October ? ..... Already?

What a busy weekend ! It was SO full of fun, family stuff , the very best kind of busy !
We only have a few weekends left at the trailer and we are trying to squeeze a lot of family time into these next few weekends. This weekend was the Turkey River Run , no, I do not run , but my niece Spencer and her husband Johnny and my nephew Ian have ran it for the last two years. It's a cross country , 5 mile run . And by cross country , I mean through fields , down ravines and through the river ( 5 times). They have fun running it and I have fun watching for them at the finish line ! Poor Spencer was so disappointed , she was second in her age division ( she got beat by 1 min. ). But there is always next year !

Spencer and Johnny. LOVE them !

That afternoon , we all went to the apple orchard in PrarieDuChein. We love that orchard and usually make a few trips there each fall. This one was the best ever. My son, Dan and daughter-in-law, Sarah came along with my grand daughter ( you have all been introduced to Addie already). My youngest daughter  Emily and her guy Ryan came along too.  Add in Spencer and Johnny and friends Will and Heather and we had quite a crew! We ate at one of our favorite places along the river.  It looks like a dive on the outside , but the food is outstanding and the service is excellent.

Auntie Em ( or My , as Addie calls her ) entertaining Addie and trying to get her to smile for Grandma .

Then on to the orchard , of which I have NO pictures ! This forgetful Grandma left her camera in the car. We do have plenty of pictures though because Addie's Mommy ALWAYS has her camera, I just have to wait for her to get me some. We had a great time. Addie LOVED the petting zoo . She called the llama a giraffe but ...close enough !  We picked apples. We ate apples.  We picked raspberries. We looked at the pumpkins, but Addie and I had already gotten enough for me ( see previous post ).

 When we got back to the trailer , Addie picked out a mini pumpkin to take home. My BFF and neighbor Shari was very generous and left a pile of them on my patio table.

Not sure what the two of them are laughing about .....

STILL won't look at the camera!

Today on our way home we stopped to look at hubby's new project. He bought a house to flip and really has his work cut out for him. The house belonged to a hoarder ( I am so NOT joking ) and it is FULL of stuff ! He has brought me some pretty good junk , but he has had to clean  out an awful lot of trash too. When he first looked at the house, I couldn't even go in , the smell was that bad ! Emily was braver than me , she looked at it with him, but he has come a long way in just a couple weeks ! He is much braver than I !

Here is some of the treasures he brought me put to use .

What to do with a 1970"s wrought iron candle sconce , why add mini pumpkins , of course!

Not just one, but two !

I also brought home some awesome fabric ( old drapes ) that I can NOT wait to use. However a good cleaning is need first. The kids all found something to take home too, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. He hasn't even gotten to the second floor!

Stayed tuned for more " flip house junk" redo's !

Thirsty Thursday - It's Martini Time

One of my favorite cocktails are martinis. Not the James Bond ,"stirred not shaken" kind, but the yummy , fluffy, girly kind.
We are taking a trip to the local orchard this weekend and that got me thinking about apple martinis. I found this great recipe at allrecipes.com.



Ingredients

• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger best-quality vodka
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger apple schnapps
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger frozen lemonade
• 1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger chilled lemon-lime soda
• 1 lime wedge
• 1 maraschino cherries

Directions

1. Pour the vodka, schnapps, lemonade, and soda into a cocktail shaker over ice. Cover, and shake until the outside of the shaker has frosted. Strain into a chilled martini glass, and garnish with a lime wedge and maraschino cherry to serve.

The next most important thing when having a martini is proper stemware . Enough can NOT be said be said about proper stemware !



Aren't these beautiful? And FUN !

And what are martini's if not fun ???

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Fall is defiantly upon us . The leaves are changing and the drive home with Addie was beautiful ! Today I decided we would shop for pumpkins . What fun we had ! Addie would have picked out even more if I would have let her!

Addie refuses to let me take her picture anymore !

I asked her to sit on the pumpkin with Tippy , but she still wouldn't look at me !

She escaped ! But LOVE the bumpy pumpkins!

Still NOT lookin'!

She's out of here !

Even though she wouldn't let me get any good pictures , Addie picked out some awesome pumpkins! And I made another priceless memory with my granddaughter!

Here are some of the things I plan to do with our pumpkins  ~

Will this scare my birds away?

Love this ! Black chair + pumpkins = FAB !

Pumpkin Candy Corn ~ PERFECT !

 This arrangement will be awesome in my wooden wheelbarrow !

That's as "wordless" as it gets with me folks !

Laziness......

It was a cold , rainy , yucky day here in Northeast Iowa. I have been lazy, lazy, lazy all day ! I decided to make a list of things I MUST get done this week and if I make it known , then maybe , just maybe , I will accomplish them.

#1 . REMOVE all of the "stuff" sitting all over my kitchen, dining, and living room that needs to go to the store. I'm tired of my home looking like a flea market ! I need to find a way to organize all of our "finds" until they are ready to go to the store and my living room is NOT the place to store them.
#2. REORGANIZE  the guest room. It has become a catch -all for smaller treasures and half finished projects also for the store .....GEEZ...I'm seeing a pattern here.

#3. CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN . My dust bunnies have been breeding like rabbits and those cobwebs in the corners are NOT Halloween decorations ! Speaking of which....

#4. CONTINUE with the Fall decorations. I got off to a small start last week ( see Antlers and Acorns ) but have much,  MUCH, more to do. I am hosting a bridal shower for my niece- to -be  AND having a " girlfriends" party at the end of the month and my house is far from ready for the festivities !

Am I getting an of this done ?..... Well no, not really.... I have however found some great inspiration on Pinterest. LOVE , LOVE, LOVE,  this site . What a great way to waste time .... get inspiration from other people.

Here are some Halloween/ Fall ideas I plan to put my own spin on :

Perfect for my front step.

Love this idea. I have a perfect birdbath for this !

Defiantly going to do a version of this display in the entry. Picked up crows at the Dollar Store the other day , already have similar containers and plenty of spiders, just have to find some hedge apples....Hmmm

Last but not least. I love this vase. Super easy and I have everything to put it together.  Beautiful  example of an all natural display !

Now just to get off my lazy bum and accomplish something .....I'll keep you posted !

The GRAPE Adventure

As I mentioned ALL week , I had a wonderful weekend planned with my old friend Rhonda , my favorite winery , and some awesome music by a local musician she introduced me to ( I may not have mentioned that part before). What a great time!
She also introduced me to her friend Erin ( now my new friend ) I knew if Rhonda loved her I would too, and I did ! What fun we had !
We left Rhonda's house at 7 am ( which meant getting up at 6 , not so good for me , as I am NOT an early morning person ! ) We needed to be at the winery at 7:30 ( we did make it on time ) , by 8:30 we were in the vineyard picking grapes. When I say "we" , I don't mean just the three of us , I'm not sure how many were there , but their web site  said they took 100 reservations and they were full every weekend !

They sent us out to our alotted acre and we began picking . We were picking Concord grapes , which I guess are one of the later varieties. The owner explained that they are harder to pick because they grow under the foliage and that it would work best if one person lifted the vine and another picked. This was one of the few times in my life  being short payed off.

I climbed right under the vine and started picking. I'm not sure how Erin got under there , she is REALLY tall , especially compared to me . And I'm not sure if she was picking at this time or just taking a picture of me . In her words "  You know I'm here for the wine , I'm not really here to work , right ?"

She was really helpful at lifting the vines though , I mentioned she was tall right ? Anyway, the veiw from inside the vines was SPECTACULAR !

Isn't that gorgeous! I had an absolute ball picking these grapes !

Then came the real fun . The owner arrived with a cooler full of chilled wine for us to sample !

Good stuff !

Then it was  grape stomping time !

Yes, they actually had a big vat of grapes for us to climb in and stomp !

Not quite Lucy and Ethel , but we were close. And we stayed upright. That may sound funny , but there was actually a girl that slipped while stomping . She was grape juice from the waist down ! Too much wine , maybe?
I can't finish this post without mentioning Chad Elliot. He is a local folk singer /song writer we went to listen to that night. He was fantastic. This is the second time I have been to one of his concerts and I enjoy him more each time. I just wish we hadn't been so tired from our adventure , we left before his oncore , we were just beat ! But please check him out at :  

	http://www.chadelliott.net/

And that my friends , is the story of my Grape Adventure !

.



Thirsty Thursday

Welcome to the first installment of Thirsty Thursday. On Thursdays , I will post recipes and pictures of some of my favorite cocktails ( and there are quite a few ! ).
In honor of my upcoming wine weekend I am sharing one of my famous ( or infamous, depending on who you talk to ) sangria recipes. I LOVE sangria! At our favorite Mexican restaurant , I am known as Grandma Sangria ( ok , we must go there too much ) !
If you like wine and people know it , you tend to get gifts of wine that maybe don't appeal to you. I NEVER waste a bottle of wine ! If it's not one I enjoy , I just save it for a Sangria Event. Sangria recipes generally make a pretty big batch so I don't like to make it unless I am having an "EVENT", besides Sangria is always best shared with friends !
Sangria is basically a wine punch made with fruit and liquor. And the great thing is there are as many combinations as there are people. You just can't do it wrong. Sometimes I add a little ginger ale or soda to a glass 3/4 full of Sangria , but again , it's all personal preference.

Today I am going to share the recipe I used for my Sangria at out Labor Day potluck at the campground . It was DELISH !
One Bottle of Merlot - I will interject here and say it's best to use a cheap wine. Why use a expensive wine when it's  flavors are just going to mingle with that of the liquor and fruit.
One Cup Raspberry Schnapps-  I like to use a sweeter liquor , like Schnapps  or brandy.
One Cup Triple Sec - I almost always use Triple Sec
One bottle of Cranberry Juice -  I always use a fruit juice of some kind , depending on the flavor combo I'm going for . I usually prefer citrus though , like,  lemonade , limeade or  even a mixed fruit punch. This particular weekend I happened to have a bottle of cranberry juice in the frig.
Sliced fruit - if you slice the fruit the flavors mingle faster. AGAIN , it's all preference. This weekend I used a lemon , lime , orange and frozen  mixed berries.
Another tip - if you freeze your sliced fruit or use frozen fruit , you don't need to use ice , which dilutes the Sangria. Who really wants diluted Sangria ? NO ONE !
 I called this one WILD Berry Sangria !  And I have to say it WAS a hit !I can't think of a better  or more affordable cocktail to serve a crowd than Sangria. Experiment with different combinations , I can honestly say I have never made two batches alike ! Give it a try !

Wordless Wednesday - Almost

So , I'm pretty new to this blogging thing , (but I am having fun with it ) and I see quite a few blogs that do " Wordless Wednesday" posts.
Now I have Addie every Wednesday afternoon, so I thought it would be a pretty cool feature on my blog too.
Here's the problem.... it's almost impossible for me to be wordless about ANYTHING ! But.... I am going to try use as few words as possible.
This Wednesday's theme : INSPIRATION.

I have found another cool thing while blogging , it's called Pinterest . It's a great creative tool , that lets you look at other people's inspiration. It's like an online scrapbook of all things that interest you. How many times have you looked at a picture in a magazine and thought it was great and got some inspiration from it , then when you tried to find it back , you couldn't remember which magazine it was in or which issue of which magazine (  if you're like me, you have all the issues because you just can't part with them , cause you might need to refer back... someday ), well this helps you store all of those ideas on " boards". For instance , I have a board for "garden" and " quotes" and "inspiration " and , well , you can have as many boards as you have interests if you want . It's awesome , I'm telling you !

ANYWAY...... here is some of my INSPIRATION ....

Inspiration for my " chair obsession"

An Inspiration for next year in the Moon Garden. Can't you just see a similar arrangement with silver pots and white flowers ? HEAVEN !

One of the next DIY projects I'm going to tackle. Addie LOVES writing with her chalk. Just because it's functional doesn't mean it can't be beautiful !

Pomegranate Champagne Punch

I think this will be the "signature cocktail "  at my next Girl's Night party ! YUMM!

My quote of the week.....BUT oh, so true !

Ok , so it wasn't "Wordless" , but this is as close as it gets for me. The wordless Wednesday word is INSPIRATION and  I hope my blog gives you a little of that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's new feature , "Thirsty Thursday". I haven't found a blog yet that does that , but I'm sure there must be one or two !