Distractions and gettin' things done

Sorry folks. I've been so busy lately. I feel like I haven't had anything to show for all of my time lately, so I decided it was time to stay away from the computer and finish up some projects. I finished up my fig tree quilt and am just waiting to have it quilted (a picture of that will be coming soon). I think the holidays bring out a crafty side in me because a few weeks ago I felt it was time to furnish my home with some Halloween decorations. I'm more of a "Harvest" decorator this time of year. Believe me when I say that the only Halloween decor I owned until recently was my little skeleton and "spooky" sign (below). So I added this "BOO" banner (tutorial found here), some cheesecloth ghosts (thanks Martha) and a little scaredy cat to my collection. I owe my cute argyle pumpkins from winning the grand prize in my Bunko group in September. I'd like to thank the hostess, Janelle and a wonderful little store in Lehi, UT called Rod Works for those.

You can never have enough pumpkins right? These are my favorite. Surprisingly, I've owned these for about 11 years (I remember getting them right after I got married. I was with my mom at Pier 1.) Can't believe they've survived this long...knock on wood.

We had a guest coming to the Johnson abode, so the hubby finally hung this little baby. I've only had it sitting in a closet for about 2 years. There's nothing like a deadline to make you get your home improvement projects done.

The long awaited day arrived and I've been spending some time with an old friend named Elisabeth Theresa McLean Williamson (aka Little Lizzy) who came to visit me from the great state of Colorado. Our activity agenda has included such things as reminiscing, eating out and hitting a lot of the great stores on the Wasatch Front, including Thanksgiving Point, where we found this little bit of holiday inspiration:

Cute, right?

Here's another fabulous picture that I thought you might like:

If that kind of scene suits your fancy then you should definitely go to Thanksgiving point.

While making our way up the Wasatch front, we made a stop by the Black Goose and fell in love with this:

so in honor of Liz's birthday I got her and I matching signs (so we can think of each other every time we leave home :) Here's my finished product:

And, just around the corner from there we dabbled in some witchy, child & mom-friendly shopping at Gardner's Village. Making a quick run through of the beautiful Village Whites Shoppe, we found this inspiring display. How fun would that be to hold all of your fabric scraps, stacks, bundles, etc.? I love it.

I'm adding one more project to the list...