Friday, October 30, 2015

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Happy Friday to one and all.  I am enjoying the beautiful sun shine here in the deep south where we've had NO/ZERO/NADDA/ZIPPO fall weather.  We've been in the 80's all month long with a few wet and gray, drizzly days sprinkled in there.  Most people would love this weather but I long for cooler weather - 20 degrees cooler would be great with me.  Oh well - I guess we will get there but the 10 day forecast was more of the same.

Before the month is gone - I wanted to show you some of the fall and Halloween decorating around my humble abode.

Here is that cute piece I bought in South Ga. earlier this month.  Isn't he fun ! He is made from a propane tank (see previous post)  We'll put a candle inside tomorrow night to greet our little ghouls at the door.

 
 He sits at the edge of our front garden walkway smiling at all who dare to enter.
 Here is my pumpkin and gourd display this year.  It is in a small child's wheelbarrow a dear friend gave me this summer.  She said "promise me you'll do a pumpkin arrangement in it"  - so here dear Faye is your pumpkin arrangement.
 Speaking of gifts and dear friends - look at the FAB-ulous pumpkin that my DF Becky made for me.
It is so creative and so cool.  I love the real dried pumpkin stem and the way she glammed it up a bit with a few beads and a felted tendril.  You can never imagine how lovely this piece is unless you could see it in person.  It looks great on the pewter tray with my pottery pumpkins from the Old Mill Pottery in Tenn.
Here is my evil looking button eyed cat by Scarlet House.  It is shown for lighting purposes along with my Old Salem box from Liberty Hill.  Faye from Carolina Stitcher did the lovely finishing on it.

Here is the back of the pin pillow which is filled with walnut shells I presume.  Creative finishing as usual by Faye.

Here's where the cat is living currently.  The coloring in this photo is much more accurate than the other two.  Plus there's a good shot of the pottery pumpkins.
Makes a nice little vignette with my Scarecrow in the Pumpkin Patch hooked rug. 

Where's the stitching, knitting, hooking progress you say???  Well - I certainly don't have much to show for the month.  I did finish that pina ghoulada ornament but haven't completed the "finishing" yet.  I did find a suitable backing material last weekend and a rick rack trim so I am making baby steps towards getting that done.
Here is tree #1 in the Fanciful Forest club I was doing with the Needleponter which is in Washington State.  I have enjoyed this one but I changed the stitch on the tree to my own choosing.  I am setting up basketweave in the background using Floche ( my first time) and then I will do Dotted Swiss background.  Mary Corbet did a whole blog post yesterday on Floche by DMC. 
  So I am learning some new things with this club.  This club is an exclusive by Pippin Studios in Canada.  The Needleponter is their US distributor.  They have some great special collaboration pieces exclusive to their shop by Pippin .

Finally - a beautiful double mum in two colors given to me by my dear husband.  I love looking at it every day by my back door. 
 
Hopefully next post I will have some knitting and hooking to show.  Maybe some stitching too.
 
Here's hoping you plan to have a wonderful Halloween even if its only to watch a spooky movie or two and eat some of your favorite candy and take a few happy stitches.
 
 
 

Friday, October 09, 2015

OK IT'S OCTOBER

On a recent jaunt thru south central Georgia - I found a wonderful prim shop called Alice & Jay.
On my way to Auburn on a business trip I spotted all these great Halloween things sitting out on the highway in a little tiny town called Sasser.  I thought to myself - now on the way back I must stop and check these out.  The shop was FULL of prim furniture and all sorts of things they make on site in their metal shop.  They also have another location down near Thomasville Ga.
 

Here is the cute witches that caught my eye.  They are made from old discarded propane tanks.  How clever !  I couldn't decide what I wanted, decisions decisions.

This is not a great photo but I ended up getting the jack-o-lantern with the hat.  I'll have to show the one I got before October is over.  I need to finish some decorating at home and get some photos.

I said I wasn't going to show my Autumn House again until it was finished.   However I am so elated that I finished that hateful black bargello sky that I thought I should show a photo.  All I have left is the borders and I really need to move on with finishing this up.  It's on my EGA Chapter challenge list and I want it done !  If I finished it up this weekend (HA!)  I could actually just sit it out and use it this month and then get it framed in November.  Good idea, get it done !

This is a crummy photo and don't ask me why I was so taken with the ornament from the recent JCS magazine.  It is called Pina Ghoulada - fun !  I just love that eyeball button you put in the bottom of the glass and the little spider dangling from the straw.  I was simply amazed that my buddy Cathy at Inspired Needle had this color linen in stock along with the linen needed another ornament I loved in that same issue, the one with the witch button from Italy.  I have barely started that one and I hope to try and do the finishing myself since all the finishers I work with have closed off their services till 2016 because of the load of holiday requests.
 
Not much else new in my world - I have been knitting but just working on that same Sailing shawlette I showed in the prior post.  I'm itching to start something more fallish in color.  I paid a visit to a great yarn shop in Savannah this week and picked up some beautiful Shibui Pebble which I had never seen in person  for a new shawl I've had my eye on.  Maybe next time I come to visit - It will be started. 
 
Hope you all will stop by and tell me what you've been doing to get ready for fall or what's in your WIP basket.  Enjoy all the sights and sounds of Autumn.