Fall is in the air

I celebrated my birthday last week with a trip to the fair, a steak dinner, and a movie.  (RED with Bruce Willis...fabulous!)  My mother-in-law and I share the same birthday so we spent 3 hours with her down East and had a "large time" as little old people say in those parts.  My husband bought me a Maxine birthday card that speaks, which drove the doggies insane, a cake with my favorite butter cream icing, and a helium balloon that says "Over the Hill".  That boy should be careful; all I'm saying.

We stopped by Mom's on the way to visit Frances and picked up two pumpkins for my front porch.  And there's the difference between city life and country life in a nutshell.  Her neighbor has fields of pumpkins and told her to take all she wants.  Here in town you pay for even the tiniest one.  I'm pleased to say I have 2 very nice specimens.  Now I have to decide if I want to paint them, carve them, or decorate them at all.

I love Halloween.  I've got my witch and black cat out on the porch already.  The witches shoes and the skeleton go up next. 

I've got 2 strings of those little jack-o-lantern string lights and ghosts to hang from the lanterns on either side of the garage door.  I've had bags of that spider webbing stuff that you stretch and pull and use in trees that I've been saving for years til I actually had trees large enough to use it well.  Wonder if this will be the year?

This weekend I potted pansies in the window boxes mounted on the back deck and also in a couple of pots.  I've placed one out front with the pumpkins but I might need a little something more.  My mums have grown so large in the rock garden along the side of the house that we've had to prop them up with a wrought iron door mat.  Unfortunately no one sees them but us and the next door neighbor. 

The bowl in the foyer is filled with Halloween candy...again.  And I dare say more shopping is in the cards since trick-or-treating is still 2 weeks away. 

My stamp club meets in the studio on Thursday night and we're swapping Twinchies, plus decorating composition book fronts with them before moving on to working inside the books.  It's going to be a fun project and I'm excited to see how everyone incorporates all the goodies I've been putting together for them.  Check back Friday for photos of the fun and the end results.  I'm betting we'll knock your socks (or boots) off!