Even before Jen posted this, I was telling my husband about hearing it and being sad that I missed seeing Sedaris in my backyard. Then he suggested maybe we could do a road trip to catch another performance. He was probably thinking a place like D.C. I said well, I have checked the schedule and he'll be in Australia in January. I may have overplayed my hand. I think I'll recheck the schedule and see if there's a city - with a sports team - that we haven't visited and see about a weekend away. Unfortunately, we've already been to Dallas but I suppose we could repeat, we had a nice time.

Ohhh, as always, Emmett is adorable! Happy Halloween, Darlin! Here is a photo of my darling daughter when she was about Emmett’s age. She was born 2 months prematurely at a whopping 2 lbs 14 oz. The NICU nurses all called her their “fairy baby”. And so, I dressed her as a fairy baby this particular Halloween. DH keeps this photo framed on his desk. Anyhoo, she grew and thrived and is now in her second year of grad school. For me, Halloween has many very happy memories.

Hey team! I desperately need help. There are no stone masons in the area of my cabin, apparently, so I have to design my front steps myself. There is a quarry that will cut and deliver custom sized stones, but the excavator who dug our foundation will have to place them. That means minimal site prep and accuracy. For that reason, I thought to do just two stones, the bottom one big enough to support the entire top stone. As you can see, the front is very simple, and could use the beauty of some really great steps (and I'm thinking one long window box on the left and another around the corner to the right of the porch), but the ideal size is killing me. Should they be really wide? Wider than the door trim? If the top step is almost at the height of the door, should its run be longer than a standard run? so you can easily step out onto it before descending? The height from ground to sill is 17", the width including trim is 43" I could do 1-2 much wider stones as the base, creating a step that goes unnecessarily in all directions but gives a wider look to the entry, or I could make both stones the same width, whatever that should be. HELP! I"m embarrassed by how it looks unpainted: it will look MUCH better all painted the same dark brown (see the partially painted side for reference).

Thank you, naturegirl! Last year, I had it on my breakfast room hutch ... it looked nice with the “flickering candle” light on next to it. :) Love this thread! I took down Halloween decor today and kept out pumpkins and other Fall things. Added a lighted grapevine pumpkin to our scarecrow/wagon/pumpkins/straw bale display outside. Several adorable trick or treaters last night complimented our Halloween decor, which earned them extra candy. :D