Happy Autumn!

 It's officially Autumn! Hurray!

The weather here has been delightful; chilly mornings and evenings with warm days.  I'm kind of surprised. September is often a hot month in Pennsylvania.

I really need to cut back the garden, but I'm going to let the morning glories go as long as they can.  They've been so beautiful in the garden in late summer, early autumn.

I worked on transitioning my spring/summer dishes to my autumn/winter dishes.  What? You don't have different seasonal dishes? {grin} In the A/W I use my Johnson Bros Friendly Village dishes.  I bought mine new a few years ago.  They are not the collectible ones, but being inexpensive allows me to have the pattern I like, and the ability to have seasonal dishes. {grin}

I'm loving the look of this throw blanket

                                                source

It is in a favorite color of mine for Autumn, and it looks plush and cozy.  It comes in many colors.

I'm looking for flannel sheets for my California King bed, and I'm getting a duvet and insert.  I just have a coverlet on our bed and with the temperature changing I want to layer my bed in coziness.  

Do you have any favorite brands?  Of course if I could find a comforter to match my old pattern from Waverly in a king size I'd buy that and be happy! I keep looking at Ebay but so far no luck.  

This floral pattern is my all time favorite.  But it fit our double bed and got worn out in the many years I used it.  Its a soft gold background with reds, greens, taupes, and some pinks in the florals.

Waverly Harbor House Norfolk Rose Sonata are the search terms.  Ebay only has pillow shams right now.  One day maybe I'll find it!

Kyle and I will go and buy pumpkins and mums maybe tomorrow.  I'm going to go big with my outdoor display this year.  By big I mean big mums, and big pumpkins.  I want them to have an impact.

Have you decorated yet?

Friday we host the teens from our co-op for a campfire, s'mores and games.  I'm happy to host these great young people, and to be able to share hospitality again!

I'm rambling now and need to get a move on!

Happy Tuesday friends! The best season of the year is here!

Thoughts of Home on Thursday

I'm enjoying this sign from my sweet sister/friend Amy.  She sent it with a precious card for my birthday.

I've been making my birthday celebration/enjoyment last all week so far!  It's been fun!  Today Rachel and I shopped (I have birthday money!) and had lunch out.  With my Chick-fil-A app I had earned a free entree so I ordered that, got my free birthday cookie (which I saved to put in Tim's lunch, and I ordered my iced tea.  I spent a whopping $1.97 for lunch today!  

Emma and Lindsay arrived when the kids were leaving for frisbee.  Lindsay gave her riding lessons, Emma had dinner with Tim and I and then the kids came home with friends to a campfire Tim had built for them.  They roasted some hot dogs and had s'mores, too.

We are thankful to use our home and property to host others and to have enjoyable things for our kids to do with their friends.  It was chilly and clear and the fire was delightful.

Sharing at Thoughts of Home on Thursday!

Hospitality: Sunday Evening Bonfire

Creekside Cottage sits in a little hollow of land.  Our neighbors home is the lowest spot on our road but our place is low, too.  The neat thing about this is that we sit in the shadows of twilight long before the sun sets, and the trees around us are still lit at the tops by sunlight.  This is particularly lovely in the autumn, when the trees are lit up at the tops of them.

In the late afternoon, after eating our lunch at church and visiting for a few hours, my husband mentioned to those still there, "We have coffee and ice cream at our house."  That was all it took to get the men moving!  

I also had purchased fudge striped cookies and marshmallows for s'mores, and a quick trip to the store for hotdogs and a few gallons of lemonade and we had the makings of dinner.

 Even though it is still technically summer, the weather has turned and warm days are turning into chilly nights!  It was time for our first campfire of the season.

 Many hot dogs and s'mores were consumed.

 Pastor Mike.  His wife Jenni, is from China and she was gone giving a tour group from China a tour of Amish Country.  She is enjoying this opportunity to use the faith of the Amish to speak of her own faith in Jesus.

 See this long stick close to me?  One of Kyle's favorite things to do is to stick a long stick into the fire and pull it out with a small flame on the end.

 We invited my Mom and Dad to come join us.

Brooke and Jennifer.

 These four on the bench are Joseph's siblings, Laura, Joshua, Jane and Daniel.

 Having a campfire or bonfire is so easy, and the easiest way to feed a group of people.  You could easily heat up a stew or chili this way too!  We set up a fold up table with everything on it and people serve themselves.

We love the smell of wood smoke, and enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon gathering.  This is just the first of many to come this season.  It is one of our favorite traditions!

Do you have late summer/autumn traditions that you love?  I'd love it if you'd share them in the comments.  I like to hear what others do - it's very inspiring!

31 Days - Campfire

It's that beautiful time of year where it is a bit chilly during the day, and cold at night!  Ah, we've had great weather lately.  It's the time of year we love to sit out with a campfire.  Tim has been working this weekend, so he was looking for something fun to do as well as read to the kids and have devotions.  So he suggested a fire, everyone was up for that, grabbed coats, boots, hats, and coffee, and went outside.

 Once they saw I was taking their picture they started to pose for me.  This first one is just a normal shot....

 Note Emma in the background with her elegant fireside pose...

 Ha ha - Seems as if Rachel looks the same in all of these....

 Okay extreme pose here!  Crazy girls!

 These two are a blur as they were moving around so much at first and helping Tim chop kindling.  Once he started to read, however, they really did settle down.

It was a beauty of a campfire.  The night was clear and we heard a fox roaming around and crying out.  Tim and Rachel checked on our chickens making sure they were closed up tightly for the night.  That fox isn't going to get our pretty girls, not when they are this close to laying for us!

I am thankful for nights like this.

Snapshots From My Week

 I had a full week, as is the norm in my life these days.  Much of it is driving people to work, etc, but some of it is just fun stuff.  

Yesterday afternoon, after our fellowship meal at church, there was an airsoft game that took place in our woods and pasture.  The rest of us enjoyed the cool air and a campfire in our fire ring.  As dinner came we did the easy thing and ate salad and roasted hotdogs and the biggest marshmallows ever!

As the evening wore on, a couple of guys from church, started playing the guitar and mandolin, singing songs that one of them wrote.  Such wonderful, worshipful songs written from the scriptures, and not recorded anywhere!  This man is leaving soon with his family to return to Ireland where they work as missionaries.  We've loved having their family as part of our church family for 4 months now.  We'll miss them terribly!

 

 I told you about the pumpkin carving and bonfire that took place here this week too.  So much fun....

 We went to a fire and safety field trip on Friday at the Fire Company where my Dad is now the chaplain.  Look who volunteered to be the patient.  They like to show the kids what would happen if they needed attention from medical personnel.  Sarah was being a child who had fallen and hit her head.  Statistic show that it is more likely now for kids to be in an accident of some kind than to have a fire at their home.

 Here she is in the ambulance being assessed.  She had a lot of fun!

I leave you with a photo taken from my car window while I was at a stop sign.  I pass this house multiple times in a week and just love it.  Right now with the leaves changing on the two trees at the front of the house, it is delightful!