October Decorating - Yes, with Pictures!

Things came together very nicely for getting some pictures up of my October decorations - my daughter loaned me her camera, but she couldn't find the cord and I couldn't figure out how to link the memory stick directly to my computer.
But then I got a lovely delivery - Michael bought me a computer/copier/scanner and it was delivered yesterday.  Today I got it set up and found a very easy to use slot for the memory stick on the printer.

Mind you, these aren't very good pictures - the lighting wasn't great, and my hands are a bit shaky to take steady pictures in bad light, I think.  But at least I've got visuals - I'll practice to get better on the picture taking.

So, this year was an 'absolutely no purchases allow' year... and seriously I don't need anymore autumn decorations (not that that is likely to stop me in a year or two) - I have more than enough for this home, especially when I have to account for visiting toddlers and a cat with a taste for plastic and straw.  Most of  these items are dollar store specials, or put together from items on hand - no real crafting involved, just putting things together until it looks right.

The main bunch of Autumn items are safely up on the mantle, out of the path of both granddaughter and cat:



There is also my year-round tree (the pictures, other than this close up, were far too fuzzy to post), a four foot tall metallic ornament tree that is currently decked out with fall leaf garland, a few black lace covered soft ornaments and home to this little scarecrow and corn dolly.

He's a dollar store find.. she was handmade by volunteers at Prickett's Fort up the road from me.  The corn dolly above on the mantle was made by me.

Finally, I took a close up of a few cross stitched items I currently have up:

These first two are my own designs - the crow was worked using variegated floss so the crow pattern was stitched in a sort of checkerboard pattern to add in some texture to help define shape using a black/grey floss.  I had a lot of fun with that one and need to tidy up the chart so it's usable by others.

The little quilt block is a Tree of Life pattern, also done with variegated floss on perforated paper - stitching little motifs that don't require a graph to do is how I while away the 5 hour car trips between here and MD (like the one I'll be doing at the end of the week).  I need to finish this off with a backing and way to hang it - I think it would make a nice ornament to hang... for not it looks fine tucked up on the mantle.

This last is not mine, of course - it's the work of the wonderful Lizzie Kate designs.  Also worked on perforated paper for quick framing - except I miscalculated the amount of overhang this frame would have, so it looks a bit cramped in there.  Fortunately, the frame itself (another dollar store find) has a nice autumn motif that pulls it together in spite of the cramping.

I'm being lightly mocked by family for all this decorating when I'm going to be away for a good percentage of the month - but it makes me too happy not to do it.  Switching out for November will be easy - a couple items put up, a couple more put out to take their place, and presto chango we'll be ready for  the last hoorah before the Yule season takes over.


(shared with Tuesday Tag-along and Toot Your Horn Tuesday)