Usually pizza at our house too. Too busy a night to cook. Annette, I've never eaten rack of lamb OR mint jelly. Not sure why. Probably because it wasn't part of the traditional meals served by my mother and grandmother and no one on my husbands side prepared it either. I'll have to try it before I shuffle off this mortal coil! Patti

Great bargain on the boots, Lynn. Bet you could even find a way to use them in one of your tablescapes couldn't you???? It is neat that your DD enjoys doing the Halloween decorating with you. My DH would probably help me--but I probably wouldn't like where he put things!LOL Nice that all your family was able to spend time together, and what a blessing that your son made it home safely. Know it's hard having him stationed in another state now, but at least there's email and Skype so you can stay in touch easily--and it's much better than Afghanistan. Luvs

OA, Thanks. It was such a simple thing to make. When I saw it I said to myself, "Even I could do this!" DS had it whipped out in a minute. I will be making more for other occasions since I found how easy it is. Lee, Thanks for the compliments. This was one of my favorites. I love it when my "kids" (DS & Gkids) come in and their faces light up and they start noticing stuff and saying, "Hey! Cool! Check this out! Mom (Nanny), where did you get that?" Life is hard and will be even harder for their generation. I love to make them smile and give them fun memories of their Mom (Nanny). It really makes it special when DS gets interested and creates something and then says, "Make sure you tell them that I did this!" Hopefully, he will carry the tradition on with his kids and Gkids. I had bought a lot of Halloween related things after Halloween last year and was trying to find places to display it all and stuck that little string of skeletons up in the den in front of the patio door. I LOVE the rain and when I saw the raindrops on the outside of the door, I had to share. 'Singing in the Rain' must have been written for me! Yes, that is a beaded placemat you see! I usually just buy the stuff for 4 placesettings. If the Gkids are here, DH and I aren't able to sit at their table. I had picked up the orange and black plates, so I decided to try to throw a couple of placesettings at the ends for us so we could all sit together. I think it turned out ok. Complete setting Next layer I had found DD a set of 4 of these purple plates and she had told me to keep them at my house, so I use them when I need them. :o) The B/W plates are Dollar Tree plates The beaded placemats Wish I had found more than 2 of these. They look really nice IRL I found 2 of the boas at the Dollar Tree and one at Big Lots. I need to get one more purple and 2 more black to make it really nice and full all over next year. Aunt B seems to enjoy my tablescapes. She says several times a day, "I've never seen anyone with as many dishes as you have!" She had quite a few dishes and bought several more sets to pass down to our kids since we've been married. She has no children and DH has been the son she never had and our Kids have been her Gkids. She has given me many of her dishes and lots of her accent pieces. Sadly, her dementia has gotten much worse in the 5 months she has been with us. When both DH and I got hit with the swine flu at the same time and were both in bed unable to care for her, the DR found her a bed in an assisted living home here in town. She wasn't happy at first, but they do a lot of activities and she has really blossomed being with others her age and loves it now. We can still take her out for family times, so it is the best of both worlds in an impossible situation. It has been a heart rending time for us. I am so thankful that we could at least give her that window of time and spoil her a while. I did a tea tablesetting last year using the china she gave me. DS has always loved the tea parties, so he will get the set with the tea pot. It is fun to see a big 6'2" man/boy who works on cars and deer hunts loving a tea party with all of the 'frills'. He is the Baby and we married when he was still in diapers, so you know I ruined him. Thanks Syble, I am always behind everyone else here! I usually start early, but finish late. Then I have to find time for taking the pictures and getting them to Flickr and writing the post. As you can see, I am long winded, so it takes forever to post!! I tried to do 2 fall settings in 2 days so I could share all of my new buys and I forgot stuff (DS didn't even have time to add the mini-cooper... DRATS!) and my feet are killing me. That is my last time to try that. BTW.. I loved your kitchen pics so much that I put them in my favorites so I can look at them when I need a 'Pick Me Up'. What a Happy place! Yacht, It makes me the happiest when DS and Gkids are 'up under my feet' laughing and doing dumb but cute stuff to make me laugh. Life is going faster and faster as I age and I treasure each moment with them. I hope they look back at this time with me and consider it special. Your's are really getting into it too, aren't they? I really loved all of their Jack-o-Lanterns and the decorating they did that you shared with us. They 'Caught the Bug' from you. Good Job!! Hi Dominique! So good to hear from you. I miss you when you're not here. My DD loves purple, so it was fun when I found the purple accent pieces and it came together. Jane, DS laughed when he read about your 'Waldo' comment! Thanks for the compliments. I had a marathon shopping day after Halloween last year and only added a few items that I found this year. It was hard to wait a whole year before I could share it with the kids. I was so excited!! I can do creepy anytime. But I don't do spiders. The napkin rings were a set in a box and I almost didn't buy it because of the 1 spider. I HATE SPIDERS!!! I finally trained myself to not kill them outside because they are our friends in the garden, eating the bad bugs. But, I still jump and scream when I meet one while working in the yard! I'm glad you liked the 'wet skeleton' picture. The 'raindrops' shot is my favorite of all! He is on the inside and the raindrops are outside, but it was sooo great with the cloudy sky in the background. Thanks Luckygal, He is such a fun son. I tell him all of the time that he can never leave home. He is our entertainment! He has such a funny personality and is ALWAYS making us laugh. The black cats on the plates are plastic cutouts that came in a pack with some ghost cutouts. The plates just have the spiderwabs with the cartoonish spiders. I just laid the cat cutouts in the plates to 'spook it up' a bit until we sat down to eat. Thanks Luvs, I am trying to follow Judith's instructions about the layers and details. It really helps. If I don't have any height, it doesn't feel right, so I doctor it! I REALLY miss her. Such talent she has. I'm happy that she has started dropping back in. Thanks Kathleen, Even though all of the kids' settings were plastic, it is one of my favorite because they enjoyed it so much. Karen, I knew you would like this! My DD loves purple, too. I don't usually 'do the house', but I had found such great buys and DS really got into it, so I stood back and enjoyed watching him do the work! Sorry this is so long, but y'all know that once I get started I can't shut up! Betty

My my kids are 10 and 11 this year and all of the sudden they want super scary haunted house stuff. Most of my Halloween decorations are still packed from our move almost 2 months ago, but all my old stuff does seem a little too nick-nack-y to me lately. I ended up buying a bunch of spider rings and spiders and used that poster sticky tack stuff to make a trail of spiders up the porch to the door. I thought it was just a little creepy, but not really scary, so it would be a nice compromise with my kids, but then a neighbor girl my daughter's age said she did NOT like it and hasn't been over to play for a while, so I feel a little guilty, like I did something wrong. Aside from a couple of black pumpkins, that's all I did this year. My favorite Halloween was a few years ago when I was feeling super poor and my kids were little and really excited about decorating. I cut out a bunch of black bats out of cardstock and hung them strategically in my entry and stairwell so it looked like they were flying up the stairs. I even sewed a tiny black bead to each one so they would hang better. I thought I saved them, but I haven't seen them since, so who knows. My daughter and I also saved interesting glass bottles for a while to make "potions" but those have been mysteriously misplaced, too.