Halloween Fun!

We had "Trick or Treaters" tonight!

And, not just ones we knew!

'Mehitabel' came back and brought Tigger and this really happy guy with her.

Tigger liked the Dora the Explorer cookies grandpa gave to him!
My brother-in-law brought a pumpkin from his garden for Baby Boy.

Daughter carved it.

Baby Boy seemed thrilled with all of the activities!

I thought maybe seeing his mommy with funny make-up on he might freak out a little.

But he thought it was fun, and made the 'sign' for kitty!

One set of our 'trick or treaters' was a pair of highschool guys who came to the door and sang "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"

They didn't have bags for candy, either. Just sang, and left.

As you can see, we enjoyed it!

the song of mehitabel

this is the song of mehitabel

of mehitabel the alley cat

as i wrote you before boss

mehitabel is a believer

in the pythagorean

theory of the transmigration

of the soul and she claims

that formerly her spirit

was incarnated in the body

of cleopatra

that was a long time ago

and one must not be

surprised if mehitabel

has forgotten some of her

more regal manners

(from "archy and mehitabel" by don marquis)

Daughter needed to dress up for Halloween at work today.

I think she makes a rather respectable looking 'mehitabel'!

there s a dance in the old dame yet

toujours gai toujours gai

It Is Surprising How Many Great Men and Women...

...a Small House Will Contain. - Thoreau



The REAL reason we went on vacation wasn't to shop.


It was to visit the wonderful people who live HERE.


My favorite aunt and uncle live here.


Every year for decades they have put up with us parking our bodies and all the stuff we drag around with us into their warm and inviting home.





This is the gorgeous view from their front yard.




This is another view of a farm taken from their backyard.







Several years back, my cousin bought them this sign which hangs in the kitchen.

My aunt is a fabulous homemaker. My decorating style, when it works, is totally taken from what I see in her home.

I've been given permission to put some pictures of things around her home on my blog.

I'm working on it! Watch my Plethora blog (www.judyh58a.blogspot.com) for those pictures, coming soon!

Falling-Up

Finally, I am getting serious about 'falling-up' my mantle.

You know, those important thing one forgets to do because one is busy banging on cooking pots along with Baby Boy.

I found the fall colored birds at Seasons of the Heart. They were SO cheap. Cheap cheap. No pun intended.

THGGM found the small beaded wreath. It looks sort of like a nest, if you haven't seen many nests and have a really good imagination.

"HOME" called out to me. I found that at the Lang Shop in Southridge Mall. There we also got a calendar for next year, and a card organizer with interesting quotes and thoughts to put in cards.

One of the shops in School Days Antique Mall had this popcorn popper basket. It works well with the potpourri pods in fall colors that I filled it with. Lets out the nice aroma without letting in tiny fingers!

Treasure from the Antique Malls

I found another yellow bird planter!

Now I have TWO yellow and one blue that are OLD. I also have two blue that were recently made. Those don't show in the picture.
I also found this 'pie bird' for a mere two dollars. It isn't old though. The old ones cost way too much. I love this shade of blue!

And, isn't the old little angel candle cute? I picked up one for me and one for my mom.

And, to satisfy my unending longing for old wooden plaque thingies, I found this!

Which also satisfies my longing for all things 'baby'.

Lest you think that all we did was shop, we didn't. But, I want my family to love me, and generally this means I'd best not shove a camera in their face too often.

Inanimate objects do not seem to mind as much. So, I snap away at those.

Antiquing on Friday

October is such a gorgeous month to take a vacation.

The color is spectacular!

I've seen autumn's with better color than this year (last year!) but, there was enough beauty to marvel at everywhere we went.

This was outside of the School Days Antique Mall in Sturdevant, Wisconsin.

Two main floors and a basement (although, i just realized i never made it to the basement!)

This is my favorite antique mall of all time. I can go to this place in my mind, even. Just close my eyes and think 'Sturdevant' and poof! I'm there!

Over the years, THGGM and I have found some wonderful treasure here.


THGGM found a nice wooden 'tool box' that he wanted badly. But, we didn't take a van (the van in the picture belongs to my aunt and uncle) so we had no way to get it home.

THGGM pouted about it a bit, but he is a big boy and just dealt with it.

After the School Days mall we traveled west to Freddy Bear's.

Great stuff to be had here also!

When we left this antique mall, we went to a really nice thrift store in the town of Waterford.

I found a nice 'fallish' chenille sweater for my mom, which looked great on her. I also found a small folk-artsy print entitled "Grandma Goes to the City".

Just perfect for me.

My "Taste of Home" Purchases

THGGM picked out these mixing bowls, which were on the clearance table.

I broke my only two large mixing bowls in the same week this summer. Having a numb hand is hazardous.

So, these were 'needs'.

I must admit that I do go a wee bit crazy with the "Taste of Home" cookbooks. Especially considering that I really do not cook much at all.

But, Daughter already found a wonderful apple crisp recipe, and she and THGGM made it for dessert last night.

Most of their cookbooks were 4 for $10.

My mom got a beautiful sweatshirt. We picked it out together. It is black with a leafy branch with a cardinal on it. What were we thinking? We are Tiger fans. We don't want a cardinal on ANYTHING!

Oh, well.

On Thursday We Went to...

...the lovely town of Greendale, Wisconsin.

Have you ever been there?

"Taste of Home" is located in Greendale. They have a lovely store with a lot of discounted cookbooks and other great stuff.

I bought SIX cookbooks. All for extremely good prices!

There are many great shops here.

We hit most of them.

"Taste of Home" offers a nice place to rest, for those sick of shopping.

Nobody was, or so it appears.

They also have this fabulous Norman Rockwell exhibit.


And, displays of his "The Saturday Evening Post" covers.

"Taste of Home" is the last store on the left. One of the other great shops on this side of the street is "Season's of the Heart". Not only did I make a few great purchases there, I got a number of ideas! I LOVE ideas!

Across the street is a wonderful shop called "The Shoppe Around the Corner", and also a fantastic bread store and a coffee shop. Sadly, the quilt and fabric store were no longer there. I held back the tears. Mostly because everything else was so wonderful. Except for the weather. That was very cold, very windy and rainy. Although, I do believe, a good time was had by all.

On Wednesday I Aged Ten Years

On Wednesday morning THGGM, my parents and I set out for Wisconsin.

THGGM thought it would be 'fun' to drive through Chicago rather than around it.

He has a sick idea of what is fun. Exciting, yes. But fun? Hmm. Not so much.

Our first destination was Gurnee Mills. A LARGE mall northwest of Chicago.

We didn't plan to spend much time there, so we split up. My parents went off on their own, and THGGM and I split up.

I spent my hour in Archieves, a scrapbooking store. I didn't buy a thing.

Our planned time to met was 2:30. At 2:30 my parents weren't there yet. This is EXTREMELY odd, because my parents were only ever late for one thing in their lives (and, now that i think about it, it was a bus trip to . . . Gurnee Mills!). Ten minutes later, my dad shows up - alone.

A half hour before, he and my mom had each gone into the bathroom. He reminded her to WAIT RIGHT HERE for him. She didn't. He looked for her for twenty minutes and then headed off to the designated meeting place.

Right there. Standing at entrance "F" at Gurnee Mills, I aged 10 years.

I also learned that just about everybody has a red coat this year. And that many many many shoppers are white haired ladies.

My dad stood at entrance "F" in case she were to remember that we planned to meet there. THGGM and I each took off - me, to check all of the women's bathrooms, and he - to the information booth.

Silly me. I had assumed that major malls near major cities would have security cameras, at the very least at all of the entrances. This mall does not.

They put out an All Points Bulletin and we continued our search. My dad stayed put, THGGM went into the parking lot and I continued the search while praying that God would send her to me.

As I was approaching the Rainforest Cafe, there she was. Walking fast and looking all around. I was never so glad to see anyone in my life! This was at 3:30, which means she was on her own for at least an hour and 20 minutes. And, she HAD gone out into the parking lot, to find the car. Which of course, she never would have, as she was at the wrong entrance and we drove in our car.

She KNEW she was missing. That surprised me. The first thing she said to me is "Dad is going to be SO mad at me! He says I wander off all the time. This is going to RUIN our vacation!"

I assured her that dad would be too happy to see her to be mad. She was limping from walking for so long, so as soon as THGGM saw us, we sat down. He went to find dad and let the security people know that we had found her.

While mom and I waited for them to drive around to the entrance where we were, she looked at me and said "I probably shouldn't ask what took them so long, should I?" and then we laughed.

Hello. My name is Judy, and on Wednesday morning I was 48 years old. Now, I am 58.

Two Months Until Christmas!

Are you ready yet? I'm planning to do a bit of

Christmas shopping this week, since THGGM

is on vacation.

Tomorrow, our destination is Gurney Mills

in Gurney, IL.

Kitty Sign

Baby Boy knows a few signs.

Eat.

Bottle.

Cereal.

Cracker.

But this week he added a new one!

He now does the sign for "Kitty"!

It's so cute.

Index finger to his mouth, and then pulled across his cheek to make whiskers.

Interesting Stuff

I found the "Peace" plaque at Michael's Craft Store in the dollar bin.

I LOVE it. Now I wish I had bought a few more.
I found the angel with the lamb at the thrift store tonight. I had to go back, since I didn't look at everything on Saturday. I went at 5:00, and it was not busy at all. It was so quiet there that I stayed for over an hour.

While antique shopping over the weekend, I found the small picnic basket. So cute. I have so many plans for it. It has the 'pie holder' in the bottom of it. I like the tiny lock. I think I'll put some sewing in it.

Thrift shopping tonight, I also found five Ideals magazines and four crochet magazines one very old one with many nice baby things.

The Big Apple

Today, THGGM and I took Baby Boy to the apple orchard. We went to Robinette's, the same orchard we went to when we were kids, and the one we took our kids to when they were kids.

They also had some HUGE pumpkins. Baby Boy didn't quite know what to make of everything.

Baby Boy has his very own pumpkin that his Great Uncle Clayton brought him from his garden. It's VERY big.

Little Tiger Fan

Baby Boy fell asleep for me.

I kept him out of the room with the rowdy Tiger fans.

I contained my exuberance. Containing exuberance isn't something I find difficult to do, so it wasn't a hardship.

The last year the Tiger's won the World Series was the year Youngest Son was born. The year was 1984.

No babys in our family since then. That is, until this year, and the birth of Baby Boy.

Salt and Salt Shakers

Truly, I do other things besides thrift and antique shop. Although, it doesn't LOOK that way on my blog.

I found these two shakers at an antique mall. It is the junkiest antique mall around. Really, there were some booths so packed you couldn't even get into them.

THGGM HATES that. I kind of like the cluttered messy look. Reminds me of home!

Anyway...

These guys were $5.oo. I believe they are both salt shakers, as they both have five holes on top.

But, I like them anyway and intend to add tassels and hang them in my kitchen!

Good Grief!

I found these old "Peanuts" toys while antique shopping.

They were incredibly cheap, and look well loved, which is important to me.


I look well loved.


And, I'm cheap, too.

Poor Baby!

Baby Boy is teething.

He is miserable.

His mommy and daddy are VERY tired, too.

Last night Son-in-law loaded him into the car at 1:30 and drove around until Baby Boy fell asleep.

Hello! My Name is ____________

I don't know what YOUR husband likes to do on vacation, but THGGM likes to clean on his.

Today, he tackled our bedroom.

I wanted to sit demurely in my chair and stitch up little what-nots at my leisure. But, the man had plans.

He did the heavy moving and lifting, and now has an aching back. I did the dusting and decorating, so all I am is a bit sneezy. Although I did lift the bed.

The reward for all that hard work? I found the old wooden cheese box that has lived under my side of the bed for eight years now. It's full of THGGM's grandmother's sewing stuff. I've been looking for small embroidery hoops at thrift stores, and haven't found any quite like what I had in mind. And LOOK! There were two, just like I'd envisioned them. I'd just forgotten I had them. And, I almost sent for a knitting knobby - and there were TWO of those in the cheese box. One still in the box with instructions. Wow. Cool finds.

I also found several dozen "Hello, My Name Is" stickers under my side of the bed. THAT seemed a bit strange to me. I cannot even venture a guess as to why they were there.

And, behind THGGM's nightstand was a saw. A rather large hacksaw with a red handle. In the bedroom. Neither of us can remember how it got there. Can't remember the last time we hacked something.

Well. Now I can embroidery on things and 'knitting knobby' my little heart out. And just to be safe, I moved the saw to MY side. At least we know where it is. In case we need to hack something.

I Found a Little Teapot, Short and Stout!

I had a bit of thrift store success today. And, I didn't even stay long in either one, nor did I look at even half of what they had.



THGGM had Baby Boy asleep in the car. THGGM is tiring of thrift store shopping. First, he creates a monster (me) and then he bows out.



Anyway, I refuse to get a cart, so that limits what I can carry myself. I did manage to hold in my hand a box of clear glass Christmas ornaments, two Ideal's Christmas magazines, three crochet books, the 1940's dessert book (see below) a small stoneware creamer, a glass jar and the cute little teapot in the picture.

Had I grabbed a cart, I could have easily filled it. But, I would not have trusted myself. I am a calm, peace loving grandma. But the majority of thrift store shoppers I came in contact with today - boy howdy - if I had a cart I would have been tempted greatly to ram into them with it, while screaming like a mad woman "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP!!!"

Do people not grasp the idea of an 'inside voice' anymore?

Seriously.