Chad and Evan's Halloween Costumes - 2010

Chad

Kate and Evan

OK, I really do have human children and they still dress up for Halloween. Evan my daughter and one of her best friends (since she was 3) Kate went as roaring 20's flappers and my son Chad went as a flapping penguin.

Cornflake Card Swap

Some of the fun stuff that we swap last week at my monthly Cornflakes card swap.  I wasn't able to make it but I did send my cards. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with and of course to be able to talk about what's up in the stamping world.

New display project



Before




Annie inspecting the finished frame

I got this idea from one of the Stampin' Up catalogs.  It took a long time to find a frame cheap enough to experiment on. I'm amazed at how $$$ they are even at the Goodwill stores.  I finally got one at one of the local auctions for $3.00.  I took out the linen liner and oil painting before washing everything down.  I then went over it with several layers of paint.  I used a rag to wipe some of the paint off to give it that distressed looked. I plan to use the frame to display some of my smaller items I have for sale in my booth at the consignment stores.



Miss Squeak and her Halloween hat

 I know people thought Annie was getting all the Halloween attention around our house.  I did get a little witch's hat for Squeak and you can tell by the photo she's not all that in to it.
I use a very old Sony camera (over 10 years old) and there was a perfect shot of Squeak standing up and stretching (just like a black cat on a fence) with the hat on.  As you can see my camera was too slow to get the shot but at least I have some proof she wore it.

Already for Halloween - Annie

I took Annie down to the park for her evening run last night in her Halloween costume.  It didn't seem to brother her at all.  She would even wear the hat as long as it didn't get in the way of chasing her tennis balls. 

Most people just thought she was wearing a  strange rain coat.

I found it interesting that people who are afraid of big dogs had no problem when they saw Annie in her costume.  I guess mean dogs don't dress up.

Comfort Food - Pot Roast and Apple cake

It's rainy outside and I'm home with the start of cold. I decided to make some comfort food.  I love the smell of cooking pot roast.  My mom was a great cook and we always came home to wonderful smells from the kitchen. 

I didn't want Annie to feel left out, so I got her some HUGE beef bones.  I had a long talk with the butcher (I'm sure all the ladies behind me were rolling their eyes) about what size bone would be best for a large dog.  While the first beef bone was being roasted, Annie guarded the oven like it was Fort Knox.  I'm sure it will give her terrible gas tonight but she is one happy dog. 

Made an apple cake for dessert and plan to serve it with great bottle of honey mead made by the Rabbit Foot Meadery - "Melia".

Squeak's lastest kill

When I have the house to myself for more than a week, I  like to do a  deep cleaning so I can enjoy a clean house for longer than a few hours. As I was cleaning, I kept finding large leaves by the backdoor.  It just seemed weird since we don't have these trees in our yard. 
Last night Miss Squeak jumped on my work table out in my studio with a very wet leaf.  I guess she has been bringing them home for me and I was not getting the hint.  She finally had to drop it right in front of me.  I think a leaf is the only "kill" she could bring home that Annie would not block. A wet leaf and cat is not a good combination on the work table .

Quick Halleween Cards - Charms

I've been cleaning up my studio (never ending project) and found some Halloween themed brads and charms.  I've had them for over five years so I thought it was time to use them up.  Made some CAS (clean and simple) cards while I was watching the third season of Bones.  Maybe this year I will get them mailed out. :)

Wedding

One of my nieces decided to get married this month on a day that would be easy to remember 10/20/10.  To keep things simple they decided to get married down at city hall.  She also had to find a wedding dress that would be ready within a few weeks. I was part of the wedding dress hunt and it's not as easy as it sounds. Luckily she's a sample size so she was able to find one off the rack and just had to get it cleaned. I really liked her flower bouquet and I later found out that my daughter Evan made it after watching various YouTube videos.  I like the unusual flowers and colors they picked.

Four Wheeling

Photos are from a recent camping trip one of my cousins in Colorado took.  Looks like tons of fun and I begged to tag along next time he goes.  Looks like a great place to hike too.  Now I'm wondering if there are tour groups that can teach you to four wheel drive while you are on vacation.

Michael Strong Inspired Cards

I was asked to do a card class for the ladies down at the San Jose Buddhist church next month.  I was inspired by Michael Strong Asian theme cards.  Since I don't know how many people will be attending the class I had to keep it simple but interesting. Thanks Mike!

Busy Morning Cooking

One of the advantage of getting up before sunrise.  Annie and I head out the door as soon as it's light enough for me to see where her tennis balls land. Annie runs hard for about 45 minutes chasing the balls and then we walk the trail before heading home. This morning I had to make a double batch of dog cookies.  So while I had the oven on, I decided to make three apple cakes.  One for Evan, no walnuts, one for Hubby, rasins, cranberries,walnuts and one for Lars who gave me all the apples.  Hubby started eating his apple cake before I could take the photo.
Evan ran the Nike marathon today in San Francisco so I made a big lasagna for dinner.  I had enough parts left over to make a small one for Lars. 

Another Great Auction Fine - One Vintage Mannequin

Well, if you wait long enough, any you want will show up at the auction house. I've been looking for a vintage mannequin for a long time.  This one is from France and very old. It was fate that it would fall into my hands.
I'm in the planning stages of hosting a "deconstruction jewelry" workshop and wanted a full size vintage mannequin to use as a display model.  In the workshops we will take apart jewelry and make it into something else after we have learned the basic techniques of jewelry making.  I hope to have someone come in and give a basic glass bead making workshop so we can also make our own beads as well as a welder and silver clay teacher. Finding the mannequin was a sign that my "deconstruction jewelry" workshop was meant to be.

Crafty Foxes Holiday Boutique

Today was Crafty Foxes Holiday Boutique.  It's been around for over 35 years and has changed a lot in that time.  It's use to be all handmade Christmas ornaments by women who were stay at home moms.  Now most of the vendors are professional artists making the holiday boutique rounds.  It has a Asian theme so there is always something interesting to see.  I don't buy much anymore but I did get some of Kelly Kookies.  They made a new shortbread blueberry and guava cookie which was pretty good. Their chocolate dipped shortbread is the best.    I helped out sorting price tags and riding shot gun when things came up to the check out stand without tag.  We sold our honey and spam musubi.  I didn't have an extra card rack so I couldn't sell my cards. I did buy Annie some chicken jerky from "tablescraps" (that is one of the best names for a dog food company) which she loved.  They also have a line of doggie cloths and collars but nothing in Annie's size.  When I asked why they didn't carry bigger sizes, they said the bigger dogs are able to rip off something they don't want to wear.  We will see what Annie will do with her bee costume when we go out in public.

Tengu - Sake Night

I attended my first "Sake Night" at the Tengu restaurant in downtown San Jose last night. Tengu is a small restaurant (caters more to the college students during the day) that hosts a private boutique sake tasting once a month. They also pair it with some type of Japanese inspired food.  I'm not a big sake fan because back in the day of my grandparents, it was a really harsh drink, hence why it had to be heated.  The new generation of sake makers have gone back the original version of making sake, which makes it very smooth.  We started with a citrus sake (photo) which tasted like Fresca.  It was paired with edamame (soy beans) with light sesame seed pepper oil.  The main course of sushi and abalone was pair with a more traditional sake that had a malty taste. Then we had a sake margarita which was super good.  That was paired with 3 Japanese tacos.  Yep tacos, pulled pork, teriyaki beef and chicken. To finish everything off, we had a peach sake, which was my favorite. Very fun night and interesting to try something a little different.

Halloween - Annie and Squeak

I had a heck of time getting a photo of Annie in her honey bee costume.  She is being a good sport and will wear the coat but she's not to crazy about the hat.

I had to modify a doggie coat pattern to fit Annie.  I wasn't able to find a bee outfit that would fit her.  I was planning on making a rain coat for her this year, so this was a good test run. I think the stinger part is too funny. 

Squeak will be going as a little witch. The photo tells you what she thinks about her hat.

Quiliting Card Class

I've been working on a  new class with a quilting theme.  I took one of Michael Strong's class last month where he did a crazy quilt type of background. I made some changes to that idea and came up with this.  I have more ideas on down on paper, now I just need to make the samples. 
This is a great card to use up all your washi paper scraps but you do need a good paper cutter.

Cubbie Lover - Storage

After printer's cabinets, my second favorite storage is cubbies. I found this cabinet at an auction and it was going to go into my booth for sell.  As it sat around waiting for me to tag it, I started filling it up with my rolls of ribbon (have a ton of ribbon stashed all over my studio) and unmounted stamps which I store in CD cases.  I've been working on making Annie's Halloween costume after finding out they don't make ones her size in the stores. Big dogs like to dress up too.  I found a pattern and had to make major modification to it to get it to fit.  Annie is long in the body (which is how the pattern tells you to figure out the size) but has a small neck.  She's not really happy that I wake her up to make her try it on as I make all the adjustments.  Will post photos when I get it done.

tennis ball clean up

Spending the day cleaning up my studio and picking up after the animals.  I decided today to wash all of Annie's tennis ball.  Yes, that's right, I washed a bunch of tennis ball. It's easier for me, if I can see the balls when I take Annie out for her run. With the "chuck-it", I can throw the ball super far.  There are times Annie gets so excited about chasing the ball she forgets to bring it back.  She is able to find them if I make her sniff it out, but I like to make sure she gets a good 45 minutes of hard wind sprints so I carry at least two balls.  When they get dirty I have a harder time finding them in the tall grass. 
I'm working through piles and piles of stuff in my studio.  It's been a few month since I've done a clean up.  I can at least see part of the table now. 

Sassy Witch Halloween Card

Working late last night in my studio making more Halloween cards. You can't see the Stardream paper I used on the two black cards but it does add a nice touch.  Just super simple cards.
As I ran around this morning doing my errands, I stop by the gun shop to drop something off for my gun instructor.  As he was showing me the various type of shot guns I could use for skeet shooting, a man came up and asked if I was getting it for home protection.  I said no, I have a very large German Shepherd who is a great deterrent.  The shot gun was just for fun.  He said he liked my attitude.  It was sort of weird to be the only woman in the place.  At least the sales guys didn't roll their eyes when I asked if they had pink shotgun.  Guess they know better to make fun a customer while she is holding a gun. :)

More Halloween Cards - 2010

In my never ending challenge to use up my stacks of scraps, I made some more Halloween cards.  Maybe this year I will actually mail some out!  I've had this cling set for a few years now so I don't remember what company it is.