Happy Halloween!!!!

Phew!  

I feel like I've been missing for a few years!

I've been sitting at my sewing machine pretty much all week working on costumes for my girls.  I have not been able to focus on much else.  I'm sorry if I've seemed absent lately.  But, they turned out so cute!

Here is L:

She's a cupcake.

She liked her costume so much, she wouldn't stop dancing.  It was hard to get a good picture.  =) 

Finally, Daddy picked her up and tickled her legs. 

Sweet.

P.S.  Her costume was inspired by this pin:

Here is the link to Lemon Tree Creations and her tutorial.  I didn't follow her tutorial, but I was absolutely inspired.

Next is O:

She is a pirate princess.

Her wand was a bit distracting. 

She loved it.

But I finally got her to stand still.  

We went to a church party on Saturday and we had a great time.  You know, we brought home A LOT of candy.  We might not need to go trick-or-treating tonight!

Oh!  I almost forgot.

I forgot to get a picture of my costume, but my husband was kind enough to sneak one in at the party.  It's fuzzy, but you get the idea.

I think striped tights and tutus should be part of every day wardrobe.  Wouldn't that be fun?!

Happy Halloween, All!  May you receive a great bounty of candy!

Are you a category eater?

I looked down at my cute new desktop while I was working the other night and saw this:

I don't really remember doing it, but I know I was saving those 2 beautiful purple skittles for last.

Hoo Are You #59

1.  Do you like the season Fall?

Yes.  But I like pretty much all the seasons.  Fall gets me all excited for the Holidays.

2.  What is your favorite Fall smell?

Hmmmm.  I'd have to say cinnamon and apples and pumpkin pie.

3.  What is your favorite activity to do in the fall?

Bake pumpkins to freeze for the year, trick or treat, play outside when it isn't too cold yet, wear sweaters. 

4.  Do you dress in fall colors during the season?

I'm not really a fashion literate type of person.  I love fall colors, but I don't consciously wear them during the right time of year.

5.  Name 4 qualities about yourself that start with each letter in the word FALL. 

F- Friendly
A- Astute
L- Loving
L- Lyrical

Halloween Haunts

 In case you missed it, here is the project I posted over at Doodles and Doilies.  

Remember my Felt Dot Garland?  I love it.  Really, I do.  But it is Halloween and it needed some spookifying.  

Here's what I did:

I added some haunts to the garland.

Here's how I made them:

The first thing I did was find a circle cookie cutter and trace out 3 circles.  Then I sketched out the faces that I wanted.

I'm going to focus just on the ghost for the sake of space.  Hopefully, that will give you the basics enough to run with it, but if you need help or advice, please feel free to contact me!

Once you have your sketch/idea in mind, move on to some felt. 

Trace out and cut 2 circles.

Using the sketch, cut out the features for the face.

This was the mouth for my ghost. 

Please ignore my chipping nail polish.  It was late at night and I really wanted to finish this.  I figured it was better to have unfinished nails than an unfinished ghost.  I hope you'll understand.  =)

Now, using black embroidery thread and a running stitch, I sewed that mouth into place on one of the circles. 

On the second circle, I drew the letters.  BOO! 

Then, with the black thread, I embroidered those letters.

Now, it is time to create the ghost.  

I grabbed some purple ribbon to hang it with.  Place it on one of the circles in the position you like and pin it (take a lesson from me, pin on the right side so you don't lose your pin).   

I also grabbed a scrap of tulle, folded it up into a kind of a messy gather and pinned that in as well.

To sew the two pieces together, I used white thread and a running stitch again, being careful to keep my knots on the inside.  I was also very careful to make sure that my thread caught the ribbon and tulle to hold it in place.

Before you close it up, stuff it just a little with some fiberfill... 

which, by the way, was pretty much impossible for me to get a good picture of with my little camera.  You get the idea, though, right?

Finish sewing it up and, *bing*, you're done. 

He's kind of cute!   

For a ghost.

The possibilities are endless.  You can use any design you want!

These could even work at Thanksgiving (how cute would a turkey be?) or Christmas (reindeer?)  

What would you make?

I'm linking these haunts up here!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, my birthday was almost 2 months ago.  

Yes, I've procrastinated posting about my glorious birthday present.  

Better late than never though.

Look at what my mom got me!

Hello, Beautiful.

I'm sooooo excited!!!!

Here's her first project. 

I found a pretty flourish design, downloaded it, and cut it from some pretty purple vinyl.

It was fascinating.  (Oh wait!  That's blue vinyl!  This picture must have been from a different project.  But it still works because she does that every time I use my pretty Silhouette.)

Then I put it on her. 

I think she needs a name.  Any ideas?

Easy Peasy Ghost Decorations!

This is a project that I believe is inspired by my mother.  =)  I'm pretty sure I remember either making these with her or watching her make them and I know we had them hanging around the house at Halloween.

I've been wanting to make my own for a while now.  Thank you, Blog, for the motivation!

Here is what you will need:

• A lot of white fabric.  I used a twin size sheet.  The amount you use depends on how many ghosts you want.  I ended up with more about 20 from 1 sheet.
• Fiberfill.
• Yarn
• A sharpie
• Fishing wire

Here is my sheet laid out on the couch:

I took that sheet and, with reckless abandon, I cut it up.  

Ok, not really reckless abandon, but I didn't worry too much about straight lines and such.  I folded it in half, cut roughly along the line, folded that piece in half and cut along that line, and so on until I had a bunch of rectangles.

It is about 10 inches x 14 inches.  

Now, take your fiberfill. 

Side note:  If you are going to take a picture of it, don't have your 3-year-old hold it with the 1-year-old helping.  It won't turn out.  

Take a small amount of the filling and place it in the center of your rectangle. 

Does anyone else find it really difficult to get a picture of fiberfill?  It's so fuzzy!

Now, gather up your fabric like so around the filling and twist it into a little ghost head.

Tie a small piece of yarn (or other stringlike substance) around the neck to hold the stuffing in. 

Now use your Sharpie to draw eyes and a mouth on.  I didn't get a picture of this.  Probably because I had so much "help."

String your fishing line through a needle and run that through the top of the ghost's head. 

See the help?

The length of the line depends on how much dangling you want your ghosts to do.  I vary mine so that they don't look too uniform.  

Draw the line through and tie the ends together so you have a loop to hang from. 

Now go and hang your ghosts where ever you need a little haunting!

Gasp!  Do you see that ghost in the mirror!!!!

No worries...

It's just me!

I'll be linking this up with these super fun parties!

Giveaway!!!

My sister, Jeigh, at Writerbrained has reached (and passed) 111 followers.  To celebrate, she is doing a fun giveaway!  This is a writer-oriented giveaway, but she has promised that if a nonwriter wins she will be negotiable.  I'm sure the prize will be great!

Oh, and did I mention, there are 11 prizes to be won!  Good odds!

Head over here and sign up to win.

And, please stay tuned.  I have a fun Halloween craft ready to post.  I just have to eat lunch first.  =)

Have I lost weight?

Excuse me for a moment while I interrupt the start of this post.  I have to take a moment to thank you all for your votes and support during American Crafter.  I didn't make it through to round 3, but I had a really, really fun time and perhaps at some point I will give it another go. So, thanks for voting, thanks for sticking around and following me, thanks for being you...awesome, awesome you!

Do you remember me telling you a few months ago that I am a Jungle Girl?

I haven't talked much about it because I don't quite know how to define it.  I am the does-that-really-happen-to-real-people person.   If something strange is going to happen to a person in the room, I'm that person.  

But I don't always know how to tell you without sounding like a whiner or something.  But, you know, sometimes weird things happen.  Sometimes injuries happen in really funny ways.  Sometimes my crafts don't turn out at all right because I'm a Jungle Girl.  Sometimes I just have to share these moments so that I can laugh at them while you laugh at them and I feel better and not quite so embarrassed. 

Here's a good example:

Were you expecting a picture?  Yeah, sorry.  I didn't take a picture.  Read on and you'll understand why.

A couple of days ago, I had to drive to town for a Primary meeting.  I decided, since it takes about half an hour to drive to town, that I would save gas and do my grocery shopping after the meeting.  I was wearing a skirt.

And, honestly, I kind of felt pretty sophisticated and cool doing my grocery shopping in heels and a skirt.  

I got it all done and headed out to my car.  It was windy outside so I didn't think much about it when I felt my long skirt hitting my ankles.  I did notice, however, when I felt some movement at my hips and looked down when I felt that movement move to my thighs.

I looked down just in time to see my happy, confidence-building, sophisticated feeling skirt land at my feet.

Yeah.

My skirt, with no provocation whatsoever, fell off!

My first thought was, Holy Crap!  My skirt just fell off!  My second thought, as I pulled it back up, was, Is anyone looking?  No one was around me in the parking lot at that moment.  Phew.  And my third thought was, I'm glad I remembered to put my slip on.  I'll never forget it again.

Then all I could do was laugh.  Seriously...how does something like that happen!

As I drove home, I got to thinking.  I think I've been taking myself too seriously lately.  Maybe I just needed a jar to remind me that even when you are wearing a skirt life is meant to be enjoyed.  

Even if I have this great craft blog, it doesn't mean my projects have to be perfect all the time.  I'm going to be honest with you, guys.  Most of the projects I start on don't turn out the way I picture them.  And, I have actually put off posting several projects because they didn't turn out like I expected them to.  I'm going to stop doing that.  

I'm here to have fun.  I'm here to do what I enjoy and to share what I enjoy.  I'm also here to work on being a better mom and wife.  That means sometimes I won't be here.  So, if I disappear for a week or 2 sometimes, don't worry, I'm just off enjoying life.  

I'm not here today!

I'm super excited to be participating in the Spooktacular over at Doodles and Doilies today!

Head on over and say hi!

Command Center and Rewards System

Alrighty!  Round 2 of voting is up at American Crafters.  I would so appreciate it if you would go vote!  Maybe I can make it to another round?

Honestly, I'm quite happy to be done with this project.  I would have liked to do something a little more elaborate and super organized, but we rent and are in school, so I am kind of limited with resources and space.  I'm not limited in ideas for organization, though.  I found it a little frustrating coming up with something I was satisfied with.  

Still, here's what I did.  

First of all, my desk was in desperate need of some organization.

I know!  You can scroll down quickly if you want so you don't have to look at that!

It sits right inside our front door and has become a drop point for the mail and whatever else we don't want to put away (like the girl's shoes).  I have to clean it off on a daily basis because this is also where I work in the evenings.

So, first I took the opportunity to go to the discount store to see what kind of organization inspiration I could find.  Here's what I came back with:

And here's what I did with it.

First, I cleaned everything off the desk, cleaned it, and took a picture before the cleaner dried. 

Then, I took the fun contact paper and covered the desktop with it. 

I didn't get it on super straight (because super straight and I are NOT friends), so I ran an Xacto knife along the edges that were hanging off and made them nice and clean. 

Oooh pretty!  (That paper chain, by the way, is from a date night with my husband; each chain has written on it a reason he loves me.)

Next, I pulled out some cork board tiles I had on hand and nailed them to the desk. 

Yup, I just nailed them right on there (which bent a lot of my nails because that is one hard desktop!)

I also put a basket underneath to hold my new inbox/bills to be paid box.

This is where we put the mail now. 

I traced the frame in the center of the cork and then cut that space out, like so: 

I put some pretty paper in the frame and then glued the frame into it's customized space. 

It's my new dry erase board.

I spray painted those green bowls so they are now a pretty chocolate brown and they are my clutter catchers and outgoing mail "box."

And, here are my "after" pictures:

It's a much happier space now!

For the rest of my project, I'm just going to include an abridged version of the post I submitted to explain my system.

You see, in theory, I am a very organized person.  I have a book full of schedules, plans, and to do lists.  It is beautiful and works fairly well for me.  The problem is, I still have a hard time finding motivation to complete my chores.  

In the center of the cork board, I glued a dry erase board for my Weekly To Do list and beside that is pinned my Daily To Do list and Bonus chores (these are chores that I typically have a harder time doing).

Now, my thinking is that if we motivate kids to do their chores by giving them rewards or special privileges, why shouldn't I reward myself for doing my chores?  And, what is the best reward for myself (aside from a clean house)?  Projects.

So, I now have a shelf in my craft room devoted to my weekly projects.  Each container or basket holds the supplies needed to complete a project.  Once my chores are all checked off for the day, I now have a project waiting for me.  The red basket holds a special weekly reward (such as a good book or fuzzy socks, maybe some occasional chocolate) if I finish my bonus chores.  Now, I have something to look forward to and I may even enjoy the housework more!

There you go!  Now, please go vote!  Thank you so much for your support!