Acorns and Crepe Paper!

Those felted acorns Virginia and I have been felting.... well Virginia has the best acorn source! Her acorn caps are HUGE! I have tons of acorns at my house but as you can see in the above shot, her acorns are 4 times as big as mine! So it dawned on me that I should get some of her big acorns for my squirrels! Today I put the big ones out with a pile of little ones and waited. To my dismay, I was not present at the eating of one of the large acorns... so disappointed... but one is gone.... I am on High Alert tho! I will keep you posted on the ecstasy it produces in my squirrels! Just think.... they have NEVER seen acorns that size. And Virginia lives about 3 minutes from me. So as not to disappoint YOU... here is a craft we did today (Virginia and I)... not me and the squirrels.

It takes some practice... but they make nice favors for Thanksgiving!

You need crepe paper (sheets) cut into circles.

Gather the tops

after filling with candy or such...

then wrap floral ribbon around the gathered top

Make some spiral stems out of the floral tape by twisting it...

Some look better than others, huh?

For the professional ones...

Look here at our source.... Martha Stewart Halloween 2000!

It Bears Repeating....

1. Fall Leaves And Acorns, 2. Acorns and Leaves, 3. Acorn, Leaves & Berries necklace. , 4. acorns and laf, 5. acorns and leaves, 6. Leaves and acorns, 7. blue acorns, 8. Vintage Gold Link Bracelet with Leaves, Berries, and Acorns , 9. Oak Acorns, 10. 197/365 The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, 11. acorns, 12. acorn, 13. Autumnal things, 14. leaves and acorns, 15. Acorn and Oak Leaf Charm Necklace, 16. Acorn and Fallen Leaves

What's On Your Mantle?

It's "What's On Your Mantle?" day.... at least here...

I love my new gourds!

It's also the first time I've used my white flowers from Pier One on the mantle.

They have been all over the house... but never there!

I do love them!

Isn't fall the best time for decorating!

See my little felted acorns below....

I love those, too!

And those gourds!

They photograph really well!

...oh but wait...

there's something there that shouldn't be...

Could it be........

Christmas trees?

Surely not!

It's still October!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe it is!

Gasp!

A vicious Halloween trick, I suspect!

...or maybe it's some of those trees that were lightly bleached

a few posts back...

and they are ready to be packaged up in a

Christmas Inspiration Matchbox Swap?

Yes, that's it!

I added music ribbon to empty wooden spools,

cut circles for the tops of the spools,

and glued the trees in the spools (after removing the tree bases).

I also sprinkled glitter over them (of course)!

What's on YOUR mantle?

The QB5 Sampler Revealed!

They arrived!

I was in a stitching round robin with the "so-called" Queen Bee Five (QB5)...

The rotation on mine was...

I mailed to Margaret and she worked on it.

Then it went to Carole.

Then it went to Patty

and then to Nathalie to finish it up.

On Wednesday we had a timetable set for opening!

We all opened at the very same time!!

For Patty that was 2 p.m.

For Nathalie and I it was 1 p.m.

For Margaret it was 8 p.m.

And for dear Carole it was THURSDAY at 7 a.m.

Here are some close-ups....

above was done by Carole!

Don't you love the the little music notes!!! Just stitched!

The bird is fabric cut in the shape and applied...

And she dyed the doilies green to be the leaves in the tree she added!

Below you can see the initials in the tree trunk!

(me and my sweetie)

The bee was added by Patty on the rose...

The words were done by Nathalie.... she does great stitched words...

and a little crown!!

Margaret did the banner! I think she knows I really have a "thing" for banners!

Surely she knew that?

I love it!

I don't know who added the flower?

Who did that?

Below is some net and greenery from a lady's vintage hat!!!

Done by Patty..... of course!

And she did the row of felted hearts!

Love it!

Here is a close-up of part of my fence that I started my piece with... it's pretty primitive.

I stitched on an old napkin that belonged to my mother-in-law....

I sent another one of those napkins out on a different stitching round robin with 10 women....

I'll show you that one soon.... I need to add a tiny bit to it now that this companion piece is home.

Don't you love this new world we live in where we have friends around the world that share our common interests! I was a penpal growing up, but that took weeks or months to hear from people.

I love this time we are living in!

Hallo.....

I bought some of this yesterday to take to a friend's birthday party!

I bought it PURELY for the bottle.

I do that a lot!

But it was pretty good.... I'd buy it again.

You can also pour it in another container and heat it if it's cold where you are.

(not an issue here in Texas)

I've been a bad blogger lately....

so this is a make-up post...

I got nothing really...

Wanna see my peppers?

I have been doing this.....

It's really great and it's FREE!

I can't get the photo button to work right on here.

So just click here -

it's Kim Klassen's Photoshop Skinny-Mini E-Course!

And it has videos... which is how I need to be taught!

But my plan is that TOMORROW I will show you

my stitched sampler from the QB5 Round Robin we did!

It's sooooooooooo great!

So come back!

Do you bleach?

Yes, some of us are preparing for Christmas!

For me that involves, bleach and tea and GlittEr!!!

Today was about bleach.

I learned when I was 16 that bleach makes everything prettier!

I'm just gonna let your mind work that out....

(of course I grew up in the 60's)

Not that any tutorial is necessary here...

but see the green tree on the far left...

they come in a bag and are cheap.

Then you dunk them in a container of bleach.

The one in the middle above was not in any longer than the others,

I guess we all take bleach a little differently.

I just stood at the bathroom sink

and dunked them individually

and a few at a time

into a bathroom plastic cup of

bleach.

Soon I'll show you how I used these!

Earlier in the day, I went to an estate sale with BFF Virginia.

It was the first day of the sale,

so prices were still "up there"...

but we got a few things...

Here are my goodies...

You know, we just have to take the sewing stuff....

we all hope one day someone will take our's.

Yes, I got another bird book!!!

But it was only a dollar and I do have that exact one...

but .... well you know...

Gee, I wonder if I know any people that love Asian art?

Okay..... go bleach something and share it with us!

Grover

You know I love the Old Spice Man commercials.

Seems I'm not the only one!

Ya gotta love Sesame Street!

Blogger crops my video abit... to see it full size, go here!

My Favorite Halloween Decor

I don't do much Halloween decorating anymore.

My kids are grown and married and living away from home.

I have no grandchildren YET.

But I always put this little witch out.

I made her in 1992 according to what I wrote on her backside.

I have made many, many Christmas angels from this pattern.

BFF Virginia and I call it the Tyler Angel

because I bought the pattern in Tyler, Texas.

I love her as a witch most of all.

She has a simple bag body filled at the bottom with kitty litter so she'll stand.

From about the waist up she's stuffed with fiberfill.

She has moss for hair and I improvised a hat out of felt.

Her little jack-o-lantern is an orange bead

that I drew a face on and glued ribbon inside for her to carry it.

She also has a black broom that I bought a BUNCH of one day!

It's a great way to use that fun fabric....

make a dress for a doll!

Do you have a favorite Halloween decoration?

Make Time!

I have not been making time to update my blog!

Where has this week gone?

I did want to show you a sneak peek of something I've finished working on.

Remember the stitching sampler that I'm doing with the QB5 group?

(that is Nathalie, Margaret, Carole, Patty and I)

(not to be confused with the stitching sampler I did with the

Christian Paper Artists Yahoo Group....

(which I have but want to add

Anna's piece to it before I show you.)

So this is just a peek...

mailed it to Margaret on Tuesday.

Yes, I left a needle in the back .... I took it out before mailing tho!

You never know when you might want to add ONE MORE THING!

What have YOU been doing?

Last Warrenton Post of the Year from Me!

Warrenton Links....

in case you need to see more...

I've enjoyed visiting some of my favorite blogs and seeing what pictures they took last week in Warrenton at Texas Antique Week.... thought you might want to see too...

Fiona and Twig

Jodie's Everything Vintage A Silver Bella girl!

Julia's Miz Juney Talks My local Silver Bella Buddy. Beth Leintz' Gathering Dust

Lisa's Tarnished and Tattered

Suzanne's Pink Roses Another Silver Bella friend.

and since it's STILL going on...

I'm sure there will be more up next week.

But I'm going to try to .... move on....

The picture below is from a previous trip to Junk Gypsy Prom...

but I (on left) still look the same.

(well, I do!!!)