Happy Halloween!!

Yay! It's finally here! If you're like me, then you've been counting down the days until today, and this week seemed to have taken FOREVER! I'm so excited, because I think the girls finally "get" Halloween, well at least Caroline does. And she's so happy to be Cinderella! She's been brushing and combing her hair all morning (insert eye roll here), but it's cute. SK keeps saying "punkin", because she knows that she's going to be a pumpkin. Too cute!

Anyway, our plans are to head over to a friend's house this afternoon to play and get ready. We'll eat pizza before we head out, and the Daddies are going to meet us there. (They have a better neighborhood.) I'm hoping to get some good pictures of each of the girls in their costumes and a shot of all 4 of them together. But I'm not getting my hopes up too high either. Just trying to make a mental list of shots I want to take or try to take. I loved Virginia's photo shoot her daughter, and I may try that with Caroline when SK takes a nap. We'll see. Anyway, just wanted to say Happy Halloween!!! I hope everyone has a fun and safe day and night! Can't wait to see lots of pics!

The November kit from Color Me Daisy was perfect for my Fall pictures. It has some new October Afternoon in it, and Fancy Pants too! Ya can't get any better than my 2 fave mfr.'s together in a kit! I was so excited to get it! Here's a LO I did with it using the pictures from Sarah Kate's impromptu photo shoot.

Lil Pumpkin


Maybe that'll get you in the Halloween spirit if you're not already!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I almost burned dinner

because I was out taking these pictures! LOL!

Josh usually "entertains" the girls while I'm finishing up dinner, and tonight he decided to give them their Christmas gift a few weeks early. (We'd only briefly talked about it being their Christmas, so he must've forgotten.) Anyway, he peeked his head through the door, and said something along the lines of, "You're gonna want your camera!" Then shut the door.

I rushed out to find this.





To say they were having a blast would be a HUGE an understatement! And a scary foreshadowing of the future! Caroline proceeded to run into the house, the fence, one of the trees, and anything else that happened to get in her way! LOL! She couldn't figure out the stop/start thing and I was afraid for Sarah Kate! They BOTH may have sore necks in the morning due to whiplash! hehe! but it was fun to watch too! They giggled for the longest!

K--just had to share. I'll have my Color Me Daisy LOs and a mini up soon! ;)

Heavens they're tasty!!!

Sorry. That title's a flashback to my childhood. My dad would listen to Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keller religiously every Saturday evening. That is, unless Alabama football was on. Then he'd catch the Sunday afternoon repeat. Anyway, one of the spoofs on that radio show was a "commerical" for buttermilk biscuits with the slogan, "Heaven's they're tasty!"

Well, that's almost verbatim what came out of my mouth when I tried these muffins. (I must be coming down with something because I've been baking muffins like crazy! I have no CLUE what's gotten in to me. But now Caroline's come to expect them.) Anyway, back to the muffins. These are the the family favorite so far. Pumpkin Butterscotch muffins. Seriously, they're YUMMY! Give'em a try! :)



Pumpkin Butterscotch muffins (yeilds 48 minis, or 18 reg.)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 (6 ounce) package butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mini-muffin pan with cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin in a separate bowl. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Stir in the butterscotch chips; pour into each cup of the muffin pan to about 3/4 full.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes.

**note: anyone who knows me well KNOWS that I did not come up with this recipe! I mean, just baking them is a stretch for me! But just so you know, I found the recipe on allrecipes.com.

Here's a quick post LO I did for Debbie's monochromatic challenge over at Treasured Scrapbooking. And since Oct. IS Breast Cancer Awarenes month, I did it in all pink. (Well for that reason, and the fact that I'm surrounded by pink everyday of my life! hehe! Poor Josh!) So here it is:

Hula Hoopin'




I love that she's so full of life! She'll try anything, and although she can't REALLY hula hoop, she loves trying! Such sweet determination! ;)

Catchin' up

And I've got a whole lot of it do it! Yikes!

Well, since I last posted we took the girls to Boo in the Zoo, I was able to get some scrappy stuff finished up, and I finally took pictures of it all. So here goes the recap.

Boo in the Zoo was really a lot of fun! Both the girls dressed up. Sarah Kate was the most adorable pumpkin I've ever seen (of course I'm biased) and Caroline was a precious little USA cheerleader! Mommy even let her wear make-up (clear eye shadow), carry the Ole Miss pom poms, and put ribbons in her hair. Needless to say, she was beyond thrilled!

Sarah Kate woke up from her nap before Caroline, so the good scrapbooker in me promptly put SK's costume on and plopped her out front for a photo shoot. And I'm sooo glad I did! Here was my very first shot:


See? What'd I tell ya! The MOST adorable lil pumpkin ever! (warning: gushing mom here!)

I also captured these before it was all said and done:





Caroline of course would have nothing to do with the camera once she was dressed and ready to go, so I had to do a sneak attack of photos on her when we got to the zoo. They had great little photo spots, and I simply encouraged her to go over and pick up a pumpkin. I wish I'd had better lighting but here's the ONE decent shot I got of C in her costume. It sure is hard to capture an active 2 yr. old on camera!



And it wouldn't be a good Boo in the Zoo post if I didn't get one of them together watching the gorillas, the main attraction at the Chattanooga Zoo.



The grayback (or male) even came right up to the window. Even though the quality is horrible, I like this pic of him and Caroline looking at each other eye to eye.

Neither of them would go anywhere near the Dora or Elmo characters that were there, though they'd way and say hi from a distance. But overall we had a really good time. Something we'll have to do again next year, because it was fun for all ages!

On the scrappy side, I want to share another project I did with my October Crop Suey kit! This time I decided to make my own banner. They're very popular right now, and I really like how they add such a fun element to home decor. So of course I had to have one for Fall. But the 4 letter word "Fall" was just too tiny to drape all the way across my mantel so I went with "Autumn" instead.

The first thing I did was cut my pennants out of chipboard, then I covered them with paper. I decided to cover some HUGE BG chipboard letters with paper but then like the idea of a chipboard shadow instead. I went on to embellishing and this is what I got. Finally, to string the whole banner together nothing says Fall like some rafia, so I tied each piece together and voila! An Autumn banner that now adorns my mantel!

The banner in its entirety


And now some upclose pics








Well that's it for now. I promise I won't let so much time go between postings again. Actually I could post more now, but I'll save it for later. Hope you have a great day!

Random thoughts

It's been a random kind of day, so I thought I'd share some random thoughts.

1. My so-called potty-trained child decided she wasn't going to be potty-trained today. Grr!

2. I look forward to Thursdays because of the good TV shows on. Sad, but true.

3.I just realized that frozen pizza comes packaged sitting on top of a CIRCULAR piece of CORRUGATED cardboard! (See, told ya it was a random day!) What's sad about that is that I noticed in this discovery in the first place, and that I instantly thought to "save" it for a scrapbook project, and almost as instantly, I began tearing away at it because I knew EXACTLY the type of project wanted to do with it. Is this still considered obsession or am I in need of an intervention? LOL! Stay tuned for the project...hehe!

4. We had a Christmas Story-esque moment today. No, we didn't receive a fish-net hose leg lamp with black fringe. Nope, not that kind of package. Remember the scene in the movie where the mom bundles up her little guy in everything imaginable so he can go play in the snow? Remember how he waddled down the sidewalk and then fell over and couldn't get up because he was so bundled? Well, little Sarah Kate reminded me of that scene today.

I got the bright idea to let the girls try on their Halloween costumes today, because we're going to Boo in the Zoo tomorrow night. Well, let's just say Sarah Kate's pumpkin outfit, as cute as it is, is a tad bit too big for her. Actually it swallows her whole! LOL! But I got it for $3 so by golly she's gonna where it! Well, in the process of playing she toppled over and couldn't get up! It was sooo funny! One of those moments where this weary momma needed a good laugh, so I did. And there she was arms and legs flailing in an effort to get up. Bless her heart! I'm sure she didn't find it amusing, but it was just what I needed!

So there's my randomness for the day. I'll leave you with another LO, just to make this post a little more interesting. It's another one I did with Camille's Oct. Crop Suey kit.

Sittin' Pretty

SK at the lake. She really likes this LO because she sees herself ("baby"), the water, and the hat on her head, all of which she can say. So she likes it.

Cookies and a LO

Sounds like a good combo, huh? Well that's what I've been up to. Lately I've felt the need/desire to do some seasonally fun things with Caroline now that she's holder and can "help". So last night we made pumpkin cookies. Well, I baked them, and she painted them with icing then poured the sprinkles on. I when I say "poured" I'm not kidding. There was no sprinkling of the the sprinkles! LOL! I'm not sure who had more fun though, me or her. It was fun!

Working away!


Gotta taste the icing, right?

Don't worry, this was when she was finished. I didn't let her stick the baster back into the bowl.

Yum!


I've also found some major mojo lately and unfortunately my time to sit and create can't keep up with my creativity. I hope I don't forget all the things I want to try or the sketches I want to do. What a good problem to have though! This is a quick one I did with the Camille's Oct. Crop Suey kit. It's so fun to play with! Oh, and I snuck some leaves in for Michelle's challenge over at Treasured Scrapbooking. ;)

"Fall Faves"


close-up of the vintage ticket

Gotta share

Sorry for so many picture posts, but really, we've had photo op after photo op lately, and I just can't stop taking pictures!

Dad, Kathy, and Katie came up for a day or so, and we crammed as much Chattanooga into their 36 hrs. here that the girls could possibly take! We went to the zoo on Thurs. Then today we picked out pumpkins, then went downtown to the waterfront for some fun. We all had a really good time, and the girls were exhausted both days! How nice since we were having major napping issues! Anyway, here's what I got (well, a couple of my faves anyway):

Crop Suey layout

I have to admit that when I opened up this month's kit,Camille's "Hoo's Coming to Dinner" , I squealed with excitement! I was sooooo pumped to see the 2 latest lines from Pink Paislee sitting on my dining room table! These papers were sooo fun to play with! And having 2 little girls under the age of 3, my life is pretty much ALL pink and purple so I had PLENTY of pictures to go with them! But I also knew exactly which pictures I wanted to use--ones of Caroline when she first got her Disney Princess! Remember the ones? clomp. clomp. clomp. Anyway, these PP papers were PER-fect for those shots of her! She's so so girly! totally not like me I might add. So I set out to make a LO as frilly, lacy, and sparkle-y as I could. I custom made the pp, using the scalloped circle from Vintage Moon for a template, then I took my crop-a-dile, and punched holes in the scallops for more of a lacy look. I also added lots of bling. And the pink tulle tied around the bottom was the perfect finishing touch! I'm really excited about the way it turned out! Check it out:

All Things Girly!








I'm still working with the rest of the kit, so stay tuned. And here's a hint. Banners are my new obsession! I love them! ;) ;)

Good weekend overall

I'm just now getting a chance to sit and type about the weekend, so sorry if it's a tad bit late. My girls are killing me with this naptime business! SK goes down perfectly, but C is at the stage where she's not "sweepy" so I let her play in her room. That's the rule though. She has to stay in her room and play quietly. Well, today after about an hour of being in-and-out of her room for various reasons, I found her in SK's room at 1:30. She woke SK up, so as punishment I made her lay in her bed. Of course then C fell asleep, and I'm left with a very awake and cranky SK who was woken up! UGH! So I've yet to really have time "to myself" to get anything done! Sorry, didn't mean to go into all that, but I knew some of you mommies would understand.

Anyway, we had a good time this weekend. Not only did we attempt a yard sale, but we also made it to the Ronald McDonald Autumn Children's Festival. Obviously the Children's Festival was much more fun, as we didn't really plan or organize a yard sale. We just threw stuff in our yard and stuck a sign out front. And though we didn't bring in as much as we'd hoped, we definitely got what we deserved having thrown it all together at the last minute. And it's nice that the attic isn't as clogged up with junk.

So after the yard sale we went to the Children's Festival, which is our way of supporting the local Ronald McDonald house. (We had to stay in one in Cincinnati when we were going through our ordeal with SK and Claire, so it's a charity close to our heart.) The girls did great! SK was too little to do most of the activities but she enjoyed the free Mayfield ice cream, and the inflatable slide. We also snuck her in to pet the pony in the petting zoo, to which she kept saying, "moooooo". Caroline painted a pumpkin, went through the entire petting zoo, jumped on her 1st moon bounce (after 4 attempts because she didn't like the feeling at first), rode her 1st horse, and also flew down the inflatable slide. We had a great time, and I of course was so excited to get some fun pictures!

SK enjoying her ice cream


painting her pumpkin


moon bounce


My big girl looked so little on that horse!


Fearless--but we already knew that!

I'm telling you that slide was STEEP! She went down it once with Daddy, then the next time, decided she didn't want to wait on him to climb the steps! She took off down the slide before he'd even reached the top. Seeing that he was no longer needed, he decided to take SK down with him.


Yes, she LOVED the slide too! Can't ya tell! Looks like we've got another daredevil on our hands!

Another Daddy picnic

Well, in true me fashion, I've been taking more Fall pics. This time I got some at our picnic with Josh. For the 1st day of Oct. I dressed the girls in orange, and of course Josh's co-workers gave him a hard time! LOL! Living in Tennessee, and thanks to UT football, there's orange everywhere here all year 'round. (It's a wee bit obnoxious) So being the true fans that we are, we never dress the girls in anything remotely orange until Fall. And even then we (I) make sure it's got NOTHING to do with football! LOL! sad but true. Anyway, here's what I got:

Sarah Kate running towards us


Caroline went on a leaf hunt


loooking at a frog in the swampy water


It's also time for me to post my LOs from my Color Me Daisy! This month I got to work with the fabulous papers from Pink Paislee, Vintage Moon. Also in the pack are some yummy Amer. Craft papers! So fun! Here's what I did:

Pumpkin Painting



some AC embellies upclose


Title, AC Sprinkles, and deconstructed AC flower

Who's your Daddy?

Those silvery rub-ons are sooo cool! I used my CM silver pen to highlight the bigger owl more.

Fall banner

I used the Maya Roady keychain mini as a fun little banner. The journaling spot looking embellishments are actually more of those AC spots I deconstructed. I tore those things a part!