Fall is in the air - and in the house

Just a few photos in the living room - the entry table, some fall candles, my DH reading, the quilt that I am currently quilting, a half-knitted wrap, and freshly cut strippons (I ran out last night and had to hurriedly cut some more (they look like noodles! LOL! )
Lots of creation going on - painting, scrapping, quilting, knitting, and baking
Hope your day is filled with good things!

The 2 P's - Prima and Pumpkins

I created this layout based on the Prima September BAP sketch so of course, it is totally Prima. I was going to tackle this one before month's end but this weekend has been the Scrapgal Crop and one of the challenges was to do a "case study" of another layout and lift it - I chose Jamie's wonderful example for the Prima Sept BAP (Jamie Dougherty - she used to be on the Scrapgal DT and now is on the Prima DT  - she is an incredibly talented designer). Come over to Scrapgal and join in the fun - you have until Monday night at midnight to enter the challenges and we have some super prizes and lots of great inspiration!

With all of the autumn and Halloween projects going on in my studio, is it any wonder that I painted some pumpkins and squashes. Speaking of, my DH read on one of his news sites that the pumpkin crop this year will be much smaller than normal due to weather issues, and that fresh pumpkins and canned pumpkin will be much more expensive. He is usually spot on with his economic information (just like the fact that coffee would increase and it definitely has) so I put canned pumpkin on my grocery list this week - our store didn't have any. Then yesterday when I was running errands, I stopped at a different chain and was able to get  3 cans - they only had 4 so I left one for someone else.

The budget is going pretty well except for the car repairs on both cars last week. Groceries were $61 this week. Yesterday I stopped at Goodwill (I am looking for a food processor -Dan read an article in the New York Times about food processors and some of the things you can do with them so I decided to look for a used one - (I have a small one that I use for chopping etc) - none yesterday but I did happen to find a wonderful wood table top easel (complete with brushes, palette, and acrylic paints) for $15 (they go for $50 or more) and a brand new topsy turvey tomato planter for $5. We are just ready to start our fall vegetable garden so this was perfect.
This past week has been super busy - I was able to get all the blocks pieced for the Fat Quarterly quilt along, knitted on my Ravelry triangle shawl knit along,  took my painting to the Art Museum to be in an exhibit, added yoga to my exercise routine, painted 3 small paintings and about 1/3 of a larger piece, read The Rebellion of Jane Clarke by Sally Gunning (very very good!), and also did most of the usual stuff. I feel exhausted just reading the last sentence!! I get somewhat lethargic in the heat of the summer and as it begins to cool (a bit!), my energy comes back gang busters - also, it is amazing how much you can accomplish when you don't go shopping except for necessities - I was just thinking yesterday how long it had been since I had been inside Target, Michaels, or even most of my thrift shop haunts. Using up what I already have is really empowering me to be more creative.

Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.

Tuesday will be Mabon, the autumnal equinox.

We plan to celebrate with a good dinner and carrot cupcakes,

and give a prayer of thanks for our blessed lives.

Thanks for reading

ttfn

Chris

Some Fall Haul Layouts

Since one of the members(Jamie/Jaylynn) of These are a few of my favorite things blog is a member at Scrapgals, I joined in the fun there this weekend for their Fall Haul crop. I really enjoy these types of crops as I tend to do totally different things and to use photos that I have printed but just haven't scrapped - and that's what happened last night and today. The above layout was one of those challenges where they give you a list of things to use - only cardstock, something red, brads, chipboard, and a title any length. I painted the pear in watercolor. BTW, this dark chocolate with pear is very good - subtle and different.

this is a card I made in like 15 minutes from a Pagemap link that was on the challenge. I printed out the pagemap card pdf as I am terrrible about making cards and this sketch sheet made it so easy!

On this layout you had to use a piece of notebook paper (I will post it to the Lotuspaperie flickr challenge also). On the paper is written -

Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done......?

--Matthew Arnold

that is actually 2 photos taken from the same spot on my driveway, just one higher than the other. I love these K&co butterflies and really like to layer them.

this challenge was to use 5 school supplies - I used a staple, a bullclip, a paperclip, a flashcard, and a pencil (double eraser ended!!!). I love this photo of Brian taken last summer but just hadn't gotten around to using it.

This layout was for a challenge to use an older Halloween photo - this one is from October 2007 and was actually taken at Disneyworld. This is my very last piece of this fabulous Love Elsie paper so it had to be a special photo! I won the Smile word and the little epoxy smileys from Kimbo on SIS at NSD.

I have been a busy bee today - working, shopping, and scrapping. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

Some autumn decorating

Yesterday as I was cleaning my house, I decided to put away the summer accents and get out some of the autumn ones (no jack-o-lanterns just yet). Over the past 6 years (that's how long we have lived in this house), I have been collecting items from thrift stores or after season sales, and then I use them to decorate the house. Dan was watching sports on tv yesterday afternoon as I was putting things out and he laughed and said that this was my way of "moving furniture" without actually moving furniture (I love the move furniture around and he hates it).

I created this candle arrangement for my coffeetable. Even the apples and pears are candles.

A view of our dining room (this table is my pride and joy - I ordered it and 6 chairs from Pottery Barn after the hurricanes in 2004. Our dining room ceiling fell in and all the wet insulation ruined the old table and chairs that we had so it actually worked out to be quite cost effective just to get a new set as to recover the chairs and refinish the table would cost so much.) As you can see, I have bookcases in the dining room - actually I have bookcases in every room in the house except for the bathrooms. When we redid the kitchen after the hurricanes and got all new cabinetry, I ordered a bookshelf for the end of the cabinets - I keep some of my cookbooks there.

I need to get busy and finish some projects - sort of going through a lethargic period right now. There are several challenges I hope to complete and a painting I need to finish, and I do have a tutorial that went up on the Year of Color blog yesterday. Also be sure to get your favorite food layout in to the Favorite things blog and check it on Tuesday to see which layout won and what the new challenge is!!!!!!!

Hope you have a great Sunday and coming week!