Clever, simple holiday decorations…

This idea totally requires NO skill whatsoever:

Ingredients:  glass outer vase; smaller glass insert vase, flowers, candy corn for Halloween.  Period.

Put water into the insert vase, cover top with aluminum foil.  Place inside larger vase.  Pour candy corn between the two vases (aluminum foil keeps candy from falling into the water.  Trust me.)  Put flowers into insert vase after you remove the aluminum foil.  Easy peasy.

Here is another version, using a Mason jar and a twine bow:

 

For Thanksgiving, use cranberries instead of candy corn.

For Christmas, use peppermint candy.

Keep husband and children away from the goodies at all times.  Good luck with that!

The end.

Saturday stuff

I just love these trees.  They are beautiful every year, and it is interesting watching their various stages of fall progression.  This photo tells the wordless tale.  The trees over on the L will soon look just as red as those on the R, unless we get more wind and rain…then we have piles of leaves blown everywhere!  There is a cemetery just behind the trees on the R, so the pretty leaves provide a perfect covering for that resting place.

Across the street from the cemetery is a former bank, turned library, that was eventually outgrown.  Grants are providing a new building, so this old structure is being torn down, making room for a modern, larger facility.  The only thing constant is change, right?

And speaking of change, it is time to change from a mowing mode to leaf-sucking mode at our RV park.  The leaves are far more problems to us than the grass is, another part of ownership that we didn’t know or even think about when we built the park back in ‘95.  So Dick is over playing in the leaves, and I am getting ready for a dinner party for 10 tonight.  No, I don’t want to trade jobs, honey.  I’m enjoying smelling the Cuban Pork that is cooking in the crock pot.  Yumm…folks arrive at 5.  Bring a non-meat dish and come on over. We’re stirring up some good stuff!

Public service announcements

 

Ouch.  Do NOT do this, my friends.  It is so wrong!   (Judy C. sent this photo to me, and she got it from Sally B.—don’t know who actually took the photo, but it’s cute.)

So what are y’all doing this Halloween weekend?  We are having several friends over Saturday night for Cuban Pork.  Now that’s some very good stuff, especially since it goes in the crock pot.

Tonight I plan to fix a pasta dish found over at The Pioneer Woman.  She has some great recipes (and stories), so I’ll let y’all know how dinner turns out.  I fixed scallops, couscous and veggies last night, but next time will use a little more garlic.  Hey, I was in a hurry to get to the band concert (which was sweet).  The players all got to dress in their Halloween costumes, which made it more fun for them and helped calm their first-concert anxieties.

And there was a major announcement made to everyone in McDonald’s yesterday by  two y/o Scooter:

I went poo poo on the potty!!!

Which is why he was in McD’s as a reward (whatever it takes to get that boy potty trained!).

Life is good!

Spider Man!

I sure wouldn’t want to meet up with this critter in the dark!  We’ve had so much rain here in Mayberry that he would just float away anyhow and not be a problem.  Leaves are now on the ground; leaves are in the rain gutters (next door)…but no tornadoes or major problems happened, so that is a good thing.

So the meeting and program for the sistas went well the other night.  I showed the gals how to pack light for any trip and gave them a printed hand out to take home with them as a reminder.  Easy cheesy lemon squeezy.   We’ve all made the mistake of lugging too much STUFF on trips, and that’s just silly!

Miss A will be playing in the local band concert tonight, so us proud grandparents will be there to applaud and cheer for her (and the others). 

But first, the daily question…what do I want to fix for dinner??? 

The Hope Diamond and other baubles

The Hope Diamond (45.52 carats...India) has existed for more than a billion years.
Since it formed deep within the Earth...
...the Atlantic Ocean has opened, closed, and opened again.
...the dinosaurs have come and gone.
...humans evolved and spread across the face of the Earth.

Over the past three centuries, a rich human history full of mystery and intrigue has made it one of the world’s most famous gemstones.

The Hope Diamond is renowned for its flawless clarity, rare deep blue color, and eventful history.  It is surrounded by 16 white diamonds and suspended from a platinum chain bearing 46 more diamonds. 

That is, when this hunk of rock is in place.  You see that it has been removed.  Removed?  Why on earth???  That is because in honor of the 50th anniversary of the gift of this diamond to the nation, it is getting a new setting next month:

Neither setting would ever be in my beer budget jewelry collection, but I do appreciate the beauty and history fine baubles.

Check out these little beauties:

Napoleon gave the Diadem (tiara) to his second wife, the Empress Marie-Louise, on the occasion of their marriage. Originally the diadem, commissioned in 1810, was set with emeralds, which were replaced in the mid-1950s, with turquoise.  Marjorie Merriweather Post purchased the diadem from Van Cleef & Arpels and donated it to the Smithsonian in 1971…just in case you were wondering.  And the necklace was owned by…hmm, I didn’t get that info and can’t easily find it online at the moment.  I hate when that happens!  Just ooohhh and aaahhh…and know you wouldn’t want to own nor wear this anyway!

These can be seen at the National Museum of Natural History in DC. 

I still have my solid gold plastic tiara that will proudly go with me on the BC4 cruise.  This Duchess has her priorities in order.

Have a Spooktacular day, y’all!

Tuesday thoughts and things…

My best buds will be here for a meeting tonight, inspiration for me to clean house a bit, not that any of these gals would arrive bearing white gloves, you understand! 

We have a cultural program at each meeting, so I’ll be working on some ideas for that part, as well and the food part.  Oh yes, we always have food, along with our fun and fellowship (sistership?), so that Harry & David’s wonderful dip is definitely on my to-make list.

Sweet Ivana wondered about this dip stuff.  A ‘dip’ is frequently made from softened cream cheese or sour cream, with lots of good stuff added to it (chopped onions, spinach, artichokes, etc., and spices), and is served as an appetizer.  Potato chips, corn chips, pretzels or crackers are used to scoop up the dip, hence the name and the action—dip the chip into the dip.  But NO double dipping!  There are a bazillion recipes for dip that can be found in the Appetizer section of cookbooks and online.  Some appetizers wind up being the whole meal.  It happens.

So the knee decision is to rock along and avoid surgery a little longer.  After all, techniques and tools just keep improving, right?

Today is all you have; make it a great one, y’all!  Don’t be afraid…

Off we go...and other stuff...

Away we go today...off doing stuff.  Yesterday was chock full of doing stuff--church, a meeting, lunch.  Then back home to pick up stuff to take to Haley's house for our scrapbook class.  I was the hostess, so that meant that I provided the munchies and drinks.  Easy peasy.  I made the ever popular Harry and David dip (one block of cream cheese, mixed with one-half jar of H&D Pepper and Onion Relish.  Delish.  Sorry, there are no leftovers to share!

Enjoy your Monday.  We sure hope there are no witches out on the road with us today!  We are heading south to see the knee doc...times two.  Legs shaved...check!  That would be mine, not Dick's.  I just wanted to be perfectly clear about that, y'all.