pumpkin carving

Last night we all carved our pumpkins. This is what they looked like before:


and during:



My daughter being the total goofball that she is (don't know where she gets that from!!)

And finally when it was all done they looked like this:

Don't you love my kids' little pumpkins?!! They didn't actually carve them. I let them draw the face that they want and then I carve it exactly how they drew it so that it totally looks like their creation. And how cute is that skeleton stand?? I picked that up at Target and it was super inexpensive (like 6 or 7 bucks). So cute!!!

And here's what our pumpkins will look like tomorrow night:


BTW, I just read a tip about lighting pumpkins that I (for some reason) had not thought of before. It said to put multiple candles in the pumpkin to make it brighter. Duh!! Why didn't I think of that??!!

Happy carving ya'll

baby it's cold outside!!

With the weather getting so chilly, my favorite thing to do is this:

And we had hot chocolate and read some new books that we ordered from school. And it was such a fun time. Last night it went down to near freezing and it's going to be the same tonight. And I have realized something ~ I don't think I could ever move back to Michigan. Yep, my blood has thinned and I just don't like the frigid cold anymore. Not that I really did to begin with. Now, don't get me wrong, I like when the temps get cold. I *love* 50-60 degree weather. I love wearing sweaters and big comfy sweatshirts. And I crack up when people who have never lived in the north think it is "freezing" when it's 60 degrees outside! hee hee But when it gets near 30 and below.....well, that's where I have to draw the line. Sorry mom! Guess you're gonna have to move south!

Oh, and I started working on Olivia's Halloween costume:


That's it for now. I'm gonna go get some hot chocolate :)

Frankenstein pops

3 more days til Halloween!

My kids are *so* excited. I still haven't finished my daughter's shirt for her costume but I'm hoping to get to that tonight.

I made these little lollipops for the kids in my son's preschool class. I already gave them the pumpkin poop at their fall party last month but I at least wanted to give them something for a Halloween treat. There will come a day when I won't have anyone to give these cute treats to (cause my kids will be too old!) so I'm taking advantage of every opportunity now!

So made these super quick and easy Frankenstein lollipop covers with the Batty For You stamp set. The paper is green galore which was fun to use since I hadn't touched that color in quite a while. I used caramel apple suckers inside (which is why I chose the green color) but I found that the suckers that work the best are those flat ones that you get in the long pack (you know, the ones that are like $10 for a dollar). These suckers were a bit too lumpy but I made them work. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to make for my daughter's class.

Measurements for the lollipops:
Cut cardstock 6 5/8" x 2 1/4"
Score at 3 1/2"
Use the slit punch on the longer side

4 days til Halloween!

I know this, not because I am able to read a calendar. But because my daughter wakes up every day ~ EVERY day ~ and says "6 days til Halloween! 5 days til Halloween!...4 days til Halloween!!" We've been doing the Halloween countdown for the last week. So cute! I love the excitement that kids have. And it makes me a kid again, too :)

This week will be filled with carving pumpkins, making Halloween treats, going to my daughter's school parade and party, getting costumes ready, and preparing for my usual Halloween-ish foods for Friday. Halloween wouldn't be complete without mummy dogs ya know!!


Oh, and I'm going to try my hand at making these. I'm going to try the mummy ones. We'll see how it goes. I figured those would be the easiest ones.

My son's costume is ready. He's going to be Indiana Jones. I bought the hat and whip and then just bought a brown shirt and pants (that he can wear again). This kid always looks so good in hats!

But I haven't finished my daughter's yet. I still need to paint her shirt. She's dressing up as a rock star. Homemade costumes all around this year!! And for me, well, I'm dressing up, too, but you'll have to wait to see that one!

Here's what I was the year before last...

In case you're not familiar with the movie, I was Sally from "Nightmare Before Christmas". My kids get *such* a kick out of me dressing up. So that makes it even more fun!

Spectacular Sticky-Note Experiment

Makes me want to go find a bunch of sticky notes!!

so into FALL

I love this time of year. I love everything about it. The leaves changing. The weather cooling off. Pumpkins. Fires in the fireplace. Everything.

Sometimes it's hard for me living the south because we don't always get great fall weather. Either it's hot or it's cold. We don't always get the in between. But this past week it has cooled off quite a bit, the weather has been perfect (other than a little rain) and I'm in total fall mode!

We've made several batches of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

and a lot of pretzel hugs

the pumpkin spice candle is always burning in the kitchen

and don't forget trips to the pumpkin patch

Now if I could just get rid of these sinus headaches that feel like a vice grip on my head, everything would be perfect!

Added note ~ you can find both recipes on Becky Higgins' website here.

catching up on old photos

Last night I was in a super scrappin' mood. I stayed up later than I should have but managed to get several layouts done. Despite the fact that I have all these great fall photos that we've taken recently, I was more in the mood to work on some older stuff. So as I was going through photos I found some of my kiddies from several years ago. And thanks to the last couple kits from Studio Calico, I managed to put these together :)

This next one makes me really miss my house in TN. My son used to love to go to the edge of the railing upstairs and slowly push a ball over the edge and then watch it bounce all over downstairs. It was so cute how he would do it, too. Really slow like the ball just happened to fall over the edge, all on it's own! I had forgotten about that til I came across this photo. See....another great reason why scrapbooking is so important! Record those memories!!


I also started playing with the new papers from my Secret Santa but I'll save that for another post :)

It felt really good to get some more of these photos scrapped. I'm always worried that I'll keep scrappin' the current stuff and the older stuff will never get done. But I'm happy to say that I'm on my way to having the kids' stuff current. Whew! I can't tell you how good that feels!!

so disgusted

Well, I had planned on sharing some fun fall pics this morning. However, what I just witnessed at my daughter's school has me so disgusted that I can't think of anything else right now. I share this, not just so that I can vent. But because I think it's something important enough to bring up and make people aware of.

As I was walking out of my daughter's school there was a boy standing outside crying, visibly upset, standing by himself. I was about to stop and go back in and tell the school when I realized there was a woman walking away, who kept turning back and motioning to "go in" as she was walking to her car. I kept thinking "why doesn't she walk him in if he's this upset" But, I'm not his mom. She walked to her car and I thought "is she going to leave the parking lot with her son just standing there?! Doesn't she want to make sure he gets in the school?" As I thought that, another girl got out of the car, probably his sister (but WAY old enough to know better), and yelled to him "Get in the school you retard!" Now, she was a good 20 ft from me, and it's probably a good thing that she was. But even being that far away it goes to show you just how LOUD she yelled the "R" word. I looked at her and said "Wow, that was real nice". And all this happened as I was walking my 4 year old to the car. Great. Now he knows that word, too. However, my son saw how visibly upset I was and we talked about how we never, never, NEVER EVER use that word. Still...damage was done.

Now, this kid was clearly a special needs child. Get that..."special"?? I don't think his family gets that. Now, I'm not here to judge. I don't have a special needs child so I do not presume to know the challenges. However, I can say for certainty that I would never call my child that name and treat him/her so callously. As they went to get him into the school, he began to run. And I heard his mom and "sister" (whoever she was) yelling at him. I was about to go back into the school when I saw the school's counselor come out.

Let me tell you, this happened nearly an hour ago and I am still sick to my stomach. Sick to know that this child lives in this kind of environment. I just don't understand. I guess I'm not that kind of person. I'm just glad my daughter didn't witness it because she probably would have been crying at how this boy was treated.

2 minutes on a soapbox

This is why it is SO important to have a Commander in Chief that knows what war is all about and how to bring our troops home safely. This affects everyone, at home and overseas. My prayers, as always, are with our troops and their families.

hockey mom

Well, it's official, I'm a hockey mom! I signed my 4 yr old up for hockey last night. Look how excited my son was to get his skates! He was excited about it all til it came down to putting his skates on and going out on the ice. But he did it and had so much fun and didn't want to leave! But since last night wasn't an "official" practice, he didn't get to skate a whole bunch. I can't wait til he gets all his gear. Should make for some cute scrapbook pages :)

I'll leave you with a quick layout I did with last month's Studio Calico kit. Have a great day everyone!

Thank you Secret Santa!

I got a present in the mail today!

And it was filled with all kinds of fun goodies from my Secret Santa!! (from Wrapper's Delight)

I have to say that the Christmas line from My Mind's Eye is one of my absolute favorites out of all the new papers coming out. So, needless to say, I was super excited to see that my box was filled with those!! And check out the cutie patootie acrylic stamps!!! It's hard to tell in the photo, but that vellum paper has snowflakes on it and the red paper behind has glittered Poinsettias (both of those are Making Memories). I was SO excited!!

Thank you Secret Santa!!!

webster's pages

Have you heard of this company? I just love the vintage feel to their pages. Check out their new line "Hello Beautiful". Isn't it so pretty??! I want some!! They're having a giveaway over at their blog. You can check it out here. Then again, don't check it out cause that's less chance of me winning. hee hee Just kidding!!! Go try and snag yourself some goodies :)

BTW, don't forget about Parker's raffle here.

quick post

This is going to be quick cause I have a million things to do today and tomorrow. We have gymnastics after school today and tomorrow is sign up for hockey. I can't wait to see my 4 year old in a hockey suit!! hee hee Who knew little boys could be so much fun?? I always thought the girls were more fun but I'm finding out that it's pretty equal.

Anyway, I've been working on another layout for ebay:

I got the inspiration to paper piece the haunted house from a sticker I found at Target. Goes to show you that you can find inspiration anywhere! Anyway, it'll be up tonight and you can check it out here. I think this one is going to be the last of the Halloween stuff (for the most part) for ebay. Once I finish the kids' treats for school, Sunday School, and teachers I'll be ready to move on to Christmas stuff!

Lots to do, chat later!!!

Raffle for Parker

Hey guys, I'm talking about Parker again :) Someone sweet made this quilt to raffle for Parker's medical bills:

For each $5.00 donation to Parker’s medical fund your name will be put into the back of one of Parker’s dump trucks, with the winning name to be drawn on October 31!

If you've been to Parker's website recently, you know that he has 2 upcoming surgeries which also means more medical bills. You can head here to read more. I know times are tight for a lot of us, but it doesn't take much to make a difference. Head over there, make a donation and remember ~ you're not trying to win a quilt, you're helping out a little boy and his family. And, for every person from my blog that heads over there to make a donation of $20, you will also receive a gift from me :) Come on, we all have $20. You know you do cause you're probably spending more than that at the scrapbook store! So at the risk of sounding preachy, don't just read this and move on....do your part. You help a family, you get a gift, and you may win a quilt. It's all good!!

Once you've made your donation, email me at ll_designs at yahoo dot com (sorry, trying to avoid those nasty spam emails!)

Scrapbook the PRESENT

I took on a challenge on Stacy Julian's blog about scrapbooking the present. You can visit her blog to find out all the details but here's a little excerpt that she wrote:

Can you imagine if every woman in the world had a little "present" in her purse, a little something to pull out and look at on the bus, in the school parking lot, in line at the grocery store ... I think there would be a greater degree of gratitude, of patience, of satisfaction and of happiness.

The idea is to take 10-12 photos, scrapbook them in a small little book, and then carry it around for a full year. Every time you come across this album in your purse, pull it out and look through it. Then in 1 year, scrapbook your experience.

I thought it'd be fun so I joined in on the challenge. I made a simple book with my handy dandy Bind-It-All. I kept it *super* simple. After all, it's going to hanging out in my purse for a year so it's gotta be durable!! (which means nothing sticking out from the sides that can get torn or bent) The front is painted with Making Memories paint and I used some Mod Podge to seal it.

Here's some photos from my book. Like I said, I kept it super simple. The idea of the book is the photos, not the design.


Take the challenge! Make a present for yourself :)

Fun with punches

I love that my kids like to raid my scrapbook goodies.

I will admit that sometimes I'm in the middle of something and just want to finish and don't want to be bugged. But I have to say that yesterday was so much fun. I was cleaning up my tables in my scrap room and putting stuff away. And one by one both kids made their way into my room. First it started with coloring. But then it soon turned into raiding my drawer of punches. I think at one time they had like 10 out at once. But look what they came up with:


How cute is that?! They took the Word Window punch along with some flower punches and made their cute little creations. And that was just a few of the cute things they made. I love that they share this hobby with me :)

I have a mini album to share with you all but it's rainy and cloudy and not so good for taking pics. So that might have to wait til tomorrow. Til then...

And the winner is...

Email me (ll_designs07@yahoo.com) your address and I'll get some handmade goodies to you!

Thanks everyone for your nice comments :) I'll be doing another giveaway soon. That was fun!

Halloween treat bags...& a video :)

These are the treat bags we made at stamp club yesterday. Aren't they cute?! I found the idea on Virginia Tillery's blog. You can check out hers here. I immediately thought of Halloween when I saw it! They are super cute and super easy. I played around with making these in a few different sizes and the one shown below is my favorite.

(BTW, don't forget about my giveaway that ends tonight! Click here)

I used the Ghostly Greetings DS papers and Batty For You stamp set. Below is a video (yes, a video!) with the instructions. I thought that would be easier than taking photos of each step. List of supplies are at the end.

Have fun making your treat bags!!



These are the supplies you will need:
patterned paper 3" x 10" (Ghostly Greetings)
scalloped edge 3/4" x 10" (Ghostly Greetings)
cardstock 3 1/4 x 3 1/4" scored at 2 3/4" on each side (Old Olive)
Batty For You stamp set (stamped with black Stazon)
scoring tool
scallop punch
1" circle punch
1 3/8" circle punch
white gel pen
sticky strip
5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon

To make the large bag shown in the photo ~ cut strip of paper 4" x 12", scallop strip 3/4" x 12", and the base 3 3/4" x 3 3/4"

WCD and a giveaway!

Today is World Cardmaking Day! So how did you spend your day? I spent the morning cleaning the house. Then my daughter and I went out to lunch for some "girl time", ran to get some hay and cornstalks for the yard, then came back and worked on a few cards to show the girls at our stamp club tomorrow. I wanted to show off the new Winter Post stamp set and Ski Slope DS papers in the new Holiday Mini Catalog. Love, love, LOVE them both!

So here's a few simple ones that I came up with:

Notice Rudolph's red nose ;-)


It's hard to tell in the photo of the next one, but the sentiment (from the All Holidays set) is embossed in red

This one came straight from the mini catalog. I just love the look of these tags using the new Top Note Sizzix die for SU

In honor of WCD I'm giving away some handmade goodies...maybe something I've shown here, maybe not, maybe a little of both! Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner at random (U.S. only, sorry!). That means those of you that lurk but never say hi are going to have to come out of hiding!! lol I'll give you til Monday night and I'll pick a winner Tuesday morning :)

I'm off to put up all my fall stuff before my daughter explodes with excitement!!