Halloween decor and first world problems on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well it was a week... and other than the afternoon I spent with Elliott and dinner out with friends I don't want to repeat any of  the rest of it ... I'll leave my bellyaching to the end of this screed... however it's the reason I have very little crafty stuff to share today... and yes all my issues are first world problems that I shouldn't let get to me...

Oh but I will comment on the weather... ooh ooh ooh Fall is here.. every year I want it to start in September and every year it doesn't show up till mid-October here in SW Ohio...but right now the trees are just starting to turn and I LOVE it!! We had a couple of hot days and as I write this they are gone... not going to crack 60 today for a high.... may even get a frost tonight... brrr... I went out  and bundled up the backflow valve on my sprinkler system just in case... and I cut a bunch of the dahlia blooms and made this bouquet.... this is the largest vase I have and all of these came from just one raised bed...

front...

back..

I may go back and cut some of the darker colored blooms... I debate whether to cover up what is there or just let Mother Nature take her due... and as of this moment I'm letting Mother Nature have her way... the beds are an overgrown mess ... I have been a very inattentive gardener this year... I'm going to try harder next year...  at least I'll try to try...

Like I said crafty stuff took a backseat this week to lots of running around and aggravation... oh and did I mention that my "resting up on Sunday" was for naught... woke up Monday morning with a head full of snot and coughing like I did 20 years in a coal mine... and I know that sound as my paternal grandfather had a black lung pension....yuck yuck yuck... felt so crummy I didn't even go work out with Anna... and in the 2 years I've been working out with her, I've only cancelled one other time... I have every intention of seeing her tomorrow. 

I didn't touch any cross stitch even though there is a pile of zippered pouches sitting right by my chair... nothing talked to me ... or perhaps my head was so stuffed up I didn't hear them... I worked on the socks I need to have finished by the 28th for a birthday gift... and they should have been done... but right when I got to the point to start the heel I found a lumpy, bumpy, I don't know what I did spot, about 3" back that I could not live with...so I unraveled it and re-knit it... just got past the heel turn and I've picked up the gusset so it should be finished this week. 

The week's aggravation and a gray day of rain, did send me to the basement to sew... now there is a Christmas quilt half cut out and a bunch of pieces just sitting there waiting to be sewn together but I ignored them... and I pulled out a plastic bin of my beloved Momo fabrics... and inside was not one but TWO Momo quilts I've started and left languishing ... and what to my wondering eyes did appear was a note... a note that told me what I was going to do with one of these projects ... OMG....

so I picked the hexagon one  with the Wonderland fabrics to play with ... now the note tells me that I used the Fons & Porter 60 degree triangle ruler which  is a very important detail, as I have at least a dozen triangle rulers and I swear no two are the same angle...but the Fons & Porter ruler, circa 1986, was not in the plastic bin... argh... so I looked for it, and looked for it, and looked for it... and then I remember that I had started another hexagon quilt using a jelly roll...imagine that... abandoning one project for another... I have no shame... and it happens again and again and again...sigh... but I found the other abandoned hexagon quilt ... it is with American Jane fabrics and ta-dah there was the Fons & Porter 60 degree triangle ruler! 

So here's where I got... this about 75% of one jelly roll ... I need to see how much of the design wall the whole jelly roll fills and I'll have a better idea if I can make this fit my double bed... now I don't need another double bed sized quilt... but I'd LOVE one out of this fabric... yes I would!!!

Like the note said , I'm  going to put that blue polka dot  fabric as the "points"... notice the Fons & Porter 60 degree triangle ruler... I'm not letting it out of my sight!

and I do think I'm going to include some solid hexagons too...  Like I said, I'm not sure how big this is going to get... I have another Wonderland jelly roll I can play with...and I love this collection... so 1970's... and sewing the hexagons is comfort sewing for me... I needed it... I'm planning on giving this more attention this week. 

(insert groan... I'll get to my annoyance with this week at the end of this post,  but this is another example of how things went... I just typed 2 lovely paragraphs and they have disappeared... I'm trying to adjust my attitude and be more positive but I'm not being very successful at the moment)

As for decor... outside Nick and I put out several Halloween inflatables...and inside I'm enjoying this display... 

Up top on the left side I have some interesting knickknacks... the ghost lights up and that giant haunted house plate was a marked down bargain from Target years ago... as for the cross stitch those are both Lizzie Kate pieces...I have a lot of Lizzie Kate Halloween stuff... the tombstone one has the year 2020 stitched into it... a year I don't ever want to repeat...

Over in the side another Lizzie Kate piece... ABC's Halloween...I painted this linen and I think it is one of the best pieces I've ever painted... it is so fun to do Halloween linen as you can use so many colors... Lemon Yellow, Tangerine, Apple Green and Hyacinth are the Rit dyes I used. 

Moving down... the little witch is from the Prairie Schooler No. 188 Trick or Treat... the pumpkin is from Teresa Kogut's  Happy Halloween book  and the  pumpkin headed gal is from With Thy Needle & Thread and is called Boo to You.... and the little Nevermore pillow tucked in with the pumpkins was a freebie from Lizzie Kate...

On the other side I have a Henn pottery pumpkin basket... I love the crackle finish on this ... and below there is Creepy Crawly Alphabet by Emily Call... I used a clock as the frame for this one...  and a bat from Bent Creek  but I can't remember the pattern... it had the bat, and a kid dressed up like a pirate and a Frankenstein... how can I remember that stuff and not what I had for lunch yesterday??

Over on the dining room table I have this pumpkin...who lights up and makes a creepy sound ... sitting on a table runner made with Sandy Gervais collection called Beggar's Night... and my newest Halloween knickknacks... those two little ghosts wearing glasses...soooooo cute....Nick bought them  for me at Walgreens when he was picking up a prescription... and he queried how they could wear glasses without noses or ears....hmmmmm......

And now for the bellyaching  portion of this post... you are certainly free to leave but I need to vent... so as I said previously,  my resting up on Sunday did not leave me refreshed on Monday... it left me with a head full of snot and cough and laryngitis... yuck... I just vegged on Monday because Tuesday morning I needed to take a family member to the oral surgeon. Now they had broken a tooth about 2 weeks prior and at the time the appointment was made they were in pain. That pain has subsided and now they weren't sure they wanted the tooth removed. They talked about cancelling the appointment which I warned against, as my experience has been if you cancel, it will hurt again... and it will hurt more... and it will be even harder to get an appointment. So they reluctantly went and said they weren't going to have it pulled. But the dentist convinced them otherwise and it was extracted. I took them home and went to the grocery to pick up a few items for them. The dentist office had called in a painkiller but the insurance company took their sweet time to approve it and by the time they did I had to be across town to watch Elliott. I planned on picking up the meds after I left Elliott... which was about 7:00pm... so I drove to the pharmacy ... only to find out that the dentist had sent it to a different Walgreens about 5 miles away...so I drove there...only to find out that they closed at 6:00 pm... ARGGGHHHH.... told family member to use ibuprofen for the pain but felt guilty that I wasn't able to get the really good pain meds for them. 

Got up early next morning to be at the correct pharmacy at 9:00am... secured the meds...took them to family member who informs me that  "it doesn't hurt anymore"...sigh... run back to my house as I have an appointment with an electrician some time between 10:00 and noon... outdoor electrical outlet that runs my landscape lighting and my inflatable wasn't working... the morning passes... noon comes and goes... at 12:45pm I call to inquire about my appointment... and was told I didn't have an appointment... WHAT??? However the gal answering my call put me on hold and after a bit came back and said they don't know what happened to my appointment but they'd have an electrician out within an hour... and 20 minutes later one showed up ...a very nice young man who fixed my issue... lights and inflatables work, although another issue cropped up and the landscape lights timer is off and I'm not sure how to re-set it... need to call Adam who installed it and see if he can walk me through re-setting it ... but think I should wait till after the time change at the first of November... arrgghhh time change!!!! 

So that was M/T/W... and the cold hung on... Thursday was okay... got my hair cut and colored... I enjoy talking to my stylist ...she just came back from a 2 week trip to Japan so lots to talk about... only downside was another couple who were there getting their hair done... husband and wife... both equally annoying.. lots of loud talking and talking over each other... I engaged in knowing looks with my stylist when I left... I feel for her since they were probably going to be there another hour... 

Friday got crazy... family member calls and asks if I can tell them how to take pictures on their phone... oh this isn't going to be easy... I explain that there is an icon that says "camera"... but they don't get it ... and they tell me they need to send the pictures to a plumber....ok... this is going to require on site instruction, so Nick and I drive to their house... Nick takes the pictures and sends them to the plumber... Nick explains what he did but it did not make sense to this family member.  The issue is the handle of one of the faucets in the bathroom broke off.  The family member wants to replace just the handle... the faucet is 41 years old...I tell them that  they do not make the faucet anymore much less just the handle... they are annoyed they can't get just the handle. Plumber also tells them that they can't match the color either... that goldtone/brass color so popular in the 1980's ... so a new faucet isn't going to match the other faucet in that bathroom.  Family member is more unhappy. I explain that I see 3 options.  ONE: Do nothing... it is a double sink bathroom and there is another sink right there. TWO: Replace the one faucet and ignore it doesn't match. No one but the family member is going to see it. THREE: Get both faucets replaced. They will match each other but not the rest of the goldtone fixtures in the bathroom.   Family member is notoriously cheap so I don't think this is going to fly. Nick and  I leave...family member is unhappy and I'm annoyed that they didn't believe me when I said that the 41 year old faucet couldn't be replaced but believed it when the plumber said the same thing. 

So now it is Saturday... I haven't gotten any feedback from the family member but I will be out at their house again on Sunday to get them groceries... I'll see if they made any decision.

Next week, and I'm almost afraid to say it, looks quiet... I have Anna and Elliott and a semi-annual dental cleaning... there are so many things I want to get done around the house ... need to give my closet  and other parts of my house a cleaning and take a bunch of stuff to donate... I need to do a new inventory of my yarn... I bought a couple more skeins of Opal yarn and I have a note telling me what I already own so I don't order the same one twice but it needs to be updated... I need to clean out the craft room upstairs... it has become a dumping ground for stuff I don't want to deal with...and it needs to be dealt with... and I have file drawer for important papers to save...and right above it is a drawer I have been chucking "important" papers into for months... need to go through it... and  if we get the frost they are calling for (and I'm not sure we will ) there will be dead plants I need to clean up... and I want to stitch and knit and sew... sigh...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... sitting out here on the sunroom porch right now and I can see myself spending a lot of time out here this week as the forecast is for sunny and mild ... need to settle on a cross stitch or a knitting project so I don't waste my day scrolling on the internet while I'm out here... oh and I had a totally out of the blue thought as I set the date and time for this to publish... October 18 is my parents wedding anniversary... if they were still alive they would have be in their 90's and married for 74 years... however, neither lived past 50... and the older I get the more I miss them and my brother and my Grandma... memory can be a blessing and a curse, can't it?

 Hope your week is a good one... 

happy stitching- 

carol fun