Happy Halloween!

I've got a platter full of cookies, a little crockpot full of nacho cheese, a giant bag of chips, and a bowl of candy all ready for our neighborhood Halloween party tonight!

It's been appropriately cold and grey outside all day. I've been cozy inside with hot tea, candles and my favorite Halloween movie, Arsenic and Old Lace.

Now if the rain will just hold off so the little goblins can trick-or-treat. I know, I am always saying how much I want it to rain, but really?! The second time we're supposed to get rain in 6 months and it has to be on Halloween? Oh well!

 

One of my fellow husbandless C17 friends is coming over to share in the festivities tonight. It's been a real fall day and a good one at that! Maybe next year J will actually be home for a Halloween :) At least his pumpkin will be glowing tonight.

Carving pumpkins

Sunday we decided we had better carve our Halloween pumpkins. This is the first time J and I have ever carved pumpkins together! He's always gone this time of year for one reason or another. (He's missing Halloween again this year, but we got in the pumpkin carving before he took off this time!) We went to Mike and Lynn's house and they shared their stencils and tools and we ha a grand time and made a huge mess. But, we did get pumpkin seeds out of it, 4 whole pumpkins worth! And then we watched Sunday night football and played hand and foot later while enjoying the toasted seeds. All in all a fun evening.

 

 Lynn contemplating her design

 The boys getting started

 J working on his headless horseman

 Lynn working on her cat jumping out of a pumpkin

 The finished product! Headless Horseman

 And my cat under the moon. It's really in memory of Christopher who really did enjoy Halloween night :)

 The 2012 Scherff family pumpkins

 And just across the street: Mike's skull and cross bones and Lynn's cat and pumpkin.

 Two big trays of roasted pumpkin seeds. Just butter and kosher salt and about 45-60 minutes at 300 degrees. The whole house smelled heavenly and they tasted great too.

And I just couldn't throw away my little cat, he looked so perfect. So he's lurking outside our house, at least until Halloween is over. :)

Book Reviews

 At Home in Mitford  At first I didn't love this book. Typical of Christian fiction the writing is merely OK, and I found the town, characters and story to be unrealistically and almost sickeningly perfect. I did like all the scripture references woven into the story. After a 100 pages or so though, I found myself liking the book better. I was getting to know everyone and wondering what would happen next. I liked reading about the changing seasons. I like her descriptions too, not the best ever written but nice. There is enough gloom and doom in real life, its kind of nice to imagine there is a place like Mitford still left somewhere in the world. I admit its not stellar, but its cozy and sweet. I find myself looking forward to the rest of the books.

 Hallowe'en Party  This was probably the most disturbing Christie book I've ever read. not scary exactly, but disturbing. Disturbing because it involves the murder or children, and disturbing in its solution. (No spoilers). However, as always it was well written and kept me guessing, although I had a hunch to the who I couldn't imagine the how or why. Very appropriate Halloween read.

  Divergent  I give it 3.5 stars. The author isn't the best writer I've ever read. She repeats herself a lot, and is a bit melodramatic. The love story line is very teenage, over the top, lots of making out, not entirely realistic. Oh well. She does a good Jo. of drawing you in and then getting you hooked. I read this almost 500 page book in 3 days. So its an easy read at any rate. I will read the next one. For a genre I don't usually love, it was alright. But it was also what I'd call a stressful read as well.

Last Week

What I was reading last week. Book reviews to come.

 Wednesday was a beautiful day for laundry day

Friday J's Dad came to visit for the weekend. Homemade pizza, football, golf, and Napa were all on the agenda. It was a fun weekend. And perhaps one of the last "summer" weekends to be had. This Monday morning it is chilly, grey and RAINY!! Real rain, like rain all night long that is still falling. First rain we've seen for 6 months. I will take it.

votes and roses

We have officially voted in the 2012 general election. We sent in our absentee ballots yesterday. Since Ohio is a swing state and important for votes we like to keep our votes there!

I cut back my rose bush a few weeks ago. It was about half the size it is in these pictures. But it just grew back like mad and now there are a bunch more flowers on it! It was just shy of blooming when Momma was out here, and of course the day after she left it took off. So I thought I'd share a few pictures. The blooms are so beautiful and they smell divine!

and I'm back

I knew better than to attempt a daily post of something this month. I knew my Momma and Step-Dad were visiting, I knew J had comprehensive exams that I would be editing for school, I knew I was in charge of food for various events... so shame on me for being overzealous. As I'm sure you've figured out the October photo-a-day is not happening. Oh well! I'm thinking that December might be a good month. Things will be a lot quieter around this house and there should be a lot of festive things to capture in photos.

So last week I was totally MIA because we had visitors. I always so look forward to guests, and then somehow the visit itself always flys by at light speed. Why is that? It's just not fair! But I really shouldn't complain, it was a lovely, low-key, cozy visit. We rambled over to Napa twice, got a VIP tour of the Travis flight line and a C17, did too much shopping (but really, is there such a thing as too much shopping...?), ate out, cooked in, read, soaked up sunshine, bought goodies at the Davis farmers market, played cards, planned a new quilt, got a mani-pedi (the girls did anyway)... it was fabulous week.

Now the house is empty. I haven't even re-stocked the fridge or cleaned the house. I'm missing the smell of coffee in the morning (a sure sign that someone is visiting), and not having to email, call or text Mom whenever I want to tell her something. It was a quiet and rather depressing weekend. And although I'm certainly in better spirits today, it's still too quiet around here.

They may not be the October picture a day photos, but I think these are better!! Pictures from last week...

 

And one last picture. No joke this is what we woke up to the day after they left (We were driving to church). Fitting weather for a most depressing weekend!

 

 

Abbie's Quilt: Part II

So I made my blocks, all 90 of them. On to rows! Here I am pinning my blocks together in the teal row.

 And then getting ready to sew them together

 And once an entire row was together I had to iron each new seam

 Spray my starch-like stuff on (that's why it looks wet)

 And iron away...

 Once I got all my rows together it was time to join them!

 Here I am pinning the whole row. Lots of pins and many pricks.

 Starting to pin my last color, pink. Look at all the rows I've already got together!!

 Pinning my very last row on before sewing. Hooray!

 Preview of coming attractions: the teal floral will be the quilt back (it incorporates all the colors from the front) and the binding is going to by the tiny red dots fabric. I am going to add a white boarder on the front, so i think that binding will look nice.

So close to being done!!! =D