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A Sweet Lunch at Home-

Bree and I hosted a sweet little "cooking" lunch at home yesterday, so much fun. Here is a look at what we did-

Before-

• made gift bags
• decorated the table
• made felt pumpkins-If you look close at the table picture you can see the felt pumpkins, running down the center of the table.- I forgot to take a better picture of them.

Each person went home with a gift bag- {we added the chef hats for fun- since it was a "cooking" lunch.}

• fall kitchen towel
• hand lotion- "twilight wood" or "sugar vanilla"
• leaf cookie cutter
• chocolate treats-  

-A few flowers from my garden-

On the menu-

Cranberry-spinach Salad

Wild-rice Stuffed Squash

Fresh Fruit Tart-

Poached Pear Chocolate dessert-

Okay, so we were a little silly- how fun is that?!

I had a wonderful time- each of these lovely ladies brought such fun and interesting stories to share; from working with President Ezra Benson to swimming with Turtles-  Wish you all could of been there. We could not of asked for a better day- beautiful weather, beautiful ladies, great food.

Yes, a beautiful day-

for Recipes click below-

Download Recipelunch

 Come see what others are talking about- Show off your Cottage Monday-

*** My heart goes out to Ann and her family- we justed learned that her Grandson was killed in Afghanistan yesterday. {Ann is the one second from the right in the group photo above} My prayers go out to her and their family.

Getting ready for Lunch

Friday Bree and I are hosting a "Cooking Lunch",

where everyone that come- demonstrates how to make a recipe of their choice.

We are busy making the decorations for the table and something fun for each person to take home with them.

Don't want  to spoil the surprise so I will  tell you more about that later.

{yes, ....stealing away a few moments at work to prepare things.}

We think they are adorable, wait until you see them  finished.

{and because we love them so much, we made a few extra for Shannon, Heidi and Becca.}

You won't understand until you see them finished. =)

I know I'm a tease.

Flour Sack Pillows

Remember that flour sack I picked up at Remnants of the Past antique sale?

Well, yesterday I took a little time at work and turned it into two pillows.

Super easy to do- I just cut it in half added a pillow form and then hemmed the end closed.

Two large antique pillows for $20 dollars-

-Sweet-

For the Love-

I love to take simple little places and make them "grand" {grand to me anyway} In the last few years I have had fun fixing up, re-purposing, painting, and just plain making it over.

This older home {Bungalow}  had all the right bones, and perfect light.  We were just renting it, but I tried to put something of us in it.

 
A lot happened in the short time we were there-  Click here and here.

Now we are fixing up the Hamlet- We started with it looking like this-

Now it looks like this-

and from this...

to this...

 
 
  To follow some of the transformations click here or go to "hamlet" in categories at left.

Everything was done on a "shoe string", making over or re-doing.  To me that's where the fun is. There is still a lot more to do....and I'm getting a little closer, piece by piece. It is ever changing. 

 I grew up moving from one home to another, perhaps that's where some of my first lessons were taught/learned.  That everything doesn't have to match or come from a "top of the line" store to make a house a home.

I hope you have enjoyed coming on this journey with me...I know it's been fun for me.

I have tons more to share....in fact I'm just getting started.  =)  This week I'm making pillows for the white sofa, with the burlap sack I got a couple weeks ago. fun!

Oh, and I just have to share a few pictures from the CV garden- we are heading into winter; here's a little look at my winter garden.

 
The last flower on the vine-

To see the garden in other seasons click here.

I'm linking this post up with Cielo over at The House in the roses. For her "Show off your Cottage" Monday.

I'm also over at Blissful today-  I would love for you to come on over and visit.

Scarves-

Relief Society went well. Thanks to all the Ladies who helped with the food. Everything was wonderful. Salad, rolls, and a yummy pumpkin dessert. I need to get the recipe for the salad. The rolls were a huge hit, warm and fresh!

The scarves we make couldn't be simpler to make! Just take a yard of 2 fabrics and cut them in half lengthwise.  Then sew the two short ends together. {if you are using shot cotton there is no "right side"} sew a 3/4" seam allowance and then sew the seam allowances down flat. We used two different colors of "Kaffe Fassett's Shot cotton. -if you are wondering what shot cottons is ....Shot cotton is special because the warp and weft yarns are 2 different colors woven together to create a special depth, a "shot" of color.  When the edge of this fabric ravels, you can see a bright contrast to the body of the fabric. {finished scarf 22"x72"}

I threw mine in the washer and dryer and after a light pressing-

On the orange scarf it's hard to tell in this picture but, the contrast color is pink.  Thanks to everyone who helped. Bree and Denver thanks for taking everything down- huge help! =)

Another one done....now on to the next.

Hard day...- yesterday they found our dear friend Ben who had been missing for nearly four years-

http://andersenseven.typepad.com/whatever/2008/12/help-find-ben.html

We were notified that they found a car matching Ben's, so we hurried to the place where they were recovering it-read the story here- http://westsideconnect.com/content/view/2829/162/

It was a hard day-

Dan's words- Teresa, Denver, Bree and myself stayed there the entire time to make sure they took care of him and also, I wanted to make sure that there was someone there that loved him"

Just a hard day.

 

 

 

Re-purposing

Tonight is our Relief Society meeting.  Norma, Bree and I spent some time yesterday getting everything ready.  Part of the theme is Re-purposing your life through Christ and re-purposing your time for family, all with a Fall decor.  Since we were going with a re-purposing theme- everything you see in the decorations had been used before. Pretty much at a cost of 0 dollars.

Bree and I spent a little time walking through my CV garden for clippings etc.

 

 

Bree putting together the centerpieces-

For each table- 1 clear round vase, walnuts, fall leaves tied with jute, Battery operated candle in the center.

 

We added one in shell walnut to each place setting, just for fun.

Norma modeling the "shot cotton" scarves we will be making tonight. Super easy. 

It's a beautiful life-  to see what other are talking about  click here.

Come back later for more details.

 

finished Master bedroom

 

 
Little by little Bree and I have been "dressing" their room. Well, it's finally finished.{all but the head board for the bed, we will get that for them back at school, one less thing to move}

Take a little look at what we have done.

All the furniture came from IKEA.  The "soft stuff" from Target.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bree picked out everything, she has great taste.  Totally had a blast working with her.
 I forgot to take a picture of the "art", we framed a picture Denver took on their honeymoon. Perhaps Bree will share it on her blog later.

  

Life/maze

Saturday I gathered up a few of my favorite people {I have more favorite people but they live much too far away to gather up at the last moment. =)

Anyway, I gathered them up and we headed to the corn maze. {John's not in the picture he is taking it} by the way Johns my brother not my son. =) I get that a lot because I am  20 year older than he is.

As we were wondering through the maze a few thoughts came to my mind....such as comparing life with a corn maze.

It's nice to have someone with experience lead you through.   Especially someone on higher ground. 

Life/corn mazes are not all fun and games, sometimes you get a little mud on you. It really helps the journey, if you have someone with you to help you laugh about it, and to help you remove the mud.

Life/corn mazes are full of scary moments....this is where it is really helpful to have a "light" with you and someone along who knows how to guide you safely to the end.

When all is said and done- it's not how fast we ran the race but that we finished & made sure our family makes it there too.

So we can have that happy ending.

Happy 28th

 

I made a quick trip to Sam's yesterday to celebrate his birthday.Sam's not a big fan of birthday cake-  hence the Happy Birthday float.

Heidi started off the evening with a yummy dinner; egg rolls and rice...yummy.

 

I took Sam birthday shopping for some items to organize his tools- (when you don't have a truck to haul things you make do-}  Luckily we didn't have far to drive to get back home.  

 

Happy Birthday Sam- I enjoyed my time with your family.

Happy Day

Signs of Fall-

We had our first "real" storm of the season yesterday...so I guess fall is here.

Even though everything is still green...the leaves are falling and it's cooler. 

I truly love fall...even with it's "messes" {leaves everywhere}

I know fall is right around the corner when this Washington Hawthorn has red berries on it- 

With this storm the brown grass will soon turn to green.....I heard on the news last night that the rainfall we received yesterday was a 41 year record breaker for this time of year. We got over 2 inches in CV.

With the signs of fall Bree and I decided to try our hand at a couple of "fall" recipes. Apple chicken and pear spiced muffins- the chicken was great the muffins not so much... the muffin recipe called for adding a piece of dark bitter chocolate to the top of these baked muffins.....not a good choice, hated the chocolate, and ended up throwing them out. {should of gone with tried and true good old sweet chocolate.} the muffin itself was great. So we are going to try again with the good stuff. =) I'll share the recipe when we make them again.

Another sign of fall- a Relief Society fall gathering.

{Norma put this display together}

On the agenda-

 Making Shot cotton scarves

 Dinner

One class-

More on everything later.

What are some signs of fall around your area?