October Fest hat for a cousin.

A homemade soap dispenser.  No more leaking!

New lounging pants made from sheets.

Another October Fest hat.

October has been a very busy month.  Our little school has been invited to display art at the library!  Our art will be hung for November and December.  So... nearly 245 paintings, drawings and collages have been done and I've mounted everyone of them on poster board for display.  There are so many little details that go into something of this magnitude.  Releases from parents to allow the art to be hung; should we include first name and grade?  No?  Well, some get names and grades and some don't.  It's hard to imagine who'd be hunting for Nick in 4th grade... but you never know!  Once the art is hung, I will post some pics.  Until then, here are a couple of some recent activities.

Stained the fences, while Andre worked on the lawn

An owl hat for a little boy

A frog hat for a special Alaskan baby.

A four-day scrapbooking weekend in Santa Cruz

Forgot these pics of the grapes...
These are hanging in the arbor over the garage door.  We had to hurry and pick them before the mailman ate them all :)

The pears were huge and beautiful

Cooking the pears for the pear butter

Grape jelly and juice

Grape jelly

Pear butter

Pear butter

It has been a long and busy month... for someone who has never canned before, I've done quite a bit (for me!)  We picked nearly all the grapes (merlot, red flame seedless, concord, and just plain green) and made 10 jars of grape jelly and 6 jars of grape juice.  Then I made 10 jars of peach jam from our peaches and 4 jars of pear butter from our pears!  It was a bountiful crop in the orchard this year.  Now I need to make cute labels and get things ready for Christmas gifts!

Peach jam

Peach jam

In an attempt to keep up with technology, I've just received an IPad for a birthday gift.  At this point in time, the frustration level is fairly high.  Why can't I just have Skype like it is on my Mac desktop?  Why can't I find favorites, how am I supposed to remember all those crazy passwords?  I think a nice glass of merlot just might be the answer.  More another day when I can figure things out!

Home owners only 15 minutes and I'm already pulling weeds!

Living room and dining room.  Matching fireplace downstairs.

Kitchen

The shop!  The big selling point for DH.

Back of house and part of patio.  Can't see covered part...

School has already started and I am racing with the wind.  We drove up to Medford last weekend, signed the papers and paid the money for our new little house.  It was hard to tear ourselves away from it.  DH would like to move in right away and I admit... I am needing a new challenge.  Painting and decorating a new house is the perfect cure for my itchy feet!  The property manager feels that the house will rent quickly and she will be careful and find a GREAT tenant.

The  little island is several years old and starting to look a bit tired.  Since I've got black paint left over and it was standing still, I decided to paint it!  Started with washing and sanding on the 3rd, finished today (the 5th) with new pulls.  The bonus?  I cleaned out the drawers and filled a bag with stuff for the thrift stores!  The boyz are fair warned, stand still and you might get painted too!

Bought a couple of very heavy brass lamps (with shades) at the SPCA thrift shop.  While walking around with the lamps another lady wanted to check them out.  It makes you so certain that you are making the right choice when someone else wants your stuff!!  After bringing the lamps home, my neighbor immediately identified them as Stiffel lamps that are quite collectible!  Cleaned them up with some Brasso and they really shine.  I decided to surprise the boyz with a little modification to the shades for their apartment.  I added a little bling around the bottom of the shade and put something inside.  Hope they like them!!

We've bought a house in Medford, Oregon.  Right now it is in the finance stage.  Once it's officially ours, I'll be posting pictures.  It will be a rental for a few (2) years...sorry neighbors... but then we will move in and fix 'er up proper like!

A nice home with a beautiful yard.

The ugly green before...

With a few coats of black paint and a raw silk seat,

the chairs look beautiful.

Chairs!  Every table needs a few chairs.  After all, it makes eating more enjoyable :)  We aren't trying to push the boyz out (not much),  but we are getting more and more supplies ready.  The coffee table is midway through it's transformation.  We found two beautiful solid brass lamps today that will get red paint added to their shades....  These are two of the chairs, we have one other that will have the red/black cushion tied on.  It's an old fashioned oak chair with a carved headrest.

Getting ready for baby birds to leave the nest.

The boyz are moving into their own apartment.  Together!  Another friend will be joining them, probably just to keep the peace!  We have been collecting furniture and kitchen items for them from the local thrift stores.  We found a beat-up drop-leaf table at Savers.  It was marked $24.99, but the kind employee changed it to $19.99, just to get it off the floor.  Plus we had a 20% off coupon, so it was a great deal.  After hours of sanding and stripping off the junky top, repairing and painting the legs, the table is ready for its new home.  The 4 oddball chairs will be painted a cheery red to add a punch of color to the dwelling!

Of course, I get so excited to start the new project, that I forget to take the 'before' picture.  So, sadly, all we have is a 'during' picture and two 'afters'.  You  can see the two leaves in the background, they have been stripped and sanded and still look a little rough.  It was one messy table top!

A trimmed bush...

Some of the harvest

Happily harvesting my small crop of lavender this weekend, I was remembering Dad's last birthday at Park Place; the boyz and I brought the fixins' for homemade ice cream and some sugar cookies.  While the ice cream churned away in the gazebo, I harvested a TON of lavender from the grounds (with permission!).  I promised to come back with some dried lavender and have an 'art lesson' for the residents at a later date.  We served ice cream and cookies to all who would partake.  In October I came back with lots of dried lavender and sachet bags.  The residents removed the dry flowers and put them into the bags for their drawers.  The entire compound smelled heavenly and everyone got a little fine motor skill workout.  Plus, I had lots of lavender left over :)

Sadly, the other father of the mother has gone on to the 19th hole.  Hard to believe that only a week ago he was teaching me how to make a Manhattan (with brandy).  EP was always a part of my life, attending every single important event.  I will miss him terribly.  Via con Dios!

Eddie Bauer sweater - repurposed

Computer camouflage 

After felting a thrift store sweater, I wondered what do make with it... I've made a cover for my laptop (check out the pictures of it), "acorn" type slippers and several purses.  I just got a new Ottlite for scrapbooking and decided it needed a special bag for transporting to various locations.  The body of the sweater fit perfectly over the light;  the bottom and flap were simple after that.  Now I have to hook a strap on the top and pack up for the next scrapbooking event!  Repurposing things is so much fun!

Ottlite bag

The cool guy in the picture is my wonderful Grandpa

Just needs a strap!

Our teacher is leaving after four years.  We were her first class in 2009.  I had each class bring in mementos for stepping stones for the teacher's garden.  I used 'cement all' from Home Depot ($18.00 per bag).  Next time I won't use plastic wrap to line the pizza boxes.  Just let the slop run out, I guess.  The top of each stone had to be power washed to get the mementos exposed.  I used a set of letter stamps from Harbor Freight Tools to mark washers with '2nd grade' and '2009-2010'.  A step for each year.  Now she'll be home with her almost 16 month old and a new one due in December.  She'll be busy!