The Gruesome Sites of the Civil War Muster...

Some gruesome and strange sites at the Muster this weekend. LOVE IT!

The Fortune Teller $3

A Field Surgeon at work.

Umm.... anyone in need of some blood letting work from the barber/Mayor?

Really, Do Not Mess with this!

A Michigan Rattler.

A pile of dead and dying soldiers.

A 1860's funeral.

A widow in mourning.

Surgery Room.

Two Wonderful Halloween Books

*Alright... for some insane, no sense to it at all reason some of my photos are turned on their sides. I've redone them 4 times now and the just keep flipping! They are not even flipped in my photo gallery. So what the heck?! blogger weirdo thing I guess.

Sorry, I guess we'll just have to turn our heads sideways for now. I'll try to rotate them again later. Now back to the regular scheduled post.

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These are two really wonderful Halloween books!

The first one is Bethany Lowe's Folk Art Halloween. I love this book from one of my favorite artist! It's filled with Halloween projects both cute and vintage. There are pages of clip art and patterns. It has everything from paper crafts to sewing projects.
I love this table runner! ... turning head sideways.

This tinsel tree is so cute, love the old witch boot for the base.

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The next great book is Vintage Halloween Collectibles/An Identification and Price Guide 2nd edition.

I had so much fun browsing through this book, wishing I had some of these vintage Halloween pieces. These candles are from the 1960's. We used to have a ghost and a witch candle when I was young... wishing I still had them.

This book is huge! Loaded with all kinds of goodies for the Vintage Halloween lover. Everything from lanterns, shakers, games, and decorations.

Okay... cracking neck back in place... geesh!

I found both of these books at the library... I high recommend you check them out.

Thrifty Finds...

Today Autumn and Kevin held a yard/estate sale at Kevin's grandparent's home. His grandparents are past now and Kevin's mom told the kids they could sell the stuff from the garage and basement that Autumn helped clean out and keep the money. So I went to help out a good cause:) Autumn only charged me $10 for all of this, but I wrote her a check for $20. I also stopped at a sale in my neighborhood and bought a old table covering and a little turtle.
Here are my thrifty finds;

Blue & white tea towel, 4 cute drink coasters, paper lace, turtle, pipe box

A sweet bird plate from Germany

Close up of the leather pipe box.

Revolutionary War soldier coat rack made by Yorkraft Inc. York, Pennsylvania

for Noah's room and a little wooden nut cracker. (no-no, not for Sniffy!)

Old sheet music and clock works for art projects.

Autumn found a dead dragonfly and saved it for our nature table.

Beautiful hand thrown pottery made by Kevin's mom. Two cinnamon scented candles, two little glass jars and the table cover.

Here's Noah with his thrifty finds; (He had this whole business man thing going on)

An old hat, a brief case filled with "How to... Business" type books and part of an old phone??? I guess that's his cell phone.

Ah-ha!

I found this lying on the sidewalk today,

when I dropped off Noah at camp.

A sweet colorful leaf... just lying there to make me happy:)

It won't be long...

Summer's end is nearing. Before I know it I'll be back to work and life will be structured once again. No more staying up late or sleeping in to my heart's content. No more widdling away the day with crafting, swinging on the porch swing, just putzing. Our next few weekend's are pretty full, which is sort of a bummer...

I wanted to take a leisurely drive to Lake Michigan this summer still. Play in the waves, picnic on the beach. Brad wants to go camping one more time. Just the two of us, much to Noah's dismay. I don't think there is time this summer, but maybe in September we can camp. ~

Even though I hate to see summer come to an end. I absolutely thrive in Autumn! It's really my time of year. I seem to always be in good spirits and find it a time of great inspiration. I love slipping into a soft sweater and jeans, hiking though the colorful woods, pumpkins on my porch steps, hot apple cider, decorating my home, the smell of wood smoke, watching the squirrels getting ready for winter. Autumn will be welcomed!

More free vintage images, help yourself to these bathing beauties.

Camping at Indian Valley

We had a wonderful weekend of camping. No creepy raccoon attacks! Just some evil vampire mosquitoes out for blood and they didn't care if you spray or smeared yourself with toxins. Other than that and packing up in the rain again, all was well. Canoeing was especially fun!

A pretty green view from the canoe.

A white goose, so Brad tells me... I kept calling it a duck.

Turtles!

For Autumn...

Happy Halloween~~~

I've been making some Halloween decorations for Autumn. (She has her own home now.)
Autumn really loves vintage Halloween...just like her momma!

This is a painted hat box decoupaged with some old vintage Halloween postcard images. A
paper mache skull with vintage crepe paper collar, (I was thinking Shakespere~ish ?)
a vintage postcard image made into a stand-up photo trimmed in vintage silver tinsel garland. I added a flickering electric candle for some glow effect.

I love finding old tinsel, garland, crepe paper at yard sale, flea markets and thrift stores. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I find some!
Autumn was helping Kevin's mom clean out her basement and they sent over a bag of goodies; the hat box and the vintage crepe paper were two of the things in the bag that I used for this piece.

I think I'm about ready to switch gears soon, It's time to get back to some embroidery and I've started knitting my second scarf. Really, we have way too many crochet scarves around here already. I'm going to watch some Youtube tutorials on how to knit hats. I cannot for the life of me learn out of a book... hmmm... I should of been a hands on, interest led homeschooler. Just thing of how much I would know by now! Well, it's never too late, right?

We're going camping again this weekend for 4 days. This time we are going with my sister and her husband and our good friends Joe and Jackie with their kids. (Joe was our best man in our wedding.) Our campsite is right on the Thornapple River bank. On Sunday we are going on a 4 hour canoe trip... I keep wondering "what the heck do I do if I need to go to the bathroom during the trip?" uhh... pull over and use a tree?
*Also please, oh please let there be no crazy raccoons running around my tent at night!