Happy Halloween!

Visions of Halloween I like from Pinterest...

I like this smiling Jack o' Lantern.

You must have Candy Corn at Halloween!

How about making your own Candy Corn?

These are cute Pumpkin treats...believe it or not I've never made rice krispies treats but I love them!

So don't forget to...

Because Mickey says...Yikes!

Here's some old fashioned Halloween to enjoy!

"Incredibles" Jack o' Lanterns....hee, hee!

And don't forget to Trick or Treat!

Because it's Halloween !

And when it's all done you can relax!

Happy Halloween to all my friends!

So Long Sandy...the Hurricane That Is...

We weathered through Hurricane Sandy and luckily had no power outage here at Teacup Lane.

 

 Lots of wind gusts and rain though.

Glad the worst is over and sending prayers to those not as lucky as we were.

Not sure when this photo was taken but I hope all the animals are safe from Hurricane Sandy.

Some humor from Face Book....

We did prepare but that doesn't mean I stopped pinning!

Nothing to do with a hurricane but is so funny!

How many of us felt the last few days!

Now I'm hoping and praying the kids will be able to enjoy Halloween tomorrow!

The Two Sandy's

It's ugly here...wind gusts and rain...lots of rain. 

 The worst is forecasted for midnight when Hurricane Sandy is centered more over us.

I'm baking my Sugar Cookies as I type this. 

 Hope to finish before any power outages. 

 (Done before 2pm - 163 sugar cookies baked!)

We filled our bathtub up with water you know just in case the worst happens.

The state of Delaware has closed all roads down, all the malls and schools are closed there and here in PA.  

Delaware is just down the road from us less than 3 miles. 

 The flooding will be bad I'm sure. 

 Luckily our house sits on high ground so we don't have the worry about flooding as many do here.

Our sump pump has turned on twice this morning for a few seconds.  

It hardly ever turns on.   

We bought our travel van up from storage because our storage site is right along the creek that can and has flooded. 

 Plus if we do lose power our van has a generator and we can always cook and sleep out there.

 

Please take care of yourselves if you are affected by this hurricane too.

My prayers go out to all of you!   

Baking...up a Storm

I've been busy here at Teacup Lane baking up a storm.

First, I whipped up a batch of Pap's Pizza Bread, a delicious snack and/or meal from my father-in-law. 

 I never forgot the first time my future in-laws served this to my Mom, sister-in-law and me at their house before our wedding. 

 I thought then this snack was from heaven and it still is over 38 years later.

Yesterday I made a double batch of Toll House chocolate chip cookies. 

 They are in the freezer now waiting until Christmas to divy up into cookie tins for the family.

I like the website Allrecipes.com - particularly the feature that lets you enter your serving portion and adjusts the ingredients as needed.

But the real treat of Christmas is sugar cookies made from my mother-in-law's vintage family recipe. This recipe makes a huge amount of cookies (and can be halved too).

As I age I find I have to spread mixing, baking and frosting the sugar cookies over three days. 

 So today I mixed up the dough. 

 Tomorrow is baking day and Tuesday is frosting day. 

 Probably the hardest step for me is frosting. 

 For some reason even with sitting as we frost and with Hubby helping me that is the most time consuming and fatiguing. 

 But it's all worth it in the end.

You can read all about my sugar cookies (here and here).

I'm trying to get as much Christmas stuff out of the way before our trip to Walt Disney World in November so I can just relax and not think about Christmas things to be done when we return home.  

Speaking of storms... the weather channel is all excited about Hurricane "Sandy" and is giving us here on the east coast 24/7 coverage of what to expect and how to prepare for the high winds and tons of rain coming to our area. 

 I don't remember ever having a hurricane named after me. 

 Hubby's been teasing me about it.

It's VERY dark here - completely overcast with rain and our beautiful Mountain Green maple is losing all its colorful leaves.

Well, it's time to get off the computer and relax...maybe watch a good movie.  

Hubby said he would get "take-out" for supper tonight.  

Yippee!

Jack o'Lanterns

Don't ya just love Pinterest? 

 Here's another cute, cheap and easy Halloween craft project I found there.

                                                                     Source: familyfun.go.com via Jen on Pinterest

All I had to do was save two milk jugs and one OJ bottle in order to try out this DIY.

All materials needed were on hand so it didn't cost me a cent to make these.

Gather together scissors, paper, pencil, black felt tip pen, two empty and washed milk jugs and OJ bottle and three small battery candles.

Hubby used a craft knife and cut out the small holes in the back of the jugs to insert the battery candles.

I drew a Jack o'Lantern face for a pattern and cut out the holes. 

You can also free draw the faces directly onto the jugs.

 Then I taped the pattern to the jug and filled in the holes with a black felt tip pen.

Easy as pie and in just a few minutes I had three cute and FREE Halloween decorations.

You could easily use a string of lights inside the items instead of using battery candles.

Hubby suggested - if I planned to place them outside - to put small white stones inside the jugs to weigh them down so the wind doesn't blow them away.

I love these battery candles - they change colors from red, green, blue and yellow.

Hope I inspired you to try this easy and breezy project!

Please join me for:

Cindy's Show & Tell Friday 

Half Empty or Half Full?

What's your view of life?

Do you look at a partial glass of wine as half empty or half full?

I see a half full glass...

Any half way point is a milestone and should be celebrated.

Crocheting, like traveling, is about the journey, not just the destination. 

 Hubby always asks me where I would like to go for our next trip and I always say "Anywhere... I don't care as long as I am with you!"

. 

I view crocheting the same way.

Each little stitch, each color selection is to be enjoyed.

 Sometimes I'm amazed that my hands can fashion these works of art at all.

I'm so glad you are coming along with me on this journey!

Laugh of the day:

Autumn Colors

Autumn is truly the most beautiful season here at Teacup Lane.

Up Close

This is our Mountain Green Maple - probably the maple with the most stunning fall colors in our neighborhood. 

Reds and Golds

 Deep rich reds and oranges that make my heart sing with glory.

Blue sky and red leaves

The reds change from the top to the bottom.

More Reds

Our landscaper finished his work in our back yard. 

 We had the grass removed from between the sidewalk and garage and had crushed red stone put down instead. 

Our outdoor water faucet is located in the corner here and we store our hose in this area during the summer months.   I plant to get a bench for this area and some flower pots.  

Then we had the bed around our Serviceberry tree edged in stone and mulched. 

 The last improvement was edging the walkway around the deck with stones and adding the same crusted stones around stepping stones. 

No mulch to speak of and weeds and grass growing next to the deck.

It is so clean and neat now. 

 Our goal was to eliminate the need to weed or trim any shrubs or grass close to the house or deck.

After

A view from the other side.

After

The landscaper added another stepping stone for me.  

I have short legs and now it just right for walking on.

After

We are very pleased with the results.

Next year we'll edge and mulch the trees and shrubs on our back property line and hopefully bury the four downspouts.  

We plan to slowly do each section in the back stretching the work and cost over several years.