HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Halloween pics of the past of the three grandkids. They were so cute when they were little. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy it so much more now that I'm not a teacher anymore - I absolutely hated Halloween because of parties at school. "Out-of-control" kids were a headache and nothing made them more that way than a party! So, now I enjoy the decorating, the costumes, the seasonal activities, and my sane mind!! Have a Happy Halloween!

Celebrating the Season

This past week has been one for celebrating the season. We had a birthday celebration in conjunction with pumpkin carving. Not too sure how much carving was done by "little" kids but the "big" kids did some nice carving. I guess the little ones did pick-out their patterns and they got the YUCK job of cleaning the seeds out of their pumpkins.

DH had his 59th birthday - you know what comes next! Time has a way of "fleeing", doesn't it?

Earlier in the week I had my church circle out for our annual October wiener roast. It had rained earlier in the day but cleared off just for the evening and rained later on in the night so we had a perfect evening for it. 18 women came and we culminated our evening with sparklers and "Kum Ba Yah" around the campfire. A fun time for everyone!

Trash to Treasure

Thanks to Margo at http://www.robomargo.com/trash.html I have been looking for a junker table that would have just the components I needed to make a message board/key holder/etc. holder. I found a table the other day at a garage sale for $3 and I bought it. My DH kindly made my "treasure" and here it is:

Master Gardener Conference and Shopping

My friend, Joan and I headed for Manhattan, KS; on Thursday to attend the Annual Master Gardener Conference. Sedgwick County (that would be our county) had about 25-30 there. The pic below shows most of the Sedgwick County delegation at the keynote speaker's presentation. I learned more than I'll probably ever use but I found the weekend to be fun and informative. Kansas has about 1,000 Master Gardeners. The people wearing burgundy shirts and chambray shirts are from Sedgwick County. That's our "uniform".

We didn't just attend the conference without shopping a little. I decided I needed to do some tassels that I've admired on so many of your blogs. Stopping by Joann's there in Manhattan for some bargain ribbon (a bag for $1) and with trim purchase to add to my stash at home I was able to have enough to do this tassel. I bought the topper at Dollar Tree. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first "fancy" one. I think I will "remodel" some I did a few years ago from salt and pepper shakers - they look a little plain now.

A Great Series

Ladies With Books met last night to discuss Adriana Trigiani's book Home to Big Stone Gap. It's the 4th in the Big Stone Gap series. I read it only to discover that there were two books in- between the first and fourth. I headed to the library and read the other two: Big Cherry Holler and Milk Glass Moon. I loved this series! This was Ruby's choice so she led the discussion and provided the refreshments - all in honor of the wedding of the characters, Otto and Fleeta. We had carrot cake, orange sherbet punch, and Chex mix. Trigiani's characters are simple and become your friends as you become immersed in their lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. You also experience Italy through the life-experience of Ave Maria, the central character. Italy is dear to my heart as I experienced it on vacation a couple of years ago. The author does a great job in describing the small towns and landscape of Italy. I recommend this series.

The blog will be quiet for the next few days as I head for K-State in Manhattan, Ks. for the annual Master Gardener Conference. Looking forward to learning more and enjoying MG friends for a couple of days.

Christmas is Coming!

Every year in October the Ladies get together to plan our annual Christmas Progressive Dinner. This is our 26th year of doing that. Our theme choice is "A Southern Christmas With Paula Deen". Our menu is planned from Paula Deen's recipes. Our gift exchange will be Paula Deen cookies (made from her recipes). The men should like that exchange! Our group has changed a little over the 25 years with people moving and other life happenings but it's basically the same group. It started from a Sunday School Class way back in the 80's. We always have a theme that guides our decorating, food, and presentation. Our themes have varied: French Christmas, Oriental Christmas, Rock 'n Roll Christmas, Starry-Starry Night Christmas, a Child's Christmas, and so forth. We always have fun. There have been temptations to just go to a restaurant and eat but we all enjoy the planning, the preparation, and we've never had a bad time on the actual date. We are all very close friends and events like this keep us close. We should go out of our way and make events special for each other and this event is that. You have to invest yourself in relationships/friendships. You get out of them what you put into them. I'll be posting pics of the event - meanwhile we peruse Paula Deen publications! Merry Christmas, Paula!

Amy's Garden Wedding

Amy and Randy were married yesterday in a beautiful garden setting with wonderful October weather. Amy is my very good friend Gail's daughter. Amy thought of everything for her wedding. Her colors were red and black and everything coordinated beautifully. She had a string quartet provide the music in the garden. There were cookies she had decorated and water provided for each attendee as they entered the garden.

Amy's dress had a beautiful red beaded train and the little flower girl's dress was an exact match. This picture shows Randy and Amy with her mom and dad, Don and Gail.

The tables at the reception/dance were gorgeous. The flower arranging was done by Gail - she's a very talented floral arranger.

Here is the wedding cake which was delicious as well as beautiful.

Have you ever seen a groom's cake like this? It looks real!

This was the program for the wedding. Collapse it and it stacks very neatly. Expand it and you have a perfect fan, in case it gets hot! "Brilliant", I say. Gail maintains everyone needs to frame them and keep them forever for the time they took to make!

These were the gifts on the table for the attendees. The little white card had the recipe for the sugar cookies at the wedding as well as the heart cookie cutter - is that cute? The little boxes for each one of us at the wedding had.........

cinnamon candies in them! Amy, you had an absolutely unforgettable wedding! Congratulations to you and Randy!

Show and Tell Friday

My paternal grandmother was quite a saver of things. I have in my possession an autograph book that belonged to her mother and I took names, dates, etc. from that book to make the sampler above. I tried to make it look older by staining it, etc. The picture above is of my grandmother's high school graduating class. She is the last girl on the top row. I treasure this picture. Don't you wonder about the things you hold on to and whether those things will be special to someone on down the road. I'm quite a saver so the choices will be many

At http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ you'll find a list of participants in Show and Tell Friday. You'll see lots of different items and stories shared by others. Join in.