HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I hope all my blog friends are having a great Halloween doing whatever it is that makes you happy.

Today I thought I'd treat myself to a Starbucks and Happy Halloween to me - the Christmas favorites are already out so I had a Crème Brulee Frappuccino - SO BAD and SOOOOO good !

Here is a shot of my Harvest Moon shawl - for the knitters - it is in Lornas Laces Shepherds Worsted in the Louisville colorway.  It is for the Loopy Ewe online shop's 4th Quarter Challenge.  I have done more - finished the lacy border you see here and advanced to the body shaping.  I am enjoying this one and what a great fall color to be working on in October.

A couple of weeks ago - we had a wonderful week in Gatlinburg - one of our favorite places to be.  It was a belated first anniversary trip for us.  We hunted for our wedding chapel to have a photo made 1 year later but dang - we couldn't find the little back road where the chapel was located.  Anyway - here is my DH standing in front of  a fall display.  It was funny to us but every business and lots of homes had these types of displays all thru GA, NC and Tenn.  We don't see them our NE FL - oh maybe a few fall things go out but not these scarecrow things with the mums galore and the pumpkins and hay bales - It was so "fall" and I loved it.

Unfortunately it was not that cool there - the fall leaves were just starting to turn and we went in the midst of the government shut down so the Smoky Mountain National Park was closed.  It took us 3 hours to do 30 miles because of dead stop traffic from picketers and traffic problems and no park rangers to resolve them.  Nevertheless - what a beautiful fall photo taken on the north side of the park not too far from Gatlinburg.  Yes it opened up the day before we left.

 Here is Jody taking photos on our way home.  I believe this was on the NC side of the parkway.

Look what wondered by our condo balcony - we were just up the hill from the main drag in downtown Gatlinburg.  I was sitting on the balcony stitching and almost fell out of the chair trying to get my ipad open and snap a few photos of this poor bear.  It looked gaunt to me or maybe it was just a teenager.  As you can see - he was meandering along by the pool area - our car is parked about 50 ft away from where he is walking.  Needless to say - after that - we always hurried from our car to the condo.

 

 

In my blog header is Miss Merrie Halloween - one of my most favorite hooked rug finishes.  Miss Merrie was designed by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm.  Miss Merrie and I wish you the spookiest of Halloweens, don't eat too much chocolate !

OPTIMISTIC OCTOBER

Happy Fall Ya'll !!!!!!

I am optimistic in October for many reasons.

For one - I have all new electronic devices in my little world.  A new Ipad, a new IPad mini, a new IPhone and a new PC on my desk at work.  SURELY to goodness - I can do a blog post now when and how I want to do it without having a bunch of trouble with blogger.  As you can see my blog posts  have been very sparse this summer.  I have almost given up because it has been so frustrating.

Anyway - enough lamenting about that subject.

I am also optimistic in October because I am coming very close to finishing 3 more projects, one of which is my BBD wedding sampler.  I have abstained from showing a photo until it is complete which will be very soon, hopefully this month.  Then I have another BIG and very old WIP - a 3ft X 5ft rug which I am getting very close to finishing and will be finished this year for sure.  Just depends on how much hooking time I have as to when it gets completed.

I have a beautiful butterfly shawl that will be finished this month.  It is an Artyarns KAL on the Ravelry board.  The yarn is Zara - TSC hand dyed by Art Yarns - lovely stuff - color is Z3 - Iris doesn't name her colorways.

 

 Next up is a beautiful gift from DF Starr.  Starr surprised me when she returned from a very long trip to Michigan with this gorgeous and very special quilt.  You can't imagine how well it fits in my house  This was a very special wedding gift from  a very special and dear friend.  Starr - I can't tell you how much I adore this quilt.  I'm sorry but I don't know anything about the pattern designer or the fabrics but all I can say it is everything I would pick if I was a quilter myself.

Look how sweet it looks on my little primitive red bench - it is happy with my wedding pillow from DF Dianne

Here is Mr Scarecrow in his temporary home on a glass top table.  He look nice in this little fall display with my pottery pumpkin and pewter tray. 

Here is my Autumn House - I've had it out a little in the past month.  I was agonizing over the sky - that is all that is left except the border and I already know what I'm doing with the border.  I tried various things for the stars and ended up liking tiny pearl seed beads.  If you look closely you can see I went with a bargello stitch for the sky.  I think it is going to be just what I wanted and I settled on Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black.  Perfect for the effect I wanted.  I am very proud of this needlepoint piece because I did the entire stitch guide myself.  I figured I had taken enough classes in my life to figure this out myself and so I did !!!!!!  I am very pleased with the effect, I used almost entirely threads from stash, silks, cottons, wools and there will even be some metallic in the border and beads also.

 

I wonder how many of you are doing Paulette's Mary or Mary II Sunday SAL?  I 'd love to hear if you are.  I am and I have started, just waiting for a couple of threads I didn't have so I can finish up Part I.  I also started the Plum Street Yuletide Welcome - not enough progress to show on that one.

 

Well my friends - I hope you have all been having a great fall season so far.

 

Hope October is very optimistic for you as well.  BTW - I had a effortless time with this post and with downloading my photos.