Happy Halloween!

It's All Hallow's Eve!

It's HALLOWEEN!

It's Fright Night!

(When the beggars ask for a treat, or threaten a trick or two!)

Let's hope "Smell my feet" isn't one of the tricks-

 though last night my eldest daughter

had trick or treat and a cute little beggar actually said it to them!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the Parade of the Jack O'Lanterns

 from our annual Pumpkin Carving Party this year!

Our eldest daughter Evelyn carved the witch

 and my youngest daughter Katie
 created the traditional happy-faced one!

My younger sister Teresa carved the spider

 and my hubs did the demon one.

And that elongated gourd-like pumpkin

is a fluke that grew in our garden from last

year's pumpkin carving.

 We had 6 matching perfect pumpkins.

Was a nice surprise not having to buy ours this year!

My youngest niece Reagan made the Ninja turtle one, 

our youngest daughter's fiancee Jeff created the scary skull,

and our son-in-law Daniel carved the happy one.

Our friend Sarah created the black cat

 and her husband Kyle carved the Frankenstein!

I'd say all in all there are very talented carvers in our midst!

We weren't the only ones who grew pumpkins this year -

here's Katie holding up a perfect round little one

from the garden they keep at Jeff's.

I love her "Day of the Dead" tee shirt.

BTW - there is a new animated movie musical out

 called Book of Life

that's kinda neat and all about Day of the Dead's history.

That's what we did on her birthday, Oct 17th -

at her request all went to that movie together.

She's been collecting DofD artwork, and making her own

for quite some time now.

Have another fun and wonderful Halloween!

And don't let those tricksters getchya!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Show and Tell Friday

Tea Time Halloween Style

Today please join me for tea time

Halloween-style!

There's no frills, no lace, no pinks or roses -

but there's lots of black, orange and leaves!

Fun & smiling spooky guests are

 warmly welcome!

A nice hot pot of tea is awaiting you!

We'll use my simple, plain black pot

with its sugar & milk jug,

and keep the pot hot with the perfect cozy!

Black cat kitty wants the milk jug, I bet!

There's yummy sweet treats

 inside the candy corn box

 my eldest daughter gave to me last year.

Everything is sitting on a pretty

Autumn place mat my youngest made

back when she was in grade school.

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Tea Time Tuesday   *  Tuesday Cuppa Tea   *   Friends Sharing Tea

Inspire Me Tuesday  *   Tweak It Tuesday   *  You're Gonna Love It

Teacup Tuesday

Halloween Mantle Decor

This is how our mantle is decorated for
Halloween this year.

Making its debut to blogland is our

 perfect little black wooden plant stand.

It is the best thing for showcasing a carved pumpkin!

This pumpkin lights up electrically from an outlet
 hidden on the top part of the mantle.

There is no way I could safely have a real one burning 

with curious Romeo Kitty Cat
 around to rub against it and maybe it falls.

Remember my telling you recently (here)

 about my tea sister-friend Karen

 whom was one of many

I recently visited out of town for my birthday?

Well this cute little hidden burlap birdie

was my birthday present from her.

It is quite happily situated at Finch Rest - I just love it!

Those tea sisters really give the greatest & most thoughtful presents!

And what All Hallow's Eve is complete

 without a raven, a jack O' Lantern, black cat

 and a black metal lantern with a pumpkin?

This is what is one the front of that cute book

the birdhouse is sitting on above.

It's a little cardboard book box!

(I did a little happy dance when I found it at GW!)

This old PB lantern is a timeless classic staple

all year long for us around here.

Filled with candles, pumpkins, pine cones, nests,

 eggs, ornaments.......

it always works for every season!

I was tickled to pieces when I brought up my Halloween box

because I forgot I found this

 wood and wire painted pumpkin garland

 after autumn season on sale. 

So today it's making it's blogland debut!

If you missed my post yesterday about nifty recycled favor cups

 for our carving party guests

be sure to pop in and check them out! 

I love how they turned out and how inexpensive 

they were to make!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

WOW US Wednesday    *   Tuesdays AT OUR HOME   *  Share Your Cup

Home and Garden   *   Treasure Hunt   *   Feathered Nest

Show and Tell

Halloween Party Favors/ Tutorial

I wanted to share the party favors 
I made for our annual 

Pumpkin/Jack O'Lantern Carving Party
 we had this weekend.

And boy, oh boy! Did I ever have fun playing with Pic Monkey!

Seriously, if you haven't tried it you are soooo missing
some super-de-duper FUN photo editing!

I especially like it for Halloween!

Start with eating lots & lots of yummy yogurt.
This is by far my most favorite....Chobani Greek.

After you finish your delicious snack, stop yourself
from taking it to the trash.....

Clean.

Rinse.

Repeat.  < just kidding, that's just shampoo, right?

Now just spray paint those clean cups you saved!

(Or get handsome husband to do it for you.)
Thanks, honey. You know I hate those fumes.


He is a GREAT spray painter,
but sunny-day-pics-with-shadows,
well this beggar isn't complainin' just esplainin'.


: - p

Buy some grape-vine cloth covered wire
 at your favorite hobby store.

You will need wire cutters, an ice pick gizmo
 and some needle-nose pliers.

Yes, for those attention-detailed readers,
 the needle nosed pliers are missing from this picture,
fact is one of the other spiders brought it a little later
 after we were nearly done.

And yes, my tools are old and rusty and secondhand and fine. Just fine.

Cut 10 inch wire strips and make handles.

 Mine are 9 inches and were a tad too short.

Use your needle nosed pliers
 to kinda crimp the edges at the ends of the handles kind of into itself
(so the sweet little hands going for snacks don't get scraped.)

Of course the very BEST part...........

Buy all kinds of little snack sized candy

 and fill those little cups to the brim with goodies!

I suggest getting kinds you loathe so you don't 
scarf it all up when you are filling your favor cups!

No Resee's Cups were harmed
 during the making
of this craft.

It's really fun to create new uses with trash!

I shall be sharing our carving party later this week.

So stay tuned!  

AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR VISIT!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Met Monday   *  What We Accomplished   *   WOW Us  *  Treasure Hunt

Still Life

Sometimes the most simple things, up really close,

 look really nifty.

Thought I'd share some of them

I've found in my pics arsenal

that just make my eyes happy.

I'm in a funny random kind of mood today.

Maybe because it is my baby girl's birthday and
now she is older than I am. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

This is basically wordless, too, kinda.

 I know, impossible difficult to believe

 coming from ME, huh?

Some have an autumn theme. 

Some variations you may have seen before.

And some are brand new even to me.

Sometimes what catches the eye

 has no rhyme or reason.......no theme.....

Sometimes it's even stinkin' adorable barnyard friends....

Oink. Cluck. Moo.


(Giggle)

Any way one looks at things -

 sometimes a good close look can prove to be entertaining.

Have a great weekend, friends.

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Pink Tea / Red Velvet B-day Cupcake

Took about a millisecond for tea time today

because that's all the time I had for it.

Nice thing was I took it outdoors -

 because it was perfectly warm.

It was very cloudy and extremely breezy, but warm!

And I pinched off one last little fading blossom

 from a pink Knock-Out Rose bush nearby.

Always so sad to see the bloom season end.

This blossom looks pathetic, but matches nicely.

By the way we've had such weird weather

 one of my yellow Iris bloomed the other day!

 I didn't get a pic of it fast enough

 because it's not there anymore.

 Rain? Deer? Aliens? 

Where'd it go?!??

I use Paula Deen's famous recipe for both 

 my Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting!

It's not sad I made my own birthday cupcakes, trust  me.

Remember I spent my real day birthday with friends in Indy -

(and my birthday cake was heavenly - thanks, Marina!)

This one was an intimate  dual birthday dinner

 with gifts and dessert afterwards on Sunday

 with just our daughters and their fellas.

My day is 4th and my youngest daughter's is the 17th.

So we picked the Sunday between both our b-day weekends

 to celebrate them together.

I used one of my all-time favorite Austrian vintage china sets for it.

I have had these for years.

 I have 4 cups, 4 saucers and 4 dessert plates....

But no creamer or sugar or teapot,

 I use my plain white with gilding when I use these.

I don't get these out too often

 because I normally host my teas for six, not four.

I should look for more to complete this set!

Or sell these. 

That's what I SHOULD do.

 But it's difficult letting true favorites go.

{source}

I am joining Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage blog

 for Pink Teatime Tuesday -

 in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

[source]

Seeing as my older sister dealt with it this year

it is strongly on my mind today!

The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases

 is that there are physicians for the body

 and physicians for the soul,

 although the two cannot be separated.

                                                         

                                                                  ~Plato

Thanks, Sandi - gave me a good reason to enjoy 

a prettier moment with a pink tea time today...

Sending up prayers for a CURE!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele