Monday was the epitome of a beautiful October day. It was sunny and clear, with enough of a crisp nip in the air to keep you mindful that cold is coming! Sweater weather! This truly kicks off my favorite time of the year -- from now until the end of December!
Todd & I headed to town early, had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and then headed to the Madison Baptist Association to have our picture taken for the directory. We also ran some other errands -- bank, Tractor Supply for bird seed, and Hunter Road for slippers -- before heading back to the camp. The weather was perfect and traffic was light because all the schools are out for fall break.
To that end, my daughter (the teacher) and I celebrated by meeting up at
Emma's Tea Room for lunch. And my sweet girl brought me a pretty ceramic pumpkin! It totally went with my outfit, so the proprietor, Rebekah, insisted that I hold it in the picture.
My beautiful daughter is twenty-one weeks pregnant and just found out last week that she's going to have a BOY!! She's very excited, as is this grandma! Another grandson for me! I'm *so* very blessed!!!
After lunch, we made a trip to Hobby Lobby. I love that place! I could have spent a LOT of money there, but RV living makes that rather pointless, so I restrained myself to this darling little thing . . .
It rather perfectly goes with our whole "living in a campground' way of life!
From there, we headed over to Earth Fare. We had planned to go one Saturday in May, but the day before we were supposed to go, I had the wreck. It's a nice store -- fairly similar to our favorite Whole Foods Market, in Nashville! I can see it getting more traffic from the two of us! She did mention that it would make sense for us to coordinate our menus, so that we could shop & split. Since we're both cooking for two, it makes sense!
While I was there, I purchased an apple and a pear. When I finally got home, I made a yummy apple & pear tart for Todd & I. It seemed like the perfect fall dessert.
After dinner that evening I got out my trusty hot glue gun and finally started on the candy corn wreath for my Secret Pal. My sister gave me that hot glue gun AGES ago for my birthday, and it's the best one I've ever worked with. It's cordless, so I can remove it from the base and not be hampered by a pesky cord. It's been a while since I'd used it -- I forget how much fun they are!
I used a round, straw wreath form, instead of the styrofoam form (which has squared edges). I have to admit it made the placement of the corn a little more difficult, but I like the look better.
I'll hang it outside on Friday, once the candy corn has had time to get good & stale, and I'll spray the whole thing with a preserving spray. Once that's dry, I'll but the black ribbon on it and it'll be ready for delivery.
While I was playing with Jocelyn, Todd gathered up some acorns for me. I figured while I already had the glue gun out, I'd use those and some tiny pine cones I'd collected from Hunter Road to make something fallish.
Isn't it nice the way nature supplies such great crafting materials??
These little pine cones are really darling. And they look like flowers, when you look down on them!
Just playing around with things I had, I fashioned a cute napkin ring holder. Cute, huh? Worth making a second, I think. It was super easy -- it's just ribbon wrapped around a section of sleeve cut from a paper towel cardboard. I hot glued the ribbon in place, and added the decorations I wanted. Super simple, but pretty cute.
Finally, I was going through my fall pdf files, and stumbled across this little guy that I'd found in Martha Stewart's
Living magazine. I haven't finished cutting him out, but you get the gist. It's a favor holder -- you fill the log with chocolates or nuts or candy. Since I'm using them more for decor than for favors, I'll fill 'em with pea gravel. I just thought they were really cute!
Happy Fall, ya'll!
:)
