Happy Halloween!

CANDY!! They have candy!! And lots of it. Oh my goodness, the candy has to disappear fast because if I hear "Can I have....." much more, I'm going to lose my mind! I believe Halloween was a hit this year, even though we celebrated a day early on our street.

Cuteness was in abundance as we traveled our street with our neighbors and some of their friends. Even the shy kids seem to come out of their shells and be willing to knock on doors, ring door bells and take candy from (mainly not) strangers.

The girl's pumpkins turned out great, in their mother's unbiased opinion. Sarah designed the Frankenstein face and her dad did the carving. There was a lot of debate between the two artists about cleaning the guts out. The designer wanted them out and the carver felt the gave the effect of brains and wanted them in. I think they came to some sort of middle ground and then I let Sarah gut my butternut squash that was about to become soup to appease her.

Rachel drew her pumpkin's face as well, and did her own carving until it came to the mouth. By the time she got to the mouth, all the small carving tools had broken off their handles, so I was relieved when she asked me to tackle the mouth instead of watching her jab at the pumpkin with a sharp kitchen knife! We're not ready for the blood and guts kind of Halloween yet - especially when it involves our own family members!

We had a nice evening at home chilling out together with the two bags of candy that we stopped and bought today, "just in case". Aside from what we gave our little two year old neighbor, that bowl is still here. I think it will be headed to school for the second grader's treat jar in the morning - especially since I was cautious and bought candy I didn't want to eat myself!

I hope everyone had a fun holiday weekend and don't look now, but Christmas is creeping up on us. I have no plans for making gifts right now, but I think I'd better get some, and fast!

Getting Ready

Halloween is beginning to be a week long holiday around here. With all the activities going on, it's hard to find the time to get a costume together or do any of the cute, fun things one might have (had, at this point) in mind. Monday the Brownies went trick-or-treating at a local assisted living facility. We send candy ahead, they distribute it to the residents and then our Brownies and their siblings come after school to trick-or-treat. I'm so glad they do this, as the residents really enjoy seeing them come in costume - it seems like a win-win for everybody.

The girls didn't have school today, so after getting some of my chores done and making a run to the store for candy to pass out this weekend (trying to keep it out of the house as long as possible to prevent myself from eating it!), I dug a Wilton haunted house kit out. I think I picked it up at Walmart last year after Halloween for about two bucks. We got two bucks worth of entertainment out it today for sure. Hardest part is discouraging the kids from wanting to eat the year plus old candy! Ack!

And since it looks like we'll be trick-or-treating tomorrow night in our neighborhood (this date changing thing really has me confused...will the neighbors be expecting us on Saturday????) we figured we ought to do some pumpkin carving tonight! Both girls made their own designs and Jim carved Sarah's while Rachel took her first stab (you can take that literally) at carving her own. Most of the handy little carving tools were broken, but in the end we still got two great Halloween faces that we'll light up and share this weekend.

And believe it or not, there is actually a sewing project in my life. It's sat idle now for about two weeks while I've run around all loosey goosey, but as soon as I have the top finished, I'll share.

Saying Goodbye

The girls had Fall Break this past week, so we took the opportunity to head North to my Grandparent's house. For the past several years we have been up at least twice during the summer. This time it had been a full year since we'd been and it was not a happy anniversary. It's been a year now since my Grandpa passed away. This trip was my last chance to say goodbye to the town and house that I spent summers growing up in.

Our first day on the road proved quite eventful when Sarah started throwing up just hours into the trip. I was sad to have to cancel our visit with friends for the weekend, but thought a detour to my parent's house with some recovery time for Sarah might prove wiser. With everyone (relatively) well on Monday we headed North. Michigan greeted us with gorgeous color and beautiful skies. And yes, I do drive with my camera in my lap....please don't tell on me.

My girls slept in the same hide-a-bed that my sister and I grew up sleeping in. It's in my Grandparent's den and I loved how cozy we were in there. When we were up for Thanksgiving, we got to watch the Macy's parade in bed - such a poignant memory for me. It's also where we slept on Christmas Eve, giddy with anticipation at what we'd find in the living room, come morning.

My Grandpa loved three things above all else: God, Family and Wood. My Grandma has been known to say that the only thing he ever showed patience with was a block of wood. He taught me how to use his jigsaw, band saw, belt sander, drill press and many other things. I thought nothing of being a young girl in his basement going to town on pieces of wood. I loved it and he loved it.

He truly amassed an amazing collection of tools, hardware and "materials" (for lack of a better term for all the random boxes of things we found). The above shot should give you some idea of what I'm talking about. Sadly, part of the mission of this trip was to pack up the house. What stays in the family has been taken and what's left will be up for auction in the spring.

I'm thankful that I got to make one last trip back while this place still belongs to my Grandparent's. Grandma is now living near my parent's in Indiana and we will have to return once more to bid her goodbye, but the house will no longer be ours to return to and there will no longer be a reason to visit this small town that has been a part of my family's life for generations.

It seemed fitting and also a blessing that we were given gorgeous weather and beautiful sunsets while we were there. Closure looks so much nicer in the glow of a sunset on the lake.

You Know You're Loved When.....

Your mailbox contains a nice squishy, unexpected package from a friend.....and you find these in it. Two doll "robes" in fabric that has a Flea Market Fancy kind of feel to it (at least to me).

As well as a good bit of yardage of the two prints on the left, an awesome "Cowboys and Indians" print (totally not PC, but look at the colors!) and an apron in the prettiest little pink print. I was lucky enough to be home alone when the mail came and was able to open my package all by myself and then pour over the fabrics, take pictures of them and admire them some more without being interrupted or having them taken away from me. What a way to start the weekend! Wishing you an unexpected (and good!) surprise this weekend as well!

For Me

It's hard to believe, but I made something just for me...new pillow covers for the couch. And if I'd measured, they might have even fit properly. Instead, they are a bit tightly stuffed, but when you realize that at the very end, when the only step left is to insert pillows into their new covers, well then it's really a bit too late, isn't it? These blocks were inspired by this quilt by urban.patchwork. I don't love mine nearly as much as I love this quilt, but they will do for now. They have an envelope back on them because zippers....well, yeah, like I've said before, they elude me. One day though, watch out! I also thought that plain ol' muslin would be the perfect thing to sash these with. A quick perusal of my flickr favorites makes me think that a background and finish like this would have been better (don't you love these?!?). Oh well, there can always be more, can't there?

I actually made several smaller squares like these a while ago in the hopes of making a quilt for our bed. For a while I fell out of love with my blocks and several became potholders. I really like the way they look as potholders, but as of late I'm back to thinking about them in a quilt again as well. I even had the nerve to wonder if I could finish such a quilt by Christmas and call it my husband's Christmas present. (Probably not). But in the interest of trying, I think I'll go work on a block. I've got a whole hour ahead of me, as it's taken two and a half hours to put two little girls to bed tonight. Something must be in the air - I just hope it's not an illness!

Craft Hope Project 9

Craft Hope's Project 9 is about to wrap up. The deadline for sending in pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer is Wednesday. I was holding off on mailing mine until the last minute, so that I could send as many as possible. I was off to a strong start on making pillowcases and then school started for Rachel...and then school started for Sarah....and hey, whoa, where'd those last few weeks go? In the past week I picked up steam again and was able to send 21 pillowcases. All the main fabrics came from my stash and I only about a few small pieces to use as the trim when I couldn't find anything in my stash that would work. Since it was mentioned that they are often running short on selections for boys, I concentrated mainly on making boyish pillowcases. This was a good way to use up an unusually large boyish stash of fabric for a person with two girls.

I got everything packed up per the organizations requests and popped them in the mail this afternoon. And while the deadline for the Craft Hope project is the 15th., ConKerr Cancer is always taking donations. This page will take you to a state listing, where you can search for organizers in your area, hospitals they work with, brick and mortar stores that serve as drop off locations as well as mailing addresses where you can send pillowcases. These really work up super fast and are such a good way to share a smile.

Little Red Part Two

So here's my real life Little Red Riding Hood. She was so excited for today and it was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up - almost entirely in homemade costumes. It gives me a sort of Hallmark movie choked up kind of feeling - in a good way. Which might be a strange way to describe it, as I can't recall seeing a Hallmark movie ...... ever? Yeah, so maybe way better than a Hallmark movie!

I made cape number one following this tutorial. Sometimes, when directions aren't coming to me clearly, I don't do such a great job. That's not to say that this tutorial isn't clear, more that I wasn't clear. And I made a crappy cape with a hood that was really too small. And even if the hood was purely for Momma's photo shoot, I needed it to be good. And then suddenly I needed it lined as well. Cape number two followed the same tutorial with larger pieces except that I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to line the hood without a seam showing on the inside. For a visual person, sometimes I'm not very visual. I kid you not, I tore that hood apart no less than four times. I was getting cranky. That's when I found this tutorial and skipped down to the part where she makes the hood. And you know what....the first time I'd done it, I'd done it right (and ripped it out and then proceeded to do it incorrectly three times). So there we go.... lined hooded cape.

But do you want to know a secret? In the first tutorial the cape is closed with a button.....Yeah, well, I have never sewn a button hole. Save from Mrs. Koch in seventh grade, my sewing skills are self taught and so far I've not gotten around to teaching myself button holes (......or zippers). It's sort of like Algebra and I ... I can always can always find a way around it. My detour this time took me via this cool hook and eye closure that is kind of hard to appreciate in the picture. My Aunt picked up several cards of these from the most awesome Goodwill thrifting opportunity near her - "the bins". They are from Norway and are pewter - very pretty, heavy duty and just what I needed!

So the costume worked, the day was a blast and I won't go on about how the icing on the cupcakes was too runny and most of my cupcakes had their faces slide off before they made it to school. Nope, not going to dwell on that. Instead, I'm going to get the rest of my pillowcases wrapped up for Craft Hope's Project 9. The deadline is almost here and I've got a few more to make.