Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Moppo the Pumpkin

I've said it before, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. There's not been a year I did not have a pumpkin. I even did my own pumpkin before I had kids and not living at home. Cliff's dad took Dylan to the Methodist church's pumpkin patch and got him one for us to carve up. I'm thankful for that, because we were running on broke and it's not fun only have your Halloween pumpkin for 2 days (our payday) before the actual holiday.

Dylan was ready to make his jack-o-lantern the moment he got home. I mean the moment he got home. I love to see him so excited about things. I think his favorite part was getting all the pumpkin seeds out. He was saying they were pumpkin brains. A little funny that made me giggle: Dylan asked me if we take the pumpkins brains out will it turn into a pumpkin zombie? Ha!

And then oh lord, I turned around for half a second and he was stabbing the thing to death. Ahhh! There are probably about 80 random stab marks all over. See that piece of paper laying in the background? Yeah, Dylan was not having that. We were not drawing a face first. So I had to breathe, remind myself he's 4 years old, and not everything has to be perfect and just let him go at it. It's a personal problem I have in me about these type things, it happens with coloring Easter eggs too.

The eye isn't exactly carved out, more like screwed and chiseled out. He made eyebrows, but no mouth or nose. And no mom, he doesn't want the pumpkin to have those parts either I was instructed. But Dylan did name his pumpkin Moppo and wanted the pumpkin to have its' name carved into it. No idea where this notion came from, but it makes laugh!

Isn't this just pitiful? He tells me we are all done and to take a picture. Right at this exact moment, he realized Moppo only had one eye. Besides the fact there's no mouth or nose, Moppo must have two eyes. Back to carving!

So we get the next eye in, I scramble around finding a candle and such, and Dylan is totally over having anymore pictures taken. Isn't that how it goes? This is his "you're lame, Mom" look you're seeing now. Oh teenage years are going to be so much fun. <>

He really does love Moppo though. After Halloween, Dylan has it in his mind that we will cut a hole in the bottom so that he can wear it on his head. I'm hoping the insides of Moppo will be gross by then to change his mind on this idea. Oh and if you didn't know, Dylan tells me that having a jack-o-lantern scares vampires away from your house. Awesome!

Monday, October 26, 2009

October 12 of 12: Birthday Edition!

Yup. October 12th was my birthday! It's a national holiday ya know. No, really it is. The Columbus Day holiday fell on my birthday this year as well. I had just came home the day before from a weekend scrapbooking retreat. People don't actually sleep at scrapping retreats so that extra day added on to that weekend was really great.

I was woke up in bed to a lit cake and singing. Cliff is usually kinda well... blah-hambug about birthdays, so this was a real surprise. It completely made my day. I cried, because it was so sweet and thoughtful of him.

Then, I had my day made even cheerier when I got an encore cake lighting and song from Dylan. He had been asleep the first time around. It's kind of funny, because in his sleep he said we got you a cake momma, it's a surprise. If Cliff hadn't done the cake-bit earlier, Dylan would have spilled the beans on that!

A very un-cool present above. Dirty laundry had piled up while me and the 2 boys were sick earlier that week. I had a severe sinus infection, Dylan had something awful that was like the flu but not the flu, and Sam *did* have the flu. Cliff washed all the laundry while I was gone on the scrapbooking retreat. At least it's clean. Even today, I still haven't got around to folding all of that.

He's kidding, he's kidding! Or is he? Hmmmmm. We have drove one another crazy with this bathroom. I'm to the point now that I'm not even giving out opinions or even really listening about it. I do have to say I am pretty proud of all the work Cliff has done though.

Here's a view of the bathroom. New, differently colored floor since last time is all put down. Pretty tile is all up too. I think grout will be getting done sometime this week.

Lots of birthday calls from my family. My mom and stepdad called from my grandma's that shows up on the phone the first time. Miss Mae is the feisty, old lady that lives behind my grandma that has known me since I was a baby.

I gave Sam his bath. That's one of the things I exclusively do, because I'm picky about how it is done. Sam has horrendous allergies and bad eczema. The doctor only has me bathe him once or twice a week to avoid drying out his skin so much. I've been buying natural soaps and a body wash from OsayinHolistics that have calendula with no dyes or fragrances that have helped tremendously. After that, I cover the boy in Aveeno lavender lotion. I have no idea why that doesn't break him out but other Aveeno products do.

Sam is getting so big. He's 8 months old now! Wow! He is now sitting in the big boy side of his tub. Sam has started to like his baths more since he has started splashing. It's funny when he tries to grab the bubbles that are on the water's surface before they pop. He gets so confused when they pop. It's really cute.

Here's the mandatory self-portrait. Oh and hey, you can finally see the haircut I got last month somewhat in the picture too. Okay, well not really, but it's about 2 inches below my chin. Exactly long enough to still pull back so Sam won't eat it.

This is my cat Princess. She's gone by the name Prin-Prin since Dylan could talk, because it was easier to say. She is 5 years old. I got her as a baby kitten the same week I got married. She is very shy and snooty. So much so that she was originally named She-rah, but I knew that wasn't gonna work because of her prissy attitude. She hates Cliff for some unknown reason to us. This is the best picture I could get of her even remotely looking up.

Woohoo! A birthday card! My mother-in-law and father-in-law came by to hand off my present. They had missed The Amazing Race the night before on t.v. and we still had it recorded so they also came by to watch that during their visit.

Here's Rick giving Sammy some belly kisses. I don't think I have ever seen a man as infatuated with babies as Rick. It's quite endearing to watch.

Here's a new little obsession of mine. It's called Monopoly City Streets. It's a free game and works using the maps of the entire world. You can go and buy any street on Earth. I own a lot of the main streets here in my hometown. For some reason or other, I have enemies from Spain that like to put factories on my streets. I never did anything to them, but 4 of them have decided to target me!

I ended the night by giving in and watching Dylan play the new Halo. He wasn't playing online with other real players thank goodness, because the boy would shoot the same bad guy 20 times and run out of ammo instantly. He kept killing himself with his own grenades too. I had a great birthday. I enjoy low-key and lazy days. :)

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Mineral Eyeshadow Collection Giveaway

First off, Is eyeshadow one word or two? LOL.

I love mineral makeup. I haven't tried the eyeshadow kind before, but after seeing these beautiful photos of done-up eyes in Orglamix's etsy shop, I'm almost positive I would fall in love with it. The Toddler Momma Blog is hosting a giveaway for the Rainbow Sherbet Collection that would create this look in the photo below. The collection includes 6 different colors, so I'm sure you could do a more subtle look if you wanted. I would love to win!

Click on the underlined words/links above to take you to enter or view more of the makeup.

Expect another blog post later on today for my belated October 12 of 12/26th birthday photos. :)

Friday, October 23, 2009

September 12 of 12: Good Golly Super Late Edition

Erm, oops! At least I remembered to take the pictures right?! September's 12 of 12 was something awful. Let us start with this photo:

Yup, the a/c is out. Thankfully, our nice neighbors let us borrow their window unit. I think unless you live in Georgia you don't totally get the big deal of not having central air. The humidity is always about 90-100%. We live right off the fall line, so it's like where former swamp lands used to be. Even in September, the temperature was still around 95-100 degrees. You have to have central a/c. Even people in trailers, even people in one room shacks in the ghetto have central a/c in our part of Georgia.

I started my day off with a little sudoku and coffee in the Kimberly mug. I didn't learn how to play sudoku until I got Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. I would get frustrated with it on a screen, because sometimes I would accidently touch something and screw it all up. I love having sudoku in pencil and paper form.

I think you can see the sweat matted on Dylan's hair here. He ended up going to Cliff's mom's to escape the heat of our house the rest of that weekend, so this is the only photo I got of the fella. He had fallen asleep on a pallet on the floor the night before watching cartoons.

Here's Sam, happy and cheerful as usual. He had just ate some sweet potatoes. Still not much hair. His eyes aren't really blue, but for some reason showed up that way in this photo.

This is about round the time I started feeling bad. I don't even know how to explain it. It was like flu symptoms without the actual cold and cough part. Then you add in the sweltering heat I had sat in earlier that week as well and I was miserable. I had some of my shows dvr-ed and watched Project Runway. Tim Gunn can make anyone happy.

Cliff was in and out the entire day. I didn't really ever see him between doing the a/c, doing the bathroom renovation, and going back and forth to Lowe's. Here, you can see he had got one wall of the bathtub wall up and tiled. It's slowly coming along.

So still feeling awful, I got in bed the rest of the day and Sam was off-schedule anyways to the point I didn't care about fixing it. So um, this is my self-portrait for the month. I probably slept about 12 hours of that day.

My brother, Lacey (girlfriend), and one of her friends all decided to come wake me up to play the new Halo. Yes, even in the heat. I was pretty annoyed at first, but I cheered up pretty quickly. My brother is hilarious and I wanted to know about how Lacey was feeling. She's pregnant if I haven't mentioned that before somewhere on the blog. I'll be an auntie sometime at the end of March-ish.

Cliff popped in a few pizzas for us all.

One of those things that annoy me to high heaven is when other people load the dishwasher. I won't mention names. Do not try and tell me that stuff is clean with dirty water filling those gladwares halfway.

Here is the beginning of the granny square blanket I am making for my future niece or nephew. I chose green and purple, because I figured that would be gender neutral enough. I didn't want to wait to find out the sex, because I knew I wouldn't be anywhere near finished if I didn't start on it right then and there. Here's my little piles of squares completed so far.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

"isn't she lovely" Etsy Treasury

Etsy seller, TheJoyofColor, included my vintage dutch girl postcard in her beautiful treasury she compiled up of items in creams, light blue, grays, and golds. Awesome color palette, dontcha think? I'm very happy she included me! Visit this treasury here and I would love if you would leave a sweet comment if you feel inclined to do so.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Honest Scrap Blog Award

Sweetie Pie Ann picked me to receive this little blog award and to share a bit more about myself. Thanks Ann!

Here's the info on the blog award:
  • Say thank you and give a link to the presenter of the award
  • Share “10 Honest Things” about myself
  • Present the award to 9 other bloggers whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design or to those who have encouraged me
  • Be sure to tell the 9 bloggers chosen that you are giving them the Honest Scrap award and provide the guidelines for them

10 Honest things about me:
  1. I drink waaaaay too much coffee per day.
  2. I think I look forward to checking the mail more so than the average adult.
  3. I only blurt out about 10% of the actual craziness random thoughts/connections that's going on in my mind. That should scare you if ever spoken to me!
  4. I have taught 3 or 4 people how to parallel park.
  5. I grind my teeth and suck the insides of my cheeks, awake and asleep.
  6. I am a compulsive buyer when it comes to online shopping on Etsy.
  7. I need to print out about 2 years worth of photos!
  8. I say seriously, literally, actually, and probably other similar adverbs A LOT.
  9. It's rare to see me without a ponytail or a headband.
  10. I remember complete story lines/theme songs/characters from episodes of shows and cartoons from childhood. It's kinda weird. I'm not talking one or two favorite shows. I'm talking hundreds.
9 bloggers who I love:
  1. Angi
  2. Cat
  3. Brooke
  4. Nadia
  5. Heather
  6. Denise
  7. Heather Dawn
  8. Amy
  9. Katie

Monday, October 12, 2009

Vampire Bat Cozy Giveaway

I have always loved Halloween. It is so hard for me to exactly pin-point down my most favorite costume. Pirate girl was up there, but no one got to really see it that year because it was so cold, so I looked more like Light Brown Plaid Coat Girl instead. I think I was a witch for about 6 years after that.

I can definitely tell you the worst costume! Mom comes out of her room with and was like pick: Ghost or Punk Rocker. I had no idea what a punk rocker was, so Mom tried to pull it off as if I was one of the Jem! girls, but once we were done I thought I looked more like one of the bad guys from Jem!--ya know, The Misfits girls. Not pleased, nope nope.

{photo source: google images}
I think the year I was a teddy bear was the best, cutest yet. It was just one of those plastic sheet shirt costumes, but Mom did me up real good with face paint and pig tails. I think it was some girly version of a Teddy Ruxpin. I thought I had a photo of it already uploaded to the net, but oh well, guess not.
{photo source: google images}
Besides just reminiscing about my favorite holiday, wanted to tell you that Flapper Girl Blog is giving away 3 limited edition (just for Halloween) coffee cozies. She wants to hear about your favorite costumes too. Check it out, by clicking here.

{photo source: flapper girl}

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

I guess you could say Denise really loves Thickers...

She's holding a contest and you have to guess how many packs of Thickers she already owns. Wow! You could possibly win up to 20 packs of Thickers! Click here to go to Denise's blog to find out more.

Savvy N Sassy September Ribbon Kit Creations

I'm a wee bit late on blogging this month's projects using the SavvyNSassy September ribbon kit. It's already sold out, but there are tons of gorgeous ribbon kits in the shop.


Before joining the SavvyNSassy Design Team, I gotta admit I was not a card-maker. I'm still getting the hang of it. I really prefer making the mini-type cards. The downside to that is finding envelopes to mail them in. I am kinda proud of myself since one of my resolutions for this year was to send more handmade cards to people.

I'm way too overly addicted to greens in my scrapping. I just need to clean off my desk of all things green so I can get out of this color rut. I adore the DCWV Green Stack (Thanks again, Angi!) and want to horde it all. It is so much fun to create with.

This one is a little journaling tag. I'm digging this color combo too, the teals and the cherry reds together. Probably because I can't wait to see my slowly coming-along renovated bathroom all done up in it! Don't tell Katie, but ummm, I still haven't finished these for the HOGS tag swap yet. Still got 22 to make by Wednesday, ugh!

And surprise, surprise! I even did some layouts!

This olive green ribbon was probably my fave from the kit. I really wish you could see this layout in person. It just doesn't photograph well. I think this is one of my favorite layouts I've ever done. First time playing with Hambly too!

I completely heart this Cosmo Cricket paper I used as my background. It's from the Dutch Girl line. I really had fun combining colors I would hardly ever combine together for this layout. Got some Close to my Heart paper all the way from probably 2004(?) used from my stash with this layout!

And if you're wondering, what's with the owl page about a baby?! (Because that is something that personally bugs me, just to use an owl or saying for no real reason, but anyways...) Sam's first sounds were breathy, little whoooo sounds like a baby owl. Apparently, that is weird for our baby, because at the doctors' I was asked if English was our first language we use in our home. Most American babies made hard constanant sounds like nono, dada, or tata.

Thanks for looking and if you are intested in my tutorial on how to make this paper pieced card below:
then check out my blog post with step-by-step instructions by clicking here.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hmmmm... Iced Coffee by POM?


I haven't heard of this either! It looks interesting. I would love to try it for free through this giveaway from the Happy Texans blog. I love coffee and am super lazy to wait for my own brewed then chilled coffee. You can check it out by clicking, here.