Fall-ified Window Boxes

Happy...CHILLY...Fall!

Last year during this time I think we were in a heat wave!
I can't say the same thing about this year. It's been in the 20s at night. I think the growing season is most definitely over!

Thanks to my good friend Amy and her family we now have lots of fun gourds to decorate with...and....

I had LOTS of fun fall-ifying my window boxes!

I very carefully dug a hole on the bottom of each gourd and stuck a stick in that hole. It needs to be a sturdy stick. Then I just jabbed them into place in my window boxes. Easy! (except the hole digging bit...not a kid friendly activity!) I'm leaving the sad looking plants in place because I think it gives the boxes a creepy-halloween-ish sort of feeling. I just love the red cabbage against the yellow & orange gourds. I might get a few more fake fall leaves (the real things don't seem to last more than a day) to add to these boxes. Maybe I'll make a few bats to put on sticks.

Mark said these window boxes were worthy of a post. :-) I'm joining A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day Party (a little late but I guess it's better late than never!)

My fall front door wreath. Perhaps not the prettiest wreath out there (I really wanted to buy different fake flowers) but I used what I had so the cost was perfect- FREE! My favorite. Remember that I joined the Procrastinator's Party? I wanted to show you the windows we're working on. There's one window already completed and four more to go in the living room. There's another window in the kitchen plus countless doors....but I'm not sure I'll get to completing those before the After party. I'm working full speed ahead on priming, sanding and painting those trim pieces!

Keep your fingers crossed- we might get to put them up tomorrow evening. (and...I have NOT bothered to properly decorate the house. Stuff just is where it lands. After the trim is up I'll concentrate more on clearing stuff out).

Okay...this is what I get for canning 20 pints of applesauce over the weekend:

A nasty burn on my arm!

(why the burn? I was determined to not let my applesauce burn - for a change- this year. The canning instructions say to get the applesauce up to 212F before canning...and so far it also means burnt applesauce or burned hands. I'd rather have my hands burned rather than letting all those apples go to waste.)

OH!

And my soap fragrance oils just came in....do you want to know what "flavors" of soap I'm making this year?

Let's see...there's beeswax, vanilla (requested by Mark), Aria by Culti, and Angel. It'll be interesting to see what these soaps will end up smelling like! (I had no idea what the fragrances smelled like- I ordered strictly based on their written descriptions. It's kind of like playing Russian roulette- you have no idea what you'll really get! I did get lucky this time as all the fragrances are wonderful and they're different from each other and different from other soap fragrances I've used in the past.)
Now soap making needs to commense!