Soups On!!!
Was hoping for much cooler weather today but that did not happen. I have wanted to make this soup for a while now. Made cheesy potato and ham soup today, left to warm on the stove until dinner time. The most time consuming part was peeling and cutting the potatoes into tiny cubes. The rest was a breeze. A simple and satisfying soup the whole family will love. When my family gets hungry, dinner is served. My daughter is a picky eater, and she told me that she would eat this soup again. I take that as a compliment.

Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup

3 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

3-14.5 oz. cans chicken broth

1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, extra for topping

1 pound package diced ham

1- 0.4 oz. packet Ranch (Buttermilk Recipe) Dressing Mix

salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cube potatoes. Cover cubed potatoes with water, bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, or until tender. Drain, then add chicken broth to the cooked potatoes. Gently stir in both cheeses, the diced ham and the dressing mix. Keep warm until ready to serve. Top soup with additional cheese, if desired. Serve with you choose of breadsticks. 

             Happy "Hat" Scarecrow
Saw a scarecrow like this at a craft show once and did not buy it. When I got home I decided to make one for me and another one for my sister. I bring him out every year for Fall/Thanksgiving time. I have always loved him. He is so cute. The scarecrow is made using two straw hats. One straw hat is cut in half to make his hat. Paint the face, glue on the hat piece, add a bandanna of your choice, some raffia for hair and artificial flowers.

                     Santa Painting

This is a whimsical Santa that I painted just for fun. Decided to paint him in pink. I think the pink and green go very well together. Added some simmer over the green background, for some holiday sparkle. The photos do not do him justice. You can not see the sparkle very well. I would like to paint another one in purple and one in blue. When I get those done. I'll post them as well.

                 Rotisserie Chicken

We are in the middle of October already and there will not be many more afternoons that we can spend outside. So with that in mind we decided to put a couple of whole chickens on the grill tonight. Enough for us and plenty to share with family. I have been wanting to do this for a couple of weeks know and have just been so busy. Tonight no excuses. Just moist delicious fall off the bone chicken. To me there is no better way to prepare chicken, always turns out so good. This chicken was simply sprinkled with rotisserie chicken seasoning and left to spin slowly on the electric grill rotisserie, until cooked to perfection, about 1 1/2 hours. Leftovers for tomorrow night, it doesn't get any better than that.

Need I say more

Fall/Halloween Decorating Inspiration

Hope this post gives you some great decorating ideas, as well as some inspiration for getting it done. Some ideas from this year some from the past. Lots that I use year after year. But I always like to change things up a bit, as I come up with my own new twist on things.

Fall-Front Yard Display
This was so much fun to put together, later we added mini pumpkin and gourds to the ladder.

Fall-Front Porch Display

Pumpkin Patch Greeter (my sister brought this guy to life)

Pumpkin Patch for the children

Bone Chilling Grave Yard

Another Friendly Greeter (again by my sister)

Goblins enjoying some Halloween goodies 

Giant Spider Web with Spider Family

Halloween Fire Pit ( Simply add purple play sand around the rocks )

          Multi-Purpose Mannequin
This is a mannequin that I use for different holidays. I got her at a yard sale, I was thrilled to find her, with the idea of course to use her as part of my holiday decorating. I have used her for Halloween And Christmas thus far. For Halloween she is decked out in all black, a witch's hat, gloves, with a crow perched on her arm and broom by her side, black boots add the finishing touches.

She is of course a "Good Witch"

At Christmas time she sits in my husbands old farm truck with a seat full of packages, a light installed in the floor board illuminates the inside of the truck cab for better nighttime viewing. The truck bed holds a real Christmas tree with white lights to finish the scene. I had so much fun with this. We had so many people stop to take pictures. The best part of what I do is having others enjoy it. Truly satisfying. This was my Christmas version of " A Women Getting It Done" One of our neighbors stopped to say he and a friend had rode by, thinking she didn't look to bad, they thought they would come back for a second look, only to find out she was a real dummy. It was so funny when they told us. We fell for it. Got to love good neighbors. 

 

          From Trash To  Treasure 
                  "HALLOWEEN"
This is a chandler that someone threw away, it originally had small black shades on it, they were all crumpled up not in good shape. I removed those as well as all the wiring and added small orange pumpkins. Loved the look and detail of this chandler, this now hangs on my front porch every Halloween, as part of my holiday theme. 

Removed shades and wiring and added mini pumpkin (flame)

This chair was white with blue pocka dots, did not work for me, so I painted it black and did a simple Halloween scene on the seat. Then sprayed with a sealer

This is the finished chair

This is a close-up of the seat