Sunday, October 31, 2010

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

What have these little guys ever do to us?
They started as little seeds, then planted and cared for. They grew up and grew into these beautifully, almost perfect pumpkins.
Only to turn up in our home and be gutted, and happily so, by my daughter. I don't mind cleaning out the insides, but I hate to get my hands into it.
After we gut the pumpkins we like to toast the seeds. Here are our pumpkins this year. I did this one. Yup this pumpkin had too much punch at the party. Teehee.
Here it is in the dark.
I did this one too. It was kicked in by the end of the evening. Hubby did this one. He loves to carve the pumpkins.
My daughters made these a few years ago. I love their sense of humor. I.P. Freely, LOL.
Another one of their creations.
My girls and I made these Jack o lanterns out of salsa jars. I think we made these about 7 years ago, at least. We glued tissue paper on the jars and then cut out the shapes in back, for the facial features.
Well didn't get in my scrap/craft room again today. I guess my Halloween mini will get done after Halloween. Oh well, thems the breaks.

Hope your Halloween was a fun and safe one.

I am so excited for "Walking Dead" tonight! My family is all so excited actually, we have been keeping a count down for this show. Hope it is as good as we have been expecting.

Tracy

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Its beginning to look a lot like Halloween

OK as you know, if you are familiar with my blog and family, we love anything to do with zombies. So can you guess what Ashley was for Halloween? Yup a zombie. Ashley and her boyfriend are going out with friends to a Halloween party.
Can you guess what character she is from? Well it is from the video game then movie Silent Hill. She is one of the nurses from the other side. This even freaked me out. We would watch Wayne play this for hours. Well actually we would not only watch, but tell him what to do.
We have been thinking about this costume for a while now. Going out and trying to find things for the perfect look. Ya, we obsess a bit in this family, LOL. And everyone has to OK it. If it doesn't get everyone's Ok then we tweak it to make it just right.
Putting on the finishing touches.
Here is the final product. Here is Ashley with her boyfriend Tyler, he was M.J. As much as we loved the gauze on her face, it was a bit hot under there, so she went for the dead, bloody look instead.
So today I was suppose to spend the day tackling my scrap/craft room. That did not happen. I only went in there to get some white paint to paint Ashley's shoes. We got them at Value Village, they were black, but the price was right so I painted them white and added splatters of blood.

From the moment I woke up until now I have been helping everyone else. I promised Kristy I would teach her how to make friendship bracelets. I did these as a teen and I guess they are back in style. I couldn't find my instructions on how to make them, I kind of forgot over the years teehee. So I went on the net and figured it out, then showed her.

I agreed with a fellow YouTuber to do a video of our scrap/craft rooms by the 15th. Am I crazy or what. I was the one who suggested it, and she thought it was a good idea. How do I get myself into these things. I better get crackalakin.

I should start my billing and month end book work tomorrow. But maybe I will get some of the things I want to do tomorrow and start my book work on Monday. Now that sounds like a better plan to me :)

Hope your Friday was a creative one. Mine was, just not my projects ;)

Tracy

Friday, October 29, 2010

We rock out our pumpkins

We love to carve our pumpkins in this house. I try to stay out of it. Or I'll take over. So I am in charge drawing out the out line and the baking of the seeds and hubby helps with the carving.
Last year the girls didn't seem as interested so hubby and I did most of the work.
These are last years creations.
Dracula
The Grime Reaper
Me on my broom, oops I mean a Witch on her broom.
We never carved pumpkins when I was a kid.
Then when I moved out on my own at 16, I not only didn't have the funds for this but I lived in a basement apartment, so who would see it.
When hubby and I got married and rented a house I didn't even think of buying a pumpkin for Halloween. So what I did was make my own. It snowed that day, so I rolled a ball of snow, shaped it into a pumpkin and used food colouring to dye it. Then out of black paper, I constructed the face. I then rolled up a piece of green paper and used it as the stem. When hubby came home from work he said to me, so I see you picked up a pumpkin, LOL.
But he wasn't the only one who was fooled, as the kids came to the door for their treats, I heard the parents say, that's a neat pumpkin. It was the kids that replied, I think its made out of snow, LOL.
Well tonight we picked up our 3 pumpkins and are ready to carve them on Halloween. I wonder what they will be this year?

Today was a running around day. So nothing much happened. But tonight I started to clean up my scrap/craft room. Can you believe it took me over half an hour to clean up my desk. Yup, not lying. Maybe I should have kept that to myself?
I want to work on a mini with my Graphic 45 Alice in Wonderland Halloween paper. I love this paper and have been putting off cutting it up. So my plan is to make an album where you can see a lot of the paper. Maybe I should have got the 6x6 pad.
We will see what happens.

Hope you all had a good Friday and that your weekend is a creative one.

Tracy

Thursday, October 28, 2010

I found a surprise

Today while I was organizing some storage containers, I came across a Rubbermaid container that wasn't labeled. I label everything, even my kids LOL. No I don't label the kids, but I should I can never get their names straight. Why do we even name them. They should be called daughter #1, daughter #2, and daughter #3. Wonder how that would go over.
OK on to what I was getting at.
I was putting my seasonal containers in order and came across this one. When I opened it this is what I found.
Some crafts laying in their tomb.At first I was like "What, where did these come from". Then I remembered a friend and I were going to go into a craft show, so I made some extra crafts. Well when I make something and love how it turns out, I like to make them in all colours. Even if I have no one in mind for them. Yup, I love to create that much.
Here are a few close ups.
These are bunny bags. Under the bunny's dress is a tube of material that you put your plastic store bags in for storage. Everyone must remember the big mop doll craze. Well I made these mop bunnies. One is still under construction.
I had so much fun making these. They are felt ornaments. Hand sewn. I made a lot of these. I even made hubby, FIL and a hunting friend one of a moose holding a gun.
These are potpourri dolls. Their lace bodies are stuffed with potpourri.
Here are some mop bunnies. The bodies are made out of mops. then covered with lace. They are holding a tiny sachet of potpourri.
These are mop angels. I love their wings.
Lastly a snowflake ornament. This sucker is big though. It is bigger than my hand. The center snowflake is all sparkly and the outside circle is lace.
I had a lot of little things in the box like crochet potpourri sachets. And some other unfinished crafts. Now what to do with all this stuff. I had made these crafts for all the relatives for past Christmas's. Humm maybe a giveaway? What do you think? would you be interested? Let me know.

Today was just a clean up day. I did some book work and that is about it. Yup not a very productive day.

Thankful Thursday:

1. Finding some treasures
2. Having a home that I can tidy
3. Being able to take a nap. This should be at the top of my list ;)

What are you thankful for today.

Tracy

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My next Christmas project :)

I stepped into the quilt shop today. Look what I found. Isn't this adorable!
There were a few projects that I wanted to nab, but one at a time. I am trying to not jump ahead of myself. Ya I know nearly impossible.
But my new way of thinking is, I can't buy until I finish a project first. Think it will work? Nah me neither teehee.
Well I was wondering how much this panel was as a price wasn't on it. I have only bough panels from the States, as I couldn't find any in my town. The Halloween panel was $6.95 US. So I knew it would cost a tad more. It was $10.00 plus our 13% tax.
It wasn't until I came home that I noticed that the panel was folded and this is beside Santa and the tree.
Bonus!!
Now I wonder what is to be done with the fabric post cards and the diamond shapes. Anyone know?
Today I went out with my SIL and friend Sharon.
We went out for lunch at a new restaurant, 5 Forks. They just finished building the restaurant this month. It was really nice in there. The food was OK. I just ordered the sweet onion chicken sandwich. Like I said it was OK, I was expecting sweet onions but it tasted more like a pesto sauce on it. Which I don't care for.
Then we went to the quilt store, picked up bagels for the girls, and I bought Halloween treats for the trick or treater's. I should hide the treats, because in this house they will disappear like magic.

Hope your Wednesday was a creative one.

Tracy

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tad bit of Halloween decor.

I started to decorate for Halloween today. I start in the bathroom. Don't ask me why, but I do. As I said before I stick plastic bugs on the toilet seat,teehee . The girls hate that, they don't use the upstairs washroom LOL. I'm such a mean mom ;) I was going to make a shower curtain out of webbing material, but it hasn't gone on sale yet. I missed out last year, hope I don't miss the sale this year.
This is actually at the bottom of our stairs. The pictures are out of order.
As you know I have 3 daughters. Well I needed something to go with the Halloween theme to put the girly things in. So I just quickly decorated this dollar store box.
This is a candle holder I picked up last year. I love the skulls dangling from it. You can't tell but there is a skeleton in the cage.
I painted this house about 21 yrs ago. I am surprised that it has survived 3 moves and 3 children. They always wanted to play with the little characters. I had to touch up Dracula more times than I can remember. You place a small bulb inside the house and the windows light up.
I painted this witch the same year as the haunted house. A yellow mini light is placed underneath to look like fire.
I have so many other things to put out, but tomorrow is another day.

This morning Heather and I went to the clinic. Her ears have been plugged, we have tried to use over the counter products to clean them, but nadda. Actually she couldn't hear out of her left ear. Of course being the worry wort that I am, I started thinking....did she complain about sore ears....did she get an ear infection .....does she now have hearing problems.
Heather is a tough kid, she never complains, and if she does she only does once. So I started freaking out that I made my daughter deaf.
Well it turns out that her ears were packed. The doctor couldn't even see her eardrum. So he cleaned them out and instantly she could hear. What a relief.

Today was a rainy, windy day. Power went out in certain parts of the city today. Luckily not here. According to Hubby's rain gauge 42mm of rain fell today. But the wind was crazy.
So I made some nice beef stew and Yorkshire pudding for supper. Just what the doctor ordered. Well he really didn't order it, but if I was a doctor I would have, it was delish.

Tuesday: So what have you done today to make you feel proud?

1. Cooked some comfort food.
2. Took my baby to the doctor...OK she is 19, but still my baby :)
3. Made my sister smile today.
4. Accepted an offer to teach a class for my friends scrap booking get together.

Tracy

Monday, October 25, 2010

How do you eat your salsa

Thank you for all your kind comments. I am feeling much better today. I was dizzy most of the day, kinda walked into a wall this morning LOL. Ya I chuckled when I did that.
But by late in the afternoon I was feeling so much better. I was craving salsa. Maybe I needed the salt.

So how do you eat your salsa. We can never decide if we want salsa or cheese salsa, so we usually get both. I used to eat one chip in salsa, then next chip in cheese salsa. Then I thought since I like them both I came up with the idea of having half and half on each chip....yummm. Well this coming from the girl that used to dip her potato chips in her pop :)

Like I said today I was a bit dizzy, so nothing much got done. I caught up on some book work. That's about it. But I am feeling perfect now. Hubby and I ran to Superstore tonight. We were right out of laundry detergent. Last night Ashley went to run a load of her bed sheets and we didn't have one granular of soap. Heather has been on laundry duty and forgot to tell me that there wasn't any left. Maybe her way of getting out of laundry duty LOL

Tonight was House, love that show. But it was a repeat. Wasn't to happy about that. Oh well.

Hope your Monday was a creative one. Hoping tomorrow is for me.

Tracy

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Halloween Collage

I am still not feeling up to par today, so another unproductive day, GRRR.
So I will share with you a project I made last year. I made this Halloween collage. I picked out some pattern paper, cut them in 2x2 inch squares and then stamped on them. I placed them on a black piece of bristol board then mounted that on foam board.
The other side of this white foam board has my Christmas collage on it. That way I just flip it over, and I always know where it is :)
Here is a close up of the stamped images. I inked around all the edges of the squares.
I punched a few spiders out of black card stock and just placed them around the collage. I took the glass off the frame for the picture, too much glare.
As I said I didn't do anything today. OK that's a lie, I was checking out YouTube, blogs and Facebook. Funny no matter how bad you feel, I can still check out the computer or TV. LOL
Hubby was sweet enough to go out with Kristy and pick up a few things from the grocery store. Those two should not go there alone. They went for bread, lunch meat and pop. They came back with ice-cream, cones, chocolate bars, tacos, salsa and cheese dip. LOL.

Well hubby knew I wasn't feeling up to cooking, I would fake it just to miss cooking supper, teehee. So he ordered Chinese food for supper. I can't understand why Chinese food is so expensive here. Well maybe its not here. Tonight is Desperate Housewives and Amazing race. I will probably do some book work while its on.

Hope your Sunday was a creative one.

Tracy

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Thread catcher/pin cushion

Today has been such an unproductive, wasted day.
So I will share a project I made late last year. It is a thread catcher/pin cushion. I had seen these somewhere. I thought they were neat so I made up a pattern and put this together. I wrote out what I did and took photo's along the way. I actually made this for my friend Myra, but I didn't make a second one yet so she never received hers.
I'm a Bad friend, mind you Myra didn't know I was making this for her, so she didn't miss it, I guess it will be a Christmas gift to her.
I had such plans for today. I was going to write and mail my thank you cards, start my fall quilt, clean up part of my scrap/craft room (I'm not fooling anyone if I said my whole room). Then later tonight we were going to go to my brothers place for a outdoor fire, maybe roast some marshmallows.
Well I had a migraine off and on (mostly on) all day. So I ended up napping quite a bit today. So I didn't get anything accomplished.
I did start to feel better later in the evening, but my brother went partridge hunting with a friend. I wasn't up to going anyway so it was just as well.

Talk about hunting, hubby shot a 8 point buck today. He sent me a picture on his IPhone. Thanks hun. He would have liked me to share it on here, but I would rather share pictures of live animals thank you very much for the thought though.
I really don't like wild game. Hubby and the girls do though.
My motto has always been You kill it, You clean it, You cook it. I should also add You eat it.
I know it is healthier for you, but I don't really like the taste.

Still not feeling up to par, so it is off to bed for me.

Hope your day was a creative one.

Tracy

Friday, October 22, 2010

My Quilted Halloween Wall Hanging is Done :)

I finished my Wall hanging. I love it, the colours are so bright and the scene is so fun. If you wnat to see more pictures check out the last few days posts. The colours aren't true in the picture, it is over cast today (I hope we don't get snow).
I have it hanging in the living room for now, I want it in the back porch, but the wall is about 15 feet high and above the stairs. Humm I wonder if hubby will run to Canadian Tire to get me one of those ladders you use on the stairs ;)
I wanted to find a cut way to hang this. So I went to a few stores looking for some witches brooms for Halloween costumes. They were so short. So I went into my scraps of wood (I have scraps of everything, paper, material, wool and yes wood LOL) and found this piece of doweling. Then I went in the back bush and cut some branches from some bushes and glues them in place, then I zip tied them. I wanted to wrap jute around the branches, but couldn't find my stash. That's the problem with too many scraps. So I used some black material and wrapped that around them. I think it looks cute.
Onto my day. I was driver again. Ashley is feeling better but I drove her just in case. I did some book work today. Hubby's company has the city's winter sand for this year. What that is is that Hubby supplies the city with salted sand for the winter. What this means is long hours and lots of tickets for me.
Poor hubby was so tired last night that he fell asleep on the couch really early. I couldn't wake him up to go to bed, so he slept on the couch all night. Heather wanted to draw on his face with permanent marker. I told her at least use a washable one. In the end she didn't do it. Would have been funny though.

My friend Lynn came by tonight to scrapbook. We made some cards. She makes them for a friends mom and she sells them with the money going to research breast cancer.
I made a few more thank you cards.

Hope your Friday was a good one.

Tracy

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Still plugging along on the quilt

I am still working on my Halloween quilted wall hanging.
I have been using this quilting foot (ignore the fibers, boy macro is detailed). It has been driving me crazy as I can't really see where the needle is going. I have ripped out quilting because it wasn't perfect. Nothing I hate worse then ripping stitches out, Ok I bet I can think of a few other things.
Well guess what I discovered as I was putting away the evil quilting foot....this awesome one.
Now that I think of it, I remember purchasing this because I hated the evil one. I should just get rid of the evil one, because with my aging brain, I bet I forget again. See how open it is, you can see exactly where the needle is going.
Here is the bottom corner of the quilt. If you look closely you can see a tad of stitching over the line, between the yellow and circles. You don't know how much I want to correct that. But I am trying to overcome my perfectionist thinking. Or else it will never get done.
I quilted around the moon, cat, girl and the whole tree. The more I look at this the more I want to quilt. I know let it go. Are these pumpkins adorable or what! You can actually see the quilting on these cuties. I also quilted around the whole fence. This is all with the evil quilting foot. I want to redo it with the good foot. But again I will let it go.
They say the back of your work should be just as pleasing to the eye as the front of it, I x-stitch as well, and that ain't no small task. This is the back of those pumpkins. Mind isn't too bad, good thing its going to be against a wall though.
So on with my day. Worked on my quilt. Drove Ashley again. Went grocery shopping. Went to Fabric Land for a thread and bobbin holder. I have a wooden cabinet one, I bought at a local craft sale. As I like to sew upstairs in the dinning room, this sucker is to big to cart upstairs. So I wanted to get a small one to carry with me. I found one but it only held the tiny spools. Guess I will be returning it tomorrow.

Oh on some happy news, I niece Jennifer got engaged. Congrats Jennifer and Jason. Her boyfriend has the same name as her brother. He seems like a nice guy. But Jennifer wouldn't settle for anything less. She is a spunky girl. We spent a lot of time with her when she was younger. My daughters and her loved to spend time at camp. Swimming, dancing and singing, I have the video's to prove it :)

Hope your Thursday was a crafty one.

Tracy

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I want some cookies. Peanut butter please.

Did I make these...no.
Do I have these ....no.
My step mom (Doreen) made these for us last time she was in town. She brought us this big container and we had these puppies devoured before the end of the weekend. She can cook and bake like its no one's business. Mind you she said my blueberry jam was better then hers :)
I love her peanut butter cookies. I am craving them so bad. I may need to make a batch tomorrow, and then hide them ;)
I wanted to be able to post a picture of my finished quilted wall hanging. But as you see its not up, so I didn't get a chance to complete it today. My sewing machine was being a little (insert any bad word of your choice here). When I was quilting the bobbin thread started to go all loopy. So I had to rip it out and start again. I just bought this machine at the end of last year. It is a PFAFF. Hubby says "Is that the noise it makes before it dies on you" LOL hahaha, very funny, NOT.
I hope to get it done tomorrow.

Ashley went to work this morning, I drove her. When I picked her up for lunch, she figured she could drive back to work. Well that was fine, then she went to her friend Adam's after work. I get a call about 6:30. "Mom I'm dizzy. I am parked at the Golf Dome, not sure if I should drive home." So of course I picked her up. I am proud of her for not driving like most (me included) would have done.

Kristy is at a concert. The concert is at a bar. Last year when they put on this concert, they played 2 shows. One for the under ages and one for the legal aged drinkers.
Well this year they just had one set of tickets. It is late and she said they just went on about 45 minutes ago. I was debating on picking her and her friend up early because I don't like my kids out late. Just ask them LOL. Even Ashley can't believe I give her a curfew and she is 21 LOL.
Well I talked to the grandmother of the other girl and we decided to let them have this night. Hope they enjoy themselves as it won't be an ongoing thing.

Hope your Tuesday was a crafty one.

Tracy

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Quilting, supper and a wee bit of a vent.

I stayed home all day :)
Ashley's vertigo was so bad she couldn't walk straight. So she stayed home from work (she said she didn't' want to look like the office drunk). She went to bed last night at 10:00pm and slept until about 11:30am. When she woke up she felt better.

So today I stayed home because Hubby was receiving a package (which was suppose to be here yesterday). He was like a little kid when it came. It was an old Russian gun. I personally don't like guns, but it is a passion of his, so I well let him keep it :)

I got to work on my Halloween wall hanging today. I put the border on and cut the backing. I went to cut the batting and guess what. I didn't have enough. GRRR.
So went out tonight to get some.
So tomorrow I am going to quilt this sucker. I plan on quilting around the tree, moon, vampire girl, pumpkins, ya just about everything. I was planning on adding some Halloween buttons and such, but I think it is to busy to even notice them. I will see.

Hubby and I went out to dinner tonight. We usually go as a family, but tonight he wanted just us. How sweet.
Here is how my children reacted to it.
Ashley: Its about time you guys went on a date. I keep telling you that you guys should go on dates.
Heather: Just you and dad are going.. ME "Well ya, I am his wife". Heather: Well we are his daughters.
Kristy: You guys are going on a date, awwww ever cute.

Oh and a word to the wise. Don't go to Montana's on Tuesday. It is Kids Eat Free on Tuesdays. Now I know why the lady looked at me weird when I told her I didn't want the bar side.
Seriously parents teach your kids some table manners. I am sorry but I sure wanted to slap a few parents. Putting a napkin on your head and your child imitating you isn't cute, you look like an ass. At home maybe, not in a restaurant.
Oh ya and when your kid is taking a screaming fit. Don't turn his highchair away from your table as punishment. The only one that is getting punished is me, as your kid stares at me and screams. Take the tike outside until he cools down. If it interrupts your dinner, tooo damn bad, your the one that decided to have him and raise him wrong.
Ok vent over.
Oh ya and before you get all freaky on me. I have 3 daughters, we have taken them out to dinner since they were weeks old and have NEVER had to take them out of a restaurant for bad behaviour. Actually we got praised about how well behaved our children were. Which I thought was nice,even though all they were doing was eating a meal.
Ok Now vent over.

Here is our city workers at work. LOL, work, if work means 6 guys watching 1 guy work then yup that's what they're doing. There are other workers wondering around trying to look like they are busy. They started this job last year.
Oh this is the other side of the road they still have to do.
Tuesday: So what have you done today to make you feel proud?
1. Didn't wring the dad's neck at Montana's
2. Got a bit of my quilt done
3. Did my walk this morning. Day 2.
4 Didn't have and pop until supper.

Hope your day was a good one and you got some crafting done.

Tracy