just helen

The End of October

Yes...it has finally arrived - the 31st day of October, Halloween night.  To be honest, my heart wasn't totally in it this year.  Megan commented that I would have to be careful or our traditions would fade away - speaking directly about the boys not carving pumpkins with us this year - but I hope that doesn't happen.  There were so many things that we wanted to do that we didn't get done:  recipes that went untried, movies that went unwatched, projects that didn't get completed.  I could end the lament there on a negative note, but there was a valiant effort put out and I need to be optimistic.

I figured out how to do my pump lid for the skull jarhead to make it work for a soap or lotion dispenser.  I used it all month and it is still working.  The hardest part was looking for that hollow punch tool.  I couldn't find one in town, so I had to order it off the Internet and then wait for it to arrive.

I made cards, tags and took a class on a darling album.

I tried two new recipes and baked some old traditional family recipes.

I tested all the caramel apple things I could find and I tested cupcake papers...I would have tested more, but the household got sick of sweets.  Note to self: try more savory, meal-type recipes!

And when it got down to the last day, we even managed to carve pumpkins and hand out treats.

We kept the traditional pizza dinner and I tried to stay awake for the whole second feature, but I was fading fast.  So I redirected my attention to my computer.  When I look at what we accomplished, I have to say we didn't do too bad after all.

The porch and pumpkin lights are out, the trick-or-treaters are hopefully all in bed by now with visions of candy dancing in their heads, but hopefully not in their bellies.  I am ready to put it all away tomorrow...I am hopeful to get it done.  But for now, it's time to turn out my lights and bid Halloween 2011 goodnight!

Goodnight, Sweet Trunk

One of our annual Halloween traditions is over...Trunk-or-Treat.  There were hot dogs, tons of delicious side-dishes and fabulous desserts.  Everyone out-did themselves.  Our cookies were a fun addition and were gobbled right up.

Mike went as an office guy that was the last survivor before the zombie contagion spread through the masses...or something like that.  I'm sure that he will correct me later.  Obviously, he was triumphant over at least one zombie.  Tom went as an army guy...same as last year, but with more equipment (helmet) borrowed from a friend.  Sam went as an army guy like Tom did last year.

I was so busy with the trunk that I didn't get any good pictures of any of the other cute little kids!  But here is our trunk, along with James, who couldn't tear himself away from "Coraline".

We were parked next to our friend's car.  Can you tell that Seija's favorite color is orange?

It's all a blur right now.  The whole day went by so quickly.  But while I long for the comfort of my warm bed, I still have to do the card samples to show in Relief Society tomorrow.  Scott used to say there's no rest for the wicked.  I thought it was supposed to be there's no rest for the weary.  But what I think it should be is there's no rest for Helen, whether she's wicked or weary or whatever.  Do you suppose there will ever come a day when I'm not absolutely exhausted, drop-dead tired when I finally get to bed?  I guess not.  It has been absolutely ages since I sat down to watch a movie in the evening, and longer still when I didn't fall asleep during the first 15 minutes of even a good movie.  It's much easier to drop off to sleep when you're too tired to care about all you didn't get done, as long as you are so tired that you don't worry about it all night and not make the best out of the time your head connects to your pillow.

Trunk-or-Treat is done, but not put away or forgotten.  Baskets of spiders, skulls, costumes, lights, critters and Halloween characters of every kind are sitting in baskets in the living room, waiting to be put away.  There is more than enough stuff to be a distraction for tomorrow, but too much to think about tonight.  And with that sad bag of woes, I bid you all goodnight, farewell and adieu!  Off to my workroom I go!

Kooky for Cookies

Yep...last night's candy corn cookies and pumpkin cookies were just the beginning...and it's not over yet!  We love to make yummy, sometimes fancy cookies, but unlike a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, we can't eat all these decorated cookies ourselves, so when we have an activity at church or a bake sale at school, we go into overdrive! Why? Because we love to decorate cookies!  While my day began with Christmas tags, the night ended with a pile of Halloween cookies.

Megan came home from work early and continued the project of baking the shaped cookies that she started last night.  Once they were cool, we decorated...

and decorated...

and decorated some more! 

You are not seeing all of them, just a sampling.  Once we finished the last cookie tonight, we were DONE with them - not just physically done, by emotionally and mentally as well.  Megan looked at me and said, "You were supposed to stop me!  Why do we always do this to ourselves?"   If you are thinking that the photos are a little dark, well you're right - that's the best I could do in my kitchen when it's almost 11pm. 

All I can say is that if when we wake up in the morning, we look at each other and say "No way!", I will respectfully put off the monster cupcakes we plan on making in the morning, and just plan on taking the cookies to the trunk-or-treat!

The Halloween Project

A few weeks ago, Megan and I saw the cutest Halloween album EVER at Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway.  We hemmed and hawed about it, but couldn't commit.  But when the day came and Jennifer still had a couple of openings in the class, we decided last minute to join in.  It was a very busy, intense class...there were 27 pages PLUS the cover to work on and the class was only 3 hours long.  I am a veteran scrapper and can stay pretty focused when working, but neither Megan or I got ours done.

Fast forward a couple weeks...I finally finished it, minus the photos.  I think I may do it of this years snapshots, but if I can find enough, I may just do vintage-style with photos of my children years ago.  The papers were from Authentique, the Caution tape from Martha Stewart, Smooch Spritz from Clearsnap, touches of Jenni Bowlin and many pieces from places unknown.

Here are a few of my favorite pages:

Anyway, this was such a fun project.  Go to Jennifer Priest's website, Hydrangea Hippo and check out some of her other projects.  She is very creative and a super fun teacher - if you get the chance to take a class from her, jump on it!

This Is Halloween!

For your Disneyland at Halloween viewing pleasure!

Kind of makes me want to carve pumpkins...

or stitch on some button eyes.

Walt and Mickey are surveying Main Street and think it's all ready for Halloween.

If you plant these kinds of seeds, you get these kinds of pumpkins in Toon Town.

You can find hidden Mickeys, even if you don't know where to look!  Sorry, one's a little blurry!

If you are lucky, you can catch these two over by Winnie the Pooh, hard at work.

There's Georgina - one of the official pumpkin-carvers in the Park...

and then there's Joe...
hard at work carving Captain Jack Sparrow!  Now that's a cool job to get at Disneyland, wouldn't you agree?

Look how clever the pumpkin carvers are at Disneyland...

I keep telling Megan to be careful with the men she hangs out with...

Then there are plenty of jack-o-lanterns at the Haunted Mansion since Jack Skellington moved in!

Jack is waiting at the gate to welcome you in.

That's a fun idea...put a Santa hat on my jack-o-lantern!

The tree over by Frontierland.
We loved the window dressings!

Mickey has been masked, but we still know who he is.

I don't know if I'll get back there before Halloween, but it was a fun, fun trip with the girls to Disneyland!