Wow! What a blessing.  My cousins in California, Dennis & Linda, contacted me about this quilt.  It’s over 100 years old and it belonged to my Aunt Catherine (Dennis’ mom and one of my mom’s sisters).  My great-grandmother Nettie, whom I never met, made the quilt top – stitched it by hand and my Aunt Catherine quilted the top to the back by hand.  My cousin, Linda added the “History Heart Patch” to the back of the quilt.  She told me it’s called a “Sampler Quilt” because all the squares are different, there’s not a pattern.  I just love it!  My great-grandmother grew up on a farm in Illinois – I think it’s cool that Nettie started this quilt in a little farmhouse in Illinois over 100 years ago and it has now ended up at her great-granddaughter’s farmhouse! 😉

Thank you Linda & Dennis for this very special gift!

I took a few days off between Christmas and New Year’s, partly to recover from the holidays, partly to do nothing and then partly I had to do “something”.  I was able to get the pocket door for my new bathroom painted and put in – yahoo!!!  I LOVE IT!  Thanks to Chippey for the muscle help and his wife Meg for the assist!  I had decided to use a door knob instead of the basic “pocket door pull”.  I found this one at Home Goods over a year ago and it’s been waiting patiently to be used.  If you shop at Home Goods you KNOW that if you see something you like you better buy it then, because it won’t be there when you go back!  I used my “hole saw” to cut the hole for the knob.  I don’t know why they call it a “hole saw”?  It’s actually a bit that you attach to your drill – oh well.  The ONLY thing I’m not happy about is that I realized that the framers “framed in” the pocket door kit too high – which means the one in the dinning room is also too high!  The doorway height is 84″ – seriously!!!  A normal door is only 80″ high!!  Even adjusting the rollers guides does not bring it down enough – pooooooooo!  Oh well – note to self!!  Now I just need to finish off the door trim! 😉

So I totally have been sucked in by the “fairy garden” craze.  I bought this container earlier this summer at Joanne’s.  I wanted something mobile and enclosed so this was perfect.  I’ve just collected a few little things for now and want to go “big” with an outside fairy garden maybe next year.  But for now I love my little Christmas Fairy Garden.  We are all just little kids at heart – LOL.

I got to catch up with an old friend over the weekend.  Her family moved to Castle Rock several years ago and we just lost touch.  We met up for lunch and had some time to check out “The Barn” in Castle Rock.  Oh my word – my mouth was wide open in delight and wishing I had all day to investigate!  I found this metal art, that I of course fell in love, with for my backyard.  I never thought about metal art before but I seem to have a little collection.  I love the bright colors!

I’m so excited about my first pumpkin harvest!  I still have about 10 more on the vine which I’m hoping will still turn orange but we’ve had a cold snap blow through so I’m not sure what will happen to those.  Pumpkins are the easiest thing to grow, low maintenance for sure.  I love the “Jack-O-Lanterns”, they a bit bigger and are really good and round.  However, I’m not loving the “Halloween Blend”, which are the smaller orange ones and the white ones.  The smaller orange ones aren’t bad but all the white ones are weird shapes.  I’ll have to do some homework on pumpkin seeds for next season!

I found these rusty looking metal 9″ letters on clearance at Joann’s last week.  It was slim pickens and they didn’t have a “v” so I bought a second “a” and used a grinder to cut the middle out and turned it upside down, lol – where there’s a will there’s a way (dog with a bone, right Marsha)!  I bought a pine 1″x8″x6′ board from Lowe’s and used some left over outdoor paint and stain I already had to paint it.  I was hoping the upholstery nails I bought would go through the metal but of course not just bent the heck out of them, lol.  I had to pre-drill some holes then nailed the letters to the board.  The board was about $10 and the letters were about $1 each – not too shabby for less than $20.  I love how it turned out!  Gettin’ ready for my Harvest Party!

Thanks to my son-in-law, Matthew, for putting my “outdoor heater” together for me!  I actually bought this last year during the “Black Friday” sale at Lowe’s, it’s on wheels for easy moving and the drink tray is moveable, up or down.  If you’re in the market for one, wait till then – it’ll be $50 OFF!

I finished the fire pit last night after work – getting ready for my “Harvest Party”!  It’s ready to go . . . I found these pavers/bricks at Lowe’s and they’re only $1.26 each.  Super easy to put together.  Here’s the link:  http://tinyurl.com/grt96aa   Whose ready for S’MORES?

I found these signs in California when I was out there for my reunion in August.  I love them and finally got them up in my dinning room.  I found the little arrow at Hobby Lobby.  I thought “mirth” might mean wine, lol, but this works too . . . looking forward to some “mirth” at my Harvest Party!

Mirth: glee, hilarity, merriment, jollity, joviality refer to the gaiety characterizing people who are enjoying the companionship of others. Mirth suggests spontaneous amusement or gaiety, manifested briefly in laughter: uncontrolled outbursts of mirth. Glee suggests an effervescence of high spirits or exultation, often manifested in playful or ecstatic.