WELCOME, AUTUMN!

I loooove autumn. It is by far my favorite season. I know it seems weird to say this, as a bona fide Mississippi girl who loves her state fiercely, but I hate summer. I hate it! Every year I say I'm going to be positive and happy about it, but when it hits 102 in July and we know we've got two more months of misery to go, it is just not easy to be happy about that, girls.

I didn't have a nice wreath for my front door, so I decided to make one for myself. I had a grapevine wreath left over from an Easter project I never did. Last week, Hobby Lobby (every crafter's best friend) had their fall foliage 1/2 off, so I got a few things with a birthday gift card. I spent a total of $13 and change on that gift card and got to make what I wanted. I don't need to pay $50 for a wreath somebody else makes!

I'd never made a wreath before, but I didn't let that deter me. All it takes is a little poking here and shoving there, and you're good. I only used my trusty glue gun in a couple spots, too. I can add to or change anything I want next year! Easy! On to the pictures...

All the materials gathered together. Don't you love my sassy summer tablecloth and Wilton bowl full of baby toys? We do it fancy around here, y'all.

Dacey the cat. At this point, I still wasn't sure whether she'd really fit with the overall color scheme I was shooting for, but I was willing to give it a chance. She nestled herself in there so sweetly, after all.

Tearing apart the picks was awfully satisfying. And of course, I had to give in to my compulsive need to organize things and arrange it all by type. Stop looking at me with such a judgmental glare. I can stop organizing whenever I want.

More bits. Notice the real feather. One of my sweet baby girls at the church where I work Mothers' Morning Out gave that to me. I told her I'd put it in my fall wreath, and I keep my promises! The yellow "feathers" were just 50 cents each when half off and added a fun pop of color.

I hate that phrase, "pop of color". But there's no better way to put it. It's color. That pops. Got something better? Let me know so I can start using it and eventually grow to hate it, too.

And here's the finished product! Please pretend my front door is black. It will be someday, because of the confused dog incident. Things will pop (argh) so much better on a black door. I think the wreath is pretty good, for my first attempt. Let's just pretend the wreath doesn't have a slight egg shape. Who knows, you might see it again in the spring covered in plastic Easter eggs! There's no telling what I might get up to.

Next up, little bits of autumn fun in my house!

Happiness Challenge - Day 9, 10, 11, 12

Ack! I promise I haven't stopped being happy! I decided not to post Saturday and Sunday and then completely forgot about the happiness challenge! So here are the past few days in one post.

Saturday - Michael Phelps and his amazing skills as a swimmer make me happy. How could I not be thrilled watching him?

Sunday - An afternoon of rest and quiet with my favorite fellas made me so happy Sunday. After church, we rested and were lazy all day. It was great.

Monday - Rain, rain, rain! I'm a girl who loves a rainy day. It's been raining steadily since Sunday, and that makes me happy. The dark sky and cooler temperatures can almost convince me it's October!

Tuesday - I don't know anything about whitewater rafting other than just looking at it exhausts me, but watching Togo win its first Olympic medal ever? That's got to make anybody happy!

Happiness Challenge - Day 8

I'm just tickled for this guy!

Joshua Allen's win last night on So You Think You Can Dance made me so happy! I'd been rooting for him from the start, so I was all claps and happy tears when he won. All season long he's been consistently excellent, able to do anything the choreographers throw at him. He's untrained in every style, yet he looks like he's been dancing all these complicated styles his entire life. All I know about dance is how it makes me feel when I watch it. Watching Joshua makes me feel great. He seems to be a total sweetheart, and he credits his third grade teacher with encouraging him to try dancing. She was in the audience with his family, watching him win, and was absolutely sobbing! Gotta love that. I hope he has a bright future!

Happiness Challenge - Day 7

I get so happy when I discover new music! Lately I've been listening to three really talented young ladies. Two things are remarkable about this. The first is that they're all considerably younger than I am - by a lot! And the second is that I rarely listen to female artists. My favorite has to be Imogen Heap, and she was pretty much alone in the female artist category for me until recently. Below are links to the MySpace pages of the three girls making me happy lately. Oh, as with most artists on MySpace, their music starts playing when you go to the page, so be ready if your speakers are turned up!

1. Adele - I've been listening to her for a while now. I think I first heard her song "Hometown Glory" when it was the free single of the week from iTunes. I got her album, 19, and I love every bit of it. She's from London and has a wonderful bluesy, folksy sound.

2. Duffy - Another one-named youngster, this one from Wales. Her song "Rockferry" is all over top 40 radio lately. I first heard her as iTunes' free single of the week, too!

3. Missy Higgins - I didn't know anything about her until this week when Courtney danced her solo to one of her songs on So You Think You Can Dance. She has two albums, On A Clear Night and The Sound of White. Lovely stuff.

Happiness Challenge - Day 6

Today's been a long day full of traveling a total of three hours, helping my mom set up her classroom, trying to placate a sleepy and fussy baby, so the thing that will make me happiest just a few minutes from now is... sleep! ;)

Happiness Challenge - Day 5

Taking photographs makes me happy. My husband and I are taking a photo of our son every day this year, and it's been so fun to watch how he's grown and changed since January. I love taking pictures of things in my home, trips we take, projects in progress... If there's a photo op, I'm there with my camera! I recently joined a photo challenge and created a photoblog to go along with it. I've made a few posts since starting, and I'm having a blast. It's a nice little mental challenge to come up with that day's subject. So click the link below and see what I've done so far!

Mississippi Mama Shoots!

Happiness Challenge - Day 4

My sweet baby boy who is always a joy in public made me so happy today! We went to Hobby Lobby, just to walk around and get out of the house for a little while, and he babbled and cooed in his stroller the whole time. He never gets cranky or fussy (unless he's hungry!) when we're out together, and he always flirts with every lady he meets. He's just such an easy baby and we're so blessed by him. You make your mama proud and happy, Bear!

Help a sister out!

I'm not sure at all who's reading my blog. It might embarrass me to ask for input here and then get zero replies. That'll tell me nobody's reading!

Anyway, early this morning a sweet dog wearing a collar for an invisible fence wandered through our neighborhood. We're pretty sure he was lost. We had a storm last night and the power flickered a few times, so maybe his fence got zapped and he got away. I hope his "parents" find him, because he was a doll! But... he got a little confused and seemed to think our house was his house - which isn't surprising, because there are several houses in our neighborhood with our same design - and he sat at the front door and whimpered, and then started scratching.

Oh, mercy. I knew that door was just going to be scratched all to heck and need to be re-painted. My husband went out through the garage to shoo him away, because each time we opened the front door a crack to tell him to 'git, he stuck his face in the house and tried to come in! Really sweet dog, but I don't think our cat wants another pet. She's still not fully used to the baby. She hasn't yet let us know if we're allowed to keep him, so I don't want to mess up the balance with a big, snuffly dog.

So the door is indeed scratched and needs to be re-painted. I'm fine with that, because the only thing I didn't like about this house when we bought it was the color of the door. I've gotten used to it, but I'm sort of excited about the possibility of a change. Below are a few pictures of the area to give you an idea. I'd really love some input! Help!

The door. Voila. Our brick is red, roof shingles are black, vinyl siding is a dark taupe and garage door/trim are cream. I know I don't want the door and shutters to be black. I'm thinking a forest green. Thoughts? (Oh, and all the planters and plants are not standing up or hanging because of last night's storm. I didn't put them back up before taking photos! We are classy around here!)

And the shutters. I'd like the door and shutters to be the same color, because they're so close together. And yes, we'll fix the dented window screen. We had a tornado in April and a piece of our porch furniture hit it and knocked it out of place.

So tell me what you think about my forest green idea, please! Or let me know if you have a better idea. I'm looking forward to seeing if anybody's reading! I mean. Seeing what you have to say!

Happiness Challenge - Day 3

What makes me happy today is rain! We had a lovely, booming thunderstorm Friday morning that lasted over two hours. It was hot and sunny Saturday, but today, Sunday, has been another day of rain. It's gray and overcast, and I can almost pretend it's November or December when I look out the windows. I love what the rain is doing for my yard, too. I put my hanging potted plants from the front porch out Friday and let them soak it all up! My periwinkles, seen in the photo below, are just goin' to town. Rain always makes me happy, but especially when we haven't had enough and it's been hot enough to fry an egg on the driveway!

Happiness Challenge - Day 2

What makes me happy today?

Simple.

This does.

YAY! I just started reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books in June, but I can see why fans have been impatiently waiting for this fourth book. These books are so much fun and so well-written. I highly recommend them!

I reserved a copy at Borders last month, so I'll be there to pick it up as soon as the store opens this morning! I guess I could've gone to the midnight release party, but I'm a girl who values her sleep. Today, Edward Cullen and Breaking Dawn make me HAPPY!