Leg three of our vacation was a stop at Guncleland, where Randy and Kevin served up a seafood feast in a fall setting.
They know the shrimp boil is always my fave.
Randy says he is in the middle of decorating for Halloween, but to me, it looked like he had plenty done, there were spooky elements all around us.
Including the guest room. Uhmmm, thanks guys…?
Not all the decor was spooky, some was simply lovely.
It was all a very nice mix.
| | |
|
Our city has a magnificent dog park. Miles of trails through fields and the woods. Some of the trails are paved, some dirt, some gravel. Lately, I’ve been lucky enough to find heart shaped rocks in the gravel, like these two little ones.
I thought it would be cool to use my blue crystal heart as a bowl to collect other rocks in.
This one was in the paved area.
And this little piece of my own heart came running up to me with an exciting greeting. It’s Wally! One of Sugar’s babies, and he seemed to remember me.
He lives nearby, in the neighborhood Ryan and I walked through regularly. There wasn’t a week that went by when Ryan didn’t mention that he hoped we’d run into Wally, who had been one of his faves. He had actually dog sat this boy for a week for the new owners and was pretty fond of him.
We hadn’t come across this cutey in our many walks, but the week Ry died, his brother took me on a “Ryan Walk” and guess who was there? Wally was out on a walk too! I am afraid I cried too hard to be able to greet him. But I made up for it when we ran into him at the dog park. He got lots of snuggles from me.
In the fall, the bales are harvested in the many fields the trails go through and Molly likes to show off her jumping skills by leaping up onto them. Sugar can also leap into the air, but sees no reason to do it.
Dorothy enjoys the view from way up high, and likes to be sat up there with Molly. Someone her height doesn’t often get to see the world from this angle.
| | |
|
Surprisingly, this oval, floral print was only $1. The frame was beat up, but a coat of paint made it look charmingly beat up instead of just messy.
Sissy had given me her Waverly curtains, and I’d made pillows for the sofa with some, but decided to use those in the breezeway instead and cut up another panel to make curtains in there too.
The oil painting of the girl was a gift from the Guncles, it is vintage and came with a grand frame that I’ll be repurposing.
Aren’t the curtains cozy for fall? Previously, there had been white sheers. These floral ones make the room seem more finished.
The large oval picture is a gift from Sissy too. It had a gold frame, which I changed to white with an umber glaze to fit in more with my stuff. And I am liking the way the new rounded pictures go well with the two smaller ones I already had.
All of the new-to-me pretties in the space made me want to do some fall updates on the exterior too, so I added warmer, autumn tones to my door wreath with about $15 worth of blooms from Michaels.
This wreath gets random, seasonal makeovers by simply switching out flowers. I don’t attach the stems, they are simply poked into the grapevine and stay pretty good. The wreath is in a slightly protected area, and isn’t fully exposed to wind, but some flowers blow a bit loose here and there. No problem, I just tuck them back in again.
My Sissy also gave me this print (the three sisters). I always admired it at her house. She is building a new home and making some changes, and I was lucky to be visiting during the early part of the process and could bring the items home with me.
Very lucky, because I love her style and she has been a major influence on me developing my own sense of design.
You can tell just how pretty the fabric is in this close up. I had enough panels to make curtains around the grand fairies’ bunk beds in the camper too. I am in the middle of a redo of it, and will have more pics when I am done.
| | |
|
Yep, a dollar.
The $1 tables at Sparks Flea Market are where I make a bee line to the moment I park my car. But this year, I did even better than normal.
When I bought this blackened, dirty bracelet, it was with plans to chop it up and use pieces in projects. But after cleaning it, I discovered it was sterling and Topaz!
Here are more dollar items from the day. Including the painted porcelain heart that was marked $20. I pointed that out to the booth owner, and he said he meant for it to be in the dollar box.
Same with this pretty pitcher. It was marked ten. But he said, nope, it was correctly placed on the $1 shelf.
These curtains were more, and while most of the panels had a lot of tattered areas, two were in good shape, so certainly worth the $50 I paid for the stack of 6. (You can’t even get two panels at Target for that price)
These lovelies were not from the bargain table, but weren’t much more.
We didn’t make it to the second half of the semi annual flea mkt duo, White Cloud. I was pretty satisfied with what I’d found in Sparks, so didn’t really care.
A few sparkly baubles and some rose patterned beauties and I was blissed out.
| | |
|
This season, my hydrangeas did poorly.
Not just poorly- they sucked. Most didn’t survive the winter, even though I brought pots into the breezeway, and the newer plants hardly produced blooms.
But look at what my sister let me picked from her bushes!
I harvested them, smashed the stems and put them into water for a few days. It should’ve gone well, and the color would’ve held since they were picked at just the right time.
But…
While trying to protect the delicate flowers, I ruined them.
Wouldn’t you think that a hard sided cooler would keep them safe on a long drive? Uhm, no.
Apparently the moisture content along with being in a closed space in a hot car, was the wrong way to go. They were a soggy, dripping mass of brown when I freed them from the humid box.
Dang it.
But they did dry and keep their shape, they just lost that beautiful, fall toned glow over night. Still pretty, but not gorgeous like they were.
Dang it.
(The two larger China pieces were found on my trip, $10 each!)
| | |
|
