Just a little smile...

I walked into the dining room the other day and saw this...

I hadn't realized that the pilgrims would be as thankful as I was to have finally found the pretzel M&M's!

Have you tried them yet?

Salty and sweet....a match made in heaven for women!

I hope you smiled...

xoxo

Joyce

I am the W-W-W- witch in the banner

Nine talented women and I participated in Elizabeth's, Bluebird Papercrafts, Halloween banner swap. We were to each choose a letter in the word Halloween and make 10 banner panels highlighting that letter.

All of our panels have been sent to Elizabeth and she is assembling the banners and sending

 them out to us this week.

I chose the letter "W" as in witch. The first thing to do was decide on an image to use. Elizabeth had requested that we go with a cute look rather than a scary look which suited me fine. I was leafing through my 2010 Mary Engelbreit calendar and when I came to October and saw the little red-haired witch, I knew she'd be perfect to use. Look at her face...she has kind of an attitude I think....but I guess most witches do! I scanned her into my computer, sized her to use on a 4X6-inch panel and printed out ten witches.

I wanted her to have some dimension so I cropped and cut 10 images of her dress to layer  using small pieces of dimensional tape.

Using Elizabeth's "sandwich" method, I cut 2 4X6-inch pieces of cardstock in black and kraft color for the front and back of each panel. I then cut 4X6-inch pieces of cereal and cracker boxes to use for my sandwich piece in between the cardstock. Using the cut up boxes is actually better than using chipboard. It makes the panel sturdy without being too stiff. I decided to shamelessly copy borrow Elizabeth's design for cutting a half circle out of the bottom of all layers of the panel.

I'm sorry that I did not photograph all of my steps in this process. Life got crazy and then I was squeezed for time so the other pictures I took were of the finished panels.

I used a Martha Stewart glittery spider on her hat and black Stickles glitter glue along the hem and the waistband of her dress.

Some of the paper strips I used had some glittering on them which added some interest.

The letter "W" was cut of silver cardstock using the Cricut die-cut machine.

Elizabeth has featured the completed banner on her blog.

This is Elizabeth's photo that I am showing. Please stop by her blog to see all of the tags from the other artists. These women are all extremely talented and I am always happy to be involved with these swapping projects. You may recall the tag swap last December...

The Vintage Kitchen Tag Swap in March...

The Vintage Postcard Swap in June

I'm not sure what our next "assignment" will be but I'll be here with my pop-dots and glue ready to proceed!

Thanks Elizabeth, for hosting this very clever swap. I can't wait until my assembled banner comes...I have the perfect spot picked out for it to be displayed.

xoxo

Joyce

A delicious recipe from a favorite blogger...

I am very fortunate to live within 12 miles of downtown Pittsburgh and less than 5 miles from some wonderful farm markets. I love to visit the farms in growing season and find their wonderful assortments of produce and baked goods. (Of course the baked goods are available all year long which my waistline can attest to!)
Fearing that we are nearing the end of the local growing season, I dashed off to one of the markets the other day, Soergels, because my mouth was watering for Stuffed Peppers. I found gorgeous peppers and also corn, broccoli and green beans....oh, and honeycrisp apples. Have you ever had honeycrisp apples? They may cost a bit more but they are worth every cent. You have to have a napkin handy when you eat them because they are so juicy...and sweet.

 Anyway, back to the peppers...

Aren't these beautiful? All are sweet bell peppers, some just have some red color in their skins.

Using the recipe found at Maryjane's Beehive Cottage blog here, I made this....

David had corn on the cob with his peppers and I chose the green beans.
Side Note: The recipe says the mixture will fill 4-6 peppers. I used 4 big peppers so I'm sure it would work with 6 medium sized peppers...you can see that I had lots of the meat & rice mixture left which I worked in around the peppers in the baking dish.

Now my blog will never be considered a culinary blog but I do love trying recipes from other bloggers. We like good basic comfort foods...easy to prepare and kitchen tested.

Visit Maryjane's Beehive Cottage. Not only does she have lots of other yummy recipes which can be found by scrolling down her left hand sidebar, but she also shares delightful handmade art and decorating ideas.

Enjoy this beautiful (I hope it is where you are) fall weekend!

xoxo

Joyce



Treats from The Cottage and other randomness...

I promised you pictures of the treasures I picked up at The Cottage in Leesburg, VA earlier this month. I could easily spend my entire year's salary (remember, I work three days a month) in their shop but I exercised great restraint. They are known for beautiful pillows and this one had to come home with me..

The colors are so soft and dreamy. I also chose this pottery planter. I love cream colored pottery and I think this will be most versatile in decorating...filled with acorns or small Christmas ornaments or Easter eggs or just a 2 pound bag of M&M's!

This lovely leaf is made of felt. It looks laser cut to me.

Finally, this felt tree stuffed and sewn anddecorated with some chenille trim and a tin star....

attached to a glass candle holder that has been spray painted a matte black.

The tree looks very cute on our mantel (which I will show at a later date) with my new witch made by Larkspur Lane. I found her at Marshall's for a ridiculous price. Her face is so cute and she's clutching a very funny cat under her arm. I like funny, not scary Halloween decorations.

Lots of folks have been writing to ask me how I've been feeling. My Polymyalgia Rheumatica seems to be under control and not causing problems but my body has been at war with some other nasty conditions. I'm fighting with everything I have and I won't go into details because after all...you come here to see cute, funny things from me. Just know that I'm in God's hands and I'm OK. I've not been posting  much or visiting as much as I'd like but I'm still here and fighting to stay well. All will be good...I believe that. It just comes slower when you're past 60. Thanks for not giving up on me.

I have lots to share with you and I hope to be blogging more regularly soon!

I've had lots of time to read and this book has been paged through dozens of time already. Some people are just so clever and can see the artful possibilities in common everyday things...like books!

If you get a chance to thumb through this book at your local bookstore or Joann's (where I found my copy),

you will be amazed at what you can do with paper!

xoxo

Joyce 



From my work table.....

Good Morning....
I have been running around like a crazed person this week trying to finish up some assignments and getting caught up with house stuff (not so much fun but necessary). There are many things I want to show you but for now just a quick post to display a baby banner I just completed for a friend. It's been a while since I have featured something I've made so here it is...

My friend, Barb, asked me to make a name banner for her grandniece's Baptism. She requested pink and green as the color scheme...which is such an easy one to work with.

The flower and butterfly shapes are chipboard.

The scalloped circles were cut using Nestibilities dies.

The letters were made with my wonderful Cricut machine.

After I put it all together, I decided that the letters looked too plain. Using some Quickutz dies, I made the flowers & stems for the "L" and "h" and punched the butterflies for the "e" and "a" using a Martha Stewart punch. I used a marker to color the butterfly bodies and draw the antennas. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them for detail. Baby gifts are always fun to make and you know how I love banners!

Now....I must get busy and finish my assignment for Elizabeth's Halloween banner swap.

I am the "W" in Halloween.

 Just a peek for now!

Hope you all have a splendid Thursday!

xoxo

Joyce

We had the perfect vacation....

Hi friends~
We are just back from a week at the beach in Delaware. It was a perfect week. The weather was wonderful....we ate lots of good food and we stayed at our favorite place...the Bellmoor Inn, in Rehoboth Beach...

where they spoil you with lovely surroundings,

 start the day with a full breakfast here...

have cozy places to sit and chat or read...

and every afternoon...tea and sweets....

fresh flowers everywhere...

gardens in which to sit and relax and have a glass of wine...

fountains and fish...

the most beautiful hydrangeas...

We really, truly relaxed and had a wonderful time.

We walked everywhere from the Inn. The restaurants are interesting and the shops have everything from antiques to t-shirts or salt water taffy...

This is a happy face!

David loves the beach and can sit for hours and hours....

me, not so much

I can do about 2 hours and then I'm out of there...

On our way home we drove up to Leesburg, Virginia so that I could visit my favorite store
The Cottage.
(Visit their blog for additional pictures of wonderful goodies!)
It's a good thing I don't live anywhere close to this place. I would be penniless... but happy!

I always find a few things that I must bring home...but it's also fun just to look at all of the beautifully decorated rooms. Lots of inspiration here..if I had the room and the money, all of the children's chairs would have come home with me!

(Mimi-are you loving these picnic baskets?)

I haven't photographed the things I purchased...I'll share that with you next time along with some neat things that have come in the mail...

until then...

xoxo

Joyce