Halloween decorating outside....started....

Estimated Reading Time.....3 minutes, 6 seconds

First things first- replenish the planters on the front patio and the guest room patio.  Summer is brutal here in Arizona.  I am lucky that anything survived.  I have kept about 80% alive but they all look a little sickly.  So Home Depot here I come.

Front window banner

The second thing I do is string a banner up across my front window.  The Halloween sign has been around for a couple of years and each year I add a few new embellishments.  I added the fabric banner and then the lights on the sides with more fabric ties.  It just seems to brighten things up a bit.

I have a couple of fake Jack O Lanterns that will be lit to welcome the trick or treaters.

I need a few mums from Home Depot and I really need a couple of new pots.  I was about to move one of the super, old terra cotta pots and it crumbled as I was trying to lift it up.  So it was in pieces- time to let it go.

Front window with Halloween fans hanging below the banner

I used to do the hay bales but they seem to attract insects or maybe they bring them along.  It never gets cold enough to kill flying things or crawling things until November or even December so I am not even going to give hay bales a try this year.

The biggest job outdoors are the lights.  I have a neighbor who puts up thousands of lights for Halloween.  I am directly across the street from her so I started doing a few lights myself.  Last year the only time it rained the entire year was when I had the lights strung and they kept blowing out.  So I am going to be uber careful this year and not plug them in until nighttime and then unplug them in the morning.  I am not sure if my new strategy will work but it is worth a try.  Last year we had hundreds of trick or treaters.  My neighbors house is a big draw and then they just land over here because I am across the street and I did have a few hundred lights strung.

My favorite cart filled with fake pumpkins, cart made by Marty

Oh my- since I started roughing out this posting my neighbor has started doing her lights.  I walked out to get the paper this morning really early and her house was all lit up for Halloween.  Marty said she must have done it yesterday--- really- my lights were on the dining room table and this morning I decided that I can't get to it until after we go to the Desert Trip so our house is a little desolate and will be that way for at least another week.

Projects in Motion:

1. Advent Food Project-continue to accumulate food for the food boxes to be delivered to food bank by Dec 24.  Encourage all friends and family to start their own boxes
2. Christmas Book Project- All books are ordered, need to gift wrap, ribbon and tag when they are all at the house.  Some of the books I ordered will not arrive until October, on their release date.  I know a couple of friends who also do the Christmas Book Project- Get those books ordered- I tried to do a few a day and just got it finished.  
3. Burlap Book Project- In process, watch for photos
4. Gratitude Book- On my desk upstairs...I want to have it ready before Thanksgiving this year
5. Birthday Book for one of the G kids- in process- need to finish
6. Halloween cards- Need to get the photos in the new costumes, then order and mail
7. Kitchen reno-  finalize tile orders, hire painter, end of October empty kitchen---this will be the awful part.  We finalized the appliance order today.  Lucky I took Marty to see the appliances because he did not like the range hood I selected.  So we changed range hoods and all other appliances were a go--- Paid for and ordered...

Ya-Ya's Book shelf: Please note Ya-Ya likes to read beachy books in the spring and summer and then after Halloween I like to read Christmas fiction--- all happy stuff- nothing heavy....

Robyn Carr- The Life She Wants

Jill Shalvis- The Trouble With Mistletoe

RaeAnn Thayne-Snowfall On Haven Point

Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul Mc Cartney- appearing at The Desert Trip next week on Saturday night---- Yahoo- just a few more days!!!

"Maybe I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you
Maybe I'm amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time
And hung me on a line
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you"

Coming Soon:

• Tribute to Papou
• The Desert Trip Realized
• Neighbors Craft A Thon
• Burlap Book Project
• The Kitchen Reno
• Friend Decorate for Halloween too and they let me take pictures
• Garage Makeover

Love, Ya-Ya

Beachy touches, Glitter and fake hair at Ya-Ya's House

It is still hot in AZ and if anyone says it's a dry heat,  they are kidding themselves.  Right now we have humidity and high heat forcing us to all stay inside.  The other night I decided to put my feet in the pool and cool off.  The pool was like a bathtub, I was hoping for cold and it was not there.  So I decided to do a few more Beachy touches to the house and pretend that we are on the beach.

My table setting is the plastic dinnerware that looks like real stoneware.  I was hesitant at first but I love it.  The table is set with solid color dinner plates and salad plates patterned with beachy scenes mixed in with solid salad plates. Dinner plates are from Williams Sonoma and salad plates are from Pier One.  The glassware is from Crate and Barrel.  I had looked at these plates and had to pick them up to see if they were plastic because they looked so  much like stoneware.  We have four Grandkids that are four, five, six and seven.  This dinnerware is perfect for them and looks fabulous too.

The Grandaughters were over yesterday for a sleep over.  They make plans for what they want to do when they get to Ya-Ya's house and it usually involves paint and glitter.  A few years ago we were at a restaurant that had a pile of wooden blocks that were big and the G kids thought they were the best thing ever.  So Marty said he could make some from 2 x 4's.

He proceeded to buy the wood and then cut it into manageable pieces and sanded the rough edges. He filled up one of those big plastic bins with wood blocks that the kids use to build pretend houses, boats, spaceships, etc.    This bin stays outside because that is where we want them to play, at least most of the year.

One day I was looking for a project and I asked the kids if they wanted to use markers to decorate the blocks.  That was a huge hit.  But that was a while ago.

You may be looking at these pics and thinking "wow those clothes don't fit those girls".  Of course they don't.  They took off their pretty dresses and put on an old shirt of Ya-Ya's.  These old shirts are perfect for paint and glitter because you don't have to worry if a little paint lands on the shirt.  And I can guarantee it does.

We always put our paint onto paper plates.  Ya-Ya still controls the pouring of the paint onto the paperplates.

Yesterday I asked the girls if they would like to decorate some of the blocks with pain and glitter and it was a home run.  The girls painted and glittered for a few hours.  The next house they build from the blocks will be beautiful with their new painted and glittered blocks.

Showing off hands with paint and glitter

I have been collecting some fake hair (drug store quality)  and the girls love it,  like a curly bun and a long ponytail.  The girls were going on a field trip today and last night they told me that they wanted to wear the hairpieces.  I am not sure they will stay in their hair until their field trip but they looked really cute when they left the house.

A little fake hair from Ya-Ya's stash this morning.  Then the girls had to add ribbon to their hairdos.

A fake ponytail.  Look for stuff like this at Beauty supply stores.  I found it in the discount aisle.

" I've got everything I need and nothing that I don't"  Zac Brown Band- on my radio while I was waiting for emissions check.  I thought this was a good reminder to all of us to appreciate what we have.

Ya-Ya's bookshelf:

New books arriving this week from Amazon included a new release from one of my favorite authors:
Falling by Jane Green.  If you have not read Family Pictures by Jane Green you might want to consider it.  Remember I am not a heavy fiction reader.  This is one of my favorites by Jane Green. I think I have read all of hers.
The Perfect Neighbors by Sarah Pekkanen, another author I love.
Sunshine Beach by Wendy Wax
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

One of my friends said that they think I read a lot.  I admit I do love books, and I read real books, hardcovers are my favorites.  I have not read as much lately because we have had company and a lot of Grandchildren visits, but I still read after they head to bed.  Before they go to bed,  we are playing games or making some kind of a mess.

If the television is on,  I am never looking at it.  But I will still argue with Marty about what should be on the TV and he says "but you never look up".  Oh well.  He should be used to it after 43 years.

Please have a song in your heart and a hug for the kids.
Love, Ya-Ya