Happy Halloween!

I was never really into Halloween growing up. I was much too serious a child! But something about having a child of my own got me excited about it. Audrey is at the stage now where she loves to pretend, so we've been looking forward to Halloween for months. Unfortunately, it was raining and miserable out, but we got our umbrella and braved the weather to still have a great time!

One of Audrey's favorite things to play outside is Little Red Riding Hood. So it was pretty obvious what this year's costume was going to be when I asked her!

I made her costume myself. The pattern for the hooded cape came from Fleece Fun. This was my most difficult sewing project to date and I was a little nervous. Usually my projects involve me winging it and coming up with something on my own, not using an actual pattern. I've never sewed with fleece before and lining the hood was a little bit tricky, but it wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be and I was thrilled with how it came out.

The tutu I made just like all the other tutus I make her and with the apron I stuck to my typical sewing style and winged it. I used the same fabric for the apron as I used to line the inside of the hood and it really brought everything together.

Add a white shirt, tights and socks, cute shoes, and a little basket, and the costume was too adorable for words!

The best part of playing Little Red Riding Hood is the interaction. So I, of course, had to make this a family theme. Daddy fit the part of the Big Bad Wolf perfectly! So I made him a quick and easy wolf costume that he was comfortable wearing around and not taking too much attention away from Audrey.

And to pull it all together, I had to be Grandma obviously!

We had so much fun despite the rain! We knocked on a few doors, got a little candy, visited some family, and sat by a fire to warm up and dry off.

As soon as we walked in the door at 7:15 pm, the costume came off and Audrey said, "Mommy, I'm ready to go up to bed now." So that was that for this year! And now the planning for next year will have to begin because it is going to take some work to top this year!

Four Seasons Handprint Craft

Audrey loves craft time, especially painting, so we do all kinds of projects in our house. And a lot of the time I spend on Pinterest is spent looking for new craft ideas, so I always have something new and interesting for her when she says, "Mommy, let's do a project!"

I pinned this awhile ago just because I love the change of seasons and thought it was beautiful, not because I had any intention of making it into a project for Audrey.

Then I saw this on Pinterest and it was like a choir of angels singing in my head!

An idea was born! So we got out the paint and got to work!

Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall!

A little brown paint on her hand and forearm and the tree was formed. When that was dry, she used her pinkie finger to make the Spring leaves, and her thumb to make the Summer and Fall leaves.

With some $3 frames from Walmart, they are now hung above the couch in the playroom and are officially my favorite project we've ever done!

Back to basics

Last week, I was doing some reading about how to improve my chances of actually getting my resume looked at in the piles and piles of others employers are receiving. With all the technology out there, many people looking for jobs are taking the technology route. One article I read suggested getting back to basics by printing and mailing in your resume and cover letter when possible. They said that there was something about mail and a few pieces of paper that was more concrete than an inbox full of emails with attachments to print out. I've tried a lot of the technology routes and haven't had much luck, so I figured it was worth a shot!

It really got me thinking though. I spend so much of my time online. I do love the blogger world that I have become involved in, but some days I'm on the computer all day long. So I decided to cut out technology all together this past weekend and it felt really good.

Now don't worry, I'm not leaving you! But don't be surprised if I'm not around quite as much as I have been. I have a few projects I'm working on. Some of them I'm not quite ready to share with the world yet, but there is one that I thought I'd share with you.

In August of 2005, when I moved to South Carolina with my then boyfriend (now hubby), I started knitting an afghan. I got caught up in life, not to mention babies were being born and I would put it aside to knit baby blankets. Fast forward to last week, almost 4 years later, and it was still only about 1/4 done! lol So I am working on finishing this afghan!


I still have quite a bit to go, but it is so rewarding to spend some time doing something with my hands that produces an actual physical result. It really allows you to clear your head and focus in on what's really important. I've also found that it's helping me feel more creative and inspired in terms of my photography course. So that's one of the projects I'm working on. I may be sharing some of my other new projects with you soon too, but we'll see!

So my question to you all today is this:

What do you do to escape technology and get back to basics?

Really looking forward to your responses! :)

Who doesn't love getting packages in the mail?!

Last night, around dinner time, we had a knock at our door. I walked outside to see the UPS man driving away and there were 3 boxes on our porch!! WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!! I've been driving my hubby crazy patiently waiting for these packages to arrive!

The top box was all 400 of the prints I ordered of our wedding and honeymoon! I was so excited!! As soon as we were done with dinner, I had all 400 of the photos spread out on our living room floor! I organized them chronologically (yes, I'm a little obsessive-compulsive) and filled 3 albums!!

It was really fun to look through them with my hubby and think back on our wedding day and honeymoon. And now I can cross something off my list that's been on there for almost 2 years!!

The other 2 boxes were my photography course materials that I've been waiting for!! By the time I finished all the albums, it was pretty late, so I saved those boxes for today! I did open the boxes and look at all my cool new stuff (of course!) but I didn't read through anything very closely. Today, I am really looking forward to looking through everything and maybe starting my first lesson!!

Accepting defeat...

...well sort of. As you can see, my blog has undergone some major changes!! I started off designing everything myself. Though I am proud of how much HTML I learned in the process, I wasn't thrilled with the design results. So, I compromised! I used a background from the folks over at The Cutest Blog on the Block, and made my own custom header to match the background!

I'm quite pleased with the result, even though it wasn't how I set out to do it, and I hope you like the changes too!

Change is coming...

I'm not usually a person who likes change. I fall into routines easily, and I like my routines. However, change has been really good for me lately and I'm learning to embrace it! So this morning, I decided that I'm going to design a completely new layout for my blog, from scratch!!

Hang in there with me - it may take me a while to figure it all out, get it the way I want it, and get it up. But change is coming and I think this is a nice creative project for me. :)

Stay tuned...

Projects

I don't know about you, but I always have a list of projects I want to do, but rarely have the time to actually make them a reality or other projects take priority because of time restraints. As a result, the list always seems to get longer and longer.

When I was laid off, I thought that maybe I'd be able to tackle that list of mine!! My list of projects for my sister's wedding took priority though. Now that the wedding is over, and I've had some time to relax from all the excitement, I've decided to tackle the list!

First on my list is having all the photos from my wedding (almost 2 years ago!) printed and getting them in albums. We had the disposable cameras on the tables from the wedding developed onto CDs and a bunch of CDs of photos from family and friends. But CDs aren't all that fun to pull out and look at. So today, I am sorting through all the CDs, picking out the good shots, and uploading them to a website to have them printed and mailed to me. I thought about going to WalMart, but there are just so many of them that I would be standing there for hours.

It's a good project for me today because the hubby went into work to fill out some paperwork and help his new boss move some furniture around. (Have I mentioned how excited we both are about his new job!) Once, they mail the prints to me, I plan on putting them into these beautiful leather photo albums that my hubby bought for me a few years ago.

So that's what's on the docket for me today! (little miss spy, are you laughing hysterically??)