abk design- halloween cards

don't forget to order your abk design stationery for halloween- they make great gifts for parties, neighbors, trick or treaters, teachers, or anyone that loves halloween. they are $5 a set (includes 8 note cards and 8 envelops). see additional images below...

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wanted: groundhog... reward:$100

since we have moved into our house we have a pesty ground hog that lives under our deck- we see him time to time and for the most part he doesn't bother us... UNTIL he decides to dine on my plants- we had just gotten back from the springfield extravaganza sale and dutch mill green house (will blog about those experiences soon). we planted my cale and set up my pumpkins on the front porch- not but 3 hours later i caught the hog enjoying a free dinner on my kale and pumpkins! i was so mad and chased him through the yard- afterwards i was laughing at myself. i heard a trick if you put ground pepper on your pumpkins then it will keep squirrels from snacking on them- this is true with groundhogs- i added ground pepper and he hasn't been back- i hope for good!

LESSON LEARNED: PUT BLACK PEPPER ON MY PLANTS AND PUMPKINS TO KEEP WILD LIFE FROM EATING THEM.

wedding shower....

my husband and i threw a wedding shower for his sister and now husband-2 days before their wedding...it was a chance to get the wedding party together to start the weekend of festivites. we had so much fun using some of the ideas i found from other bloggers and magazines that i've been dying to make and use. her colors were navy and green - we found green margarita glasses, navy and green m&m's, and then decorated with anthing navy and green we could think of... i think by the time we got everything made and set up it was 2am!

super easy tissue flowers/pom pom's we made and hung them with invisiable string.

bag of limes at costco- great for the margaritas and decorating

i sell these banner flags if you are interested :)!

green and navy m&m's - yum!

following up... i got the navy one...

in a past post "can't stop thinking about...." i couldn't decide to order this skirt at all or which color to order if I did.... well I did order and i got the navy and white stripe. i've worn it several times and its truly awesome... very comfortable and well made- i got my money's worth.

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when it finally arrived i was so excited ... the packaging its self was so cool- silver gift filler and a little card that read, "she was the life of EVERY party..." enjoy! how cute?!

i'm happy with my purchase and will have a classic piece for a long time.

country living fair 2011

i took the day off from work on friday and went to the country living fair-it was awesome and i enjoyed my day! this was my 3rd time attending and although i don't buy a ton of things its always so much fun to look around. i did get to meet jeni from jeni's ice cream and i bought her book on how to make her ice cream at home.

we arrived right at 10am when they opened and it was really busy and if i go next year i plan to go later in the day when the crowds slow down- as busy as it was i did run into a friend from michigan that came down just for the day.

this put me in the fall spirit and i have officially started decorating my house for fall!

fall appetizer

my favorite fall appetizer to share while entertaining is apples with caramel dip…. nothing fancy at all but everyone loves it! I get 4-6 different types of apples (fuji, gala, honey crisp, granny smith, macintosh) slice them up and display them with the caramel dip. i am bringing this tonight to our girls night- looking forward to catching up and seeing everyone.

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gardening....

at the beginning of the summer i was planning on putting in a raised bed garden that i've been wanting to have for a few years. BUT instead we ripped out a huge bush that had seen its better days on the right side of our deck and this is where my garden was this summer.

its tricky in our backyard we get 100% sun from noon until about 8pm in the summer- i don't know how anything can survive back there... especially with this summers heat wave. the 1st year we moved in i had planted all over my backyard and about halfway through the summer realized this was a bad decision- it took me hours at night to water everything to make them come back to life.

i planted the following this year in my garden:

tomatoes- big bertha, roma, cherry

banana peppers

jalapeno peppers

corn

basil

cilantro

garlic chives

sunflowers

sage

cosmos

morning glories

i am still harvesting my tomatoes and  banana peppers but everything else has reached its peak. ended up with one sunflower after battling the wild life- one is better than none! my corn has been cut back and drying to use in my fall decorating and i didn't find anytime to make salsa this summer. next year i am planning on putting in a few flowering plants in that space (peonies or hydrangeas) and putting in a raised bed garden- but i have to get my dad to help me first.

i'm back!

i'm back and ready for fall! good bye summer- you were way to hot and i was way too busy (with work). looking forward to updating my blog and what's been going on.



my one and only sunflower this summer!