fear none, respect all......the boys of fall.

metamora redbird football rules in central illinois. we are the defending state 5a champs and are hopefully goin there again. we are the central illinois version of the kenny chesney song, "the boys of fall". totally fits this little corn-picking town where our boys of fall are taught to fear none, respect all.

made this for a mom who loves her redbirds!!!



i am having some success at my metal stamped jewelry business and am very grateful. i am humbled that my love of stamping is of interest to even one person.

proud army wife dog tag

today's proud bling.....



made for a friend who's soldier hubby is leaving for afghanistan on friday. his april birthstone adds a sweet touch.

and our gratitude is such a small thing in comparison to his bravery....

may he be safe and fortunate in his endeavors....

i am lovin my new hobby.......

i have truly fallin in love with metal stamping. i am not a necklace-y jewelry laden person. but i am loving creating these stamped pieces. here's the latest from our sweetwater shed....




and keeping up with the interest from friends and family is so much a pleasure and truly wonderful thing. i am blessedly busy.

thank you dollar tree

frugality struck our log home mantel today.

wanted to give a shout out to dollar tree for adding that fall touch to our mantel.

the rest of the decor used on the mantel is from goodwill and garage saling. i am not obsessed really i am not....:)






the black birds and pumpkins are dollar tree.

silver pieces courtesy of goodwill.





ummmmm, already had this wreath and pear candles on a tray. yes....ok....they were from frugal adventures too.





wish these pears were lined up a little straighter......





garland made from fall paper doilies(source dollar tree...:)stapled to twine. rocket science happening at our house today.





here's a close up so you can follow along....:)





all put together.....

i still think the wreath needs a heavier hanging material for more impact. maybe some black grosgrain ribbon instead of the twine that is holding it up?




thanks again dollar tree!

forty on friday

friday garage sale finds...















mexi-dogs....
......apparently this is from a hot dog stand-type place that is no longer in business locally. their specialty?.....hot dogs topped with salsa. mmmmmmm.....no thanks. i think.

couple xmas things...


for daisy....our vintage '65 shasta camper restore
....vintage ice cream patio lights. my favorite find of all.


amt. spent for a morning of shopping.....amazingly,$40 for everything..... sooooo happy bout that.

fun with fellow garage salers.....priceless.

job offer from fellow garage saler.....may lead to a second career. lots to think about.

a study in orange

loving orange in our garden......

mexican sunflower.



black-eyed susan vine.



blackberry lily.




plain ol' marigold.



lanterns at night in wire basket.




i'm a sucker for orange.....(and blue too). but that's for another day.

doin' the deck

human backhoe and i are always in the middle of a project. projects are what we share inorder to spend quality time together. it is......us. we spend our time together in really constructive ways.....:)

one of this summer's projects was repairing and restoring our back deck. here it is in all it's grey mossy glory earlier this year.



and here it is after powerwashing, making repairs and finally staining the deck by hand with paint brushes, 2 coats worth....no rollers or sprayers for us home remodelers. we love working on our hands and knees in 90 plus degree heat...oh yeah. took us about 2 weeks to do the project right. plus we were hit with a few rain showers along the way that we had to wait a day or two for the deck to dry to resume where we left off on a previous day. such is life with the midwest summers.




a few more pics from the deck. love toffee twist sedge grass. here it is with diamond frost euphorbia and plain old orange marigolds.




finally paper lantern balls in an antique wire chicken egg basket. look at that lovely new cedar wood stain from cabot. it was a good semi transparent stain to match our log home. we should be good for another 2 years......til we do it again.



deck staining.....lots of rewards.....but very little time to enjoy it before you have to do it again. here's the product we used to stain the deck with.....took us awhile to find the right color. you know it was harder to pick a stain color than it was to name our children.....


(cabot's semi-transparent acrylic stain in new cedar)

now we can enjoy our backyard and watch the trees change to this pretty soon.