Bye for Now...

I have had an unexpected family illness. To have blogging friends you must invest time and I don't appear to have that right now. I'll try to visit some of you. Not sure when I'll post... Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Niles MI Apple Festival

Dear Hubby and I went to an Apple Festival about a month ago. There were food vendors, crofters, and rides. A good time was had by all. I picked up this frame for my little girl Alison. The little words are magnets and they hold the photo in place. Cute idea!

While Surfing the Net

I was researching how to winterize roses and grape vines, and I found the most informative site. It has a wealth of articles submitted by readers, just like you and I. Some of the articles have nice photos. Here are a few:

I know I'll be going back. It's called eHow.Have a good Monday.

Show and Tell Friday

Stop by Kelli's blog and visit show and tell Friday. Her link is on my sidebar. It a lot of fun. Bloggersall over link to her blog and share something that is special to them. Kelli also has an awesome on line magazine called Seasonal Delights. She featured a banner in her premiere issue that motivated me to make one for the fall season. Thanks Kelli, now I'll have to make one for every season, gosh...LOL It came out okand I'm enjoying the bit of color it adds to the opening in my kitchen. Here's a set of Autumn Leaves stamps. I used on the white circles. I really like these stamps. They are clear and stamp a sharp image.

Here's a close up of one of the circles.

Here's a close up of the rest of the opening. We put the "window" in the wall when we moved into our home to help open up the kitchen. It's a fun little spot to decorate for the seasons. Thank you for stopping by. (I got the cute little pumpkins for $1.00. Gotta love a bargain.)

Thank You Pea

Here's a test of my new signature. Thank you Pea for your help and the addy. I've listed it as a link on my side bar.

Unusual Weather and My Garden

It has been so hot in Norther Indiana. We really haven't had any fall weather. Well, maybe two days, but that's been it. Dear Hubby and I can't sleep in a warm room so our air hasn't had a break. It's suppose to cool off in the next two days quite significantly. I took some pictures of my garden this weekend. Can you bleive it, I'm still getting roses? I shocked how good things still look. Please enjoy. The rose is sure fitting for autumn.

Thank you for stopping by. I have a question, do any of you know how to add a fancy signature to the end of a post? I've seen them on other blogs and they look so nice. Thanks for the help, if you know.

Fall Florals

I taught myself to arrange flowers back in my 20's. I couldn't afford premade things and just has a willingness to make my own. I'm not quite sure why I lived with this... like this... for so long, two years, but I suddenly had to change it. No doubt you can see why... Here it is...a wall hanging I purchased from a home party business. I love the concept, but the greenery really didn't do anything for me.I took pictures of my creative process, maybe it will be helpful to someone in blog land. Here's how I store my silk flowers. The large plastic containers allow room for the stems and they don't crush the flowers.Once I decide what I am going to do, I cut apart all the flowers from a bush and separate them according to type and color.

Now the creative process begins. I start with a middle flower and work from that, adding until there is a pleasing flow form top to outer edge.

At this point I forgot to add moss and added it...

And finally wall decor I can be proud to display. I plan to do arrangements for each season.Also, I added a few Fall picks in between the pots, to add a little Fall detail. Thank you for stoping by.
Trudi M.

Show and Tell Friday

Good golly it's been a long time. I seem to be getting back in the swing of things. Yikes, it's been a busy start to school. Finally a post for Show and Tell Friday, I've missed all of you!
Dear hubby and I went to a neighborhood garage sale this spring. We were less than excited about out trip until we went to this one home. There we found the buy of the year for us. Since I teach, I'm always drawn to pictures of school rooms. We were fortunate to find three pictures that would go great in Junior's room. (He moved to supported living last October and his room was in need of some redecorating.) I had painted and put up a Coke border one year ago, however he took most of his things with him to his new apartment, so his room was in need of decorations. My husband and I have always loved the artists Hargrove and Carson. They have similar styles and were reported to have studied together. I can't find much about them on the Internet, but have found their prints on EBay. I already had a school yard print by Hargrove... We were so pleasantly surprised when we spotted in a driveway three paintings. However, there were no price tags. I was sure they would be too much. One was of a school room, one of a soda shop, and one of a toy store. All of them had the perfect colors for the room and they were prints Junior could relate too. They would make a nice addition to his room, plus allow me to make it into a guestroom too. The smaller one we had of the school yard.

The larger one is the picture we found:

Here's the soda shop:
And finally here's the toy shop:

This is the best part, several of them are number and signed by the artist. Their retail value in the early 90's would have been over $300.00 for the three of them in frames. Drum roll please..., can you tell I'm still excited about this??? They were only $5.00 each. Yes a total of $15.00. Yikes that's a good buy. I couldn't have gone anywhere and gotten pictures like this for $5.00 a piece. Are you familiar with these artist? Please let me know. Have a good weekend. Thanks Kelli, for hosting Show and Tell Fridays. Such fun for all.

Hi All, Happy Fall!

According to the calendar it's Fall, but around here it still feels like Summer. I can't believe it, but I have my first set of parent conferences this week. Gosh time flies when I'm having fun. I've started to decorate for fall and have taken many pictures. I'll post soon. Have you done your decorating yet? Before we know it...Thanksgiving will be here and we'll be talking about Christmas. How do you manage your time? Please share. I work, want to craft and blog. HOW? If you haven't purchased it yet, the new Martha Stewart magazine is great. Good Martha, Bad Martha. A girl can't have too many magazines. I'm getting the scrapbook bug again too. I'm thinking about joining Jenni Bowlin monthly club. She's very talented and I love her style. Have a great week and I'll get some pictures posted soon.

My Classroom Crafts for Fall

Good golly, I haven't posted forever. So sad... I'm having a really hard time with my time management right now. *sigh*

This weekend dear hubby and I went shopping and boating. We had a quiet, but nice weekend. I'm so ready for cooler weather. It's suppose to be in the high 80s for the next two days and then there will be a cool down to the low 70s. I so enjoy the seasonal changes in the Midwest. I'm also ready for a slower pace as the weather gets cooler. We don't seem to be as busy in the fall and winter as in the spring and summer.

Schools off to a good start now and that's a good thing. We have started our craft business. The school system use to give us plenty of money to educate the students in the community. Now the budget has been cut to less than one third, yes you read correctly, one third. Not only that, but we don't even know when the money is going to come in for our use. Grrr.

So to off set the expenses of taking the students into the community for shopping, eating out, using public transportation etc. we have started a business called Teens Create. Right now we are making stuffed pumpkins and decorated mason jars. The jars hold a votive cup and have been very popular with the school staff. Thank you very much! Here are some of the pictures and I'm listing them on Etsy. Please stop by our little shop and support this worthy cause. All profits will go to the students. Thanks a million.

We are making these as we get orders. We will be making them for at least another two weeks. If you are interesed in one, please email me. tlateach@msn.com They are $6.00 each. I'll let you know on shipping when I get your order. Just discribe the jar in your oder. I'm going to ues ESTY but for now I'll take an email. Times running short for fall decore. Have a good week and happy blogging.