don't blink

{Project 356} October 25-final post

The busy day ended with an evening with friends. Margaret put together a girls night at her place complete with dinner and a few rounds of LCR. To get in the spirit of Halloween, we were all to come in costume. I was never good at coming up with a creative Halloween costume. The best I could do was to have Chris pull out my M&M bag that I made 20 years ago while he was on deployment. The squadron wives put together a Halloween party for the kids...I went as an M&M bag and Dustin (he was 14 months old) was a red M&M.

Little did I know that Margaret was going to be wearing the same costume! It was pretty funny when she opened the door and we were both dressed up in the same bag! Too bad one of us weren't the peanut variety!

Now I hope the girls don't get upset with me for posting these pics. They are a really fun group of women who I love spending time with. There is never a dull moment or lapse in conversation when we all get together. 

Enjoy the costume parade below! We all though Brenda's costume was hysterical. Keep scrolling to see it. Thanks again Maggie for a fun evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brenda went as "The Boob Fairy." She bought a 40 DD bra at Target and stuffed it with cotton stuffing. Unfortunately her magic wand didn't do a thing for my M&M's!

{Project 356} October 25-post four

Sneak Peak! Fresh Crops will be hosting their final crop of 2009 on November 20-21! Below is a little tease of one of our kits that we will be unveiling! Our kits are first available to those who attend the and once they are gone...they're gone! Our holiday kits go VERY fast! Sign up while there is still room! Go to Fresh Crops to register!

{Project 356} October 25-post three

Courthouse Road in Stafford County, Va is a winding country road lined with all sorts of houses...everything from mobile homes to ranches to colonials to a high school. But there is this one structure that has always caught my eye. It is an old barn that looks as though it will fall over any minute. Each season the owner puts some sort of decoration on that reflects that particular season. I have always wanted to photograph it in each of the four seasons. On our way home from Clark's Farm, I had Chris pull over so I can snap a quick pick. I didn't have my digital SLR with me, so it isn't as close-up as I would have liked, but nonetheless, I am happy I finally took the photo! 

{Project 356} October 25-post two

It was a beautiful day today and we went to Clark's Farm to pick out our pumpkins this afternoon. Clark's Farm is right down the road from us and this was the second year in a row we bought our pumpkins from them (gotta support the local small businesses!). It's really not a farm...it's more like a family's front lawn...obviously there is no HOA on Courthouse Road in Stafford! About 3 years ago the family that owns the property turned their front and back yard into a "fall festival" with tons of pumpkins, gourds and cider. They also have a petting farm, a few big jumping castles and children's crafts. Not that our kids are into that stuff any more. It was just fun to watch all the little ones enjoy their day!

The place was packed! Not a parking spot to be found! Chris and I made our rounds through the "pumpkin patch" and found two big jack-o-lanterns just waiting to be creatively carved into something special! 

 

 

  

{Project 356} October 25-post one

Today was a busy day...so busy that I decided to write a few posts for today in an effort to keep my events for {Project 356} organized in a way that I will understand!

I wanted to send a little something sweet to Olivia & Jonas (my sister's kids) for Halloween. I found an adorable digital kit from The Shabby Shoppe called confection collection: trick or treat that I used to dress up Reese Cups, Hershey Miniatures and lollipops. They turned out soooo cute! I think I need to adopt a classroom so I can make more of them.

 

{Project 356} October 18

I was so excited for today to come. After a long week at work, all I wanted to do was lock myself in my studio and papercraft for the entire day. And that is exactly what I did. 

I know many of you have elementary-school-age kids and they are probably getting all excited for Halloween...fun costumes...classroom parties...trick-or-treating. Oh how I miss the days when my boys were little! I used to love making their costumes every year and sending in special hand-made treats to school. Feeling a little nostalgic, I still wanted to get into the spirit of things. So today I decided I will make special treats with a hand-made flair, I will just pass them out at work! After all, grown-ups like sweet treats, too! I went right to work by pulling out the latest Halloween paper by Making Memories-Spook Alley (that line may sound familiar...I made my wreath out of it), turned on my Cricut machine and pulled out my new Pink Slice machine out of its box. For several hours on this cold fall day I played and this is what I did...

 

I cut enough paper to make 36 tags to tie around goodie bags. Aren't they cute? I figure if I don't give all the bags away at work, I can pass them out to the cute little trick-or-treaters that come to the door on Halloween! 

As I mentioned before, I used the Spook Alley line by Making Memories. HOWEVER, the circles with the words are my creation. After having this blog for over a year, I FINALLY figured out how to insert a file for you to be able to click on and download! I am so excited to be able to share these with you! Below are two pdf files with the Halloween greetings I created. Print them at home (I printed mine on ivory cardstock) and use a 1.5" circle punch to cut them out (I use the EK Success punches). A faint gray cut line is there for you to line up your punch on. Please let me know if these links works! It is the first time I am doing something like this. If it is successful, there will definitely be more digital downloads in the future!

Download Happyhalloween

 

Download Trickortreat

{Project 356} October 10

It's Homecoming weekend for Colonial Forge! Ryley is all dressed up and ready to go!

 

He's so goofy!

{Project 356} October 8

Last Saturday (October 3), Chris and I enjoyed an evening out together and went to the Oktoberfest celebration going on in Old Towne Fredericksburg. The Capitol Ale House closed down an entire block and turned it into a German Beer Garden. We had a ball! But that is not what this post is about. It is about what I saw in one of the windows while we walked of the 2 liters of Oktoberfest brew we each had. Legacy is a home furnishing/accent store located on Caroline Street in Old Towne. The large shadowbox windows are full of unique Halloween decorations-specifically ceramic pumpkins with an argyle pattern painted on them.

Once again, an obsession was born.

I just HAD to have one of these "preppy pumpkins." It would look so good in front of our fireplace. So this afternoon, while Ryley was getting his haircut in at Alley Door, I went to the "ceramic pumpkin patch" to pick the perfect pumpkin. But how can I pick just one???? I thought maybe two would be better. I could put one on each side of the fireplace. But then which size? There were three different sizes. And what about shape? There were two different shapes-round and tall. What about color? I loved the orange pumpkins with the black argyle, but the black pumpkins with the cream argyle were different and I liked those, too! Too many decisions. Throw in the fact that each shape came in 3 different sizes and two different colors, I came to the conclusion that picking just 2 pumpkins was not going to be an easy decision AND I was in a time crunch, as Ryley was probably waiting for me to pick him up.

So, it was time for the graphic designer in me to kick in. I decided instead of putting a pumpkin on either side of the fireplace, I would have more of a visual impact if I clustered an odd number of them on one side. Five. Five was a good number. Five it was. With the help of Ann (I believe she was the owner of the store), she helped me choose 5 preppy pumpkins for my fireplace. As she carefully wrapped them in bubble wrap for a safe trip home, I decided on one more. I thought Patti may enjoy one of these pumpkins...if she wants more, she can take a trip to Legacy and go through all the decision-making process just as I did. Ann will be more than happy to help her!

{Project 356} October 7

Do you ever come across something new and become excited (and somewhat obsessed) about it that you want to share it with everybody? I seem to be doing that quite often lately. First it was the paper wreath that I saw on the Making Memories website. I saw it and just HAD to make it. Today, it is Fairytale Pumpkins.

Have you every heard of these or seen one? While at work today I was walking around store when I went through the Produce Department and saw two bins containing these extraordinary looking pumpkins. Some were green, some a muted orange, there were yellow ones that looked as though they were covered in a crusty coating and some were orange and green multi-colored. The pumpkins are somewhat "flat" and have very deep ribbing. Many looked as though they could have been the pumpkin from Cinderella before it was turned into the carriage that whisked her away to the castle to meet her Prince Charming at the ball. Hence the name "Fairytale Pumpkins."

I think I mentioned before that I love to decorate for Halloween. I am especially drawn to the way Halloween was portrayed on vintage postcards from the 1860s-1930s. The Fairytale Pumpkins remind me of the scenes on those postcards. Now I want to grow my own. I want to have a big pumpkin patch in my backyard full of Fairytale Pumpkins. I want orange ones and green ones and white ones and gray ones. Chris better start clearing a spot for my pumpkin patch.

I took a few pictures of them to share on my blog, but the lighting wasn't the greatest and I was disappointed in the results. So I turned to Flickr to see what I could find there. I wish I could take credit for the photos, but I can't! The two pictures below are from Flickr photographer Santrina0...

 

The 3 photos below are from Flickr photographer rachel.plowman...

 

 

 

Aren't they cool??? After doing a little more research on them, I found out that they are a good eating pumpkin. It also seems as though this is the type of pumpkin that can grow to be over 1,000 lbs when taken care of properly. 

Now that would make a big carriage to take to the ball.

{Project 356} October 5

Ryley worked his tail off his sophomore year at CFHS. He was bound and determined to have a GPA higher than 3.5. About two weeks ago he came home from school and proudly handed me an invitation to the high school's Academic Letter Award Ceremony. It is an award given to those who maintained a 3.8 GPA the previous school year. He lettered in academics. I thought the only letters they handed out for academics were the ones you see every quarter on a report card. Times sure have changed.

Of course Chris and I were so happy for him and looking forward to him receiving his award. But Ryley had a different idea. He did not want to go to this ceremony...he would have rather stayed home and hang with his "peeps." He protested that he did not work hard just to get an award, he worked hard to make us proud of him and the grades he showed us on his report card should be good enough...why does he have to walk across a stage?  He claims that he has friends that received the Letter in the past and that the ceremony was just a waste of time...it takes forever...and nobody ever shows up for these things. I hate arguing with a teenager. But knowing that opportunities like this are dwindling down (after all, he is the youngest and will graduate in 2011), he WAS going to this ceremony and he WILL put on dress pants, shirt and tie (the invite said it was semi-formal dress). 

Pouting and not speaking to us (he had his iPod plugged into his ears) we drove the mile to the school. For "nobody ever showing up to these things" the parking lot and auditorium were sure crowded. We found some seats together-he sat in between us-and we waited for the ceremony to begin. After the Pledge was recited and the Star-Spangled-Banner sung, I heard the they faint sound of music in my right ear. The child had his iPod plugged in. After giving him that "mom look", he reluctantly took it out of his ear and put it away, but out came the phone so he could text his "peeps" as to how his parents are torturing him by making him sit through this. I give up.

The guest speaker a student who was the the President of the schools' SCA (I'm still trying to figure out what it stands for). She gave a wonderful speech about the 150 year history of the "Letter." Did you know the tradition of the "Letter" began at Harvard to those who participated in sports? She went on to say how she was happy to be in a room full of nerds (maybe that is why Ryley didn't want to be there). But I think what stuck with me the most was when she mentioned that while it is tradition to letter in a sports activity, it is a team effort-there is no "I" in "team." However there is an "I" in "academics." The Academic Letter was something they earned all by themselves.

The time had finally come to sit for hours while the students names were read and they walked across the stage to get their award. All applause was to be held until the end. It wasn't like there was a pause between each name read, kids came up quickly, one right after the other. The hours that Ryley expected to be there really turned out to be about 30 minutes. Guess he can't say "I told you so."

When his name was called, I sat there with camera in hand to take that one awfully dark, out of focus and far away picture that we all have in our scrapbooks. It may not be the greatest picture, but I think the main subject of the photo is :)