It's getting closer.....

Halloween is almost here! The night where all the little (and big) goblins, ghosts, pirates, Spongebobs, angels and devils are out! I can't wait. I love seeing the little ones having so much fun. They are so cute. I made this spell book last year and it has a prominent place in the living room, right next to the Halloween Spice Rack.

Creepy Spiders crawl on these pages:

Skulls and witches broom:

He's a dandy fellow:

So much fun!

The center of the book:

Love Spells (not for the faint of heart).......

My grand kids love looking at the book and reading the spells and looking at the pictures. I had fun making this and I want to do more in other subjects. I had never done this before and didn't know quite how to go about it, but it turned out OK. I have lots more Reader's Digest books!

More Halloween

I wanted to show some more of my Halloween decorations. This is outside (the front door area): A farther out shot:Cute little door mat:My garage door windows:The graveyard in my front yard:

More:

And still more:
Again:
I love putting these out and the kids love to come by and see them. The pumpkin and white ghost light up and I put the battery operated candle lights in the pumpkins and one in the flower pot light and it looks really spooky. On Halloween night I put a spotlight on the whole yard and it looks really cool. It also helps the kids to see where everything is. Love Halloween, so much fun!

Miss Rhea's 100th Post

Hi Everyone, This post is to let you know that Miss Rhea is having her 100th post Giveaway. The prizes are the most luscious looking faux cupcakes, cookies, and petit fours you have ever seen. They are so beautiful and realistic looking, that it's hard to believe they are not. Take a trip over there and I think you will agree that these are the yummiest, guilt free goodies that anyone could want. She also has a shop where she sells these pretties. Go to her website now, the drawing is Oct. 25! All you need to do is leave a comment to be eligible for the drawing.

My Beachy Living Room

The painting was a gift to me from my niece and the inspiration for the beach theme of my living room. I had all of the other stuff, and the painting prompted me to bring everything out. I really love her original painting. It is called "8th Avenue Jetty-Ocean City, NJ" and it will stay where it is, even if I change everything else. On the mantel is my collection of sea shell boxes and tropical birds.
These heads are carved from coconuts:

My little lighthouse: The little slate picture says: Life is a Beach. I love it.
A closeup of the little wooden box in the middle and a plaque with sea shells and tiny little pearls:

Another beach picture:

Some of my favorite summer reading:

Susan Isaacs--Almost Paradise

Judy Blume--Summer Sisters

Christine Lazier--Seashore Life

Jan Brett--Comet's Nine Lives

Mason Jars filled with shells,
A Teacup filled with Shells, sitting on a grass mat.
More collected shells:
And more........
I love all this, it looks so refreshing to me and brings back sweet memories of Atlantic City, NJ many, many years ago.

Starting another new month...

Here we are into October already. Seems like we just changed the calendars for September and where did it go? The days just fly by so fast. Why is that? My mother used to tell me when I was young that "the older you get, the faster the time goes". I remember her saying that many times and wondering how that could be. Well, here I am and I find it's true. I'm pretty old and yes, the time does go by very fast. That's life, I guess.

I wanted to show you my Halloween Spice Rack that I made last year. I did not think this up, I saw it in a magazine (Somerset, I believe), and I used what I had on hand to make it. I love it and can't wait to set it up when I decorate for Halloween next week. My grand kids all loved it and I think I will make one for them this year. I've been saving some jars and bottles all year so that I can do this. So here are some pics of the project:

The Halloween Spice Rack with ingredients to create and potions and spells......


Beast Heart, Evil Dust and Belladonna. The little basket has snake eggs in it.....
Ground Chicken Claws, Powdered Snake, and Crow Feathers.....
Powdered Bat Heart, Scales of Dragon.....

Dried Lark Eyes, Salted Owl and Things that go bump in the night..... I actually took the pics before I put it away in the attic last year, which doesn't seem so long ago. Haha. I had a lot of fun with this, if you want further instruction on this project, let me know and I will be happy to give further information on how I did some of the jars and what is in them. 'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

It's been raining, raining, & raining some more....

While I've been cooped up in the house, I practiced my cake decorating. I had some 6" cakes in the freezer and I wanted to try a new marshmallow fondant recipe, so I made this little cake. These little ribbon roses are the same as the ones that are on the bottom of the cake stand. You can't see it because I accidentally deleted the pic that shows the bottom of the plate.
This was a sort of topsy-turvy cake but didn't work too well because all the cakes were more or less the same size. It was a fun one to do and I learned some things from it, so it was a good lesson. It was also delicious and my family was very impressed. (ahem).

I wanted to show you some of my flowers and how they have matured from my last post. The Rudbeckia is still sending out new flowers.

The Autumn Joy Sedum is in its full glory:

The ferns are starting to decline somewhat, but still have some life left in them. I love how they change color, just like the leaves on the trees.
I have not been able to garden since last week, as we have had 5 days of rain. Things are pretty soggy around here. My next day off is Friday and I hope by then things will dry out some.

I also wanted to let you know about a free giveaway!! It is of a Beach theme.

Joanne over at "my little cottage in the making", is having a drawing on Oct. 6 for *a cute Salt & Pepper shaker set that looks like seashells *a pale blue dish towel with shells on it *a pretty blue Yankee Candle called Willow Breeze *a tiny little ceramic box covered with seashells and has a small dainty blue flower on top *a pencil starfish *a beautiful floral tray. She has a very beautiful and interesting blog, so hop on over to Joanne's blog and enter her giveaway.

'Til next time, Love ya, Jean

Checkin' In

I just thought I'd check in, I haven't posted in quite a while. I am an avid gardener and I have to use every available bit of time that I have to work outside. So, that doesn't leave much time for other things. I am going to add some pics of my garden. This is my little pond with the water hyacinth blossoms.

This is the end of the front yard. There is a little stream under that bridge that you see on the right side of the pic. The stream connects to the pond.

The middle of the front border. Eventually, I will put some smaller bushes of some sort the rest of the way down the front of the house. (Or make these smaller.)

My project completed. There were 4 50 yr old yews in front of that window. They were 7! ft wide and halfway up in front of the window.

Work in progress......

Rudbeckias.....

Purple Cone Flowers.......


One side yard border, you can see my zucchini plants among the flowers.....

Another shot of the pond flowers:

If you look close you can see my tomato plants behind the Autuum Joy Sedum. There are also some Bell Peppers, Rosemary, Tarragon, Cilantro, Sage and Garlic Chives in there.

I love to garden and will show more in my next post. Love ya, Jean