The holiday flurry in my head

My head just starts swimming with ideas and plans for the holidays this time every year!

The kids have had their Christmas lists made for weeks now. One kid's list is three pages long! (I have to laugh - EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the toy ad is on that list!) The toy ads are getting pretty worn out but I'm getting a fairly good idea of what some of them truly want by listening to what they talk about and seeing which pages of ads are studied the most.

And even though there are tons of ideas and plans swimming around in my head, I'm trying very hard tothe holidays so we (I) can enjoy them more. I really, really want to just be home and have my family at home instead of running all over. So I've kind of been on a crusade to cancel as many unnessesary outside activities as possible for December (ie. - pack meeting, planning meetings for next year (they can wait til after the holidays dont you think? pre-season ball practices) I know all those things are good things, but they can be on hold for a few weeks so I (and everyone else, too) can concentrate on family and traditions that make this time of year so special and meaningful.

Sorry that sounds preachy, but I really NEED to FEEL the spirit of the season - fully and deeply.

I have also decided to use what we already have for most of the gifts for neighbors, teachers and friends. We have some super fun ideas that won't require extra shopping and buying "stuff" that the person receiving doesn't like anyway.

Some (okay - most) of the gifts I have in mind involve some time and family participation, but that is what I want! simple and fun-to-make and hopefully fun-to-receive.

This recipe magazine is getting nearly as worn the past few days as the toy ads. There are some yummy-looking treats in here!

The kids have all chosen several they want to try and they said, "I hope you feel like baking this year, mom!"

I told them, "I hope YOU feel like baking this year!" :)

"Yeah! We want to bake them all!"

Well - maybe not ALL - but lots of baking with the kids sounds way fun!

28 pillowcases

in just a week is a lot of pillowcases!

We needed something to give to four little boys who had birthdays all in the same week. I used some bright fabrics I already had on hand. I love how they turned out! I made some extras, of course. We added a little treat and some cars and they made a fun gift.

Then - I made 21 pillowcases for the high school Cross Country team that went to state competition. Eight of the pillowcases had silver stars on a blue background (I don't have photos - I barely had enough to make eight and didn't take a photo) and 13 were the black with blue flames. I used satin for the outer "cuff" (Is that what the outer edge is called?) The kids loved that, but I don't think I will do the satin edge again - especially for that many pillowcases. The satin is hard to work with and takes a lot of time to pin and sew.

I used a really simple layering trick I learned at quilt group to be able to make these -even with the narrow trip piece by the "cuff" with just three seams each. That saved soooo much time!

I'll take photos of how I did it when I sew the last cases so you can see.

Pumpkin pillows finished

Here are the pumpkin pillows I made for my fall decorating (seems a little silly to finally post these - especially since it snowed today and it seems most of blogdom has moved on to Christmas - but it is still fall to me until after Thanksgiving!)

I love how they look on my table and I really love the combination of colors and textures the fabrics have. I just want to touch them everytime I walk past.

I even made some to add to the pillows on the sofa

And some for the bed.

7 gypsies photo carousel - anyone interested?

I have an extra photo carousel with two refills and the punch. The carousel holds the 4x6 size photos, etc. I had a great plan when I bought it, but I've changed my mind and now I don't need this one.
I paid nearly $60 for these, but I would sell them for $20.
If you are interested, you can e-mail me --- or leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll get in touch.
I will ship it - but would ask if the buyer would pay half the shipping.

Halloween part 2 and really cool costume, man!

We had a spooky Halloween dinner this year. It was mostly spur-of-the-moment. I added foods as I thought of them while I was making dinner. The only thing I had planned on doing at first was to freeze plastic flies in ice cubes. So I had the ice cubes frozen early in the day.
I thought it would be fun to make BBQ Smothered Chicken because everyone really likes it.
I called it "road kill." I was worried that would gross some of the kids out so they wouldn't eat, but they just laughed and joked about what kind of road kill it might be.
"Witch fingers" (bread sticks) and "Monsters" made with fruit and veggies and some "rat poison" (soda pop) completed our meal.

I hardly ever use candles at dinner but we did for this night. The kids thought that made the meal special. I need to use candles more often.

But still - as spooky as the meal was - the biggest attraction was the flies in the ice cubes. I could have done just the flies and it would have been a successful Halloween meal. The kids and hubby kept pulling the ice cubes out of their glasses to see if the fly was coming out. When Dad got his out of the ice cube first, everyone had to see it.

"OOOh - it looks real! Are you sure its plastic or did you put a real fly in our ice cubes?"

"That's really gross. I'm gonna melt mine out so I can look at it!"

"What if I accidently swallow mine?"

So - the simple things are the most memorable.

I usually don't dress up for Halloween, but about a month ago, I found these very awesome, totally cool shoes at the thrift store and I HAD TO WEAR THEM because they are the coolest authentic '70s platform shoes ever! There is six inches of sole there, baby!
Yep - that is really me with the peace necklace, the shoes and the giant 'fro.
It was sweet, man -really sweet!

I can't believe I actually dressed up like that!

Not so sweet is the fact that I didn't get ANY pictures of my own kids from this night or on Halloween night (I'll explain that later) so if anyone has pictures of my kids, I'd really appreciate a copy!

Halloween part 1

I'm going to do Halloween in several parts because there was just sooooo much going on!

We went to our neighbors Pumpkin Walk on Monday night (the Monday before Halloween).

I got the boys from school so they could carve their pumpkins to take for the contest and display.

He did the design and carving himself of an owl.

And this is an original smiley face. I love it that they want to do their own designs now. I love to see what they come up with and I love the crooked, scraggly carving and how proud they are of their creations.

Everyone at the Pumpkin Walk got to spin the wheel to get a colored slip of paper

and then each person got to choose a treat in the section that was the same color as their paper. There were so many homemade goodies! I wanted to just see all the different treats!

And here are this year's monster cupcakes decorated by the kids and Grandpa McLean -

Pay It Forward

I love the Pay It Forward Game so



I'll make something (and I promise it will be good) for the first three people to comment on this post.


Those three people need to have a blog and post the PIF Game so the fun keeps going.

I have one year to send a goodie package to you.



If you don't like complete surprises, you can choose if you want something for the bathroom, kitchen or something more for pampering you.



Please leave a blog link or e-mail in your comment so I have a way to contact you for your snail mail address!