This time of year I love the Fall colors and cool temps. I crave hot cider and pumpkin bars! And yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a skinny jeans, knee-high boot & chunky scarf wearin' kinda gal. Also known as the "Han Solo" look!  hahaha  No, I don't wear vests though, I can't pull them off!

Last weekend our little family was camping with some friends and it was HOTT out - I'm talkin Florida humidity mixed with Arizona heat. It's one week from the First Official Day of Autumn in MINNESOTA and it sure did not feel like it!

So then of course the other day when we were out walking our neighborhood and the temp had dropped dramatically - I was doing a happy dance!  Rain and the drop in temps means beautiful Fall colors.  woo-hoo

While we were out walking I happened to see one glorious tree that had already dropped some lush red leaves. I'm sure the owner of the house thought I was crazy for picking up leaves out of her yard, but so what....I was giving her some free lawn maintenance!  haha   And then I hear from my husband, " hun, I think that's enough".  Of course he would say that, guys just don't get it!  And here's me, "no, they need to be perfect, better to have too many than not enough".  Well shucks, I should have heeded my own advice and not stopped at only grabbing a few. I need to find some more now to finish this craft I am working on and for other crafts/projects!

 Craft Supplies Needed:
mod podge
brush or sponge brush
canvas, wood pallet sign, pennant, etc
letter tiles to make a fall-saying
wax paper
​hot glue gun
twine
fresh picked/dropped leaves (must be fully dry)
​*tweezers/exacto knife

*  might be needed, but not necessary

How To Make It:

1. First, lay out the leaves on the wax paper and brush the mod podge evenly onto the leaves, not too thin but not too thick either!

2. ​Now, this next step is the most important....lift the leaf by the end of the stem and move them onto a new piece of wax paper (uncoated side still down, wet side up). By doing this, you're allowing the decoupage to dry without making it stick to the paper and making it hard to peel up!

3. While the first coat is drying, you can work on putting together the rest of your project.  So for this particular one, I tied the letters onto my twine and then decided where to put it on my burlap canvas. Once laid out, I tied the knots so that the twine wouldn't slip out through the staple. Then used a small staple gun to attach the twine letter strings to the back side of the canvas. 

4. Going back to the leaves (a couple hours later) - once the white is gone and gives off a shine, then it should be dry to the touch and you can turn the leaf over. If it stuck to the wax paper at all, use an exacto knife or tweezers to help lift the leaf up - be careful so you don't rip the leaf!   Repeat steps 1 and 2.

5. Once your second coat is done and both sides are covered and dry, you can either do one more coat on each side OR  continue with your project. I also decided to add some fuzzy weed/grass things....they're beautiful and adds just a nice extra touch of Fall to the artwork.  The modge podge will still be painted on....some drops may spray back, so make sure you wipe the table/working space down afterwards!

6. Now is the fun part. You get to decide what to do with your leaves and how to lay it out on your project! Get your glue gun warming in preparations for the next step.

7. Once it's decided, you'll want to add a few dollops of glue sporadically on the backside of the leaf to hold it in place on the canvas. And since I decided to add these grassy things, I also added some glue to where the bow is to hold it in place better, and a little bit below the bow where I wanted the strands to come together slightly. And a little bit of glue higher up on the grass stem so they wouldn't flop over.

I'll let you in on a little secret of mine....I hate spending time cooking, baking and preparing things!!! If it's not prepped within 15 minutes or requires more than a dozen ingredients, you definitely won't see me cooking it!  haha   So, that being said, I'm sure you can all guess that I love crock-pots and using Pinterest for quick, easy recipes. And if my hubby is reading this....an InstaPot is on my wishlist!  ;-)  Anyone use those?!  Post your fav recipes in the comments below...I'd love to give "tried & true" recipes a try when the day comes I get mine!
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What's my FAVORITE appetizer?!?!  It's one that's quick to make, uses fresh things out of my garden and it's relatively healthy!  Any guesses?

This past weekend I had out-of-state family stop in for a lovely visit, my parents stayed over one night and my sister and nephews came for a visit. We sure packed a lot into one weekend!!!  But it was awesome to see everyone & get so much good visiting time in.  

So, after my sister arrived we intended on going to the Children's Museum but it was already closed when we got there. So instead we headed to the playplace in the mall. WOW - sooo many kids were there, it was insane! 

Are we crazy for wanting to put our toddlers in neon colored shirts the next time we go anywhere?!  haha