KiTTeHs, GiVeaWay WiN, SuRpRiSes In ThE MaiL.and OnE MoRE ProJecT To ChecK oFF the HoneY do LiSt..;)

Good Sunday Morning..well the house is quiet for a bit..hubby went down to work on his boat to get it all set for the winter months..and I have been cleaning and organizing a bit..going to be making Cafe Rio in the crock pot for tonights supper..love using the crock pot..I think its a gals best friend..one stop cooking..love it..Yesterday we found our "Ooey Gooey Stewie" snuggling under his blankie on his cat tree..He and Lucy love turning over the area rugs and playing under them..I am constantly fixing these throughout the day..they love to help us with everything we are doing..even when we don't want them to..)

He has certainly stolen our hearts and makes us laugh all the time..and he is just so darn loveable..and he gives us equal time too..I just rescued all of his tin foil balls from under the hutch..so now he can play with them again..he loves to toss them around the room and brings them to us to throw...I swear our kittehs are 1/2 dog..

Last week I got my win from Cathy over at the orange sink..and she totally spoiled me rotten..I thought I was getting the star rug..but I got much much more..the little tissue holder..now resided in my purse and I was in need of tissues and waallaaah..they appeared in this package..I wonderful wool pin..and another little hooked mat..

I will show you where it all lives shortly.;)

Secondly..this surprise package came from my good pal Carmen of waxed out creative life..I sent her some goodies for her new grandbaby and for her as well and she turned around and surprised me back..(wasn't expecting it either)..it was her way of saying thank you..and who am I to turn down surprises..Lucy was our "inspector" of this box..I love that little pumpkin..

and look at all the other stuff she sent me..holy cow..it all smelled soooo good..and I couldn't wait to use the sweet potato pie tarts..they smell wonderful..very fall and my home smelled amazing..

I also got these raspberry jam tarts..haven't used them yet..I love the jar label though....very prim..they are on my kitchen counter..

she knows I love kittehs..and I got a cute little calendar and some stickers..;)

lavender soap upper left and brown sugar and oatmeal goats milk soap..oh I can't wait to use these..they are in the bathroom on a shelf..and the sweet potato pie tarts are in my kitchen drawer along with the others..handy for when I want to pop one in my burner..

lastly some more yummy smelling tarts..I will burn these at christmas time..Thank you again Carmen for spoiling me rotten..I love it..

here is the pin..it looks so good on my denim jacket.;)

where I put the little coaster..think I need to make a hanger for it..so I can hang it on the wall..so you can see it better..

and my little mat under the pumpkin..it won't stay here..after the holidays it will be out to be seen better..

and where I put the cute little pumpkin..(kitty now lives on top of the hutch..couldn't use my daily calendar behind it..Thank you again Cathy for the little extras..your work is magnificent.;)

Well Friday night it was official..we lit our first fire of the season..we usually don't till mid/late October..but we have had some chilly nights..and it was the first for Lucy and Stewie..so we had to watch them for a bit..cause they were very interested in the flames..let them get close enough to feel the heat and that stopped them..so hopefully we are okay now..couple of years ago our little pody lynn jumped on the stove..burned just slightly the pads of her paws..scared us to..we didn't know it till a couple of days later..she was okay..but we just don't want it happening again..

love the glow of a fire..just sets the mood..

pody lynn enjoying it..I laid down the sheep skin rug for the season..its usually on the wood box to the left..(last weekend we purchased 2 pallets of the big pressed wood logs (we get these from the fireplace store)..they are better then the ones you buy at the grocery store..they are more compact and pressed and last so much longer then real wood..no mess, no spiders, and they burn for at least 3-4 hours..love them over real wood as it takes forever for real wood to get the house warmed up..so we stacked wood, and loaded the wood box outside on the porch and the one shown above and we also cleaned our chimney for the season too..

thats Gracie's favorite spot..right next to the wood stove..

remember this strip of lawn..it sits between the house and garage and in the winter it becomes a mushy mess..and there was weeds etc..got tired of mowing it..

and this is behind the garage..it was truly a bugger to mow because of the angle..we moved the fence last year and this has been so hard to deal with..so in september we put round up on it and covered it with thick black plastic to kill it..

and this is what we did yesterday..moved 6 1/2 yard truck loads of big gravel in its place..put down the weed mat and then covered it up..we are also going to put down a smaller black gravel so walking is easier..I am going to put down container plants etc here now..and come spring and summer we will plant veggies in pots as this is the best sunny spot...(we were racing against the rain yesterday and within about 3 minutes of finishing..it started to sprinkle) how's that for timing..)

ahhh much nicer and tidyer now..I only have to mow the back portion and it only takes about 15-20 minutes..love it..and when the leaves fall..makes for blowing them out that much quicker..making our lives easier..as we just don't want to be slaves to our yard..love a nicely landscaped yard and love taking care of it..just don't want to be spending hours and hours on it..like I did this summer..hoping next year is easier and so on..well today I am going to get some sewing, and baking done...have a church meeting to go to and I am trying out a new recipe..apple Strudel..I can't wait to smell it wafting through the house..oh and I didn't make the tomato jam yet..gotta get more raspberry jello..will get that after my church meeting..Hope you all have a wonderful rest of your sunday..