~Fall Is Upon Us ~

Come, little leaves, Said the wind one day; Come to the meadows With me and play. Put on your dresses Of red and gold; For summer is past, And the days grow cold. Soon as the leaves Heard the wind's loud call, Down they came fluttering, One and all. Over the meadows They danced and flew, All singing the soft Little songs they knew. Dancing and flying, The leaves went along, Til Winter called them To end their sweet song. Soon, fast asleep In their earthy beds, The snow lay a coverlet O'er their heads. ~ George Cooper
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Joyous Fall to you. September has positively flown by hasn't it. I can not get over how often these days I lose track of the hour, the day, etc.....exhausted though I may be.....I am having such a good time preparing for this Open House...Goodness, I hope I have a good turn out...I'm not expecting a huge crowd as it is my first one and I'm sure there will be glitches..but I am very excited!!!

~Hand crafted note cards, postcards and greeting cards, decoratively packaged with aged twine and early drieds.~

~The little witch looking in from the side is Mother Midnight, a fabric, wool stuffed cupboard tuck holding a grapevine and flax broom.~

I had a particularly lovely day today. I spent the day finishing my new waxed paper cones...aged paper dipped in blackened beeswax & filled with Sweet Annie, dried Sage & Rose Hips, while I was sitting on the living room floor surrounded by dried flowers and paper cones.....

I had our homegrown pumpkin roasting in the oven...mmm, goodness did it ever smell delightful in here. I have actually never roasted pumpkin before but we have a garden full of crook neck pumpkins, and I could not let them go to waste so..I did a bit of research and found out that these particular pumpkins are perfect for cooking as they only have seeds in the very bottom of the pumpkin....it was very easy...I guess I know what I will be doing daily for the next week or so.... :)I also roasted the seeds...YUM!!! Tasty and very good for you.


I think tomorrow morning I will make pumpkin bread.....

Wishing you a wonderful evening :) D

~Feeling SO Inspired...A Harvest Gathering Open House Preparations~

(Paper pockets filled with wool...dried grass or dried herbs)

Good afternoon. It is an absolutely perfect pre-Fall day here in Vermont. A crisp breeze is blowing, the sun is shining, leaves are scattered about the lawn....dried and crisp...they crunch under your feet when you walk through them.. I have dough rising for sausage bread..and I am enjoying an afternoon cup of coffee. Goodness how I LOVE this time of year. We are having to close the windows at night now...on Saturday, Mark and his father spent the afternoon cleaning chimneys and preparing our wood stoves for their first fire of the season.........I was inside making beef stew and molasses cookies.....Yesterday, I bought apples for apple crisp.......I saw 22 turkeys on my walk this morning and their chatter can be heard coming from the woods throughout the day........

This time of year is so inspiring to me..I do enjoy Summer but it seems to zaps my creativity...BUT..when the smell of dried leaves starts floating through the air....(A wee brown bear)

a spark is lit inside me......it is as if when it's just about time to light a fire in the wood stove...a fire has been lit under my creativity and I can not create fast enough...papers float about with countless ideas...all anxiously awaiting to take shape...(Paper packets stacked and tied....)

Everything I see, hear or smell, sparks a new idea..I LOVE IT! I spring out of bed before the sun is even close to rising...something that never happens for me in the Summer, the house is tidy..a bit of baking has been done, the animals have been fed and I'm off for a walk by 7:30....it truly is a magical time of year for me. I think there is some sort of vitamin mixed in with(A sweet honey colored bear with his pumpkin)

the Fall breeze..perhaps it floats down with the dried leaves and upon breathing it in....it energizes.

(My favorite little one for the Open House thus far....a sweet little black bear cub)

I'm off now to continue working on my Open House inventory....I'm having so much fun and am so excited for it!!!

Wishing you a wonderful evening :)Doreen

Do It Anyway...............

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. ~ "Mother Teresa"

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Good morning. Tis a rainy one here in Vermont which is the absolute last thing we need here.... Thankfully, the pump seems to be keeping things under control in the basement. I can see however, that the river across the road is, once again, ready to leave it's banks....I just can not imagine what this will do to our already extremely compromised ground......For everyone sake..please let this be a short lived hurricane season.

I've just finished picking up the house and am about to mix up a batch of pumpkin scones to pop in the oven to give the house a cozy warmth...but first, I thought I would pop in and share this quote with you. It's so simply put and so true...Mother Teresa....she was a wise and wonderful woman.

Wishing you a most wonderful day.
hugs, D

~Devastation in VT ..show preparations AND THEN...AN IDEA

Good evening everyone. Thank you ALL so much for your emails, calls and messages!!! We are doing fine here in The Frost household...well, as fine as you can be when a hurricane ravages and devastates your state and causes it to look like a war zone. Our home fared unbelievably well (Our furnace is the only thing we think we've lost) compared to many that is as if we won the lottery. It's heartbreaking. Our county...Rutland County was one of the hardest hit and to drive around and look at your neighborhood this way is truly.....well..honestly...it's so hard to describe...there are no words. Friends and neighbors having lost so much..............argh...I ...well..I'm going to stop there....

Tomorrow I have a show and ...if it were not for the fact that I am on the committee that puts on this show..I would not be doing it. Honestly, it feels so unbelievably wrong to me..I feel like I should NOT be worried about doing something that will cause me to make money right now... I have really been struggling this week...I feel like we should not be worried about ourselves right now...that we should be out there, cleaning up, bringing supplies and helping our neighbors....BUT then..this morning an idea came into my head!

Each creation that I made for the show is now named after a Vermont town that was affected by Irene...each comes with it's own specially made tag..explaining it's name, details, etc and I will be donating a good portion of my proceeds to those affected by our flood. Now I feel at least a little bit better..and next week....I will be out there..helping those in need.

Have a good night and thank you all so very much for your concern and friendship.