Tanyard Creek

If you live in the NW Arkansas area you've noticed that we haven't seen much of the sun lately. Today, however, it finally decided to show itself. I've been waiting for a little sunshine so I could go out and take some photos at Tanyard Creek. Tanyard Creek is a area in Bella Vista that is absolutely beautiful. There is a nature trail that leads you around the creek and the water falls. It's amazing.

I finally made it out there and thought I would share the photos I took today. Here they are...

Show Us Your Fall Decorations

I'm participating in the Show Us Your Fall Decorations party hosted by Kelly's Korner today. I've posted about this in the past but thought I would put it all together again today. I love these parties. Its great to see everyone's decorating ideas.

I love this time of year. Fall is hands down my favorite season. I love everything about it. I also love the Christmas season but my favorite decorations are during fall. Like I've said before I'm definitely one of those people who decorates around the seasons. Most of my decor items change with the seasons.

This is how I decorate the ledge in my entry way for fall. This is one of my favorite place to change for the seasons. I put up my fall decorations after labor day (if I can wait that long). October 1st is when the Halloween decorations go up. I use a lot of the same decorations for fall and Halloween.


This is a tree we put up for Halloween. It's made from black poster board. I really like how it turned out this year.



Here's my mantle for Halloween. I made the spider web from black vinyl you can buy for the Cricut machine. I replaced my normal garland with a black feather boa. The pictures are made from scrapbook paper and I found the images on clipart.

We have a tradition of carving pumpkins with the family a couple of weeks prior to Halloween. We got together last week to carve pumpkins and had so much fun. I will hopefully get some pictures to post soon. I didn't carve this year. Instead, I painted my pumpkins. I'm really happy with how they turned out. So check back for those.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing my Halloween decorations. Happy Fall!!!

Have You Ever...?

Have you ever gotten home from the grocery store and couldn't find something you knew had purchased? Happened to me today. I went to pick up a few groceries. I even had a list (I try to make it a habit to go with one.)

I got everything I needed ( or at least I thought I did) and checked out, loaded up the car and drove home. When I got home I started putting everything away and noticed that I didn't have an item I was sure I put in the cart.

My immediate thought was that I left a bag at the store. They have these spinning bag carousals things and I always try to make sure that I double check it before I leave the check station. I checked the receipt to see if indeed I did pay for the item. It was no where on the receipt. I could have sworn that I picked up the item and put it in the cart. The cart was empty when I checked out. I have no idea what happened to it. It was a little disorientating. And disappointing. I needed it for the dinner I was planning for tonight.



I hate having to make two trips to the store in one day. Heck, I hate making the first trip but its gotta be done.

Oh well.

Anyway, I was planning on making these

Source: Kraftfoods.com

They are Pizza Fingers with dipping sauce. The recipe can be found at Kraftfoods.com. I love this website. They have such great recipes and if you sign up you can receive a free magazine every season with lots of great recipes.

I especially like their 1 bag/ 5 meals feature. Gives you recipes for the week that use a lot of the same ingredients so its easy on the budget at the market. Great stuff. Check it out.

What!? It's only Tuesday!

I don't really have much to say today but I thought it's been a while since I posted. This week got off to a pretty frustrating start. My husband usually leaves for work around 6:30 every morning and Monday I got a call at about 7am from him. This is unusual for him so I knew something was wrong. Turns out his car wouldn't start after he stopped at the post office. So we're currently running on one car until we figure out whats going on with his car. Not the best situation but we will survive it.

I'm looking forward to a phone call about a job. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. I've been struggling a lot lately with my career choices.

I went to work for the Department of Health after graduating from college. I was there just over two years before I decided that the job really was not for me. I left to pursue a career in teaching. During college I studied biology. I love the sciences ( well maybe not chemistry so much) but there is really not a ton of jobs out there for people with a BS in biology. It's great if you decide to go on and pursue a graduate degree or go to a pre-professional school. Arkansas has a non-traditional teacher licensing program for people who have received a degree but wish to gain their teaching certification. I've been working to meet all the requirements to apply for this program. I would be able to be licensed to teach 7-12 grade Life Sciences.

After working as a substitute teacher and looking into the different teacher licensing programs in Arkansas, I'm starting to think that maybe the secondary level isn't for me. See this is the struggle part. I'm excited about the idea of being a teacher. I'm just not sure what grade level will be best for me.

Anyway, the job I've applied for is an instructional assistant position at an elementary school in a nearby district. I will assisting the literacy teacher. I think this position will be excellent for me. I got a really good feeling about the position after meeting the principal and the teacher. Hopefully they had a good feeling about me as well.

Other than the car not working and waiting to hear back about the job, there's not been a lot going on around here. I hope everyone else's weeks are going well.

The Halloween Tree and a giveway

I made this last year for Halloween and decided to put it up again this year. The bats are a new addition. It was super simple. I just used black poster board and basically free handed the tree. I found a bat outline on the internet, printed it and then used that as a stencil to cut the bats out of the left over poster board. All in all a project that only cost about $4.00.









I also made these two pictures. Again I found the shapes in clipart and printed them on white paper. I purchased two sheets of scrapbook paper to make the background and I already had the black frames.
I really like how they turned out. They look great on my mantle with the black feather boa and Halloween topiary I made.


I've been playing around with my camera as well and took this photo of some of the decorations I have in my entryway. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love fall!!!!


Finally, everyone should go over to Centsational Girl's website and check out the giveway she is doing. If you are in need of new faucets like I am then this is a perfect giveway for you. She is giving away a faucet from Price Pfister and they are all fabulous.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. It's my and my husband's birthday weekend and we are enjoying a little rest and relaxation at home. Couldn't be happier.

Happy Fall everyone!