What's A Girl To~Do?

A list...that's what she is to do....and what kind of list you ask....isn't it obvious?...a To~Do list, of course....silly you.

Soooo, I got the {Fall} bug....I got it real bad! So today I put a few tid~bits, just a few, here and there....tried to show some restraint...those of you that know me, know that ain't easy. So I thought it might be fun to make a Fall To~Do List....and if I share my list....then in friendly blog~etiquette, please share yours.

Fall To~Do List

Be on the lookout for bins of pumpkins in front of grocery stores ~ I love when those bins change from being filled with watermelons to beloved large orange, white, bumpy green squash {the bumpy green ones are my favorite}

Glean Christmas cards early and start addressing them now ~ before the insanity begins!

Fill the base of the topiaries on the front porch with green apples and change to jack~be~littles when they come into season

In fact, fill every bowl and basket and bucket and tray around the house with green apples

Listen to the best harvest~y CD on the planet, for that matter...the whole universe...called: Oktober County ~ by: Neal Hellman....check it out on Amazon.com

Hang harvest corn across window {like a wreath...I will post a photo when harvest corn is in the stores}...I love this...a lot!

Burn a harvest or apple or orange or pumpkin candle...burn it til the cows come home

Go for lots of walks and enjoy the new angle of the sun.....pure delight.....food for the soul....try it and see what I mean

Get busy on items for ETSY shop and the upcoming holiday bazaar

Call and reserve spot as vendor at said upcoming holiday bazaar

Clean out closet

Clean out pantry

Make lots of bread...with lots of soup...of course

And all the while be grateful for the renewing and soul~filling season

All of this joy to begin next week....but for now....we have school supplies to pack, hair to cut, bed~times to readjust, pencils to sharpen, Labor Day BBQ to prepare, a telethon to watch, a hurricane to pray about, and hoping that I lived~in~the~moment enough this summer.

It just fell from the sky....harvest love...

I heart checkerboard...but you already know that...

I heart harvest~y rooster~o~rama...yes, I know, we have established that fact...

I leave this rustic~y, branch~y, wreath~o~love up year round...

Never underestimate a dried~up hydrangea....

Those eggs have been in there since Easter....just add cones....voila Fall decor...

Contemplating Middle School...yikes!!!...Middle School!!!...my Baby!!!...

The good news is...she told me that she is excited for school....

Have a safe and happy holiday and please pray for our friends in the South as they weather yet another storm....God Speed.

Smiles ~ Ramona

Not Your Momma's Drop~Cloth

No sir~ree~bob. I was wandering around this eve....feeling scattered and distracted and wanting to blog but unable to f~o~c~u~s! So I mentioned to my daughter that I wanted to do a quickie post~o~rama but was totally out of focus with no focus in sight....despair! She said, "Talk about your drop~cloth drapes that you love so much...and type really fast and that way it will be a quickie post!" She is brilliant that way...soooooo here is my quickie post on my beloved drop~cloth drapes.

I made these rascals a couple of years ago right before Thanksgiving...in fact I think I started on the Monday before turkey day. I wanted natural fabric and something with some body and I did not want to spend too much cash~ola on 'em. So at the last minute before the holidays {this, of course is when my best creativity blossoms} I had this thought: drop~cloth.....natural, big, kinda rustic, inexpensive, really inexpensive and bonus...no fabric store line to wait in! You will find this hunka~hunka yardage love in the paint section of your friendly neighborhood home improvement store...thus making it convenient to pick up a couple cans of chalkboard paint {but alas, that is another post}. I must give a respectful nod to The Nester for elevating Mistreatments to such a grand level.

Check these bad boys out and let me know what you think....now I am off to make drop~cloth pillow slipcovers and stencil the daylights out of them....cuz guess what....this cloth is totally paintable....duh.

Smiles ~ Ramona

Summer Ain't Over Til Its Over....

Our climate has been flippity ~ flopping of late....one day its a scorcher and the next day it's stew making, afghan stitching, fire building, sock wearing weather....and today was no exception. So summer isn't done doing what summer does...but fall is definitely knocking on the old gal's door....and not a moment too soon for me.

I really am looking forward to fall. I plan to give my sadly neglected ETSY shop a big ~o~ gigantic creative hug of love and as for our home...I will purge and organize and sort and shred and prioritize and dust and shine and paint and polish my ol' fingers to the bone....and all the while being grateful for all we have.

Fall cleaning is the new spring cleaning....I always clean and organize in the fall and then tuck the whole house in for the long winter's nap.....nesting...thy name is delightful!

Nope, summer ain't done...no way, no how...

I'm dressed for more gardening and then some...

Fertilize it and it will grow...

Yankee candle love.....ahhhh yes, love.

Smiles ~ Ramona

The Wheels On The...Whatever...Go Round And Round...

...round and round, all through the town.......

I am naturally drawn to objects with wheels. Maybe they conjure up childhood memories of wheelbarrow rides from Dad or pedaling my red Schwinn down to the beach or the rusty ol', rickety lovin', termite eaten, over sized yet just the right size Conestoga wagon wheels that my Mother gleaned from a farm in North Dakota in the '60s and tried to bring back to San Diego to be proudly placed on either side of our suburban driveway...I clearly see where my creative roots were fed...rolling right along....whatever the reason...I heart wheels.....yep, I do.

And talking about juxtaposition...{and just for future reference...Juxtaposition is my middle name}....check out this fella. I took this picture at a pond near our house this morning...looks like he is standing on the water. Duck magic. Quack!

Have a wonderful week...my oldest daughter starts back to grad school and our 11 year old goes back in a week....time to readjust to a descent bedtime...ta, ta, for now.

Smiles ~ Ramona

I Am Over~The~Moon For Cow Spots ~ Yep I Am

I got a thing for cow spots...and I got it bad. I love to place bits of it here and there around the house. I really like the juxtaposition of them ol' spots tossed in with a floral or a sporty stripe~o~rama print pillow. You know...come to think of it...I really enjoy most animal prints...I'll take a good giraffe print over a fancy pants taffeta any day...yes~sir~ree bob!

Some may think that all of this fuss about decorating with cow spots may not be your cup~of~tea...but I say...how will you know what kind of tea you favor if you don't try a few.

So for your consideration cow hide decoration tid~bits.

Cow pillow on the porch ~ cow spot love...

Are those cow spots on that flying pig? Why of course!

I painted this fabric with le~cow print and

then stuffed that bad boy with buckwheat hulls....delightful...

Now I am the first to admit that I am not a cow expert...nor that of a pig....

but I think that these look like cow spots on that there wooden pig~o~love...

So before the dish runs away with that spoon pal of his and that ol' cat plays the day~lights out of his fiddle....sit a spell and reconsider those gorgeous spots on that high jumping cow and you just might find that you are over~the~moon, in love with cow spots too!

Smiles ~ Ramona

Sweet Passage Of Seasons Is In The Air

"When the days begin

to shorten, soon after the

summer solstice,

a tree reconsiders its leaves."

~ Diane Ackerman

I am not sure if it is because we have had rainy, stormy, windy, blustery, somewhat chilly, bread kneading, soup stirring, fire building weather of late that is gently stirring my fall yearning ~ or~ I just heart fall that much...whatever the reason....that is what is on my mind.

So with that stage set...here is my list of wonderfully cozy and lovely fall~ish, harvest~y, leaf turning, back~to~school shopping~~esque things to do on a rainy Oregon afternoon ~ enjoy~

One ~ Cuddle under a homemade afghan and watch 'The Jane Austen Book Club"

Two ~Make soup...duh!

Three ~ Read Cupcake Blogs....yum~o~rama

Four ~ Putz around the house placing a few...just a few...fall decor pieces here and there...and what the hoot...everywhere ~ Cha, cha, cha!

Five ~ Do some kind of knitting, crocheting or needlework....heaven

Six ~ Make Cupcakes with {real} butter cream frosting ~ trust me when I tell you that once you make frosting from scratch you will never go back....no way, no sir, Amen.

Seven ~ While stirring the soup...French Onion sounds de~lish...tidy up the fridge {very satisfying}

Eight ~ Write a letter to an old friend

Nine ~ Paint an old chair, or a metal can, or a chubby little canvas, or a slice of wood, or your toes

Ten ~ Blog surf....Cow~a~bunga Baby~

Smiles ~ Ramona

I Got A Fever And The Only Prescription Is Harvest Decorating...

I felt it coming on the other day...even though it was a hot and humid summer afternoon...yep, I felt it coming on big~time! What?...you ask....well, that nesting feeling you get when fall grows closer and you begin to stare longingly at your sweaters and your drawer of socks and you feel the need to make soup....and you get that little {yippee} in your heart and you know that your favorite season is just around the bend.

I heart fall. It is my favorite time of year....and I just felt like putting our garden rest for the season, tucking in the flannel sheets on the beds and buying a gourd or two...why...because I heart fall. We also had an extreme weather change here in the ol' Pacific Northwest....we went from over 100 degrees to 68 degrees....so what is a gal to do? Make soup of course...AND let you sneak a peek at some harvest decorating that is coming to town sooner than you may realize. I can hardly wait for the bins in front of the corner grocer to be filled to overflowing with pumpkins....oh yeah baby!

Smiles ~ Ramona

There's No Place Like It...

"click, click, click,

There's no place like home,

click, click, click..."

~Auntie Em's Niece, Dorothy

When I think of a house....or I see the shape of a house....like a birdhouse or a doll house or a painting of a house..I am drawn to it. There is just something about the shape. It makes me happy, it is charming, it is one of the things that I doodle, a lot. I don't know what it is about the shape...possibly the frame of the roof...standing tall with protective eaves below so that rain and snow and wind and all of your troubles will just glide right off and all is well within.

No double the classic shape is charming but I find most shapes of houses appealing...in fact, when I was young, I wanted to live in the Berenstain Bear's tree house from the children's book series....it always seemed so much larger from the inside...didn't it? And Barbie's house...wasn't it just dreamy?

I write all of this to try and explain my obsession with houses...doll houses, birdhouses, pillows painted with houses...whatever the reason, I don't think that I will every grow weary of houses...maybe that explains why I am a major home~body....yep, would rather be here than anywhere else on Earth. Click, click, click.

Smiles ~ Ramona

Old Mother Hubbard ~ Ain't Got Nothing On Me...

ar~moire:

a large wardrobe or movable cupboard,
with doors and shelves.....

That is right sister, that ol' Mom Hubbard's cupboard was bare and not movable! Mine are stuffed with this and that and the other thing....in other words, not bare and definitely movable.

There are many movable cupboards, a.k.a. armoires...ooh la, la...around this house. They are all different sizes each containing a variety of items marinating their days away...e.i.e.i.o!

This big hunka, hunka burning love of an armoire stands proud in our kitchen nook...which is also where I do all of my sewing and crafting and dreaming and scheming and it is filled with my stash of crafting goodies....I love this big guy. I bought it unfinished ages ago and have painted it several times....and will paint it several more times before I leave this Earth. Notice the serious crackle love going on?

I found this tall~drink~of~water at an antique show years ago...it was new and had my name all over it. I love the way the wood smells and I love, love the little latch on the front.....always makes me smile when I open it....it is stuffed full of American Girl and Goosebumps books...book club anyone?

Okay, you might say that this is not really an armoire however, it is a super~duper cool cupboard that began life as a clock. Do you love the chicken wire on the door? Total cupboard fun and it is movable....so technically it is an armoire, right?

Finally, this little cupboard~o~love is always moved from room to room and I am forever fussing with the poor thing....crackle love going on here too as well as decoupaging and staining. My Father was an oceanographer and he mapped the ocean floor....I have a huge stash of his maps....one of which proudly decorates the inside of the doors.....thanks Dad!

Well that is it for this episode of armoires across the land. Better give Mother Hubbard a call and lend her some bones for her poor dog. Bow~wow.

Smiles ~ Ramona