I Don't Know Jack

But I have 3 of his friends living in my house :)

We went to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins the day before Halloween. Ya a little late, and because of the cold wet weather they were a tad rotten but we found the ones we want. It was a yucky wet day so no, no photos. :) There was a truck stuck in the mud for ages LOL he got out eventually. Good thing cause I am no help. :)

So we bring home these poor pumpkins to sacrifice for the yearly Jacks. Each kid gets to pick her own and make it hers by customizing a nice face :)







After cleaning the outsides we get to cut a top out and Gut the poor Jacks.





Then is the important task of drawing faces on the pumpkin. The little ones dictate the placement of features, and we draw. Taylor does her own as long as she doesnt get carried away with Hearts for eyes and pumpkin shaped noses, etc.



Once the Jacks are carved up and lit, they get displayed in their glory. I heard the supposed origin of the Jack-O-Lantern today, something about Jack being forced to carry his Hell-Fire around in a hollowed out gourd for all eternity...interesting ! I love thinking of Jacks full of Hell Fire HEHEHEHHE

Blog Challenge STM Oct 30

I love the Fall Back in time in the fall! I way prefer it over the Spring Ahead!
Despite the gained hour happening while we sleep, I never get to sleep it. I always manage to get up. So this past Sunday morning while I was laying in bed fretting about what I had to do that day (too many things not enough relaxing) I remembered we gained an hour and I spent that hour having my coffee. LOL I dont think I did a thing! I considered it my hour that day and it was the only hour I didnt spend on someone else LOL. Ive had a busy week :) I loved that hour.

Now I am really tired. I notice the change in time. It's really almost 11 pm here right now, Ive not really caught up on any sleep. I need to go to bed soon, over the next couple of weeks I will catch up on the sleep. Especially once I have the bows done, and there are far fewer Stampin Up Parties this November than there were in Oct so less paper cutting and more scrapping and sleeping YAY!

The kids school isnt letting them dress up for classes this year so the kids got to wear their costumes to a dance at the school the week before Halloween!
There were no masks allowed at the dance so we bought some face paint for the kids to wear with their costumes!



Annika was a little froggy :) She had a green face and big white eyes!



Holly was Spider Person. She had some neat painting on her face :) it was hard to wait for the paint to dry and we smudged some, but for the most part it was an awesome face :)

Taylor had really cute hair. She was some sort of a witch, not really a scary one, and I did her hair in a messy bun on top of her head :)

Her make up was a little less involved than the others; I seriously just ran out of time :) She had Glow in the Dark make up around her eyes, and some white and black...Goth-ish (for her).

Finally they are all ready to go!

They met their friends at the dance, including Katelyn who was also a witch.

Annika loved getting attention from the older girls, who make a big deal of the little ones. :)

Holly danced with her friends

And taylor danced with her friends :)



It was really fun for all of them :)

Cards from Last Workshop!

Tags tags tags! It's Christmas Tag Time :):) I could sit and make hundreds of these things! HAHAHAH ANd after they come off presents, they would make AWESOME tree ornaments!

These are tags we made at a workshop last night that consisted of beginners and very experienced scrappers, and everyone loved them!

Extremely easy fast tag, with just one stamp (3 colours) punched off the large SU tag punch.

A little more time, this one has watercolours on it.

My style of tag, used Peaceful Wishes stamp set and was a really easy tag to make :):):)

A Card for the group, modified from another that inspired me, needed some glitter and sparkle :):):)

An Every Day Photo

My kids LOVE games. They would play them all day. They also love puzzles and colouring but they love games more than anything else!
Friday they had a friend over and I snapped this photo...it's hard to get good photos of that many kids playing a game. When they play Sorry they always end up fighting because someone sends someone else "home" LOL

Getting away from the Every Day :)

I had the opportunity to attend a Stampin' Up! Regional Seminar yesterday! It was so much fun and very inspiring to get together with colleagues, learn new techniques, view Tonnes of samples, and rub shoulders with some of the top Stampin' Up! people! I love it when we can all get together and be cheery, helpful, and sharing, and the Regionals was certainly all of that!

To Start off, I was chosen to be a Regionals Helper! This is a great chance I loved! Everyone gets a free stamp set and materials for make and takes but being a helper (which I love cause it gave me a "purpose" all day besides wandering) I also got a kicky black SU apron! LOL Maybe this will help keep my clothing cleaner and ink/glue free!

So we arrived a little early for our training :) When I say a little early I mean a lot. We had to get up at 5 am to be ready to go to Halifax by 745. It was an early day, we left before sun up and it was barely coming up when we disappeared into the hotel for the whole entire day.

we manned the Check In table and gave out name tags, packages, and stamp sets! LOVE IT!
Allison was chosen to be a helper also and we both worked the L-R section of check in! It was all so organised!

While we were working Ann traded our card swaps for us! I made around 50 cards to swap out to other attendees :)
This card was created with Stampin' Up! materials including the Artfully Asian stamp set which was embossed on red with Gold powder and I used a TOOTHPICK to bleach all the leaves and petals of the flowers (50 cards!!) I embosed the Love stamp from Kanji and attached it all with pop ups! Gold Cord finished it off nicely :)

So to start things off Shelli Gardner (Owner) gives a nice talk on the Stampin' Up! Message :) The day was full of inspiring talks, Stampin' Time (where make and Takes were made), technique talks, business talks, and lunch :)



Shelli is very gracious about mixing and mingling with the SU demonstrators. They are their main selling features LOL It was neat to meet Shelli and listen to her, reminding us there are real people behind those stamp sets.

So I hope to take tips and techniques and ideas learned and make more and better parties from them! I am going to incorporate many ideas into my Workshops from now on!

After the Regionals we went to the Economy ShoeShop in downtown Halifax for supper before heading home dead tired :)




So we got home a little after 8 pm and I met Scott and friends at a restaurant and watched them eat :) before eventually going home and falling into a dead sleep :)

My Every Day

I have realised why I seem to be in such a rut lately LOL It's the time of the year! LOL Every day is the same because I have the same things to be doing! This is a busy Stampin' Up! Time of year, because everyone is preparing for Christmas Cards Etc. BUt also it is my Bow Time. I make bows every fall for a Christmas Tree company and it earns me my Christmas Money :) It makes a wonderful stress free christmas for us and the kids and I have been able to get people I love really nice thoughtful gifts instead of "what I can afford" gifts :) I get them what I want to get them :)

So my days consist of kids, and bows. With the occassional rush of cutting paper mixed in.

This is the bow-spinning machine. I spin them on this and add the wire, a rather painful process that involves bandaged hands LOL but it's very fast and I actually enjoy it.

After the bows are spun up they need to be fluffed, add picks, and boxed. Since this is not ALL I am doing this year I am actualyl finding this to be pretty easy too, although far more time consuming. I can spin up enough bows in about 2.5 hours to keep me fluffing and boxing for 2 days!! Sheesh LOL But it is awesome christmas money and I am actually not minding it too much this year. Last year during Bowing I got really really sick and it put me behind about 2 week! So far so good this year!

Week Catch Up

It's been a busy week! I like to be busy but I am SO tired :)
Last week is a blur ;) Scott had a little procedure and ended up home for 3 days! LOL He went back to work Friday. Aleah was here off and on, the kids had their activities, Friday was particularly busy, Holly had a dental appointment first thing, and while her little lip was "thawing" she bit it so badly I let her stay home from school :) I took Taylor's snake to school on Friday for show and tell, and then Holly had hockey at 5, Taylor had Gems at 7, and I had scrapbooking "wheneve I got there". Taylor and Annika were not very good at hockey but I stayed long enough to watch Holly,
she's doing so well! We didnt join them Saturday.
Saturday Daddy took Holly to Hockey and Grammy came and we did some shopping for a workshop to be held on Sunday :) Grammy knitted and kept Smyth company.
Did a lot of bows too :)

Sunday we got ready for the SU workshop. We also did some Sunday Shopping (new to NS of course) and discovered you cannot go to a home improvements stopre OR get a haircut on Sunday LOL!


The SU workshop was a Stampers' Club workshop held at a lovely lakeside Cottage and attended by loads of friends including my friend Shelley who had her surgery only last Tuesday! She didnt stamp and rested lots but kept us all company and was in such cheery spirits she made my Whole weekend wonderful :)

Monday Scott went to New Brunswick after sorta dealing with a leak in the basement, and we had a revolving door of company :) People came to visit, Janet came and worked with me for a little while and for lunch, Aleah was here, Ann was here, Mom was here and left, and then we went to run errands, Taylor got out of school at 3 and Holly at 415, so 2 trips to school were needed as well as 4 Stamp order drop offs, and finally we came home and had supper. There were a few errands I never got to.

Now today Ive gotten very little done and had SO many things to do. Ive been concentrating on Bows but I need to make 2 cards and deliver them to their intendeds, deliver Mary kay stuff, Aleah is here, and Taylor has Piano after school LOL Another busy day!

The kitties are getting along so well, we watched them play while having tea today :)

The Stand Off

The Tackle

The Counter Attack


And one innocently sleeping baby :)

I was Tagged ;)

Thanks Nancy! I dont know if I was supposed to do ALL 10 of these things?? LOL

The tag is 5 Random things related to the number 5 and 5 weird things about me.

5 RANDOM Things related to the number 5:
1. Holly is 5. For a little while longer anyway :)
2. There are 5 people in my immediate family.
3. When we bought fish last week we bought 5 barbs, 5 tetras, and 5 rainbow fish.
4. I am currently reading 5 books: Memoirs of a Geisha, The Stranger Beside me, Angels and Demons, Prey, and Family Virtues. Dont ask how I am keeping them all straight.
5. I have 5 more weeks of scrapbooking with 11-13 year old kids at a middle school in the area :)Once a week on Wednesday mornings.

OK 5 weird things about me...
1. I hate tape. Used tape is worst. Scotch Tape, masking tape, old price tags, sticky things, labels. I hate them. They give me the creeps.
2. I dont like feet to touch me especially if they are in socks...and most certainly if they are warm or sweaty.
3. I hate walking across a hard floor in bare feet. The little dirt bits gross me out.
4. I can be sleepy and dopey all day but if I can make it to 11pm I can stay up almost all night.
5. I like to be inside but if I can get outside I hate going back in.

Ok that's me :) I tag:
Mother, Vicky, Alison, Erica, Anna

Honda Family

Today we reached another point in our car-dom. We've had 2 cars for a few years now, and our Mazda was partly covered by Scott's company as he drove it for work almost all the time. UNfortunaltly the vehicle allowance didnt pay for the oil changes, tires, maintenance, extra hard wear on the car. LOL With the company's help we removed the Mazda from our family today, and picked up the Company-Provided Car, another Honda! No it's not a coincidence, it is what Scott chose, we love Honda and find it a really nice reliable car that drives nice and looks nice.

The Mazda was an awesome car, I loved it and drove it for the entire first year we had it! Then it would not fit all the car seats with the baby one facing forward, and we had to make the move to the Van for the next couple of years. THAT is something I was glad to leave behind.

The new Honda is Galaxy Grey and it drives nice, I tried it this afternoon and could get used to it LOL but it IS his work car :)


Our Two Matching Hondas now sit in our yard :)

New Pets

Ya well not really pets, in the ZOO sense :)


Scott brought home a fish on Monday that he actually bought ages ago and had not been able to bring home, a Lemon Butterfly Fish for his Saltwater Tank.



Since the tank was rearranged, the Clown fish, who tend to bond with something in the tank, have bonded with the Feather Duster, a Tube Worm that doesnt move :)


In the mail today, 3 more pets arrived! The girls were thrilled to get a Back to School box from their Uncle Trevor who lives in Saskatoon and doesnt get home very often! Trevor and Roseanna and Lorne (friends :)) sent the girls these really awesome little pets as well as some pencils and books, funky girl face clothes (Thanks Taylor lol),card games, and stickers! Thanks Uncle Trevor et. al.!

Sk8ter Gurl

Taylor is the Figure Skater. It is SO her sort of thing, dramatic but on Ice hahahah ! So she started StarSkate on Sunday night :) We all went to watch. I am kinda glad it is on a Sunday, I dont intend to take the other girls every time. It's not like skating was before, where there was loads of kids and loads of people watching...it was almost empty and there were only 9 girls on the ice and maybe 3 kids in the stands...so when my 2 were running up and down jumping and yelling, it was NOTICEABLE! LOL to say the least.

Ah well :) Taylor did really well for being the first time back on ice, it took a little while for the skating feet to kick in, and her skates are "sigh" too small for her. There was also little ankle support and the picks have been damaged and anyway she needs new skates LOL We're looking into it.

They did some gliding and then some cross overs and spins. It was interesting.