best to buy it when you see it!

I found 4 dinner plates and even a Halloween novel by one of my favorite mystery authors!

And, since I last blogged, I've made 2 batches of these goodies. They're pumpkin spice baked donut holes and so yummy! I made one batch for my SIL's B'day and another for daughter #2 and her family.

And, Michaels got in their Halloween ribbon so I was able to get these cuties finished and they will all soon be on their way!

Wish I had more exciting things to share but the month of September is going so fast! I am having fun squeezing in every bit of enjoyment I can before it disappears! And, since it's still so warm outside, I am actually still squeezing in lots of pool time as well-a win-win situation! I've got two more football games tomorrow and then I'm going to see if I can't start making some of our party plans. Stay tuned

I Guess That's Why It's Called Labor Day!

Since all of my family is out of town this weekend, I decided to give myself the freedom to do whatever I wanted. Hopefully that would include LOTS of pool time. Well, I have managed to get in SOME pool time between some of the largest, heaviest raindrops and thunder and lightening I have heard in awhile! And, me being me, I needed to accomplish a few of the things on the never ending to-do list.

I could show you pictures of my accomplishments but, honestly, they are the kind of things that only I will ever know really happened.

The first is a much needed repair to the fence that I made to hide the pool filter and A/C unit. It is a play on pickets and has needed a few errant boards tightened for awhile but, it wasn't until the recent A/C repairs that I could no longer pretend not to see it. I made the fence so that with just the removal of 3 screws, the entire one side came off for easy access to the units. The repair man did OK taking it apart but I could see where he also messed up a few other pickets. When he-and several helpers-were finally done, I told him just to leave it and I would do the reassembly. But, I guess they are supposed to put things back the way they found them. Which would have been great but he was here so long, I don't think he remembered how he found it and put it back together in some kind of crazy way which, being the symmetrical person that I am, drove me totally insane. And so, I tackled that first and it was one of those projects that turned into a MAJOR project because so many things were not where they fit! And then, as long as I was there, why not reattach any and all pickets that were even slightly loose? Let's just say it was HOT and that precipitated my first dip of the day into the pool.

I also got a lot of escaping vines reeled in and secured, moved one of my fountains to a new area where it will now serve just as a visual as it never made any noise and I could no longer justify all of the maintenance it took, and finally got the bows and hangers made and attached to the witch's hats and the two that need to be mailed all boxed up and ready to go. As you can probably tell, the pool time has definitely been shorter than the storm time but it did clear up on Saturday afternoon and I got to spend several hours out there. Quite a difference indeed!

Before:

And now:

Do you see that new pool lounge floater? I think I have had one of those in some form or another since the pool was built 38 years ago. I don't mind swimming but I get bored with that kind of easily. My favorite way to spends hours in the pool is on a lounger with a cool drink and a good book. I knew I needed a new one this year but thought since it was already so late in the season that I could wait. I was wrong! There is something about floating on a pool noodle that is just not quite the same as lounging. And so, I gave myself a gift and I am loving every minute I get to spend on it!!

The family returns tonight, my son-in-law has a birthday tomorrow and I have a hair appointment. And so, we will once again be back to routine. But, we are now back to routine in SEPTEMBER and I plan on enjoying every second of it. I bet it will go a lot more quickly than the summer went for me! I wonder why that happens!? Stay tuned.