Change of Plans!

 When last I posted, I told you I wouldn't be back until after my trip to Connecticut. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for me and so, here I am! I live in Florida and much to our surprise, we got a visit from Hurricane Idalia. For awhile, things for our area looked pretty bleak but, as you learn if you have grown up with hurricanes, it's not over til it's over-nor can you ever truly predict where it will go and what will happen until it does it!

My hometown actually just hit on the edge of the rougher bands of storm. We did get a lot of rain and a lot of wind gusts but nowhere near what was expected. We did have a scary moment when they thought a tornado was spotted and sent out all sorts of warnings with all of the bells and whistles to make it impossible to ignore. I have lived with tornado watches most of my life but this is the first time I've had the alerts for a warning-even though we did have a tornado rip through town about a year ago. The alerts are scary but I will say it is comforting to know that we have that kind of emergency system in place and working!

Of course, with the predictions we had and with the coastal cities getting much more damage than we did inland, airports were closed and flights were cancelled...and so, sadly, we decided not to re-book since we didn't know what clean-up would be like across the state. And so, instead of waking up in Mystic, CT I am home and just in from putting back everything I moved to be safe from the wind. In this case, most of it was probably not necessary-except the pool umbrellas that do seem to take flight in any kind of gusty weather-and all of the hanging bird feeder that are so close to the sunroom windows. I have now picked up 4 cans of twigs, branches and ACORNS from the yard but, compared to past storms, that is really nothing! And, I think every dead leaf from the vines that were cut from the back field that went up into my huge trees has now come down. I still have that to clean up but, it's actually better that they all came down at once instead of the several hundred that were falling each day and demanding constant clean-up. And so, today's clean-up will just make the next few month's clean-up easier as, eventually, all of that stuff will be coming down anyway!

Since I'm taking a bit of a rest, why don't I finish our tour. I'm going to show you last year's porch as that is exactly what this year's looks like minus the mums. There's been a bit too much going on around here to think about heading out to look for flowers. Lol And then we have the bathrooms. Let's go.

As I look at these pictures I think I am starting to feel as if the "welcome" sign and the flag might be in need of a repaint. They're not the simple designs that the flag and signs usually are so we'll see if I get brave enough to try that!?

The guest bath is ready for company.

And maybe because autumn is my favorite season there is a bit more decor in the master bath as well.

I'm heading back out to see if I can't finish up my clean-up job. Not sure where the next few days will take me, but I'll be back. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned. Oh yes, before I forget. I've told the story of how my oldest grand daughter developed this blog for me as a Christmas gift a number of years ago and how, although I was definitely touched that she would go to that much trouble for me, I was pretty sure I would never post anything. Well, fast forward to today where a blog that I truly thought would just be for family and friends and kind of serve as a journal for me had this pop up. I do check statistics periodically but this one blew my mind!

 

 

It's kind of fun yet kind of intimidating at the same time. Who ARE these people? Now I feel as if I should be saying things that are much deeper and exciting and that I had better really start checking my grammar and spelling. Lol In any case, I am who I am so welcome and I hope you might find some little something of interest that will keep you coming back.

 

 

Time on my Hands

So I'm back before I thought I would be. I'm actually pretty much on top of what all I need to do before I head off on my adventure and the things that aren't done are things that need to be done right before I leave...and so, here I am on a cloudy Saturday morning not wanting to start any new projects and time on my hands. And, that usually means I will come visit with you for a bit. I think I only have two more posts for my autumn decor but, when I return, I'm pretty sure I will have at least several posts of photos to share so I thought I'd just go ahead and take you into the family room today.

This is where the new vase with the preserved leaves ended up. The leaves took up more room than I realized so it kind of needed a spot large enough for it to spread out. I actually like it here. In the late afternoons when the sun is shining through this window, the leaves actually glisten and reflect on the glass of the photo and it is beautiful.

I'm so glad I added the flowers to the mantle. I did it so that the small pumpkin flower arrangement I made (that is in the TV unit) fit in a bit more and made sense but I ended up really loving how the soft colors kind of soften the feel of the whole room.

I'm really happy that I got all of this decorating done because now that I will be gone for a bit, it will be so much nicer to come home to autumn instead of being reminded that it is still so hot everywhere!

And, before I leave I thought I would update everyone on my growing family as well as my seasonally inclined grand daughter's growing family. Lol First, let me reintroduce you to Audie who is one of grand daughter #2's fur babies. I had to laugh out loud when this message came through. That cat must have gotten lots of treats to sit there with that humiliating thing on her head. Lol This is the same grand daughter whose dog wore that hysterical "old lady" costume ALL of Halloween night last year!

And the new addition to our gang belongs to daughter #3 and her family. He is a 1 year old Labradoodle who needed to be re-homed and they couldn't say no. He seems to be doing well getting along with Hazel but I'm not sure the cats are so happy to have him. You can usually find them on their perches looking out instead of what is happening in this picture. Lol

I haven't met him yet but I hear he is very sweet and fitting in pretty well. 

So that's it from here. Pretty sure I won't be back before my trip...unless that tropical depression has something different to say. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

 

Moving Along

 Let's head into the sunroom today. As always, it is pretty minimal because we do use this space so much and it is easier to use when you don't have to move mountains of decor just to get to a spot. Lol

I always find it fun when this room is all decked out for autumn but you can still see the pool that is still very much in use in the background.

This sign was so easy to make. I just painted the base that I made from fence slats one color (orange) laid down a felt placemat from $Tree and sprayed over it in off-white and voila! I did go back and paint the stem and a leaf and then added a few burlap leaves for some dimension.

So that is the sunroom for this year. I may or not be back one more time before I head off on my get-away. Daughter #1, daughter #3 and I are heading to Mystic, CT next week. From there we have a trip to R.I. planned and then a trip to Maine where we will see grandson #1 play his first college football game for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. We will be based in Mystic so we can explore in that beautiful area as well as visit Harrison's campus and see what I have so far only seen in photos. It is going to be a pretty long week as I am heading down to St. Pete two days early to spend some time there and then probably a few more days when we return. I am confident I will have MUCH to share when I return so, if I don't get back before, stay safe and stay tuned.

Love It When This Happens

So today I am going to take you into my dining room and show you how it looked when I took pictures and how it looks again. But then I will show you how it looked when I am the happiest - when it is in full use and the table is full of family! Welcome to my 2023 dining room decked out for autumn.

I don't know why I love that dough bowl so much but I just do. Those muted autumn colors gets me every time!

So that is how the dining room looks ready for fall. But, we bought that dining room set many, many years ago from Habersham Plantation after I saw it in a decor magazine. We traveled up to the actual plantation to see it in person to be sure it did what it looked like it did...and it did! Lol

The two oval ends of the table are loose and can actually be put together to make a round table if you want. But, my favorite part is that there are also two leaves that lift to make the middle section a very large rectangle and then the ends go back on.  This table will fit 12 comfortably but others can be squeezed in as well. And so this weekend, that is exactly what we did when we gathered the crew for a throwback back-to-school dinner. Lucky for me that I'm such a hoarder saver because decorations were easy...it felt like old times but we sure did miss Harrison. Again lucky for me there were people here who are up on technology because we were able to Face-time with him and oh my, it was so wonderful to see his face and have him talking to us. And, I got to make our favorite chicken tetrazzini again. I love that stuff but it is just too complicated to make unless I am feeding others.

My brother and sister-in-law were also able to spend the night and helped me click a few more things off of my to-do list so I am starting the week pretty much caught up except for all of the weeds that I realized had popped up while we were out there yesterday. So that is where I am off to now. Looks like the rains will be holding off for a few days so maybe I'll just make it into the pool as well. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Is It Autumn Yet?

So today dawned with sunny skies...and temperatures to match although not quite as hot as we have been having. We are back to our summer afternoon storm patterns which are good and bad. When the storms really hit, we frequently lose our power so, even though it might be a few degrees cooler, it is still hot without any A/C but, the grass and flowers are happy again. Of course, these storms usually hit right around "pool time" for me, so I haven't made it into the pool for a few days either.

In any case, I'm not up for any outside projects right now and, since my company is now happening Saturday to Sunday instead of tomorrow, all of the things I was going to do to get ready today can wait until tomorrow. Bottom line is I am once again looking for something to keep me busy-well, something that I want to do to keep me busy. Believe me, there are more than enough to-dos around here but, as you know, I have to be in the mood.

And so, I saw something scrolling through some blogs and honestly thought I had everything I would need...and, I probably do but it is just taking me longer than I want to find it all so I am improvising. That improvising starts with making my own paper. Somewhere in my HUGE stash of paper I have some full of beautiful script...but I don't know where so, I remembered that I have a script stamp-and, luckily I knew right where that was! I also want the paper to have a gold-ish yellow color so I started by watering down some paint and giving the paper a coat. I like the way it is not an even coat because more is going to happen to this paper once it is dry.

After there was no dampness left, I stamped the paper with the script image again not caring if it came out perfectly printed.

Then it was on to some grunging. I ripped the edges and used some Tim Holtz inks to "dirty" up the paper. I was originally going to mount it on wood but decided I needed the size of the canvas to better fit the pumpkin.

I'm not much of a painter because I really don't have the patience needed for all of the shading, etc. but, for this project, any old pumpkin would do so I think I got a reasonable facsimile. lol

Then, it got decoupaged on to the canvas. I got a few more wrinkles than I normally do and I'm thinking it is because I used a heavier computer paper-probably should have just gone with the inexpensive stuff. lol

Once that was dry. I embellished with a little bit of green moss, a scrappy bow and a few sprigs of pip berries and seeds.

And so, there you have it. It actually took me overnight to get it done so we are now at Friday and I am hustling to change some plans. Because we are doing dinner on Saturday now, my grand daughter will be able to be with us so I am changing everything from a kind of healthy, carb filled runner's dinner (the race was cancelled because of the heat) back to our traditional back-to-school meal. Since I had already shopped for one I had to run back to Publix to shop for the change of plans but I am all set now. I am going to grab some lunch and then start cooking and setting the table. This dinner is great for company since most of it can be done ahead so I can enjoy being with the crowd and not in the kitchen. I'm anxious to do this...can't wait to hear all about school and catch up with everyone. Time goes so quickly these days that these kind of things are harder and harder to put together. You can bet I'll be back with some pictures soon. Stay safe and stay tuned. Oh, and maybe by the time I come back I will have figured out where this pumpkin will find a home-I have no idea right now. lol