AT THE FIRST SIGN OF FALL...

At the first sign of Fall...

and after a few cheers...

I put the Fall wreath on the front door...

Put mums on the front porch...

Hunted for cornstalks to lean in the corner of the house...

(I was amazed at the purples and other colors in the stalks.

I never noticed until I was playing with my camera)

Checked out what Fall-like things are going on in our little town...

Bought pumpkins to put around the base of the cornstalks.

And inside the house...

Put small pumpkins and pumpkin lotion in the guest bath...

(also Pumpkin Shampoo... mmmmmm!)

Decorated the guest bath shelves with fall decor...

Change the bathroom colors to blue and lime green with

touches of orange.

I was excited to find this almost-lime pumpkin at a local store.

A new addition to my Fall decor...

a trick-or-treater in a Pea costume and...

A trick-or-treater dressed like Red Riding Hood.

I love that her doll is a little wolf!!

I can see the beginning of a collection of these characters.
They have such personality.

A favorite metal pumpkin is added to one of the bookshelves.

Wendy sent me this little Halloween tree.

It lights up at night.

Fall flowers and a pumpkin on the fireplace ledge.

And much more!

This is just a peek.
~~~
I found 2 metal trees with twisted branches to

hang the ghosties from last week's post.

(TJ Maxx and JoAnn Fabrics)

See you next week...

Make this week a good one!!

Love to you,

Joni

MORE 'ODDS & ENDS'

It is finally Fall... my favorite time of the year.

Fall is the time of year when I have the most energy.

WELCOME FALL!!

~~~~~~~~~~~

1. In the classroom

I'm loving my Tuesdays in my friend Chris's first grade

classroom... with the adorable kids.

Here is a photo I took of the kiddo's feet.

2. Ideas and Inspiration

My new Marie Claire Idees magazine finally arrived
and I was so disappointed in this issue.
I was looking for Fall ideas and inspiration and it lacked in that area.
Soooooo... I dragged out some old Fall issues and found just what I was
looking for.
Maybe there's something to inspire you, too!
~~~~~~~~~
I love the little softie man to make and tuck someplace
in our house.
I like the bag and the pencil holder too.
The colors are GREAT!
The purse is quilted with running stitches and
I love the look.

This scarecrow has such personality. I'm going to try to
create something close to this one.
A sentinel to stand by the door and greet visitors!


These ghosties are my favorite project to come,
They are adorable!!
What cute little gifts they'll make... although they look cutest
in a bunch. I love the linen and the white buttons and the detailed pockets.
Will stop to buy some white linen tomorrow after school and get going on them.
They might be cute made large in white oil cloth to
hang in the trees next month.

These pillows really inspired me to make something
on this order.
I like the idea of the embroidery on the plain squares
and even enhancing the patterned squares.

This litle bag touched my heart.

Sooooo sweet with the velvet, embroidery stitches.

and the adorable pumpkin.

3. Wendy's Wedding Album

Wendy put her album together using Shutterfly.com.

She is probably one of their best customers as she makes

albums through them frequently.

This album has over 200 pages and covers her wedding

from beginning to end.

I love the quality of the paper and love the bound hard cover style.

I'll share just a few pictures from the album so you can see the format.

This is one of my favorite photos... the Bride all ready to go...

with a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth.

The album is 12 x 12... to give you an idea of how large some of the

pictures are.

Some of the pages were made up of lots of little pictures.

This one was from the rehearsal dinner

I love this shot of Darin's bow-tie.

Again... almost full page.

This is a photo of the programs I made for the

wedding ceremony.

They were created out of digital scrapbook supplies.

That's all for now!

I hope to blog once a week... that's the best I can

do these days.

~~~~~~~

I do read your blogs... I just haven't been leaving

comments.

I'll try to do better with that!

Make it a great week!

Joni

WHAT I DID THIS WEEK...

I started to add Fall touches to our house.

I shopped for scrapbook supplies

for several projects,

in several stores,

in several towns.

~~~

Time consuming, but fun, fun, fun!!!

I worked in Chris's first grade classroom.

I got there at 7:30 and left at 3:15.

A long day for someone who has been doing

a lot of lounging.

I'm trying to finish this scrap album for Emma... Wendy's

flower girl.
When I went to school on Tuesday... I heard a lot of
"Have you read this?"
"You've got to read that!"
~~~
So, armed with my list, I ventured to the bookstore and picked up
Twilight... the first in the Twilight Saga.
It's a Young Adult book but everyone seemed to love
the series.


"In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship." (Amazon)

~~~
I don't particularly like love stories but I'm hooked on this one.

~~~

Lots to do so I'll close.

Make this a great weekend!

Love you,

Joni

BACK TO SCHOOL

Yes... I'm going back to school!!

But only as a volunteer every Tuesday in my good friend

Chris's 1st grade classroom.

I'll be working with some of her lowest readers,

doing some reading assessments,

doing an interactive Storytime,

and wiping a few noses.

~~~

Sooooooo... I got a NEW back-to-school haircut!!

Yup! It's cut really short!

Lots of layers.

That's REALLY different for me who always has one length hair.

This is Chris in her classroom last year when she was

surprised by the TV media people to announce that

she had won the GOLDEN APPLE AWARD!

She's an exciting, innovative teacher

and it's going to be fun working

for her and the kids.

And this is Gabby Cat who is just plain NOSEY...

even about the camera lens.
Make it a GREAT weekend!

Love you,

Joni

A COLORADO WEEKEND

Kristin lived & worked in Keystone, Colorado

and Wendy lived and worked in Breckenridge

Colorado... years ago.

~~~

This is a scrapbook layout of Wendy's dog Shamrock

getting a ride up the mountain in a backpack.This is a layout of Wendy biking up a

mountain road with Shamrock under her arm.

Wendy was hiking on a mountain path.

YEARS LATER...
Wendy, Darin, and Kristin headed back to Breckenridge
for a long weekend with friends.
~~~
Darin's sister and her husband run a working ranch
in Breckenridge.


My favorite photo... Wendy & Darin's dogs
Wylie and Alfred
went along for the weekend.
They look so cute walking up the road together.
~~Pals!!~~


Everyone went horseback riding.
~~~

Mr & Mrs Osmundson continued their honeymoon

in the Rocky Mountains.
Kristin flew in for the fun.

And she looks like she's having lots of fun!!!

Wendy and Kristin at the lake.

All their fit friends (high altitude) went biking.

The Rocky Mountains in the background.

Quite a change from Key West!

The girls were raised to travel and they take advantage of

every opportunity.

~~~

I made a digital photo album of the wedding for

a dear friend.

My hard drive was full and it didn't save it for printing.

Yesterday was spend putting all my programs,

documents, etc onto a 2nd hard drive.

Then I started all over with the album.

It actually is much nicer than the first.

~~~

We also spent a lot of time watching the coverage of

Hurricane Gustav.

The water seemed alive and angry!

THE GOOD: Most people had been evacuated.

THE BAD: Two more hurricanes are on their way.

~~~

Make it a great day!

Love you,

Joni