Seasonal Colors

My choices for the interior (glowing, glazes of orange and yellow) of the Spooky House and flat black for the outside.  Black Magic.  Who could pass that up? Not me.  Now to cover the dining room table with protective stuff and carry the dollhouse downstairs.  And start painting.

Here's a picture of the old and the new Spooky Houses.  The old was made from a cardboard box, lots of paint and quite a bit of glitter.  The original decor was glued on real seeds.  Which the mice in the attic ate. So these new "seeds" are Sculpty.  The original design was a gingerbread cookie house in a Martha Stewart catalog.  Very tiny.  This Spooky House has been at the local library for a number of Halloweens, a local school library, for just as many, and now at my husband's McD's.  It's looking it's age.  Parts are falling off and the parts that are still connected are seriously hot glued in place.  So, a new house.  With a working door.  I may be building a new house, but the original will always have a sweet spot in my heart.  I need to find a pointy piece of trim for the "peak" where the bat perches.  And decide how I will use all those plastic leg bones. And, if we want the thing "electrified".  So much work.  So much fun.

I also have a HUGE tray of ripe tomatoes to make into something. I have run out of freezer room, so I could attempt "canning" tomatoes which I think is difficult due to the acidity needed to keep it from going "foamy" and killing the family.  Or just make a huge batch of sauce and then, after Invisible Fence arrives, go buy ground beef and make a huge batch of meatballs.  They were super delicious last time.  I could possibly SQUEEZE a few freezer bags of meatballs and sauce into the freezer.  It's been a LONG time since I had so many tomatoes out of my garden.  Cute ones.  I could also peel and seed them and just freeze them that way.  No cooking until later when I use them.  Easier.

And I have a basket of the last of the yellow summer squash to slice and fry.  I'm running out of onions and olive oil. I have an hour right now and perhaps should make a run to the grocery???  Indecision.

The cooking makes SUCH a mess of the kitchen and of me.  Nearly all my tee shirts are spotted with tomato sauce.  I even have a large bag of green peppers to clean and slice and freeze.  And the raspberries. It could be worse. Patty could have been bringing over a bushel of grapes if they hadn't had a bad year.  At least the grapes turn into jelly.  In jars.  Not in the freezer.  And it's such a tiny freezer.

G and I finished the pot roast (it was a small one) and had a roast turkey breast last night.  Things are better around here if I have a large piece of meat roasting and add steamed vegetables from the garden to round things out.  We've just about finished all the green beans.  Still have carrots in the garden and beets. It's been a VERY productive garden this summer.

My boss said I was "missed" last week.  I mentioned I hadn't missed working last week.  Perhaps, not a comment I should have made?  And I found out I am teaching the three classes I wanted to teach.  Starting this Saturday.  Composting.  The mums at work look extra nice and we have almost all the pumpkins on display.  Pumpkins everywhere else are cheaper.  I have my own, even though the chipmunks have made tiny bite marks all over it, out of the garden.  All misshapen and orange.  I'll just cut holes everywhere there is a bite mark.  Pumpkins look good with three to six "eyes", right????

Okay, now I should be going to the grocery.  Or slicing squash and onions.  Or carrying the doll house downstairs.  Or reading blogs and drinking coffee.  Perhaps it is better going to work?