Little bits of Halloween!

Before Halloween is OVER I wanted to share with you the little bits of Halloween throughout my home.

I'll start with the outside first.





Now for the inside














That's all, hope you enjoyed the tour!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

I LOVE vintage thingies! There is something about them that inspires me. Just recently I have finally been brave enough (before I just admired and moved on, thinking I couldn't find, because of my lack of skill, the "right" place for it) to buy the cool vintage thingies to use in my home. I've also started using this vintage inspiration in my paper crafting. Today for my first go at Vintage Thingies Thursday over at Colorado Lady, I would like to share the beginning of my vintage suitcase collection.

I've always liked vintage suitcases and how others have used them to decorate. This summer I was lucky enough to find two at different garage sales. One I got for $5, the other about $10. Their home is in our office. I hope to add to the collection as time goes on. Until then they double as storage. The one on top hides nicely the yucky bills and the small office items, blank CDs, address labels, iPod charge cable etc. The second suitcase holds extra file folders, contact paper, envelopes.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last week Grace and I got to enjoy some one-on-one time at her Pumpkin Patch Field Trip. Her class went to Lake View Farms in North Plains (kid of funny to me that we live in farm country and had to drive 45 minutes to a pumpkin patch!). It poured all the way there but the sun came out just in time for us to enjoy the pumpkin hunt. We got to ride a small train out to the pumpkin field and after finding our pumpkins we got to take a boat back. So, it was not your ordinary pumpkin patch, maybe worth a 45minute drive?? Either way, Grace and I had fun together!


Grace with a few of her classmates

Grace and I on the train

Grace finding the perfect pumpkin


"Ok mom, let's go, I'm cold and covered in mud!"

Fall Inspired Planter

Taking some of the ideas from the magazines clippings I share a few weeks ago, I created my own Fall planter to go by my front door. I already had the perfect planter and some extra fake leaves and pumpkins/squash. I bought two twig wreathes from JoAnn's, $1.99 each. I hot glued the leaves and pumpkins/squash to the wreaths.I then stacked them on top of each other and placed a pumpkin in the center. There you have it! Pretty simple but I think it looks nice.

What do you do with the little sister when big sister has a friend over?

Distract her by making cookies! Today Grace had her friend Megan from school over. The girls were SO excited for their play date. I wanted them to be able to enjoy their time together without Jilian following along everywhere. Jilian was eager to help make the cookies so it wasn't a problem for the girls to sneak off!

My favorite cookie cookbook, it has EVERY cookie recipe you can think of.








The Recipe

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (chopped-up chocolate in my case)
1/2 cup walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 375
Combine flour, baking soda and salt
Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture, stir in chocolate
Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets
Bake 10 to 12 minutes, transfer to wire rack to cool completely

ENJOY!

Apple Picking

Grace has been talking about going apple picking so when she didn't have school last Friday, I found an apple orchard and we went a-picking! It was A LOT of fun! It was great to be outside, enjoy the Fall smells and colors and play with my girls. The best part of it was we were the only ones in the whole orchard (other than the sweet farmer that would check on us from time to time, he even took Grace for a ride on his 4-wheeler and let her cut a pumpkin from the vine). I highly recommend you visit Beilke Family Farm, it is only $8 for a 5 gallon bucket of apples.













After apple picking we drove around a little (we were in a part of Oregon we had never seen) and came across a cute country store stocked with lots of vegetables AND freshly made DONUTS. We skipped the vegetables and took home a bag of fresh pumpkin donuts, YUM!