A Perfect Fall Day

This weekend we teamed up with Luca's best friend and his wonderful family 

for a day of fun on a nearby orchard/farm.

Its that amazing time of year when we get to pick apples that I hope to bake into pies

and pumpkins that we will carve for Halloween.

Homestead Farm is wonderful place to visit and there is lots to do there...

What a gorgeous place--I love coming here...

There are these huge bails of hay the kids can jump off of...

Lots of room to run around and play catch the big Sis..

You can have your very own wheel barrow pushed by your very own dad...

Picking Pink Lady apples...

Eating Pink Lady apples...

Heading off to the pumpkin patch..

The booty.

Waiting patiently for lunch complete with  caramel apples...

Our day on the farm...so wonderful!! 

A perfect way to spend the day.

Hats on...

Hats off...

They are cute, aren't they??

Late Summer Gardening

 We planted some perennials this weekend that we bought on sale at our local nursery.

We are taking it slow, planting new bed by new bed, as we can...my hope is to cover the whole front yard in flowers, herbs and lovely leafy greens...kind of like an English Garden with edibles!

I'm not a big fan of grass--I'd rather have habitat for bees and butterflies.

The plants all look so small!!

But I am sore today with all the digging and soil-amending we did.  Picture: shovels and a pickaxe!

Our back yard compost pile (that I basically just kind of ignore) turned out to be amazing
and I used all we had to help enrich the soil.

Love the thought of last season's veg scraps feeding my flowers today!

We planted native plants like yarrow, echinacea, salvia and cat mint...

Will probably make adjustments to bed next Spring to make things fit better
and will get more filler plants like herbs and shrubs..but for now, its a good start!

Looking forward to when these plants get so established
that we can actually split them up and plant the newly divided plants into more beds...

An actual landscape professional was driving down our street and he stopped to admire our work...

I told him we basically didn't really know what we are doing--but that we had a general idea and we know what plants we like.  

He said we were totally on the right track and he loved our choices of these BOLD plants..

Bold, I thought...I like that!  

DIY Yarn Beard!

There really isn't a whole lot more to say...except that:

This weekend, I made a beard--out of yarn--for Luca...

I don't know where this idea came from and 

I am still not exactly sure why I made it...

but I do know HOW I made it

 and the directions are below...

so you can make your very own.

: )

I took a sheet of brown felt and holding it up to his face, 

I traced Luca's jaw line from ear to ear, around his chin.  

Then from ear to ear, under his nose--cutting out a hole for his mouth; 

(dipping just a bit from ear to nose instead of doing a straight line..)

I drew three lines below the hole for the mouth from ear to ear.

  Starting at the bottom and working my way up, 

I slowly machine-sewed loops of yarn close together on each line.

I snipped the loops.  

Then, I sewed loops of yarn on the top to make the mustache.

I sewed a piece of elastic on either side (by ears) to keep it on.

And then I gave it a trim...

very important...

and the fun part!

He kind of looks like Abe Lincoln, don't you think??

Canning on Labor Day

For a third year in a row, Magdalena and I have canned with Grandmom.  

This year, we processed 40 lbs of tomatoes which 

yielded about 18 quarts of raw-packed tomatoes.

The boys were a big help!  

And 20 lbs of peaches, which made about 12 pints of sliced peaches in a light, sweet syrup.

Hard working ladies...

Our kitchen was like a hot, humid swamp...fun!

But so worth it.

Peeling & slicing up tomatoes..

Then filling up jars--

Doesn't Magda look like one tough girl?!  : )

The peaches are sweet and bright and great over vanilla ice cream.

And nothing is as great as pulling a jar of tomatoes
off the shelf in the middle of January that you canned in the summer...

Thanks Magda and Grandmom for all your help & hard work!

Back to School!

Yes, hard to believe...today was the first day of school.

Magda started 2nd grade and Luca...(sniff, sniff) started Kindergarten.

That is Luca's gangsta sign for Kindergarten, btw...

We all desperately needed a mellow weekend, 

so besides some running around for last minute

school supplies--we basically just hung around the house.  

Magda made this absolutely lovely decoupage cigar box for her hair ties.

She did it all herself...I am so proud!

And here are some shots from the kids at school this first morning of class...

Does anyone else bawl like a baby dropping their kids off on the first day of school??

There is just something about the start of Kindergarten 

that gets me every time!!

Summer Slip 'n Slide

Summer is slowly coming to an end..the kids go back to school next week

and Greg started back with meetings today.  I have taken a little time off from the blog but hopefully
 I will be back, in the swing of things, next week--with more home-made projects than ever! 

  

But in the meantime, I just wanted to share--that while our family does try our best
to be as crafty as possible...

sometimes you just can't beat a $5 sheet of good old plastic from Target.

Ahh, the days of the Slip 'n Slide...

Magda & my iPhone

My birthday was a couple weeks ago and all I wanted to do was take the day off work, 

hang out with my family and make a special meal...home-made pasta.  

That is exactly what we did and I asked Magda to document the meal-making part of the day, 

which she happily obliged--using the camera on my iphone.  

She took a LOT of photos, and I thought it would be fun to share the best ones 

(they were all good!) but here are the best.  Tweaking courtesy of me and Instagram...

Making the pasta dough

Luca & the pasta maker

Putting the dough thru

Still life with Luca

 : )

Fresh pasta drying

Thru a wine glass.

Still Life with Cat

With Lemon

With me!

Awesome job, Magda!!  I love your photos!!

Thanks for taking such fun shots of my special day!!