The second thing I wanted to tell you about is a fantatic giveaway over at Linda's blog http://behindmyreddoor.blogspot.com/. She has a beautiful blog and her give away is fall themed, my favorite time of year!Thursday I went to the craft store and bought supplies to make several projects I had seen in a couple of magazines. I'm glad I did as it kept me busy this weekend. I made several things, that I will put up in the next couple days.
The first is this altered notebook. I had seen a couple of these while surfing around the net and thought they were so cute. Let me tell you, this could become as obsession! They are extremely easy to make and I really like how it turned out.
Opps!Hope everyone has a blessed day.
Linda
Meet Autumn, my fall Amish doll! I never could find a good place to photograph her, sorry the photos are dark.
Her body and apron are made from an old flour sack that my grandmother gave me. I embroidered her name on her apron so none of the other dolls could take it!
These little Halloween ornaments were adapted from the new Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine. If you love crafts, run, do not walk, to wherever you get your magazines and grab it. It is loaded with beautiful crafts!
My little witch shadow box is made from the top of a jewelry cardboard box. Just covered with scrapbooking paper and added some doo-dads and ribbon!
This little pumpkin sitter is also the top of a jewelry box and got some orangeish-gold glitter to give him some bling!
Check out the size of these turnips! I would have loved to weigh it but it seems my scale sprouted legs and walked away, because no one knows where it is. (does that ever happen in your home?).
The little cherry tomato plants continue to provide hundreds of tiny, delicious, sweet, balls of taste! They are soooo sweet. We eat them like candy. Note to anyone who wants to plant cherry tomatoes: You only need ONE plant! Really. Trust me of this.
I can hardly wait for this little fellow to be ready! I have 3 of these little Sugar Baby watermelons.
I also have the motherload of banana peppers! I usually just slice these into rings and freeze them so that I can use them in Mexican dishes all winter long! In the fall these are so pretty as they start turning orange and red. They can be substituted for red and yellow peppers in most recipes as they are very sweet.
This butternut squash just volunteered to grow! I guess where one of my butternuts from last year rotted into the ground, the seed came up this year and I have a couple of butternut squash that will be ready soon. Volunteers are always welcome in my garden!
This is probably the vegetable I am most excited about! For the last 2-3 years I have had zero luck growing pumpins. They bloom then die. But this year I have 3 pumpkins on the vine and they are just starting to turn orange! They aren't real big, the largest being about the size of a basketball. They should be ready just in time for fall decorating! It will be so cool to have grown my own jack-o-lantern!
These tiny little girls are about 1 1/2" tall. I love the pink bow on the doll on the right.
The doll on the left is rubber and she/he is also about 1 1/2" tall. The tiniest doll I have is the one on the left. She is less than 1 inch tall!
Can you imagine crocheting a dress that tiny? Someone did! 
My garden is not too big. It's about 50x50 and I had planted two rows of blue lake green beans. The vines were full! I wish I had taken a picture. Anyway, I spent Saturday canning green beans. 21 quarts of them! There are still beans on the vine!
My flowers are still blooming despite getting little water. This tiger lilly grew to about 5' tall this year.
By yesterday evening my eye was much better so I went to the nursing home to see my Grandmother who is 96. For any of you who have been following my story with her, she fell back in April and broke her hip, had a hip replacement and has been in the nursing home/rehab since. She has been steadily declining in her mental capacity. She doesn't always know who we are or what day it is, and imagines all manner of things. But yesterday I took her about 20 photos of my flowers in my garden and she spit out the names of the flowers like a pro! I decorated her bulletin board with the pictures because she liked them so well.
This gravy boat and creamer I loved as they are blue and white the colors in my kitchen! Then I noticed a sign that said everything would be half off on Sunday! So I waited until Sunday and went back. Some of the things I wanted had already been sold, but I was able to get a few things.
I also got these two pottery shoes for .50 each and the When you Entertain book for $1.00. 
I got the fabric and the pattern at the thrift store so this purse cost at grand total of 50 cents! (Plus two new serger needles). The button is just decorative as the purse closes with velcro.
Volunteer sunflowers! They look better this year than they did last year when I actually planted them!
Her halo is made from a "stray" ear ring with no mate. I am going to fill them with lip gloss, small lotions, tissues, etc to give friends for Christmas this year. Then they can just put whatever they want in the cone and hang it on their tree. Two gifts in one!
She was so happy because she had never had a "store bought" doll before. Right after Chrismas some friends came over to play with Grandma and made fun of her because she had a black doll. She said it had never occured to her that there was anything wrong with having a black doll but these girls kept laughing about it and making fun of her so she took a box and put the doll in it and buried it out behind the house. She told everyone she gave it away. She was so sad but couldn't stand the taunting she got from the other girls.
When she was a teenager, she remembered the doll and she and her sister went out back and started digging. It took them a while but they finally found the doll! She put the doll in her trunk and there it stayed for decades. She finally showed it to me one year and told me her story. I asked how the doll got so cracked and broken, and she said the doll was used before she got it and I guess just age and heat made it worse. Anyway, the year I graduated from high school my Grandmother gave me this doll. It was stark naked so I made her this little dress. She has been proudly gracing the top of my entertainment center for over 20 years now. I wouldn't take any amount of money for her.
I think she is a beautiful doll with a sad story. 
I will admit they did a great job with the restoration and the boat is very pretty. I just say a little prayer every time they leave and breathe a sign of relief when they return.
Later in the evening we went to town for the fireworks. On Saturday evening we headed down to a local marina for fireworks and they were fantastic. I have never seen so many at one time. Just breathtaking!
