For some reason this morning, the spirit/muse moved me to cut up an old sheet and make these cute "treat" bags! I stamped them with a rubber stamp cat image and tied up the goodies with pieces of orange and black yarns. They were a big hit with our Halloween ghosts and goblins tonight!

......and this little dolly above and below I just finished decorating for my friend and hairdresser, Mary Lou's little granddaughter, Madison! Can't wait for them to see her........this is the happiest child.........look at that laugh! A tiny photo of her face was glued onto this wonderful "girly" doll form (by Monica Magness), and I had some wool roving the same color as Madison's almost-white blonde hair!
......I think backsides need decorating, too! And I love for little girls to wear pink and lace and ribbon and ruffles, like I did back in the 1940's! This was such fun, I'm off to make some more!

Here above is the newest addition to my stash of vintage buttons! Aren't they wonderful??? Again, from our new uptown shop selling nothing but vintage items; there are some mighty cute red platform shoes w/heels in the window! (Glad they don't fit me!) Heh, heh.........they look exactly like the heels my mama is wearing in a black/white photo of her taken in 1955!
.......and aren't these just the cutest acorns you ever saw?! DH and I picked up the acorn caps on a walk, and I glued little felt balls into them for instant "autumn color".........the nice thing about being an artist, as the late painter Bob Ross used to say: "It's MY world, and I can make things any color I like!" I agree.

.........woo-hoo!!! Look at the wonderful stash of mostly vintage buttons my sweet and generous friend Harriet gave me this week! I've had more fun dividing the colors.......(not through yet!) and my brain is whizzing with neat ways to use them. They are going to embellish LOTS of pins/brooches; purses; art quilts; mail art postcards; beaded art dolls; and some ready-made shirts and jackets and scarves! Thank you, thank you, dear Harriet!!!!!!!

........this is our farm pond; note the pier way across on the other side........
.......and this is the pier seen close-up. Its poor legs and ladder rungs are out of the water! Normally, the water here would come up to the bottom rung on the ladder, and up to the dead, brown grass you see about two feet from the water's edge. This drought has been going on two years now, but the last two days have brought wonderful rains for the first time in two months! Not enough water to get us out of drought situations, but it's a start! It's pretty bad when you pray for enough rain so you can mow the grass again, isn't it???!!!!! Heh, heh..............

.......isn't this a gorgeous early morning autumn photo?!!! The fences, the black angus cows, the mists, the sun just breaking the horizon........so peaceful. My husband is a freelance photographer and now retired, works part-time for a daily newspaper in the county adjoining ours. On this particular morning, the highway patrol called him out to an early morning car accident (still dark) which happens too frequently. The downside was the young man driving and speeding was not wearing a seat belt; wrecked his car and was killed. These fatalities always upset DH, and coming back home from the wreck was this beautiful scene near home on one of the most beautiful farms in Warren County. He stopped to say a prayer for the dead boy and his family, and as the sun peeped up on the horizon, this is what he saw. I think God is always nearby.

Dear husband had one of the "last fruits of the season" this week, as you see above. A wonderfully sweet watermelon from a local cousin's crop.

I thought the melon was red until I saw this photo, taken with the retro "red" tablecloth! You'll just have to trust me............it WAS red. And good!

........look at these great old buttons I got at our new "vintage" shop in town! And the prices are very reasonable.......found some crocheted old collars; and there are boxes of old photographs to sift through! Wonderful for mixed media collages, etc. I love these old button cards and hate to take the buttons off, but when the proper project "needs" them........off they'll come! Some of these large pretty buttons would make great finger rings that are popular now.......use pretty gold or silver colored wire of a heavy gauge and wrap several times around the finger; then add a pretty button to the top with thinner wire, and maybe add a few little glass beads to top it all off! That sounds so cute, I'm off to try to make one..........

Here we are all settled in for our nightly reading/snacking session. While I'm distracted by a magazine, Baby Sister sneaked up on my glass of iced tea and was drinking it!!!!!! That's a first. She especially loved making the ice chunks rattle around.........now I'll have to watch where I leave my tea glass during the day!

Wow! Is this a gorgeous fabric postcard, or what???! It's from the Monica Magness swap, and is the prettiest one I've received in a long time. She's a whiz with her scraps and threads and sewing machine! Thanks, MM!

........well, you're not seeing things twice; I did post a photo of this same beaded art doll about a week ago. Thought I was finished, but found out I needed to add to her "backside", so NOW I'm finished with her (for my part). This is called "free-form" beading.........it's fun because there are no rules; you can use any size and shape of beads you like, and work them in any sitch patterns you like. Just so we use the doll owner's color palette.
Now dolly will be mailed out on Monday to Oregon, for the next beader to do her thing! And I'll be expecting another doll to work on before month's end, and can start beading in an entirely different color scheme. These round robins are fun.......especially when your own doll comes home all beautifully covered entirely with beads. Yum!!! I'm addicted for sure.

........here's what you make when you're wondering what to do with those wine bottle corks and a few beads, and a spritz of fuzzy yarn! I have an assortment of pretty interesting corks from our local cafe/coffee shop, where they serve and sell wine. And the bottles these days! Beautiful !
Too bad it disagrees w/me since I've gotten "older". Duh. I'm getting SO tired of hearing why I can't/shouldn't/mustn't/ eat or drink or do so many things now that used to not bother me at all ! Mama was right again. Old age is NOT for sissies! But the good thing is: I CAN still digest chocolate!
My favorite is semi-sweet pieces like you bake cookies with.... hubby wondered what happened to the pack we had in the cabinet when he went to make a batch of cookies?! Heh, heh............

.....we encountered fog on this morning's walk, but the early sunbeams pushing their way through were beautiful. Our farm lane is lined on both sides in places with huge old cedar trees; some of which are now producing blue=hued berries for winter. I wonder how old some of the old giants are; and pray they will survive this drought we are in now. Today we actually had gray clouds overhead, and some sprinkles of rain; but not enough to lay the dust. The weatherman says maybe tomorrow! We are ever hopeful..........

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...............I am a breast cancer survivor. One year at our local Relay for Life, I bought these cute concrete words that another survivor had made. Take a minute this month to donate to a cancer organization; or contact some friend or relative or neighbor who is suffering through cancer treatments right now. You have NO IDEA how much an encouraging word or card or call or errand or prayer would mean to them. I hope a cure is found in my lifetime.

Duck! The buzzards are coming! There were four of these ugly vultures floating above us on our morning walk........looking for some "breakfast", I suppose! They sit in an old dead pine some days soaking up the sun and napping. Their purpose is to clean up roadkill, but we haven't had much recently on our rural road...........hmmmm. I wonder what they eat when none of that is available?

........I'm finally finished with my part of the beading on this doll in the Beaded Art Dolls yahoo group's round robin. Her beautiful hair was already done when she arrived here; I did the beading on her back and left arm. I hope it's enough; this "freeform" beading with no rules is hard to stop when you get going! Now to write in her little journal and mail her off next week. And hopefully, will receive the next dolly the following week to bead on her. We never know what the dolls will look like, or what the beading already on them looks like. It's fun to drag out all the vials and bags of beads to find the colors needed to work on a new doll each month!

I used to search for funny photos to take when I worked for our local weekly newspaper.......this one I saw this summer on one of our rural roads would qualify! Do you think there's a cemetery down this road?!
........stay tuned.......you'll get used to my weird sense of humor. Or not.

This is a small wall quilt made from 22 vintage hankies, and embellished with old buttons, laces, ribbons, beads, and some old felt flowers from an 1962 hat!!! "All things old are new again"..............it's true! Usually trends run in 30 year spans of something being in style. Now those vintage things are back. But I didn't much like the clothing styles of the '70s, and I still don't like them now that they are "back in style"!

Woo-hoo! Can you believe this oat grass for Baby Sister cat has jumped this high in less than a week?!!! I can soon cut her a bit to eat.........yum!
Hope I can get her picture with it........stay tuned!

........can you believe it?!! I'm like a kid every morning running to see how tall it has grown overnight.........this would be a fun experiment for kids, wouldn't it?! (And for old geezers, too!) Heh, heh...........

......okay, here's the "grass in the bowl" story: five days ago I planted a little cup of oat seeds in potting soil and watered it; kept it in the dark for 4 days and it started to sprout! Now we are to day 5 (see above photo) and I cannot believe what my eyes are seeing! The instructions said to put it in sunlight and keep slightly moist; when it gets a few inches tall, we cut a bit off each day for the house cat, Baby Sister, to eat! Dear hubby put me up a long shelf in the kitchen and a "grow light" above it (for wintering outdoor potted plants) and this little bowl of oat grass must LOVE this light! Now I'm off to show you today's growth..........

........well, here is Baby Sister again. Get used to seeing cats on this blog; we are feline fools! She likes my new reading glasses, and a new toy mouse 'cause it has catnip in it!! She's 17 yrs. old now, and has a little arthritis; and she misses the two other house cats we lost in the two last years. We don't think we can go thru the grieving process again, and probably won't get more house kitties. We are also going "over the hill", and finding it harder to empty heavy litter boxes and hoisting cat/carrier to the vet; not to mention the expense! We shall see.

....... my blogger pal Monica Magness bestowed this sweet "award" to me a few weeks ago, and I have JUST NOW found it lost far back in my photo files where I save photos and they may never be seen again! Needless to say, hubby fusses about my non-organization of photo files. And I have 3,000!!! (Does he really think I'm gonna tackle THAT job of getting them in order at this late date?) I have much better/more fun things to do, like beading and reading and creating artsy-fartsy things! I am new to blogging, so don't know "the rules", but I think I'm supposed to pass this award on to another blog I like a lot.............?! When I find out HOW to do that, I will get right on it. In the meantime........thank you, MM! And by the way, YOU are WAY behind on your blog, dearie! I miss you!

On our morning walk over the weekend, we found these gorgeous blue morning glories! We used to have morning glories all over this farm, but I haven't seen any of any color much in recent years. I might try to do these in a watercolor........

The drought we're in the midst of might be the cause of less wildflowers; our two wild areas of passion flowers (maypops) came up this summer, but didn't develop but a handful of their gorgeous blooms.

.......and this is an adult cicada; or as we southerners call them: dryflies! We pick the husks off the trees (see earlier post a few pages back) and this is what the bug looks like. They make a weird buzzing noise in the trees in late summer, but don't live very long. Aren't the wings delicate and beautiful? Ugly bugs should have pretty wings!

....... well, I've been roaming around in our pretty historical local cemetery again! There are some wonderful old monuments.......here is the back side of a family stone. I'm partial to angels myself, but this verse is a very good one to share with others while we're alive!!!

.......can you tell by this photo that I'm a bead freak?!! A few years ago, I was REALLY bead-greedy, and started collecting pounds of any size/color beads. Now I'm not AS greedy, and am wanting/needing more smaller (like Japanese seed) beads. Anybody out there want to trade me seed beads for a pkg. of these mixed babies??!!! Or, maybe the smaller bead fetish will move over for something else eventually.......... I've been through frantic bouts of collecting: papers; handmade papers; vintage buttons; vintage costume jewelry/parts; old laces/doilies; old damaged quilts to make pillows and purses out of; fabric/hand-dyed fabrics; yarns-hand-dyed yarns; dyed wool rovings to felt with.........the list is endless. Are all mixed media artists this weird?! At least we're having fun! Stay tuned...

......well, what a great surprise today!!! An email note from the fine folks at Art Bead Scene blog letting me know they used one of my photos on their blog! The one last week of my beading tray full of oranges/reds/yellow beads, and the doll form I'm presently working on for the round robin on the Beaded Art Doll yahoo group. What fun! Thanks, girls! You all really should check out the wonderful beads at Art Bead Scene soon..............

.......and this gray tabby is one of our two outdoor cats; her name is Mama Cat.
She came to us as a feral cat five years ago.......she was a "teenager" and was terribly thin, and nursing three new kittens. It took me three weeks of carrying food to her down the path to one of the barns where she settled in. Then when I handled one of the kittens, she moved them and it took me a few days to find them again. She gradually trusted us for food, and moved them closer to the house until finally they lived in one of our outbuildings near the house. We found homes for two of her kittens; the other one got into the car motor one cold morning and was hit in the head by the fan........then came a cat chase; trip to the vet; kitten survived but is blind in one eye, so we kept her. But she and Mama Cat got spayed as soon as possible. They are out outdoor cats and have gotten friendly enough to sleep on a heating pad bed we make them each winter on the porch in a chair with all sorts of rugs and plastic coverings, etc...... they have a nice snug little "tent". Also, the kitten has grown to be twice the size of her mom; and we had named her "Itsy Bitsy" 'cause she was the runt of the litter. Now she's got fat almost dragging the ground! But they are happy campers! Can you tell we are animal lovers?!!!!

........ooops! I almost missed adding to the blog today! My cuz came from Raleigh and moved furniture for her daughter. And we had lunch uptown!
And got to sashay thru three shops in town, one being the new "Catchpenny", which carries all VINTAGE: clothing, purses, shoes, furniture, jewelry, art, and is a fun place to shop! The owner has 3 little pooches who meet you at the door and encourage you to sit and pet them, in between poking around into all the interesting corners of the shop. It is an old hardware building, two stories tall, on main street, from the 1920's.
Another historical "gold star" for us!

Now: about the photo above: it's one of many gorgeous dogwood tree leaves littering the yard these days..........just beautiful.

Well, here are the beads I dug out to work with on this crooked little beaded doll this month........her "mom" wanted some reds and yellows on her, so I got out beads to blend with the fabric on her back. Also: if my "freeform" beading doesn't turn out perfect, it will be on her back side! Ha!

Will post pix of her as the beading progresses............stay tuned!

.... if you look very hard in the center of this photo, and just left of the green tree limbs, you will see the moon filling out fast! I didn't think my little digital camera would capture it enough to see well, and I was right!
I'll get DH to capture it with his big old Nikon and 2-foot telephoto lens, durn it! I reckon then we can see it!

This "mail art" post card is going out today to fellow blogger, M.Magness; she's having a swap of sorts. Can you tell I love bright colors?! I also STITCHED it, Monica, with gold thread which you cannot see here......(one rule she had was the card HAD to have some "stitching" on it!) It might not even go thru the mails.............it's thick and lumpy, but I'm putting on extra postage.......I made the mistake of putting on pretty stamps and doing her address in calligraphy first. THEN turned it over to paste and stamp and glue and stitch. So.......enough gold zig=zag stitching went thru and ruined the address so it was illegible! Grrrrrr........!!!! I just got out my trusty old roll of wide double-stick tape and stuck a new, clean sheet of cardstock over it and made another "adress/label" side. Hated to cover and waste those pretty stamps, though. MM........you're a lot of trouble, girl.

.......this is for you, Maggie! Here's what our pine trees make and shed, as well as their needles every year! The huge pine cone on the left is from our gorgeous long-leaf pines, which also have really long needles; the center skinny cone is from the local white pine, which has short needles.....and the short, fat cone on the right is the most widely grown here.......the loblolly pine. We have 29 pines and poplars and dogwoods in our yards around the house; not much grass, but gorgeous green mosses that don't need mowing! The trees give us great shade in the summer, and are a good windbreak in the winter when storms move through. They do make a mess, but we always have friends who want to come and rake up the straw for free, and DH vacuums the other debris with the trusty John Deere mower thingie and dumps it in the edge of the woods. And that piled onto broken branches, etc. makes a wonderful shelter for the wildlife hereabouts!