Monday, October 31, 2011

Trick-or-treating in our new hood.

Right.
Turns out that the new neighborhood isn't real big on trick-or-treating.
There's a reason why,* but I really thought we'd see more than...
oh...
I don't know...
ONE trick-or-treater?


October 31, 2011, 7:20 p.m.
tap-tap-tap {no ringing of the doorbell}

Me {opening the front door}: "Hooray! We have a trick-or-treater!"

Mario: "Trick or treat!"

Me: "Since you're our first trick or treater {thinking: possibly our last} you win the grand prize and I'm going to give you a whole bunch of candy!" {thinking: I don't want Doug to eat this stuff all week.}

Mario: "Do you like my costume? I'm Mar[w]io."

Me: "It's awesome! How old are you, Mario?"

Mario: "Six." {pause} "My name's not r[w]eally Mar[w]io, but you can call me that tonight."

Me: "Ok. Cool. Have fun, Mario!"

Mario: "Thank you!" {his dad smiling at the end of our walk...}

{image credit **
I loved Halloween at our new house.
:o)

* Some of the houses in our subdivision have tall gates/fences that must be entered in order to approach the front door. That's not cool if you are trick-or-treating.

** And I didn't realize until I searched for these Mario images that what should have been Mario's mustache was actually attached to the chin of our Mario tonight. So cute!

What a weekend!

Boo! Happy Halloween everyone!
It was an awesome weekend here in Arizona.
The weather was beautiful, and we were busy doing fun stuff.
Wanna' see?
Doug had to work on Saturday, which meant an early get-up. I'm so glad I was up with him and got to see this amazing sunrise. Wow!


Since I was up so early I decided to make pumpkin coffee cake. It was so delicious - I had to wrap it up to keep from eating the whole pan myself! These are for my co-workers {they'll be happy this morning}, I took some to our neighbors, and saved a piece for Carrie.

Here's a look at our entry way...note the spiders on the screen door... {and Fancy Jane at the bottom of the shot...}
 Eek! Scary!!!

Pumpkins waiting to be carved. {I almost hated to carve these bad boys last night - I have loved seeing them sitting by our front door this past week...}

The jelly bean filled pumpkin I made on Saturday didn't really turn out as planned, and I decided quickly that I didn't want to make 24 of them. I found this idea on a friend's blog and decided to go this route for Thanksgiving table favors. I'll post more about this project in the weeks to come...

I managed a little more sewing yesterday afternoon. With company.

And we had a little over-night visitor on Saturday. His person-friend had a big ol' Halloween party on Saturday night so Marcus spent some time at the grandparent's where it was safe and quiet.

Last night we had our annual pumpkin-carving-and-chicken-and-dumplings family night. No photos of the dumplings as my family was anxiously waiting to be served...

After dinner we carved pumpkins. {From left to right:  Carrie's, Doug's, Mine.}
And now it's Monday morning.
It's Halloween!


There's a pre-school in the same strip mall where I work and they're having a Halloween parade this morning. We'll have treats for the kiddos as they come by our office front. And tonight we'll experience Halloween in our new neighborhood. We have no idea how many trick-or-treaters we'll have here, but we are prepared with a bunch of candy {hidden from Doug until after tonight so we'll be sure to have enough on hand!}.

I wonder what this week has in store for us.
I'll bet it's something good...

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Little Baby Jelly Belly Pumpkin

Thanksgiving is less than four weeks away!

We'll be traveling to California to enjoy our Thanksgiving holiday with my family this year. Dinner will be at my sister's house, and I'm bringing table favors.


I had this idea to make pumpkins similar to the ones that Carrie and I made last year, except I'll use Jelly Belly jellybeans to fill them. Before purchasing fabric for this project I thought I'd do a test run on the shape and size. {Don't panic, Sis, they won't be bright orange for Thanksgiving.}




I made the stem by writing a note on a small piece of paper, rolling it up and sticking it in before pulling the gathering threads tight. Seemed like a good idea, but I wasn't happy with the looks of it, plus there's a tendency to pick the pumpkin up by its little stem, causing it to slip right out of the pumpkin.


Hm... I'm not sure about this... I may be back to the drawing board, though I do have a few different directions I could go with this...


I'll be playing with fabric and pumpkin shapes this weekend.
How about you?
Any pumpkins in your weekend plans?
* * *
.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Just a quote for Friday

~ Spooky moon for Halloween ~
Super cool photo taken in England by my friend, Denise.


"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world,
not even our troubles."

~ Charlie Chaplin

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Everything Old is New Again

While packing and unpacking over the past couple of months, some stuff has resurfaced. You know those things that get pushed to the very back of drawers and closets? And when you come across them someday you say, "Hey, I totally forgot about this!"


This basket resurfaced during our recent move and when I unpacked it here I thought, "Hm... that would work on in the office."  It wasn't long before Fancy Jane stepped into the basket and I remembered...


And it didn't take her long to remember either. She steps into this basket and starts walking around in a tight circle. She eventually winds herself down and around and tucks herself in for a solid cat nap. If you disturb her slumber she is not happy with you.


Which brings me to the point of this post. Carrie took this next picture of Fancy in 2004. This is the only copy I have - the one that [16-year old] Carrie put a green finish to. I have to say, this photo is one that consistently puts a smile on my face every time I see it. In fact, it cracks me up. I think the green finish is what makes it even more hilarious.


Who dares to disturb my slumber?!?!?

Ha.
Haven't we all been there at one time or another?

Do you have any photos from the past that consistently make you smile?
I'd love to see them!

* * *

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

At my own pace.

Here's the thing about online scrapbooking classes and me:
My own pace is usually slower than that of my classmates.


I signed up for Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and I had every intention of being fully engaged.
But it didn't take long for me to feel behind in the prompts.


Oh, sure, Shimelle's big thing is that there are no deadlines...it's ok to skip around on the prompts...it's ok to not keep up with the daily prompts...work at your own pace...


But it's in my nature to feel a little bit anxious about not keeping up {I suppose it's that way for each of us at times}. When I see some of my blog friends posting lovely scrapbook pages on a daily basis and I've only managed a couple of cards from Prompt #1, the self-judgment starts and I feel behind! I paid $18 for the class, and I haven't made it a priority to fully participate.


So, in the spirit of working playing at my own pace, I'm {finally} posting a photo of some of my paper stash in conjunction with the pre-party prompt that is now a week and a half old. :o)


I really enjoy seeing the beautiful layouts that some of my blog friends are posting. I applaud them for keeping up with Shimelle's prompts. It makes for great blog post material...

As for me? I'll just be over here...playing at my own pace.
I am the turtle, after all.

Monday, October 24, 2011

This was my weekend.

It's Monday, dear ones.
Doug was gone this past weekend, deer hunting with his brothers. When I came home from work on Thursday there were flowers waiting for me, so I got to enjoy the beauty of a little "hunter's guilt" all weekend. {My SIL Laurie said she got flowers too.}
Since our boys were all hunting, I had my three SIL's over for Girls Night In on Friday and we tried that basil jelly that my friend Patty sent me. It was a huge hit! We all loved it.
The color of this jelly was so pretty - I want a sweater in that exact shade.
Softened cream cheese with basil jelly in the center - served with crackers. Oh, and wine...
Firefly Ridge wine because...well...you know...I liked the label!
Saturday morning I drank coffee from my favorite cup, and then cleaned up from Girl's Night In. {Me and my SIL's...we sure know how to have a good time...just sayin'...}
Took it easy all day on Saturday...
And I ate way more candy corn than I care to admit.
Oh, and I did some coloring for Mel's project. {loved every minute of it!}
And that was pretty much it. I ended up nursing a stupid head cold and did nothing at all on Sunday. I even missed my friend's Witch Hat Decorating party {insert pouting here!}. Monday has come around much sooner than I cared for it to... ~sigh~

Grace and blessings to us all this week!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Things on the wall in the hall.

Hello, blog friends! Yesterday's post showed the before and after shots of the hallway in our new home. Today I'm showing you a few things on the wall that hold special meaning for us.


The heart-shaped bottle in the photo above holds sand from the beach in Florida where Doug and I honeymooned, and the frame above it is one of my favorite treasures in our home. It was made by a friend of mine {Corri} when we worked together at a scrapbook store about five years ago. This framed piece was used as the sample for a class the store was offering. We needed a wedding photo to use in the sample and I volunteered ours. When the class was over, I got to have the frame. :o)


For my friends who are crafters and/or for those who are interested: the frame itself started as a plain, unfinished wood frame. It was painted with off-white acrylic paint and then embellished with textured wrapping paper, buttons, a zig-zag paper strip, and black velvet ribbon along the outer edge. There's a transparency overlay with print that we sold in the store at the time too.


Back to the honeymoon:  We loved the beach in Florida with all those pieces of polished shells instead of fine sand. I brought several pounds back with us, and am surprised I didn't exceed the suitcase weight limit flying home!


Up until our honeymoon, Doug was the only one that ever found heart-shaped rocks, but on the beach in Florida I was the lucky one who spotted this heart-shaped piece of coquina. It's displayed in this shadow box along with some more honeymoon sand at the bottom.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.
I'm going to a witch-hat-decorating party this afternoon.
<|:o}

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Before and After: The Hallway

Before.
Here's what we Doug did:

Popcorn/acoustic ceiling was scraped off.
Walls (and ceiling) retextured.
Old wood paneling replaced with wainscoting.
Metal closet doors replaced with wood doors.
Baseboards replaced.
New light fixture.
Linoleum flooring removed and replaced with ceramic tile.
Freshly painted by a cool painter I know.

After. 

:o)

PS: I'll show a few close-ups of some of the
items on the wall in a post tomorrow.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Just a quote for Friday

{Debbie, Ronnie, Valerie and baby Timmy}
circa 1970

"When we stop wanting people to be perfect,
we can begin to like them for who they are."

~ Donald Miller, from his book

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pumpkin Heaven

It's fall, my friends.
And nothing says fall to me like the taste of a pumpkin dessert.
Feast your eyes on some pumpkin amazing-ness.
!!!

First I found this recipe for Pumpkin Crunch and thought it sounded yummy and easy to put together. And then I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Dump Cake and knew I had to give it a try. The recipes are very similar, but the dump cake recipe had a few additions that called my name: brown sugar, graham crackers, and toffee bits. 


I've had "dump cake" before - made with cherries and yellow cake mix. That's a no-fail recipe and oh so yummy, so when I saw it in a pumpkin form I pretty much knew I couldn't go wrong. The first part was basically pumpkin pie filling...


The second part - sprinkling on a whole box of yellow cake mix - always puzzles me. How is this going to work?


And the pouring on of two melted cubes of butter? That's when I started feeling guilty about the calories I was about to consume.


And as if that wasn't enough? Ice cream on the side. {I totally blame this part on Doug!}


Final verdict? WOW! VERY delicious and I can't wait to make this dessert for a family gathering. Even though I didn't make the "pumpkin crunch" recipe, this particular dish was really crunchy on top the next day. In fact, it was a little hard to cut with a knife, but eating it was wonderful and crunchy - kind of like a butterscotch crunch topping. {recipe found here}

I'm going to have one more piece of this then package the rest up to take to work. My co-workers are gonna' love this...
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