M.I.A

As many of you have seen, I haven't been posting quite as much as I have been before..... That's because my husband and I went on our belated honeymoon:)  We just got back yesterday and I had to say this trip was the BEST one I have EVER been on:):)  We went to the spectacular island of Maui!!!  I fell in love with it as soon as we landed!  I seriously didn't want to leave....I want a vacation home there or just retire there!!   There really is just something about Maui that makes me soo unbelievably happy:)  It could be the crystal clear beaches....

Oldies, but Goodies:)

Hey All!!!  In yesterdays post,  I promised that I would share with you what I was making for Christmas candies over the long Turkey Day weekend...

I decided to try to make some delish caramels!  I was kind of a little leery about this because I have heard from many people that it can be kind of tricky to make.  So, I didn't know what to expect...YiKes!!!!  I thought that they turned out pretty well and taste yummy:)

In order to make the caramels you will need:
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Step 1:  You will need to butter a 13x 9 inch dish.
Step 2: In a large heavy saucepan, mix the sugar corn syrup, 1 cup of cream, and butter.  Bring to a boil, stirring often, then stir in remaining 1 cup cream.  Heat, without stirring, to 242 degrees.

In the Christmas Spirit!!!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Turkey Day and wonderful long weekend!  Boy, this past week just flew by!!!  We had conferences at my work on Monday and Tuesday until 8 p.m., so that meant that we had a comp day on Wednesday.  That extra day for the holiday weekend was super refreshing!!  I kept myself really busy this long weekend.  I finished lots of things I've been meaning to do here for a while.  That's why I haven't been posting anything at all.

I wanted to share with you what my Christmas decorations look like so far.  I did up my tree and some odds and ends decorations around the house.

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

There's our puppy, Lucy:)

Another Check Off the List:)

Happy Sunday to everyone!  I hope you all enjoyed your weekends!  This weekend for us was super busy!  We went back to my husband hometown to see his family and friends.  We chatted, watched football, and had some beverages.  Overall, it was a wonderful weekend, especially to be able to catch up with everyone:)

When I got home today, I felt like I really didn't have much time to do everything that I wanted to get done!  Clean the house, get out Christmas things, get things ready for our honeymoon, and work on a sewing project.  Needless to say, I did a little cleaning, and finished my sewing project.  I have to say that I'm pretty proud of my project.  It took me a little while, but I will definitely get my use out of it.

One of the gifts that my husband and I had on our wedding registry was a carrying case for a casserole dish and we didn't end up getting it.  But that's a-okay because I found an awesome tutorial on how to make your very own DIY casserole carrier:)  I found the tutorial at 2 Little Hooligans. There were a couple mishaps that I had along the way, but it turned out great in the end!  These would make fantastic presents for the holidays:)

Front View!

Side View

Half Open

This is what it looks like all unfolded.

 Has any made any of these casserole carriers?  If you haven't and need then you should definitely try it!  I know I will get my use out of it:)  

For the 24 days of Giving Thanks,  today I am thankful for such great in-laws!!  As soon as, I started dating my husband, they treated me just like family.  Then and, of course, now they would do anything for us and help us with anything they can!  I am truly grateful to have such fab in-laws:)

 Happy Crafting to ALL!!!

I'm linked up to :  Under the Table and Dreaming, Today's Creative Blog, and Blue Cricket Design, and Family Ever After, Tatertots and Jello, Tip Junkie,

~Love for fabric~

Woot! Woot! The weekend is (almost) finally here:):) I believe a little Christmas decorating is in store for me and maybe, just maybe, some DIY, too:)  Yes, please!!!

Ever since I started sewing, which really wasn't too long ago, I have collected SOO many different kinds of fabrics!  Right now, I'm going on 1 full mini-box of it:-O  What am I going to do with all of this fabric?!?!  I'm sure I will figure it out, nothing to worry about too much.

Just about every time I go into town, I buy a yard of different fabric because I think, "OH, I could make this," or , "This would look great with __."  Not only am I addicted to Pinterest now, I'm also a fabric-a-holic, too!

Since none of my shows were on tonight, I decided to try another new project.  I made some napkins that could be used for our Fall table decor or our Christmas table decor.  These babies took me about 3 hours to complete a set of 4.

You might say 3 HOURS for these guys??? What?!?!  Well, I'm pretty new to anything sewing and as you can tell these napkins aren't the best as far as the seams go, but I'm still pretty proud of them!  I tried something new and overall, it turned out pretty well:)

Then after I finished with making these, I grabbed my Rustic Snowflakes that I made yesterday, and placed one on the napkin.  I think the snowflake and the napkin kind of have the same theme going on, so it doesn't look too shabby.  I have quite a bit of this fabric left over, so I'm just going to use the fabric to cover a canvas and place one of my snowflakes on the canvas.  I might even be adventerous and try something new, by sewing in Merry Christmas:)

Don't you think it goes together well?

Rustic Snowflake

So, we're a little more than half way through the week....YAY!  I really look forward to my Fridays:)

Tonight I was watching the  news and they had a little clip about how Christmas seems to be coming earlier and earlier every year, as far as the decorating and things go.  They went out and about our city and asked locals if they thought it was too early to be celebrating the holidays and when they end up decorating.  I was surprised, and maybe it was just the people who they interviewed, but most of them said they like how the early you can start to decorate for the holidays.  One person even said that they thought it was early and all, but they just can't help saying no to the holiday spirit!   Now, I have to say that I have been anxiously waiting to put up my Christmas tree because I usually like to put it up early. I thought the weekend before Thanksgiving was early, but the way others made it seem on the news that it wasn't at all!  Who know?  I do know that, I want to start decorating and that I've been in the Christmas spirit for little over a couple weeks:):)  Bring it on, all of it, even the mistletoe!!

Since I used sticks on my "Joy" sign,  I thought these little gems  would fit my "Joy" sign that I made earlier on in the week:)  So, I went out in my backyard and collected some of my branches.  Grabbed some other supplies that I wanted and went to town on my making my snowflakes!  I didn't want to make all of my snowflakes the same because you know that they say every single snowflake is completely different.

What do you think of these little treasures?

Traditions

Who all loves to plan for parties? I practically live for planning parties. I think I like it so much because it gives me something to do and I'm always trying to make it a night that everyone will remember about how much fun they had!

Joy To The World!

Hey All, I hope your having a fantastic Monday!  I have to say that I can't believe that it's almost already Thanksgiving...this year is just flying by!!!  Before you know it will be Christmas and then the New Year:-o  This time of year has always been my fav for many reasons such as: spending time with family, falling in love with the first snow, enjoying all of the Christmas goodies, and having a little extra time off:):)  Who wouldn't love that?

I wanted to share with all of you lovely fellow blogger's, my most recent DIY project, and it is a "JOY" sign!

*Christmas Joy*

Dare to DIY Blog Party: Thanksgiving Project!

 

 A week ago or so, I joined Kim's at Newlywoodwards: Dare to DIY Blog Party.  Today is our very first challenge and we were suppose to make some type of Thanksgiving decor.  I chose to make a Thanksgiving center piece for our kitchen table.  I've been wanting to make something using chalk board paint and that's what I did!  I spray painted my old wine bottles and added some flair to them!!!!

Click here for tutorial!!!

I couldn't wait to post this, so I blogged about it on Friday!  Click on the picture to see the tutorial to make chalkboard wine glasses:)  I've been writing on my chalk board painted wine bottles what I am thankful for every day because there are soo many things to be thankful for that sometimes I may take for granted!

I hope you enjoy checking out the Thanksgiving decor!  You all should stop by the Newlywoodwards to see what other inspirations you can find!  I'm sure there will be tons of neat and inspirational ideas:):)

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Another lazy weekend past and gone! Only a week and a half until a 5 day weekend...WOOHOO:):)  Can't wait until Thanksgiving.

This weekend we whipped out the good ol' "Christmas Vacation".  Yes, we were about due for this movie!  It's getting closer to Christmas and we were in the mood for it!  I was in the Christmas spirit all weekend and decided to make my own ornaments to add to our tree.  All of my ornaments that I have aren't really personalized to us, they're mainly the generic ones that you might buy from the department stores.

  I have seen many Christmas ornaments and found lots of inspiration on Pinterest.  You have to love Pinterest, right?  I  think that I am addicted to it...eeekkk!  I found out today, that even if you have everything you need to make a project and you have good intentions, sometimes the project doesn't turn out how you envisioned it to!  So, I tried making 3 different ornaments and here they are!  Guess which one didn't turn out as good as what I thought it would....
1.

Wedding Program Ornament

Tried and Truly Good Recipe:)

Happy Saturday everyone!  Hope you all are enjoying your weekend while you still can!  I know that I'm trying to do just that:)

Tonight the hubby and I were really craving some spaghetti and meatballs, and let me tell you, I have a mean meatball recipe!  Well, I guess it just got passed down from my mom to me, but still it's soo yummy!!!

The recipe is really pretty easy, quick,  and delish and you can't really beat that at all.

These are the ingredients that you need to make this tasty meal:

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground beef
3 slices of bread
Milk to soften bread
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of basil
1 tsp of oregano
1 tbsp of mince onion
1/2 c of Parmesan cheese
Sauce
Noodles

Harvest Time:)

Hey All!!! Yay, it's ALMOST Friday and time for the weekend...woohoo!!!!

Lately, I have been crafting away and I wanted to share with you all one of the crafts I have made.   I always knew that I enjoyed wine for a reason and that was so I could make a center piece like this!  Well, I didn't really make a lot of these little goodies, but I did spray paint my wine glasses with chalkboard paint and put it all together.  I have seen versions of this on Pinterest and then on this website Krista Arista.  This is what I came up with:)

What do you think of my center piece?  It really is quite big for the size of our table, but they say go big or go home~ So, I went big:)  The best part about these wine glasses is that I could use them for many seasons throughout the year and decorate them for each season.

How "Smashing"!!!

Archiver's Blog

Last night, while I was looking on Pinterest which then lead me to another site, I found Smash books!  I had never of heard of them before, but once I saw one I knew I had to have one of my own:) What it is, is a book/journal of catch all and there really is no rhyme or reason to it, kinda similar to a collague.  You can write any inspirations in it, favorite quotes, pictures, or just about anything you can think of that would fit into a book can go in there. 

"Dare to DIY Blog Party"

One last minute post, I couldn't wait to tell everyone that I am going to "Dare to DIY Blog Party" at Newlywoodwards.  There will be several challenges to do throughout the next month or so.


These are the challenges:

Party Date: Monday, Nov. 14

Dare to… be thankful!

Take some time making your own DIY Thanksgiving project. It could be a fun Thanksgiving advent calendar, a banner or something completely unique. Post about what you made, how you made it and photos in its new home.
(Last year's)

Party Date: Monday, Nov. 21
Dare to… entertain!

Show us your table! If you are not hosting Thanksgiving, take this opportunity to make your table look great. Bring out your dishes and napkins and set your table. I promise you that it will make you smile every time you walk by. Get creative and use new things. Or go true DIY and make something totally new.
(Last year's)

Party Date: Monday, Nov. 28

Dare to… eat cookies!

As we begin to attend holiday parties, share your favorite cookie recipe for all to enjoy. It’s like a digital cookie swap. Share the recipe and a review of the cookie. If you can, add a picture. And don't worry about the extra calories. At Christmas, cookies are calorie-free.
(Last year's)

Party Date: Monday, Dec. 5
Dare to… give homemade gifts!

Nothing is more special than a gift made by you. Try out something new to give this year - ideas include bath and body items, kitchen gifts, hand-sewn clothing or home decor. 
(Last year's)

Party Date: Monday, Dec. 12
Dare to… deck the halls!

Make something new to deck your halls. Did you find something in a catalog that you wish you had? Wreaths, stockings, pillows or advent calendars? Make it! Inspire us all to do the same.
(Last year's)

Party Date: Monday, Dec. 19
Dare to… have traditions!

Everyone has traditions for the Holidays. Tell us all about your favorites or start a new tradition to share.
(Last year's)


 You should join the fun.  Hope to see you there:)

Comfort Food: Chili!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!  I just got back from yet another shopping trip to my favorite store of ALL time, Hobby Lobby and found some great finds and YES they were all on sale...woohoo!!!  Go Me:):)  I will have to post at a later time what I purchased because I wanted to share with you all a fabulous chili recipe that my hubby and I tried over the weekend!

Now, I have to say, that I'm not much of a cook:o, thankfully my hubby is though!!!  So, on Sunday night, he made some homemade chili and it was delish.  All of the credit goes towards him:)

Doesn't it look tasty? 

Decorative Pillow Plus Accessory!

I have been in the decorating mood with making much needed changes to our bedroom!  So far, I have bought a new comforter, painted our bedroom, and made some pillows for our bed.  You could say I've been trying to keep myself busy:)    The next project that I wanted to share with you was making a pillow accessory for my pillows.  I absolutely LoVe this idea and I like how I can switch it back and forth from pillow to pillow if I wanted to!

I made the accessory for my ruffled pillow

Purple, Purple, Purple!!!!

Hey All:)  This weekend just flew by, I can't believe it's already Sunday!  I didn't really leave the house much, I mainly just checked some things off of my to do list, which is great in my book!

The first thing I did this weekend, as I explained in my post yesterday, was try to pick some colors out for our bedroom.  I'm in the process of updating it:)  So, these were our choices that I picked out:

And we ended up choosing the 2nd one on the bottom row for our accent wall and then the gray one in the top row which is the 4th one from the left:)  I wanted to choose a purple that was light enough to paint a stencil on if that's what we decided at a later time.

Keep in mind that we are still in the process of decorating and putting our room all together, but this is the before pic:

Before 

Too Many Choices!

 I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend:) I know I am! I have been one busy girl that's for sure! I have been getting our room ready to paint and bought some sample size paint colors. If you want to see my other post that has my new comforter and the before picture then check out my older post: Change is Great!  I'm having a hard time with choosing just the right color for my accent wall. These are the colors that I have chosen for the accent wall:

 As you can tell there are several purplish colors.  The silver color in the right hand corner is what is going on my other three walls.  I know for sure the dark purple is out because if I want to do some type of stencil on the accent wall then it will be hard to find a paint color that will show up on the dark purple.  So, it's narrowed down to the other 4 purples.  What purple is your favorite?  Any suggestions are great:)

Well, this is kind of a short post, but I figure it's getting late and time to get some much needed sleep:)  Have a great weekend !

It's Just a Dream.....

Hey Fellow Bloggers:)  This week has just flew by hasn't it?  I mean it seems like it was just Monday, but it's almost Friday.  TGIF, right????

I have to tell you that I have been super impatient and counting the days down until our honeymoon is here!  We married in July and decided to wait for our honeymoon until a couple months after our wedding, so that way we would have something to look forward to.  I'm glad that we did too because that gives me something extra to plan and if you don't know yet, I absolutely LoVe planning for just about anything!

This is what have to look forward to:

Found Pic at this Link

Just sitting on the beach sipping a beverage of our choice and looking at a view just like this one:)  Can you take a guess where we might be honeymooning?

You guessed it, we are honeymooning in Maui and I have just about a month until I get to dig my toes into the sand and feel the warm sun kissing my skin:)

I had the itinerary all set about three months ago, practically as soon as we booked our honeymoon!  What can I say, I was just too excited!!!

The Verdict is In!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  We're about half way through the week:)  A couple posts ago, I wrote about my bedroom and what the possibilities could be to decorate it a little differently in order for it to match my new comforter set.   I have figured out what I would like to do with my accent wall:)  Did I choose:

First Sewing Attempt:o

When I look at this machine, my palms become a little sweaty and my hands start to shake a little....another words I'm terrified of this little machine!  A grown woman afraid of a sewing machine, who would have thought! It's kind of silly, I know!  I should be afraid of lions, tigers, and bears! Oh, my! 

Once I started my own blog and had the chance to look at others, I saw TONS of others making their own pillows, totes, carrying cases, and the list could go on and on!  All of those blogs, inspired me to try sewing a pillow for my bed.  I thought how simple would that be, right?!?!?
First, I needed to borrow my mama's sewing machine, and she dropped it off this past weekend.  I didn't waste any time because on Monday I made my very 1st pillow....YAY:)

To begin, that's all my mom did was drop it off and said, "Here it is!'  No instruction on how to thread the thread through or what of thread I even needed...yikes!!!!  I don't think my mom knew that I needed a "For Dummies: How to Book" about a sewing machine. So, it totally wasn't her fault.  Plus, my mama is a very buys woman:)

Anyways, I thought to myself, this will be cake trying to thread the thread through!  I had absolutely NO clue how to even start.  I have to tell you my background with a sewing machine and really, there isn't any background....double yikes!!!! I decided well I'll just give my mom a ring and ask her how I do this.  Now, I don't know any vocabulary about a sewing machine at all!  So, my mom was explaining, "Take the bobbit thread and feed it through...."  I was lost at bobbit!!! What!?!? HuH?!?!

I was bound and determined, I could figure this small machine out! After all, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out!  I looked online for the manual and luckily I found one...YAY...one step in the right direction!  I was reading the manual and it said not only did I need one spool of thread, but 2...HUH?!?!  You get the picture of how difficult it was for me to get the sewing machine ready such as: where do I put the thread, where was the gas pedal, how do I go backwards, and all that jazz!  It serisoulsy took me about 1 hour and a half to figure this bad boy out, but I did, and all by myself:):)  I was beeming from ear to ear when I did get it working.  My advice, if this is your first time working with a sewing machine: a. ask someone to show you how to work it and b. after you figure out how to run it use a piece of scrap fabric to test it out:)

Tombstone Cupcakes

Happy Halloween:) I hope everyone is having a happy Monday and a great start to the week!  Last night when I wrote my post called I Heart Halloween, I promised that I would write a tutorial for my creepy, but yummy tombstone cupcakes:)  Well, fellow bloggers, here it is!  The cupcakes were pretty easy and just about anyone could make these fun looking cupcakes.

~I Heart Halloween~

Alright, lately I have been posting tons on Halloween crafts, inspiration, or what I was planning for our Halloween party!  Last night was our party and even though I was feeling a little under the weather:(, the party went over extremely well!!!!  I had planned quite of few games to play throughout the night, I didn't know how everyone would like them, at first they were kinda leery of them, but as the night went on they had a blast with what was planned.  In my It's All Fun and Games post, I explained 3 games that would be played throughout the night, and I have to say the favorite for everyone would have been the scavenger hunt!!!  I had listed some pretty crazy things that each group had to take picture of and I was surprised by what they did and checked off their list!  These had to be my favorite check offs of the night:

Number 6 on the list was to ride a broom down an isle.  This just made me burst out laughing!  I LOVE it!!!

Change is Grrrreat!!!!

One of my passions and things I enjoy keeping myself busy with is decorating.  I'm definitely not a pro at this, and that's why I'm asking for some suggestions!  Don't you love trying to find new pieces for your newly decorated room?  I know I do!  It was about time to update our "master bedroom", time for a much needed change.  Plus, I've been itching to get out there and start shopping and searching for some decor for our house:)  Here is our bedroom before:
Now before I show you "the after", I have to explain that I'm not finished and it's only the beginning of long decorating process!  I wanted to go with a drastic color change.  Purple and gray, I think are very deep, rich, and romantic, and they compliment each well:)

My inspiration piece for this color was my dress which was a recent spur of the moment birthday purchase:)

That's me in the middle, all happy to be with great friends:) Isn't it crazy though, how you can find inspiration?  The thing that I love about this dress is the fabric, beading, and the deep color!  I think it looks classy and that's how I want my room to turn out!

Organization is Key!

Hey fellow bloggers! This past weekend, I was working on organizing odds and ends things throughout the house! I have been saying I will organize them, but just never get around to doing it. I have a pretty limited space in my kitchen, so I need to keep things organized to make use of the space that I have! Over the years, I have been printing off recipes for supper, drinks, and holiday parties. Since I'm in such a hurry, I just throw all of the recipes in a folder in no rhyme or reason. Then when I come back and look for it, it always takes me an extra 5 minutes to find my recipe! My solution was easy and quick to fix, buy a binder, paper puncher, and use my tabby dividers to section off each categories of recipes! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!

Fall in Full Bloom!

I have to say "fall"  puts a smile on my face!  One because all of the beautiful colors and the crisp, clean air that Fall has to offer.  Two because it is my FAV season!  It makes me feel like a kid again because  it reminds me when I was younger and would rake the leaves into a pile and I would take a running JuMp into them:)

My camera definitely has gotten a workout this fall and here's the proof:

Warning: Work In Progress!

Hey lovely followers!  Just stopping in again, to show you the progress I'm making on my kitchen wall decor.  Lately, I have been starting all kinds of projects and I just need to finish one at a time, I think!  That's what I tell my students, take it one step at a time, I need to follow my own advice.

So, here are my flowers that I made so far by using the tutorial from Craftaholics Anonymous.  The only difference from the tutorial that is listed and my flowers is that my flowers are little bit bigger.  On Craftaholics Anonymous, they say to make it 2" wide which I did for my 1st layer.  Then what I did was for each extra layer, I added 1" to the width.  So, for example, my second layer was 3", third layer was 4", and my 4th layer was 5"I have started my 3rd one, but haven't quite finished it! Here's a couple pics of my flowers:)

Spooky, but cute party favors

Hey girls, happy Monday:)  Yet again it's a beginning of another wonderful fall week!  I sure hope you are enjoying this lovely fall weather.  I know soon, at least around here, the winter will be fast approaching and become very snowy and cool.  I have to say though, I really do LOVE the snow, but just not the cold.  I know it doesn't make sense, but I guess that's just how I roll...

This past weekend, like I said in yesterday's post, I was SUPER busy with projects and just keeping myself a busy girl.  One of the things that I received in the mail were my favors from Oriental Trading, which I adore.  They really have some quality items for a pretty great price:)  Anyways, my candy favors and pens came in from them!!!  I almost forgot that I ordered those.  For Halloween, I like my decoration mainly to be "true" Halloweeny, guts, and gore type of things.  So, I ordered gummy eye balls, french finger fries, and boo boo licks which look like already used band aids.  Plus, I ordered a singreng pen and they were much better than what I expected.  I had bought some clear gift baggies from what better than the Dollar Tree.  I divided up my favors, put them in the clear baggies, and now I have one less thing to do on my list:)  I think they will make nice little party gifts.  I couldn't resist at least trying one of the treats and there were really yummo!!!!

A Crafty Weekend:)

Well, this weekend, I kept myself busy since my husband went home to combine again.  Thank goodness this was his last weekend:)  It just seemed like this weekend flew by, but I guess every weekend feels that way!  Friday night I tried to work on my fabric flowers for some wall decor for our kitchen(will post a tutorial of this soon).  I didn't finish all  3 of the flowers, but I finished at least 2:)  Since I don't have a sewing machine, it took me an extra long time to finish up.   It seriously took me about 2-2.5 hours to make one flower!  It could be just that I'm that slow, but I'd like to blame it on not having a sewing machine.  I made some more mummies and put the candy favors together for party favors, decorated my pumpkin for our contest at school, put together my scrap booking storage, decorated our house for Halloween, and on top of all of that cleaned the house!  Needless, to say I was a VERY busy girl.

I wanted to share with you my oh, so cute lady bug pumpkin:)  At school all of the teachers are taking one pumpkin to decorate and I had a hard time choosing what I wanted to do...but I finally figured it out.
Here is what she looks like:

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!