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From our home to yours, Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

I hope you and your family are having a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Super Mom at Momma’s So Called Life is hosting a blog carnival on housecleaning tips. Not one of my favorite things to do, but I guess it has to get done somehow. Since my dogs only look at me when I tell them to vacuum the carpet I’ve had to develop a system of my own.

My favorite cleaning and organizing tips come from Flylady. I’ve been a flybaby for several years. I tend to collect clutter and the flyladies’ you can do anything for 15 minutes rule works very well for me. I set the timer every day whether I want to or not.

Flyladies lists and routines have helped me get organized, and stay somewhat organized. Even when I forget about my routine for a couple days it’s easy to jump back in and get started. I just jump in with a 25 fling boogie and a 15 minute clean. It does wonders for my mood to have a clean house.

I have a list for each day of the week of what I need to clean that day. I keep the lists in page protectors in a binder. It’s easy to flip to that day, then mark off each item with a whiteboard marker as I complete the task. At the end of the day I wipe off the page and flip to the next page. The next morning I’m ready to go again.

I like having a clean house, but I hate marathon cleaning sessions, the daily routines help me. I’ve learned through the years that I’m a list person, so the Flylady lists work well for me.

Doug, at Dougsgreengarden.com has created a short video explaining what you can do this fall to help your trees explode with new growth next spring. Check it out then check out Doug’s other tips on his website and blog.

I love kids, and planning birthday parties. My sister and I plan several a year for our own children, and for others. We also run the Create-A-Friend website. I’m usually bursting with party planning ideas, so I started a party planning blog, The Kid’s Birthday Party Fun Review. Check it out when you get a chance, and forward the information to anyone you know who may be planning a party in the near future.

I plan to offer information on party activities, party themes, food, fun, cake decorating and more.

Don’t worry, I still love gardening so I’ll still be here too!

It’s a great time of the year to have pumpkins, so what else can you do with a pumpkin besides carve it?

Pumpkins make great serving dishes for harvest or Halloween parties. Just cut off the top, like you were going to carve the pumpkin. If you’re creative carve a fancy scallop, or decorative pattern along the top. Scoop out the seeds and pulp. Don’t forget to bake the seeds!

Coat the inside of the shell lightly with cooking oil and bake the pumpkin at 350` until the flesh of the pumpkin is tender. It makes a great serving container for sweet potatoes, pumpkin soup, cranberry dishes, and more. If you use the shell right out of the oven, the warmth of the shell will keep your dishes warm for up to a half an hour, especially if you put the lid on.

You can also do this with miniature pumpkins to make adorable individual serving dishes for soups, or fall deserts.

What are the best flowers for fall arrangements? Mums, sunflowers, bittersweet, viburnum (fall berries), late season miniature roses are all still easy to find this time of year.

Farmers markets are a great place to find fall flowers or end of season vegetables such as pumpkins, winter squash, potatoes, and more.

Now is also a great time to start forcing bulbs indoors if you’d like to have beautiful blooms to brighten those cold winter days. Check out this article for more information on forcing bulbs indoors. Visit BloomingBulb.com for a great selection of bulbs for forcing, and bulbs to plant this fall for spring blooms.

As part of my pact to interact more with other bloggers this month, I’ve been commenting on the b5media Family and Relationships Channel. They’re having a Blogtoberfest and giving away fun prizes for commenting on the blogs in the channel.

I commented on several of the blogs last week, and Gayla from www.supernannyrules.com e-mailed me to let me know I won! I won a gift from the Your Child Can Read collection.

The contest is still on through this week, so head on over there and see if you can win a prize.

Here are the rules according to Super Nanny Rules.

1. Watch for sponsored prize winning posts wearing the official Blogtoberfest button shown above.

2. Leave a comment on that exact post. Your comment IS your entry.

3. Check back with that post within a week and see what the prize is and if you’re the lucky winner.

Good luck!

Thank you B5 Media

I was browsing through my Google reader this morning, and I came across a couple recipes I think I might have to try. I thought I’d share them with all my readers.

Sandy at Aromatherapy, Bath and Body Recipes posted a recipe for Scented Pinecones for the Holiday, she also has some Pumpkin Spa Recipes that look heavenly.

Preschool Rock has a Halloween recipe for Ghost Sticks (I wrote that one let me know if you give it a try)

Elise at Simply Recipes has Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins, the photo itself will make your mouth water! They also have a Pumpkin Biscotti recipe that I’d like to try out.

Yumsugar has a recipe for Thin Mint Cookies, not exactly a Fall recipe, but MMMmmmm!

Lynn’s Recipes has Cranberry Nut Bread, I love cranberries, and it’s hard to find cranberry recipes.

I may have to try some of these recipes this weekend.

I will be participating in Blog Action Day on October 15th. What is Blog Action Day? On October 15th bloggers from around the world will unite and post about the environment. Want to learn more check out this Youtube video about Blog Action Day 2007.

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