Truckin' Along!!!

Hobby Lobby

I have to admit, ever since I've started blogging, I've been spending a lot of time either on my blog or crafting more than usual:)  This is such a great destressor(if that's even a word:-/ ) for me!  Since, I'm trying to craft more, you know what that means...HOBBY LOBBY trips and several a week that is!  I must say that I am a Hobby Lobby-a-holic:)  This week I frequented it about 3 times already and it's only Wednesday.  Whenever I stop there, I always go to get a few things, but I end up with the whole store...LOL...but really, it's true!  I could practically live in that store!  Who is with me on that one?

I blogged yesterday that I was going to try the mummy tutorial from Craftaholics Anonymous.  If you get a chance you should go check it out!  It is really simple, super cheap, and soo cute!  Well, I officially finished my very first mummy and here it is:  (Drum roll please.....)

Spooktactular Inspiration:)

First of all, I wanted to say that I'm so glad that I started blogging because I get to see all different types of crafts, decorating ideas, organizing, or just odds and end things that I never thought about before!  I also wanted to thank everyone because all of your blogs have motivated me to try more of a variety of crafts:)  It's just what I needed right now, to keep my mind off of other things that stress me out!  Since I have started blogging, which was within the last 2 weeks or so, I have already started many projects and started organizing rooms throughout my house.  I even made a little craft area in the spare bedroom, well it's still a work in progress, but it's getting there:P  Here's just a little of my inspiration that I have found on other sites:

I found these mummies from www.craftaholicsanonymous.net I thought the mummies were just the cutest things and plus I needed prizes for the Halloween party.  So these will work out perfectly just for that:)  I have already begun this project and will post in a couple days or so!

It's All Fun and Games!

Since we are hosting our annual Halloween bash, we wanted to find some exciting and unforgettable games that can be played at our party. I have put together a couple different games that I think will be a blast, or at least I hope so! A couple months ago I was researching on the Internet to try to find some adult Halloween games and I found some different ones on Halloweenforum.com. In the past, we've played drinking games and they are fun and all, but I wanted to go for something different. Here is what I've put together:



1. Toe Tag Mania - As soon as the guests arrive, I will give them 3 toe tags that have been all filled out and ready to go! Each toe tag has a number on it and the purpose of the toe tags is for a drawing at the end of the party for gift! The more toe tags you get then the chances of winning the prize is a higher percent.  So, the rules of this game is try to get as many of them as you can by stealing, bargaining, and/or exchanging. For example, someone might give another person a toe tag for getting them a drink, or doing them a favor. As the night goes, and the more people drink, I think it could get a little crazy for some of the things that could be asked in order to get a toe tag. I found my toe tags on http://www.flickr.com/photos/26295076@N04/5040146018/, these ones had to be my favorite and most authentic looking ones that I found.

In the Valley...

This weekend my husband went home to go combining, that's his true good ole country boy side of him:)  Why should I have stay home and not have any fun, so I planned a fun weekend to go see the fam.  Friday I got to enjoy some time with my dear gma, sister, her boyfriend, and my mom.  My sis whipped a fabulous meal together for all of us and we just caught up with each other.


I've been wanting to go to Galena, IL , which is pretty close to my hometown, for a while now and just haven't been able to.  I thought why not go on Saturday with my sis and that's what we did:)  If any of you have been to Galena then you know that it is a town with lots of unique houses and stores scattered throughout the down town area.  Most of the shops, cafes, and odds n' end stores are situated in a hilly area with many trees surrounding it.  Since it is fall, it's the best time to visit this quaint little Midwestern town because the leaves on the trees are turning all sorts of different colors from red to yellow to brown.   I wasn't the only one thinking this same thing, when we got closer to Galena, we soon found out how packed it was!  The streets in Galena are very narrow and on top of that there is parking on both sides, so it makes for a tight squeeze to get up and down the streets.  On top of that, parking is atrocious.  This town has a lot of history,  SO much character, and that's what brings me back to the town every year.    You can find some unique gifts for just about anyone here and that's just what I did:)  I found something for a couple of my family members and my husband!  I was searching for something for my big puppy, but couldn't find what I was looking for.  My husband is a HUGE fan of the Hawks, so this is what I bought him.

I think he will like this and it will work for the fall season:)  I bought a "Halloween" sign for myself because it was just too cute, I couldn't pass it up!

Then I came across, a little ornament that I knew would work perfectly for a Christmas present for one of my family members!  What do you think?  You don't really see too many of these!

Fashion Friday!!!!

Hey there fellow bloggers!! Shopping is my second job other than teaching, and I can always find some cute outfits:)  I just wanted to share a couple of my most recent purchases with everyone!

I bought this top from Maurices, which is the BEST store ever!  They have really cute clothes for a pretty good price! I got my necklace from Kohl's it has to be one of my favorite necklaces so far.  I bought this shirt because I have a lot of dressy shirts and didn't really have many, if none at all, casual shirts.  At first, I wasn't to excited about the sleeves, but I like how they look especially with the scoop neck line:)

 This is my new favorite top!  I purchased this from Maurices, too.  Layering is a good way to add color and interest to your outfits and that's just what I tried to do.  I thought purple and light gray would be a complimentary color combo.  I'm debating whether or not to go with the same color combo for our bedroom....I still can't decide.  I found the necklace at Maurices also.  The jacket can be worn with many other tops, so that's a plus!  Again the reason why I bought this top is because I don't have many tops that are casual.  What do you think of these?  Which one is your favorite?

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween....

So, tonight I felt like I should start to decorate our house and get it ready for our party.  It usually takes me about a week or so to get the house completely decorated, but I like to start the decorating a little sooner than that.  Plus, I'm just excited for Halloween and how the decor will turn out!  I LOVE Halloween and decorating for it is my fav:)  So here is what I did so far, it's not really whole lot, but like I said it's a start!

This one has to be my favorite picture!  Don't you like the DIY photo frame in the background?  This picture is a close up of the one below this.  I purchased the skeleton head for only $0.88 and the skeleton candle holder for $1.00, great deal, right?!?!  I think so!!!! Most of my Halloween decorations, I have bought on sale after Halloween.  So, if your looking for Halloween decorations, wait until after Halloween to make your purchases.  It is soo much cheaper. Oh, and also check out your local Dollar Tree!  They are some pretty neat things that you can use for crafts or just to sprinkle of Halloween to your decor

DIY Halloween Invitations

Crafting is what I like to do with my free time during the week. Since my favorite holiday is Halloween, I have been working on a couple crafty things for our bash that we are planning on having later on in the month.  One of the first things I decided to work my magic on was the invitations!  As I was leafing through the Oriental Trading catalog, which is one of my favs, I saw an invitation that caught my eye, but these invitations would have cost me about $25.00 or so.  I then decided to do some research online to look for some template or any idea that was out there for making this type of invitation.  I was in search of invitations that would be sort of creepy and fun because I wanted it to have the same feel as how we would decorate our house.  Boy was I lucky because I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's coffin template for an invitation and it worked out perfectly!