Happy Halloween!!

My 'spirit' is ghostly.  Meaning it's invisible.  Meaning it doesn't exist!  The spook has not spoken to me yet ... I was focused on getting Ange ready for her weekend away that didn't happen, my upcoming crop, and let's see, what other excuses do I have?  Oh yeah, they changed the date and didn't tell me?  No, that won't work.  I literally have two huge honkin tubs of Halloween decor and didn't even crack them open this year.   

I had to run some errands when I realized I needed to make it fun for Ange.  I gave myself until 2/230 to clean out my basement.  I was starting to get into crop mode and needed to find supplies that were stowed downstairs. 

Long story short, quick fix decorating ... I made a fun tablescape for her.  I knew she wanted tacos, our traditional Halloween meal.  Oh, and did I mention we didn't have her costume together yet?  If you're pits are sweating, you can relate to how I was feeling.  

spider web table cloth, blood red plates, sugar rimmed glasses, blood dripping candles; I cut  u one of those netty gauzy things and put on the chairs ..

one of those 'gowing' hands.  We have had this hand for like 15 years!  I put it in a zippy bag one year and it survived!  Looks great with a lettuce garnish

love the little s & p shakers!

It was fun.  Ange appreciated it!  One holiday down .. two more to go!

Brilliant Day

Ever have one of those days where you wake up telling yourself you are going to do something brilliant today?  I mean really brilliant, not locking your keys in your car brilliant.  I often have those thoughts but that's about as far as it gets!  But not today!  Waking up to a regular day, lots on my list of to-dos, not thinking I was going to be brilliant, but I was.  (getting a muscle cramp from patting myself on the back, I'll stop now) ...
To-do list for today was tidy master closet.  Well, there has been a thorn in my closet for just about as long has I've had the closet and I couldn't figure out what to do with it except look at it in disgust as it gets out of control.
I'm talking about the wrapping paper/gift bag tubs.  Okay, so you use some,  you get some.  Just stick the bag in there.  Buy them on clearance, stick them in there.  Get some more, cram 'em in there.  Just close the door and it will go away.  Not today folks.
Here is what I pulled out of the closet ...

I love the tote, it's long enough for the rolls and has two cute little bins on top for smaller stuff.  It's too tall for under the bed and I have to use my whole wing span to get it out of the closet, usually resulting in scraped knuckles and a few moans and curses. 

Well, what I came up with was briliant, BRILLIANT I tell ya!  I know somewhere, some blogger already came up with this idea but I'm claiming credit today.  

On top of all the wrapping paper, gift bags and tissue paper, I also hoard ribbon.  Hello, my name is Karen and I am addicted to ribbon.  There is a Offray ribbon outlet about an hour away so that's where I go when I need a fix.  

What I came up with was a solution for the paper and the ribbon.  The gift bags just needed to be organized, nothing exciting but looks great and forgot to take a picture.  I used three tension spring curtain rods in the tub, put my spools of ribbon on them and whhhhaaaa laaaa!!!  Problem solved!  I got the ribbon out of the two trash bags and one drawer and into the tote (and some back into the drawer, but neater) ...

before ....

Glorious after ...

The small bins still fit on top of the spools of ribbon which I used to hold supplies like tape, scissors and those pesky rolls of curling ribbon that start in the middle of the spool.  

Can I be done now!  Felt good to scratch that one!

Birthday Card

I am in the process of rethinking my scrap room, yet again!  That is a never ending issue!  I would love to get a wireless printer but that's not in the budget right now but I don't have a surface to put my laptop next to my printer and use it comfortably ... anyway ... I get stifled sometimes and have to just create something!  I pushed everything off my desk, kinda like they do in the movies when some one is going to make out on the desk, and just made a card.  Not as romantic as the make out scene but just as passionate ... yes, yes, stick it there, no, the other angle, twist it, that's right, right on top, yeah baby ... and scene ...

boy I really rummage thru the scraps for this one.  I am determined to start using more of them!  I used an icon from the Crafty Secrets scrap sheets, some of Time's ink for around the edges, Stampin Up punch for the torn page effect,  and some buttons for that vintage cuteness!

Just had to share ...

Two weeks ago my son and his girlfriend got a new puppy.  He's a chihuahua and they named it Captain.  At the time we didn't think it was the best name for him, just couldn't understand why he would pick that name when there were tons more that seemed to fit ... last week he jumped off their bed and broke his little paw ... so now the Captain has a peg leg ... just had to share!

Mantle Redo

So everything fell off my wall, wah, wah, wah!  It took me so long to figure the pictures, and paint the frames ... so disappointed.  But with disappointment comes opportunity, right?!?!?  I took the pix and added them to my mantlescape!  I like the way they turned out.  They didn't all fit but they work...

I went to the library and picked up these books for 50 cents ... I know somewhere there's a tutorial on how to make them a little creepier looking ... I have know idea what they are about, just black spines and kinda spooky titles.  Of course the hubby got excited about the Carl Sagan book ...yeah, umm, I was thinking of you when I bought it ... The gourds are from my garden, they have rotted yet!  

needs something in the middle, I'm working on that!

In the meantime, I saw a solution to the wall collage problem.  Instead of using the command strips (which, by the way,  haven't received yet) I might do something like this ... saw it on Pinterest ...

Halloween Layout

Michaels has been getting a lot of Tim Holtz halloweeny scrap stuff in lately and I'm loving it!  I am teaching a Halloween class and made this layout using his halloween paper pack.  His papers are soooo cool!  Ordinarily I would walk right by this brown pad and not give it a second glance but because it was recommended for this class, I had to indulge.  It has embossing detail all over it and when you use his inks, it turns out so neat.

So the paper is a thick, kraft color.  I used a white gel pen to highlight some of the skeleton's bones ...

 then I flipped one of the pages to use the back for the facing page.  I cut out some of the letters in one of the collage pages and popped every other one to give it dimension.  I only used two inks on this whole spread!  They way they blend together it gives it such an eerie look!  I also used his Goosebump spray for the dots on the solid brown, torn background.  I used Martha's iron fence punch to create the border on the bottom of the dark brown.

Check out this paper pack when you get the chance!  You will be amazed at what you don't see!!!  Just like ghosts hiding! 

Linking to:  Made it Myself Mondays,

Mantle Masterpiece

Fall always brings a happy smile to my face!  It takes me back to my childhood.  I always enjoyed the beginning of the school year.  My favorite outfit is shorts with a sweatshirt, so cozy!!!  And to my college days in New England.  That feeling of independence and in control of my future while sipping hot chocolate in the library.  Ahh, the good ol' days.  Now my future is spelled out on a to do list and menu planner!  But I still love it!  Wouldn't have it any other way.
So when I climbed up in the attic to get down my fall lovelies, I dug a little deeper to find some pix of my old dorm rooms.  My have to do a project with them.  The old 4x4 shots taken with my 110 film camera.
I like to decorate in 'fall' first before Halloween.  Hubby hates the rush of pending cold weather so I have to ease him into the season.  Here was my first take on the mantle and hearth area:

Okay, I have a hootie obsession.  I love the little wire hoot I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  The half lamp looking thing is a lamp I picked up at Goodwill for 75 cents!!!  Love those color days!  I need to find a shade for it then I'll really show it off!!!  I love my pumpkins.  I painted the boo on one side so that I can flip them over after Halloween.

After painting my family room in the spring, my vision was to have a 'photo wall' like all the great bloggers are showing.  It took me a while to figure out what pictures I wanted to use so when fall rolled around, I decided to use some fun fall shots.  I hung them with my now not-so-favorite command strips... here's how the wall looked after about a week ...

WAHHHH!!!  I sent an email and called 3M.  The sad part is my dad worked for 3M his whole career and I love these strips!!!  They just would not stick!  They are supposedly sending a different kind of strip so we'll put those to the test!  

In the meantime, I combined my fall pix with my mantle ... those pix will come tomorrow!  I love how my shots are turning out with my new Sony!  What do you think?!?!?!  Any advice or tips??

Recipe Masterpiece

Now that I am on the way to getting my life in order, I have to get my dinner schedule worked out.  With all the activities that Ange has going on, I need to stay on top of meals.  I was on Allrecipes.com where I could save my recipes to a recipe box and then move them to a weekly meal planner.  That seemed to work but there are soooo many great recipes on the web I didn't want to be limited to the one site.  Then I found Ziplist.  This site is awesome!  You can add a link to your bookmark bar and you can instantly copy any recipe from any site or blog into your ziplist recipe box.  If you have an iphone, you can even take your shopping list with you on the go!

The Mystery of an Organized Life

oh my where has time gone?!?!?  I lost my mojo when I lost my camera.  'Why do that, I can't share it with anyone', the little voice was telling  me.  'Don't bother, no one will see it' another little devil said.  'Take this time to get your act together' a manly voice said to me.  Okay, so I took the advice, got myself together (atleast 85% of the way there) and got a new camera!!!  Yeah!!  Little Sony, you complete me!  More on that later ...
As I was preparing for back to school and trying to collect myself, I discovered a little blog that might just help me do that ... The Project Girl.  She has a wonderful, printable chart for getting yourself organized and trying to stay on top of things!  Since it's so late in the year it was half price.  I'm not totally untechy but to make something look this good, I'm will to pay for it.  Since there's only a few WEEKS left of the year I only had to print out about a dozen sheets, as opposed to the entire year's worth.  As far as I'm comfortable exploring, the top part is open to add your to-dos and calendar schedules.  I played with the daily chores and you can adjust them to your needs as well.  I haven't had a chance to play with the weekly chores (I love most of them all) and the shopping list - I just write in my notes or other to-do's.

I told you it was pretty ... check it out for yourself.  She did make some changes from the 2010 version so who knows, there may be some changes for the upcoming year as well. 

I'm feeling better about my organized, especially with the holidays coming! I've also found a great online recipe box, I'll share that tomorrow ... right now I have to scratch 'finally update blog' off my list!!