Happy Halloween!

Here is a picture of me with my family at Mickey's Halloween Treat at Disney's California Adventure...


And a friend sent a most witty e-mail today about 20 Ways To Confuse Trick-Or-Treaters. Another friend sent me an e-mail about the origins of Halloween.

Have a wonderful Halloween! I wish you lots of yummy candy! :)

It's almost Halloween...

and I'm nowhere close to being as busy as Michelle! Over the weekend I made 13 pillow boxes out of paper for Colin's preschool class goody bags. As well as animal cookies, rubber mice and dum dums to add to the boxes, I also made Halloween bookmarks. I've included a picture of the bags and a bookmark.


Once Halloween is over, I have one month to get everything organized for Christmas, as we leave for Kansas City on December 1st. Fortunately, I have most of the Christmas shopping done so I won't have to bother with that. Over the weekend I also started working on my son's 4th birthday invitations. His birthday is in mid-January, and we are having it at a fun place in L.A. called Travel Town. It has a bunch of trains for kids to look at, and a small one to ride on. We are reserving a real train car there for his party as well.

I'm not looking forward to leaving home for 18 days in December - we'll be back just in time for Christmas. I'm feeling really rushed to get everything done so I have a week to enjoy my favorite time of the year when we return. There are some fun things to do where we are going too - the Plaza lights in Kansas City, returning to the Bingham Waggoner Estate in Independence, MO (where we got married 10 years ago on Valentine's Day), and Colin will enjoy spending time with grandparents. We are missing an awful lot here, though - the last few years I've hosted a family potluck at the Disneyland picnic area, I'll be missing two scrapbook meetups, Colin will miss his last week of school, and a whole host of other holiday happenings.

Well, I've rambled on enough for now - I need to go make some Halloween cupcakes, and figure out what's for dinner. One more ramble: I love kraftfoods.com. With me spending a lot of money on supplies to make jewelry and other things on Etsy (and not selling a thing), I've been making the majority of my menus from this website. It's a real cost saver - I average spending only $150 every two weeks for groceries. Anyway, that's all for now! Must get to work!

Happy Halloween!

This week in southern California...

has been a very bad week. Luckily we are not near any fires, but the skies are gray with smoke and it's raining ash. We do have our important items ready to go at a moments notice, as we live at the bottom of a hill that has not burned in a very long time... and hopefully won't again this year. Sigh.

On a brighter note, now that I am no longer feeling the effects of my flu shot, I hope to get busy and get more stuff posted on Etsy for the coming holiday season! I have some very cute ideas, and hopefully I'll have time to create them!

Here is one of the latest works of art by my 3 year old son...

Sneak Peek...

I've been MIA all week... here are the reasons why...

This is a beaded Celtic knot trinket box. It takes quite a while to put 11/0 seed beads on one at a time... :) I have also put 18k gold leaf on the outside and inside of the box. I should be listing it soon on Etsy...


This trinket box will be vintage Christmas with decoupage, and who knows what else... I'm still thinking about how I want it to look.


Let me know what you think! I have two more beaded boxes in the works too...

Etsy Sale!

I have discounted all of my Halloween items in my Etsy shop! Please take a look!

Goodies!

I have joined the Artisans of Southern California street team on Etsy... We just did a group promo, and here are the goodies I received yesterday...
From Joie Studio I received a beautiful notecard:

From Karine Swenson I received two gorgeous notecards:


I wonder who received the burgundy ice earrings I sent in...

Speaking of promos, Laura is having a holiday boutique November 17th. I have made 25 pair of earrings for her to add to the goodie bags that will be given to the first 25 people at the boutique...


Please check out all the links listed - I know there are several today - but it will be worth your time! :)

Very Tired...

I stayed up late last night adding new items to my Etsy shop and working on finishing a bead mosaic. My little one got up very early this morning, and wanted the grossest thing ever to eat: grilled cheese sandwich with peanut butter!!!! But it kept him going at preschool this morning - I helped out in the class today. The kids made bats - they are very cute! I am now making beef stroganoff in the slow cooker, and baking a cake that Colin and I are going to frost like a pumpkin. I have a million more things to do, but they will probably have to wait...

Wonderful Weekend...

Despite Nebraska losing big to Missouri, I have had the most wonderful weekend! My husband surprised me with having Friday off, so we went to Disneyland. The highlight was my two boys getting to ride on the tender by the engineers. My son is obsessed with trains, so it was like a dream come true!

Yesterday the boys went to the San Diego Zoo, leaving me alone for the day. I got a lot of new jewelry made, and will put them up on Etsy this week.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend as well!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I have a pink necklace for sale in my Etsy shop, and I have decided that if it sells in the month of October, I will give all proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. It is a wonderful thought that I can give something to help fight a disease that affects so many!

It's October...

and fall, which I can tell by my allergies... luckily they aren't as bad as when I lived in Nebraska/Missouri/Kansas. I can't believe the year is almost gone... I had so many Halloween beading projects planned, and I'll be lucky to finish the mosaic that is half done. I was just going over the calendar for the month, and we are so busy! Then November will come, and then December... and I'm already feeling like we're going to miss out on so much in December by going to visit family for over two weeks, arriving home just one week prior to Christmas. If you don't see any posts for a while, it's because I'm finishing scrapbooks and scrapboxes for gifts, making our cards and cookies, and finishing shopping in general. And then add to the mix playdates, family things and making new items for my Etsy shop.... Whew! I'm tired already just from reading about it! :) Have a good week!