turkey head . . .

I teased a little bit yesterday about a turkey head. You may remember THIS post, where I shared the fun care package my mom had sent me. One of the things in that package was the pattern and materials for a turkey head. Well, for a turkey centerpiece ... the head gets wired into a the base of a pineapple, and the leafy top acts as the turkey's fine feathery plumage! There's one similar HERE on pinterest (I don't have my pineapple yet, so you can see how it'll look attached).

So here's the pattern my mom sent me . . .

And here's what I came up with . . .

I'm really pleased with how he turned out -- but it's hard to visualize how great he'll be without a body.

Hmmmm ... Mr. Cardinal, may I borrow your body for just a bit?

I'm pretty sure he said yes. Great, thanks!!

Still missing something ... let's see what I can find to give your back end a little extra fluff.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. What's that you say, Mr. Cardinal? I can't hear you!

I know! Joc's flowers will fit the bill . . . or rather, the back . . . quite nicely!

Oh yeah, now he's looking like Tom Turkey!! Isn't that fun? He was very easy to put together, too. I used the blanket stitch to outline the head shape, except where the bill and the waddle were tucked into the head, where I did a tiny running stitch (which you don't really see because the waddle hangs over them). I stuffed him with my infamous pillow stuffing. I hot glued the waddle to the head in three places, leaving little gaps to give it dimension and the eyes are small white buttons, with black sequin centers. And there's floral wire running up the back of the neck, and the wire will be how I secure him into the pineapple!

Okay, okay Mr. Cardinal, let me free you up . . . but where to put Mr. Tom for now?

Ha! Well, that will do in a pinch.

Jocey finally taking her flowers home! But it's a good thing I had them today.

This picture so reminds me of a picture of my youngest sister. My Pop wrote a book (well several, actually) on tin can crafting. And in the book, there's a picture of her bending over sniffing the tin can flowers. Too cute!!

And to top it all off?? Look what fun things came in the mail today!!! My mommy sent me a little happy!

It's Eleanor Burns's Autumn Leaves pattern! Thanks, Mom!!

And it's hard to see, but the topper on the right is actually a turkey! It's TOO cute! And it came with it's OWN ruler! A 4.5" On Point ruler! I needed one of those! (Don't say anything Sarah!) Hmmmm. It *is* a quilt in a day pattern . . . think I can have one done before Thanksgiving?!?

:)

autumn tour through the camp . . .

Todd and I did get out and about on the golf cart yesterday afternoon. Gosh, it was just so beautiful -- God's handiwork never ceases to amaze me. It smelled wonderful, there was a gorgeous breeze, and it looked ... well, let me show you how it looked!

This is the view out the back windows at the rear of the RV. Look how the sun is filtering through the tree tops back there. Glorious fall! The big cement structure houses our super-duper generator. We'll never be caught unprepared with that bad boy!

Our first leg was down the big hill, heading toward the ponds. This is that in-between time -- where there is still plenty of green, but there's also lots of fallen leaves already. The nice thing about being up here at the camp is that we sure don't have to worry about raking. We just have to keep them off the top of the RV and the awning!

We first made our way up to Serenity Pond. Todd had ordered several new directional signs before the Jamboree. I'd seen them from the road, but this is the first time I'd seen the ones for the pond up close. They looked great!

Todd pulled right up to the deck/dock, and I was able to hop right onto it. The fall colors are the prettiest around the ponds right now. I'm always captivated by the reflection, too!

Of course we brought bread and floating fish food for our fishy friends. Obviously the sun was at our backs -- long shadows!! There was one little fishy waiting on us -- you can just make him out in the water, to the left off my shadow. It's been a while since we've (or at least I've) been down there.

On our way out of Serenity, I found some lovely wildflowers. Bright, happy and sunny yellow!

From there we rolled over to Silty Bottom Pond. I didn't realize this, but Todd had cleared a path all the way around the end of the pond that backs up to the road. It's really a gorgeous spot!

So here's a view from the back of the Silty Bottom -- on the other side of those trees at the top of the picture, up the hill, is Serenity. Again, the color down here is gorgeous!

Great view of the little bridge. I'm so glad Todd rolled me over here!!

And as we were coming back out, we found cattails -- I adore them!

We had a little trouble getting back up the hill from the ponds to the road. Todd had thought he'd tuned up the golf cart and gotten it all charged and happy. Evidently, however, one of the batteries (at least) is not up to par and needs to be replaced. It wouldn't have been as a big deal in the 'pre-surgery' days, but now ... it's another story altogether! It's near impossible to get a vehicle (even a 4-wheel drive) down and back up there, and it's very steep and (loose) gravelly. Crutching it up and out would *not* have been fun. But Todd managed to coax good ol' Easy (our golf cart's name) into doing his bidding, and we were back on the road. Whew!

We were on the road, but Todd didn't want to take any chances, so he circled us over to the lower road, to head on back.

This road runs below us. When I shoot my photos of deer and racoons, I'm shooting down from the back of the RV. The road is another 75-100 feet down the hill from us. Unlike the high road, this road isn't paved. I love the way the trees hug the road here! The property slopes down into a small meadow with little groves of trees for another 50-75 feet, and then turns into woods again.

Some pretty purple wildflowers caught my eye on the side of the road, but when I zoomed in to capture them, I saw a tiny little butterfly taking a rest and a sip! With temperatures dropping down like they have been at night, we probably won't see too many more of those!

And then back up the road and around, to get back to the RV. We sit fairly close to the high road, but because of this lovely hedge of grasses and crepe myrtle, we're well tucked in. You can just make out the top of the RV over the grasses!

So that was it from our lovely tour. Now I want to share a different kind of tour with you. One though a box of fun goodies my mama sent me!

First there was a pattern with instructions for a darling turkey centerpiece and these fun pilgrims!

As I've mentioned before, being a Mayflower descendant, Pilgrims hold quite a fascination for me. Did you know that contrary to popular belief, they did not always dress in black and white? No, no, no -- they enjoyed earthtones -- some of the most popular being red, green, brown, gray and lavender! In keeping with that, my mom also sent me some *gorgeous* fabrics to help me clothe the little Pilgrims up there.

My photo does not do justice to this fabric grouping -- it's perfectly yummy!!

Also in the box were lots of fun embellishments, as well as the felt for the turkey head. Look at all those fun buttons. BUTTONS!! And sequins! And turkey feathers!!! My wheels are already churning, thinking of fun projects . . . !!

But wait, there was MORE! Some pretty fall-colored fat quarters, two little pumpkin candles (which is AWESOME, because the two I had melted somewhere along the way, and were no longer very pretty, to say the least), and some pretty fall napkins ... and a trick-or-treat bag! TREATS! My mommy sure does know how to do a crafty care package up right!

This morning I'm all Roll Tide red and ready for game day! Alabama plays Ole Miss tonight, at Ole Miss. This is always a tough game for me . . . because even though I'm a big Crimson Tide fan, I *went* to Ole Miss! I didn't get my degree there, though, so I guess I won't feel too bad about my cheering practices. LOL!

I've just finished off the last of my birthday cake -- someone had to do it -- with a mid-morning cup of coffee and I'm ready to tackle some more felt flowers . . .

These are for Joc's bouquet. I've got a good start on them all! So between felt flowers and trying to figure out all the new changes to my iPhone with the OS5 update, I'll keep myself plenty busy.

Enjoy Saturday -- thanks for hanging in there with me -- and don't forget to count it *all* joy!!!

:)