Christmas wreaths I might be able to make myself.. maybe

Oooh here's one I can really sink my teeth into.. heh heh heh! from Sugar Shack Creations on Etsy. What am I saying.. I'd so eat this before it ever became a wreath!

Perhaps I could try my hand at this beauty by Sunnydayz5 on Etsy

Or this wreath by lmcraftworks on Etsy
Not only am I looking to update our family stockings.. we're in a new house that has a double front door and neat little places all over that will be crying for wreaths come Christmas. So the search is on for wreaths I could maybe possibly make myself.

This is my current favourite by http://redvelvetgirls.typepad.com/

heroes that do pumpkins

Gotta love Dollar Store Halloween supplies. Found these cute No-Carve Pumpkin decorations that my heroes had a great time with today.

a little last minute craft

so simple it might get overlooked.. the napkin ghost. Yes napkin ghosts are pretty much free and quite easy to do.. but does anyone think to do them anymore?? This year the kids and I did some to hang in corners around our house and all it takes is this: scrunch a plain white paper napkin into a ball, take a second napkin and cover the ball, tie a string around to keep it together and hang it up- the finishing touch is to add some eyes with a black marker. I love getting back to the basics like that! Oh, and if you happen to have a ceiling fan with a slow setting..that you can safely attach them to, it might mesmerize your kids like it did mine.

The Design Dazzle

I started my blog journey only a few month ago and my blog knowledge has increased 180% since then. I now follow as many as 200 blogs and yet I still have few favourites. One of those is Design Dazzle. A fellow mama and design junky this lady has wonderful ideas for parties, decorating every part of your home and always inspires. Here's a link to her latest post.

Saturday Nite Special

I've been out in blog land again and have much to report. Firstly I have to give props the wonderful Funky Junk Interiors blog for hosting a weekend Linky Party. This is a party I wanna be at!

Second, I'm over Halloween. I know it's only the 24th of October.. but I've been thinking about you Halloween for 2 months now.. and well. I'm over you. Ya, I'm like that.

Now onto Christmas! I've been waiting till we new our family was complete to get family stockings and now the year is here! So I'm starting my search and want to know what you think. Here's my latest finds.

Sweater Stockings found at Martha Stewart.Com

Oh how I love old quilts turned into stockings.. this one is from Jessica's CraftsNQuilts on Etsy

These fun stockings are from the MissMosh's Shop on Etsy

This is from the Possibly & Perhaps Etsy shop

Have a great weekend! See you at the Linky Party!

stealing ideas

I got this idea from the Ex Hot Girl blog by the lovely and talented Jennifer Brindley. So here I go trying something new.

Current Books: I've been reading Honey I Wrecked the Kids for months now. What I really need though is dinner with Alyson Schafer so she can coach me on how to deal with this wily crew. Especially since E chopped off half her hair today... If you live in a city with Alderian parenting courses.. I envy you. Go if you can!


Current Playlist: It's a bizarre mixture of Innocence Mission, Backyardigan soundtracks and whatever's top 20 on the radio... sigh...


Current Food: Hot Chocolate.. and I'm not talking once in a while.. I'm having it every day people.. with marshmallows.. large marshmallows.. I should probably put this under the guilty pleasures heading.


Current Colour: Red. I'm normally a black and grey girl, but lately I've been mixing it up a bit whenever I see something I like that's raspberry red.


Current Favourite Show: Ooh I'm obsessed with Grey's Anatomy. I won't talk on the phone, work overtime or put the kids down when it's Grey time. Its the only night I sit down and watch TV so I love every minute of it.


Current Wishlist: To loose 25 pounds, get an Espresso maker, a BBQ and that's only the first line of my wishlist. It also goes on to talk about the personal trainer and summer house in France.


Current Drink: Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. I kinda hate Starbucks so I'm not proud of it.. bloody $5 for one drink. It's the reason I have Espresso maker on my wishlist!


Current Guilty Pleasure: Ghost Whisperer. I'm not a big TV person and not really into that kind of show.. but it comes on after The Hour which I do like.. and if I see the opening then I need to watch the WHOLE thing. That means I'm going to bed again at 1am.


Current Need: A hair cut, to pay off some bills.. and one on one time with my daughter in no particular order.


Current Triumphs: Going to Spin class for 3 weeks in a row.. (that ended this week by the way.. will need to work on that)


Current Bane of my existence: It's a tie between the toy box and vacuuming.. so keeping the floors clean in general. These kids live like pigs!


Current Celebrity Crush: Ryan Reynolds. Saw The Proposal the other day. What a cute little movie. And he's Canadian.


Current Indulgence: Our house. We've been here just over 4 months now and love it.


Current Blessing: We are all healthy and I'm cancer free, that's the best blessing there is.


Current Slang: Ffs, gc.. lmao... OMG..


Current Outfit: my guess jeans and brown gap hoodie.


Current Excitement: going on Etsy


Current Mood: Sorta tired.. should be really tired.. but it's 1:15am and I'm only a little tired. I will be forcing myself into bed soon though.. 7am comes far too early.


Current Link: an Etsy purse I love...


And that's it peeps.. Have a good night:)
Amy

trick or treat

Ah yes, another Halloween post. I've been wondering what I would do with the kids if we were not going trick or treating on the 31st and I've found some fun things to do in the Capital. I'm sure you can find these sorts of things in any community but here's my Ottawa Link love for today-
as mentioned before:
Saunders Farm because its got one hell of a spooky wagon ride for those of us too old to trick or treat.
The Billings Estate because you can go ghost hunting there on Halloween.. that's just freaky spooky.
The Hazeldean Mall because it's a super fun and safe way for little ones to learn all about trick or treating inside without a monster snowsuit covering that costume!
Bayshore Shopping Centre for all of the same Mall reasons..
I'd love to add more to this list if anyone has some great Halloween traditions- bring em on!

my house is haunted

So this is probably my 1oth blog about Halloween but I just haven't said enough about it. We decorated today. Now, I know that when someone decorates for Halloween that usually means the front yard gets pretty spooky looking.. but not here, not this year.

The kids are still pretty young and we really like the little walk from Auntie Sheila's to Papa's house, so we don't trick-or-treat in our neighbourhood.

This is my big confession. We also don't give out candies in our neighbourhood. Eek! I totally suck. Here I am marching 2 kids out to get candy and I'm not giving back myself. I know I super suck, but I've come to justify it to myself and I'm going with this: I gave out candy faithfully for years before marriage and children and now that my husband and I want to see our little heroes go from door to door I'm not answering my door. I will no doubt be pushed aside by E & J one of these years.. told I'm uncool and that I can't keep up.. but for now I'm loving my little trick-or-treaters.

Now on to the decorating! We have spider webs and spiders, Dracula and skeletons, tome stones in plants and bones in corners, a witch on our stairway, ghosts by the windows and pumpkins and gourds on the mantel and dining room table. We even have little skeleton string lights wrapped around the pillars in the living room. I never before considered decorating for Halloween inside and I like it!

To get you thinking more about decorations here are some great blogs with great Halloween ideas!

4 Crazy Kings

Be Different Act Normal

Blonde Designs Blog

Funky Junk Interiors

This is all the link love I've got for today.. but I'll be back with more:)

If only everything was as fun as rollerderby..

If you want a super fun night that's tons more exciting and cheaper than dinner at that swanky restaurant..... you GOTTA go see Rollerderby. Very few times have I had a blast for $10.. and that 3 hours was a blast. It's rare to find entertainment that can keep both my husband and I interested. This is where Rollerderby is special. It combines that sporty thing guys need and the empowering feminist thing that women need. I am now the proud owner of a Slaughter Daughters T-shirt and I'm already planning our next derby night.

In fact a group of us girls is going to see Drew Barrymore's movie all about Rollerderby. If you haven't heard it's called Whip It starring Ellen Page. I can't wait to see it and if you want to learn more about Rollerderby Whip It is a good place to begin.

saunders farm

Tomorrow I'm taking E to her first school Field trip. I know I'm more excited than she is but she's excited too. We're going to Saunders Farm. If you living in Canada's capital I recommend it. It's best for kids who are walking and tricky for those of us who still push strollers around where ever we go. Tomorrow it's just me and E. For more Saunders info click the link:)

puddles

I just wanted to post this because they are having such a bloody good time. After spending too much time inside this summer, we've decided we won't let the rain keep us in this fall. So here we are this week in the rain at the Agriculture Museum finding puddles and (in J's case) growling at cows.

playing with letters

I have been playing again on alphabetphotography.com hee hee hee!

These people have that creative magic. It's fun to write out names and see what comes up and it's beautiful to look at the designs and inspirational messages they have pre-packaged. I'm dreaming about a big "Welcome" framed at my front door.

waffles...mmmmmmmmmm...

I found this recipe on Waffle-recipe.com and have been wanting to post about amazing waffles for some time. I decided though to keep them to myself until we'd tested the recipe out a couple times. Well.. we've been having waffles most Sunday mornings now for a month.. and I can tell you this recipe will work and will be great. Yum!

robots

If you know anything about my superheroes you know we have many costumes here for Halloween, many. But J loves robots and that's a costume I don't have.. yet. Ahhhh... but now that I've seen this post over at the Filth Wizardry blog, I think J will have that robot costume sooner than I had thought!

Since J started to talk, it's mostly been about robots. He likes to take people on tours of his room so he can show everyone his robots. (Here are a few) He points at each and says very clearly 'another robot here - another robot here - another robot here' and if you are not captivated he will often add a 'lookit' and add in some more pointing.

I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees himself as a robot.

eewww! there is a spider in my soap!

I love to craft. I have at times been big into stained glass, pottery, painting and other things. What I love the most about crafting though is the magic of making something with my hands, that is both practical and beautiful- whatever that medium may be.

When kids came along, it became quite tricky to turn on my pottery wheel and stick my fingers in mud or turn the soldering iron on and melt metal onto glass. It became far easier to immerse myself in the every day hustle and bustle of taking care of and cleaning up after babies.

Now that the kids are old enough I need back in. I've been jonesing for some good craft and I'm gonna get me some. But it can't be just any craft. I'm not just going to Michaels and spending $40 on stuff that has no purpose and only takes 2 minutes.. I still crave those practical and beautiful things... so here's the toddler version of my Tiffany lamp.. here is my latest Halloween craft craving!

A big thanks to HGTV for giving me my next fix! Click the link for the tutorial.