Welcome, Autumn!!

Happy Fall!!! That little taste of autumn has been in the air off and on these last few weeks but today I saw a real sign of it when leaves went dancing across my backyard in the wind. I was on the phone with a quilting friend, when I suddenly interrupted her to say "oh, my, the leaves are dancing across my backyard and it's so cool!" Guess it doesn't take much to get me excited, huh?!! :-) The Welcome wallhanging you see above was made in 1998. I gathered leaves from the yard and traced their shapes, then cut them from felt. I used craft felt because I hadn't yet discovered woolfelt from National Nonwovens. Interestingly, the leaves that year were almost a colorful as what you see in this piece. Some years they are bright and others they are more muted. I like that because every year is different so it's always a surprise to see the color changes in the trees and foliage.

I'm pretty sure that I've already mentioned that fall is my favorite time of the year and so the "autumnal equinox" is like a holiday to me. It's time to get organized and get out the fall decorations. So, first the organizing part...........there are pictures to post from our "Sew and Share" project but I am so behind in laundry and house stuff that I am putting that off for just a couple of days. Back to organizing...........There is a stack of mail, papers, magazines, etc. that was a foot high (well, maybe not quite that high) that needed my attention. First, I sorted out the "purely" junk, then I sorted out all the magazines (I get way too many but I've subscribed to some for so long that I just can't break the habit!) and ripped out all those annoying postcards that are in all of them (the only thing I dislike more are the perfume sample pages - phew!). Next were photos. Yesterday, I went to Walgreen's and printed off all the photos from my mom's birthday, plus quilt photos, etc. so that I could send her a fun little package. I've been telling her I was going to do this for two weeks. Finally, I got them printed and then took them to the post office to mail.

By this time it was noon so I stopped at Toody's to get a "sloppy joe to go". Chatted a bit and then I was back home for some more sorting. Put all the grocery coupons in one pile, mailed off a couple of cards and then my retreat deposit for our October retreat (more on that later). The pile is now only 6 inches high. Every morning this week, I will sort some more and get it down to 1 inch! Too bad I can't take inches off me so easily!! :-)

I also spent much of yesterday doing some "organizing" of sorts. I had to go grocery shopping but before I made my way to my local Cub store, I stopped to see my daughter and grandson. They were having a relaxing afternoon and Jacob had the living room floor covered with all of his cars, trucks and buildings. I remember when my son used to do the same thing. It would keep him entertained for hours!! While he played, Collette got out the items she bought to use at our upcoming October retreat. The theme is "Friends Forever" and is held at Villa Maria in Frontenac, MN south of Redwing. It's a beautiful place in a lovely setting in the woods. We are excited about our plans and I will share more with you in the coming weeks.

The picture on the right is one of those "good deals" that my friends usually find and this time, I was the lucky one! While doing my grocery shopping, I noticed that all the school supply stuff was on clearance. In with all that stuff were these towel sets. Notice that the tag says "Dorm Life". I thought this was funny as the towels are prettier than anything I remember taking to school or sending with my kids when they went off to school. Plus they are prettier than what is currently in my pale pink bathroom so at $4.99 a set, I picked up all five that were left. What a deal! They washed up nicely, they're soft and good size and the price of $25 for 12 towel sets was my super-duper deal that I can tell my friends about!!

Back to today's organizing.............As you may have noticed, I didn't post yesterday. Too tired and the brain needed a rest, but I did play with the templates and colors on my blog. When I first started bloggin, I didn't know what I was doing. I learned how to set it up by clicking, following prompts and then when I wanted to do something but didn't know how, I started clicking on some things just to see what would happen. Luckily, I never really deleted or changed anything that I didn't want to change. I have really enjoyed blogging but I was never quite satisfied with the look of my blog. One of my favorite blogs is FredasHive. Many of you are familiar with it, I am sure. It is bright, cheery, happy, and scrappy and it makes me smile. There are lots of other blogs I like, too. I am fond of visiting HenandChicks cause I love chickens and I love the stories and pictures that Heidi shares. Then I found Jacquelynn's blog, TheNobleWife and I really like it, too. I love her artwork and that wooly little sheep is so sweet. So, when I started "tweeking" my blog, I first tried a dark background. It was much toooooooo dark. Then I went back to my "medium blue" background but it just wasn't right. Then I clicked on a template that had a golden color to it and it was almost what I wanted. I thought you had to stay with that color and then I realized, oh, my you can change the background color. And that's when I found the light yellow you see here. It's what Nanette's background is so I hope she doesn't mind that I am using the same color. As soon as I saw the change, I knew it was just what I wanted and I realized why I like the aforementioned blogs. Lightbulb came on here - they all use yellow in their background! I love yellow, especially soft, pale yellow. That's the color I used on the walls here in my sewing room. It's called "Moonmist" and I chose it because it reminded me of moonlit nights when I was a young girl, the yellow flannel sheets we had on our black wrought iron twin beds and the way the street light up the hill shone down onto my bed at night. Yellow makes me feel peaceful. And it goes so well with all the old and new quilts I like to have surrounding me! :-) When someone asks me what my favorite color is, I usually reply pink or blue because I really do like both. But when it comes right down to it, I think yellow has been my faithful standby and deserves it's just reward now!

A couple of years ago, when my mother and dad were in the hospital at the same time, I bought this little lady bear at the hospital gift shop. She is wearing just that yellow I love. She's the only one of my bears that gets to stay in the dining room. Her little chair was a gift from a friend who moved to San Francisco. She knew I liked bears and said the chair just looked like something that should go to me. Isn't it nice when friends know just what you like?

With my papers organized and my blog colors chosen, my brain had been challenged enough so I took a break. One of the advantages of organizing a sewing or volunteer event is that when people bring treats, sometimes they leave you the left-overs. That's the case here. See that piece of pie? It is some kind of apple-caramel-walnut concoction that Gretchen brought to "Sew and Share" and I got to bring home the left-overs. Yummmy! I am thinking she probably got it at Jim's Apple Farm up in Jordan. Am I right, Gretchen?

I fixed myself a cup of my favorite coffee mix - Hazlenut Belgian Cafe - and sat down to read while I savored that pie. Notice there are no quilting magazines there. I was intent on looking at ideas for decorating because that's another area that I am seriously behind on since moving here to our new house. We are finally hosting a little backyard party this weekend for our neighbors to let them know how much we enjoy them and living here in Henderson. More party details as the week moves along. :-)

Kaiser needed a walk so out we went. I took the camera along and here's what we saw as we walked into the backyard.
Just last week, it looked like this................

And the week before that, there was only a hint of color change in the trees.

We took a walk around the circle and headed to a place where I could see red leaves climbing up the trees. Doesn't it look cool with those bits of red climbing the branches?

I had an interesting time taking the photo above because a stray dog came out of the woods and wanted to get friendly with Kaiser. Trying to contain my beagle and keep him away from the big white dog was more than interesting. I snapped the picture and hoped for the best!


Just before we took our walk, I had set up a little arrangement out by my front door. I figure every day this week, I'll do a little cleaning, a little cooking and a little decorating so that by the time our party starts, the place should look nice and festive. The flowers were actually another good bargain from my grocery shopping trip - just $2.00 each at Wal-Mart!
I tossed a throw over an old Sunday School chair and added a scarecrow that my former sister-in-law made me, a crow and a jack-o-lantern and it all says what I started this post with..............Happy Fall!!! Enjoy the sights, the sounds, the wonderful time that is autumn!!

Sandi