Costume Palooza

It was a weekend full of Halloween celebrations . . .

Our church carnival/chili cook-off

The Dance Team fundraiser at Applebees

The horse show at Green Acres.

As you may have noticed, all of these events included a costume contest.
I'm always amazed at the cleverness of those who make their own.
This year was no exception.

Can you guess who the people below were for Halloween?   The first person to get all of them right wins a pair of Crystal B earrings.  Email your answers to crystalbeutler1@gmail.com
 (If you went to the church party, you are excluded from participating.  Sorry, but you already know the answers.)

Happy Halloween.  Have fun celebrating tonight.  I'll be handing out candy and eating dinner in a pumpkin.  Let me clarify.  I'll be baking my meal in a pumpkin -- I'll be eating it at the table.

P.S.  Congratulations to Melissa of Jack and the Cumquat and Brittney Evans who guessed all four within a few minutes of my posting.   1) Kardashian sisters 2) Thelma from Scooby Do, 3) Edward Scissorhands, 4) Professor McGonagall & Harry Totter

Random

Elphie and I took a walk last night.
Guess who's missing pet photo
was beaming under the erie glow of a lamp post
as we made our way home from the park?
The Pitbull!
Yep, she's on the loose again.
We ran all the way home,
which is something -- for a person who hates running.

It was my turn to make breakfast for the seminary students at church this morning.
It involved cooking lots and lots of bacon at 5:00 a.m.

Do you cook your bacon in the oven?
Way faster than frying,
with half the mess.
And, all the pieces look so uniform.
(Why I care about the uniformity of bacon is beyond me, but I do.)

On my way home from delivering the bacon,
I stopped at the traffic light near the Big Horse Corn Maze.
The sun was coming up over the field
and a huge flock of black crows
were circling above the long green stalks.
It was a beautiful site.
The mystery of The Birds has been solved.

I made an impulsive purchase at the grocery store this week . . .

Have you ever tried this?
If so, what did you think?
I've never had it myself,
but I thought it might be fun to have a taste test
at our annual family Halloween dinner.
Which reminds me,
I need to buy a pumpkin
so I can make "dinner in a pumpkin."
Why didn't I think of that when I was at the store?

And speaking of random,
have you ever seen the movie
Random Harvest?
It's one of my top ten favorites.
If you are a fan of films like An Affair to Remember,
you definitely need to watch it.
Greer Garson is the best.

P.S.   I just now took the photo for the Pumpkin Ale,
and discovered the small print that says Buffalo Bill's Brewery.
It's beer???
I thought Pumpkin Ale was like Ginger Ale,
or Harry Potter's Butter Beer.

That would have been a disaster,
serving beer to my teenage kids
and their friends
on Halloween.
Not to mention the fact that we don't drink alcohol.
(We are Mormon, and follow a heath code referred to as The Word of Wisdom.)

I think I need new glasses.

P.S.S.  If you want to know how to cook bacon in the oven, instructions here.

Inspired by . . . Linky Party No. 4

It's been a busy week around here.
I thought I was going to get off easy,
and have a week of fun.
Somehow, the calendar filled up faster than I had anticipated.
So my week to work on projects turned into a week of making lots of food for all of the Halloween/harvest parties going on around town.

But, I did manage to get a couple of new items made for my shop.
I was inspired to make accessories for the cloths on my Pinterest board.
I made a few bracelet cuffs.
Like this . . .

Pin It

Come to think of it, this cuff is the perfect accessory
for the Anthropologie sweater my family bought for me last year.
I guess I need to keep one of these for myself!

But, I'm going to give one a way away to celebrate post No. 400!
You can enter to win here.

Now it's your turn.   What have you been inspired to create lately?

The Birds

Last weekend, I tried to get my family to watch a Hitchcock film.  We all sat down together and pulled up the Netflix menu in search of The Birds, a movie that scared me to death when I was a kid.

Can you believe Netflix doesn't have one Hitchcock listed on their menu?

Not one!

So disappointing when you want to see a good 60's thriller, which aren't all that thrilling when compared to what you see on the screen today. We had to settle for watching re-runs of Psych instead.

It was a blessing in disguise though, because today my yard was a scene from the movie.

I was in the kitchen making cherry pie, when Elphie started barking by the back door.  I looked out the window and saw black crows gathering in mass, one at a time.   They sat there in silence,

on my back wall,

my neighbor's back wall,

and in all of the trees.

At one point there were at least 60 crows just sitting.  No cawing or chirping at all.

It creeped me out big time.

Where did they all come from,  the pumpkin patch corn maze?  And what were they doing hanging out in my yard?

I'm definitely skipping Hitchcock this year and going back to my good old stand-by,
 The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

400

This Thursday, I will have written 400 posts.
Four hundred!
I can't believe I had that much to say over the span of 3 years,
or that I've stuck with keeping up a journal aka blog consistently for this long.

I have a hard time being consistant.
It's evidenced by my pile of journals with pages that say ...
it's been so long since that last time I wrote . . . I vow to do better.
See . . .

I don't know what is is about blogging,
but it helped me.
I finally did do better.
And I'm so glad,
because now my family will remember
ordinary days,
funny days,
meals,
and things we created,
together.

These are my favorite posts,
I hope my kids appreciate them some day.

About Dogs
Georgia Scissorhands
It Was Naptime
Makeup Junkie
Meanest Mom in the World
Melbourne Street
Paradigm Shift 
Tender Mercies and Scooby Doo
The Girl With Her Head In the Clouds
The Miracle of the Skittish Dog
Twilight Zone, Family Feud Edition
Unexpected Lessons
Waiting for Splash Mountain
Waiting in Line Was Hilarious
We Can't Stay Away From "As Seen" Products
Where in the World is Ferris Beuler
You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks, But You Can Buy Her Snow Pants


P.S. On Thursday, I will celebrating 400 over here with a big giveaway.  Come over and enter!!

A Day of Rest

I love Sunday.
It's the day when everyone is home.
We spend the morning worshiping together.
After church, we come home and eat
something really good like Swedish pancakes, or paninis.
Today we dined on tomato soup and grilled cheese,
even though it was a little too hot outside to fully enjoy it.

And then we rest.
Sunday naps are the best.

Prep Work

We have family visiting this week.
That's a big event around here.
With the exception of Pitbulls, we don't get out-of-town visitors too often.

So yesterday I parked myself in the kitchen to make a bunch of food.
Soup, cookies, ice cream, and Panzanella.
Have you ever eaten this salad?
I haven't, which is why I decided to give it a try.
It's seriously good.
My whole family loved it, especially our visitors.

The picture didn't turn out that great though.
People got annoyed when I pulled out my camera.
So I didn't have much time to create an appetizing display.
You know how it goes when every is hungry.
They lose patience.
Sorry about that.

Now I have to go put my feet up,
cuz I am tired.

Panzanella recipe here.

It Could Have Been Worse.

Saturday started out promising.
After a week hiatus,
I got into gear and cleaned like a maniac.

I scoured the kitchen,
did laundry,
mopped floors,
moved all my holiday stuff from one storage unit to another unit,
dropped unwanted stuff off at Good Will,
came home and started cleaning out the car,
which included transferring stuff from the car into the house.

In the middle of unloading,
I took a bathroom break,
leaving the front door to the house wide open.

I walked into the powder room which is right by the front entry,
and in a  Martha Stewart moment, left the door ajar.
Shocking, I know, but I was in a hurry.
Plus, no one was around, so I felt safe.

You think I would have learned my lesson 8 years ago,
when my 5-year-old neighbor with a Dennis the Menace personality
walked into that very bathroom while I was sitting upon the throne.
He was completely unphased by the fact that I was "busy"
as he said:
Hi!  Can I play with Eden's remote control car?
Awk. Ward.

Thankfully, Dennis did not walk in on me today.
He is now a teenager, and no longer visits.
But someone else did stop by unannounced,
A PITBULL!!!!!!!!

It walked right into my house!!!!!!
And pushed the bathroom door open with his nose!!!!

Good thing I was in the bathroom,
going to the bathroom,
or I would have peed my pants!

If you've been lurking here a while, you know I have canine issues,
but what I have not mentioned is that Pitbulls are on my
Top 10 Things I Fear List.

Although I am a dog-hater,
I know all of the dogs in my neighborhood.
This dog does not live around here.
I had no idea where he came from.

I freaked out!
Elphie freaked out too.
She went into attack mode,
all 6 pounds of her,
which make me even more freaked out,
because you never know what two dogs will do,
especially a Pit.

I screamed:
Oh my gosh!!!!!!  
Matt, get down here!!
There's a Pitbull in the house!!!!!!!
(He was upstairs taking a break from cleaning. 
When he heard the word Pitbull, he came running.
He loves dogs.)


My shrieks set the animal running.
He raced into the living room,
as I ran out the front door,
with my zipper down.

Meanwhile, my two kids sat on the sofa in the family room,
watching Sponge Bob re-runs on television,
oblivious to all that was going on around them.
Which means, I probably yell too much.

When  I got outside,
I looked up and down the sidewalk hoping to find the mystery visitor's owner.
There wasn't a soul in sight.
I am not proud of the thoughts I had as I stood there on the grass:

If that dog poops on my carpet,
I am going to have a cow!


What I should have been worrying about
were the two kids on the sofa!
But in my defense, I was not in my right mind.

Within minutes, a white beat up car drove slowly down the street.
It stopped in front of me.
A man in the front seat rolled down the window
and as calm as could be, said
Have you seen a dog wandering around here?

I responded, in a not-so-kind, shrilled voice:

Oh, I've see a dog wandering around here!
He wandered right into my house!!!!

SOooooo NOT COOL, YOU GUYS!!!!!!


GET IN THERE AND GET YOUR DANG DOG!!!!!!

I didn't swear,
cuz I'm not a swearing kind of woman,
but I sure came close,
that's how mad I was;
a strange Pitbull wandering around unleashed.

The man ran into my house calling after his pet
Here Beast . . . .  here Beast!
(That was comforting.)

I must have spaced out when I heard the name Beast,
because I don't remember a thing after that.
Weird huh!

The tender mercies in this hullabaloo:
The dog seemed nice, or so Matt tells me.
My family was not attacked.
And a dog pushed the bathroom door open,
not one of my children's friends.
They would never forgive me, if that happened.
I'd end up in an Alexis Stewart tell-all.

I've learned my lesson.
Did you Martha?
From this day forth,
I will keep the doors closed when I take a bathroom break.



P.S.   Alexis Stewart, I think you are mean.   Twenty years from now, your bladder control will not be as it is today, and when that happens, I hope your daughter writes a book about you peeing with the door open.

Clean is a Good Feeling

I L.O.V.E. it when my refrigerator is spotlessly clean.
For some reason, it makes me feel super organized.
And I'm not usually organized,
so today is a good day.

Really,
I could open it every hour and feel happy
because I can see everything in it's proper place
and there are no plastic containers
with mystery contents
that everyone is afraid of
including me.

I had to take a picture before lunch
because that's when the locusts descend
and it won't look like this again
until the next time I clean it.

And yeah,
I know,
I need to go to the store. :)

Behind the Scenes

Dear Matt,

This is what goes on when you are out of town.
Everyone takes a cleaning vacation, including me.
It's a good thing you aren't gone for more than a week at a time.
I would hate to think what would happen if you were in the military, deployed for a year.
We might get a visit from the Board of Health.

Love,

Inspired by . . . . Linky Party No. 3

Sometimes I have so many ideas swimming around in my head that it overwhelms me.
That's when I stop creating.
It all seems like too much to handle.
So I do nothing.
I hate it when that happens, don't you?

A good friend reminded me that when you feel that way,
it's good to take small bites.
Doing a little bit every day, gets you where you want to go,
whether it's organizing a disastrous room,
saving for a trip,
getting out of debt,
losing weight,
planning a party,
or decorating your front door for Halloween.

Lame, I know . . .
feeling overwhlemed
at the throught of adorning the porch
for Trick-or-Treaters.
But I was.

So, I took small bites,
and in three weeks time,
I got there.

Week 1: I found inspiration on Pinterest.
Week 2:  I made a wreath.
Week 3:  I re-planted my urns.

The last step was making bunting to hang from the rafters.

This week,
I made a simple fabric banner,
gathered strips of crepe paper on my sewing machine,
and cut a length of pom pom fringe.

The whole thing took about two hours.
So easy a 9 year old could do it.
Really.

Thanks for the inspiration Pinterest . . . and Christine.
You got me off the couch -- creating.

P.S.   I have leftover fabric for the Halloween flag bunting you see here.  If you want a kit, contact me.  I have four left.  The cost is $12.00 including shipping. It includes fabric, bias tape, and fusible adhesive so you don't have to sew.  You can make this if you have an iron and a pair of scissors.

***

Now it's your turn.  What have you been creating?

Change of Plans

Somewhere in the wee hours of the night, plans for the Whoopie Pie Exchange shifted shape.

I think it had something to do with the fact that everyone had more on their plates than they had anticipated.
Things that didn't include baking.
Several canceled and said they couldn't come.

So in lieu of meeting up at my house,
we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant,
That was ok by me.
 I didn't have to spend the morning cleaning.

Those of us who managed to bake brought whoopies.
We sampled them for dessert.
Horrible sugar rush.
But they were all soooo good!
It was hard to choose a favorite.

Julie made pumpkin whoopies with maple cream cheese filling
Chanin made chocolate with buttercream filling
And I made chocolate with peppermint buttercream filling,
and gingerbread with lemon buttercream filling

My whoopies were made using cake mixes, while Chanin and Julie made theirs from scratch.
That was deliberate,
I wanted to compare a mix vs. scratch.
Both were really good.
The cake-mix recipe had a chewy brownie like texture,
while the scratch recipes were more cake-like.
I thought the opposite would be true.
Go figure.

The thing I like about having an exchange with friends is that it gives you an excuse to get together.
You get to sample a bunch of recipes without having to make them all yourself.
Then you can decide which ones are keepers and which ones are not.

I thought all of the recipes we tried today were keepers,
which was not the case when we had a cupcake exchange.

The added bonus:
my kids were so thrilled to have a mountain of good treats
when they got home from school this afternoon.

Thanks to Chanin for spearheading our get-together.
As always, it was fun.

Projects

Amy and I had good luck on our field trip last Friday.
We pulled red wagons through rows and rows of plants,
and sniffed at the herbs,
and admired the roses.

We found black pansies . . .

and a bunch of other stuff.

We both ended up with a wagon full of plants, even though we had only planned to buy one or two things.
That pretty much happens any time we visit a nursery.
 I was a little worried that it wouldn't all fit in the car.

But we managed.

When I got home, I decided that the two urns that sit on either side of my door looked too pitiful to plant.  They are old and faded by the sun -- the downside of fiberglass.    So I spray painted them with outdoor walnut brown paint, in a satin finish.  It took 10 minutes, and they look brand new -- like old iron, even though they are plastic.

I've been wanting to plant black plants for Halloween for some time now -- inspired by the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.  If you've been there in October, you know they go all out for Halloween.  It's awesome.

Here's want I ended up with.   Not as much black as I had hoped, but I really like how they turned out.

I used the black pansies, purple cabbage, potato vine, thyme, and a burgundy plant that I'm not familiar with.   I added some birch twigs to give them some height.

Done!  Just in time for the whoopie pie exchange tomorrow.
I need to sign off and go clean my kitchen.

Tune in tomorrow if you want recipes.

Field Trip

I'm on my way down to San Diego with my neighbor Amy,
a field trip to our favorite nursery.
We're on the hunt for black plants.

While I'm gone, you should enter to win a pair of crystal b earrings over here. 
The winner will get some additional prizes as well,
surprises they won't know about until they open their package.
Don't worry,
the surprises will be good,
not scary.

Have a great weekend.
I'll be making lots of whoopie pies and cleaning out closets.
What do you have planned, besides soccer games?

Inspired by Pinterest Linky Party - No. 2 {and giveaway}

While lurking on Pinterest, I have noticed that tons of people are using it for recipes.   I hadn't even considered that.  So inspired by others, I made a Foodie Board, which has come in handy in my search for the ultimate whoopie pies.  Still looking for them by the way.

But during the hunt for whoppie pies, I saw this saw this . . . .

which inspired me to make this . . .




It's not plum jam, it's jalapeno jelly.  And since red California peppers can be found in stores right now, I was inspired to make a  batch, along with a tutorial, so that you could make some too.  Just in case you want to get a head start on your Christmas gifts.

You can download the tutorial here.

Thank you Pinterest.  And thank you to all who linked up last week.  It was awesome to see what people are doing -- tulle table skirts, custom t-shirts, starts, bunting, wreaths, pumpkins, hair styles, gum ball machines -- wow!

Now it's your turn.  What have you been busy creating?

{P.S.  There's a giveaway going on over at my giveaway site.  You should enter.}

Ramblings

It's cold today, inside the house, as well as outdoors.
I'm happy that I get wear a sweater.
It's my favorite wardrobe essential.

Look what I found on my computer this morning while I was posting new items in my Etsy shop.

Homecoming photos, that I didn't know existed, since this girl you see posing refused to let me go to the Redhawk waterfall, and take pictures with the rest of the parents.

Thank you to the stranger who shot this.
I enhanced it for you.
Why did you get to go to the waterfall when I was instructed to stay home?
Did you rebel against the wishes of your teenage son?
I should have done that too.

I think I was banned from the photo shoot because I would have discovered that the Homecoming dress looks WAAAAAAAY shorter now, than it did in the store.
That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

I'm making crockpot un-refried beans tonight, and shredded beef, for burritos.
Super easy meal, in case you are wondering.
I was inspired by the Mexican food-a-thon last weekend.
Three straight days of beans, tortillas, cheese and homemade salsa.
Delicious.

To be honest,
my stomach couldn't take another day of burritos,
but I knew making them for my family would be appreciated.
They would eat burritos every day if I let them.
But I won't because I don't want to suffer the aftermath,
if you know what I mean.

{Thanks for the inspiration Lana, Julie, Tammye, Heather, Laura, Lilly, Daphne, LeAnn and Brittney, makers of excellent Mexican food.)

I'm working on an Inspired by Pinterest project today, are you?
If so, you better get back here tomorrow, and share.
I mean it.

Goodnight Moon

It was one of those nights
I just had to pull over and watch
a glorious sunset
taking place
right before my eyes.


I don't think I would have seen this picture
had I been standing directly below the clouds.
But because I was on higher  ground
standing in the distance I saw it all around me.

It was achingly beautiful --
the kind of ache that makes you gasp
in awe.

I was engulfed in brilliant color.
as day faded into night.
It made me feel happy,
to live in such a beautiful world.

A cell phone camera didn't do it justice
but I'm glad I had it with me
so that I could capture this memory
to draw upon,
when needed.

A reminder that gray skys are beautiful
when they are touched by light.

P.S.  These cell phone photos were not enhanced -- it really was that beautiful.