Porch is ready for Fall

Well, almost. I worked on my porch this weekend and have almost finished. After seeing Jess' porch I couldn't wait any longer to share my craftiness. With a little article called  pumpkins with pizazz from an old issue of Souther Living magazine I was able to get a great idea. I have one more crafty thing up my sleeve to put up tomorrow. Have to wait on the glue to dry! (dang glue)
Drum roll please..................

and now for a night shot .........................................................

and now for a look at the whole front porch........................

now don't be looking at the picket fence locking thing on the left, it's history tomorrow night when I get my new decor up.

BTW- what's up with eblogger- I love the new way of posting pictures! Finally I don't have to drag them all over the page!

Well, it's time for a cup of hot cocoa and a little Drop Dead Diva followed by Army Wives! I will post a complete front porch view tomorrow.

Crafting with Martha Stewart along with a little BHG

I sat on the porch this morning noticing how quick our summer has ended.With the leaves hitting the ground, heavy dew in the rising sun and cool breeze blowing throw my tousled hair, I sat pondering for a plan for the day. I had a photo shoot scheduled at noon with my 4 nieces for school pictures but that was pretty much it. What the heck I thought, this would be a good day to shop for some mums and pumpkins to decorate up my wagon since Rick had modified it for me yesterday. That's all it took to get me on a roll. Rick went to the neighbors for some straw so I headed to Ft. Madison. I only found 3 small mums and big pumpkins. This will do for now, I thought, keeping in the back of my head that I would hit Wal-Mart tomorrow after work! When I got home I placed my decorations in spot, grabbed out the camera, snap....Boo...tiful! I think this wagon is going to get a new decoration each season. Hmmmm, Santa would look good sitting in there. (smiling as the light bulb goes off in my head) Speaking of Santa, I also decided I was going to tackle an early Christmas craft I had seen at Hobby Lobby.



One side is painted with chalkboard paint! (thanks Jess, for getting me turned on to this paint)

OK, back to Fall, let's not rush it.
Rick and I took a 4-wheeler ride in the back forty to get some hedge balls. Not only to help rid the spiders of my home but for more decorations. (as seen in the Oct. issue of BHG magazine) I have to get some small winter squash first, then I will post a picture tomorrow evening.

Needless to say we found the mother load. There are tons of these behind our house.

In the meantime I did get one more decoration complete. A corn husk wrapped votive candle. While hedge ball hunting a grabbed a few ears of corn ☺to use for this project.

Martha's version -

My finished product. I used twine to wrap around and then stuck in a small bunch of berries that I robbed from a floral arrangement I have.

That's enough for today. I was inspired by Jess' porch so tomorrow evening I think I will work on mine. Now time to make out the Wal-Mart list:

small winter squash
mini pumpkins
spray paint (for my gourds)
Indian corn

Happy decorating!! Oh yeah, did you notice the ghoulish glass in the first picture. Scroll back up!

Starnes sets out to raise tallest corn in Iowa

This was the headlines in the Bee Star. (local paper serving the Donnellson & West Point Area) Hey dad and Mary Ann, your copy is in the mail. ☺ To read the article you should be able to click the picture for a larger version.

Who would have ever thunk it, me raising corn! Well, I did and it turned out pretty darn good.
I was so excited to see that I was on the front page!! This is a small community paper but hey, it's fame right. (wink) The contest officially ends Oct. 1st so I'm excited to see the next issue of Our Iowa magazine to see the final results.

Now my next adventure will be taking a plane ride to capture Fall from the sky. Rick and I are going to charter a plane for a trip around the area. Hmmmm, that sounds like we are living the lifestyles of the rich and famous but it is actually very inexpensive. $35.00 for a 1/2 hour. What FUN!! I will be posting that soon. Come on leaves turn them pretty colors and rain, well, you need to stay away since you have the tendency to wash the leaves off the branches.

Sparks A Flyin'

We went to the State Line Rally in Keosaqua over the weekend. Loads of fun as usual. We ran into some friends Janet & Mike and discovered that "fearless Mike" was a "Ghost Rider" for the parade. Every year at the rally we ride through town at 7:00PM Friday & Saturday night. Well, this year I got a video of Mike's performance. The crowd goes wild !!

I have uploaded the video on my You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPTJ-Q3Vdxo

Now upon getting back from the rally I have been somewhat of a couch potato and watched 2 good movies - Traitor & Last House On The Left. I decided to get off the couch and catch up on household stuff so I can resume my position for Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives.

I will be doing some crafting during the week and trying a few new recipes that I found in the Oct. issue of Rachel Rays magazine. I will post mid week and let you know how that's going!

Time To Decorate

Autumn will officially be here next week so I have started preparing. While on vacation Mary Ann and I went to a craft show and I was inspired with some of the Fall decor. Next was a trip to Big Lots and a walk in her back yard. Walla- this is what I came up with. I filled the center pillar holder with a pumpkin spice scented candle. Next year I will have a dried hornets nest with tree branch attached IF those little boogers don't get my in the act. We noticed this huge hornets nest last week when we got back from NY. I told Rick I want to try and save it for a decoration.Now we just have to wait until winter, when all the little buzzers move out and hope the weather doesn't ruin it.

Finally a large piece of decor for my yard as well as a great prop for a photo session. The man that farms the land around us bought this wagon at an antique auction and came to us to see if we wanted it. Of course I said yes! We will be modifying it a bit and filling it with hay, pumpkins, gourds ( since I have tons), mums and a few smiling faces. Blogging about that soon! For now here's a peak at the wagon.
I'm headed out for a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby this afternoon to see what else I can find.

Corn is Down! 167"

Being a subscriber to the Our Iowa magazine I was excited to see that they were doing a corn contest. I planted my seeds in late May and began watering and watching. A month later in had only grew about 6". I was getting bummed out. I started dousing it with Miracle Gro and away it went. By the 4th of July it was well past knee high and by mid August I couldn't reach the top. I was really getting excited so I called Edward Jones since they are the offical measurers. I spoke with Rich Mueller from the Mount Pleasant office and he told me to call him back when it was 13". We went on vacation over Labor Day and came back to a taller stalk. I put in a call to Rich and he came out with his daughter Gabrianna to measure it. Once it was cut down I was astounded, it measured 13' 9" from roots to tassle. Rumor is that someone up North has 15' so I wil have to wait and see. The winner of the contest is awarded $200 worth of pork, $200 worth of beef and a $100 ethanol gas card. All I can do is sit back and wait.

Vacation !

Fun is over now it's time to get back in the real world!

I could spend hours on this blog but I will keep it short and sweet. We went to New York to visit Ricks mom & stepdad, went camping at Wellesley Island State park ( 1,000 Islands) and got to tour 2 castles. We had a great time. I took over 1500 pictures, I know, that alot!! Well, when you have scenery that breath taking you have to shoot away.

Mary Ann and I went for a little antiquing before headed out for our camping trip. We didn't find any bargains but I did get a nice shot of her while we were out and about.

I have posted over 400 pictures on my flickr if you are interested in looking.

I do have to point out that while on the boat headed to Singer Castle, a man wearing.....womens clothing was the talk of the ride. Not only was he wearing womens clothing but he decided to lay down across from us, on his wives lap, with his legs spread eagle! YUCK!!! Old men in white, Levis short-shorts should not do that! The couple ( I didn't get their names) sitting behind us was funny. She said to me, get a picture, well I didn't want to at first but then I thought what the heck, it's something to blog about ! So I did. Sorry for the disturbing shot but if I had to look at it, so do you.

The castles were fantastic, camping was great and John & Mary Ann were sweet as pie, as usual. Well, John did tell a little lie to get me going at first but later gave in. ( ha- so much for not smoking on the campgrounds)

Rick and I both had a great time. He got in a little fishing and I, well, you can see I enjoyed taking tons of pictures.