Indian Summer Days and a GBP giveaway!

I looooove Gooseberry Patch!

I have purchased many things from their catalogs over the years and I also had a (ridiculously simple) recipe published in one of their Christmas Cookbooks about 7 or 8 years ago, which I will have to dig out and post one of these days. So I have to spread the news when they are offering something wonderful..............sooooooo.....

If you are a GBP lover too, get on over to their new blog and check it out, it is soo cute and they are having 2 giveaways, one for a $200 G.C. (Yipppeee!) and another for 3 of their awesome cookbooks. Click the link on my side bar, scroll down and sign up!

You can send the email links to all your friends and sign up for the G.C. For the cookbooks you only have to post a link on your blog to sign up! How easy is that? Definately worth a try.

Their cookbooks are soooo wonderful, they have great recipes, craft projects and ideas, if you have never read one you will LOVE it! (no I do not work for them, I really do like their products! He, he!).

As for the autumn porch decorating contest thrown by Front porch ideas and more....THANK YOU to all of you who took the time to leave such wonderful comments for me, I love all my awesome blogger friends, your support was touching!!

My farmhouse porch wasn't the winner but Congratulations to Dee of Medford, Massachusetts, her beautiful porch was the winner! She was very deserving, what a cute porch she has! I have to say there were so many beautiful porches entered I just don't know how they made their final decisions, it must have been so hard!
Here's the link if you would like to drool a little over the other contestants photos, I did (I am a porch lover of all sorts)......

http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com/autumn-porch-decorating-contest-entries.html

With this post I will leave you with a few photos (okay, alot of photos) of a day trip we took the other day to my most favorite local historical places....Wharton State Forest. We dropped everything on one of those Indian Summer Days and headed out of doors for some sunshine and fresh air. and picture posin'.

The Old Saw Mill

A once abandoned town, now state forest, it is a historical site that is smack dab in the middle of the Pinelands, and it is nothing short of beautiful this time of the year. Once a functioning village, it made supplies during the revolutionary war for the continental army. As an iron working village it once used the bog iron that is rich in this area in it's production and later the village became a glassmaking community. Lots of history here, our family loves history.

The Corn Crib

My 11 year old daughter, said to me while there, "Do you ever wonder what keeps bringing us back to this place over and over again?", exclaiming how much she likes going there too. I did wonder once she said that, maybe something more than the peacfulness of this beautiful place has something more that keeps drawing me back there.

Do you have any place that brings you back time and time again, a place that you could never tire of?

Grist Mill

My 11 year old Kart Wheelin' Superstar!

The beautiful Autumn Colors.....enjoy the splendor

before winter takes hold!

My oldest (left) & a BFF....

She can't leave home without at least one of them!

THE HEN HOUSE

My tuckered out toddler....

Yes, he slept all the way home!

I will be back later this week with another post,

I am in the midst of finishing up a few projects and I have a surprise for you all too.

I hope you all are well and enjoying the beauty of this season!!

Hugz :o)......

Dee

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2009,

I hope you had a fun one.

Here's my lil' Scarecrow, all ready to go!
We had a last minute costume change! He kept that itchy hat on too!

My middle daughter all dressed up very scary.....she loves creepy scary.

In our house you have to be 10 and above for creepy scary.

My oldest no longer dresses up :o( ... so here are some photo's of
Halloween Past..

A pink lady, a greaser, and an bum, (with a cast from soccer), Oh My!

My oldest was also a scarecrow when she was little so it was fun to do that one again!

My middle daughter made a cute lil witch one year,

I sewed that costume (for many hours)!

Another homemade costume, an Indian princess, a hand me down from her sister.
I love it when all my hard work gets recycled!



Some spooky scenes from our house all decked out

in our halloween finery for a costume party!

A spooky menu....

Our creepy scarecrow greeting visitors at the door

with creepy music playing and a smoke machine makes a scary setting.

Witch cupcakes and witches brew,

with gummy eyeballs floating in it for special effects!








If you partake in the fun of the holiday, I hope that you enjoyed your visit to our "spooky" farmhouse! If you don't partake, well we can still be friends of course, stop back on a brighter day!


Thanks for visiting! Don't forget to leave a comment, and check out the Autumn Porch contest link on the top lefthand column of my blog. I do appreciate all of you who take the time to stop by and especially those of you who leave a comment! I will have a surprise coming up for my readers in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to stop in again!

Take Care,
Dee

An Autumn Evening

An Autumn Evening

Dark hills against a hollow crocus sky
Scarfed with its crimson pennons, and below
The dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lie
Cradling the twilight, where the lone winds blow
And wake among the harps of leafless trees
Fantastic runes and mournful melodies.

The chilly purple air is threaded through
With silver from the rising moon afar,
And from a gulf of clear, unfathomed blue
In the southwest glimmers a great gold star
Above the darkening druid glens of fir
Where beckoning boughs and elfin voices stir.

And so I wander through the shadows still,
And look and listen with a rapt delight,
Pausing again and yet again at will
To drink the elusive beauty of the night,
Until my soul is filled, as some deep cup,
That with divine enchantment is brimmed up.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery is one of my all time favorite authors. As a child I loved her stories about Anne's adventures. Later, as a teen, I enjoyed the series on television. Then, as a young adult I began to collect the series to watch at will. Now, as a mother, I am enjoying it all over again with my own daughters.

I am excited to report to anyone else who loves this series that they will be equally as happy to find that the story continues with another sequel! Anne of Green Gables, A New Beginning is the latest edition to this heartwarming collection. I truly do love these movies and cannot wait to put this under our tree this coming christmas, as a special daughter gift for the year. If you are interested, here is the website that will inform you of anything to do with Anne of Green Gables...enjoy.

http://www.anneofgreengables.com/Anne/Anne4//index.php

Have any of you been able to visit Avonlea in real life? I haven't yet, but it is on my bucket list. I hope to one day be a visitor here......

I was so happy to hear how many of you wanted to see some more of the Autumn at my farmhouse and thank you all for your comments! I really do enjoy reading them and discovering who has been here to visit me!

Now, I know how long I wait between my posts lately and with all good intentions, over the course of a few weeks, I continue to gather ideas and photos for a post. Oh! But it takes so long to get ready!

Once I am finally ready to do so I have so much to put into a single post that I hope I don't bore you all with the length of it!

I have a few more pictures to share with you all of my
Autumn Farmhouse that took a little transformation for the halloween holiday and will do so one more time for Thanksgiving....

Front Parlor Fireplace Mantel....

Complete with two Jack-O-Lanterns all ready for their big night!

My Autumn Dining Room- we already have a farmers market theme going on in there,

so the harvest decor goes along with it.

My kitchen hutch all decked out.

What Autumn Kitchen would be complete without carmel apples ready to go?

Our entryway has taken transformation for the frills of Halloween, if only for a short while.

A Halloween Tea pot all ready for my Witches Brew He, He, He!

I will have a Halloween Teaparty with my daughters the afternoon before trick or treating! Getting all ready for our big night! LOL

We love the fun theatrics of Halloween and we so love our tea parties!

And to go along with our teaparty I will be making this delish Paula Deen Recipe (I just love her!),

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Soooo, easy and soooo good!

Yum!

The link to the recipe if you care to try it....

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-gooey-butter-cakes-recipe/index.html

One last thing.....I have entered my porch at the recomendation of a few of my friends into the following harvest porch contest. If any of you would like to vote, please click on the link below and leave a comment! Of course I would love to win but check out the whole website if you have a porch addiction as I do, I loved all the pictures!

http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com/a-farmhouse-country-harvest.html

I hope you all have some wonderful activities planned for

the rest of the autumn season,

enjoy all the fun that October has to offer!

Don't forget to check my Farmhouse Mercantile (link above, top left)I have listed some new autumn signs and will be putting some Christmas goodies on there soon as well! Let me know what ya'll think!

I will be posting some scarier pictures the next time we meet, my middle daughter is having a halloween party and I would love to creep you out with our farmhouse makeover!

(If you are not too scared that is!)

Take Care,

Dee

Harvest at the farmhouse part 2

Well, hello my blogger friends,

it has been a little while!

Part two of my autumn tour has taken me some time but

I have been able to finally get a few more of my pictures on this here computer!

The farmhouse has been bustling with autumn decorating and activities. The leaves have begun to change and I have been gathering the the bittersweet vines the grow up and down my property to add to my ever changing indoor and outdoor displays. I love adding natural elements.

My children and I put together a farmer scarecrow to watch over our pumpkin harvest to greet our visitors. The porch is piled high with pumpkins!

Corn pulled from a cornstalk for the critters to nibble on....we can't forget our lil friends!

The monstrosity of a pumpkin you see her is a genuine fake! He, He!

I love it though, and I can use it year after year, so they are well worth the investment.

You can find me sitting here on a rocker in the early autumn evenings sipping some spice tea or a warm mug of cider. I love to heat up a small batch, put a little bit of cider in a saucepan, add a little brown sugar, a few red hots, and a cinnamon stick to your mug, keeps your hands toasty warm on those chilly evenings.

Another easy Autumn treat I like to make is carmel dip.....mmmm,

WARNING: This stuff is soooo good!

I am a busy momma and I like easy and quick recipes with as few ingredients as possible.

I think this one came from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, but I can't recall which one.

1 Bag of caramels unwrapped, one stick of butter chopped into pcs.

and 1 can sweetened condensed milk, put all ingredients into a microwave safe bowl.

Now are you ready for the hard part? Put the bowl into the microwave for 1 min. the first time, take out and stir, then back into microwave for 30 more seconds and repeat in 15 second intervals until warm and creamy! Whoo, that was rough!

Uhh, yeah it is this easy!

Serve it with cut up apples, we use Golden Delcious, pears, spicy wafers or ginersnaps. This is a nice treat on an autumns evening while watching a movie with the family or put in a small warming crock pot or fondue set when you have company.....I haven't met a soul who doesn't love this!

Gotta love those Gooseberry Patch Books!

I have been busy painting signs, trying to catch up on autumn and getting ready for the christmas season, things have been hectic here and tables, and counters have been covered in drying signs for a couple of weeks! I hope to post some of them in the Mercantile soon, but after my last absence you probably don't believe me, LOL! I really, really will this time though! So if you see a sign you like in my blog posts by all means shoot me an email and I can answer your questions regarding orders.

I have begun to put up the halloween decor and should be posting some more photos soon, my daughter is having a halloween party in October so I would like to have it all up by the end of next week.....I will share some more photos if you aren't sick of seeing them by then! Here's a peek of what I have already put up.

My happy lil Jack O Lantern greets you as you come in.

When he is lit up in the evening you can just imagine him giggling!

Another sign I have been working on and my friendly Witch Hilda sits on my bench seat in my front parlor all ready for her big night out!

Thanks for stopping by again,

I hope that you enjoyed your visit,

don't forget to leave a comment to let me know you were here,

I really do enjoy reading all of your sweet remarks!

Hmmm...should we do a 3rd part too, there really is more to show you?

Take Care,

Dee

My baby's Birthday...

My Baby has turned 3......

I just cannot believe how fast the past three years have flown by for us.

There are times I wish I could just hit rewind!

He was a a sweet blessing to our family 3 years ago, He is a peanut now, but don't let him fool you, he started out life as an almost 10 pounder! We round up a few ounces, since he was so close...

~~~

I am so grateful he is healthy and growing into a little boy. This child tells me he loves me 10 times a day, will wrap his arms around me at the drop of a hat and if you ask him, he will tell you he is Momma's baby. I know that will always be true but I also know that his displays of affection will probably not last as long as I hope it will, so I want to remember every bit of him being this way. Because I know someday the urge to rewind will be even stronger....

He asked for a monster truck cake. This was the best I could do on an hours notice! I thought we were going to be putting the little monster trucks ontop of the cake. Nope, he wanted it to BE a monster truck. So, with knife in hand, off I went. Cake a flyin' every which way!

Here is what I came up with.....it looks more like an old pickup, but he was pleased as punch and that is all that really matters. He ate one of the tires and upon putting the first bite into his mouth he exclaimed he now had a flat tire! Ha! Pretty good for a 3 year old, his lips were black for hours!

We had a houseful for family birthday night,

he was all cozy in new birthday jammies,

they were covered in cake before the night was over....boys!

Racing his new cars around the kitchen with his daddy and uncles...
they are all like little boys when all together, playin' with all of those toys, lol.

He climbed into my bed for storytime, since his room is undergoing some big boy changes right now. He soon fell asleep with his new truck from his pop-pop and grammie! I had to snap a few pictures to show them!

When I moved him into his own room that baby woke up for a few seconds, grabbed that truck in his clutches and carried it all the way to his bedroom half asleep!

He woke up the next day for his real birthday and a gift from us.....

He has wanted this for sometime and was so excited when he opened it,

he kept saying thank you and how he loves it.

You have got to love Fisher Price.....he still hasn't stopped playing with it.

And here we are hours later still playing.......

anything that can occupy a 3 year old this long is good!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy,

I love you so much!

Autumn's Grace......Part one.....

Well September has arrived and summer has been quietly wisked away. My children started back to school this week and all is now quiet in the farmhouse. It is a bittersweet quiet. I miss them when they are gone but I can get so much more done in a day. I do still have my little man here at home with me though, and he keeps me quite busy!

I am so happy that I still have him here with me, he is such a blessing!

~~~~~~

I had my husband take out the boxes of fall decor from our barn last week....oh boy does he hate that chore! I go a little overboard with the decorating from now until chirstmas but I absolutely love it. We host a halloween party, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my home and I love making it totally festive for the seasons. I have collected my decorations for a long time and use them in different ways each year. I have to say that no matter how big or little you decorate for the season the simple fact that you rejoice in the changing seasons, you are showing your family your love....and that is beautiful.

~~~~~~

I have only completed my living room and entryway so far and I plan to post everything in parts, it makes it more fun than rushing to get it all out at one time! I like to take my time and allow my home to gracefully change seasons exactly the way mother nature allows our world to gracefully change over......

When you enter through my front door, just past the pumpkin filled porch of my home, you are greeted with.....an autumn sign and festive wreath, the pumpkin spice candle burns in the early evenings encompassing you with cozy smells of the season upon your entry.

Down the center hall you come to the living room, the everyday tones of this room have already set the stage for an autumnal atmosphere, the warm yellow walls, red sofa, and sage greens all somehow blend in.

A wreath, instead of being hung on the wall, is laid on the table and an antique bowl popped into the middle creates a base for a candle holder....

Those peely and chippy panels in the back of my bookshelves are the real deal...I picked up a set of them at an antique store years ago to give my bookshelves more personality. I like the textured backdrop they provide for my collectibles.

I hope that you are feeling comfortable here now...have a seat and look around, here is my favorite well worn chair. A make shift end table made from an old peely chippy (love that) crate lifts an old picnic basket up to exactly the right height for me to place a warm cup of tea, a quilt right at hand for snugglin in the colder weather drapes across the chair. This room has a woodstove that when fired up in winter warms this room just right, it is in the process of being painted right now for the coming cold months so I will show that when there is a roaring fire going in it.

On that table beside the favorite chair is a pile of old books.....love the 1931 diary, an interesting read picked up in an antique store. I am amazed at how simple their lives were then and the things they held dear were simple and pure. The color is what attracted me though, they are tied in a pile to keep them safe from my young son's hands and artwork!

A simple pumpkin colored spice candle picked up at a chain store is placed upon my toileware dinnerware, I like the simplicity of this and it will be changed out for a green candle at christmas time. It cost me $2, and the plate would just be sitting inside my china cabinet all the year through anyway......a simple, inexpensive touch for the season.

Although this room is used primarly for reading and quiet time, we do still have a television in here that my husband and I occassionally watch, when our children are occupying the family room with games or friends. I decorated the top of my entertainment cabinet with some seasonal accents too.









The picture is of my husband with our two daughters. Our middle child then the baby inside a back pack, they are standing in the middle of a pumpkin patch. Placing your seasonal memories in frames is a great and inexpensive way to decorate your home, I change them out for the seasons too. They were so little then....sweet memories!

A simple autumnal colored bowl from your kitchen can inexpensively be filled with real acorns, and things from around your yard or nearby park or you can pick up some faux mini pumpkins from the local craft store for $1 a bag as I have done here.

I patched together some autumn colored fabric squares....this can be made with scrap fabric or old clothing. It is just a basic straight stitch, I hope to finish it into a mini quilt it one of these days.

Another seasonl figurine under my cloche has been changed out for the season....my favorite decoration right now, the small children praying over their harvest, reminding us to be ever thankful for all that we receive. I covered those paper mache boxes in some calico to raise up the cloche and display the piece, giving it a little more importance.

I like to decorate in different scales in my home, raising and lowering things to grab your attention and surrounding it with different textures, the soft fabric, the rough cornstalk, shiny glass gives displays interest.

That completes part one of my autumn tour.......here is a peek at part two coming next week, a small hutch in the corner of our front parlor. I will have the front porch, kitchen, dining room and family room posted soon as well.

~I hope you have enjoyed my first tour .....Be back soon!~

Take Care,

Dee

May God Bless America...9/11

~~I pray the families that have suffered so greatly from our nations tragedies have peace and contentment. May all Americans pray for our country and it's people in this struggling world. There has never been a better time to do so.~~~