There are two sides of fall

I know I have spend a large amount of time on this blog professing my love of fall, so I promise to make this one short and sweet.

I LOVE fall, I love the way the air smells, the colors of the rolling hills, the crisp leaves... Oh, the leaves. Brilliant red, fire orange, sunny yellow. From far away they are amazing, close up however, they are the devil.

Though the kids love them:

The raking is a never ending, the slugs and worms are gross and slippery, the shear volume of leaves that need to be picked up, mulched and disposed of is more than our trash output in a month.

I love my trees, and my yard. I HATE raking leaves.

Four Heart Friday: The end of Summer Edition

Is it really over?
I can't say I'm sorry really. I like summer ok, but we are not BFF's.
Fall? MY TOTAL BFF.
I cannot wait for turning leaves, campfires, sweatshirts, sneakers, jeans, mums, pumpkins, cool crisp air, hats and Halloween. My Pinterest overfloweth with gorgeous designs for a plethora of DIY decorations I will drool over and inevitably not get completed.

I am so ready for foliage festivals and harvest time.
I can almost taste the apple pie, pumpkin martini (don't knock it till you try it), maple sugar cookies and homemade jam.
If you have never been to New England in the fall, you are missing out. Please come visit, I will bake you cookies.

Check out these decorating ideas for fall (click pics for warp zone to each site)

I knew there was a use for all those crab apples that fall off the tree and make a mess in the yard...

Ok, clearly this isn't a decor idea, but it's what the back road to my moms house looks like every year.  lovely isn't it?

I can definitely manage to make these for the doors, maybe

If I could do my wedding over again, this would be it

What are you hearting this week?
What is your favorite season?

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More Fall Themed Craftiness

Getting ready to craft it up!
Checklist:
- Coffeeeeeeeeeee
- Fave table
- Sewing machine
- Pretty fall colored papers
- Clutter from last project...
CHECK!

After I punched A MILLION scapped circles (these are about 15 other stacks not pictured here, christmas papers, wintery papers, halloween for decorating my office and more...)


Most of the papers I used were all double sided, the one's that didn't have 2 sides I cut double of and adhered them back to back so no matter which side shows they will look pretty


Finally, after stitching all the circles together and adding ribbon to the ends to use for hangers I added some green sparkly letters to the tag shapes to read 'Happy Fall'. After taking these pictures I decided that the tags were too large for the letters and they looked a little naked. I took my fave Staples brand gel pens and glittered them up with some really fun swirl doodles to finish them up.
This weekend I've been making paper garland. This set was for a swap on swap-bot Fanciful Fun Fall Frippery, sadly no one has signed up :(. It was a group swap for the Crafting Queens group, I'm thinking of changing it up and hosting it publicly. It's such a risk to host public swaps I hate to do it unless they are electronic, but it seems like I may have to broaden my horizons for this swap. Anyone want a beautiful set of Happy Fall garland?
I had such a great time making these, they were quick, easy and I am a huge fan of instant gradification :) I whipped up 5 other sets in different styles, I'm thinking of dropping them into my Etsy shop, I haven't had anything on the 'shelf' over there in a LONG time. If I end up posting anything over there I will be sure to let you all know.

Leaves are the Devil

Funny thing about leaves, they don't seem to ever stop falling. At least not until snow flies, which I can feel coming soon. The wind is so crisp lately, it's time to break out the hoodies and fall jackets. Lili and I raked for what seemed like hours today, I love this tiny rake. Mostly she just un-rakes the piles I build up, but its still a hoot to see her scooting around. Wormy decided that he needed to help, and it was oddly helpful. Lili always seems more task oriented when Wormy wants to do something, she wants to do it too.

Autumn was out and about with Mema and Aunt Steph today so it was just Lili and I in the yard (Daddy had to work). I spent all day on Saturday cleaning inside since it was still so wet from the flooding on Friday. I was so glad to get out and do something today. I love the feeling of a clean house, but after 4 hours cleaning I felt like I wanted to abandon my home for a hotel room where the housekeepers can tidy for me.

I have also been very busy crafting this weekend! Anyone who reads my blog regularly (when there are posts that is), knows I belong to a website called Swap-Bot. I LOVE it, I love getting mail, I love creating with a purpose, and I love the feeling of opening up my profile on swap-bot to get a message from one of my swap partners saying how much they enjoyed what I sent them. Its extremely satisfying to know that I have brightened someones day. I usually sign up for swaps that involve crafting the item, or kids swaps that are low cost or can use recycled materials. I also make sure to recycle all my mailing supplies and occasionally make the mackaging out of cereal boxes.

Want to see what I have been up to? Here is the link to my flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/kiwivandal I would post the photos here but if any of my swap partners are reading this I dont want to spoil the surprise of what they might be getting. You hear that fellow swappers? If you look at my Flickr you might see your packages! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Anyhow, I made my very first set of cupcake toppers for the Thankful Cupcake Toppers Swap (in the Scraptopia Group), and a few ATC's for other swaps too.

Want to join the fun? http://www.swap-bot.com/ click the link and come on over! Look me up my username is Kiwivandal, check out my group Scraptopia and leave me a comment on my profile!