Shine a Little Light

A quick post about the lamp I made for my dear friend Wyatt Jonathon. In the summer I posted a picture of my "design board" for Wyatt's baby room. Kirsty (his Mom) loved it (she should - she came up with the colors) and we got right to work. It looks so good! Against (Lisa's) better judgement, they even painted the inside of the closest an accent color (yellow). So here is my little gift to Wy Wy. Okay, I have many gifts to Wyatt and you'll see them soon, but I just can't help myself. If you follow this blog, you know that I'm itching for the day I can have my own child to craft for. 

I spray painted the base of the lamp yellow, pulled off the original "piping", cut the new fabric in panels, glued it on with fabric tack and glued on some new yellow "piping". Cute. 

Halloween Rewind...

I had SOOOOOO much fun at our Halloween party this year!!! Many thanks to all of the people who brought food and treats (Amanda, April, Leah, Jill, Victoria, Jen, Heather... I could probably go on for ever). There was way too much but it made me so much more relaxed to know that I would not have to refill food trays and worry about refilling drinks. Everyone took care of themselves and, while that makes me seem like a terrible hostess, I don't think that at this type of party anyone noticed. Thank also to April for helping set the food out and making me drinks while Leah and I feverishly got ready. Halloween was full of great memories (and yes, I do remember): Lisa had a REALLY good time (Acai Tequilla anyone?), the costumes were amazing, the dance party in the living room was non-stop (and bettered by KC's "the party stops here" sign which was assaulted in the process), and the laughter was constant. 

In the end, the costume that Jill helped me put together turned out fab! It was totally worth the loss of skin that occurred when we glued the outfit directly to my skin by accident the night before. Totally! There was supposed to be two black swans at our party and apparently the other person thought that she would have outdone me. I dunno... I'm pretty awesome... Check it out for yourself:

And check out Amanda who won for scariest costume. Her "Two-Face" outfit and hand-crafted burns were incredibly awesome and disgusting. Well deserved win. I wish I had taken a picture of the trophies I made - you would have laughed at the grotesque over-crafting - they were hideously wonderful if I do say so myself. 

Thanks again to my beautiful, kind-hearted friends and family. It was so nice to enjoy an evening with you! You made my favourite holiday a blast!

I'm not quite dead yet!

For any fans of "The Holy Grail" you'll recognize the title of this post as a classic line. So fitting, as I feel almost, but not quite, dead. Ugh. So many things to gripe about but not here, not now. I went to the gym with Jilly and Jen for the first time in 2 weeks and I feel a whole heck of a lot better. Working out is a such an easy fix to my whoas. I wish it was easier to get myself to go because once I'm there I want to work out forever and I feel so great!!! Time. All I need is time. When you don't sit for more than 30 seconds in a day its really hard to put on the sneakers and sweat it out... but I did it! So enough of that.
I have the best news: my fake (I prefer the term "familialy challenged") nephew has arrived! He's perfect and adorable and wonderful in every way! Introducing Wyatt Jonathon:

Oh how I love thee!

My goal is to post a few short posts in the next couple days and actually accomplish something on a crafty date with the SILs (this did not happen :( but hopefully will soon) and at the TM Christmas party this weekend (this already happened and I DID craft - posts to come) to share in the upcoming weeks.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Ah... the stores are covered in spider webs. Shoppers browse in fear that they might set off a decoration that will shriek, moan or thunder. It's like Christmas songs for the demented and disillusioned folk like me who treat All Hallow's Eve like Christmas morning. I think it's the costumes... we all know I lurve a good costume party...  but I also think it's the excuse to continue living out (your most adored) part of childhood, much like Christmas is. This year will be our 4th annual costume party - my friends are such good sports! I'm already finding it difficult to make the invites different than previous years. Last year I went all out but too late in the season and the invites I discovered (too late) were too large to send in the regular post. This year I kept it simple. Last year's My Mind's Eye stamps, this year's American Crafts Halloween line (clouds) and some printed craft paper (including Beetle Juice inspired stripes). The clouds are really a sleeve that slips up to reveal the details of our shin-dig. I've used this so many times but I'm too busy to judge myself right not. The dorky stamps make it all better :)

Five Minute Card

So I set my timer again yesterday; this time for 5 minutes. I made a simple birthday card for my soon-to-be BIL. I thought it was cute to use the little boy patterns for his 28th birthday... why not? A quick post for an even faster card.

Mac at his Finest

Finally getting back to some crafting. I've actually been desperate to craft but I've had the craziest week at school which included supervision every lunch hour, the swim team starting up (before and after school practices, one of which included one of our students being saved by a lifeguard), staff meetings, tutorials, the list goes on and on. But, I just sat down, set the timer and got to work. I managed to "finish" this page. I'm not actually sure it's done but the timer rang out and I didn't know what else to do. I'm off to complete another timed project instead of doing school work... I just can't bring myself to get to work just yet.

You can tell that I was inspired by the post of Lisa's.

Thoughtful Gift from a Beauty

My darling Lisa, how wonderful are you?

Lisa bought me the most thoughtful (double entendre) belated birthday gift. Not only was it so elegantly wrapped and perfectly suited to my personality/personal tastes, it was also a great tester for my literary knowledge. I will not pretend that I am as well read as my beautiful friend but I did pretty well. (I have not yet brought myself to tote any to school for fear that a student may get their grubby hands on them and they may never return.)

Speaking of reading, I did manage to get a few books read this summer. A very few for me but one stunner stood out from the rest: Room by Emma Donoghue.

Now I definitely only judge books by their covers; books, not people. Promise. I DO NOT read the back/jacket of books. I like to let them unfold as the author intended, not with my own preconceived notions or expectations. Room (based on the cover) was a no brainer. I had heard that it was a dark book. I had also heard that it was a story of hope. I had also heard (from April who lent me the book) that many nouns were capitalized and it annoyed her :) I found the proper names given to everday objects clever and necessary. (We disagree about writing style again Apes :)) It spoke to the human condition and the determination of the human mind to create meaning in the (seemingly) meaningless. I really enjoyed the authors style and there were few artistic liberties that bothered me. April and I both agree that this book was excellent and, I speak for both of us, would highly recommend for an easy but powerful read.