Thursday, November 18, 2010

Have you ever had "one of those days?"

"Huh?"

You know those days. The ones when everything is weird, backwards, and just didn't come out anywhere near how you thought it would? I'm proud to say that I'm old enough...er...wise enough to take life's punches.

It doesn't matter that when the wind blew, the power line that hooks to the house melted and caused power surges all over the house. (Yes, the Wii did survive-the kids are now dealing with their post traumatic stress syndrome over it all.) I was even able to handle waking up at 5am to the sound of the fish aquarium's pump starting up, ........over, and over, and over again because of the power surges. Yes, I did not bite my nails when I had to wait patiently in the dark for daybreak to finally come so I wouldn't be so scared if the house did catch on fire and we all had to run outside. Thankfully, that little scenario never came to life.

Thankfully, (and I vowed 6 years ago that I would never say this after being powerless for almost 2 weeks during a freak ice storm), our power company came to the rescue fairly quickly and solved the problem. The nice technician even disconnected the "juice" to the pole in the vacant lot next door. We had been worrying about that line falling down for a long time.... simple blessings...

Anyway, I guess we have a lot to be thankful for. Never mind that we didn't get the first thing done in school today- the kids didn't mind at all. I even had to run to the next town in the van (which, upon my late, and unfortunate discovery, was almost out of gas and the van didn't like the fact that it was almost out of gas.

Never mind that the roofers came unannounced to inspect the roof (Oh, please, oh please roofer man, don't ask to come in for some reason! After a day of hardly using power, nothing has gotten done and I'd be mighty embarrassed if someone seen the state of my house!)

I'm OK, really. I am. Like I said, I'm older, wiser, and I like to kid myself. I'll probably panic later. For now, I'm blogging (and still hoping the roofer guy doesn't need to come in). Afterall, I only get a free moment here and there. I'm taking advantage of the "there" right here and now.

Somebody else had a bad day too.....

I found this interesting photo on my camera today. Apparently, it's really a big deal when your army jeep crashes into the Lego sea and actually burns underwater.

You just gotta love those Lego games! You should see the time and thought put into creating scenes of mass destruction like the one above. Go Cart Boy puts most of these together. I don't think that kids can ever laugh as much as Go Cart Boy and his older sister do when they are creating Lego chaos....


Even though my day was weird and went totally haywire, at least I can say that my couch isn't haunted.....er...uh....smoking?....uh... covered in spider webs?? After all, I could be like this poor guy that lost his jeep and couch in the same day to unfortunate circumstances.

At least, I can smile and know that tomorrow is another day......

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Cheapest Halloween Ever , Spools, Cupcakes, and My Excuse

Yeah, I'm making excuses. I have neglected my poor blog for sometime. (Wow, the entire month of October in fact!) Anyway, my excuse is that I've had other things keeping me too busy to type, type, type. Mommy, wife, and responsible citizen issues. Actually, at this moment, I need to be getting ready to go to the grocery store but I wanted to visit the blog world at least for a few minutes today.

"Spools"

It takes time to resize photos so this is all I had done at this time-sorry. These spools are a collection that I have, that is actually for sale in my Etsy shop, Minnie Maes. There are 16 plastic spools for $1.00 plus shipping. Yes, people do buy empty spools. I have successfully sold all of the spools I have had in the past. There are people out there that make creative things out of spools. I don't. I'm just not that creative I guess. Anyway, the point is, I have these spools for sale so if you need them, grab them up while you can!


For this past Halloween I had to make my kids some costumes. I got all of my stuff out to get started and found that Roly Poly Girl had decorated my pin cushion.


Captain Jack and Link battle it out.....


I did a lot of thrift store shopping to find this and that for the kid's costumes and things turned out pretty good if you ask me.

This was the cheapest I've ever came out on Halloween costumes. Here is the breakdown of the two costumes pictured above:

Pirate Costume: Grand Total: $7.50
Pants- $1.00- actually a pair of men's extra large sweat pants that I sewed the waste up enough to fit my skinny son. It was on a clearance rack at Goodwill.
Shirt- $0.00- Old tee shirt we had on hand
Pirate Shirt- Goodwill find- $3.50
Bandanna- $0.00- Had on hand
Boots- $3.00 (I guess) Actually I found an old faux couch cover at Miracle Hill for $6.00- I made two pairs of boots between the two kids so if I divided the cost, it would be $3.00 each. I still have plenty of this material left for other things too!

Don't ask how I did the boots- it was hard and I will probably never be able to duplicate it again. There is a pair of sandals inside them in case you are wondering.

Link (you know, from The Legend of Zelda Video Game and Cartoon series): Grand Total: $7.50

Hat- $1.50 hospital smock from Miracle Hill- I simply cute two triangles and sewed them together.
Green Tunic- $1.00 hospital smock- was on the clearance rack at Miracle Hill- I just tucked the sleeves inside and tacked them so they wouldn't fall down.
White undershirt- $0.00 had on hand
Belt- $1.00 found at Miracle Hill
Pants- $1.00 on clearance rack at Miracle Hill
Boots- $3.00 (see above description on pirate costume)
Sword- $0.00- had on hand- (Thank you Go-Cart Boy)
Gloves- $2.00 fabric in remnant bin at Hobby Lobby

Not pictured was the makings for a fairy princess and an army guy. The fairy princess: $9.50
Army Guy: $3.00

That made the grand total for all 4 costumes: $27.50! Not too bad in my book... Now, if I could only come out that cheap next year.....



I made some cupcakes for the church festival. I got the idea for these out of a Family Fun magazine. You can find the recipe for these over at the Family Fun Website. Mine are certainly not as pretty as there's were, but I think they turned out cute anyway.


Sometimes I can turn my camera on and find strange photos that two of the kids "secretly" take when I'm not looking. Based on the feet in this photo, I think I know who the culprit is this time.... Roly Poly Girl.

And last, but not least, I've been sewing up some tapestry tote bags for my Etsy Shop. This is one of the cutest ones so far. It's reversible and has a totally different snowman on the inside. You can see all of these new totes at Minnie Maes.

Well, that's it for now- I promise I'll try not to wait so long before I post again- that's the plan anyway ;)