My Favorite Photos - November 2022

This month I started a new position with a local museum to do their marketing/PR work. One of my favorite parts of the job is photographing items in the gift shop and the museum's artifacts. Below are Dala horse salt and pepper shakers.

This is a hand-carved tomte and pine tree.

This is one of 150 dolls that were donated to the museum. Each doll has an outfit that represents the clothing typical to a region in Sweden.

When I was taking the photos, my younger daughter was helping me. At the end of the session, I took photos of her. The first one she liked the best. 

These two, though, capture her spirit more - her laugh and mannerisms. 

I took some photos of Cooper on the first day that it snowed in November. This is one of them. He is looking out at the tree and watching the birds.

On the 18th, we celebrated Olivia's anniversary of her adoption day. She found a restaurant near her college that we all enjoyed. Her anniversary is actually on the 17th, but she had a class field trip for her Humanities class that was meeting on the 17th. So, the 18th it was for our annual anniversary dinner.

On the 23rd, Olivia, Sophia, and Nessa (one of Sophia's roommates) came home for Thanksgiving. On the 23rd, we celebrated Nessa's birthday by going to a new arts organization in Wisconsin. She hadn't been to Wisconsin, so that was another bonus "gift." 

The picture above and below were in the gallery.

We continued exploring Osceola, Wisconsin, by going to an antique store. None of us had been there, so it was fun to explore a new place.

For Nessa's birthday, I made lasagna. I made some changes to my mom's recipe - like adding more mushrooms, spices, and fresh mozzarella.

I made a Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie (instead of a birthday cake). Danny (the dog) is hoping the pie is for him. 

On the 24th, we celebrated Thanksgiving. There were 14 people total. We had both a turkey and ham, plus a lot of side dishes. We had three different pies for dessert.

On Thanksgiving, my sister brought slides that my parents took. There were quite a few I had never seen before, so that was nice to see them. My brother, sister, two nephews, and I watched the slides. For some of them, we could share details that the others did not know. 

Below is my sister (on the left) and me (on the right) with my mom and dad. There's a plant to the left in the photo. It's fake. That plant traveled from the house in Minneapolis (pictured below) to the one in Plymouth. They had it for decades.

My sister explained the significance of this photo. For my parents' entire marriage, my mom wanted a real Christmas tree. My dad didn't want one because of the mess that real trees can leave in a home. Well, one year, my parents went out to get a real tree. My mom looks so happy by the tree. Another slide after this one showed my dad using a saw to cut it down. This photo would have been taken after we graduated from high school. New traditions once all the kids leave the home...I know this all too well now that Sophia and Olivia are both at college.

Another photo I never saw was this one of my sister (on the left) and me (on the right) in front of one of our elementary schools. This is the second elementary school I attended in Minneapolis - Hamilton was Kindergarten and first grade, and Loring was second grade. 

Once we moved to Plymouth, I had three more elementary schools: Cedar Island (third and fourth grades), Fair Oaks (fifth grade), and Edgewood (sixth grade). It was insane. There were yearly school border changes because the suburbs were changing and boundaries needed to be changed. 

I loved seeing this photo of (L to R): me holding my brother, my sister, and our dog, Corgi.

My mom used to sew all of our Halloween costumes. This one was my favorite one - a kangaroo. It's not the clearest pictures, so the little joey in my kangaroo pouch isn't as visible as I hoped it would be.

Getting in the holiday spirit, my handmade stocking was made by Grandma Olive (she had made my stocking during the summer of 1966 - either before or shortly after my birth in June. She died in August. So, this was an extra-special stocking). My mom made matching stockings for my sister and brother using the same concept as mine. 

This is a better picture of my stocking. I would have been about four or five years old in this picture.

If this doesn't give kids nightmares, I don't know what would. The Santa that visited us at a friend of my grandma's home wore a mask. I swear that mask doesn't even have openings for the eyes. It would have to, but it sure doesn't look like it.  

Apparently, we are either in shock or fascinated by this masked Santa. Actually, now that I look at the picture, I'm wondering if this was supposed to be St. Nicholas since he is using a cane. 

Fear set into my brother. It's probably St. Nicholas/Santa's lack of eyes in the mask. Apparently, the mask isn't bothering my sister or me. 

This is our first Christmas in our new home in Plymouth in 1974. I'm in the middle with the curlers under my mom's hair bonnet. 

So those are some of the 200+ slides we looked at on Thanksgiving this year. 

On the day after Thanksgiving, Sophia, Nessa, and I went to Feed My Starving Children to pack food. We were at a table with about eight other people. This was a hard-working group of volunteers who ended up packing 26 boxes of food for children in El Salvador. We have packed food on the day after Thanksgiving for three years now and have really enjoyed doing this. It's a meaningful way to share our time and give children who are hungry or starving healthy meals.

After packing food, we went to Momo Sushi - our traditional meal two years in a row now. We had a bento lunch box with a variety of food which we all enjoyed. 

The sunset that night was beautiful. This is the end of the sunset, so the colors are not as vibrant at they were 15-25 minutes earlier that evening.

On November 26th, we celebrated the anniversary of Sophia's adoption day. It's hard to believe that we adopted her 21 years ago. (For Olivia it was 19 years ago on the 17th.)

Halloween College Care Package

Both Sophia and Olivia are in college, so I thought I would send them a care package. Each one basically has the same thing - some Halloween decorations, candy, snacks, window stars I made, closet scent, and a card.

There's a combination of healthy and not-so-healthy snacks, and some Halloween decorations they can hang from their ceilings (two bats and the word "Boo"). There's tape so they can hang up everything...just in case they didn't have it. 

The Halloween images are ones that are window stickers. There's also some lights and three window stars that I made for them. 

Each one got a decoration to hang on their door (the trio of pumpkins and black cat), a facial mask, more candy, and two scented sachets to put in their closet or drawers.

There were three layers of items. I realized that I didn't have enough of the orange and black tissue paper, so the middle layer uses white tissue paper. 

All the gifts are covered by orange and black tissue paper and then the card rests on top of that.

As my dad always said, "Write a message in the card...it's more meaningful that way." So, I did. Each one has different letter/message in it. 

The outside of the boxes was decorated with stickers of ants (the only other black stickers I had). On the top, there was an orange piece of paper where I wrote their address and put two Halloween stickers on it. 

Olivia said that her room looks "more festive" now and that she has the trio of pumpkins with the black cat on her door. That makes me happy. I hope she continues to decorate her dorm room - and eventually her home - with these and other decorations to celebrate Halloween. It would be a legacy that lives on from my parents who used to decorate their home for the holiday and make it a fun one for our family. 

Decorating for Halloween

It's that time of the year again when I pull out the bin of Halloween decorations and add some seasonal items to our home. We used to decorate the home - inside and outside - with lots of items to celebrate the holiday. I've scaled back this year since this is the first year without both girls here (they are both at college), so it is a bittersweet experience. 

Nonetheless, I did decorate our home for Halloween this year. There's a welcome sign on the gate for the holiday.

As I look at some of the Halloween items, they remind me of the girls' experiences in ceramics at the homeschool co-op they attended from Kindergarten through 12th grade. 

I put these jack-o-lanterns on the piano. It seemed fitting since both Sophia and Olivia played the piano from 3rd-12th grades. 

I chose not to put up the Halloween-themed artwork that they did throughout the years. When they move to their first apartment or home, I'll give them the art they created and they can decide what they want to do with it at that point. 

Some of the other Halloween items that we have are from my step-father-in-law who passed away last month. The trio of ghosts was something he gave to us when he went into assisted living (and eventually the connected nursing home) many years ago. I put these in the kitchen so it's the first thing we see when we walk into our home (we live in an 1890 farm home, so the main entry is a mudroom and then the kitchen).

He also gave us this Halloween train when he moved into assisted living. This year it is at the end of our dining room table so we can enjoy seeing it at every meal. 

This year there is a new addition from him - a witch with a black cat. He had that at the nursing home and we just received it when his room needed to be cleaned out after he died. I'm not sure what (if anything) is supposed to go on the platter that the witch is holding.

Also in the box of Halloween items was this string of ghosts that light up. Many of them are playing musical instruments which I love. Music has been and is such an important part of our lives, so it is quite fitting for us. The witch, dressed in white, also is from him when he moved into assisted living many years ago.  

Back in 2018, we had a fire here at our farm that burned our hobby shed where I stored some of our Halloween items. So, I purchased a few replacements - like this Halloween bunting. It is hanging right by our woodstove. It adds some color and festivity to this area.

Also by the woodstove is our Halloween tree. With its purple lights, it has become one of our favorite items. With each passing day, it is getting darker earlier so this adds a pretty glow to the room. 

The final Halloween decorations are window stars that I made. I chose purple, orange, and green. There is no black kite paper, so that color is not an option. 

This is the only window that has the stars on it this year. I could make more to decorate other windows. I have the time now in the evenings. Maybe I could make some extra ones, too, and send Sophia and Olivia a surprise Halloween package at college. 

I have not put up the Halloween lights yet - indoors or outdoors. The first step is to do the last mowing of the season and then put up t-posts before the ground freezes. Once that is done, I can put up the lights outside. Whatever lights are leftover, I use those on the windows inside the home. This is what one of the rooms looked like last year with the lights up.

This is what the string of lights along our driveway looked like last year. I also continued the string along the road for everyone to see as they drove by. 

Maybe this year I'll add some more lights to the other windows in the front of the house. It seems a bit dark in the front compared to the windows on the right side of the house.

My Favorite Photos - October 2021

 Below are some of my favorite photos from October

Olivia and I visited a pumpkin patch on October 1st. They had a truck and fall display that I thought would make a nice back-drop for a picture.

Olivia and I are doing a survey of the different types of trees at our farm. She's collecting a leaf or needles and pressing them. I'm taking her photo by the trees to show their shape and size. 

The roses continued to bloom well into October.

My sister and I went to Marine Mills Folk School's grand re-opening. 

Olivia and I went to Springboard for the Arts open house. Down the block from the arts organization was a barber shop. This hand-painted bench was outside the barber shop.

The fire station held an open house. They lit this house on fire and closed one of the doors in the house to show how it can protect the items and people in that room. For the rooms that didn't have the door closed, everything in the room was burned. It was a very powerful lesson.

We went to the Twin Cities Corn Maze. It was a fun way to spend part of the day.

My sister, Olivia, and I went to an apple orchard. We also went on a hayride while we were there. 

Olivia and I spotted an eagle one morning when I was taking her to the homeschool co-op. This eagle was at the end of our road.

Paige and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. These are the flowers he gave to me.

Here's another tree at our farm. The chairs belonged to my parents, and I inherited them when they died. We had the tree planted when it was about 10 feet tall - so a little more than twice Olivia's height. We have lived here since 1995, so I like seeing how tall the trees have gotten during that time.

This is a willow tree that we planted on the nature trail at our farm in the early 2000s. So, it is about 17 or 18 years old now. 

This is part of the back part of our farm. All those trees we had transplanted when they were about 5-6 feet tall. The previous owners had planted a ton of little pine trees in a nursery-type area. They were all planted very close to one another. We knew that we needed to have them transplanted or they would have grown all together and none would have done well. The trees now are doing very well and have created a private area again.

In mid-October, I went to the back part of our farm and spread milkweed seeds. 

There was a gentle breeze, and I enjoyed watching the milkweed seeds fly off in the wind.

My sister and I went to the grand re-opening of White Bear Arts Center. This is one of the paintings in a gallery. I miss having cats. We had cats from 1989 until earlier this year when our last one died. 

At WBCA, one of the exhibits looked at upcycling items to create art. The flowers below are made from plastic bottles and are hanging from the ceiling with a clear thread. A fan gently blew air on them and they moved slightly. The reflections would move on the cement as well. 

This was an upcycled art piece that used plastic bags to create the mushrooms. The artist crocheted them - both the tops and stems.

At the WBCA grand re-opening, there were some art cars. This one caught my eye.

There were lots of messages on the car, including this one: 

During October, I've been helping Olivia learn to cook. We are doing a 4-H online cooking/baking program. This one taught her how to make cheese-filled meatloaf that was wrapped with crescent roll dough. 

For Olivia's PSEO Digital Imaging class, she needed to do a photojournalism story. We stopped at a local nursery that has goats and geese. 

On the Friday of Halloween weekend, Olivia came home for dinner. I made homemade lasagna, salad, and pumpkin pie. 

On Halloween morning, the sun was rising as the moon was still high in the sky.

I liked the beautiful blue sky behind the pine trees in our front yard. The lights mark the front yard and one side of our driveway. They are up for Halloween. In a few weeks, they'll change to Christmas lights.