Category: Living The Day to Day

Weekend Happenings, Making a Halloween Wreath

Mums and pumpkins and wood smoke and red and gold leaves. I love fall!!! I just want to grab it and pull it close and savor it. I think that is what I will do. I have so many things I want to do to enjoy fall but it seems like it goes by so fast.

Happy October friends how was your weekend? I got back into town on Friday afternoon. I spent the last week in San Antonio Texas for a Caves Association meeting. I left out last Sunday and was gone until Friday so a long time to be away from home. For me it is anyway. Coming home to the nice cool weather and the changing leaves was so nice. Of course having my kitties snuggling on my lap to sleep was just the best. I think they missed me.

Our flight on Friday morning left at 4:45 AM and we had a rental car to return. So we were out and about super early. I think I got about three hours of sleep. I packed everything on Thursday night so I would be that much ahead on Friday morning.

Our flights were very uneventful. I think those are the best kind. I wasn’t sure if we would have delays because of the hurricane. But we didn’t and we were back in Knoxville by 12:30 PM. I headed straight home for a nap. Ahh sleeping in my own bed was just heaven.

Saturday I had a grocery pick up and I went to see my MIL at the nursing center. She is doing really well. I am so proud of her. If she keeps doing as well we are hoping she will be able to return soon to the assisted living village where she had been. My friend Kathy and I also ran back to Athens to their Dollar Tree and picked up some more things for my wreath. We stopped off and ate Chinese food on the way home.

On Sunday I couldn’t do anything but sleep. I had a lot of things I wanted to do but every time I sat down I found myself nodding off. Just the busy busy busy of the previous week catching up with me I guess. I watched two movies that I thought were good. The first one with Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. This movie was made in 2014 when Shirley was only a young girl of 80. I think she is amazing. The movie was a little slow but very sweet. The second movie was SO GOOD!!!!! it was Last Seen Alive. It is streaming on Netflix. It was so intense and starred the hunky, ever so easy on the eye, Gerard Butler. I think I could watch him in anything and love it.

I wanted to work on a Halloween wreath and I finally did get to it later on Sunday. I think it turned out pretty well. I got all of this stuff at the Dollar Tree, which is now Dollar and twenty five cents tree. Ha!!

I used the shorter rolls of the decorative mesh. I didn’t want my wreath to be so large I couldn’t put a little sign on it. And I think they are easier to work with.
I cut 36 of these because I wanted my wreath to be full along the wire but not bunchy in the middle. I did black, orange and purple but you can use any color combination.
I only used the black pipe cleaners for this wreath. I felt like the black went well with a Halloween theme. But once the mesh is tied you really can’t see the color of the pipe cleaners so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
I used my cutting board and cut the strips into about 22 inch lengths. I then just crumpled them together to form sort of a bow.
I then added the pipe cleaners to attach them to a metal wreath ring. You can also get these at Dollar Tree.
I continued adding the strips of mesh.
I liked the way it turned out. It took me less than two hours to complete including clean-up.

And because I love fall and everything about it here is a cute Fall Bucket List . I got this from Pinterest. I think my wreath will count as “making a fall wreath” and I watched a football game last weekend, and I can conquer drinking a hot chocolate right now. I love all of these!!!! Which ones will you do first?

Join me back here tomorrow for a total recap of my week in San Antonio. It was so amazing!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello friends and happy Monday. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a bit of a whirlwind weekend and am currently in San Antonio for the week. I always hate leaving my husband and kitties behind but knowing my husband is there and taking care of everything makes my being gone so much easier. I am still emotional thinking about Scruffy not being with us and I will miss him forever.

I took part of Friday off because I knew I had several things to get done before leaving on Sunday. We also had a visit scheduled with the staff at the nursing facility where my MIL is staying. We do this every two weeks to determine how she is doing, what progress is being made etc. and most importantly when she might be able to return to the Assisted Living Village that she knows and loves as her home. It went pretty well and the plan is still to get her back to the Village.

Once I got home I started rummaging through my closet. I’m wondering what on earth I am going to pack for five days of mid ninety degree weather in Texas. The weather in our part of Tennessee has been so lovely. And the coming week is cooler weather and definitely fall temps. Oh well I will enjoy when I get back.

So I dug out several things I could take with me that won’t make me have a total meltdown on the streets. I am such a procrastinator when it comes to packing and I knew realistically I wouldn’t even start until late Saturday night. And I didn’t.

Saturday morning I did a grocery pickup. I also did laundry for the upcoming week. I puttered on some projects, full force packing procrastination was real, I cooked dinner, I even watched the end of the UT and Florida game. Finally I drug myself upstairs to start packing. I don’t know why I hate to pack I guess it’s because I never know what to wear.

I had to get up at 4:00 AM Sunday morning to get everything ready to go. My flight didn’t leave until 10:00 AM but I had an hour long drive to Knoxville to meet a couple of other people going with me. I like to get up really early anyway and chill for a few minutes while I drink coffee. And no matter how much time I allow I am a big rushing mess getting out of the house. Thankfully Mark was there when I left and he helped load my very heavy suitcase, it weighed 43 pounds, and get me on my way.

Our flight was very uneventful and we made it to San Antonio by 1:00 which was actually 2:00 for me because of the time change. We are staying downtown near the Riverwalk. After stashing our bags we took a short walk near the Riverwalk and got something to eat. Events were planned for later that evening so we went back to the hotel to prepare for that.

More pictures of the trip in a few days.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Weekend Happenings

Hello, how was your weekend. Mine was just lovely. The weather was pretty much perfect. We have been having some cooler temps and I love it!!! Although I think we are having a couple of ninety degree days this week. I am headed to Texas next week for work and the temps there will be in the mid to high nineties. NO!!!! I don’t think I even have anything to take that will feel cool in those temps.

I actually meant to finish this post and publish it last night and I don’t know what happened. I came home from work and crashed. I was in bed by 8:30. I tried to watch an episode of House Of The Dragon and I just couldn’t stay awake. I did a lot of work around the outside of my house over the weekend and I think it just wore me out. My weekend looked a little like this:

On Saturday I ran some errands. I have been on the search for some silver, aluminum, serving platters for a project I saw on TikTok. I think TikTok may be the new Pinterest for me. I get so many great ideas. I have two of the three platters I need and I have scoured every Dollar Tree, and any other store I think might have them, in our area including nearby Knoxville and Maryville. I have only found two so far. I did go ahead and buy some larger round ones. I mean after all pumpkins are many different shapes. They are a little larger than I wanted but I am going to try them anyway.

Isn’t this adorable. It is made from three of those aluminum serving trays from Dollar Tree.

I went to visit my mother in law and check on her. She is still in the full nursing facility doing therapy. She is eager to get back to her assisted living facility. She is doing pretty well with therapy but she hates doing it. We try to encourage her and let her know that is the key to her getting back to her old place. She refuses to have anything brought to the nursing center. I think she is afraid if she gets too many of her things there it will be easier for it to become her new home. I just bring her what she wants and no more. I can totally understand where she is coming from on that. We are meeting about every two weeks with the staff at the nursing center including her physical therapy team. They are guardedly optimistic about her returning to the assisted living village within the next month or so.

After I visited my little MIL at the nursing home I called my friend Kathy and asked if she wanted to go to Athens with me to the Dollar Tree I can’t believe I had never been to that particular Dollar Tree. It was great!!!! I didn’t find the silver trays but I did find some other things I will use for fall crafting.

Some of the things I found at the Dollar Tree. I have a project in mind for these. I will keep you posted.

I had a very productive weekend. I cleaned spider webs from around the outside of the house, I also cleaned the panel around the garage door. It is white and doesn’t get much sun and I have to use a cleaner with bleach to keep it clean. Getting on and off of the ladder was quite a workout. I also cleaned this little iron chair that I have had for awhile. It was very rusty. I spray painted it black. We also have the little double seat and I will paint it as well but I am thinking about moving it down by the lake bank.

This chair was in bad shape and it looked terrible.
I covered the chair with this black spray paint and I am going to put it on my little front porch. I love the way it turned out.

I may have mentioned that we had to get a new garage door. Since our front door is black and the brick on the house is gray. We decided to go with a black garage door. I was a little nervous at first. But this way we can use some black accents around the front of the house. I love the new garage door but we ordered decorative window inserts and those haven’t come in yet. So for now we only have the plain glass panels in the top of the door. Hopefully the inserts will be here soon. I will show you a pic when I get it all together.

I also hosed off the driveway. It was Mark’s long weekend to work so I took advantage of having the house to myself. He never knows what changes he might come home to. Ha!!!

My Sadie, I never know where I will find her.

It’s been two weeks today since I lost my Scruffy. It has been such a hard day. I thought about him every hour leading up to the time we had to say goodby. It’s been a very sad day. I have to show you a couple of sweet gifts I received from family and friends. And of course I cried my eyes out seeing each one.

So very special when your loved ones know just how you feel.

I hug on the kitties extra tight, as much as they will let me. It is too soon for me to think of another little one. And of course there will never be another like my Scruffy. But there may be another baby who needs to be loved and taken care of. My heart will know when the time is right.

I am trying to get things caught up so I can be gone all next week. It is a long trip. Mark will be at home with the kitties. I need to find some more summer like clothes to take with me. Just when I was enjoying cooler fall weather. Oh well it will feel all that more wonderful when I return.

How was your weekend? How is your week going so far?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!