Clearance Flowers

I love flowers. They make me smile and brighten up the yard. Finding great flowers at wonderful prices makes me smile even more. I bought all of these flowers last week for $13 (plus tax).

All of them are in very good condition. I was especially happy about the mums. I wanted this color earlier in the fall but could not find them at a price I liked. By waiting I got a larger mum for less money!

Handmade Stationery

I have recently gotten hooked on making stationery using rubber stamps. My favorites are by Imaginisce. They have such cute individual collections that are perfect for stationery. I buy a package of thicker copy paper and the pages in half. That gives me 1,000 sheets of paper for $5. They I can start stamping.

First up I have examples of what I did for Halloween. I decided to stick with black and white. Next year I want to find some orange paper which I think will really make the images pop.

The next set is a circus theme. I decided to color these images. My husband gave me his old set of artist's colored pencils - a wider variety of colors.

None of it is particularly fancy, but it makes me smile. I hope it has the same effect on the people who receive my letters. I am currently working on some fall designs.

October Daring Bakers' Challenge - Povitica

The Daring Baker's October 2011 Challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

Prior to this challenge I had never heard of Povitica much less tasted it. I went with the traditional filling using walnuts. I tried to keep the dough a bit sticky as suggested by other bakers. My dough was a bit too sticky and rolling it out was a nightmare. I thought I was never going to get it into the pan. At that point I did not have high hopes for my Povitica. In spite of all the problems, it baked up quite well.

The longer it was in the refrigerator the better it tasted. I will most likely make this again in the future. Hopefully next time the dough will be easier to work, and I can get more swirls in my bread. To see the recipe and my fellow bakers' finished breads, check out The Daring Kitchen.

Fall Garden

I am blessed that my area allows me to have spring and fall gardens. I am even happier that I have been growing the fall garden organically this year. Everyone told me that I could not grow many of my vegetables without pesticides. I am thrilled that I have not had to use a single drop and my plants are thriving!

These tomato plants are actually the spring plants. I have babied them and trimmed back the dead growth. I am being rewarded with more tomatoes. If the weather stays mild, I will have a good second harvest.

This eggplant is also left from the summer. I honestly do not know why I plant them. No one really likes them. I think this will be my last year. Hopefully I can find someone to give this to so it will not go to waste.

We have been eating quite a few cucumbers from the three plants I have. We have never had homegrown cucumbers in October before. I think they are better than the spring cucumbers.

The zucchini are looking good but growing very slowly. I hope to get at least three from these plants. I have eaten all of the cranberry-zucchini muffins from the freezer. They were so yummy, and I cannot bear not having them again until next spring.

Last are these yellow squash. They will actually be half yellow and half green when ready. They are growing very, very slowly. I do not know how much longer I can hold out before I pick them.

This past weekend I planted lettuce and carrot seeds. I also planted the greenhouse tomato and pepper seeds. I am trying to get three gardens this year by growing some vegetables in my greenhouse over the winter.

Fascinating!

I love wearing funky hair ornaments commonly known as fascinators. I had been purchasing ready made ones but recently decided to try making my own. I started off with feathers and added a jeweled piece which was originally made for a necklace. An alligator clip on the back gave me a couple of one of a kind fascinators.

Fall Decorations

A good friend living in England has been asking me to post some photos of my fall decorations on the front porch. I had two lovely, large pumpkins that turned into a pile of mush. I was waiting on a produce coupon before I bought a replacement pumpkin.

Aside from the newly purchased pumpkin, this is a very frugal decoration. The cornstalks are from our summer garden. The bale of hay was free from my dad. It is too old for him to feed to his goats. The scarecrow was leftover from last year. The other pumpkins and gourds are from my garden.