...make a monster!

I made this friendly monster wreath for my front door to say "Happy Halloween" to everyone. 

 'Have fun tonight!

...do some crafty problem solving.

Before I had my son, I had grand ideas of how I would create the cutest nursery for him. I would craft all these neat things. Then, he was born. The craft projects were set aside. After a few months, I meant to dive back in. However, we moved across the country. Our summer was spent in temporary situations. Our household goods (and craft projects) were stored away. Now that we are settling in, I have found the projects and the time to complete a few. However, I've needed to be flexible and allow the project to evolve. So, I first wanted to make a sweet little hot air balloon mobile. I found the paper lanterns and crocheted little baskets. This was all before my son arrived.

You can see how I strung the mini pony beads for colorful sandbags.

I even finished one. It took a while to figure out how to get it to work the way I wanted. One down, and...life happened!

So, when we moved into our new house, I brought these out again. I thought they would help me solve a problem I had. I had curtains that were too long for the window. We are just renting, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to cut and sew them to size. I scrounged around to find my clothes pins to solve the problem. I pinned the balloons up instead of stringing them into a mobile.

They made a fake valance for my curtains by pinning it just right.

It was a little tricky, but the clothes work...once I did some trimming on the paper lantern plastic.

I am happy with the way it turned out. My son's window is cheerful. The balloons have found a creative use.

'Problem solved!

...find new things to hunt.

Don't let this picture fool you. Sure, Lucy didn't want to get up from her nap when my baby woke from his. However, she went right to work as soon as I let her outside. Before a few minutes went by, she had hunted down (and nearly killed) a huge prey mantis. I witnessed it's demise at Lucy's paws. I'm not sure what happened to it. When I returned to the window later, it was gone. Either Lucy ate it or buried it. I'm not worried about this kill. It was small compared to her last: a possum. Yep. Lucy has continued to find new things to hunt here in Virginia.

...fill.

It's fall here in Virginia. Yep. We have completed our cross-country move. It took us all summer to get here due to our mid-west stay while my hubby trained for his current position. I am so glad to get here and start settling in. It's going to take some time. Our son has gone thru a rough patch of cutting 6 teeth at a time! He's working on the last one of those now. I hope he (and we) catch a break (sleep) soon.

I've only caught moments here and there of setting things up around the house. We still have moving boxes for most of our decor. Ha-ha. However, I found a moment to toss some acorns in an old vase and tie a ribbon ($1 find at the local craft store) around the neck for a quick fall decoration. The acorns are from our back yard. We sure have a lot of them. Gathering enough for the vase was easy! They fall on our house like rain when the wind blows...well, it's more like hail. If you come to visit, you might want to bring your hard hat until the acorn season is over!