Ten on Ten

Ten on Ten? How am I just now hearing about this??? What a COOL idea! Look for *my* Ten on Ten next month! Here's the concept:

"Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments."

We've Moving!

One would think that since we're moving in a few short weeks, I would have so much stuff to do that I wouldn't have time to blog. And they'd be right. I have a million things on my "to do" list right now it makes my brain hurt. Moving is something we do. You wold think that after 31 years of constant change and moving I would be used to this. But, this one is different. I don't think I've ever made a move going into it ahead of time realizing that this *might* be the last move we'll ever have to make! It's so exciting and so overwhelming all at the same time. Anyway. I digress. In the spirit of us moving, and the thought that someone else out there in the bloggesphere (I realize that this is not really a word, but does it look like I spelled it right?) might be moving sometime soon, too, I did a quick search for free 'Change of Address' templates to compile on my blog. So, enjoy! And Happy Moving! Florida, here we come!

 from Cannon's Creative Park: Click Here



 Here's a cute Post Card from a guest blogger @ Executive Homemaker.

 And another one from E.H.

And last, but not least, there is this one here. 

Not moving, but want to get in on the latest trend? Print out these ultra cool Calling Cards to give out to your friends or new people you meet!

And here's another from one of my favorite blogs that I stalk:

Alice & the White Rabbit

I know. I know. I know I said in an earlier post that this blog was going to focus more on my crafty endeavors, but, I've come to the conclusion that at this point in my life, most of the things that I craft are for and with my kids. So, here I am. Posting pictures of my kiddos.

This was my major project for the month of October. As, I'm sure many of you spent at least some time gathering or making cute costumes for you own little goblins. This year was the first year that I actually made my kids costumes. Well, okay. About 75% of these costumes were handmade, anyway. I made the pinafore apron on "Alice", and the jacket, vest and clock on "White Rabbit". The rest? I had on hand, I reconstructed and I recycled.

I used to think that costumes had to be bought in a store or totally handmade by some super talented seamstress. This year I took a different approach. After asking my 4 year-old what she wanted to be for Halloween and Alice was her reply, I made myself reach over the hurdle that I had to scour the stores and online for the best deal on the perfect Alice attire and head-to-toe White Rabbit get-up. I started thinking about the characters as real people (reaching into my Jr. High School Drama days mantra: "Be the character!"). Alice didn't go out and buy a specific outfit she was wearing on the day she went to Wonderland. It was just what she was wearing. Probably not much thought put into it. So, I went through Kami's play clothes, old costumes and everyday-wear to put her costume together. The only thing I didn't have...the all important pinafore. So, I bought the cheapest white fabric I could find, measured the pieces I would need in proportion to the dress, snip, sew and....done!

As for my little White Rabbit? Why, who says he has to have white paws, white ears and whiskers? So, again, I picked up the cheapest red and yellow fabric on the bolt, found a pattern for the jacket and vest and stitched them up (I don't do buttons or button holes! This beauty is held together with Velcro, baby!) on my little sewing machine. The clock is a simple printed clip art that I laminated for durability. The ears I took from a bunny headband (boys don't wear headbands) and stitched into an inexpensive winter hat. The rest? White Sunday shirt and my most favorite pair of jeans he owns!

I'm quite pleased with the way their costumes turned out and I'm so excited that I had the "awakening" I did. In all things...experience!

You've Been Boo'ed!

October is the beginning of one of my favorite times of the year. It's the first holiday in a long line of winter festivities that keeps me from getting the "winter blues". And one of my favorite things to do on Halloween (besides seeing the excitement on my children's faces as they catch on to the fact that, if you dress up one night a year, knock on neighbors doors and say the magic words they get....voila! CANDY!) is taking my family out and "Boo" friends and neighbors (yes, I also like to "Elf" at Christmastime, give people "Heart Attacks" on Valentines Day and "Egg" houses for Easter). So, last year I was on a quest to Boo before being boo'ed and I needed to search the endless Internet for the perfect ghost and poem (my motto: if it's not on the Internet, then it doesn't exist!) and last year...I found it! So, to save you the countless hours surfing the web, I thought I'd post the link here: You've Been Booed! They have three different versions (Black & White, White & Black and Colored) and the option to save the files as a PDF as well. So! Now that you have it, what are you waiting for? Get a treat basket/bag together and go out and "BOO!" someone that needs a little jump! :)

PS: It's good to be back blogging!

How Lucky...

If you've got friends and neighbors like mine, I'm sure you are always looking for ways to express just how much they mean to you. St. Patricks day is literally just around the corner and I thought I'd make up a little something to tell them just how awesome they are.

(Okay, so I have a .pdf file to share and I swear Blogger used to let you upload .pdf files to your blog, but I can't seem to find how do do it! If any readers out there know something I don't about .pdf files and blogger, please comment and let me know. If not, I hope this .jpeg works!)

Cute, Cute Camera Bag!

I have been using the same old camera bag that I bought out of pure necessity for y e a r s. I think this is the year I replace that old camera bag and get one that I love...like this one from Janine King's Design Shop on Etsy.

Bunco Baby Shower

A group of my friends here in Washington DC get together once a month for a Book Group (we call ourselves 'LSAT' aka, 'Ladies of Saturday Night'). There are about ten of us in our group and four of my friends have either just had babies or are expecting them within the year. I thought it might be fun to get together and celebrate babies! So, we got together this past weekend and played a Baby Shower-style Bunco night! Oh my goodness! It was SO MUCH FUN!

We played Bunco with some modified rules...since we didn't have the typical 12 players, every player played for themselves instead of in teams and instead of trying to reach 21 points, we cut the points down to 11 (anyone who has played Bunco will understand what I just said, if not, host a Bunco night and you'll quickly understand!). We also had a couple of side games. One of them was, everyone brought a baby picture of themselves from ages 0-12 months and we had to guess who was who (the prize was the picture frame with a chocolate bar). The second game we played was within the Bunco game itself. Each time a person rolled a 'Baby Bunco' they recieved a baby spoon (I had about 21 take and toss spoons) when all of the spoons were earned, players could start stealing spoons from eachother. Whoever ended up with the most spoons at the end of the night won (the prize for this was the little baby doll with a chocolate bar).

The other catch to the game was everyone brought a wrapped gift (it didn't have to be a baby gift since everyone would go home with a gift by the end of the night). Then everytime someone rolled a Bunco, the game was paused (whether the round was over or not) and the person who rolled the bunco got to chose a gift from the Gift Table. The next time someone rolled a Bunco, they could either steal a previously opened gift or get one from the table. I made my gift! Here's what I made:

I saw these on Etsy while browsing around one day and thought how easy it would be to make. So, I did a search on Etsy for a PDF file pattern and found one! With a little of my own tweaking I was able to make it exactly how I wanted it! Anyway...such a fun night! I serisouly want to do it again!  (BTW, I'm kicking myself I didn't take more pictures!!! Maybe next time...)