Halloween Witch Dish Towel #2

Here's another witch towel I embroidered. The first one is posted here. These are so fun and easy to do, I have enjoyed making every single one!
Linking to Made by You Mondays at Skip to My Lou.

Backyard Evolution Continues...

As I have mentioned before, our back yard is a work in progress. The latest thing we added was some wood posts and hanging baskets. I saw something similar in a magazine and decided to adapt it to our back yard.

We started with two 4x4x12 foot cedar posts. My husband dug a 2 foot hole into the ground and set the posts in 140 lbs. of concrete. We used bricks to hold the posts in place while the concrete set.

After the posts were set in the concrete, we stained them with the same stain we used on the fence. I then purchased some wrought iron hooks to hang plants from. Troy drilled holes and hung the hooks. Next was the hunt for hanging baskets. I went to several nurseries looking for premade baskets but did not like any because they were in those plastic pots with plastic hangers- yuk! For a couple of weeks, we just had a lonely pumpkin chime hanging on one of the hooks.

So I had to go the long route to get the hanging baskets. I purchased empty wrought iron baskets with coco fiber liners and a bunch of plants and put the baskets together myself. I kept reminding myself about what I learned at a container garden seminar... gotta have three types of plant in a container: tall plant to "thrill", another plant to "fill" and a third plant to "spill". Because the pots were only 12 inches, I went with good ole marigolds to "thrill" and and pansies in different colors to "spill".

The baskets have been hanging ten days and seem to be thriving in our beautiful autumn weather. I hope this inspires you to dig a hole, plant a post, drill in some hooks and hang a beautiful basket, thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:

Metamorphisis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Mother & Daughter Halloween Party

During my single days I used to host a Halloween Party for girlfriends. After I got married and had a baby it was difficult to continue the tradition. After much thought and consideration (plus some encouragement from my friend Virginia) we decided to bring the tradition back with a twist by making make it a Mother Daughter Party. Here are some of the highlights!

The backyard was somewhat decorated already. The morning of the party we added tables and chairs to the back yard. Here's what it looked like before everyone arrived


Here's what it looked like as everyone was arriving. Needless to say the weather was picture perfect and everyone enjoyed the back yard. I found out 35 people very comfortable fit in our back yard.
Here's a picture of a grandma witch and aunt witch.

Here's a picture of more cute mothers and daughters.

Some of my girlfriends brought treats to share... My friend Jennifer made these super cute monster squares, the cake part was pumpkin and chocolate chips, they were really yummy.

These are some of the treats on the kitchen bar. I forgot to take a picture of the food table!

Here is the picture of the super gorgeous cake my friend & co host Virginia purchased. It was giant, we could have fed another 35 people. She ordered it from The Cake Stand in historical downtown McKinney, it was incredibley delicious.

Here's a cute picture of a few of the girls having a good time on the swing set!

All in all the party was a huge success, could those little girls look any happier? We definitely will have another party next year! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

Halloween Witch Dish Towel

Here is a dishtowel I embroidered. I purchased these and added only the embroidery, I thought about duplicating them but figured it out was more cost effective to buy them already made. . I made nearly 15 of these for teacher gifts, friend gifts and even sold a couple.
Linking to Made by You Mondays at Skip to my Lou

College Day Shirt

Our daughter had College Day at school last week. From the moment I heard about it, I knew I had to make the drive to my old college town to get her a shirt (about 35 miles away). Time just got away from me and I never had the chance to make the trip so the evening before I sat down and made her a shirt using my embroidery machine.


This was my 'first' attempt at a shirt. Shirts are harder than just plain flat items because you are working with the shirt inside out on a hoop. This took me several hours. In the end I could have made several trips back and forth to Denton in the time in took me to make this but I was very pleased with the way it turned out.

I love it but I won't be mass producing these anytime soon! Thanks for stopping by

Phase II Fall Decorating

Once mid October comes around, I start putting out the Halloween decoratings. I am especially fond of cute witches. With a Mother & Daughter Halloween Party around the corner here's some snapshots...

Move over birdies, the bird bath is going to be a pedestal for a pumpkin.

Garden Witch keeping Croton company...

I hung my garden flags on the fence...

Another Croton in the front porch.

I love fun wood signs...

I'll keep adding pictures, thanks for stopping by.

Halloween Apron

Here's a Halloween Apron I made for a teacher, Mrs. Stober. Her favorite color is purple and she loves Halloween. You can see a close up of the embroiderly and what the full apron looks like. I have more of these if anyone is interested.