Autumn Celebration

What a Difference a Day Makes!

2007-11-27T19:06:00.001-08:00

How does the weather go from leafy-adventures temperature to 3 inches of snow in one day? The minions were very excited and there was immediate talk of a snowman.

At least it helps to put one in the Holiday Spirit!

Or in my case, in a Holiday crafting frenzy!

Chilly Weather

2007-11-05T14:18:00.001-08:00

Chilly weather is definitely upon us and what better way to warm up than a nice bonfireand smores.

Marshmallow-moustashe-y goodness :)

Bright Ideas

2007-10-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

I had a bright idea this year where I would sew up some Halloween costumes for the minions. I have a little bit of little man's monkey suit to finish up this afternoon but I managed to start and finish little miss' Red Riding Hood Cape this morning. I think it's a hit.

At least little man digs it. The kicker is that I was at the store the other day scoping out some Halloween costumes that were on sale for potential dress up stuff to use as Christmas presents and I saw this little white snow princess something-or-other ensemble that I thought about picking up for little miss because I figured she would wear that no problem. I didn't pick it up because "Everyone loves a cape right? She'll wear it.". Ha ha. We will have to see how it goes. She may go Trick or Treating as little miss this year :)

Perfect Days

2007-10-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

We were blessed with a lovely warm fall day this weekend, perfect for a leaf pile. The minions enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

More photos can be found on my blog.

My personal Monsterfest and an Fall Kitty

2007-10-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is my first post because I have spent all free time leading up to this past weekend knitting 3 shawls, sewing a dress for my 9 month old, and hemming and altering my bridesmaid's dress. I was doing all of this for my SIL's wedding. It was a truly beautiful fall wedding! I hope to upload a few shots to share. Until then, here is a Pointy Kitty I have made up from the Wee Wonderfuls site in some very Autumn colors. The kitty turned out much smaller than I expected, but it was not too bad to make.

For the past few years, my husband and I have taken time in October to have our own little MonsterFest. AMC used to have some really great ones, then they started putting commercials in them, and then the movies started being from the late 70s and up to the 90s. I'm a big fan of older movies, and this just was no good for me. So we make up our own. Tonight we will begin the festivities! We haven't exactly gigured out when we will watch what, but these are the movies I hope to work in over the next 15 days:

Phantom of the Opera - 1925
Diary of a Madman - 1963
Village of the Damned - 1960
Children of the Damned - 1964
House of Dark Shadows - 97 min (if we run out of time, this will be one of the first on the dropped list)
The Beast with Five Fingers - 1946
Masque of the Red Death - 1964
Tower of London - 1939
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 1956
The Leopard Man - 1943
Kwaidan - 1964
The Mysterious Doctor - 1943
The Walking Dead - 1936
And the MXC Monster Episode, Monsters vs. Mascots

We love our MonsterFests, and what is great about this year is that we've only seen two of these before! Each year we think we've seen it all and there will be nothing new, but then we search and find new, old, scary movies to watch!

I must also get to work on my 4 year old's Halloween costume. He wants to be Rodney Copperbottom from the movie Robots. I think I have some scrap fabric that will work, and he wants to use boxes to make his costume, so I have a bit of thinking to do.
Will report with more before too long!

Photos of Fall

2007-10-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

All 3 of these photographs were taken by my lovely (yet blogless) SIL who was kind enough to e-mail them to me for posting.

More of her work can be found here.

Camo

2007-10-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

I knitted this little camo set for my brother and SIL's upcoming bundle that is due to arrive this December. Probably not a coloway that immediately comes to mind when knitting for a baby, but they like camo...

All 3 pieces were knit using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Camouflage colorway. I used this pattern for the pants and US5's The socks and hat were knit on US3's and for the patterns I just used your basic St st sock with a short row heel and 2x2 rib for the hat.

I thought camo, corn field... it falls into the category of Autumn :)

Samhain

2007-10-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough last year to obtain 2 skeins of Samhain from Jo of Celtic Memory Yarns. She has such a lovely designer yarn series :) I began this shawl mid-October of last year and was not able to finish it before Samhain so I have been waiting ever-so-patiently to show pictures of it. I took this photograph last week when it was actually sunny out and have since endured a rather lengthy stretch of rainy and overcast weather with no immediate end in sight. So, I thought I would at least post this shot (even though I'm not really taken with it) with great hopes of obtaining a better photo of the shawl in the upcoming week or so.

Despite the recent weather, I was in full Autumn enjoyment mode this afternoon when I made a lovely batch of apple crisp and some applesauce from the apples that the minions and I bought during our Orchard outing last week. Mmmmm, I love that smell!

Orchard visits

2007-10-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

There is an orchard in Central Iowa that I have been visiting annually since I was a wee thing. Of course back then it was "out in the boonies" and now it is surrounded by suburban cookie-cutters, my how times change. Today I took my minions to that very Orchard to buy some apples and to let them check out all the pumpkins. We ended up taking home 3 pumpkins which weighed in at a whopping 49lbs. Let the carving begin!

The minions have been a little wishy-washy with their Halloween costume selections for the year (mainly my oldest as little miss still has no clue about the holidays and may end up wearing her big brother's Spider Man costume from last year) and that has been making me a little nervous as I've been watching the calendar days fly by . My eldest minion finally told me that he really wants to be a monkey this year. So, I bought some brown fleece at the fabric store and since they had no 'monkey' costume patterns I took home a penguin pattern and a dragon pattern in the hopes that I can sort of combine the two of them into some sort of recognizable monkey form. Wish me luck. I may end up just draping the fleece over him ghost-style and attaching a sign that says "I'm a monkey, honest!".

Harvest

2007-10-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

For anyone who lives in or around the Midwest, this is a common site that brings about thoughts of Harvest.

I know the farmers in my family are busy at it and I've seen other combines out and about in various fields around Iowa.

Soon all of the lush green fields that surrounded us throughout the summer will gone until next year.

If you are interested, there are several sites online that discuss Harvest and various Harvest festivals!

Fall in Oregon

2007-10-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful place that Oregon! I was just beginning to see the leaves change in the Midwest and I was greeted with this site It's not all green though, I did manage to find a few spots of color :)

I've noticed people in the neighborhood have started their Halloween decorations, I'll have to take the camera with me next time I take the minions for a walk. How's your autumn going?

Out of town

2007-09-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let you know that I will be out of town today thru late Sunday so if anyone wants to join I will try to get online while I'm gone but if not, I will check Monday morning. Enjoy all of the changing colors!

Welcome

2007-09-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, I thought that I would start by introducing myself and give a little information about this site. Last year I had the good fortune to get involved in a Monster-A-Long and really enjoyed seeing all of the little monsters and other Halloween-y creations so when I found out that last year's host was unable to host one this year I decided that I would start up a site. Soon after that decision was made I started to notice the changing leaves and thought that there was so much that I love about Autumn that I would open it up to incorporate anything and everything that has to do with Autumn - colors, food, Halloween, monsters, celebrations, cooler temperatures, beautiful scenery... the list goes on and on. So feel free to display whatever it is that you love about this time of year in your chosen craft!

I should probably mention that I am the only individual in the world that does not currently have Print Shop or Adobe Elements... (I'm working on it) so feel free to help me out with a button. Enjoy!