One or Two Pumpkins.....

I have recently ran into several readers that wondered if I was still doing my blog....which was nice to be missed.  Answer.....Yes, just haven't been doing a good job with it.  It would be extremely encouraging to hear from some of you that enjoy these epistles.  You all know I have a "migraine life".....so really you don't want to hear from me, when I am not doing well.  That is part of my problem with writing, I can't be very authentic when I am barely functioning, so I struggle with that.  I don't do well at faking things, which is probably a good thing.  Any way it was nice to hear that some had missed my little corner of the world.  I will try and do better.  I think I have said that before....me bad!

I got rid of my Halloween decorations several years ago, divided it up between my girls.  They could enjoy all the stuff with all the grandkiddos.  So I have pumpkins and turkeys instead.  I really do like fall, just don't like what comes after.....SNOW & ICE.....ick!  I want to move to Arizona every winter.  :)  really!!!

Here is a cute pumpkin coaster I knitted....have a pair of them very cute and fast project.  One of my previous neighbors from La Porte City, wrote a darling book of knitted coasters.  I have been having a lot of fun doing some of them.

Milk glass pumpkin under glass.

I love old books.....here are a couple of them from my collection.

I love Mr. Scarecrow sitting on his bale of straw.....

My Grandma T. did beautiful ceramic work....this piece is darling.  I love the lit up faces!

This bale of straw came from the Thresher's Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa many years ago.  They had a small machine there that made these small bales.  I have used it to decorate for fall every year since.  So fun!
Do you want to see how they make these?  straw bale

A machine embroidered mini quilt.

By the back door

Oh those fall colors!

I found this little gem a few months ago at a sidewalk sale for 90% off.  I guess nobody thought it was worth the $2-3 I paid for it.....I thought it was gorgeous and have been carrying "my stuff" around in it.

This is my kind of pumpkin....no carving.  I never liked doing that....now they have all these tools for you to use, probably would be a lot easier.  But I still love this one,  just plug it in!  :)

I had these theme sweaters, that are out of style now, but I still hated to part with them....so I made some of them into pillows.  I just rough cut them apart and then mark them on the wrong side where I want to stitch and run them through the serger to get the right size and stabilize the edges.  Sew it all around with the sewing machine and I used the button closure to make my opening.  Oh, and I made it the same size as a pillow I already had.  So I can take it off easily to change them out.

Isn't she cute?

Harvest

As I took these pictures several days ago there were combines humming in the fields all around me.  I like to ride in the combine....it is a prospective like none other.  You are sitting on top of the grain as it is cut off the stalk and pulled into the machine.  Then magically the trash is thrown out the back and the grain is delivered into a holding tank.   The cabs look like airplane cockpits to me.  So many gauges and levers, then there are the warning buzzers, if the machine perceives something is not right.  It is really an overwhelming machine.  I never drove one.....too chicken...too afraid something would happen and oh, so much $$$ to fix.  The farmers around here are having the "joy" of trying to keep all the metal and debris out of their machines from the storm this summer that destroyed hundreds of grain bins and buildings around here.  I heard that many are having flat tire issues as they run over stuff and ruin their tires.

 My last few weeks have been filled with migraines....and not sleeping....taking meds to get rid of the latest round.  I think I have had 1 day out of the last 14 when I haven't had to take something.  And the MO has
changed.  I normally wake up with a migraine between 3-5 AM and hopefully have it gone by noon.  The last couple weeks, they have been visiting any time between noon and 9 PM.  I new wrinkle in the program, with no changes in my life, so go figure.  Let's just say my production level has suffered.  Enough of that, but it messes up my schedule of my postings and my life.... grrrr

 I just wanted to show the bounty of the land during this harvest season.  My mums are almost like weeds, I have them planted around an old set of wheels in my front yard with some other items.....trying to cover a well casing in my front yard.  Who has a well casing in their front yard?......let's just say NONE of my neighbors do.  There is suppose to be a clematis there too, but the mums I think have taken it over.  Who knew they wouldn't play well with others.

 My daily walk to get the mail and paper every afternoon.  I really like it better when we have corn planted here, partly because I just like the look of the corn better and then I have access to corn stalks to make a shock of that by my front door this time of year.  :)  The corn really does closes us off from the road and the world and I like that too. But the beans were beautiful this year, tall and lots of pods from top to bottom.

 The rusty chicken guarding the hen and chicks in the garden.

Several years ago we built a "civil war" type fence out of our wooden fence post collection.  Now who do you know that has a repository of wooden fence posts?.....oo oo oo, that would be us.  I have a thing for wooden fences.  I take pictures of them, admire them and then want to recreate them here in the perfect spot on Pine Ridge.  This is looking between the posts at the soybean field before it was harvested last week.

Felt Puzzles

I have been working to complete this series of felt puzzles for the grands.  They love these things and check out which one I have out when they come.  I just finished August and September.  They were the last ones I needed to finish.  Woo -hoo!!!  The September one has a school bag theme.....very cute.  You can find out more about these designs at My Fair Lady Designs. http://www.myfairladydesigns.com/whatsnew.asp?ItemID=37

Autumn Still Life

 I have glass shelves above my kitchen sink.  So I  place some of my favorite things there to look at each day.  I just noticed the photographer in the pic.....ha!!  I did the cross stitch scarecrow several years ago and have him stuck in a mini bale of straw. Also a mini vintage turkey planter that I did an arrangement in and raised it up a bit with a piece of Jewel Tea.

I did the machine embroidered turkey last fall.....  stitched out two of them and reversed one so I could hook them together back to back with a dowel in between the layers and used a vintage spool of thread for a stand.  Another nest I found in the yard is placed in front of the Autumn book by Susan Branch.  If you have never heard of Susan Branch, you need to check out the link under my favorite blogs.  I have loved her books and art work since she wrote her first book maybe 20 years ago.  She hand writes and hand watercolors the pages, which are full of recipes, decorating ideas, quotes and pure wonderfulness.

My Jewel Tea dishes are straight from my Grandma K's cupboard to me.  She gave them to me when I was first married.  They had been her everyday dishes for many years and I remember eating from them as a kid.  I get them out in the fall to display and use for a couple months.

 I stacked the Jewel Tea dishes with a stack of Longaberger leaf plates all ready to serve.

My granddaughter and I went for a short walk the other day and found this "flower" in the ditch.  I don't know what it is, maybe goldenrod???  Anyway we picked a handful of it and put it in this vase.  The color has dulled some, but it looks like it will dry beautifully.  The vase is very old.....from Great Grandma W.....used one of my fall quilts as a table covering and a cross stitch sampler from 1980.  That is probably considered vintage..... isn't that special!!!

I really like using various/ interesting containers and doing arrangements in them.  This wooden barrel has been all over the house.  I put it some where different every year.  I used another fall leaf quilt on the table with a couple vintage books.

Autumn is Here

I finally have gotten most of my autumn decoration out and my patriotic things put away.  My grand-daughter, Kate Anne was a great help with that the other day.  She liked putting all my vintage candle figures out on my dining room table and hanging ornaments on the tree.  Then we put the "little people" autumn play sets under the tree.  She had to stop and play with them after we got them out.  :)  I gave away all my Halloween decorations to my girls a couple years ago.  I decided I didn't want to take the time to change my decorations from October to November.  So I just kept my general "fall" things and let my girls and grand-kids enjoy the Halloween things.

The squirrel is from my Grandma Kullmer.  There is a pair of them and she had them out every fall.  The wax turkey was either from one of my grandmothers or my mother-in-law.  They all seemed to collect these wax candles for various holidays.  I went to a friend's garage sale yesterday and she had several of these for $20-40 each.  I have a whole table full of these things.  :)  The ceramic turkey was made by my Grandma Thedens.  The brown toile tablecloth & table runner I made several years ago.

Looking down the table.....it seats 14.  BTW, that is just enough room for the grand-kids minus one.  At family celebrations we feed the kids first, clear the table, then the adults eat while the kids play or watch a movie.

These turkey trays were found in my Grandma Kullmer's house.  I had never seen them before and I loved them immediately.  There are 8 of them and I lay them out on the table to enjoy.  I am sure either she or her mother used them when they had their lady's circles and club meetings.

My friend, Mary had her annual garage sale yesterday.  It is not like any garage sale I have ever been to before.  It is pretty much like going to an antique store.  EVERYTHING she has I love.  The trouble is I have so much of my own....I need NOTHING.  But I did come home with a hand full of vintage postcards.  I bought all the thanksgiving postcards she had.  I have a vintage postcard display book and I try and fill the two page spreads with postcards from similar themes and then display it open in a stand.  You can see I NEED a couple more to fill this page.  :)  Thanks, Mary for letting me paw through your stuff....you truly are a kindred spirit.