Altered Vintage Halloween Images

I was playing on my computer a bit, as I often like to do with vintage photos, and came up with these altered images embellished with Halloween clipart. Enjoy!

Shutters Brought to Life

I still want to prim these up a bit by sanding, but thought I'd share a picture of the shutters I decorated over the weekend. I found a set of unfinished shutters at a garage sale for $1 this past summer. So finally I got around to painting (they're actually a dark burgandy rather than black as they appear in the pic) and decorated with the pine cone/pipberry sprig. I might add a li'l something more to them yet.

Halloween ATC

Here's the "Spooky" ATC I put together this past weekend. It's a cool, rainy day . . . sure would have been nice to have been able to sleep in this morning, but alas, work calls my name Monday through Friday (and Jacob calls my name bright and early every Saturday and Sunday, so there's no "sleeping in" for this mamma). Have a great day everyone :)

Altered Bingo Card

I was busy yesterday and got quite a bit accomplished. Today I'll share with you the altered vintage bingo card I made. I have this listed for sale in my selling blog too: http://prim-primitives.blogspot.com/ in case anyone is interested. :)

Tonight is THE big game! Yes, being a "Wisconsinite" I'm a Packer fan . . though even with all the hoopla in Brett Favre's retirement/non-retirement and going to first the Jets and now the Vikings, I'm still (secretly - shhhh . . I didn't say this . . lol) a Favre fan too. I have a feeling that the Vikings may win, but I have to root for my Pack! I'm going to either make homemade pizza tonight or may pick up a couple of pizza's from Pizza Hut on my way home from work. Have a wonderful day everyone :)

Prim Candy Canes

I've been getting things made for an upcoming winter craft fair. Here are some of the prim candy canes I've been working on, though I really don't feel the photo shows them off very well. I'm off to make more right now, then onto a few other craft items :) Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

I Adore Marsha's Creations ~ Tumble Fish Studio!

I was a lucky blog winner!! I won a drawing Marsha of http://tumblefishstudio.blogspot.com/ held recently for her blogoversary! Marsha is sooooo very talented ~ I truly adore her work beyond words. I received a limited edition print of her "Pandora's Keeper" piece, shown in the upper right. The other three pieces she sent were postcard prints of some of her wonderful works! I love it all!!!

Canning Homemade Tomato Soup

It's canning season. I've been busy and have canned lots of tomato soup, stewed tomatos, and applesauce. So, I thought since many people ask for my canned homemade tomato soup recipe, I'd share it with you all here. :)

8 quarts of tomatos - leave peeling on, core stem out, cut into quarters

6 small onions - dice

1 stalk celery - dice

Cook in a kettle on stovetop together until soft - then put through colandar.

Take about 3 cups or so of the juice and add 1 cup of flour to the tomato juice, beating with a mixer, then add to the rest of the tomato juice. Doing so this way prevents it from getting clumpy.

Add to the tomato juice:

1/4 Cup canning salt

1 Cup white sugar

1 stick of butter

Bring to a boil, then add to your sterilized canning jars.

It is sooooooooo good! Everyone who's tried this soup raves about how good it tastes.

Happy Birthday Abbie!!

My little girl turned 8 this week! Time sure flies.

~* Autumn Decor & Hustlerfest Fun *~

So I've begun my fall/halloween decorating. I should have moved my truck so it wasn't in the background before taking this photo - oh well . . . notice two of our kittens are peeking in through the window ~ hee hee.

Mike is always complaining that my decor is just too "cluttered" . . but ya know what? I don't care. I like how it comes together. Until I get a larger house, I want to have my favorite things on display, and since we don't have a lot of room to display my things right now, they'll have to be together as they are. If we had more space, I either would have things more spread out or . . just maybe . . who knows . . . I just might be compelled to buy more to fill up the space. LOL I love my prim goodies and I feel the more the merrier, the more homey the feel.

A couple of weeks ago was our local fest. Abbie was in the pie eating contest for the second year in a row, this year coming in third. She's in red in these photos. Next to her in the green top is her cousin, my niece, Kate. Good thing the pie is pumpkin; otherwise, Abbie would not have been in it, as that's the ONLY kind of pie she will eat.

And she also competed in the kids pedal pull. Last year she won her age group. This year, she couldn't really pedal the small tractor as she was too big for it. Imagine an adult trying to pedal a baby tricycle - it's pretty hard to do when it's simply too small for you. Sure enough, for the next age group they brought out a larger tractor that would have worked much better for her. I told her she'll have to try again next year and will probably have better luck.

Vintage Halloween Costume Image Freebies

Yes, it's been awhile. I really must get a bunch of photos uploaded so I can get posting more regularly ~ I have bunches in my camera ready to share of various things. Hopefully I can make the time to do so tonight after I get the kids tucked into bed. So much to do, never enough time! Have a great evening everyone :)

Vintage Children Images

I know they're a bit blurry . . sorry . . but they are still cute. Have a great day!

Daddy's Boots!

My "big boy" posing in daddy's boots. :)

Altered Art Swap!

I was in an altered art swap on a group I belong to, A Primitive Journey: http://aprimitivejourney.proboards.com/index.cgi I just have to share with you the wonderful altered art paper bag album I received from Robin of http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5232246 LOVE IT!! She does amazing work. :)

As has been the case for me lately, I'm still lacking energy; therefore, the reason I haven't been posting too frequently as of late. I had a bit of a scare in the middle of the night and due to it had an ultrasound this morning, but all is well :) The baby is growing, active, and has a good heartbeat.

Hope everyone's doing well!

Guess What?

Not only did I win the giveway posted below, I lucked out and was the lucky winner of my choice of an awesome Santa painted softball or baseball from "B" at http://www.wood-n-stitches.blogspot.com/ . I chose the softball and I absolutely love it! Thanks B!!! :)

What a Wonderful Surprise!!

I had the pleasure of receiving these wonderful goodies as I won the blog contest Cindy hosted on her blog: http://plumtreeantiques.blogspot.com/ I LOVE IT ALL!!! Thanks so much Cindy. She has a wonderful blog with photos of so many goodies she has in her store - I wish I lived closer so I could visit her wonderful antique store.

I haven't blogged for a bit as I've been really busy between work and home and spending time with my children that I just haven't found the time to get photos uploaded for my blog. And, add in the fact that I'm still quite tired and nauseous all the time - that certainly doesn't help.

I have several photos on my camera I need to take the time to download and share soon. Hope everyone's enjoying their summer . . . I can't believe it's nearing an end already!

Deer

Nothing new for me to talk about really. Due to the pregnancy I have been extra tired and a bit nauseous, and between work and housework upon arriving home I haven't found time to work on any new projects. I've been feeling lazy so to say, but I really am doing a lot, just not as much as I'm accustomed to doing. We're planning to go camping this weekend with family and friends. Hopefully it's more relaxing than feeling like it's work as it seemed to be more than it should the last time we went. And, hopefully, it doesn't rain as is forecast for Saturday!

My Favorite Places

We visited my parents farm yesterday, and took the kids for a walk to explore and pick berries. I always LOVE to do this, as I love the beauty of the outdoors on their farm and pastures. Abbie, Jacob, & Taylor. Looking for tadpoles - found some too!

A view of my parents farm.

Neat old barn and the interior view of it.

Tinted Sweet Vintage Children

It's unseasonably cold here in Wisconsin, with temps. today not even yet reaching 60! So unusual mid summer! I hope this weather changes for the warmer - much warmer - soon so we can make more use of our outdoor pool.

I rented a movie to settle down and watch later on tonight after Jacob is tucked into bed. The girls will enjoy it with me as it's a "scary" new release. I love realistic scary movies.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :)

I Have a Secret . . . Oh Baby!!

. . . but now I'm telling :) Some of you may know already . . some not. I have been soooo tired lately. Recently I started crying upon getting to work for no apparant reason, then a few times throughout that day. I started to think perhaps I was depressed. I had felt a bit stressed for a couple of months, so figured it was getting to me to the point of depression. Well, I am not depressed! :) Happy, happy, joy, joy! I was shocked, as this was so unexpected and not planned, but this is good news. My children are going to have a baby brother or sister in about 7 months. Maybe I'm breaking the news early, but I am not one who can keep this to myself for too long. No wonder I have been so tired lately! No wonder I was overly emotional that day. LOL. I think my emotions are in check now . . but who knows with pregnancy hormones. I'm feeling good . . just tired . . but good :)

We had planned to be done having children, but God has blessed us with this pleasant surprise. Here I was planning to go out last Friday with friends and socialize a bit ~ have a few drinks perhaps . . as it was my birthday. But since we just found this news out a week prior, our plans changed and we stayed home. Mike made a wonderful birthday supper for me and we settled in and watched a good movie. Oh gosh, don't ask how old . . . I felt so much older when Jacob was born than Abbie, I can only imagine how "old" I'll feel upon the birth of this child. I was just used to finally getting to sleep through the night once again . . and now I'll have many interrupted nights of sleep again soon. But anyway, I did just turn 37! Oh my! I only feel my actual age when I'm so tired, mostly due to lack of sleep, but now due to pregnancy hormones . . and when I see the gray hairs starting to pop through at my temples and at the tops of my bang line . . then it's time to quickly color my hair again! Otherwise, I feel as though I'm maybe 28 or so . . maybe 30. Remember ~ You're only as old as you feel!! :) Have a wonderful week everyone :)