Happy Halloween !

Are you ready for Trick or Treat?

We are here at Teacup Lane.

Candy is ready and Halloween decorations are up.

We put two strings of orange lights on shrubs in front flanking the door along with Mr. Pumpkin Head and Ms. Skeleton. 

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Last Campout & Fall Colors

We spent a few days camping with family in western Pennsylvania last week.   

We picked a campground close to cousins and had a lovely time visiting with them. 

We were the only campers there except for maybe two seasonal campers.

The campground's bathroom was rated a 6.5 out of 10.  

I wouldn't have given it a 2.  

There was no heat in the building and it was chilly out and raining.  

And would you believe there was a timer that controlled the lights in the showers (they allowed a generous  ~ ha! ~ 15 minutes).  

I passed on their showers.  

My SIL said there was a window opened when she used their shower and she was freezing.  

And her hubby, my BIL, said the main lights were in a motion senser and turned off on him and left him in the dark. 

Needless to say we won't return there. 

Our little shower in our travel van worked just fine and we have heat!  

Oh, did I mention only the first day was rain free.  

We came home in the rain too. 

More packing of knickknacks....there seems to be no end of them.  

Most of these are vases collected over years. 

After the rain at the beginning of last week we have had mostly beautiful weather.

  

Our Green Mountain Maple is changing colors. 

Dropping leaves too!

Hubby said even the leaves on the ground are pretty.

We will hate to leave this gorgeous maple tree when we move. 

I wish we could keep this weather through winter.

I worked hard last weekend...packing more stuff.  

For our last move from Illinois to Pennsylvania we were working and didn't have any time to do any packing or sorting through our stuff.  

Now that we are retired we have time to sort through our stuff.

It feels good to go through everything, cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering.  

This week we had an appointment with a moving company's representative to get an estimate for our move from Pennsylvania to Ohio.  

We have to pay for this move since it isn't work related like our last two moves.

The appointment was an eye opener. 

We may do more packing then we originally planned to help keep the cost down.

They charge to pack each box plus a charge per pound.  

  

Speaking of crocheting.

I have the most adorable project to share with you on my next posting. 

So please come back to visit.

Hello Fall and More

I love my little chalkboard sign!  

Today I updated it for Autumn.  

Lately, rather than using the chalkboard ink pencils, I've been using regular chalk. 

Click (here) to read about making my cheap and easy chalkboard sign. 

After we move to our new home in Ohio I'm going to make some more of them.  

I just read someone's blog where they said chalkboards are "out" now.  

Although the blogger didn't agree (and I don't agree either) because she (and I) loved her (my) chalkboards too.

I'm not able to post as much lately because I've been so busy de-cluttering, cleaning, organizing and packing for our move (still several months away).  

We have rented two storage units... one in PA and another in OH.

And they are filling up.

  

I'm packing my collections and knickknacks for our next trip to our OH storage.

Yesterday I tackled our bathrooms.  

My goodness I couldn't believe all the stuff I had "stuffed" into those rooms.  

I was going to take some before photos of all of it laid out on my beds to sort through but I was too embrassed.  

Today I'm going to go through all my jewelry.  

That is…I'm going to start to sort through it all.

I got as far as gathering it all together and laying it out on our guest bed. 

Not that I wear a lot of jewelry but I have inherited my Mom's and some of my Mother-in-law's jewelry.  

Last week I embroidered the cutest Santa Claus postcard at our monthly Embroidery Club.  

It's embroidered/appliqued out of fabric and felt.  

I purchased this design as part of a set, In-The-Hoop Christmas Postcards (here), on-line at Embroidery Library.

 I'm definitely going to make some more. 

I finished crocheting my Christmas Star Coasters.

 (click for link to Sara's free pattern at her My Merry Messy Life blog) 

 I made enough for our neighborhood Bunco Christmas Party in December.

Next I have to block and starch all of them. 

While packing I found these cute Halloween mugs to set out on our fireplace mantel. 

And last week I bought some Halloween/Fall fat quarters in the neatest fabrics.  

My brother's Maple Tree changing colors in Ohio.

October is such a beautiful month! 

Thanks for visiting. 

Late Summer Sunflower Place Mat & Home Stuff

Are you ready for another "Party with Patrick" project?  

This cute placemat was fun to stitch up. 

I liked the colors of the sample so I picked out similar ones.  

I had purchased an Anita Goodesign Quilting Box Set and found the cutest sunflower design to use with this placemat. 

 Using my TruEmbroidery software I duplicated four of the sunflower quilt designs into my largest hoop to machine quilt down the yellow and green fabric strips. 

It didn't turn out too badly.

I also stitched a set of four sunflowers down the green fabric strips in green thread although it doesn't show up as much as the yellow stitching.

The binding is filled with small yellow sunflowers on a blue background.

And there she is…my "Late Summer Sunflower" placemat.

My sewing machine will be one of the last things packed!

I started to pack some of my collections for our move to Ohio.

Two thimble collections are done and just one more to do.

I have some small knick knacks I will also pack rather than have the movers do it.

We just returned from another trip to Ohio - this time to have the electric rough in walk through the lower level.

We will have excellent lighting in our hobby area.

Our electrician is great to work with and he has a good crew working for him.

Did you notice the cupola is up on the garage roof?

The ten foot garage doors are in and they will be painted a mahogany brown color to match the front door.

Next week the insulation is scheduled to start and the following week is the start of the drywall.

More will be coming on the new home.

We have selected the light fixtures and flooring but haven't signed off on either yet.

So many decisions.

I can't decide which type of counter tops to go with in the new kitchen….I love the look of Carrara marble but want to have something that is more durable than marble.  Maybe we can find something similar in either quartz, Corian or granite. 

When we were in Italy we drove by the mountains where Carrara marble was quarried.

It looked like snow!

It was beautiful.   

OK…now to get back to packing here at our current home.

Have a lovely Sunday!