A tale of two Jacks

So, my son had lots of fun trick-or-treating as a lumberjack last night! Here he is in his home-assembled costume that I described in my last post.

Wanna closer look at that awesome hand-crocheted beard (scored from Etsy)?

It was a very festive evening at our house last night. My daughter spent some happy time putting up a few decorations to entertain our trick-or-treaters and to dress up our dinner table. My husband even got into the spirit of things while preparing our traditional Friday-night homemade pizza. May I present the "Jack-o-Pizza?"

Hope you had a fun day yesterday!
Emily

Happy Halloween

It has been months since I've been inspired to write a blog post here on My Little Slice of Bliss. Rest assured, all is well here in my little corner of the world--I've just been so busy with work and family that papercrafting and blogging have taken a definite back seat. Autumn has been a whirlwind, and here we are on the last day of October already. Happy Halloween!

My kids are in 6th grade and 10th grade this year. My sixth grader is excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. After masquerading as an Apple iPhone for the past two years, we decided it was time for a new costume for him. I picked up an awesome hand-crocheted beard from Etsy, and we put together a great lumberjack costume for him from items we already had around the house: hiking boots, jeans, one of Dad's old plaid flannel shirts, an ear flap cap, and a non-lethal axe we constructed from cardboard, a paper tube, and aluminum foil. At least he'll be cozy and warm tonight! Sorry, no photos yet!!


Last year my daughter decided that as a high school freshman, she was too old for trick-or-treating. She's opting to stay in again this year to hand out treats to the visiting neighborhood goblins. Because that means she'll miss out on all that yummy loot (and little brother might not be in the mood to share), I put together a little Halloween treat for her, which I'll share once her lil' bro heads out to haunt tonight. The gift bag is a pattern from DeNami Design, and it's the perfect size for two Reese's Pumpkins. Love those!

And speaking of my daughter, she got crafty yesterday and used my DeNami stamps (and my patterned paper and dies . . .) to decorate packets of hot cocoa mix to hand out to our trick-or-treaters tonight. Aren't these adorable? I think she did an awesome job :D.

Well, I hope that you and yours have a fun Halloween. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Haunting!
Emily

A bit about me . . .

So today's post is a little different! My dear friend Colleen Dietrich, of Dietrich Designs, called me last week to ask if she could tag me as part of a blog hop she is participating in. It seems that the goal of the hop is to learn about other blogger/artists by sharing some details about one's self, one's work, and one's creative process in a fun "interview" style blog post. The posters were encouraged to tag one or two fellow bloggers to share the fun, and I'm so honored that Colleen chose me! Colleen asked me to share some details about myself in this post today, so here goes . . .

1) How do you know Colleen?

My friend and fellow stamper, Colleen Dietrich

I first "met" Colleen on Splitcoast Stampers sometime after I first joined that online community in 2009. She always made the most beautiful cards and left the most wonderful comments. Not much has changed in either area! Before long we were sending PMs (that is, private messages) through Splitcoast, then exchanging our email addresses for more direct access, then snail-mail addresses so we could mail cards to one another, and finally phone numbers so we could chat even more easily.

It has been a wonderful journey building this friendship of ours! To have someone to chat with about our shared papercrafting interests has been a godsend--someone who understands the drool-worthiness of a new stamp set or paper collection, the thrill of finding fun paper punches or dies on clearance at Michael's or A.C. Moore, the joy of being asked to join a design team, the frustration of losing one's creative mojo, the elation of having a papercrafted project accepted for publication, or more often: the dejection of not having a project accepted for publication. Colleen was the one who encouraged me to start this blog in 2010 shortly after she had established her own. And then we had yet another interest in common: the world of blogging! Even more to chat about ;). But we aren't just papercrafting/blogging friends. Over the years, we've discovered we have so much more in common than our shared hobbies. These days we call one another to chat about our families, our jobs, our health concerns, our vacations, our daily triumphs and aggravations, our joys (and frustrations) of motherhood, and more. I am so blessed to count Colleen among my very closest friends!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Colleen, for your gift of friendship!!!

2) What are you working on right now?

Well, as much as I'd like to say that I'm knee-deep in challenging, meangingful, and creative papercrafting projects right now, that would be the furthest from the truth. In fact, I just noticed that my last post on this blog o' mine was on June 26, over a month ago! I do believe that's the longest lapse in posts I've ever had on this blog. Yikes! I never intended for that to happen, but sometimes everyday life gets in the way of the best intentions, right?

So, since the end of my kids' school year the last week of June, my 11YO son went away to a week of arts camp sponsored by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; my 15YO daughter and I went away on a trip to Burlington, VT, with her Girl Scout troop; my hubby and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary; our family worked together to replace our disintegrating wooden deck with new Trex planks and vinyl-clad aluminum railing systems; AND our family went away for a week to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary! As our gift to them, my sister and I rented a Victorian house in Cape May, NJ, for her family, my family, and my parents to stay in while vacationing for the week. What a lovely time that was for the three generations to hang out together!

Our rental house in Cape May, NJ

That's me in the sunglasses posing in front of a shipwreck just off Sunset Beach. In the background, the cousins are folicking in the waves along this pebbly beach known for its superb beachcombing.

The Dr. Henry Hunt house in Cape May's historic district. We found it on one of our early morning walks and just had to take a photo. We found out later on a trolley tour of historic Cape May that it is one of the most-photographed examples of "drunken" Victorian architecture--known as such because it combines elements from multiple different Victorian styles all in a single "drunken" mish mash!

My hubby and I near Sunset Pavilion at the end of Cape May's Promenade just before sunset. See the Cape May Lighthouse in the distance?

My parents, the happy Golden Anniversary couple!

So I guess that's what I've been "working" on right now! I'm happy to report, though, that I'll have an all-crafting post to share with you soon as part of a guest-designing gig I'm really thrilled about! More on all that later. Stay tuned!!

3) What is your signature style?

I like to dabble in all sorts of different styles! I play around with clean and simple, shabby chic, vintage, bold and graphic, fun and cute, layered and frilly, elegant and classy, punch art, . . . you name it, I've probably done it. I generally use the projects I create for my own purposes (as gifts to give, or birthday cards to mail to friends and family, etc.), so I guess overall you might describe my signature style as "mailable!" I like to make relatively flat cards to make them as USPS-friendly (and low-postage!) as possible!

Here's an example:  the mailable golden anniversary card I made to send to my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary:

Background stamp is from Hero Arts; flower is from Unity; sentiment is from Flourishes

4) What are your favorite types of projects to make?

I enjoy making all kinds of projects! Cards are easily what I make the most of, but I think my favorite projects to make are papercrafted gifts to give. This past spring my daughter and my nephew were both confirmed at their respective churches. I enjoyed making each of them some commemorative gifts to mark the occasion.

I created a framed and personalized piece of subway art for each confirmand using a variety of electronic brushes and fonts I've collected over time and my favorite (and free!) photo editing software, The GIMP

I made each confirmand a papercrafted bookmark perfect for use in their favorite Bibles. Each bookmark was personalized on the back with the occasion and date.

And here are the confirmation cards I made for these special young people:

For my daughter: because I could hand-deliver it, I added a less than "mailable" embellishment on the cross. Stamps are from The Craft's Meow

For my nephew: an elegant, mailable card. Stamps are from The Craft's Meow

If you are interested in seeing more of my papercrafted gift projects, please be sure to check out these "Gift Idea" posts!

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Well, readers, thank you so much for sticking with me through this long post! I think I'll wrap it up here. A huge THANK YOU to the fabulous Colleen for inviting me to post with her today. If you have arrived here outside of the blog hop, I'd love it if you popped over to meet Colleen and say HI! Her work is so beautiful and elegant--I know you'll love visiting with her!!

Thank you so much for visiting today!! I hope that your summers have been swell thus far and continue to be.
Be well!
Emily

My Embossed Elements Winner for June

Hello and Happy Thursday! I'm announcing my Embossed Elements giveaway winner today. The brand-new Cloudy Sky Embossing Folder goes to lucky #23, which is Nikki C.! Congratulations, Nikki! Please email me (you'll find my email address on my "Complete Profile" page--see the right-hand sidebar under my picture) with your snail mail mailing address so I can get this embossing folder sent out to you ;).

My newest embossing folder from the DeNami Design store is the Butterflies in Corner embossing folder. My 15YO daughter ooooo-ed and aaaaaah-ed over this one, so I just had to use it to make her a card. It's a birthday card; well, actually it is her half-birthday card. My sweet thing was born on Christmas Eve. The first few years we celebrated her big day on the actual day, but it was so hard to make it special with Christmas just right around the corner. So starting around her sixth birthday, we asked her if she'd like to celebrate with cake and presents on her half-birthday, so she could spread out the celebrating more. And we've been doing it ever since! So this is the card she'll get from us when we celebrate her half birthday this weekend. My kids' last day of school was Tuesday--June 24!! So celebrating her half birthday is a great way to kick off the summer :) Here's how her half-birthday card turned out:

I used a sweet stamp from the Fancy Flutters set, a sentiment from the Thoughtful Greetings set, a Crystal Lacquer Pearl Pen, and some pink baker's twine.

I think my daughter will love how it turned out!!

Thanks so much for dropping by for a visit today!
Emily

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter here at our house! It was a quiet one (just the four of us), but the weather was beautiful, Easter worship at our church was lovely, and we enjoyed some time together just hanging out. I wanted to share a few photos of our day.

We started with a light Easter breakfast before church. I thought we'd be crunched for time, so we decided to delay Easter baskets and egg hunt until after church. To help ease the "sting" of having to wait, I set a "fancy" breakfast table with pretty paper Easter napkins and my pretty apple blossom glass plates, with a fun strawberry-patterned cake stand elevating our triple berry muffins. That's a bowl of cut fresh pineapple in the foreground and a bowl of colored hard-boiled eggs at the far end of the table.

My daughter's extensive collection of handmade pompom chickies served as our festive centerpiece.

Here's a peek at my daughter's Easter basket, complete with handmade {by me} Easter cookie pops. I was tired of going the store-bought route for Easter treats!

The white bunny head pops are double-stuffed chocolate sandwich cookies {I'd say "Oreos" except they aren't; I went with the more economical store brand ;) } dipped in melted vanilla-flavored white candy melts. I cut pink jelly beans in half for the noses and used some leftover chocolate frosting to pipe tiny eyes. I made the ears from large marshmallows, snipped on an angle and dipped in pink decorating sugar. I made the ears in advance so I could press them into the bunny pops before the white coating set up. I'd seen several different versions of bunny Oreo pops on various blogs and combined the aspects of each that I liked best to create these. They were so much fun to make!

Can you tell that the darker cookie pops are supposed to be the hind ends of bunnies? (Or "Oh, look--bunny butts!" as my daughter put it!!) For these, I dipped Girl Scout Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies in milk chocolate candy melts. The bunny tails and feet are miniature marshmallows (for the feet I snipped a marshmallow in half and pinched the top to form a more longish jack-rabbit's foot shape). For the fluffy tails, I actually snipped off the tops of the marshmallows and dipped the sticky end in white sugar, but it is way too fine to actually see. I tinted a tiny bit of frosting pink and piped on pink paw pads. I came across the idea for decorating these on Pinterest, but the chocolate-dipped peanut butter sandwich cookie idea was all mine. And it's delicious!!!

That's it for my Easter photos. Thanks for indulging me! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for dropping by for a little slice of bliss with me today! I'll be back on Wednesday with a DeNami Product Spotlight. Can't wait to show you!
Emily

Happy Fat Tuesday!

It's hard to believe that Ash Wednesday is just about here--even though it is soooooooo late this year. It always seems to sneak up on me! Anyway, that means that today is Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. My HS freshman daughter's French 2 class is celebrating Mardi Gras today at school. She took on the "culinary expert" role for her group's project (another group member is researching the history of French Mardi Gras traditions, and someone else is reporting on some other aspect which completely escapes me at the moment!). Her assignment: research and bake a King Cake to share with the class. She and I worked together last night to bake the cake and had such a blast doing it! The Gulf Coast-style King Cake that we made is a cinnamon-filled coffee ring, and while it baked, the house smelled heavenly!! She was so pleased with how it turned out. We cut it into small wedges for sampling (as well as to make it easier for her to carry it to school). After we'd cut 36 wedges for sharing and completely filled the plastic container for transporting them, we still had about 1/4 of the cake left. Guess what we're having for dessert after supper tonight!!!!

We were so thrilled, we just had to take pictures (even though the post-sunset lighting conditions in the kitchen were less than ideal). Here's what it looked like:

Yum!! The recipe my daughter found (you can find it HERE) was really simple--it's based on Pillsbury Crescent Rolls!! I think we'll be adding this recipe to the "keepers" file ;).

And while I'm sharing non-crafting photos, I thought I'd share a photo of some visitors we had last week. Last week I noticed that a lot of deer have been hanging out in our neighborhood. One morning I saw about 20 deer amble down our road just before sunrise. Just before bedtime that evening, we spotted five or six deer bedding down in our neighbors' yard. I was stunned the next morning to see them still there, right out in the open! I grabbed my camera for this shot, taken right through the sidelight windows of our front door, not quite 30 feet away. The sun was just starting to come up, and they were just getting ready to move on.

Well, I have tons to do today, so I've got to be moving along. I hope that my daughter's Mardi Gras celebration goes well today--and I hope that you have a fabulous day yourself!

Thanks for visiting!
Emily

Purple Onion Designs to the Rescue!

Happy Friday to you! I hope you had a fun Halloween yesterday. We managed to sneak in trick-or-treat between the rain showers, so I'd say it was a successful evening!

Our freshman daughter threw me for a loop when she came home from school yesterday evening. She joined the high school's a cappella group this year and is having a blast. Tonight is their first performance, and she has been staying after school for extra practices all week long. So, yesterday she announces that, on Halloween when our family (and most likely many others just like ours) has plans for a busy evening, the director told them during practice, "By the way, you all need to bring baked goods with you tomorrow to sell during intermission at the performance." What?!?!? Who forgets to share this vital bit of participatory information until the night before the performance and then expects families to drop everything else--on Halloween!--to get ready for a bake sale? Well, apparently the high school music director!! Faced with the prospect of having no time to run out to the store for ingredients, I surveyed our meager stocks looking for inspiration for bake-sale ready goodies. Our prospects were not good. My daughter finally suggested caramel corn. Genius! A batch of caramel corn requires not much more than popping corn, butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup, which always seem to be in ready supply at our house. So while my husband and son headed out for trick-or-treat and my daughter costumed herself for treat distribution at our own front door, I slaved away in the kitchen doing my last-minute music-boostery duty of stirring oven-baked caramel corn.

My next dilemma was how to package all this crunchy goodness for the bake sale. All I had were some standard fold-over sandwich baggies. Not terribly attractive. But then my Purple Onion Designs stamps came to the rescue! I was able to use one of their Treat Logo stamps and accompanying Treat Words to create some fun tags to dress up these bags in no time at all. Nothing fancy here (these bake-sale treats will be purchased and gobbled down in a matter of minutes, after all), but it's often a little extra like this that will attract a customer, right? I just love the huge variety of mix-and-match treat descriptions in the Treat Words set--like "peanutbutter" and "pretzels" and "fudge" and "snickerdoodles" and "clusters" and "chocolate" and "kisses" and, well, it goes on and on with a ton of options for creating custom titles for whatever goodies you are making. Love, LOVE that!!

And speaking of Purple Onion Designs, the release of Stacey Yacula's adorable new holiday stamp collection Winter Wishes is live in the Purple Onion Designs store today! You can view the entire collection HERE. Purple Onion owner Michele is running a 25% off sale when you buy the entire collection. Sale ends November 7.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a terrific weekend!
Emily

Eeek! and a WINNER!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just popping in to share a card for Halloween! I've got lots of fun goodies on this one: chipboard cat from Maya Road (inked with black pigment ink), washi-tape-covered tags and punched scalloped borders (orange stripes washi tape from DeNami Design), black May Arts corduroy ribbon, black Paper Smooches twine, alphabet stickers from Lily Bee, and a fancy background stamp (Looped Flower) from Hero Arts. I sent this one to a very dear, cat-loving friend. I hope it brought a smile to her face!!

I'm also sharing the winner of my washi tape giveaway from Monday. I used Random.org to select a winner. It was lucky #12, which was

terriavidreader (IN-USA) !!!

Congratulations, Terri! I've emailed you :D Thanks to everyone who entered!

I hope you have a fun Halloween wherever you are! My oldest is now a freshman in high school. She decided that she's too old for trick-or-treat, so she will be manning the door at our house tonight to hand out treats (most likely in her mad scientist costume). My fifth grader is very much looking forward to trick-or-treating tonight. He was very happy to recycle his Apple iPhone costume from last year, which made me very happy. I'm glad that last year's hard work lives on!

Hope your day is filled with more treats than tricks! Thanks for stopping by,
Emily

Greatest Dad on Earth – Unity FWF

TGIF! Just a quick post to share a little something I made for today's Friends With Flair hop for Unity Stamp Co. This card is already winging its way to my dad for Father's Day.

I took a clean and simple approach to this card featuring a fun stamp or two from Unity's Retro Road Trip stamp kit and lots of washi tape.

My 10-year-old son has been making lots of cards this week. Be looking for him (Legoboy) to link up to today's FWF list later on. He started a card using loads of Unity stamps before school this morning but didn't finish it in time. He will wrap it up after school and link up then.

I hope you have awesome plans for the upcoming weekend! My husband and son are attending an all-day Cub Scout camp on Saturday, and we have plans for some special Father's Day celebrating on Sunday. There may be some special desserts involved. Just sayin'. ;-)

Thanks for sharing a little slice of bliss with me today!
Emily

My son has been busy . . .

So, our 14YO daughter is away this week on her 8th-grade class trip to Washington, D.C. She left early Monday morning and returns late Friday night. Our 10YO son has been kind of lost without her, so he's been asking to make cards with me. I'm tickled pink! It's keeping him busy (and taking his mind off his sister's absence) and giving us some fun stuff to do together.

We've been checking the daily challenge at SplitcoastStampers each morning and talking about what he'd like to make for it while we eat breakfast. And then if there's time, we'll start pulling out supplies before he heads off to school, and then he finishes up his project after school. He's doing a great job with everything! I have him cut and score his card bases (great math practice, as he needs to figure out where the halfway point is). And he's cut his panels and mats, too, figuring out the right sizes and margins along the way. He's a pro at stamping and punching, too!

I also showed him how to color with my Copic markers, which he loves! I'm not setting him loose on his own, mind you (they are just too expensive for that!), but sitting with him and giving him guidance on where to color light and dark, and showing him how to blend. The tendency of alcohol inks to bleed throws him off a bit, but he's doing a fabulous job.

He has been having soooooooooo much fun stamping with my DeNami stamps this week. I thought you might enjoy seeing what he's made so far:

A thank-you note for his band teacher (their last band practice will be tomorrow, so he'll hand-deliver his card with his hand-written message inside.) He made this for the SCS color challenge to use Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, and Daffodil Delight. The band stamp is an old one from Inkadinkadoo, and the rest are from DeNami Design: Just a Note from All Occasion Sentiments set and Mini Music Notes. We also used some Musical Notes Washi Tape from DeNami.
 

A Father's Day card for his daddy! He made this for this week's SCS sketch challenge.  He used Business Chickie, Computer Chickie, and Happy Father's Day cling stamp from DeNami.

This morning he made a thank-you card for one of his teachers (his regular 4th grade teacher is out on maternity leave right now, so this one is for his long-term substitute that his class is finishing out the year with.) He made this for this week's SCS ways to use it challenge, which is to make a one-layer card. My son LOVES using my Stamp-a-majig! The frame is from an old Stampin' Up set (Sweet Dreams). He also used Back to School Chickie and Brushed Thank You stamps from DeNami.

For my son, part of the fun of making these cards has been uploading them to his account on Splitcoast and seeing if anyone makes any comments. He's having a blast being part of the stamping community there!

Well, that's all for now--thanks so much for stopping by today and sharing a little bit of my proud-mama bliss!
Emily

From the Heart

Greetings and salutations, my friends! Today I am sharing a little Valentine's Day card that I cooked up for this month's Flourishes release week challenge. The theme is Love Letters.

I went with a pink and red "love colors" palette and focused on a sweet little sentiment that says "from the heart."


I used two Flourishes stamp sets: the retired Spring Botanicals (I used the bleeding heart silhouette to stamp my background and embossed as my focal image) and Tiny Flowers and Tags.

It's a busy week for us here on Bliss Road. The kids have lots going on after school this week. Our son just started two different after-school enrichment classes. One is Lego Robotics and the other is a cool course called Get Smarter, a look at how our minds make sense (and nonsense) of our world. Both courses  last for an hour, once per week, for six weeks and are taught by teachers at his school. He is so pumped to be taking them! And I'm happy that he can take advantage of these without my having to provide additional carting around. I show up to fetch him after school like normal, except a little over an hour later. A win-win all around! It's nice for him to have a little something extra to do during these dark winter months.

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!
Emily

Merry Christmas!

I thought I would do a little something different today. I'd like to share a poem that my daughter wrote for her eighth-grade English class last week. The assignment was to write a poem using a given list of 14 words (timber, marmalade, cranberry, hoax, perspire, giveaway, ocean, horse, decibel, passion, anticipate, sensible, undercover, microscopic) on either Christmas, Hanukkah, winter, gifts, or snow. A challenge to be sure. Here is her poem:

Walking with Friends to a Bonfire

*

Morning.
The frost is a dead
giveaway to the cold outside.
The hoax of winter:
the carpet of white looks
inviting, yet we pile on sensible
clothes to ward off
the chill. We walk with a
passion, anticipating our annual
tradition. A long
trek through an ocean of
white; this leads to a bonfire made
of fallen timbers.
Friends walk and talk,
collecting horse chestnuts that are
hiding, undercover,
in the snow. At last! The site
is reached! Decibel levels rise as the horse
chestnuts are roasted
over the logs. We perspire as the
flames, looking for all the world like orange
marmalade, dance around
the cranberry-red coals. When the
fire’s light begins to fade, we turn our toes toward
home. Microscopic lights twinkle
in the distance – how inviting they look! As
we return home, we are content and satisfied with our holiday tradition.

||||||||||

I hope that you, too, are content and satisfied with your holiday traditions. Merry Christmas!

Peace and goodwill to all,

Emily

thanks*giving

Happy TGIF, friends! I'm slowly closing in on my Thanksgiving card quota. Woo-hoo! Just in time to start jotting notes and stuffing envelopes next week so the cards arrive in time. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is now less than two weeks away!

Because Friday is Friends With Flair day over on the Unity blog, I pulled out lots of Unity goodness to put together today's card. And, without further ado, here it is!

Want a Unity accounting? Let's see . . . I've got leaves and berries from two {ippity} sets:  Where You Should Be (which is on sale right now!!) and The Simple Things. Words from Thank You Words (kinda makes sense, right?). And the background is the supremely elegant Quatrefoil Background.

Challenges have been my m.o. this week, so here's what inspired me:

• I took my layout from one of the two sketches featured over at Chick Challenges with Ippity this week.
  
• I took my color scheme from this week's ColourQ challenge: Cherry Cobbler, Kraft, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, and White.
  
• Do You Stack Up? use a Leaves/Trees theme
• The Kraft Journal Challenge: Happy Harvest 

On Monday my kids will have the day off from school for Veterans Day, but sadly, my hubby does not. I'm sure we'll find something fun to occupy us on Monday. But in the meantime, the whole family needs to tackle the leaf raking. With the crazy weather and our crazy schedules, we haven't had any time to devote to this huge task yet!! Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Athena managed to knock down most of the leaves (all except the oak leaves, which will hang on for dear life until March and then drop once the grass starts turning green. What's up with that anyway?), so hopefully we'll only have to do this once. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for dropping by to check out my little slice of bliss! Have a great weekend!
Emily

Happy Halloween!

It's October 31, and you know what that means. A Happy Halloween to all of you!

First, a quick update:  I'm happy to say that we weathered "Frankenstorm" with no issues. There were high winds and plenty of rain, but we came through unscathed. No loss of power or Internet (cable) service. The kids had the day off from school on Monday when the worst of it hit, and I'm glad because there are plenty of downed limbs and branches around as a result of the storm. Both of our kids walk to and from school every day (our daughter walks solo and our son gets a Mom escort each day), so they and the other kids in town were spared a potential dangerous trip to and from school. After all of the hurricane reports these past few days, we are realizing how fortunate we were. My heart goes out to all of those folks living in areas that bore the brunt of the storm.

And now, I have two Halloween projects to share today. First up is my son's Halloween costume! He decided that he wanted to be an iPhone (or more specifically, an iPhone 5, as he wants to be as up to date as possible!), so I made him this sandwich-board costume.

We modeled our design after this:

My son and I worked together to design and print out the graphics that became the "apps" on the iPhone screen. After trimming, I mounted them on black foam-core board. The "screen" background is made from a few sheets of 12x12 patterned paper. Lots of paper-crafting goodness in this costume! I had so much fun :D!!

And, of course, every iPhone must bear the Apple brand icon on the back.

He is over the moon about his costume and cannot wait to show it off! He's already asked for photos to take to school so he can show his teacher and classmates. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates tonight for trick-or-treat :D. Please, no runs, no smears, no errors!!

I also wanted to share this adorable Halloween veggie platter that my daughter made for us! She asked on Monday {when she had the day off from school due to the hurricane} if she could make something special to go along with supper. I didn't know quite what she was up to until she brought this adorable concoction (all of her own design!!!) to the table.

Can you see the pumpkin face? (If not, squint a bit.) Those bowls of dip are the eyes. My son has always said that he doesn't like raw baby carrots (at an early age he had a texture aversion and hated that they didn't dissolve in his mouth like most other foods). Anyway, he's always avoided them, but his sister's fun creation and her gentle prodding to just try one with a bit of dip swayed him, and he gave it a shot. Score!! He discovered that he does in fact like raw carrots, and now he can't wait for his sister to make us another of her Halloween-themed veggie platters to have with supper tonight. A proud mom moment all around!

Well, thanks so much for dropping by for a visit today. I hope that you are staying safe, warm, and dry wherever you are.

Happy Halloween!
Emily

A little Frankenpumpkin in the middle of a big Frankenstorm

I hope all of you are holding your own against Frankenstorm if you are in harm's way. I've prescheduled this post (in case we lose power!), so I don't have an update on our situation yet. But I wanted to be sure to share the pumpkin my kids decorated to spiffy up our house for Halloween! (Be sure to see yesterday's post for the ones they made to enter in their orthodontist's pumpkin-decorating contest. So cute!)

OK, ready? Here it is:

It was SO much fun watching this take shape!! Didn't they do a great job? Their Frankenpumpkin started life as a small-ish orange pie pumpkin. They painted it in several layers of acrylic paint and molded ears and nose from Crayola Model Magic. Frankie's hair is a miniature black feather boa from A.C. Moore that I helped staple into place. The eyes are circles punched from cardstock (aren't they lucky to have a mom who is all outfitted with just the right craft supplies??), and the mouth and stitches were drawn on with a black Sharpie. To give Frankie a rosy glow, I let the kids borrow some of my blush. Too cute, right?

I'm still working on my son's Halloween costume, so I can't pre-schedule a post about that at this point. I'm planning to finish it in the next few days, so hopefully we'll still have power so I can share photos of it on Halloween. Would you believe that it is a paper-crafted costume? I can't wait to show it off. Fingers crossed that the weather won't ruin trick-or-treat for the kids. They are so looking forward to wearing their costumes (and all the treats, of course, too).

Thanks for taking a peek at our pumpkin! Stay safe, wherever you are!
Emily

Some Halloween Critters

OK, this Frankenstorm business, quite frankly, has us running, if not quite scared, then at the very least cautious. We aren't too worried about the rain, but the forecasted high winds could be quite a problem for us. We lost half of one of our taller trees over the summer, and we noticed recently that the remaining half is starting to split away from the main trunk. The direction it is listing aims it directly toward the power and cable lines that feed our house. Realizing this sent us scurrying into action over the weekend. Really, there's nothing we can do about the tree, but it became paramount that we prepare for the {now strong} possibility of a power outage. Lots of measures taken over the past two days, and now I'm pre-scheduling a few blog posts that I'd hoped to share this week. It would be just my luck to have Halloween projects to share and then have to miss Halloween completely because of a power and/or cable outage. And since we get our Internet service via cable, either type of outage will torpedo my posting plans!!

So today I want to share photos of the cute little pumpkins that my kids decorated! They made them to enter the pumpkin-decorating contest at their orthodontist's office. They had so much fun making them!! Each of these started life as a mini white pumpkin. Here's what my 13YO daughter did with her pumpkin.

And now it's my 9YO son's pumpkin.

Am I allowed to say how cute I think these little guys turned out? Can you spy the paper-crafted portions of both of these? It's true, the apples don't fall far from the tree ;).

I hope you'll tune in again tomorrow, because I have another family pumpkin project to share. This one is the one that we're keeping for ourselves. We'll put it out on the porch to entertain the trick-or-treaters on Halloween (if any of them come out in Frankenstorm, that is!!). Anyway, I think it's totally cute and can't wait to show off how it turned out.

Stay safe everyone!
Emily

MOAV 2: The Adventure Continues . . .

My family had so much fun on our "Mother Of All Vacations" last year, that we had to take another! In fact, we started planning this year's 30-day camping journey on the final leg of last year's trip. Our focus this time? The Four Corners region of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Where the corners of CO, UT, AZ, and NM meet at Four Corners Monument, Navajo Nation Tribal Park

Yes, we hit the American Southwest in August--in monsoon season--and survived it all: 7800 miles, 19 states, 100-plus-degree temperatures, wind-driven rains, 50-plus-mph winds, high elevations, mountain driving, desert driving, and some pretty rugged--but utterly beautiful--terrain.

The Mitten Buttes in Monument Valley Navajo Nation Tribal Park, AZ (taken by 13YO daughter)

We ended up visiting 26 National Park Service/Bureau of Land Management sites in eight states, hiking in many of them.

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (St. Louis Arch), MO

Fort Scott National Historic Site, KS

Fort Larned National Historic Site, KS

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, CO

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, CO

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Aztec Ruins National Monument, NM

Mesa Verde National Park, CO

Arches National Park, UT

Natural Bridges National Monument, UT

Valley of the Gods (BLM), UT

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, AZ

Wupatki National Monument, AZ

Walnut Canyon National Monument, AZ

Petrified Forest National Park, AZ

Petroglyph National Monument, NM

White Sands National Monument, NM

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site (BLM), NM

Valley of Fires Recreation Area (BLM), NM

Pecos National Historical Park, NM

Fort Union National Monument, NM

Capulin Volcano National Monument, NM

Fort Smith National Historic Site, AR

Hot Springs National Park, AR

Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges at 18 NPS units. We also visited national forests, tribal parks, state parks, city parks, and drove part of Historic Route 66. It was epic, breathtaking, educational, and unforgettable.

Wanna see some photos? Just keep scrolling for the "This Land is Your Land" tour. Many thanks to Woody Guthrie (feel free to pull out your tambourine. Go ahead--I don't mind.) And remember, just click on any photo to enlarge it.

As I went walking

Hiking the Long Logs Trail in Petrified Forest National Park, AZ (taken by 9YO son)

that ribbon of highway

US-163 leading through Monument Valley, AZ

I saw above me

Owachomo  Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument, UT

that endless skyway

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, MO

I saw below me

Step House cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park, CO

that golden valley

Moki Dugway, Utah State Route 261 (taken by 13YO daughter)

This land

Pike's Peak viewed through the Siamese Twins formation in Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO

was made

Blue Whale, Historic Route 66 attraction, Catoosa, OK

for you and me.

Ancient macaw rock carving at Petroglyph National Monument, NM

I roamed and I rambled

Wagon on the Santa Fe Trail outside Bent's Old Fort Historic Site, CO

and I followed my footsteps

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO (taken by 13YO daughter)

To the sparkling sands of 

Gypsum sand dunes below the San Andres Mtns, White Sands National Monument, NM

her diamond deserts

The Painted Desert, as protected within Petrified Forest National Park, AZ

While all around me 

Ruins at Fort Union National Historic Site, NM

a voice was sounding

Oil-drum kachina doll outside the National Route 66 Museum, Elk City, OK (taken by 13YO daughter)

This land

Closeup of a petrified tree stump in Petrified Forest National Park, AZ

was made

Rock cairns at Three Sisters formation overlook on Valley Drive in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, AZ

for you and me.

At the aerial tramway depot atop Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, NM (taken by 9YO son)

When the sun came shining, 

Sunrise over tug-propelled barges on the Mississippi River in East Memphis, AR (taken by 9YO son)

and I was strolling

A leisurely hike in Petrified Forest National Park, AZ (taken by 13YO daughter)

And the wheat fields waving

A view of Sierra Grande from Capulin Volcano National Monument, NM

and the dust clouds rolling

The dusty Valley Drive passing by Elephant Butte in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, AZ

A voice was chanting, 

Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Aztec Ruins National Monument, NM

As the fog was lifting,

Sunrise along US-191 enroute to Arches National Park, UT

This land 

Indian paintbrush at Sandia Peak summit in Albuquerque, NM

was made

The Watchtower at Desert View in Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

for you and me. 

Our accommodations at Wigwam Village #2 in Cave City, KY

We are back to reality now, getting ready for next week's return to school, but this MOAV is sure to live on and on in family lore!

Thanks for checking out my vacation photos!

Emily