Happy October!
Man, life is busy.  It's good to have things to do, but the days do sure fly by...

I'll share some good olde invitation GD I did for a September Wedding Shower.  The themes of the wedding are music (both are musicians) and books (both went back to school while together).  The bride also loves with her shoes/shoes in general.  So, I tried to work all of that into the invite.  FUN!

Front:

Label is taken from an old 20s label design.

 Back:

Searched for appropriate titles + authors the bride likes (Dave Eggers).  Each of these books was taken fom a different photo (or I took the photo).

Also, my sister turned 20 this month (what a young-in'!).  To celebrate, I took us both skydiving!

my tandem dude gave us tutus to wear!!  My sister later said, "I like that we are the type of people you'd offer tutus to."  AGREED!

AND...of course I have decorated for Halloween (I know, you are shocked!)!
Note to those decorating: Pumpkins/gourds do not last as long as I thought.  Me, "I'll get this now and I will be able to keep it until Thanksgiving."  Truth: I got this 2 weeks ago, and it was already rotten and SO SO SUPER GROSS.  Not getting more inside gourds/pumkins (lots of underlining and bold happening there...hmmm...).

BUT, the pictures turned out well:

to steal a friend's pun..."Gourd-geous!"

New October Mantle:

...complete with fake spider webbing.  Turns out fake spider webbing requires a BS in Spider Webbing (yep, used BS on purpose).  Uh, not so easy!

SKULL-ELLA, lookin' rad:

we wear many hats in this house...er...sorry! Couldn't help it ^^


Creepy doll will tell your future...


My trophy for best costume last year!  And creepy steampunky old pocket watch:


Halloween is everywhere! Love how I found this old pictures of S & I from 6? Halloweens ago:


And October also (usually...sob!...not this year, though) means Phillies.  So, we have a Phillies/gourd shelf.


Fall leaves on the lights...


$1 decor popping here and there...


And a skeleton to welcome you home!

FYI...this will be her Facebook Profile Picture.  Everyone knows that you look cutest/skinniest if you take the photo from above.  And  makes your eyes (and head, but hey...), look big.

Montage Madness!

Wow!  It has been 2 months since I've written a post!  YIKES!
Not to worry faithful readers...well, reader, anyway I'm sure (!), I will place blogging back on my priority list.

To catch up a little, I have made some montages.  This will allow for more pictures in a flash-like reading fashion.  So here it is...rapid fire:

1. Birthday Mantle Montage! (click on the images to enlarge):

From left to right: 

Birthday Roses (SO PRETTY) with

Birthday Earrings hanging on the vase (see right)

Birthday Print - Jellyfish in a JAR just like MY JARS! What an awesome gift :)

Birthday Blue Headband (from Montreal)

Birthday Lace Cowgirl Hat!

2. Black Krim Tomato Montage!

This is the neatest tomato!  It is ugly, scarred, and greenish brownish red on the outside and a dark dark crimson on the inside!  Great taste (not as tangy as a yellow heirloom, but still very delish).  Great for sandwees!!

3. Tomato Montage Extraordinaire!

We were SO lucky to have such beautiful amazing tomatoes this year!  We had too many to photograph, but here are a few.  The top right tomato was a gorgeous yellow to red ombre' on the inside:

4. Ombre' Tomato Montage!

 

So...what do do with all these tomatoes?

5. Tomato Dinners Montage!

Tomatoes with motz & basil...sprinkled with balsamic!  Perfect for a Summer evening!  AND...some stuffed tomatoes!  You can see the process from ingredients, to scooping (love this pic!) to uncooked to cooked! = Melty, tomatoey goodness!

But there are more good things from the garden than tomotoes...

6. Kale NON-Montage...er...Montage!

How kool is kale?  These big leafy greens cooked down to some tummy tickling collards.  Sorry folks, no pics :(  But look at the size of them!  Fun to grow :)

What else, you ask...

7. Peppers into a Stuffed Peppers Dinner Montage!

Yep! These were grown in our garden.  We have a whole bunch out there now we'll need to pick shortly (along with another purple eggplant).  I see chili in my near future! 

Isn't the peppers tops pic cute!  I love putting the tops back on to cook them so they stay all moist and tender inside.  Gauw-jous!

Well more goodies are yet to come, but I'll leave you with a secret place to chill out (and/or sleep) if you are a cat in our house.  Apparently, there are good vibes here:

8. Cat Hide-Away Montage!

 Montage Montage Montage.

Moss Chandelier

I decided to try to make a moss chandelier!

Here is the space I picked out - shady section of the wall under the tree.

So, I drew out the shape on the wall in purple sidewalk chalk...

Then mixed up some Moss Milkshake: 

Here it is dry in the bucket: 

Mixed with water, beer, and plain yogurt below.  I used yogurt to make it a little thicker so it would stick to the wall.  Mmmmmm...yummy!

Next, I went about "painting" in the chandelier on the wall:

Here is a close up of the mixture:

And one of the candlesticks:

Here is the whole chandelier painted and still wet:

View 2:

Here is a look at the chandelier the next day all dry:

How pretty it looks!

The moss chandelier did not take as well as I had hoped.  I think the heat of the summer coupled with no soil made it difficult for the moss to live.  I will try again in the Fall when it is cooler.  I may also make a mesh armature in the shape of the chandelier that I can fill with soil and attach to the wall.  This may help the moss to grow and thrive.

More garden...more delicious.

Garden dinners are delicious!  I have not been taking pictures of every garden dinner (that would be a lot of pictures), but here are some pictures from dinners (or dinners to be) of deliciousness past (or...er...to be)...

Here is a bean just up from the ground!  They are now ready to eat.  This is a plant that has yielded purple beans!  Super cool how the bean seed opens like a capsule.

Here were the early spinach squares.  Our first salad was before the end of May!

Here is beautiful salad with some swiss chard and spinach.  Now, of course, it is too hot for spinach, so this is from a while ago, but it was delicious!

  

And how I LOVE pak choy!  Look at those beauties! 

We cut the stems from the leaves, chopped up some onions... 

Fried up some bacon, removed (left in the grease), fried the onions with the stems...

Added the leaves and bacon, some seasoning... 

 and placed over rice - delish!

So far we've had  spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, peas, beats (salad with the greens and salad with the roots), our first cuke (!), beans are ready...we've had to fight so many pests (!) but I hope for a great 2nd half!

Garden!

LOVE the Summer, LOVE the garden!

Here is a picture from...maybe early June.  The garden has grown SO much now that you cannot see the trellis at all!  There are tomatoes  planted on the house side of the garden (see next picture) and they have grown up over the top of the trellis!

Plot #1 (closest to the house)

To the right are the tomatoes (about a month ago).

Beets are on the left, cukes in the back (which have also grown up the trellis now).

Plot #2 (to the back)

Peas (!) on the teepee!

The squash (the corner) has turned into a Little Shop of Horrors - Audrey Jr.  This picture is also from about a month ago.  It is now GIGANTIC.

 From the tree in the back, we played with plants in birdcages (inspired by our Thailand trip).

Only one still hangs from the tree (due to light and difficultly in watering), but all are still in the backyard (5 total).  Here is a shot on the patio:

Also, I picked up this old lamp shade frame!  How pretty are the rain lillies!

The planter to the right I painted to have a rustic feel.  And what pretty pretty foliage - begonias and a Tradescantia.

 Full patio shot!  So pretty :)

S (he is such a smarty!) has also set up an auto-watering system for the garden plots!  OMG it is SO SO AWESOME!  Saves me about 40 minutes in the morning!!

Step 1:  attach a hose splitter to the spicket.  Use one junction for your all-purpose hose and one junction for your watering system.

2: Attach a timer to the watering-system side.  Set timer :)

3: Attach hose & run to/through the garden

4: use soaker hoses for a long even drip watering.  In the image below I have outlined the soaker hoses in pink for easy visability:

 Here is how the hose was cut and attached at different places to make for 6 soaker hose pieces (2 gardens):

The ends of each of the hose parts were then caped: 

You can also make a soaker hose out of an old one by punching small holes throughout.

Yay for gardens and Summer!