Wednesday, October 31, 2007

My Husband Likes to Decorate Just A Little





I guess it all goes back to his movie making background or something but when he says he's going to decorate for Halloween he means it! He spent most of today working on lighting the front yard and porch, pulling out a monster face and lighting it, and adding the piece de la resistance to the whole scenario, the hearse. Yep, can we get any more in the spirit than having a 1980s white hearse parked in the driveway complete with a casket and skeleton in it?

Can I tell ya how many people pulled over tonight to take a picture? With the neighbors next door and across the street all lit up and decorated this end of the street was pretty enticing! There was lots of picture taking and trick or treaters. The nice weather (high 60s) brought them out in droves too I think.

As usual, we have way too much candy leftover...guess I didn't need to make the emergency stop at Walgreens tonight for more. I just knew I had enough but Tim got worried with the good weather and all. At least it's stuff we like!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Hey Baby, Check Out My Cupcakes







So, about a month ago I was checking out the magazines at Wal Mart and the All You one's cover caught my eye. It had these really cute spooky, creepy cupcakes pictured with the instructions inside. I decided to buy it and make these for Tim to take in to work the week of Halloween.

Little by little, I purchased the ingredients and decorations. I even made a trip over to the Dundee Candy Co. on Bardstown Rd. as they were willing to let me pick and choose the Jelly Bellys so I could get the ones that looked like rocks. And, do you know how hard it is to find black licorice laces anymore? You can't just buy a cheapo bag at Walgreens or Wal Mart. Nope, you have to go to the Dundee Candy Co. and purchase a wheel, unwind it, and pull two strands apart. So, remember that for future reference.

Okay, so the day arrived, that would be today, and it was time to make the cupcakes. I recruited some help, that would be mom, and three hours later we had 27 cupcakes. Well, 26 because Tim already ate one! He wanted to be sure and taste test one before taking it in to work.

It took us over THREE hours to put these puppies together and they look sorta like the pictures in the magazine. That was when mom explained to me all about food stylists and how they make things look so good in the magazines and cookbooks with fake stuff that yours couldn't possibly ever come out the same. So, mine only look mostly like the pictures. We've got one-eyed monsters, jack-o-lanterns, hairy scarys, graveyards, bats and creepy curly guys.

They even taste pretty darn good according to Tim!

So, now back to decorating Christmas trees.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Seven Women, Food And A Scrapbook Store




How fun is that? Good friends, good food, fun new products to see, a class arranged just for us to take at a great new scrapbook store in Elizabethtown, KY...okay, I'm sold! What a nice way to spend a Saturday. It could have been a little sunnier and warmer but after all, it is the END of October now. So, we had some seasonable weather to add to the mix.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I Don't Want To Be A Cat Dentist When I Grow Up

Yuk. Doesn't sound like a fun job to me. But, yes, apparently there are such professions. And Garden Kitty, who did not get a good report at her dental Wed, will be referred to one in Indy. Lucky us, we can't wait for that 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive with her wailing the entire way!

So, Garden Kitty has some unpronounceable tooth disease that causes her teeth to get lesions on them which then causes them to disintegrate like craters. Isn't that a pretty picture? This has already happened to one of her bottom fangs (canines). I thought I suddenly noticed that she was missing one a couple of weeks ago. Tim insisted that it was the one they pulled at her last dental because she had a cavity. Verdict was that it was not that one and that it had broken off from this disease.

She's got lesions on the top two canines already and the vet was quite concerned. She recommended the cat dentist to see if they should be pulled and if anything more should be done to the area where the other one broke off. Our vet said she wasn't very "aggressive" with the removal of the remaining bit of tooth and the roots.

So, we love our sweet little kitty and we don't want this to affect her health, which it is on it's way to doing, so we are getting the referral.

At least her breath smells better now. Like mint toothpaste. And she's mostly forgiven us for the torture she was subjected to yesterday.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

And Don't Forget To Floss


Poor Garden Kitty...tomorrow she goes to the vet for her dental cleaning. Every four years and believe me, she needs it. The last time she had one at age 4, she had a cavity and had to have a tooth pulled. Let's hope all is well this go 'round and she comes home with all her remaining teeth. Tim has enjoyed "pilling" her for the last two days but she is really good and lets him with only a few wiggles.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Feeling Most Unpatriotic





Every year I dread the patriotic tree, it is difficult from the get go, the lights are a pain and there are too many garlands to put on not to mention the massive amounts of glittered ornaments that shed. So, it's been sitting there naked staring at me for several days now as if taunting me and saying, "You know you have to decorate me, you can't put it off much longer, the other small ones are almost done, I'm next, nah, nah, nah, nah."

So, it was a rainy, dreary day, a good day for staying indoors and decorating trees. Mom and I had nothing else on the agenda so she came over mid morning and we tackled the space tree first. Easy as pie. Even loved the twinkling, blinking, chasing, fading, almost do anything you want them to new lights to replace the ones that bedecked it in '06 and then were recalled by Hobby Lobby. Everything went on easily, it was fun and it's done. Check that one off the list.

Mom unwrapped all the ornaments, garland, and even contained most of the glitter while I began the fun job of lighting the patriotic tree. It took hours. Literally hours. Five and a half hours to be exact from start to finish. The first strand of lights I pulled out had two burned out ones and Tim arrived home just in the "nick of time" so to speak to change them for me. I couldn't get them to come out of the sockets of course.

So, got that problem solved and I asked him to go ahead and open the attic in case I needed an extra strand as I progressed. I fight with lights forever, we've got blue and white lights, we've got stars....then comes three different garlands, two of each strand. Meanwhile, mom has time to easily decorate my cute little "feather" tree I picked up at Hobby Lobby last week for $7 (50% off) with vintage ornaments. Looks so cute!

I start to put ornaments on FINALLY and that's when all the lights go blink and they are out except for one strand at the bottom and one strand of star lights. Great! Fortunately, Tim is now awake from his nap and gets recruited to solve the problem. He's my light guy. Let's just say that my light guy was stumped and finally we decided to just take that strand off and maybe use another one if I can feed it back in. It was either that or rip the entire tree apart, go buy a new prelit tree and start all over. Except for having to light it.

He mentioned the fuse but then waited to check it until after we'd pulled the strand off the tree. Voila! Changed one fuse and we were back in the light business. Of course, then I had to feed the strand back on the tree through branches, other light cords, stars and some ornaments!

I persevered even though I was definitely not muttering about the joys of Christmas at this point. Mom and Tim are reminding me AGAIN that I could always skip a year. Mom puts finding a new tree, prelit, on sale after Christmas at the top of the list.
Okay, she wins. I'm game.

We get the ornaments on, vaccuum up the glitter and it's done. It's pretty. But what an ordeal to get the finished product. I've vowed not to dare turn the lights on that tree until the day of the open house JUST IN CASE. Did I mention they blinked on me a few times while I was putting the ornaments on? See, that tree just has it in for me.

It's gonna be a few days before I can look to that corner of the library without wincing.

5 hours. The whole afternoon. But, I remind myself, it's done.

Yay.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Christmas Trees Awaiting



Well, the trees have been pulled out of the attic and den closet and the ornament containers are piled up high in the guest room...it's that time of year! I am really getting a later start this year than years past with our trip and our company but we'll get it done! 7 trees down, lots more to go! It's just a little wierd to decorate for Christmas when it's 85 degrees outside...(Did you notice my awesome black metal rack holding my scrapbook albums? I found it at a little antique mall in Glendale, KY, Tim spray painted it for me, I had some glass cut for the shelves and it's absolutely perfect!)

Monday, October 15, 2007

Harvest Homecoming and Company









It's been a crazy week since we got back from our trip! We were getting back in the swing of things and getting ready for my godsister Andrea to come from VA. She arrived at 11:30 pm Thursday night! I couldn't believe how many flights were arriving before and after that time of night!

We had a blast! Friday we went to my mom's so she could see her new house and then mom took us out to lunch at Los Indios, yummy! Then on to Hobby Lobby and Andrea had never been to one so we were there over 2 hours and she just was in heaven! We were still in the shopping mode so we decided to switch our plans around and head on over to Archivers and Dee's Fri afternoon instead of Sat. So off we went and Archiver's had lots of new goodies; she found a couple of ornaments at Walnut Ridge next door, we hit the Disney Store and Sephora too...then on to Dee's right before closing time. We got home much later than we had planned but that was okay! We changed into warmer clothes and walked down to Harvest Homecoming around 8:00-8:30. Had yummy Chicken and Dumplins, she loved the Roasted Sweet Corn and Pumpkin Roll, I had the caramel apple slices and we bought some Buckeyes to take home. It was super crowded but fun. We stayed up late looking at trip pictures and scrapbooks.

Saturday we started working on her accordian album with their beach trip pictures. We took a break to walk back down to Harvest Homecoming with Tim for lunch. Tim got his cardboard pizza again and Andrea and I got pretty much the same thing we had Fri night along with Ribbon Potatoes. Back to the house and we decided we'd better go to Rock, Paper, Scissors especially since they had the Prima Rhinestone Swirls...then we hit Ben Franklin and Big Lots. Shop, shop, shop....fun, fun, fun!

Finished up her cute beach album complete with a tan painted frame, glitter added and painted over partially to look like sand (how cute an idea was that? Andrea gets the credit!) on the front cover and then Tim grilled London Broil for us and it turned out great! That is the first meal he's ever cooked for me unless you count a small frozen pizza! Hmmmmm....now that he is an expert grill guy....

We scrapbooked some more, took pictures and she had to start packing! We stayed up late again looking at my old scrapbooks and making fun of the awful papers back then! Ugh!

Sunday came too soon and we had a little time in the morning to look at some more scrapbooks, do a little photo shoot and then it was time to go to the airport and send her back to VA. She promised not to wait six years to come next time!

And now, with Harvest Homecoming behind us, and Halloween on the horizon, it's time to get serious about Christmas decorating!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Check out my slide show of the Neon Boneyard

Just click on VIEW ALL IMAGES, sit back and enjoy! Be sure to click on Original View once you are at Slide.com to see the custom slide show I created! It will appear in black and white but if you want to see the signs in color, just click on Original Size at any time. Oh, and make sure your volume is up! Elizabeth

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

We Take Too Many Pictures



































There is something wrong with spending 3 hours at Walgreens, knowing your photo developer so well that you chat about her kids, grandkids, your trips, living in Vegas, etc the whole time and coming home with 1100 pictures in 6 boxes plus the little stack of 5 x7's.

Sigh....

What are we going to do with THAT many pictures? Even I, the obsessed scrapbooker, am a little overwhelmed. Especially since I still have most of the 600 pic from last year's trip to Tucson and the 400 pic from the year before's trip to Vegas sitting in boxes.

Well, I tell ya what you do with that many pictures. You go to Target and find the biggest photo sleeve album you can (holds 504 per album!) and buy 4 of them. This way not only can you display this 1100 mound but also the others mentioned above.

And then you recruit your mother, who actually volunteered, to spend four hours today putting them in for you. (And she's only halfway through them)

So, readers, it's time to share some more with you after all that. (Yeah, there's one duplicate and I can't figure out how to remove just one pic!)