Getting into the fall groove

I've loved, loved, loved our northwest summer weather, but it's the 1st week of October, and fall is on it's way.  I added a few fall touches over the weekend.


The front porch

 

And here's a super easy sweet treat for fall...

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Acorns

source

1. Melt 1/2 bag of Mini-Chips {5 second interval in the microwave, stirring really good each time}
2. Dip the flat end of the Hershey's Kiss into melted chocolate and top with a bite-size NutterButter.
3. Dip the flat end of a Mini-Chip into the melted chocolate and stick it to the NutterButter.

 Can't wait to try these!


Hope you're seeing signs of fall in your neck of the woods.

I'm linking to the following parties:
Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Petie

Going Camping - Not Glamping

We're headed to Mossyrock, WA this week for a few days of camping.  

This is what my garage looks like as I gather our camping gear for the trip.

We camp with 3 other families and divide up the dinners/breakfasts (lunch is every man
for himself).  We eat pretty well, no beans and weanies for these families.  The dinner
menus consist of flank steak, chicken/beef fajitas, pork tenderloin, etc, but it still doesn't
compare with 'glamping'.  Are you familiar with this term?  Glamping is glamorous
camping.  Here are some great images of glamping I found at google images. 

Our version of  'glamping' is buying a tent this year that we can actually stand straight up in,
but this other version looks pretty good too!

Summer Has Arrived!

The title of my post must sound crazy to some of you, but it's true.  We're finally experiencing some steady sunny days here in the NW with temps in the 80's.  Love it!

These are lemons, if they ever turn yellow??

Strawberry plant from my dear friend, Heather, at My Everyday Graces.

The nicer weather has inspired me to do a little freshening up outside.  I posted here about our backyard getting an update last year.  We are really enjoying the water feature.

I used these fabrics to make a few seat cushions and an accent pillow to liven up the seating areas.  They're outdoor fabrics from Joann's.

 I did some cutting to get just the right flower for the front of my pillow.

 This is what I wanted for the center of the pillow.

 Here it is with a couple of store bought pillows from last year.

I backed it with the contrasting fabric and used an envelope closure (see the lens cap)

because I'm terrible at finishing a pillow with a hand stitch.

Here's the other side of the patio.

As you can see, I didn't even finish these seat cushions, but just 

tucked the remaining unsewn side like a pillow case.

  I hope summer lasts awhile!

I'm linking to the following parties:

Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings

Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just A Housewife

Outdoor Wednesdays at A Southern Daydreamer

Spring has finally sprung in the NW

Today we reached 70 here in the NW, so I took a walk around the yard to see what was popping up.  

This is what I found.

Japanese maple about to spread it's wings.

 Hostas, thank you for returning!

 Newly planted rhododendron.

 Can't wait to see how many hydrangea's we get this year.

 This pansy was nice enough to return.  I thought they were annuals?

 Sunset maple tree just starting to fill out.

 Black-eyed Susan's that I hope will spread to cover about a 3' section in the front garden.

 More hosta's working hard to come up.

 Dogwood bushes that were so big last summer they had to be cut back quite a bit.

 And, the plant with the most success so far....a potted azalea.   

Beautiful color!

 

This picture below is from the fall (see all the leaves). 

We recently had these two large topiaries at the front entrance removed. These have been

here since we moved in over 10 yrs ago.  I really liked them, but they were becoming too

top heavy and were hard to prune.

This is how our front entrance looks now.

 I like being able to see more of the house.  

Now I just need to get busy planting some color!

Happy Spring!

A Week of Spring in the NW

After several weeks of rain, this is what the weather is looking like this week in the NW...

(photo courtesy of kptv.com)

It may still seem a little cool to most, but I'll take it!  You'd be surprised how good the sun

feels on your face after so many days of rain/clouds.  

Enjoy the week all you Northwesterners!

(and everybody else too :)

Really, Mother Nature?

This is what we woke up to this morning...

We went to bed with "School tomorrow?"  Maybe, maybe not?

Just enough snow to be a MAYBE NOT, no school!

The kids don't seem to care that every snow day adds one more day to the end of the school year.

These pictures are all taken in my pjs, with coffee in hand and just one foot out the door.

I'm not a cold weather person....I'm ready for this ~

(Beautiful beach images courtesy of google.)