Your VOTES are NEEDED!

I am obsessed with colorful autumn leaves.  Every year my absolute favorite thing to do in the Fall is to find the most BEAUTIFUL tree in Fergus Falls and proclaim it as the BEST EVER!  My kids are used to me frequently gasping, pointing and sometimes stopping the car when I see a lovely candidate with bright Fall foliage.  On September 28th, I decided to photograph some of the trees in Fergus Falls, but I found so many beauties, I just couldn't decide which one was the BESTEST TREE EVER.  

So, I decided to ask for your assistance and created my own personal Fall Foliage Beauty contest.  Please help me with this difficult decision.  Click on the collage below to enlarge the photos and after carefully evaluating the color composition, shape and overall impression determine which of these 11 contestants is worthy of the title BESTEST TREE EVER.  Let me know your vote by entering the respective contestant number in the comments section.

 

A quick & easy Fall craftey

I got a deal through Groupon on this Fall vinyl for $6 and was able to team it up with some scrap wood, paint, Fall scrapbook paper, wire and presto... fun new Autumn sign.  Here are the steps.

 The "Autumn" vinyl is a very dark chocolate brown and approximately 4x12.  The "we rake, we pile, we jump" vinyl is a bunt orange color and about 2x12 in size.  The plan was to layer them together.

 Steve cut a scrap board down to 6x14 for me and it was base coated with black paint.

 I looked through my stash of Fall scrapbook paper for some inspiration on what would go best with the vinyl.

 I added a crackle medium over the black and then painted a butter-cream color over it so the black would show through.

 A little Mod Podge was used to adhere the paper, which I had torn and chalked to distress.  I covered the front with two thin coats of Mod Podge (letting it dry in between coats) before sticking down the vinyl.

Two screws added at the top of the board anchor the hanging wire which I spiraled to add some texture and finished off with a bright orange bow.

 Easy-peasy.  The end.

a-MAZE-ing time!

The corn maze at Potters Way outside of Oakes, ND was a great experience again this year. This is the third year in a row that our kids have gotten to go to and the 2nd year for Steve & I. The Potters Way family make it so much fun by changing up the theme each year.
The theme this year was Game Show games. You have to answer the questions correctly to find your way out.

The questions were trixie... I am serious. I won't tell you the right answer as it would spoil the fun.

When you went the wrong way... you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you had blown it.
Maybe it was because we debated each question and formed a consensus between Steve, Grandma Rose, Abby and me before choosing the answer/direction. {Bella was no help whatsoever.}
Seriously, we picked the wrong answer so many times, I thought we would be in the MAZE for ever!
Logan and Kippy ran through the maze ahead of us and apparently never got a question wrong (according to them).
They even came back to help us out since we were taking so long.

But I don't really believe they knew the answers any better than we did!
It was an amazing time for the cousins. My mom told me a quote which is so very true. "Grandma's house, where cousins become friends."
I love when they have a chance to spend time together.
After the corn maze, we all boarded the pumpkin express to make our pumpkin selections.
Some top quality specimens were chosen.
Fall is my favorite time of the year! It was truly a great Fall afternoon with family, corn, pumpkins & laughter. My love bucket runneth over.

Everyone, EVERYONE!

We love to say that at our house as a preface to an announcement "Everyone, Everyone!" It actually comes from my niece when she was a wee little girl, perhaps 3 or 4 years old. She went to her daycare one day and put her arms up in the air and announced with purpose to all her friends,

"Everyone, EVERYone!! We are having a party at my house! And we are going to have cranberry juice because it hurts when my daddy goes potty."

The whole bit about the cranberry juice had something to do with a bladder infection that my brother had at the time. I think she thought the cranberry juice made it a special occasion thus a good reason for a party. Anyway, the details are a little shaky because it happened 13-14 years ago, but we still love to say "Everyone, EVERYone!" for important announcements.

Now that I have your attention, here is my important announcement... I WON a really AWESOME album in a blog drawing!!! I am so excited. A little more background may be helpful. I follow about 15 bloggers on a fairly regular basis. {I have had to give up my 25-year habit of watching Days of Our Lives to fit this into my life and it has been well worth the sacrifice.}Some of the blogs I follow are photographers, some are crafters, some are serious, some of hilarious, some are dear, close, personal friends of mine... I follow a variety, which are mostly linked up on the right hand side of my own blog. Occasionally, bloggers have give-aways (like a doorprize), and you normally enter by adding a comment to the post and then the blog owner does a random number drawing among the comment entries. I have done this for months, but this time I WON! I follow Wilna Furstenburg at My he{art} and entered her giveaway for this awesome Fall Coffeecup album.

Now I'll be able to fill it with my own fall pictures and memories. How sweet! I encourage you to jump on the bandwagon and follow your favorite bloggers... there are cash and prizes involved. Hoot-hoot! I do plan to have my own blog give-a-way later this week, so keep reading (& commenting) because you may be the next winner.

Apple Harvest 2010

A bonus of going to the farm last weekend to celebrate Kippy's 10th birthday (September 25 & 26) was being able to help with the Apple harvest. There are two HoneyCrisp apple trees at the farm, which were planted when my neice, Makenzie (1993), and nephew, Kaleb (1996), were born. The tricky thing is that some years there are loads of apples and some years there have been no apples at all. It all depends on the weather when the trees are in bloom. Rain and high winds greatly affect pollination as well as temperature, like a late Spring frost. This year was a little less than average, yeilding 9 five-gallon buckets full of apples, plus a couple of pails full of bruised and banged up apples are used for apple sauce. In a banner year, we can get almost 30 five gallon buckets.

This year the apples were HUGE even tho the yield wasn't great, maybe because of the smaller number of apples on the trees. We had 4 adults and 4 kids helping with harvest. Kaleb got the job of picking from up high in the cherry picker, while Kippy & Logan climbed right up up in the trees to pick. Abby used a ladder, while I helped out with transferring and rating the apples. Grandma Rose was busy cutting up the apples for apple sauce and shared slices with all of the workers. Steve and Grandpa Rod were in charge of moving the ladders and the cherry picker into position. It was a very good time and we have been eating delicious, juicy, crisp, sweet apples every day since then. I love them cut up in salads and in morning oatmeal.

Another option if you have apples that are less than perfect is to make crockpot applesauce.
I don't follow a formal recipe, but this is what I do. I core and quarter enough apples to fill the crockpot 3/4 full. Add 1/2 cup a liquid, I love using orange juice, but think that cranberry juice or apple cider would be good. ...I have used water too. It all works. I sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, add a dash of nutmeg and salt. I also add a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for about 6 hours. I simply mash with a potatoe masher because we like it chunky, but if ran through a mill it would be perfectly smooth. The Honeycrisp apples are naturally sweet, so no sugar necessary. Of course, we love it warm with a dollup of ice cream. Tastes like PIE & makes the house smell wonderful! Yum!
How do you like your apples?

My Ode to Fall

I took a walk today on crunchy, cracking leaves, enjoyed the cool crisp air and tried to photograph the splendor. Many of the maples in town are bursting with reds, yellows and oranges. I get so distracted driving while pointing out the fall foliage, which resembles fireworks to me. It was much safer walking with Bella and my Nikon. It is my favorite time of year!

"Pumpkins in the cornfields, gold among the brown. Leaves of rust and scarlet, trembling slowly down. Birds that travel southward, its a lovely time to play Nothing is as pleasant, as an autumn day!"

I haven't gotten any pumpkins yet, but I do have a bunch of beautiful mums to enjoy on my porch.
Hope you are finding lots of ways to enjoy this fabulous fall season!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Backyard hoar frost from Monday morning... always reminds me of our wedding day nearly 18 years ago, where everything was beautifully frosted.

Wordless Wednesday

Potters Way

On Sunday afternoon, my parents took us to the cutest farm outside of Oakes, ND called Potters Way. I was curious as to why it was called Potters Way. The owners pointed out a beautiful bible verse on the wall "We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8. No better inspiration than that!

We got to browse through gorgeous Fall decor and sample delightful goodies and jellies.

4 ladies on pumpkins: Grandma Rose, Abby, Bella & Kippy

The "bling" pumpkin caught Abby's eye (big surprise there)
Kippy's interest when an entirely different direction.

After browsing through the barn, we headed out to see the barnyard animals.

Bella was terrified, so Steve picked her up and she tentatively checked out one sheep.

My favorite character was Charlie. Charlie has a severe under-bite that cracked me up.

So hard to take this long horn steer seriously with that under-bite!

Kippy liked Jenny, the donkey and her baby named Marshmallow.

Next we entered the Wizard of Oz themed corn maze.

Our two munchkins and Toto found what was left of the wicked witch of the east.

Next we headed out through the maze to find our way. (Bella was absolutely no help at all.)

We met a few friends along the way...

"I'll get you my pretties and your little dog too!!!" Scary stuff, but we eventually found our way out.

Next, we boarded the Pumpkin Express for a ride out to the patch to pick our pumpkins.

Despite the gusty winds that nearly blew us over, we had a fantastic afternoon!