Halloween 2010 . . .

A few fun pictures from our Halloween festivities:

Random Musings: Halloween Edition . . .

We’re a homemade candy bag kind of family. The pumpkin bag with the green handle was mine as a child {sewn by the Queen, of course}.  Hannie B. uses it now. The nostalgia of it all is not lost on me.

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We’re also a cornbread and chili kind of family.  Do you have a traditional Halloween meal?

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I have worked on twenty-seven costumes this week.  If I were to include RedDog’s costume, then twenty-eight.  The Wizard of Oz has taken over my life. I hate flying monkeys.

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My daughter makes her theatrical debut tonight.  And she is going to be so unbelievably  Munchkinalicious the audience is going to eat her up like Halloween candy!

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We don’t have time to carve our pumpkins.  This is a problem for some family members, but not for me since I am the resident gut-scraper-outer.  Darn.

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RedDog and the Hubby have made a plan for our Trunk or Treat trunk. RedDog wrote the plan down and has had it sitting by his bed for a week to review each night. It says:

“Decorate van with pumpkin lanterns, spoky flashlight, spoky music, couldren, black fabric, stone hand, skeleton, glitter spider, crow, stool for candy basket.”

I pretty much love that kid, his enthusiasm and his spelling errors.

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I am ashamed to admit that we have been “Booed” twice this Halloween season but have not had time to return the favor.  Stupid play, business trip, baseball, homework.

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Mr. Owlie is going to be a monkey this year.  His costume is hilarious.  Even he thinks so, since he laughs when he sees himself in the mirror.  Pictures to follow.

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I am totally wearing my orange and black striped tights to church on Sunday.  I’m inappropriate like that.  Can’t decide if I need a spider somewhere too.  What say you?

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Here’s hoping you and your family have a happy, safe, candy filled Halloween. 

Creepy. Cool. No, Creepy…

It’s Halloween.  Which means it’s time to pull out the old Bowl o’ Skulls over at the Queen’s house.  And really, who are we kidding?  We should just come out now and declare her the true Queen of Halloween.  Because the way my mom does it, well, it’s creepy, but with a classy edge.  It’s grim with a side of gorgeous.  It frightens my small children while simultaneously peaking their morbid curiosities. Wanna take a peek at the freak?

Here you go:

My younger brother’s death mask. {No worries, he’s still with us – it was a college theater assignment.}

What? You don’t have a skull with a bullet hole in your kitchen? For shame.

The foyer shouts, “Welcome! Meet our psycho relatives. View our bug collection. Don’t mind Uncle Horace’s head.”

This somber family portrait has ‘mother issues’ written all over it!

The skull makes it creepy, the hydrangeas make it classy.

Fine china? Check. Antique silver? Check. Beautiful linens? Check. Tiny skeleton? Check. Check.

Ever seen Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”? Enough said.

Truthfully, this is just a smidgeon of the fabulosity that surrounds the Queen’s house at Halloween. And it just gets better year after year.

I am still working on getting a clip of my TV appearance to put up.  Thanks for all the kind comments yesterday. For those who enquired, the shirt is from Ann Taylor Loft {and it’s on sale RIGHT NOW!}. Hair by the fabulous Deniz and the rest of my outfit, including the knee high gray boots, is from my beloved TARGET!

I’m off to sew flying monkey costumes.  The play opens tomorrow.  We are up to our eyeballs in Oz.  If I never hear “Ding, Dong The Witch is Dead” again, that would be okay.

And Then We Went Live . . .

Right before the cameras started rolling I asked Natasha Barrett if she had any children. She replied “No” but told me she had a niece and nephew whom she considered great birth control. And then we went live.

I had a little bit of luck with me for my stint on TV yesterday.  First, I had on my dragonfly socks, courtesy of my SIL Mindy, which were artfully hidden under my gray knee high boots:

Next, I had my mom, The Queen and my sister, The Honeybee, in my pocket.

And to top off my trifecta of luck, I had this girl with me for the entire ride {thanks Audrey!}:

I was a bit taken off guard when the anchor ‘teased’ me as an upcoming guest by saying, “Coming up next, are you ruining your relationship with members of your family by blogging about them?” Huh.That wasn’t what I was expecting. Cue the clammy, shaking hands and sweaty armpits.

I did my five minute segment, talking mostly about the positive experience blogging {about my kids} has been for me. I shared a few stories, including last week’s cell phone inquiry and  mentioned the great network of mommy bloggers out there and the amazing things that happen when one is connected to a dynamic group of women sharing the same experience though their blogs. Then I was done and we went to commercial break.

It went by fast.  I almost walked off the set attached to my microphone.  I looked pale under the studio lights. I may or may not have used the phrase “bodily functions” during the interview.  But darn it if I didn’t get five inquiries about my gorgeous shirt, so I’m going to consider the whole experience a success.

Dependency & Co. . . .

Image via Google Images

It was a long, dark weekend. I have come to rely too much on my computer. And I did not have my computer this weekend. It was a cause of strain and frustration all weekend long. Now I have my computer, but it is not the same. There are things that have been lost. I'm still pretty mad at my computer. Technology and people are so fickle.

I thought a lot about my dependency on the computer this weekend. I had to hand write an important document for church. Embarrassing. I could not download the pictures from my camera, so I simply stopped taking pictures. Sad.

I read and reread all the comments about cell phones and kids this morning. Great comments! Great thoughts! I think what it comes down to for me is dependency. I've watched too many kids {and adults, for that matter} become entirely too dependent on their phones as means of communication with friends, family & the world, when a simple, personal face to face conversation would have done just fine.

The Hubby and I are taking all that we've read, plus additional studies and findings into consideration as we create our 'Family Cell Phone Policy'. It is an evolution I will share with you when we feel it is complete.

In the meantime, I am going to work on decreasing my unhealthy dependencies. Which means less time on the computer and more facetime with those I love. I can happily report that I have significantly reduced my TV intake since summer began. I've spend more time reading good books and less time watching shows that demean women, families and moral life in general. And I feel glad for it.

If, however, you happened to be watching WJLA Channel 8 in the greater Washington DC area tomorrow at 11:00 AM, you just might see me having a little live interview about this here blog!

Any suggestions on what one should wear for a live TV interview would be much appreciated. At this point, all I have is good hair, thanks to an amazing stylist who fit me in at the very last minute. Oh, and some knee high gray boots.

Happy Monday!

Whiney Whinerson . . .

Excuse my while I whine for one moment.

My computer has decided it would no longer like to be friends with Blogger. Which is a shame because Blogger and I have been friends for like, forever {or three years}. So I'm mad at my computer. And I'm considering a new friend like WordPress or SquareSpace. And I'm blogging on my old computer, which is even more painfully slow than ever since being taken over by my almost-a-teenager.

Okay, enough whining. Except for one more thing about that almost-a-teenager. His hair is long. As in Justin Bieber long, but with little flippy wings on the side and in the back. I really like it. He thinks it is awesome. What is not awesome, however, is the conversation we had for the millionth time last night about why he does not need a cell phone. I heard, "Aww, Mom!" no less than twenty times.

I need readers to weigh in here - not that it will sway my decision - but I am curious. Do you let your young kids have cell phones? If so, why? Big C gave me five reasons why he needed one last night and I was easily able to shoot down each reason within seconds. Especially the "But ALL my friends have one!" reason. Really, the cell phone issue deserves its own post. So tell me what you think and then we'll talk about it. Or I'll talk about it and you can just shake your head in disbelief. You know.

ps. He's going to a 7th grade Pumpkin Patch Bonfire tonight. It's the same one he begged us NOT to chaparone. Why? Why do they have to grow up?

Frustration . . .

I have spent the day fighting my computer.

It will not let me post anything to my blog. It will not let me post anything on anyone else's blog. I'm beginning to loathe it.

To counteract my frustration, I have eaten my body weight in Halloween chocolate. I don't really feel any better. But now I know I really have a serious love of Milky Ways. And Almond Joys.

Please forgive me if my absence becomes prolonged. My IT guy {aka: The Hubby} is working on the problem and generously loaning me his computer for the night. He is good to me. Unlike chocolate and my computer.

AAAAAAGGGG!

Too Much of a Gold Thing?

While my girl was at piano lessons yesterday, I used the half hour wait to browse my local Salvation Army Thrift Store, not because I need one darn thing, but because I can’t resist the possibility that a treasure might be hiding there waiting for someone {me!} to find it.

After visiting Denver, with its hundreds of clean, well organized, low priced thrift stores, I realize that my Salvation Army is more like the Arm Pit of thrift stores. It is small, dirty, completely disorganized, way overpriced and totally ill-managed.  I found myself muttering under my breath about wanting to be in Denver as I tried to maneuver through the tiny aisles  and sort through the piles of junk. 

But then I found something.

Okay, I found four somethings.

And two of the somethings might have been amazing gold mirrors.

Have I ever mentioned that I have a little thing for gold mirrors?  I may or may not own eight gold mirrors.  Is that too many?  I keep reminding myself that mirrors open up small spaces, invite light in and are great for a last minute check of the hair before heading out the door . . . of any room in my house!

Here’s one of the thrift store mirrors which immediately made the small hallway to our powder room seem larger, lighter and more hair-check ready.  Never mind that there’s a mirror in the powder room for checking hair. It’s about to be replaced by a – you guessed it – GOLD MIRROR!

I love the flower, leaf and beaded detail on this mirror.  And I love the price tag, which read $12.99.

As soon as I get the other treasures from my thrift run in their proper places, I’ll post some pictures.  Suffice it to say this is the smaller, less awesome of the two mirrors.

Have you given thrifting a try?

A Failure Or A Success?

For reasons still unbeknownst to me, I volunteered to help with costumes for the upcoming production of The Wizard Of Oz.  When the costume director called and inquired about my sewing skills, I was honest and told her they were marginal.  As in straight lines only and no pattern following, really.  I told her I was wicked fast with a glue gun and she immediately relegated me to gluing feathers on monkey wings.  Sigh.

Then my friend M. called me and asked if I’d be willing to take on the turban of Dr. Marvel, the magician who tells Dorothy’s fortune before the tornado comes.  I replied with a very unsteady, “Sure?” because I was confident that between my marginal skills and my mom’s supreme skills, we could turn out some type of turban.

I googled ‘turban tying tutorial’ {say that three times fast} and you wouldn’t believe the things I came up with. Unfortunately, none of them were helpful for what I needed to make.

So yesterday The Queen and I got together with a hat form, some batting, a bunch of hot glue sticks and a yard of gold lame’ {pronounced lah-may} fabric to see what we could come up with.

Two and a half hours, two glue gun burns, two pokes in the head with a straight pin and twenty seven hearty laughs later, we were done, but the process was not without its frustration.  Some of my favorite quotes from the day:

“I don’t know, I just feel like I’m enveloped in fabric!”

“It sort of resembles an alien head.”

“What on earth am I supposed to do with all this fabric?”

“Do you think it’s a little Aunt Jemima-ish?”

“This is the crappiest thing I have ever made!”

“Don’t you dare tell anyone I helped you make this!”

I took the turban to rehearsals last night to try on Dr. Marvel and all higher ups at the play declared it to be Stunning! Fantastic! and Wonderful!

Last week my mom told me about a study she’d read that found that older people don’t laugh as much.  I’m so glad she helped me with the turban.  It’s the most I’ve heard her laugh in a really long time and it was soooooo worth it.

Thanks Queenie!  You’re the topsy turbanest!

October Giveaway Winner . . .

If I were to give it away based on emotion, Tobi would win. I was very touched by her story of a costume made from her mother’s wedding dress when financial times were tough.

If I were to give it away based on cleverness, Jami would win.  Her description of the costume “Gum Stuck Under A Chair” had my kids and I laughing for at least a day.

If I were to give it away based on most memorable, Lori would win.  Because getting engaged dressed as a clown just might make my “Clowns Are Creepy” think go away.

If I were to give it away based on hilarity, Rebecca J. would win because she was brave enough to admit she sent her son to the school parade dressed as a pimp.  Classic.

If I were to give it away based on new commenters, Erica, Angelique, Julie D. Icitea, Heather L., Rebecca J., Elise, Tami or Jenni would win.  Thanks for speaking up ladies!  It was so nice to hear from you.

Alas, I can’t make these tough choices on my own, so I rely on Random.org.  And the Halloween give away goes to comment #8 from Princesa.  Please email me your mailing address (you can click on my email address on the sidebar) so I can send you your goodies!  Congratulations and Happy Halloween.

Better Late Than Never . . .

I usually try to get a blog post up first thing in the morning.  But this morning I had a pressing engagement with The Queen. We were up bright and early to brave the cold, the mud and the hoards of people to go here:

  

“Here” is the Morven Park Equestrian Center, a sprawling horsey haven with 40,000 square feet of barns, warehouses and stables.  And for two days every October all 40,000 square feet are turned into one GIGANTIC thrift store to benefit a local hospital.  It is a thrifter’s heaven. And I love it very much.

The sale is put on by the Women’s Board of the hospital. I think these women are a riot.  They’re are hundreds of them at the sale in their blue aprons and gray hair helping, smiling, and hawking their wares. It’s pretty much awesome.

One of the things that makes this sale so great is that it’s organized brilliantly into departments: housewares, linens, books, electronics, toys, furniture, sporting goods, home decor, clothing, holiday decor, etc. If you have something in mind, you’re sure to find it at the sale.  The prices are very reasonable, too.

One fifth of the picture frames available.  And at the bottom of this shot, a crate full of painted canvases!

Queen, those glasses are calling out your name!

We stayed for almost two hours and both came home with some treasures.  Here are a few of the Queens finds {unfortunately Edward was left at home by little ol’ me}:

Vintage European architechtural prints in gold frames - $4 each.

 

Silvery grey vintage napkins.

Old books – the huge dictionary was only a dollar!

I ended up with some vintage prints for Hannie B’s room, a painting for my library, a nativity and some vintage Christmas ornaments and a great bird print.

This is one of my favorite yearly events in my town.  How about you?  Do you have a favorite event in your town?

Thoughts On Vision . . .

Image via Google Images

Yesterday my Hannie B. took her first trip to an optometrist.  The visit was hastily arranged after a car ride last week wherein my girl confessed she couldn’t read a nearby street sign I was pointing to.

I sat with her during the exam as the doctor placed various lenses over her eyes, asked her to read a jumble of letters and declared her to be a tad bit nearsighted.

Both the Hubby and I have excellent vision, so we were a bit surprised by this whole development.  It’s new territory for us. I have to admit, I felt relief after several attempts, when the doctor put lenses in front of my sweet girl and she exclaimed, “Ahh! Now that, I can read! It says E K S N!” 

Her vision will be restored, albeit with a little help.  Her glasses will arrive in two weeks.

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When I was asked to do a radio interview, I panicked.  I couldn’t see how anything I have to say would sound right, be coherent enough for anyone to listen to or qualify me as someone with “expertise in the field of blogging.”

Initially I felt like I should say no to doing the interview. I told the Hubby and he suggested I think about it a bit longer.  I decided I should really think about it.  In other words, I should take it to the Lord.

So I asked Him.  And the thought that {repeatedly} came to my mind was this: Bring honor to those who choose to be mothers and encourage them to write their family’s history.

And with that I realized that the interview was not to be about self promotion of my blog but instead was meant to encourage women who are engaged in one of the toughest professions out there: Motherhood. So I agreed to do the interview.

It was as if my vision, albeit with a little Help, had been restored.

Ps.  I’m working hard to get an MP3 file of the interview up on the blog . . . patience dear readers, my tech skills are lacking.

Barry & I Go Way Back . . .

Photo courtesy of WINC FM

This morning I woke up at 6:35 {and then again at 6:45 after one hit of the ‘snooze’ button}, wiped the sleep out of my eyes, got breakfast ready for my school-bound children and then became a radio celebrity while still wearing my pajamas.

Barry, the bearded man who interviewed me, shares my last name and a striking resemblance to my high school science teacher, Mr. Baxter. He was kind to me, laughed when I tried to be funny and said with all sincerity, “Bless your good heart!” when I told him I had four children living under my roof.

After the interview {which was prerecorded}, I came back down to the chaos that is the pre-school ritual and sent my babies off to the bus.  Then Big C and I sat around, rocking to Beyonce and Paramore while waiting to hear my voice across the airwaves of Northern Virginia.

The actual interview was pretty good.  I said what I wanted to, encouraged mothers to write about their children and their lives and even managed to call blogging “the speed dater’s version of scrapbooking” and compare myself to Jerry Seinfeld.  What on Earth is wrong with me?

I floated on my cloud of fame-ishness for a few minutes, then was swiftly brought back down {up?} to my reality by a baby in a poopy diaper.

And thus we see that this is my somewhat fame-less Mommy life.

PS.  Did you tell me about your favorite Halloween costume yet?  You know you want me to send you all that great Halloween loot – just leave a comment on yesterday’s post!

Spooks & Sparkles: A Halloween Giveaway . . .

I love Halloween.  And I love people who read this silly-little-blog-about-nothing.  So it only makes  sense that I should give the people I love some fantastic things to help celebrate this spookiest of all holidays, right?

Now, with help from a hand we have adopted as a family and lovingly named Clem, is the October giveaway:

1. A vintage pumpkin snowman adorned with glittered accents, pipe cleaner arms and yes, even a tiny stocking cap {hey, it’s been known to snow in Utah and Colorado on Halloween!}.

2. A test tube of arachnids, perfect for keeping little goblins on their toes.

3. A small spider web votive holder, ideal for spinning long shadows on the walls of your home on All Hallow’s Eve.

4. A simple Martha craft that’s bound to make a little {or big} girl batty!

5. A glittered rose lapel pin in the most somber of colors – the perfect accessory to wear to church when Halloween falls on a Sunday!

A custom made {by my beloved Auntie S.} Halloween necklace I’m calling “Bones & Birds” – a perfect chance to celebrate anatomy  . . .

. . . and Edgar Allen Poe!

6. And last of all, a creepy {yet holiday appropriate} book that is longing to be displayed on a hall table with some rats or spiders.

You want it, don’t you? Because it’s spooky and sparkly and fun. I’m cool like that! So here’s how you can win it:

Leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite Halloween costume ever. It can be a costume from your youth, a costume you’ve made for one of your kids or a costume you’ve seen at your door!  Just make sure to enter by 5 pm EST THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15th.  I’ll announce a winner on Monday.

Love you like I love candy corn!

Vintagey Goodness, Fame-ishness & and Giveaway . . .

While I was in Denver my sis-in-law and I came across a veritable treasure trove of vintage fabrics in a large box marked $5 at an estate sale. We snatched the box up and spent three days going through the fabric stash of an apparently avid sewer {or fabric hoarder with really awesome taste}.  Though we cannot date the fabrics officially, judging by pattern and print {and unfortunately, smell} some of it was more than sixty years old.

Sandwiched between stacks of folded fabric was a pile of half-finished, hand pieced quilt blocks.  Having a mother who quilted, I can marvel at the time, patience and effort this woman must have put into this project though she never saw it to completion.

The fabric choices were out of this world!  Individually, some of the fabrics were questionable, but when placed in a circle with twenty other fabrics the effect was so charming and nostalgic.

   

Mindy and I knew we had to do something with this unexpected find. So we channeled our inner hand-crafters and spend a night creating Anthro-esque pins.  Here’s how we did it:

1.We  ran the edge of the quilt block through a sewing machine on a loose running stitch.  We then pulled the bottom thread to gather the fabric.

2. We tied knots in both ends of the thread, then wrapped the fabric around on itself to form a flower and hand sewed center of the flower to keep in intact.

3. We then glued vintage buttons onto the center of each flower to cover up my horrible sewing skills and up the charm factor.

4.  The finishing touch was a felt backing and pin hot glued into place. These pins are so happy and fun!  They look great on a jean jacket or purse and match just about any color T-shirt or sweater.  We were able to make twenty that night and sold half of them the next morning at the Paris Market. 

I came home with enough material to make ten more pins.  I’ve been hard at work, but must confess, it was more fun to do when Mindy and I were delirious at 11:30 at night, giggling and saying stupid things.  Crafting with Mindy is one of my favorite things.

In other news, I’m fame-ish.  That’s what we’re calling it around here since an article about me appeared in the County paper last week.  You can read the article in its entirety here. On Wednesday I will be doing a radio interview.  I am currently freaking out about it and spent the majority of last night lying in my bed worrying about what kinds of questions I’ll be asked and whether or not I am going to sound like an imbecile.

And finally, I just wanted to thank anyone who’s still reading this blog.  I don’t know who many of you are {comment, already, please?} but I’m grateful for you and grateful that I can write each day.  So, tomorrow I am reinstituting my monthly giveaway to show my thanks, and you won’t want to miss it. Especially if you have ‘a thing’ for Halloween.

But, you can’t win the giveaway unless you comment.  That is all.