October 365 2014

October's been a true gateway into the Fall season.  Bi-polar weather, and lots of fun activities.

Can't believe there are only two more months to the year!

Halloween 2014

This year marks a first.  The first time since 2009 that Marissa was a Disney character/Princess.  That last few years she wouldn't consider anything princess related but this year, thanks to her friend being Anna, she chose to be Elsa.  She looked perfect!

Gianna still wants nothing to do with anything princess anymore, but now I have hope that she might turn that around.  However, the name of the costume she chose is "Arctic Princess", so we'll see where that goes.  She wanted to "zombie-fy" it with creepy makeup but settled for some black stitches on her face.

 

We had a big group going out this year, mostly Marissa's friends, but they were so fun and easy that I didn't mind.  My only problem was losing my voice due to not feeling that great.  I ended up not getting a lot of pictures that I had planned on, which bums me out more.  The good part was it was Friday, and they ended up with lots of CANDY! 

Pumpkin Carving 2014 Round 2

After having so much fun carving their pumpkins the other night, I bought another two while out food shopping.  The girls (with a little coaxing) carved Mickey & Minnie.

Gianna carved Mickey.

Marissa carved Minnie.

They came out great!

Love them all lined up on the front steps!  

Pumpkin Carving 2014

The way we got the girls to go pumpkin picking this year was to promise to carve them.  We've only carved them once before when the girls were younger and just been slackers ever since.  Usually just display them outside with nothing on them.  Oh well!  No parent of the year prizes here!!

So today we got out our carving supplies, chose designs and got to work.

Gianna took to digging out the guts like a pro.

De-gutting pumpkins is serious business around here.

Gianna chose to do a Dalmatian, but I quickly took over since it was bath night, leaving a little for her to finish.  I've since been reprimanded about carving duties and had my arm twisted into getting more pumpkins for them. (secretly it's always been my wish to have a porch full of pumpkins so this is no problem! LOL!)

Marissa chose to carve Stitch, which is her favorite character.  Knowing I'd take over if she didn't finish in time, she diligently carved it all herself.  She did fantastic!

We added the lights and set them outside, and they look awesome!!

Thoughts About Project Life

For some time now, I find myself reluctantly working on my Project Life pages.  I find that having to "work" at a hobby drains the fun out of it.  It's become too time consuming.  I'm working on our June trip to Disney and will end my first album for the year with this trip.

I like the idea if you don't do any other scrapbooking, but I started out scrapbooking and thought this would be a fun side project.  When the side project became the ONLY project, it became work.

I have a ton of Pocket Scrapbooking supplies as well as my original supplies.  It's out of hand.  So now I have come to the decision that I will finish out my album for 2014, but that's it.  I'm not going to purge all my PL stuff since I'm sure I could incorporate it into my regular scrapbooking...then again I might do a giveaway. Who knows??!!!

I also won't be sharing my album pages.  It's getting pretty redundant.  A lot of pages look similar to some degree.  I love looking at them but I'm just done with it.  I want to bring back the "fun" to scrapbooking.

Pumpkin Picking 2014

One of my favorite things to do in the Fall is go pumpkin picking!  We never went last year (girls had zero interest) so I was happy we went!

It was a sunny but chilly day.  Gianna went hunting immediately and found a lot of contenders.  She would've brought home a dozen if we let her!

Marissa needed a bit more coaxing, but quickly chose a pumpkin.

Gianna found herself a cute hat too. ;)

Never a dull moment.  Never.

Had to talk her into this but I love the result.

She didn't want her picture taken here but I told her we'd get a caramel apple.  Bribery at it's best.

The lighting was rapidly changing so this was the best I got.

Before we left I asked Marissa to take a picture of Joe and I.  I LOVE it!!!!  Didn't even realize that we matched until afterwards! Great minds think a like!

No More Bare Walls!

Give Joe a can of spray paint and some items, and he will work his magic. I had given him these trays to paint but I wasn't sure on the color.  My first choice was black but since they were meant for my scrap room, I decided on white.  

About a week later, he gave them back to me and I could not resist messing around with them right away.  He even hung them right up for me!  I love how it came out!

I even nagged coaxed him into hanging up a few other things, I've had lying around.  He did great!!  

Now it's not just a boring wall with a TV on it.  It's a wall of "me"!!

Light It Up!

First fire of the Fall season.

Makes me think of chestnuts, reading books, hot drinks, and fuzzy socks.

Our Not So Scarey Halloween 2014

Halloween is one of my favorite "holidays", my most favorite is Christmas, in case you were wondering. ;). So I went all out and finished decorating for Halloween today. I re-discovered some things I haven't seen in awhile and it was all fun again! 

We don't do the scary stuff around here, basically because I'm chicken. Most of our stuff is Disney themed. Bet that's a complete surprise! LOL!! 

Some of this stuff we've had since Marissa was a baby so it's sentimental. Then of course I've added to it with each visit to Disney World. 

This sign gets updated constantly by Gianna with my comings and goings. 

My pumpkins don't get changed up that much from year to year but I love them. 

Around here we love Stitch.

I've come to realize that I have a thing for cute candy dishes/cookie jars. 

Ready and waiting for cute little trick or treaters!!

World Card Making Day 2014

I had zero plans to make cards this weekend, but realized I needed one for my friends birthday we were seeing tonight. 

Having not created a card in who knows how long, I quickly turned to Pinterest for inspiration.   Found this card and decided to duplicate it. 

I dry embossed, stitched, heat embossed and stamped on this. I forgot how fun it all was!! 

So happy with how it came out. I need to get back to making cards again. 

Pie Season Has Begun!

Made the first apple pie of the season today. Felt guilty seeing all the apples from our picking expedition still sitting on the counter and decided to go for it.

I had grand visions of making some turnovers as well but gave up after peeling all the apples. So I made two pies. One for my sister and one for us to enjoy. 

It satisfied my sweet tooth for sure. Apple pie is my favorite.  Especially the crust, if you're not going to eat that just save it for me! 

Backyard Findings

Life with the puppies has opened my eyes to our backyard a lot more lately. 

The other day I found the dogs fighting over this feather. Emma was fiercely protective over it. Not sure what bird it comes from but I'd have to guess a hawk, since they're always flying around. 

Then another day I spotted a lump of something laying in the yard. No idea what it could be, I went out to find it was a dead bird (pigeon or dove). Somehow the dogs weren't going near it and I had to dispose of it, freaking out the entire time, hoping it wouldn't wake up and attack me. (No picture that time.)

Tonight the dogs were outside again, and all but Piper had come inside. I called her a few times but didn't see her until I went out. It was starting to get dark and the lights didn't go on until I went out and saw her wrestling with a dead squirrel. 

Now I'm pretty sure she did not kill it. I've seen her "hunt" squirrels before but they're too quick for her.  I think a hawk killed it and it fell either from its claws or it died somehow in the trees above and the wind knocked it down. Who knows?? All I do know is Joe wasn't home and I couldn't leave it there since the dogs would be going back out again. I, very squimishly, got the pooper scooper and got it in a bag to get rid of. Again, thinking this thing was messing with me and would wake up and attack me! 

Next time Joe better be home to dispose of things!!