We Are Family Retreat

This past weekend we went to "We Are Family Retreat" (WAFR) with our church. It's an annual event that we have wanted to attend for years but something has always come up. But thankfully we were able to get there this year. There were lots of fun activities...

Bonfire with S'mores

Halloween costume contest

Pumpkin Carving

There were lots of planned activities but a lot of down time as well. We played games, fished, chatted, worshiped, laughed, hiked and so much more! It was a wonderful time of fellowship with our church. We are so blessed to have such a great "body of Christ" to worship with.

It was an awesome time and look forward to going again next year!!

Fall List

I know I have been M.I.A. for a little while. I would like to say it's because I have been working on my "Fall to-do List" Let's see how my progress is going. (Smiley faces = goal accomplished)

☺1. Carve a pumpkin - We carved some great pumpkins this weekend that I will post soon and we also did a pumpkin topiary

☺2. Make some kind of autumn inspired wreath for the front door - done... check it out

☺3. Go camping - well I didn't go "real" camping but we did go stay @ my old camp that I went to as a child. We had a blast!!

4. Use nature for some indoor decorating (I *heart* bowls of colorful leaves)

☺5. Take a Sunday afternoon hike to enjoy the fall foliage - we went on a Saturday and it was gorgeous!!

6. Eat some yummy pumpkin pie - still looking forward to that!!

7. Make and share some Russian tea mix - my favorite fall drink! Hopefully this week!!

I'm almost gotten everything checked off! You can see I've been busy, but not doing so good at blogging about my busy-ness. What have you been doing to keep busy??

I've also got some fun things coming up as well: craft show, Holiday Party, Baby shower, and "Winter Wonderland" inspired tablescape. I'll be filling you in all of that too!!

God's country

I am traveling right now for work and even though I hate not being @ home with Joe, I am trying to appreciate where "I am today." Even though I think this cold snap we had messed up our foilage, the leaves are goregous especially against that beautiful Carolina blue sky.

Don't you just love the Lord's creation!!!

Ok... now don't freak out (as you can see the hood of the car) I took this as I was driving... And no one was hurt in the process... Impressive huh!?!?

Doors of Welcome - October 15th

As you may remember Karen over @ Some Days are Diamonds is hosting "Doors of Welcome". It goes a little like this on the 15th of October, November and December show what you've got going on @ the front door.

You can see what we've got going on so far.

Still feel like it could use a little tweaking... we'll see what the next couple of days bring.

Sure wish my mums would bloom!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Halloween's coming fast...

and I wanted to get my pumpkins out. I have seen some wonderful ideas for displaying pumpkins. So many great ideas out there. This year I wanted to try a pumpkin topiary. Check out my project this weekend...

I tried to find 3 different size pumpkins

Purchased a 3/8" dowel at the hardware store. Drilled a hole in the pumpkin.

Lined up the pumpkins and drilled some more holes

I borrowed the stand to my gazing ball to give it some height


I had thought I would paint on the pumpkin but then thought it may be easier and quicker just to use black magic markers


Once I got it outside I thought it could use just a little more umph, so I added some artificial leaf garland to add some softness

Whatcha think??

Go check out this lovely pumpkin topiary here and here. Awesome, right?

I'll be showing the whole front door tomorrow as part of "Doors of Welcome" hosted by Karen @ Some Days are Diamonds

Itchin' to carve...

photo courtesy of Country Living

I am getting really excited about carving pumpkins soon. I would love to do something new and different this year and I have seen so many great ideas in blog world. Here's a great link for some how to's and ideas. Have you carved yours already? Or maybe just decorated it? I would love to see what you've done!! Drop me a comment and link to your pumpkins!!

They're doing it again...

You may remember me mentioning a giveaway from Glidden for a free quart of paint back in May... we'll they're at it again! Hop over to Glidden and get you some!! And show me what you are doing with your free paint!

Did you see how I put my free paint to good use?

How cool is this...

Colored chalkboard paint!

This opens up a world of possibilities!?!!? Price tags a little ouchy but maybe eventually others will carry as well and bring the price down. Check out all the colors here.

Meet Heather Evans Smith...

A college friend of mine is an awesome photographer!! I adore her work so much! One day I would love to have her do some portraits of our family. After you check out her work you'll see why I wanted to introduce her to my blog friends. A lot of her work actually features herself as the subject. I believe in "art" talk it's called portraiture.

She is extremely talented and love the way she sees the world through her lens.

Here are a few of my fav's - it's hard to actually narrow down to just a few. Her artwork is for sale if you see something you love you can probably get it to hang on your wall!! How cool is that!?!

See what I mean... A- Mazing!!!

Please check out her blog or website to see more of Heather's work!

Yard Sale finds

So a friend of mine had a yard sale a few weeks back and boy did I get some goodies!!

Check 'em out!

a crystal chandelier accent lamp - found a home in the dining room

a funky little lamp for the guest room
great tray! - loving this splash of yellow in the living room

I've always loved these Geisha girl pillows!! They're perfect in the living room!


and one more tray... this one made it's home in the den

Don't you just love a good deal!! There are more goodies to show...

I got some great items for the kitchen, I'll share those later!

Happy bargain hunting!!