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!

Project Life 2013 - CHICAGO! Part One

There's a part of me that can't believe that I went on a trip without blogging about it.  I mean, I don't go on trips very often at all.  In fact, this was the first time I've been on an airplane since before Bubba was born!  But, I have to accept that this was the season of life I was in and it didn't happen.  There's nothing I can do about it now, unless I want to "cheat" and go post date a bunch of posts.  (I do not.) 

What I can do is post the pages I scrapped about it!  Hey check it out!  Thanks to Project Life I went on a trip and it got put in the scrapbook mere weeks after it happened.  I can't say that about most of the trips I've taken.

I'm only going to post one page of these at a time because there are so many.

Here's the overview of the page.

I found an image of the Chicago flag online and added text.  The font is Lobster.

I made the text/cloud background myself. The retro boarding pass I saw on someone else's PL and I loved it.  After MUCH Googling, I was able to recreate it for myself.  I love this card! The typewriter font is Batik Regular.

More made by me flair! I'm saving the cute ones and when I get enough I'll offer them as a freebie.  The font in pink is Channel.

This is the lobby of our hotel.  Amazing, isn't it?  The peacock image I used was everywhere - on the carpet, embroidered on pillows, on the paperwork.  You know where it isn't?  Online.  I couldn't find it anywhere! Luckily my friend Suzy saved the little paper top that they put on the drinking glasses in the rooms (FYI - don't EVER drink from those without washing them first - signed, former hotel employee) and it had the logo.  I scanned it and was able to recolor the image for my card.

Some details from around the hotel.  They still use a vacuum mail drop system that's trimmed in brass.  SO PRETTY.  The doily background is from a free digital kit offered by Persnickity Prints by Design House Digital.

I'll be back with the next page later.  :)

Get Ready, World!

It only took me four flipping months to get them done, but Miss Kelly Bean's birth announcements have finally been done and mailed.  People have started to tell me they've received them, so I guess I can go ahead and post it here.

Words cannot even begin to express how much I love how these turned out.  My talented friend Sam took the photo when Kelly was a mere 12 days old.  I know she doesn't look 12 days old in the photo, but I swear to you, she was.  I picked up the pettiskirt at a local boutique and made the BFB myself.  The backdrop is an old fleece blanket (the same fleece blanket I took all Bubba's benchmark photos and am also using for Kelly's) binder clipped to the back of a couple of kitchen chairs in front of my patio door.

I sent the photo to another friend for editing.  It was just a smidge too dark and we were having a bit of difficulty keeping the color of the pettiskirt bright without messing up the color of the baby's skin.  Luckily Lindsay is a whiz with the Photoshop.  Seriously, if you have a photo that you love but it needs a little brightening or some other editing that you can't do yourself, check out Lindsay's service.  She only charged me ten bucks and sent over a few variations from which I could choose.  Worth every penny!  

No way I could have afforded a professional photographer to do these for me, so I'm incredibly thankful to have been blessed with friends who could help.  I resized the final photo, added the text to the photo in Photoshop and had them printed at Costco as 5" x 7"s.  I also printed one out as an 8" x 10" to frame with no text.

So pretty!!!

Thankful Thursday - September 27, 2012

I haven't done one of these for a few months, so some of these are a little bit old.  Still, I'm thankful for them so I'm putting them here.

I'm thankful for these ladies for putting together the Pinterest party.  I got to meet new people and found a bunch of fun new blogs to read!

I'm thankful for friends.

I'm thankful for friends who have kids almost exactly the same age as our kids so we can compare notes.

I'm thankful that I don't have one of those husbands who freaks out if their son does "girl" things.

I'm thankful that breast pumps have evolved past this.  This thing is solid metal, weighs a ton, and rumor has it, will suck out your soul if you're not careful.

I'm thankful for stylish, generous blog friends.

I'm thankful for Pinterest.

I'm thankful for Fall, even if it is still over 100 degrees and will be for almost another month where I live.

I'm thankful for Hello Kitty.

I'm thankful that my husband doesn't complain when I buy kid clothes that won't fit for another few years to stash for later.

I can't decide if I'm thankful or not that Old Navy did not have one in my size.  (Yes, I even checked online) 35 year old women should probably not be rocking Hello Kitty tee shirts.

I'm thankful for fun Fall magazines.

I'm thankful for free magazine subscriptions!  That's right; I didn't pay a single penny for any of these.

I'm thankful for tiaras.

I'm thankful for rhinestones and cubic zirconias.  Sparkly things are cool, diamonds are not.

I'm thankful for smiley babies.

I'm thankful that my children like each other so far.  :)

I'm thankful that my husband noticed this so I could take a picture!

I'm thankful for delightful surprises.

I'm thankful Apple made the camera on the iPhone accessible from the lock screen, or else I would never have had time to get this shot.

I'm thankful that my husband doesn't mind too much that I insist upon composting.

I'm thankful that I am not having problems with my compost.  I keep hearing people say "it didn't work" for them.  Huh?  You just throw stuff in a heap and water/turn it occasionally.  Piece of cake.

I'm thankful for pretty little girls in yellow seersucker dresses.

I'm thankful that this child's belly button FINALLY healed.  Two months was too long.

On that note, I'm thankful that my belly button went back after I had the baby.  I was totally freaked out that it wouldn't!

I'm thankful that my landlord replaced our old, chipped enamel sink with a new, stainless steel one that is nice and deep.

I'm thankful that he went ahead and replaced the faucets too.  We have a retractable sprayer now!  It makes rinsing out the sink and watering plants so much easier.

I am thankful that I finally found a stupid pot for that plant.  It should not have been that flipping hard!

That's it for now, I think.  I'm linking this post to Domestic Fashionista's Thankfulness Thursdays link party.

It's the most Wonderful time of the year!

It's no secret that Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year.  Maybe it's because I live in the desert and I'm desperate for a break from the heat.  Maybe it's because we don't really get a real Autumn here and I'm jealous that the leaves are red and gold on the other side of the fence.  Maybe it's because I'm a fat kid and I look forward to sweaters, jeans, and yummy apple and pumpkin desserts.  Maybe it's because it heralds the beginning of the holiday season and getting to decorate my house feeds my creative soul.

Heck, it's probably all of these things!

I went out shopping on Sunday with my friend and I picked up this lovely at HomeGoods:

It's glazed terra cotta and is pretty heavy.  It was only twenty bucks!  They had some bigger ones with Jack o'Lantern faces (my friend got one of those) but I like how I can leave this up through Thanksgiving.  When it comes to outside decor, I'm lazy.  :)  It has an opening in the back so you can insert lights.  I picked up a strand of 50 Christmas lights at Target last night for $2.50 to stick in there.  The flowers in the front were stuck in the pot to hide the dirt and came from a single bunch I picked up at the Dollar Tree.

Since I started to put stuff outside, I figured it was time to get out my bins of Halloween decor to start decorating inside too.  I have a lot to do still, but I did manage to get my dining area looking nice and festive.

I've been looking for a round pedestal dining table for a while, but even the cheap ones (I'm looking at you and your laminate one, Ikea!) were almost $300.  I figured I could probably find one at Goodwill eventually and just paint it.  I made a comment to that effect to my friend Dorie when she posted about one she was painting on her blog.  Well, when she offered the table to me because she decided to go in a different direction, I didn't even hesitate! It fits perfectly in my small kitchen and compliments the bay window so much better than the rectangular one did.  I love it!  I am so very blessed to have such awesome generous friends.  :)

I made the candy corn poms after seeing some on Pinterest.  I made the quilted mini-runner a few years back and the Fenton stand was a gift from my friend Suzy.  The pumpkin in it is fake, as are the fruits in the milk glass stand on the side table.  Please disregard my plant in it's ghetto pot.  I can't find one I like that is big enough and doesn't cost a small fortune.  I made the garland last year too.  The cute vintage Halloween images were all found on Pinterest, printed out on cardstock, and then accented with Stickles glitter glue.  Each little medallion has a different one.  You can check out my Halloween Pinterest board here!

Decorating for the holidays is so much fun!