******************************

Grandma' FavoriteTrick-or-Treater

*******************************

My Baby Bean!

Isn't he the sweetest thing?????

My prim twin says she wants to squeeze the poop out of him!

LOL!

October Recipe - Pumpkin Oat Bread

****************************
Pecan Pumpkin Oat Bread

****************************

Flour 3 cups

Sugar 3 cups

Oat Bran 1 1/2 cups

Baking Powder 1 T

Baking Soda 1 T

Cinnamon 2 T

Salt 1 T

chopped or ground pecans 3/4 - 1 cup (optional)

***Mix the dry ingredients and set aside***

Pumpkin - 1 large can

Canola Oil 1 cup

Applesauce 1 cup

Vanilla 1 T

6 Eggs

***Mix moist ingredients in a separate bowl***

Combine moist ingredients with dry ingredients and bake at 350 degree's for 1 hour.

(Makes 4 loaves)

This is a recipe I grew up on. But you know how little attention was paid to fat content and fiber back in the day. I reduced the flour and substituted with oat bran for the fiber. I also cut the oil in half and substituted plain applesauce. I don't like the texture of the bread when all the oil is replaced with applesauce however. You could also sub even amounts of splenda for sugar and I added the nuts to the recipe. They could easily be left out if you don't like nuts or have allergies to them.

Enjoy!!!

This is a picture of what I did for my mail lady and my neighbor. I made some mini loaves of pumpkin bread and wrapped them in plastic wrap. Then I printed off the Halloween picture, put a note on the backside, and wrapped it around the bread like a protective sleeve, and taped the edge. I wish I could remember who's free clip art this is. I love it and use it ALL the time.

BTW - My mail lady carries candy for the kids on her route at Halloween and Easter so I thought it's about time someone leave her a halloween goody. Plus I use to work with her so we are good friends.

More Garage Sale Finds

****************************

More Garage Finds

****************************

Well, it's that time of year when the garage sales get to be few and far between. Even though I only found 3 local sales, I did still manage to scrape up a few things last week. One sale was just a clearing out of an old mother-in-laws old craft supplies. Mostly junk I'd say but at .10 cents ea. who knows what clever uses I'll come up with for these things. The little wood easel is going to hold a miniature sampler on the cabinet in my front hall. There's a .25 cent basket holding the big spoons and the little rolling pin while hanging from my $3.00 shelf. The rest of the stuff is now stowed away in my craft closet waiting for me to figure out some special purpose for them as well.



I'm also always on the look out for decorating books and magazines. On this journey I hit the jack pot in country decorating books. I particularly love the Country Home books (1990 and 1991) that I found. All the books were just $1.00 each.

The next sale had loads of antiques. I got a cigar box that says "RG Dun Babies". I just thought with the "babies" it was a great place to display antique baby shoes on. Do you ever have a problem seating the entire family at a holiday dinner? Don't ya just hate putting out those old folding metal chairs and putting them around your beautifully set table? Well, I have reproduction pressback chairs and I was thrilled to find 3 antique pressback chairs with newly caned seats for $20 each. Of coarse I offered $40.00 for all three. She was as glad to see them go as I was glad to get them so she happily accepted my offer. Sure, 2 are missing a spindle, but I would have paid $40.00 for just the one good one. So, the other 2 are just a bonus!!! And no more folding chairs at my table!

I've also been shopping Craigs List. Last week I found "2" armoires. The first is a beautiful maple armoir made by "Hooker Furniture" which I got for $225. The second armoire is pine. It was really scratched up. It looked as if they were hiding dog treats from a Great Dane with really long toe nails in it because the front was scratched from top to bottom. Thats alright though. It was only $150.00 and I wanted the pine armoire to paint red anyway. It's not quite done yet. I'm going to give it a Briwax finish yet and then replace the knobs. But, I had to special order the wax which won't be here for a week yet. But you get the general idea. The after pic will be in my house slideshow in another week or so. We just moved here in June so there's a lot to do yet but I've got a good start and it's finally beginning to feel like home around here.

Also on Craigs List I got 2 "free" doors for the house. My new

free front door is fiberglass with a leaded window. The interior side of the door is oak look. Admittedly, my other door has a prettier window but it was steel with a white interior. I thought about trying to swap the windows but because my daughter needs a new door I just decided to let her have the nice window. My walk-in door on the garage is an eyesore to say the least. I found a steel 9-lite to replace it, again for free. It had some huge dents in it but hubby did a little bondo job and it is as good as new. I just love how much stuff that might otherwise have gone to the landfill finds a new home and gets new life breathed into it on Craigs List.

***********************

Trash to Treasure Day

*************************

I hadn't had much opportunity to get

out to any garage sales this summer. In part because I babysit my grand daughter 2 days a week and I didn't have a car seat. Well, since finding a very nice car seat for just $10.00 (at a garage sale of coarse) I have turned into a garage sale & thrift store junkie. Of coarse I always come home with a toy or 2 & baby cloths for Sienna. She loves cows and I couldn't believe I found this Fisher Price cow for $1.00. He was as filthy and smelly as a real cow, but I knew how to remedy that!



But my favorite stuff is always the beat up, out of style home decor.

I have a small pile of baskets now which I have paid anywhere between .25 cents and a dollar each. They are all very nice handmade baskets but were unforetunately made with country blue accents and little stamped designs between the weaves. I was hoping to give them the extreme prim finish job. One gal (Terripal) on my Delphi primitive chat group was kind enough to tell me how to achieve the effect. So I painted up a couple of my baskets, plugged in hubbies heat gun, and nothing, LOL! Now, mind you, I have never used a heat gun. I knew they got hot and I was told to do it outside because it would really stink. So when the smoke started pouring out the back of the gun and stinking I thought I was right on track. But when the paint didn't begin to bubble I turned off the gun. When I mentioned the smoke to DH he informed me the basket was suppose to smoke - NOT THE GUN!!!!!!! LOL!!!!! Anyway, I decided to just settle for sanding the paint and staining over it this time around. When DH gets a new heat gun I'll try again on some more baskets. That is, if he ever dares to let me touch his new gun, LOL.

(You'll find the baskets "before" picture below in an earlier post)

I was really excited when I spotted a windsor bar stool in the driveway of a garage sale. When I got up close I could see how beat up it was. Just the way I like 'em. And the best part - it was only $5.00! It was nice and tight and sturdy. Very structurally sound. The only flaw was that the back had been turned and banged into the sharp edge of a counter top what appeared to be many many times. Lucky me! I just sanded and reshaped the edges of the back, sanded off the rest of the varnish, painted, sanded again, rubbed some stain over it, and brushed on some poly. Better than new!

My next stop was the charity thrift store. They were

over stocked and having a 1/2 price sale on eveything in the "out-back" store. I had been watching Craigs List for weeks for a inexpensive tv armoire with no luck. Not one under $200.00. Then I walk into "Love Inc" and there, before me is a 4 door tv armoire! In need of a little TLC which means a better price of coarse! I was stunned when I looked at the price - $25.00. That meant I was getting it for $12.50. It's only problems were that it was missing the stop for the top doors and the doors were scratched up. So, out comes my sander again, more black paint, more poly and I now have a new prim tv cabinet. Now if only they made tvs look more prim, LOL! Somewhere around here I have some primitive iron star knobs. But I have been living in Kaos since the move and I haven't located them yet. I'm also considering putting the top doors back on which means I'll have to use the smaller tv in the cabinet. We'll see. I've got too many other things to do around here before I get into that.

Beautiful Frosty Morning

****************************

FALL IS IN THE AIR

****************************

I woke up bright and early this morning. Well maybe not so bright. But, it was definately early! Yep! It was 4:50 in the morning. I pulled my covers up a little tighter around my chin and hoped to drift back off for another hour or so anyway. But, it was too late. I was awake, wide awake. There was a chill in the air I wasn't accustom to and mother nature was calling. I reluctantly hopped out of bed, pulled my fleece robe from the closet, and scurried down the hall. Then, naturally Mr Bean decided he needed to go potty as well. That was it. No hope of going back to sleep this morning. I let my Beanie out, put some chocolate milk in a mug in the microwave, and then I caught a glimpse of the thermometer. It was 60 degree's in the house and 31 degree's outside. It was still too dark to look for frost but the thermometer pretty much told the story. I let Baby Bean back in, grabbed my hot chocolate, turned up the thermostat, and headed for the computer. Finally the sun was coming up and I went and peeked out at the sunrise. I wasn't prepared for the glory of it. The rising sun revealed a foggy mist which seemed to be frozen in the chilly morning air. It virtually sparkled as the rays of the early morning sun shown through the tree's. A sight to behold for sure. I was no longer feeling I had missed out on anything by waking up so early.

It was a glorious beginning to a beautiful day!