This Post Brought to You by the letter...

photo by Leo Reynolds via flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

S as in...
Saturday... check out the gorgeous fall weather we had a mere 4 days ago...


and now we have Snow, lots and lots of SNOW...you can barely make out the path Tanner and I took on the am walk near the bottom of the picture, snow was up to my knees.



Sew, Sienna and Surprise

Yes I surprised myself by actually finishing the dress I gave you a peek of last week, in time for her to wear it for awhile on Saturday. I gave up on the reversible part, we'll save that for another day. Clearly it's a little big, but we made it work.



Sorry, couldn't find any forward facing shots that showed off the full dress. She's staring off into the pasture where there were horses just a few minutes ago. We took the trail specifically to go on a horsie hunt, hoping to see some horses in their pastures or if we got really lucky, someone riding along. We got our wish, not only did we happen upon some horses in a pasture, but our timing was perfect, the owner of the horses we looked at came out to the field to halter a horse as we were standing by the fence and he brought the horses over. S was in shock! It's one thing to see a horse in a book or out in the field, but standing right next to you is a whole other story.

Speaking of stories, here's the picture of her telling the story in her own toddler-ese as we made our way back down the trail...

Off to make the most of snow day number 2, laundry is going, dishwasher running, maybe I'll hit the scraproom.

I got my wish!

It's a snow day, yippee! But I'm still up and in the morning routine---checking various email accounts for anything of note. I came across this ad from Petsmart...


Seriously? As you know I'm a lover of all things fall, I have many items with the pumpkin spice sent in my house at the moment, but I think I'll draw the line at having Tanner smell like it too. Something just doesn't seem right about that.

Enjoy your snow day if you have one!

A storm is brewing...

and I'm 'not so' secretly hoping for a major one that turns into a snow day. 5-10" is all we're predicted to get so I doubt my wishes will come true, just enough to make driving a pain.

Once upon a time this was a scrapbooking blog, so I thought it only fair that I finally show off a layout or two. I scrapped on Friday and Saturday night with some of my favorite girls, so inspiring they are...and the laughter, so much it hurt.

So for Jen, who I've missed so much a double page layout, with only a couple of buttons...
I love the way Sienna walks with such determination, here she is one the hunt for the perfect pumpkin, which sadly was elusive on this particular day. Oh well maybe next year...
and if you think those are cute, wait until you see her in her halloween costume, we took the essential costume/leaves pictures on Saturday. I have lots of editing to do, but here's a sneak peek for the fam.

"Dressing the Nest' for Fall

How did it get to be Thursday so fast? If you remember way back on Sunday, I promised a glimpse into some of the fall decor I've been inspired to put together. In all honesty, I started this post last night and then got swept away by Glee (Emma as Audrey, simply wonderful). All inspiration credit goes to The Nester and her 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest Series(although today's post ---fix something not particularly inspiring or maybe it's just because I like to put my head in hole and avoid those things, wonder if a call to the prop manager counts?)

The fall banner(center pic and close up on right) is what started this whole thing. Nester found it somewhere else and made one and you know it was everything I had not to rush out an buy some burlap that very minute. But I couldn't just hang a plain burlap banner ---oh no I decided I really wanted to redo the whole fireplace 'focal wall'. I've been scouting punched tin mirrors at antique stores and outside markets for a few months ---long enough to know the real deal is way out of my budget. So off to Hobby Lobby to try and find something similar, that was a no go, but mirrors were on sale so I came home with a plain black mirror. I painted the molded frame white and rubbed some silver to antique and I'm pretty happy. Banner is super easy...cut burlap into triangles, stencil letters in brown paint (I used some old BG chip letters to make the stencil) then punch 4 holes with your handy dandy crop-o-dile at the top and thread some twine or ribbon. The original poster had twine, but I'm thinking she must not have had cute brown and white polka dot ribbon, otherwise how could she resist.

The Nester is a big promoter of the 'Shop the House' theory for accessorizing and decorating, Yay for her as she has clearly spent her extra pennies on accessories at TJ Max and Ross. I shopped my house and came up with 3 types of things: clothing, craft supplies, and dead and faded dried flowers. Sadly hanging my beloved pink denim jacket on the wall just didn't look right, so I moved on to the craft supplies. Who knew mists could bring life to faded flowers? I wrapped a basic jar candle in my beloved ribbon and stuck a misted prima in the middle. Did you know burlap is super cheap? Not great if you suffer from asthma or allergies, but if you can get past it, this stuff is great for decorating for fall on the cheap. Not only did I use it on the banner, I used as table covers and runners for a bookcase, dining table, and side table. Then I stuffed an old pillow in a folded piece and stitched it up with some twine. Cute, made cuter by hot gluing some silk leaves (in the $1 spot at Target) on the front.

Even my October kit from Studio Calico got in the fun, I copied this from
one of the Tinas on the SC Design Team. Make a tree from Bo Bunny rubons, spell out Autumn with BG letter stickers, add some Cosmo Boyfriend paper, Brown cardstock and green pompom trim and you've got a festive art piece, stick it a frame from Goodwill with some silk leaves hot glued on and you've hit a home run.

I'm still on the search for the perfect pumpkin to be the centerpiece on the dining table, for now the white plastic one is filling in just fine.

How about you, how have you dressed you nest for fall?

I'm alive...v. #123?

I know it seems like most of the posts these days are either ...'I'm alive'(that title is really for my mom's benefit, I presume that most of the rest of you assume I'm alive) or 'Catching Up' so much so I'm thinking maybe I should start version-ing those titles are heck change the name of the whole blog to one of those two. I had good intentions of coming home each night, often writing the post in my head on the way home, but then I get here and Tanner, my tummy, tv and bed get my attention and off to bed I go without a post.

So in effort to make sure another weekend doesn't go by without a nod to anyone who's still reading, here's what I've been up to...

1. I wrangled this box of layouts, plus other random ones laying around my scrap area into albums, yes albums...two brand new red AC albums, as you can see in the second pic, this is my first foray in nearly 15 years (ack!) of scrapbooking that I have attempted any uniformity in the album department.

2. I started and have nearly finished sewing a dress for S, with some fabric I have in my stash for ever. Confession: I bought this fabric almost 2 years ago...Rach I was going to make an apron for you out of it, but now you're the apron goddess that I decided it was probably ok to do something else with it. I think it may be the first thing I've tried to cut from a pattern since 8th grade home ec. And of course all these years of Project Runway have seeped into my brain and I feel the need to off-road it a bit. When it's done it will actually be a reversible, with a small black and white polka dot pattern on the opposite side. Wish me luck that I get it made before she grows out of it.
3. I was introduced to a wonderful decorating blog...The Nesting Place via Michelle from the Kraft Girls team. I love the Nester's motto: 'It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful' This month, she started a series: 31 days to a Better Dressed Nest. Serendipity stepped in and I found these curtains on about day 3 and the desire to redecorate the living room was born.
In all honesty, re-decorate might be a stretch, it would mean that the room was decorated to begin with. Until now, it was a pretty basic room with one major piece of art, several photos, and a Japanese screen...no curtains, TV on a TV tray and a mess of cords for TIVO, etc in plain site. So I've been working on it the past couple of weeks, repeating to my self 'it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful' and it's really starting to come together. I'll post a few pics of some of the crafty projects later in the week.

4. I've been reading more than ever now that for the first time in years --- I got a library card. I think my neighborhood library is in the running for the poshest library ever. It moved to the new 'suburban trying to be urban' development about a mile or so from my house. I has a deck with Adirondack chairs overlooking the courtyard, lots and lots of beautiful computers, my favorite part is the online request and self checkout features...and you may be saying 'so what my library has those things' and I'll say oh yeah well does yours have Valet Parking? Because mine does. Ha! Ok so maybe it's for the whole complex, but the entrance is right across the street from the library.
5. S, her parents and I went out to the madness that is the Chatfield Pumpkin festival. I had no idea what an event this is until I neared the park and saw hundreds of cars, since her parents aren't much for crowds and we were trying to squeeze it in between a Troy's game, naps and a barbecue I don't think her parents had that much fun, S was in a mellow mood too so it was pretty much a bust, but I did get some cut pics like this one, so that's something.

Happy Birthday

to my dad! Sienna has become a huge fan of the webcam so we put together this little gem just for him.