Let's visit with Amy

Let's visit with my niece Amy today to check out her Halloween decor and goodies. Check out the cute fridge magnets. Judging by height, I'd say my great niece Makenzie put them up. 

I love her fall runner. This is one of the no sew runners. Amy is the one who introduced me to no-sew runners and I've been making them like crazy the last few years.

Simple and sweet. I love this.

Hmm. These look familiar. Wonder if Amy loves her as much as I love mine. Thank you Target.

Don't you love the glow from the pumpkin reflecting on the wall. That is so cool.

She did say they do a lot of Halloween themed food this time of year.

The glass and plate came from Krogers and the pumpkin mug is Fiestaware. I'm in love. I need to stop at Kroger to see if we have these and get one for my granddaughter Alexis. She's owl crazy.

Amy and her family along with my sister and brother-in-law went to Disneyworld recently. Check out their Halloween attire. I love it. And yes, that's Rachel, my sister who we featured for fall not too long ago. Amy is her daughter.

Amy even features hand soap for fall/Halloween.

Look at Makenzie's cute outfit. She's all decked out. I call her the queen of the hair bow.

Amy bought the Monster Pyrex bowl.

I'm guessing this is in Makenzie's room. Too adorable.

More Halloween soap.

I think a lot of my family uses these refrigerator magnet memo pads. We always change them out for every holiday. 

These are custom cookies that someone gave Amy.

She has a very pretty front entrance.

Love the mail box cover!

When I talked to her the other day, they were getting ready to make Halloween cupcakes. Makenzie loves to bake. I even have a picture hanging of her in my kitchen where she was just a year old and dressed in a bakers hat and apron with a big mixing bowl.

So from Amy and Mackenzie, Happy Halloween!

It's getting closer.....

I featured this post on October 12th. . I just found out recently that Brittany & Emili not only do amazing crafts and decorations, but they also love to cook. Both girls are so talented and aren't afraid to experiment with new ideas. I have asked them to visit back frequently so I can share some of their other items in the future. I can't wait to see what they do for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hope you are all looking forward to more ideas from Em & Brit! I know I am.

Today's featured family decor is my niece Emili and her friend and roommate Brittany Batross. Emili is the Queen of Halloween in the family. If there is a haunted house or a scary movie anywhere in traveling distance, she has either been there or is planning a trip in the future. She and Brittany have just completed their fall/Halloween decor and it is adorable. Brittany and Emili are both very talented with lots of great ideas for crafts and decor. You'll see what I mean about their love for Halloween in the following pictures.

Definitely the queens of Halloween. Only people I know who even buys their cereal based on the holiday theme.

The little pumpkin and skeleton glasses are just adorable.

I like how they did the staircase.

Check this out. They made this themselves.

Oh my gosh, this one is hysterical. I love it!

Even the fur baby is having to deal with their Halloween madness. Poor puppy looks like it's saying "Nothing is safe from being decorated around here." Just too cute.

I forgot to mention they are huge football fans. Gotta get their game decor in here as well.

I absolutely love these shirts.

Another fur baby fell victim to the decor. 

Told you this is one of their fave holidays. So from Emili & Brittany's house to your house, HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Happy dance!

I went to our local McKay's where you can trade in books and DVD's for store credit. I am so happy with my results today. I was hoping to get $5 - $10 because I didn't think they would take some of my books. But they took them all and I ended up with store credit of $45.39!!! 

I looked at the seasonal books first and found several Christmas books that I can read in November and December. I read one - two books per week. So I got 7 new Christmas books. For years, I have tried to find books revolving around romance at the Thanksgiving holiday but never found any...until today. Found one simply called Thanksgiving. I'm getting ready to start it in the next day or two. 

Catherine Anderson is a fave author of mine and she has a new one coming out any day now for the Christmas season. I wanted to get it when it is released but then I realized it is part of a series. Turns out there were three previous books in the serious and guess what? I FOUND ALL THREE TODAY! So I got those as well. 

But the icing on the cake was finding two DVD's. One is Christmas Comes to Willow Creek. My all time favorite Christmas movie. It is the movie I always watched on VHS every year when I wrap Christmas presents. About 4 or 5 years ago I wore a hole in the tape and have been looking for this on DVD forever. I just about did a happy dance right in the middle of McKay's. 

Here was my hall: Got $45.39 in store credit. Bought retail value of $133.87 in books and movies for just $36.05. That means I still have $9.34 in store credit for my next trip. Do you see why I had a great day?

Totally Frivolous

This post will be a little frivolous today since it doesn't have any serious purpose or value. Just filled with things I want to show you that have nothing in common. Starting with this little crocheted witch and broom with a cauldron. That is so cute.

I have been trying to find the right size bag for work. I have a craft bag that I tried and it was perfect. But I don't want to keep moving my crafts in and out on work days. So I am ordering one like it and personalizing it for taking to work every day. Here is the preview for my newest Thirty-One bag. I was thrilled to find out we had a horseshoe icon. What a perfect fit for the Dixie Stampede. 

I also need a coordinating mini pouch to miscellaneous items like nail clippers, headache medicine, Band Aids, etc. I think this will be a good one to go with it.

Saw these cute boots online. I don't have any jeans they would look good with but boy do they look warm.

I found a place to order Chrome Nail Polish. I love doing my toes a little wild since you can't see them when I work.We have limits on the colors of our fingernails, but since we wear closed toe shoes nobody cares what our toes our polished.

This popped up in my Facebook memories recently. For years I collected Emmett Kelly, Jr. figurines. Imagine how thrilled I was years ago to actually meet him in person and get him to sign a few of my figurines. It was amazing. I still have a lot of my collection.

For some reason I found this absolutely hysterical.

Another Facebook memory popped up with this recipe from a couple years back. Peanut butter mini muffins stuffed with a mini Reese cup. I need to make these again.

I adore crazy, warm socks. Apparently I always have because this picture is from when I was 17 or 18 and I'm now 60. That's a lot of years to like warm, wild socks.

Let's end today with a little humor.......

Memories

Some stock photos you see online just take you back to another place and time. This one popped up in my Facebook today from where my sister shared it with me a year or two ago. Definitely brings back memories. Our house was not like this at all. We had a nice little house with white siding, a front porch and a back patio. But we didn't have running water at first. I would only have been about 3 or 4 but can vividly remember when we had the old hand pump like pictured to the left in the above photo. It was on the kitchen counter until Daddy got a nice sink and faucets put in. And we didn't have a bathroom. Just an old outhouse. Mom heated water on the stove and poured it in an old galvanized tub like seen above for us to take a bath. And Mommy always did the laundry in a winger washer. She had another galvanized tub that sat up on legs to rinse the clothes in. We got a full bathroom with toilet, tub and running water by the time we started school. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich. Daddy just got a good deal on the house and had to fix it up as we could. It went from a two bedroom, kitchen and living room to a three bedroom, kitchen, living room and bath by the time we were about 8 or 9. Then in later years, the back patio was enclosed and the bathroom reduced in size to create another small bedroom and a laundry room off the kitchen. The middle room which was a bedroom when we were little became a family/dining room. My brother actually lives in the old home place now and he has done even more remodeling and it actually has city water and sewer now so the home of old is just a fond memory. Even though we didn't have a lot, we never realized it because we had something a lot of people didn't have....A home full of love. Pride in who we were and what we stood for. We had family values and were taught to love an respect everyone...no matter what race or belief system they had. We were well adjusted children living in a home full of love. Such wonderful memories.