Ummm, Fall

Suddenly, running errands isn't such a boring thing.

This time of year, it's a contest to see which city's trees are the yummiest! ;o)

These are the trees in Federal Way, at our local market and our local craft store.

I was hoping that we'd get to visit a few more cities before the storms arrived, but it looks like today's wind advisory is going to deliver a doosy of wind gusts today, so most of the leaves will be a bit ragged around the edges or on the ground by the time our farm field trip comes up on Friday. Bummer!

Turns out though, you don't have to wander too far from home for some nice Fall colour.

(i'm happy as a clam that our deck is almost done!! our house looks even better than i though it would in these colours, but the lingering gut feeling is maybe i should have tried harder to come up with something a little more 50's-ish than something leaning a little more arts and craftsy. whoops!)

Here at home, back by the chicken coop, those lucky chickens get to stare at this pretty backdrop all day. Well, maybe they aren't the luckiest of all creatures, because they have to endure upper 40 degree temps most of the day, but at least they have something purdy to look at while they are scratching away at the dirt.

It's almost unbelievable that a beautiful tree like this could house those stinkin' masked banditos that want to get their hands on a few drumsticks for a midnite snack. Moose has been checking on the girls and Stormy late at night because Saturday night, he found 3 raccoons sitting in the trees here, mapping out a plan to get some finger lickin' goodness of their own.

And just the mention of the craft store would lead you to believe i was working on a project, eh?

Whelp, i'm working on 3 projects!

Sacked with projects--just like Momma taught me. :o)

So here's the "TO DO" list:

1. Finish the birthday invites.

2. Work on my Halloween projects, including a couple cute tote bags like this. Our theme will be a screeching black cat on cute orange cloth with black cats on it and with a yellow broadcloth lining.

3. Then, to get 9 t-shirts decorated with the ol' freezer paper stencil trick (hoping Moose won't mind one of his undershirts being used as a guinea pig, as i've never done a project like this before.)

I'll wait for the big unvieling later...once we see if any of these projects are a success or not. Please, Lord, let the shirts be, because i cannot off the top of my head think of a great book that would have a roller skating theme for kids between the ages of 4-9. :o) Traditionally, we purchase story books as party favours for our birthday guests, figuring by the time all that regular "favour" gunk is purchased and packaged, we could have purchased a book per family at the local bookshop with the homeschooler's discount. :o) But this year...really has me stumped. So shirts and four hours of skating it is! :o)