Fall Colors, Pumpkins and Crafts!

"I step outside and the chilly air tightens the skin on my bare arms.  Summer has ended all too quickly and some of the leaves on the trees have already started to burn with the colors of fall.  Fall colors..so bright and intense and beautiful.. It's like nature is trying to fill you up with color..."

~Siobhan Vivian

This is how I felt as I walked outside this morning and looked around my garden. 

Beautiful colors everywhere.

  I love the colors that autumn brings.

We've gathered the last of our tomatoes. 

 Never have we had so many as we did this year. 

We also picked our pumpkins!

It's fun to use my own pumpkins to decorate my front porch. 

 Love the white one.

I especially love the color of this pumpkin.  It is really an orangy red. 

 So pretty!

I got a little crafty this year. 

After my friend gave me one of these cute crows, I decided to make a few as well. 

 They only took a few minutes and actually turned out better than I expected. 

 I'm planning to give one away to who ever stops by for a visit!

I've loved growing these ornamental cabbages and kale this summer. 

Now that it's fall they are the perfect home for this little spider. 

I love this beautiful season.  After working so hard in my garden all summer, I can sit back, relax and let nature do its glorious job. 

 (Mother Nature does a much better job than I)  Her color palette is perfect, and each year I wonder..."why didn't I think of that?" 

 There's always next year.

"Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him."

~Hal Borland

A Sewing Project

My mother was a talented seamstress. 

 She sewed for herself and we three girls always had beautiful clothes created and sewed by our mother.

  She had a little sewing room right off our family room, so she could sit and sew,

 but still be a part of whatever was going on downstairs with the rest of us. 

I sewed a little bit when my kids where little,

 but haven't even had a sewing machine for years

Jim bought me a new sewing machine a few weeks ago,

so I thought it was time to start creating.

Last night my friend Marcie and her mom Kathy came over and helped me

cut out a dress and a skirt, using a dress I had and just measurements for the skirt. 

We started about 7:00 pm.  

 They left at about nine when the skirt was complete. 

 I stayed up til about eleven and finished the dress.

So this morning I have a new dress and the skirt goes to Abby. 

 I'm really excited to have completed this project so quickly.

  Nothing went wrong as I sewed these up. 

 I even put the sleeves in the dress with no problem! 

 Kathy showed me how to make the yoga band for the skirt.

  I really appreciate her help. 

Kathy is my age,

but it was a little bit like having my mom there helping me along my way. 

LEMONS AND HERBS

I went to my niece Brooke's baby shower the other night. It was at my daughter Abby's home.
When Abby, Whitney, my nieces Marta and Sarah get together, they always come up with just the right touch to make things look perfect.
 The night was perfect. We ate outside, and could hear the waterfountain from Abby's pool
(love the sound of water).
Company was perfect -(it always is when the family gets together).
This little jar caught my eye. They had filled a jar with lemons and put daisies in it.
Looked so fresh and pretty. They found the idea on pinterest, which is fast becoming something I'm enjoying for great ideas.
Yesterday I had a minute. I thought, I don't have any daisies, but I've got plenty of herbs and I love green and yellow together.
 I have a friend who hasn't been well. So I cut some herbs and some lemons.
 I can't smell, yet the combination of these two scents were so strong as I was preparing this I was actually able to smell the herbs and lemons.
It made it that much more delicious to make up.
 Thanks to Abby, Whit, Marta, Sarah and  pinterest, who's ever idea this was,
I love it!

SHOES AND FLOWERS AND SHOES, OH MY!

Everywhere I look lately, I'm seeing cute bows and flowers on everything!  Especially shoes.  They look springy. (As you can tell, I'm ready for spring).  I think to myself.  I have lots of shoes, and I make flowers.  Maybe I can solve my wants/needs without spending any money.  I'm sure I've got a little fabric tucked away somewhere.  An hour later, I've spruced up these tired old shoes and made them into something kind of fun.

It's good I'm back to taking care of the little ones on Monday.  With my obsessiveness, when something turns out somewhat successful, I am likely to have flowers on every pair of shoes that I own.  I think just this one pair will do just fine.  (Although I do have some mauve shoes that would look lovely?!?).

Flower Pendants for the Holidays

I've had some requests to show my flowers. Are you looking for a gift for someone? These look lovely with a string of pearls, pinned on a hat or scarf - or just added to the lapel of your jacket or coat.

Can be made in pretty much any color and size. I use them mostly as a pendant, but a hair clip can be added on request.

I've got some fun Christmas fabric, so it isn't too late for something to spark up a holiday outfit.

If you are interested, leave a comment or contact me at Pollydespain@yahoo.com. I've just done up some really fun winter plaid. I'll post them later!

Love to the Girls of the Harvest Boutique

           "The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety"

                                                                                                  William Somerset Maugham

I have had the opportunity to be a part of the Harvest Boutique this weekend.  What a lovely experience to work with some beautiful ladies.  I would like to give each one of them some blooms from my garden. All of these girls are talented and unique in their own special way.  They are all just spilling over with creativity, and yet there is no rivalry going on.  Just support for each other and lots of love!  Help with each other's displays and excitement when someone made a sale.  I have never been so grateful and proud to be associated with my daughters and nieces, and the darling friends they brought in with their products.  We couldn't have done anything without Kathy's beautiful home.  So thanks to you all for letting me be apart of the fun.

"To be creative means to be in love with life.  You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it."   ~Osho   And I might add,  a little more stitching, quilting, crocheting, sewing, candy making, picture taking, flower making... You girls certainly love life and are enhancing its beauty through your creativity!  Love to you all, Polly

Harvest Boutique

I've never had such a year! Here we are in October when I am normally cleaning my garden up and putting my blooms to bed for the winter and I just keep picking more and more every day! I guess I was really good at dead heading or something?!? They just keep coming ~ and, oh the colors. Look at these beautiful cream roses...and that little yellow one, I just couldn't resist pinning it to that knitted black hat.

This darling had to go on a head band.

My garden is not forgetting that Christmas is only a few months away. The golds, greens and can you believe it? even red plaid? who would have thought~ that new fertilizer I'm using is really something!!!!

Come and see all the great treats at the Harvest Boutique, a week from today in Park City.

Crafting Beautiful

"The purpose of the craft is not so much to make beautiful things as it is to become beautiful inside while you are making those things."
-Susan Gordon Lydon

I have enjoyed making these flowers/pendants for our "Harvest Boutique." There is something to the idea of creating. Working with different fabrics, colors, cutting, stitching, creating something pretty out of nothing but scraps. If I can't get my hands in the dirt and grow flowers during the winter, this is the next best thing!

Harvest Boutique

Two years ago my talented daughters, nieces and a few friends created the Harvest Boutique. They had such a good time that they decided to do it again! This time it will be in Park City and I have decided not to miss out on the fun, so I'm picking some of the most perfect flowers from 'Polly's Garden' and taking them with me.

There will also be delicious gourmet goodies, children's items, quilts and table runners, accessories, aprons, holiday decorations, holiday notecards, gifttags, stitchery, and much more. October 23rd is the date, so mark it on your calendar. Hope to see you there!

Polly's Flower Garden

Look what I found growing in my garden! Flowers seem to be coming up in the most unusual places this year. I've got so many I don't know what to do with them all. They come in all different shapes, colors and sizes. The ones I've picked for myself I've been using in such fun ways.

I've been pinning them to my pearl necklaces, and any old bracelet that I want to add a little pizzaz to.

There are some that have gotten so big, that I can't possible wear them, so I've been pinning them on pillows. They really make a tired old pillow stand out. And for some reason these flowers don't seem to dry out or die when I pick them from my garden!?!

I'm sure I'll find other ways to use them, like maybe pinning them to a lapel or possibly clipping them in my hair? Do middle aged women clip flowers in their hair? I don't know, I tend to go overboard when I find something I like to do.

Remember when everything in my house was stenciled?