Seven Sweet Things-A Fall Getaway

Trains, Planes and Automobiles!

 

You may remember the 1989 movie starring John Candy and Steve Martin...

if not you should rent it!!!

The Fall Getaway that Mr. S and took a couple of weeks ago DID

involve Planes....Trains....and Automobiles....oh and a BUS too!

But not in that order!

Come along and see Seven Sweet Things from our trip!

 

The PLAN was to take the TRAIN from Minnesota to Chicago to catch the City of New Orleans Train...

When the train from here ran 4 hours late....we were put on a very comfortable Charter Bus to Chicago!  Not a bad trip....but not too exciting! 

 And the bus arrived in Chicago in plenty of time for a brisk walk to a lovely bar for a drink before our train left!

We even had time to enjoy the Club Room at Union Station reserved for travelers with Sleeping Car reservations.....drinks, snacks, and comforatable seats...















Then a lovely time relaxing in the "spacious" accomodations on the train for the trip to New Orleans!

Oooh...New Orleans....and the view from our hotel balcony of this gorgeous city!

And would you believe?.....I have been ordering my favorite Carnation perfume from this little perfume shop for years.....and it was right on the corner by the hotel....first stop....even before we went for happy hour!

A rainy Saturday Morning walk through the French Quarter to find breakfast....and coffee of course!

 

We picked up the rental CAR....and headed out of New Orleans to see the bayou country!

We ended up touring this amazing restored sugarcane plantation.

We drove toward Mobile....but got to the hotel to late for anything special for dinner....but the chain restaurant had a wonderful southern menu....lots of crab!!  The next morning, we headed out to drive toward Pensacola....on the way we discovered Gulf Shores, Alabama!

And brunch on Pensacola Beach....

Back to Mobile......a great view of the sunset over Mobile Bay from our hotel balcony....
then dinner at a funky little restaurant....more crab for me!

Then a final morning tour of the SS Alabama Battleship!

and a quick look at downtown Mobile before heading to the airport to catch our PLANE!

 
One nice thing about having a blog....you actually document your vacation!
So I hope I didn't bore you too much with our travelogue!

Have A Great Day!

 

Use What You've Got Fall Planters

Source

October's the month
When the smallest breeze
Gives us a shower
Of autumn leaves.
Bonfires and pumpkins,
Leaves sailing down —
October is red
And golden and brown.
~Author Unknown

This Fall, the weather in Minnesota has been sort of strange.....days in early October that felt more like summer....followed by freezes each night for several days.  That meant that the flowers were still blooming longer than usual and then....poof....they were gone!

Last Sunday I decided it was time to change out the flower pots and boxes.....but since it is already the end of October....I didn't want to spend any money!

So if you are like me and have procrastinated about your outdoor decor....take a look, maybe my  "cheap" solution will inspire you.

The box of artificial fall foliage was sitting in the middle of the craft room floor, but I didn't want the "totally fake" look that they would have....

I convinced Mr. S to take a break from his yard work.....and help me cut some branches from the Oak tree in the back...

Here is the NO COST result!

Just the addition of some "REAL" leaves makes the artificial leaves less "Fake Looking"! I couldn't bring myself to rip out the plants that are still hanging on to summer.....so they are staying until they actually die!

The planters on the front steps got the same treatment.....along with some of the cattails I we picked and preserved earlier in the season.

Finally....a couple of artificial pumpkins (the big ones actually will get turned around tomorrow night and plugged in....they are Jack-o-Lanterns!!)

So with an hour or so of work (play) and absolutely NO MONEY.....the Fall Decor at Sweetwater is done!!! 

Have A Wonderful Halloween!

V is for Pumpkins!

"Q is for Duck An Alphabet Guessing Game" is a great book to get kids thinking "outside the box"!

It is pretty obvious why Q is for Duck.....because a duck Quacks of course!


After you read this book to your child....don't be surprised if you are inundated with all the other possible alphabet guessing ideas your kid thinks up!

 So..... Are you wondering WHY the title of this post is "V is for Pumpkins"?

Well.....because Velvet makes the prettiest pumpkins!

This year I made a couple of really large brown velvet pumpkins.....

The smaller ones in the photo are made from silk...and they are pretty too!

Source

Source

Source

I did a Pinterest Search for Velvet Pumpkins and found some amazing examples that other folks have made....  CLICK HERE TO SEE LOTS MORE  VELVET PUMPKINS 

How to make Velvet Pumpkins!

I am sending you to this post that Trina Holden did with a super tutorial for making these. 

Her instructions  are way better than any I could write!

Her technique is pretty close to what I did to make mine!

I think the collection of fabric pumpkins on the hearth looks really nice!

 I took a close-up shot of the mantle....because for once it feels like I got the proportions right!  It is simple but interesting.....and considering that everything is DYI or from Goodwill it was also CHEAP....I mean THRIFTY!!!

I guess I will spend the rest of the day outside clearing out the planters on the front steps and front entry!  We have been hit with some pretty hard freezes this week..so no more flowers to pick!

Have A Great Day!  And don't forget to save your pumpkin stems for next year!

Link Parties
Serenity Saturday Get Schooled Saturday   
A Vision to Remember  

The Ghosts of Halloween Past!

Halloween is coming....Halloween is coming!

and here at Sweetwater....we have been too busy traveling to do much decorating!

 

I will share about our fun trip to the "City of New Orleans" on the train of the same name in a couple of days....

but for now I thought I would revisit some of the Halloween posts and tutorials from the past!





 I guess you could call these "Ghost Posts" of Halloween's Past (sorry Mr. Dickens :)  )

From silly to spooky...reading Halloween tales is a great way to get in the spirit of Halloween!  Here are some of the books I will be reading to kids in the next couple of weeks.  HALLOWEEN READ-A-LOUD list.

 Check out my quick directions for making these "witchy" looking Halloween books....

You still have time...the total investment is  the cost of the cardboard books and a little paint!

SPELL BOOK TUTORIAL!

 Somebody pinned this post about my trick for making pumpkins last.....and it has been getting so many hits...I figured I needed to link that on this redux post!



Tip to Make Pumpkins Last until Thanksgiving!

 Just a few artificial stems and the hot glue gun add a bit of elegance to  this plastic pumpkin....see how I did this in this "Ghost Post"!

Touches of Fall Post

This printable is actually not from me but is available at Sweetly Scrapped to download for free....


I found it on an old post and it reminds me that I should probably get myself busy and print some for ME!!!

Speaking of printables....these cute little plaques were super simple to create...

Check out the tutorial for them here....

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  This arrangement of old bottles on a silver tray or mirror is a simple touch....

I did a post a couple years ago about "Halloween Decor....Empty Nester style" talking about scaled down decor now that we don't have little ghosts and goblins hanging out around here....

Halloween Decor for Empty Nesters...









There you have it....some "Ghost Posts"...and actually.....reading these makes me think I will do a bit of decorating around here.....that is when I get the bags unpacked and the laundry done!

Have A Great Day!