I just love my front door. For me the front door of my home is an invitation to all the is held inside. So, please step inside with me and lets take a little look around.



I know this is odd but I love crows! They are sleek and shiny and black, one of my favorite non colors ... is black a color? They tell me it is not. The crow is a symbol of cooler weather and the coming of fall. In my beautiful, maple tree lined street the crows arrive every afternoon to squawk and chase all the little sparrows. They are ornery (like me) and make a lot of noise. They will be gone soon, once the weather gets cold and rainy the crows will disappear ... along with the beauty of fall.



Step inside and have a seat, oh yes I know, the settee is covered with pillows. Like crows, I love pillows. For the most part all of these pillows are made by hand by my dear friends. My quilting friend Penny Hunter made the basket block pillow as well as the Ohio Star, two things I love, baskets and Ohio!

Maybe you have a little seat and you need a little chair to sit in! Wellllll, I can offer you a rocking horse, to a small red chair, or perhaps a teeny tiny rocking chair is your desire! Oh, you can also sit on the buggy bench and bounce. What ever your desire, I have the seat.



Lets talk about black. If you know me you know I love black, I learned the love of spray paint from my dear friend Debbie Linamen. She paints everything black, I wouldn't be surprised if she spray painted her house black! So, she told me I needed touches of black in my house .... so touches it is. I had this children's wicker rocker painted white. I was going to haul it off to Goodwill but then the light bulb went off in my head and I said to myself, self get some spray paint and paint it black! I love it so much. I put in the Crimson Hill Longaberger pillow in the seat and now I REALLY love it!




No, there is no where to sit here. I just love bittersweet, that's the orange stuff! I also love old crocks, wooden spoons and that little black stove. Did I mention I like black? Hummmm, well I love black! Hope you enjoyed my little tour of my home. Enjoy the beauty of your fall!



Special Time with Special Friends

My long time friend Paula Brown and I had a very nice day. We celebrated her birthday and then an early Christmas together!
She is taking forever opening her gift and her gift to me was very easy to unwrap since it was never wrapped!! Paula's gift is a dark wood serving tray with a Christmas quilt laid inside under glass. I forgot to take a pic of it before I took it out to be quilted! Really a dumb move on my part!

Ta da, here is my Christmas gift from Paula! Isn't it just beautiful! I love it, love it, love it. The binding is a really soft velvet in a pretty gold/green tone. Very antique looking! I'm ready for some cold weather so I can cozy up in my quilt. Yes Paula, I washed it and it's even softer then before.

Light Up the Candles .... it's fall!

Finally ... a day chilly enough to light the candles! For most of today the sky was cloudy and grey with a chill in the air. I was so excited I lit the candles on the family room mantle. We get so few cool days in So California I need to take advantage of each one. Next will be a crackling fire!!

I LOVE making mini' quilts! The brown one is from Jo Morton's Little Women's Club and the truly scrappy one hanging is out of my head. I wanted something that could hang on my paper towel holder so this is was manifested. It adds a bit of color to my Americana bathroom.

Holiday Boutique

Longaberger food was a huge hit at Barbara Miller's holiday boutique! I prepared White Cheddar Potato soup, Hearty Beer Bread with Parmesan Seasoning Blend, Bacon Cheese Dip and Amaretto Brownies. I sold lots and lots of food! Great day for sales, thanks Barb.



Jeanne (Barb;s daughter) is serving herself some soup! She loved it of course. Longaberger needs to create a crock pot ... don't ya think!!




Just a small display of Holiday products, and a few gift baskets.




Here is a shot of a few of Barbara's sewing items. Aprons, tea cozy's, oven mitts and on and on!




The mini cheering squad, Pumpkin and Puddin. They were banned from the kitchen ... poor little guys.



Follow Your Dreams Tour

What a mess! Susan, from the home office is opening boxes and attempting to sort things. Believe it or not she had a method to the madness!

Our fall/core line display. It was so beautiful!



More fall, a bit of a closer look.



Christmas ala Longaberger. Check out the pop corn basket in the right hand corner, really cute!

More Christmas ... my quilt made the trip as well. Love the new holiday pillows.



Oops, glass hurricane is side ways and I can't find the rotate option! Can anyone help me????




My customers, Jewel, Barb, Susan, Patty and Tanya!




More customers, Kim and Debbie - all smiles, loving the evening.



Pam Harp and my daughter Tiffany. Tiff is holding the long medium market basket.



Debbie Linamen and myself, we're happy, the guests are in and loving the event.




Meet our basket weaver Michelle Coe. It's her first visit to California and she is so excited! My customer Tanya Mecham was watching her weave when I showed up for a photo opp.




Me, Pam and Tami Longaberger. Tami has just signed Pam's tour basket.



Tomorrow's the BIG Day!

Christmas in October? Nope not quite yet! Tami Longaberger is coming to So. California tomorrow and I'm in charge of the Christmas display. Today was my practice run at setting it all up. Actually, this is only a portion of the products I have to set up. But, this will at least give me an idea of what goes where. I'm going to share my wreath again as well as the jingle bells on the liners. Thank goodness I will have more room at the hotel to spred out my products. Can you see the little Trinket basket dangling in my wreath? Toooo cute, love it up there. There is also a little Christmas Tree growing out the top of the Santa'a Belly Tissue Basket, I love it too.



This shot actually is a better picture of the Samta's Belly Basket, just love this basket collection! I'm also enjoying the holly berry dinner plates we are selling this year, the travel mug makes a really great table companion. FYI, the napkins are embroidered with the Holly pattern. Really looks classy.




Here is a closer shot of the jingle bells on the spring basket and the cracker. The cracker basket and the small berry, to the right are great giftable baskets. A basket, some of our delicious sopu and a tureen or mug is a perfect teachers gift, or a single grandparent if you have one. Of course I think there isn't a better gift then Longaberger!

That's all for tonight. I'll have a lot of shots to post from tomorrow night's event!  See you soon



Creativity is so fun!



I've been carving pumpkins for the Longaberger Fall Tour event display. This covers entirely 1/2 of the surface!



I know, I know it looks like a snow ball .... but it's not! It's a chenille pumpkin. This is  phase 1, phase 2 will be tomorrow. It's sitting on a cup to dry.

Oak Glen Fall Road Trip

It's Road Trip Day to beautiful Oak Glen! The gift baskets are loaded, the car has gas and I'm ready to go.



Our first stop was lunch at Apple Dumplin's, it was soooo good. The gal up front in the blue out fit is Jewel, she is 91 years old and travels everywhere Longaberger goes! Such a trooper.




Next stop - Mom's, here we got fresh picked organic apples.



Patty has made her selection of Gala apples and Tiffany, smiling in the background is still shopping for just the right bag!

Best buddies Susan and Barb have their bags too.

Los Rios/Riley's Farm! Oh my gosh, this place was packed. Check out the traffic just to park! Yikes



We made it! The banjo players were on a roll. Heidi, Eileen, Tiffany Kim and myself jumped in for a quick picture.



This was so fun to watch. The line was REALLY long or I would have made my own cider.

This little girl was giving it all she had to get her cider pressed. The aroma of the fresh pressed apples was awesome!



Here is the group at the Wild Life Conservancy. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was crisp, the air was clear and there was apples, apples everywhere! Such a great day.




Heidi and Kim are just ending their marathon wait in line. Kim is sipping on some fresh pressed cider. Note her adorable Longaberger purse she made last fall in Ohio!



Sometimes ya just gotta laugh!



My daughter Tiffany came by the other night and while she was here decided look for her Heidi Halloween costume. No, this is not Heidi! And no she didn't find it. However, after digging through boxes she did locate her high school cheerleading uniforms. This picture is part of the "fashion" show I was privy to. Personally,
 was shocked she could even zip it up!  13 years later she has "blossomed" in the chest area since high school. Fortunately the uniform has some stretch to it making room for her bust line! After laughing myself stupid I got out the camera for a few pics. I was glad to see she still has that award winning smile and pay special not to the "Statue of Liberty" pose. That was a popular pose many moons ago!
I believe this song uniform has made the cut for Halloween 2011, it's FREE and it sorta fits!
PS Notice Miss Betsy on the stairs ... she was scared!