Annual Pumpkin-Carving Party

This year our daughter Katie
 and her new husband Jeff

 hosted our family's annual 

PUMPKIN' CARVING PARTY

at their adorable cottage home!


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

They had the house all decked out in whimsical holiday fun!

The food was amazing, too - they grilled:

* Grilled pork ribs and chicken kabobs

* Grilled veggies

*Jeff's mom made a delish sweet potato/squash dish.

* My younger sister made a yummy Italian pasta salad.

* I made Crispy Italian Basil Bites.
(used my potted fresh basil)

* Our eldest daughter Evelyn made chocolate/red velvet brownies.
(to die-for good)

* My older sister brought awesome asst. baked goods.


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

After visiting, dining and waiting for it to get
 "spooky dark" outside
we all then went outside to a nice toasty roaring bonfire

and carved our pumpkins!

Here they are taken on my cell- blurry, so sorry:

From top left down:

Me

Hubs (Cool spiders)

Reagan - my niece

Delaney (A Block O) - my niece

 for Ohio State the #1 ranked football team in the country!

Darien - my eldest niece

Middle top down:

Jeff - son-in-law

Katie - daughter

From top right down:

Teresa - my younger sister

Evelyn - eldest daughter

Jeff's mom

Daniel - son-in-law

Jeff's brother Darren

Mary Beth - older sister



I thought I'd feature my husband's this time, 
since it isn't easily seen 
in the far-away group shots.

He carved both sides:

I wonder if this is a motherling spider
and her little brood of baby spidies?

Katie and Jeff grew red popcorn this year in their new garden,

and harvested some and put in mini ball jars as parting favors.

For some odd reason my phone pics won't let me send
the pic I have of it.

 I will add if I get it figured out.

Anyway, the party was lots of fun.

Tonight was both my daughter's Trick or Treating.
They said they had lots of beggars and had fun.

Ours is usually on the actual Halloween, October 31st.



(Really had fun with Pic Monkey with first and last graphics.)

As always, thank you for your visit!

Please be extra safe this weekend!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Simple Saturday

Hodge-Podge Wednesday

click on above pic to take you to the party

Joyce writes the questions

 and invites us to respond our own answers.

1. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence/be silent?

   a.) I love silence. Growing up in a large family with a dog, a cat, and 10 guinea pigs things were always so noisy. I always vowed to myself my home would be tranquil, and it is. I am told that often. We don't watch television so it isn't always blaring in the background. I do often play music, or make music (piano, flute, sing) but most of the time it's nice and quiet. I am blessed to live in a very quiet cul-de-sac, too.



2. October 28th is National Chocolate Day. Can't let that go by without a mention now, can we? Will you celebrate? How? Let's say you can have one of the following right this very minute...a cup of hot chocolate, a strawberry dipped in chocolate, a bowl of plain chocolate ice cream, or a slice of chocolate pie...what's  your pleasure?

   a.) I absolutely adore chocolate - especially Reese Cups, but just found out I have pre-diabetes, so my days of sugar consumption are kinda all but over. It must be a very rare treat now in order to get back on track. I am already losing weight by monitoring my eating, it's melting off and not even that hard since I must do it. Hubs is so sweet, we are even thinking about going to a movie instead of handing out treats so I am not tempted. : - )



3. How do you feel about blue jeans? Favorite thing in the world to wear or nope, don't own a single pair? How often do you wear blue jeans in a typical week? Do you own a blue jean jacket?

  
    a.) Funny, I went from the 1970s to about 8 years ago not even owning a pair of jeans. In fact I almost never wore pants at ALL, I love skirts and wore a of them - hippie ones, Prairie dresses, sun dresses, etc. It's been since the 80s since I have owned a jean jacket - but if I lose weight again I think they can be so cute over prairie dresses, so hopefully I can wear one nicely again w/o it being too cumbersome and tight. Someone recently told me they have them in stretch denim now - something to try and find then, I say! YES to comfort!  : - )
Point of interest: My eldest daughter, when little, used to lead a girls' club called The Jean Jacket Club. To this day my youngest daughter is mad she wasn't allowed in it. LOL. Poor kid. I never knew then!



4. Are you superstitious? If so, in what way?

   a.) No, not so much.  I guess I listened to the song Stevie Wonder sang and took it to heart. ♥



5. If you had to come up with a costume using only things you have on hand right now, what could you come up with?


  a.) Oh, that's easy. I have a nice collection of authentically re-created late 1400s Italian Renaissance gowns and all their accessories. I could be decked out in full regalia in less than a half hour. : - )



6. What scares you a little? What do you do when you feel scared?

   a.) I have a weird strong phobia about choking to death when alone (I am often.) Maybe that's why I tend to eat slowly, and certainly do when alone.
It's a real fear that scares me. As for regular "being scared," I am not too often. I do pray and it takes away my fears.


7. Perhaps today will be the day I _____________________.

   
a.)  Gosh, um, clean my basement? Organize my pantry? Start excercising? Probably won't be doing any of that, lol- it's cold and rainy and I have a headache and just want to catch up on missed blog reading a little bit. ♥



8. Insert random thought here:

Comments closed so you can go

 "do your thang" 

a bit faster today.

AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY!

♥

~Michele

Autumn Tea Time on the Patio

Our weather has truly been perfect this fall -

quite rare and wonderful for us here.

It's the kind of weather that is just ideal

for a nice tea time outdoors...

before the cold damp blustery weather

rolls in for its long stay.

Let's tuck ourselves in a quiet and peaceful
 dappled-light covered patio
 and have a nice chat, shall we?

We'll use my harvest gold tea set. 

Its rich luscious fall colors make me smile.

I have 4 cups and saucers to the set; 

but we'll just use the two for us today.

Pretty ivory leaves-themed tablecloth,

Matching tea cosy and table runner. 

hand painted leaves serving tray,

vintage Woolrich woolen lap blanket,

autumn candles dressed up...

I think we're all set for our nice fall visit!

Tea for Two - has a nice friendly
 ring to it, does it not?

I recently tore apart a hideous arrangement

 (half of which was dirty,  gross and made of mostly cheap plastic)

 that I found at the GW for next-to-nothing.

But tucked in it were these high quality silk flowers

that just needed to be dusted off and used differently.

I also found this heavy green stoneware planter

 at my favorite secondhand store not too long ago, too. 

With very little effort I was able to put together a

lovely autumn arrangement

 using the nice bits & some greenery I already had.

This potted floral is the perfect size and look

for our little tea tray, and the cost was quite minimal.

Sometimes one needs to see

 beyond the ugly

to set free its beauty!

And don't forget to pick up those inexpensive single

 salad or bread plates while you are at the thrift store.

They really make perfect candle holders!

I love Autumn so much,

it's my very favorite season!

Thank you for joining me for tea today!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking: 

Sundays At Home     *   Mosaic Monday   *   Amaze Me Monday   *   

Tea time Tuesday   *  Friends Sharing Tea  *    Tuesdays at our Home

Inspire Me Tuesday   *   A Return to Loveliness  *   Tartan Parade

White Pumpkin on Garden Bench

I was walking into the kitchen this morning to grab anotther hot cuppa

when I looked out my back door and really saw this - 

and just thought it looked so beautiful in its simplicity.

And like a blogger tends to,

grabbed my camera wanting to share with all of you

 this lovely little moment...

before the rest of all those colorful leaves fall off,

and before the garden bench gets stored

for the cold winter months just around the corner.

A local community church

has its Pumpkin Patch For Charity event

going on right now -

and they had a "buy-two-get-one-free" sale.

I bought the two big orange ones I have on our front porch

(will share soon)

and got this nice white one free! 

Don't you just LOVE free?

It really is the simple things

that often bring smiles to our faces.

This was one of my simple times,

on a grey sunless kind of day.

Thanks for indulging me.

OK, now just where exactly did I leave that cuppa.....?

As always, thanks for stopping by!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Simple & Sweet Fridays

Blog Shop Linky Party

Every so often I like to remind folks there is a neat linky party called

BLOG SHOP where anyone - regardless of having a shop or not -

 may share something they wish to sell.

It's a fabulous forum to gather more exposure.

(And Beverly is just a sweetheart of a gal, too!)

It is a REALLY NEAT party, and I highly encourage everyone to 

take advantage of that great forum to get some exposure -

especially with the holiday gift -giving season looming at us soon.

Here are just a few things I have added recently with an autumn and Thanksgiving theme to help with entertaining

 to my own shop, FINCH REST EMPORIUM.

Just click on pics below to take you to the listing. 

A turkey small soup tureen

Set of 4 embroidered dinner napkins

(With specific free shipping)

Pumpkin salt/pepper set 

(With specific free shipping)

6 square stoneware dessert/appetizer/bread plates

Pinheiro Bordallo Majolica Chop Plate Charters

French Country Sugar & Creamer with china spoon

So if you are buying or selling or even just browsing...

you won't want to miss the fun over at 

How Sweet The Sound's BLOG SHOP party!

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

A Cute Pink Cupcake

I occassionally take my 3 nieces to paint pottery.

It's a quiet, artistic, relaxing and fun time together.

This is something I painted recently at one of our get-togethers.

It's a trinket jar with the top part that can come off.

I just adore how it came out...

sometimes it's hard to tell till after the firing.

BTW-

If you've never painted ceramic pottery before,

 I highly recommend doing it!

It is so much fun!

You will find all sorts of seasonal items to paint, too.

(Makes the nicest homemade gifts!)

And with the biggest gift-giving season

 just around the corner you have enough time to do so...

Think: teachers, mail carrier, pastor, neighbor, hostess gifts, etc.

Happy Pink Saturday!

Click on image below to take you to the to the party!

Also linking to:




(click image above to take you there also)

As always, thanks for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Go Buckeyes - beat Penn State tonight!

Stay #1 and undefeated!!

Whoo Hoo!

Teacup Exchange Part 1 - Margie

Each year, once in spring and once in fall 

sweet Stephanie from  The Enchanting Rose 

hosts a wonderful teacup swap!

This was my first year finally getting in on the fun,

 and what fun it has been!

I sent my first package to Debbie from
"She Graces Her Home" blog
who posted about it here. 

(I forgot to take pics of the treasures, oops.)

I did two swaps this time, so will do two separate posts

so a single post sharing both isn't too large.

I am so blessed and happy she first paired me up

 with Margie from Tea in the Valley blog.

This is what I excitedly opened up:

All sorts of goodies filled that big box up;

wonderful tea-themed everything!

A cute note card with a pic of macarons on it inside a teacup:

Margie knew I loved birds and included this cute tea towel
 in my package of delights:

Here's the other side:

My first and last name starts with an M -
these are simply perfect note cards for me!

This gorgeous ornament pompander will look perfect

 on my all-white-ornament Christmas tree! 

I may have to find fresh cut tree balsam oil for it!
In the meantime this orange scent is amazing!

What a unique lip balm - once again, tea themed!!!
The delights just went on and on!
I am so spoiled!!!!!

Margie mentioned that these delicious coffee crisps
 are quite popular in Canada -

(I have never seen them here in the States.)

Just look at this sampler pack of tea! WOW!

There isn't a single tea I have ever had before,
this has been super fun tasting them all!

I wish each of you could come over to try them with me!

Maple is such a symbol of Canada!

She included an awesome stainless steel teabag drip catcher!

(My husbs, an avid tea drinker, really likes it, too 'cuz it isn't so girlified!) 

But by far the highlight of this exchange was the lovely TEACUP!

She did some research on my blog
and remembered that October is my birthday month!

I have really wanted one of these beauties forever!

I absolutely ADORE this very special teacup by Royal Albert!

(It was wrapped up carefully in that beautiful birdie box!)

Oh, thank you so so much Margie, for all my lovelies!

Be sure to visit her blog when you can!

Again, it is Tea in the Valley.



PLEASE DON'T FORGET
 TO SEE THE OTHER TEACUP SWAP
I HAD WITH TAMMY -
 IT IS PART 2 OF THIS POST!!!
IT'S EASY TO MISS,
AND SHE DESERVES HER KUDOS TOO!



***And a HUGE thank you goes out to Stephanie***
 for hosting such an amazing and fun swap!

Be sure to hop on over to The Enchanting Rose
to see all the participants teacups!







As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Tea Time Tuesday