Finally, It Feels Like Fall!

It finally feels like Fall here in Southern California - yay!!! It rained yesterday and it was the perfect day to make some chicken stoup, which I did and it was yummy. I have enough leftover to have for lunch today. It is a very cloudy, beautiful day today with a temperature of 66 degrees. I love this kind of weather - especially since we just had the warmest October ever recorded (since the 1870s or thereabouts when they started keeping records of the temperature).

Today I'm tidying-up and organizing my office/craft room a bit so I can get busy making jewelry for my Etsy shop in time for Christmas. I've been missing my crafting mojo lately, but I think it's starting to come back. I perused some of my jewelry books last night for inspiration; I find that usually helps, and it did. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended) on my progress and share some of my creations here on my blog.

It sure is nice to have gained an extra hour - any extra time for creating is a bonus! Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Have a safe and fun time out there!

Halloween "Hike"

I took these photos this morning during C's and my weekly "hike" at Descanso Gardens. It is such a beautiful, clear fall day - it would be perfect if it wasn't so dang hot. It's been in the 90s for the last week and it was getting rather toasty by the time my cousin "C" and I had finished our hike/walk at 11:30. They were filming something there today and using a smoke machine which was nasty-smelling, but the effect it had on the rays of sunlight coming through the trees was spectacular! Lyrics from "Stairway to Heaven" came to mind ("..Rings of smoke through the trees..."). The trees look so pretty as their leaves are changing to their fall colors. I love this time of year.

They had decorated one of the trails with homemade Halloween decorations that were really clever using rakes, brooms and pumpkins. Toward the end of our hike we came upon the set that they were filming with the smoke machine - it was marked "Hunting". We could see some of the actors taking a break - they were dressed as cavemen! It reminded us of those silly Geico commercials. We came upon the other set marked "Garden of Eden" but couldn't get close enough to see what they were doing. Living so close to "Hollyweird" (as we call it), we see film sets quite often.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

Flashback Friday

I'm taking a cue from various bloggers and posting a Flashback Friday photo since I don't have anything on the crafting front to share with you right now. I'm still trying to get a good picture of my beaded heart charm bracelet, but I haven't had any luck with the lighting. It's so frustrating. So, today I'm posting a picture from long, long ago! This is me and my cousin at her house. My uncle made the swing - I love the bright yellow color he painted it. I'm the rather unhappy-looking kidlet on the left. I never liked having my picture taken and still don't - that's probably why I'm not smiling.

I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend. I sure hope the temperature will go down a bit for Halloween next Friday. I mean, it's going to be 90 degrees today. Enough with the heat already! Sheesh.

Halloween Decorations

Here are a few of the Halloween decorations that I have put out this year. The little "ghost" candy container (that's what I call it - I'm not really sure what it is!) was one I got at Michaels last year that was on clearance right before Halloween. I thought it could use a little sprucing up, so I covered it with glow-in-the-dark glitter. You can't really see it in the photo, but the glitter makes such a difference!

I found the spider with the party hat and treat bag at my local Hallmark Store. I just cracks me up, even though I hate spiders. I have lots more decorations, but these are just a few of my favorites.

Bats, Ghosts and Glitter, Oh My!

I love glitter. I love glitter despite the fact that I find it on myself and on the table days later, no matter how careful I am.

I bought this Debbie Mumm "BOO" sign at JoAnns on Friday. I thought it was really cute and it was even 40% off! I thought that it could use a little sprucing up though, so I got out my glitter, glue, and paint brush, and went to work. I absolutely love Barbara Trombley's Art Glitter - it is the most beautiful glitter, the colors are just gorgeous, and there are a lot to choose from. (Martha Stewart's Glitter is a pretty close second though and you can find it at Michaels.) For the letters in BOO I used Art Glitter #156 Chartreuse Ultrafine Opaque. For the purple background I used #203 Eggplant Ultrafine Transparent, which has little flecks of green in it. For the ghost I used Martha Stewart Crafts Crystal Fine Glitter. It's hard to get the full effect of the glitter due to the fact that the lighting isn't the best and I had to use the flash on my camera, but I think you get the idea. Just know that it is much "prettier" in person, which I think is usually the case (at least with my photos!).

I love the added sparkle. I had glittered a plain wood BOO sign last year that I bought at Michaels and really liked how it turned out, so I wanted to do some more this year. I will be getting my Halloween decorations out and putting them up this week and I will share some of my favorites with you later this week.

What fun Halloween crafting projects have you done or have planned?

Descanso Gardens

My cousin "C" and I went to Descanso Gardens this morning, one of our favorite places to walk. We got there a little after 9:00 and it was blazing hot already. I thought it was Fall! Ugh, I am so over this HOT weather. Tomorrow is the first of October and it's 100 degrees outside. I guess the weather is making up for the relatively mild summer we had.

Anyway, we started out and came upon the sustainable garden they have and saw the biggest squash we had ever seen. Some of them were taller than we are! They are "Italian Trombone Squash".

As we walked along, we noticed there were an awful lot of spiders - they were everywhere we looked it seemed, even way up between the trees. And they were rather big. I have arachnophobia, but I just had to get some pictures of these guys. My cousin said they are always around this time of year. I've never seen so many before. Boy, I'd hate to walk into one their webs, which are a little hard to see sometimes depending on the lighting. We made sure we were careful where we walked! One looked like it was getting ready to eat its "lunch"!

I was finally able to get pictures of a gorgeous Monarch Butterfly that landed on a butterfly bush - how fitting! I've always seen them fluttering around, but I've never been able to get pictures of one, until today! "C" calls them "little flying pieces of art" which I think is very poetic and a perfect description.

The rest of the pictures are of some of my favorite sights of the morning. I hope you enjoy them!