Fall is BACK!

Second day of FALL, Y'ALL!  Only...

Yeah.  Insert frowny face here.  The high for today is supposed to be 102.  How lame is that?  Still, I can pretend!  Let me share my favorite things right now with you, in no particular order.

This child's bed head.  Her hair is super curly and super fine, and she is a crazy flip-flopper in her sleep.  It makes for some pretty epic bed head.  Thankfully I've figured out how to tame it!

This boy. Total mom brag moment here - He started Kindergarten this year and not only is he the only kid in his class who can read, he's reading at a second grade level.

Also, I want to add my haircut.  I finally feel like I found a good haircut and style for me.  Now let's see if I can properly maintain it.

My sorority.  Yup, eleven years after the fact I've decided to get back into it.  After all, it isn't supposed to be for just four years, it's supposed to be for a lifetime, right?  I need to get out of the house more and be more involved with other adults.  I was thinking to myself, sure, I can go out and look for something, but I already have this thing with people I already know built into my life.  Why not get back into that?  I've attended two alumni events in the last month and we're going to start planning for our grand convention next month.  I've paid my alumni dues, busted out my lavaliere and badge, and even bought a cute violet pin to wear for more casual events.

I may or may not have also started to teach the baby recruitment spirit songs. It's super cute!

Speaking of getting her ready for college, I'm also getting a huge kick out of teaching her slightly inappropriate things such as how to play flippy cup.  I'm easily amused.

Making The Team.  Dang I love me some Kitty Carter, but I wouldn't want to have her judging me.  The woman is awesome yet scary as hell.

Fall scents!!!  I so look forward to this time of year because it has the best scented candles of all!  I waited until Bath and Body Works put these on sale 2 for $22 and then printed off a $10 off $30 coupon to make these a great deal. Also, that lotion?  I wish I had gotten a bigger bottle.  YUM.

My pretty new fall wreath.  I saw one just like this on Pinterest years ago and finally decided to bite the bullet and make myself one.  The last one I made before Bubba was born, if I recall correctly, so it was time.

Glow in the dark nail polish.  It's so flipping cool!!! I found this at Target in the Hallowe'en section. This is my favorite brand of polish anyway (yes, even over OPI and Essie) and the fact that it's only two bucks a bottle doesn't hurt either.  I polished my nails and Kelly's nails with this and then when I went to bed I couldn't stop admiring my glowy nails under the blankets.  Again, I'm easily amused!

Card making.  Finding out that one of my neighbors is into stamping and paper crafting too has really gotten me back into this hobby.  We split orders to save on shipping, text each other pictures of completed projects, squeal over YouTube videos from our favorite stampers, and sigh over cool new product because we want to buy it all and know we shouldn't.  We've reorganized our stamps and dies and borrow items back and forth.  In fact, those are her stamps in this photo because she had a baby on Monday so I knew she wasn't going to be making anything any time soon!

So I guess I should add my stamp buddy (my husband calls her my pusher, haha) to this list!

Pumpkin spice chai lattes.  I can't drink coffee.  It's too harsh on my stomach and when I do manage to drink it the taste is usually too bitter because I'm not used to it.  The closest I get is the occasional Frappucino.  Chai lattes, however, are a different story entirely.  Add the pumpkin spice flavoring to it and it just tastes like Fall.

And yeah, I totally was watching Scooby Doo. Alone at night, without my kids.  Don't judge.

Hallowe'en decorations!!!  I look forward to Hallowe'en every year, not only because it's seriously fun, but also because it usually marks the end of the hot weather here in the Phoenix area.  That's right folks - summer here lasts until almost November.  How bad does that suck?

Until that cooler weather comes, I can distract myself with glorious Hallowe'en. I love going out shopping to look for new decorations to add to my collection. I love to look at pictures of how others have decorated online.  I love planning costumes for my kids. Honestly, Hallowe'en is second only to Christmas on my list of favorite holidays.

The blow mold ghost is a new acquisition this year.  I didn't even know they still made blow molds! I will admit that I would love to have a bunch of vintage ones in my collection, but they don't really show up in the thrifts or antique stores around here very often.  It's too bad, because I just love the retro look of them.

The spider is new too.  That big metal circle thing has to be about four - four and a half feet across, to give you some idea of how huge the spider is.  I debated between getting the one big spider or covering it with a bunch of smaller ones, but I'm glad I went in this direction.  It's really freaking creepy!

This guy.

And his weird little bendy self.

I love having him in our family since Leila passed this summer.  He's the perfect cat for our family, even though I could probably do without him getting on the fridge or the tops of the cabinets. He snuggles with me in bed, plays tag with the kids, tolerates them when he's not playing, and in general is just a good cat.  Let's not forget to mention that he's an absolutely gorgeous flame-point Siamese! A lot of these cats have really badly crossed eyes, or strange dark spots on their noses, but he has neither.  He's just handsome.

This isn't to say that I don't miss having a dog.  I think about getting a dog every day.  I miss having a dog, but I know that now isn't the right time for our family.  That doesn't make the void any less noticeable for me though. I love the cat but I know I really need a dog.

That's a little peek into where I am now.

Halloween Decor 2013

This past weekend, I decided to stop talking about how I wanted to rearrange the furniture and I actually did it. Of course, when you start to move stuff around like that you tend to finally get around to actually giving it the good cleaning that you've been neglecting, oh, just all summer.  Since everything was looking all fresh and clean, I figured, hey, as long as I'm doing this, I may as well put out the fall decor too, right?

It was a project.

I really like how it is now.  The couch is kind of close to the tv, but since the biggest open area for play is now off to the side, it won't be blocked by little people when we're trying to watch something.  I moved my big plant into the living room from the kitchen and it really helps to break up that big wall.  The armchair being angled in the corner helps to create a conversation area and doesn't block the patio slider, causing it to feel closed off.

It makes me smile to see some of my favorite things on display.  It's no secret that fall, although brief, late and pretty weak around these parts, is my favorite season.

This little "arsenic" bottle may be one of my very favorite Halloween decorations. The skull is plastic and was three dollars at the Walmarts last year, and the old books were thrift store finds.

I found the larger primitive guy at TJ Maxx a few weeks ago.  The smaller one was .99 at Goodwill last year! The printable was free online and the frame was another Goodwill find for a few cents.  I leave that up all year, where I can see it, as a reminder.  I truly believe gratitude is a HUGE indicator of happiness.

We moved the piano from under the kitchen bar to the wall where the tv was previously.  Since I lost the 2x4 Expedit that we had been using as a sofa table in the move (it's in the kid's room now) I had to find a new home for the lamps.  I finally took the plastic off the shades and put bulbs in them.  It's only been a year since I painted them, and another year since I brought them home!

The pumpkin is fake and was found for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, the stand is vintage Fenton and was a gift from my friend Suzy as were the lace milk glass dishes, the sign was hand painted by me last year or the year before, the runner was found at Goodwill, and the large mirror was $20 from Goodwill too.

Having the lamps over there made it possible to get rid of the big lamp I had on the entry dresser.  It was pretty old and was having some issues.  Besides, it being gone makes it so much easier to decorate that flat surface now!

I love my front entry display.  It's all stuff that I had previously, including the candy.  I can't stand candy corn but think it's pretty in an apothecary jar so I just bag it up after Thanksgiving to reuse the following year. I actually do that with a lot of seasonal candy.

I think this bunch of candy corn is like four or five years old, so yeah... don't eat the display candy at my house without checking on it's age first!  ;)

The black and white striped "candies" are actually wooden dowels painted black and wrapped with white ribbon.  I made the tassels and the labels on the jars.  The glitter skulls are from Kirkland home (a few years ago) and the black amethyst glass dish holding them is vintage from eBay. Looks like there's another one just like it on there now too.

I set up this little vignette on the end of the kitchen bar.  I think it needs something more in the back corner though, after looking at this photo.  The best part of this display is that after Halloween, all I have to do is put away the witch hat, turn the carved pumpkin around so you can see the side that says "Give Thanks" and boom!  It's still seasonally appropriate.

Kick butt.

I had a pottery painting playdate of sorts with some of my friends a couple of weekends ago, and this plate was my project.  I copied one of the display samples, and other than apparently forgetting the second coat of green paint on the H (whoops!) I think it came out pretty good!  I painted each one of those letters by hand with an itty bitty paintbrush and it literally took hours.

OCD ftw, yo.

I put it on the table in the bay window/dining area of the kitchen.  I kept it pretty simple in there. I put the vintage globe on there because honestly, I had nowhere else to put it and I just love the colors. The fruit is fake, as is the pumpkin.  Both were found at Goodwill in years past.

I didn't put everything out.  I put out what fit and if something didn't have a space, I left it in the bins.  I was very conscious of not wanting to overfill the spaces this year.  Usually I use every inch of space, but I left some, like in the middle of the mantel over the tv and next to the lamps on the piano.  I did go out and buy a few pumpkin and apple scented candles to add to the fall feeling in our house, but really, I didn't add a whole lot to the decor this year.

It's interesting, because on Saturday night when I was all done I had this feeling of contentment inside me.  Not the usual, "I cleaned and my house looks good" contentment,  or the feeling of "I decorated and it looks nice!" contentment either.  It was like a lightness in my soul, I guess.  Like my soul was a dusty rug and someone had given it a good shaking and airing out.

You know how some people who live in darker or "gloomy" climates suffer from SAD?  I've been feeling like I get a reverse version of that, from too much freaking sun. Seriously, it's summer and too hot to go outside six months of the year!  I don't like to be hot at all, and my meds make me hotter.  I rarely wear a jacket or coat in the winter.  I live for cloudy and rainy days.

I Googled it and discovered that reverse SAD is actually a real thing, and I have all the symptoms with the exception of loss of appetite/weight loss.  I actually gained about 25 pounds in the past six months though, so that can't really be ignored because that's not normal either.

We don't really get cooler weather here until around Halloween, so I still have another month of awful heat to go.  It's especially hard to deal with now because of everyone on social media posting about how AWESOME Fall is OMG!!! and also because I have to do school drop off and pickup every day so I have to go outside in the middle of the day. Yuck.

Still, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, and that, my friends, is a very good thing!

Halloween 2012

Another Halloween is in the bag!  I'm not going to lie to you - yesterday was a seriously rough day.  I woke up feeling like crud, Bubba... well let's just say he made a lot of bad choices, the baby was fussy because she's sick, due to the high demands of my little people I didn't get a single bite to eat until almost four when my husband came home to rescue me, dinner never got made so we had to get a pizza, there were too many timeouts to count and even a couple of spankings...

Yeah.  Yesterday felt like a total momfail.  To the point where I even contemplated cancelling trick or treat, but you know what?  That would have been just as much punishment for me and my husband as it would have been for the boy, and besides, I don't think that's a natural consequence to a four year old.  

Besides, running up and down every drive way for a couple of blocks could very well serve to tire him out.

So, I dressed him in his costume, rifled through my closet and threw on some stuff I found, and we headed out.

 
I was only able to do our block due to the aforementioned feeling cruddy, and then dad took over.

This was on one of our neighbor's lawns.  Freaking creepy!  Much more effective than those talking animatronic adult sized zombies, I think.

And where was baby doll?  Oh, she was asleep!  That's right - girlfriend slept through her first Halloween!  I just don't get how this kid who will wake up from a nap if her brother rustles paper in the next room was able to sleep through kids shouting and the doorbell ringing every five minutes, but she did for almost three hours.  Crazy.

When she woke up I put her headband back on her but decided it was too late to bother with the costume.  I made the skirt that afternoon.  The bow on the headband and the legwarmers were made a while back.

Once the boys got home I dumped out Bubba's candy and inspected it.  Then he had to pay the Mama Tax... hahaha!  I stashed it in my latest Pyrex find.  I love this pattern so hard!  I would die from happiness I think if I were ever to find the 933 lasagna dish to match.

After we ate our pizza I decided it would be a shame if I didn't get a photo of the chirrens together on Kelly's first Halloween, so I busted out her costume after all.

Her head was a teensy bit too big to fit in the hat, so we improvised.

And of course, Bubba was a "roary" tiger.

DANG we have some cute kids.  For reals.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

We took the chirren to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Around these parts, a "pumpkin patch" is a fenced off area with some trucked in hay bales and lots of pumpkins that were also trucked in for sale.  These are frequently found in empty corner lots and converted to Christmas tree lots a month later.Contrary to what one might believe, the pumpkins here are usually more expensive than their supermarket counterparts, often costing three times as much!  The $2.99 pumpkin I picked up at Trader Joe's, for instance, would have been between seven and ten dollars at the pumpkin patch.

You allow yourself to be price gouged because the grocery store doesn't have the nice hay bales and picturesque piles of pumpkins (alliteration ftw!) on which you can pose your chirrens for lovely photos.

Well, as lovely as they will allow.

I managed to snap a lovely photo of my three favorite people on Earth.

And one of me with two of them.

We found this height chart.  He's that tall this fall.

I am merely this tall, and have been every fall for a long time.  You like how I'm wearing a sweater and flip flops?  Yeah... it was 85 freaking degrees and I thought I might die in that thing.    UGH.

We carved the pumpkins tonight.  This was the first year I was able to convince him to get his hands in there and touch the guts.  It did take a lot of convincing though.  He was trying to clean it out by removing one seed at a time and I don't have that sort of patience.

I was all set with my book of patterns ready to carve something fancy, but he was adamant that this was the face he wanted - triangle eyes and a big smile with two teeth.  Not one, not three, but two.  We bought a little pumpkin for Miss Kelly too.

All we need to do now is buy candy to hand out Wednesday night and we'll be ready for Halloween!

Halloween House

I've been plugging along with getting my Halloween decor up and out!  Today's offering - the outside of my house.  I tend to do very minimal decorating outside for two reasons:  

1.  It's still over 100 degrees where I live.  Not only do I not want to be outside for very long putting things up, the sun pretty much destroys anything that it sees on a regular basis.  Therefore, what I do put up is against the house where it will get shade most of the day and not be ruined.

2.  I grew up in pretty shady neighborhoods and I have low trust of people I don't know in general.  I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on outdoor decorations only to have someone come steal or vandalize them.

That being said, I like to have a little something festive outside to greet people!

I already showed you my cute new Welcome pumpkin last week.  I hung a garland I made from paper bats and string last year to across the walkway.  Most of my decorating was concentrated around the front door.

There's a little old and a little new out there.

The feather wreath is new.  Kristy at The Diary of Dave's Wife, who I met at the first DownEast Basics Mixer I attended last year posted a photo of one on Instagram a week or so ago.  I loved it so much I knew I just had to recreate it.  I wrapped two black feather boas (40% off using my coupon app at Hobby Lobby) around a wreath form ($2.99) and securing it with Christmas ornament hooks that I straightened out then wrapped like twist ties.  The bow has an alligator hair clip like I've been using to make hair bows on the back so I can change it out if I'm so inclined.

The sign underneath is from the Dollar Tree.

The electric Jack o'Lantern I bought at Target last year.  I am trying to figure out where to plug it in though because I don't have any outside outlets in the front of my house.  My friend told me it's city ordinance/code to have them in Phoenix, but I don't know if it's the same in Chandler.  I should look into that.

The faux fern was $2 on sale at Hobby Lobby.  I can't keep outside plants alive this time of year due to my refusal to exit the house when it's over 100 degrees, so faux it is.  You can see one of my silver spoon plant markers in there.  It says Casa de Fehling.  :)

The wooden cat was found at Goodwill last year.  It's a bit funky, but that's why I think I like it.

And that's outside!  Next up - the piano!