Witchy, Witchy, Screamy, Screamy

Today is Saturday, Oct 30, so for us, it's Halloween. Tad, Hailey and I picked out our pumpkins last week, Hailey has her Halloween wig and face paint ready to apply, we bought our traditional pumpkin face pizza from Papa Murphy, we've gutted and carved our jack o'lanterns, baked the sugar cookies and now we are just waiting for the beggars to start knocking at the door.

Have a Happy Halloweenie!

Wash Day

Today is Wednesday, and as such, is my laundry day. I don't  particularly enjoy doing the laundry, but it's not really that hard. Tad carries the basket of clothes to the laundry room before he leaves for work. I have everything close to hand--

An electric, 12 cycle washer, electric 5 cycle tumble dryer, 3 types of laundry detergent, powdered bleach, liquid bleach, fabric softener and stain remover, as well as a clothes rack, a hanging bar and a clothesline to hang things I don't like to put into the dryer. I've been having Hailey do her own laundry for the last year or so, so when I do laundry, it's just for Tad and myself, which usually amounts to 3 loads--whites, colors and jeans. It really isn't that hard to go downstairs, open the washer, put in the laundry additives particular to that load, add the clothes, push the correct button and close the lid. It's not that hard to open the dryer, toss in the clean, wet things, turn a knob and push another button. These machines do all of the hard, heavy work. I just have to load, unload and put away.

Really not hard at all. It's not back breaking, time consuming, hot, heavy work. Not like this.

This is my great grandmother, Emma Edna Croft Freeman. She's my maternal great. I'm not sure exactly how old she is in this picture, but I'm guessing it was taken sometime between 1915 and 1920. Isn't she cute? Note the piles of clothes on the ground next to her feet; the 2 galvanized tubs for rinsing and the HAND wringer washer. She probably thought that it was an improvement over the washboard. I've sure got it easy. I can be done, start to finish, in about 3 hours, with only about 1/2 hour of actual work involved.

I'm done complaining now.

Better

I decided to go ahead and make gingham pillow covers for the futon, and I'm glad I did. The gingham pillow covers match better with the rest of the pillows, and also better with the curtains, foot stool and drum kit cover.

The Cutenesses

I love (I think I start so many of my blog entries with that phrase.) printed paper and cardstock. I love looking at it, shopping for it, collecting it and even, sometimes, using it. This summer I found some paper called the Tree House Collection by Pebbles. I immediately fell in love with it. Then I had the  idea to create books and notebooks and a checkbook cover for my purse, using this paper. I started out with something I call a "Purse Book".

 

My purse book is a little book of lists of things that I need to remember when I'm shopping for things--DVDs we own, library books I want to check out at the library, which sizes of knitting needles I have at the house, clothing sizes for family members--these are just a few of the lists I keep in my book, so I don't have to keep them in my head.

Another necessity in my purse is my "Purse Folder".   

This idea came from Tamara, who got it from a friend of hers. It holds shopping lists, coupons, tithing receipts, store receipts and errand lists. I took the idea and ran with it.

Then I covered a tiny composition book with it. (Thanks, Jen!) 

 

Yay! A place to make notes!

Finally, I made a checkbook cover with it.

 

Now my purse accessories match and I love looking in my purse. 

 

I also have cute purses. Mom and Cheryl gave me this adorable red purse, which I affectionately named "The Luggage", for my birthday. This was actually the purse that inspired the purchase of the paper used for the accessories. It goes perfectly with the little clutch which  holds lip gloss, tylenol, lotion, kleenex and other necessities.

I also bought this darling purse last week at Walmart. Cute, black, rhumba ruffles, I love it.

This yellow purse was a favorite during the summer--bright and sunny and yellow,

and I found this matching yellow wallet as a happy accident at Hallmark.

My purses make me smile, and smiling makes me happy.

Mummy Says, "Happy Halloween"!

This is a little candy jar made from a pint glass jar, strips of muslin torn to about 1.5" wide, glue dots to hold the muslin strips in place, googly eyes and a sharpie pen. Small baby food jars or other condiment jars could also work. For smaller jars, I'd use narrower strips of muslin.

I just wrapped muslin strips around and around the jar, tacking the ends with glue dots and adding more strips until he looked the way I wanted. Then I glued the googly eyes with more glue dots, and drew his mouth with the sharpie pen. He needed some brains, so I filled him with M&M's, but candy corns or anything else works as well.

 



Have a Happy Halloween. Mummy and Dead said so.

Disaster

We were awakened last night by the sound of things falling and falling and falling in our bedroom or bathroom. Tad got up to check and discovered that our closet rods, which we had so lovingly installed a couple of months ago, had all fallen down--pulled the screws right out of the walls. The anchor bolts were apparently NOT.

Now we have big holes in the walls from these screws and anchor bolts, as well as holes from removing the previously installed closet rods and racks. We're a little surprised the anchor bolts didn't hold, but we must not have hit the studs in the walls. We are seriously considering pulling down the sheetrock, finding a way to mark the placement of studs, reinstalling new sheetrock and re-mudding and taping and making it new and lovely. (It would also eliminate the rest of the nasty pink paint in there--the last vestiges of the previous owners' horrible taste in paint colors.) Or we may just decide to repair and reinforce the walls with lumber. We're not sure yet, but something will have to be done, and soon.

Seriously Yummy

Ever since I've been using my Autumn candles, the house has smelled so good, but I haven't had anything to show for it. The other day I searched the internet for some Pumpkin Cupcake recipes. I found a couple I want to try. This is one attempt. I made these up last night while Hailey and Tad were at mutual. They said the house smelled really good when they got home. :)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 white or yellow cake mix*

3 eggs

1 cup Libby's solid pack pumpkin

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1 small package instant Pumpkin Spice pudding*

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, beat on medium speed.

Fill baking cups 1/2 full.

Bake for 18-19 minutes

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. softened cream cheese

1/4 cup softened butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash salt

2-3 cups  powdered sugar

1-2 drops orange food color

Mix together softened cream cheese, butter, salt.

Add powered sugar until it reaches desired consistency.

Frost the cooled cupcakes.

Store in refrigerator.

*The recipe I found called for a spice cake mix and vanilla pudding. I couldn't find a spice cake mix, and I had a box of Pumpkin Spice pudding in the cupboard from a year or so ago, so I switched them. If I had a spice cake mix, I would not put the ginger or cloves into the batter.

Adrenaline Rush

This is my morning.

We bought the pantry last week, and I was waiting for an opportunity to put it together. I should have done it Saturday, but I was having too much fun crafting, so it was on my list for today. The appliances had been in this workbench cabinet that we bought after we took the desk out of the kitchen.

 The workbench is a horizontal surface, and collected everything brought into the kitchen. It was also deep and low, and hard to reach the things on the bottom shelf, in the back. I put the pantry together this morning, and loaded it up with the appliances, and I love it!

Top to Bottom
3 quart Crock Pot, 4 quart Crock Pot,

2 quart Crock Pot, 6 quart Crock Pot

Toaster, Mixer, Food Processor, Rice Cooker

Fry Daddy, Wheat Grinder Bowl, Waffle Baker

Ice Cream Freezer, Blender, Wheat Grinder

Plus, the horizontal top is too high to reach to put anything, so it won't hold anything except my polka dot pig.

Now we can move the workbench out to the garage for Tad to use with his tools.

Busy Day

It's been just me at home all day today. Tad and Hailey went to Boise for the weekend, so there have been no demands on my time except things that I've wanted to do. I haven't cooked, I haven't cleaned, I've just been crafting up a storm. I've been having a blast painting, cutting, gluing, and wrapping (and listening to Christmas music while I've been at it. I'm not going to listen to Christmas music again until probably after Thanksgiving, but I wanted the Christmas music while I was making Christmas ornaments).Now at the end of the day, this is what I've gotten done:

Bead wrapped Filigree Stars (Kit of 3 from Michaels, I changed the beads from green to red.)

Shell encrusted woodsie stars wrapped in raffia.

My efforts at creating wire wrapped filigree stars from scratch.

Star Hangers

A Craft-lifted star which was originally a gift from our RS presidency when I first moved into the ward.

and a miniature hanging ornament version of a Tiny Terra Cotta Nativity set that I made in RS many years ago--I can't even remember which ward I was in when I made them, but they've long been favorites of mine.

Here are the originals. They are about twice as tall as the hanging ornaments.

This is not really a Christmas Tree in my dining room.

It's a baby spruce tree that we bought at the local nursery about a month ago, and which we finally brought inside the house last week so that it wouldn't freeze during the night. It really should have been planted the weekend we brought it home, but that day got away from us, as well as every other Saturday (and Monday night, and Tuesday night, and Wednesday...) since then. I'm thinking now that I'll just leave it in the dining room and let Hailey decorate it as a Christmas tree with her favorite ornaments and decorations, since she informed me that she doesn't like the Nativity Tree as well as the traditional ornaments and decor.

This one is for Jennifer

Jen lives in New Mexico, where the changing of the seasons goes from warm to hot back to warm again, and there is little cold anytime of the year. Jen's favorite season of the year is autumn, and she especially misses the turning of the leaves from green to yellow, gold, orange and red.

I live in Idaho, where the changing of the seasons can occur in a matter of minutes, if not days. The temps, weather and seasons range from cold to colder, warm to warmer, and hot to hotter. This year has been beautiful, as far as weather, and we've had a lovely autumn. The potato farmers had ideal harvesting conditions this year, with warm, bright days, cool nights and only 1 day of rain, right in the middle. This last week, the nights have finally gotten cool (or cold) enough to start turning the leaves, and so we have this...

and this...

and this...

You're welcome!