10 FALL FAVORITES

One of my daily favorite places to visit is Carolyn at Cranberry Crossings. She shared her 10 Fall Favorites the other day and wanted us to do the same. I really enjoy reading about your favorite things so I wanted to share mine.

1. I love the cooler weather that fall brings. We haven't seen that yet here, but it is exciting to wake up one morning and as my mother used to say, "you can feel fall". When I taught school I would see children go from wearing shorts one day to having on coats the next. I suppose the sudden ten degree change in temperature caused a bypass of the lightweight jacket.

2. I love the colors of fall. Trees that I have looked at for months are now so beautiful I have to comment daily about them. God is awesome! As I drive into town I drive over a mountain and can see these beautiful leaves as they change colors (I can't wait....they haven't started yet).

3. I love pumpkins and mums. I think the pumpkins just piled up waiting to be purchased are neat! The yard displays with pumpkins, hay, cornstalks, and mums are so pretty.

4. I love Homestead Hollow & Old Baker Farm Cotton Pickin Festival. These are two arts and crafts shows that are held in the fall that I love. Homestead Hollow is in Springville and the one they have in the fall is my favorite. The crafts are wonderful, but the food is great......butterbeans, pinto beans, turnip greens, cornbread, all kinds of fried pies..............oh my!!! The Old Baker Farm Cotton Pickin Festival is within walking distance of my home and it is getting bigger every year. It has the same type of atmosphere and brings such excitement to our little area.

5. I love cotton! That's a given....look at my blog title. I'm surrounded. I have been wanting to post a picture but I am waiting. The cotton is open but I want to wait a bit longer so you can see how WHITE the entire field is right before it is picked. There's something about the smell of cotton to a country girl. Yes, you can smell cotton just like you can smell rain!

6. I love Alabama football. Sorry, Auburn fans. If you are not from Alabama you don't understand this. In Alabama people are committed to one thing...FOOTBALL. They are either for Alabama or Auburn (if they are native). I love Saturdays in the fall because it means Alabama football and friends and family getting together eating and watching the game.

7. I love homemade soup, chili, and brunswick stew (for you, Amy). I know that there's no law about not having this year round but we really have it when it's cool. I can't wait.

8. I love that it's my husband's birthday. Yes, I love birthday parties. I don't care if you are two, or fifty-six .... I think you should have a special "party" even if it's just family. October is my husband's birthday month and I get to plan something special for him.

9. I love fall because our family gets together at our house for Thanksgiving. It's the one time a year when almost the entire family is together and we have such a good time. Family is special to us and I cherish each time we are together.

10. I love fall because that means it is almost time for Christmas. It is certainly time to begin shopping (if you haven't already).

Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing your favorites and for causing me to sit and write my favorites. Also, I want to thank Danella for giving me an award. I will pass it on later.

FALL DECORATIONS

I see all your beautiful fall decorations and it makes me want my whole house decorated overnight....but it doesn't happen that way. I haven't brought my decorations from last year out of the attic, but I wanted to get something on my mantel now and this is what I did. This is the left side of my mantle. The picture above shows another idea that I got from Marie at Watch the Wind Blow By several weeks ago. She had taken an idea from a catalog where the blocks spelled SPOOKY and made her own. I had my husband cut the blocks and wanted to stamp something that I could use longer than just Halloween so I stamped the letters AUTUMN. These are just with the foam stamps I got at Hobby Lobby. You'll also see the grapevine pumpkin that someone bought for me for $0.50 at the last yardsale I went to. I am going to get some fall colored candles but it may be the weekend before that happens.
This is the right side of the mantle and it is so simple (like me). Just an old dough bowl with pumpkins and gourds, some berries in a crock, and a scarecrow. I wish I had some of Linda's real berries....just don't have them in Alabama.
This is the whole view of my mantle. It's beginning to look like fall at my house....especially with the smell of the new candle I bought at Wal-Mart. It is Paula Deen's Skillet Fried Apples. It may be one of my new favorites!!

THANK YOU, PICKET

I woke up this morning and immediately knew that I was coming down with some sort of stomach virus but prayed that I would be able to go teach my Sunday school class. I made it through church, but when I got home I went straight to bed and slept for most of the afternoon. Thankfully, I feel much better. My husband came in to check on me late this afternoon and said our neighbor brought a package that had come for me while we were in Louisiana. He asked if I wanted him to open it......OF COURSE I DID! There was a note in it.
Several weeks ago, Picket asked me where I had gotten some napkins that I had made some pillows out of. She said she had been looking for some. I emailed her and asked for her address. I was so glad that I could send her some. This is one sweet lady!!! I know from the number of comments that she gets that you all feel the same way about her. I sure didn't expect anything in return. Anyway.....when my husband opened the box and read the note he said "Picket"...who is that? I told him that was my friend (who I have never met). I was completely blown away by the gift. Look at what she sent me....
They don't show up as well in this picture but they are these wonderful "black" plaques with glass doorknobs and two hooks on each plaque. I can't wait to hang them and I'll have to make a picture later to show that.
Thank you, Dot (Picket)!! I know that the world is a better place because you have made a difference in so many people's lives. I'm glad blogging brought us together as friends!!!

I WON!!!

I won Kimberly's giveaway at My Brown Bag Studio. I am so excited. This is my first win and you can't imagine how thrilled I was when I saw her comment that my name had been chosen. You must check out her blog....she has some very beautiful things and is so talented. THANK YOU AGAIN, Kimberly.
We took a very short trip to Louisiana on Friday morning to see the kids. They didn't make it all the way to Alabama during the evacuation. The traffic was so bad that the time it would normally take for them to go 3 hrs. turned into 10 hrs. so they stayed outside Meridian until Wednesday. We only stayed one night with them, but it had been too long since we had seen the grandchildren and it was worth the long drive for just a night. They had no damage at their home (Thank you, God), but I noticed that homes in their neighborhood were still boarded because Ike could be headed in the gulf also. I hope not!!

WOMEN'S PARTY AT CHURCH

The women at church have a "Birthday Club" where we celebrate birthdays each quarter. The party for that quarter is planned by those honorees and it is always around a theme. No one knows anything about the party before they arrive other than what to wear. We were given invitations several weeks ago and knew that we were to wear pajamas. Other than that, the party was a complete surprise. When I arrived at the fellowship hall of the church the corner had this bed set up and the theme was a Slumber Party.
This was a picture of one of the tables and you can see that they were decorated with nail files, cotton balls, curlers, fingernail polish, etc. Anything girls might want to do at a slumber party. By the way....who (my age) didn't remember 45 records and a record player? They had this and the best "oldies" played during the meal.
Even the younger ladies enjoyed the "oldies but goodies" that were playing. The food for the party was a taco salad bar with everything you could possibly want to put on your salad. Dessert was banana splits. We always have games and door prizes. It was such a fun night and each lady had a great time laughing and looks forward to the next party and wonders what "theme" it will be!
I have to share something they used tonight in serving the banana split fixins' . They put bowls inside these black shell-like containers filled with cheeries, pineapple, strawberries, nuts, etc. I realized that these shell-like containers were old record albums. One of the gals had made them. This is how they were made.
Take a large record (get it at thrift store)
Put it on a cookie sheet & put a smaller pyrex type bowl on top of the record
Have oven heated to 375 degrees & put this in oven for about 5 - 7 minutes.
Take it out and the record should be really soft. Take a dish cloth (because the record is hot) and begin to form around the bowl making sure the bottom of the record is flat. Be sure you can get the bowl out easily.

This is what it looks like from the side.

This is from above. This was really cute with all the bowls filled with different food items.

CHAIR TIES

I wanted some chair covers for my kitchen chairs but the backs were odd shaped and I am not real good with details, so I decided I'd just make some ties for the backs of the chairs. I took some burlap and cut it for the size I wanted the back to be. I then monogrammed the G, for our last name, on it and tied it in the back. My kitchen is really country so this fits me. If I wanted to really get festive with the season I could tie a leaf, berries, or whatever from the back. Didn't have to get out my sewing machine....just the monogramming machine.
The back of the chair (just tied in a knot)

This is a closer view of the chair tie.

TWO FINISHED PROJECTS

I have had two projects in the making for a while now and I finally completed them today. I bought the little wooden plaque several weeks ago at the thrift store for $0.59. It's hard for me to pass up anything wooden because sooner or later I'll find a use for it. I put it away until I could decide what to do with it and for now I just sprayed it a cranberry color and used my chalkboard pens (that you can use on any surface) and wrote the saying below. I can always change it later.
This next project was an idea I got from Marie at Watch The Wind Blow By. She saw these dog and cat food containers in a Ballard Design Catalog for $49 each. She told us how she got a large popcorn tin (like you see at Christmas) and spray painted it and made her own. On my next trip to the thrift store they had two of those popcorn tins for $0.79 each. I bought both of them. I don't have a dog but had to make one to hold my cat food. This one didn't come from Ballard's but it cost less than $1.00!!!