My Halloween Mantel

This Subway Art was inspired by several other blogs, but I did not use any of their words or layouts and I cut all the letters myself. This is much harder than in looks! ( I was excited it worked- I made it out of a back cover of a otherwise ruined scrapbook and packing labels)

Someone asked me if I always store my knives in this jar- of course I do...mwha haha (evil laugh)

If you look closely you can see that the portraits are of Hitchcock, a girl with horns, and a woman in a noose. They were inspired by the Stretching Paintings at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. (My favorite place ever btw)

Spiders for dessert anyone?

In case you can't read this, because the shimmer was hard to photograph, the spiderwebs have "Trick or Treat" written in them.

Pook-a-Looz

In the Disney Store in our mall, there are these little stuffed animals/dolls that are puffy and kind-of anime looking (you know, like sailor moon or pokemon?). They have a Snow White one that I wanted to make for Macy. I still want to make one...I hope for Christmas. Anyway, I found out they are called Pook-a-Looz and they have a million different Disney characters! This is what the Snow White one looks like:

And this is MY interpretation of Sleeping Beauty. Macy's friend Claire loves Sleeping Beauty and as many of the characters as they have, the Disney store doesn't have her. So, I decided to try making her for her birthday. It was really fun to see her open it and give it a huge hug! I was a little worried, I have to admit, that Claire wouldn't know it was Aurora, but she totally did!

I made the back blue to go with the cute movie thing where the fairies keep changing her dress...

And she lived happily ever after!

It is really exhausting to even try to be perfect all the time or appear to be perfect even for a few days. It is even more frustrating that apparently no one "expects" me to be perfect. It's just not true. Everyone has expectations. Everyone judges. You expect and judge based upon where you are in life. The pressure is excruciating.

Halloween Decorations Part 1

So here is the Halloween wreath I made for our front porch- I made it completely from things I had at home- our old wreath is sad and Macy was sleeping so I couldn't leave. I'm not sure if I love it...what do you think?

Complete with random cat from our neighborhood- makes a good pic I guess...

And here are pictures of my kitchen table before and after Austin bought me wonderful flowers for no reason at all just because. *heart melting*

Notice the ominous Ravens?

White roses...yay =)

hmmm

I feel like I want to talk about how I'm feeling about this month, but I can't because this blog is public. I guess that is dumb. I just don't know what to do about having a Halloween Party because I have had one every year forever and it really means a lot to me- I feel the way about Halloween that a lot of people do about Christmas. I don't really like Christmas as the holiday itself- of course I love celebrating the birth of Christ, but to me I feel like Christmas everywhere is not like that and it is impossible to escape. Also, I hate traveling- I hate it more than hot dogs, which if you know me, is saying quite a lot. Traveling became even worse, if possible, when taking a baby and now a toddler with us- the CRAP that you have to take and plan to take and get through the airport in addition to the screaming and more screaming is just too much for me. Anyways...Halloween is so awesome because there is no traveling, no cleaning for company, no presents to make, wrap, worry about (another part of Christmas that is stressful) and you get to dress up- which I LOVE- and eat candy and watch scary movies- it is just the best holiday ever. My problem is that if I had a party this year, it would be very difficult because some of those "Christmas" things are happening. On the one hand- it would be soo much work for me, very stressful, hard to get things perfect afterward, and I haven't done anything to prepare, which I normally do like 2 months in advance ( we knew about the circumstances, so I didn't do anything trying to figure out what to do). On the other hand I feel like if I don't have one, I will be really sad and regret that I didn't. Also, it is hard for me to feel like something is being taken away from me. I know this is not very clear- sorry. I guess I'm just feeling like I can't stop going over this in my mind- over and over and over! I just don't know.

Alphabet and Scripture Project

I decided to start a project with Macy to work on one letter of the alphabet a week. Everyday in the week, we would do a different thing having to do with the letter. Mondays, for Family Home Evening (which we do in the day), we would talk about a person from the scriptures with a name starting with the letter. We focused on that person and their story all week too. This is how I have the letters/scripture people hung up in her room so we can look at them all week.

Week 1: A

• On Monday we talked about Abish and how she was helpful to King and Queen Lamoni (we talked about Ammon too, but I like to focus on the women- we need good examples for our girls)
• Tuesday we made our "A" with Animals together
• Wednesday we played an game where I hid flashcards all over the room with Animals on them and when you find a card, you have to act like that animal until you find the next one.
• Thursday we talked about Acting and dressed up to pretend we were actresses.
• Friday I got out my apple corer (?) and we peeled and cored several apples into curly slices- Macy has requested this daily now =)

Week 2: B

• Monday we introduced the story of King Benjamin and how he talked to lots and lots of people and they learned about Christ. Also, how he helped people on the farm, even though he was a rich king and didn't have to.
• Tuesday we made our "B" out of beads.
• Wednesday we made Bracelets.
• Thursday we went to visit our friend's new Baby, Rusty- so sweet!
• Friday we did a Bean Sorting activity with egg carton and different color beans that she worked on separating into different colors.

Week 3: C

• Monday we talked about Captain Moroni and Macy was very captivated (as I remember being- and still am I guess) by the idea that he was so passionate about his family and freedom that he ripped off his shirt and wrote on it and made a flag. We talked about the Strippling Warriors too. ( On a side note, Macy recounted the story to me the next day by saying very loudly while banging her fist "For our Mommies and our Daddies and our Babies and everyone be SAFE!"- pretty accurate, no?)
• Tuesday we made our "C" out of Candy
• Wednesday we melted old Crayons into big "new" ones- this was so fun and easy btw!
• Thursday we made a Castle out of Cereal boxes ( I saved them for a while thinking about this- it's still obviously not done- it takes a lot more than you think!)
• Friday we cut out "Candy" on the cricut machine to hang up as Halloween decorations- Macy loves to press the buttons...can be a good and a bad thing... (this might have been Thurs? I can't remember now...)

Week 4: D

• Monday we talked about Daniel and the Lion's Den and King Darius ( this was easy because Macy LOVES this story and loves to imitate the lions with stuck mouths- "mmm-mmm" she says- pretty funny.
• Tuesday we made our "D" out of a picture of a Dog (This was hard! I planned to do lots of pictures of dogs, but they were all so big! It worked out-she got the point)
• Wednesday we played with our little neighbor lady's Dogs- Mimsy and Bugsy- they are French Bulldogs and soo cute! Our neighbor Marie walks them often when Macy and I happen to be outside- she lets Macy hold the leash and everything!
• Thursday we Decorated our "candy" cut-outs with beads and sequins and glitter (to be shown later...)
• Friday we Decorated for Halloween ( I realize this is two of "decorating," but home decor is different than crafts!) We also put a police tape line over Macy's door that says "Danger Do Not Enter" as part of the decorating- it's true!!

Week 5: E

This is week we are on now- we talked out Eve yesterday and today we made our "E" out of "Eggs". I plan on going on a field trip to get Edammame from the grocery store one day, doing some kind of "Earth Day" thing another and maybe an Easter Egg hunt- we'll see. I try to plan out a few things, but the days are so crazy I feel like it's hard to commit and sometimes I just come up with stuff on the fly. Hey, she doesn't know either way right? =)

Macy's New Bed

We converted Macy's crib to a Big Girl Bed. I decided to try out my "new" sewing machine from my wonderful Grandma and I did it! I sewed the comforter and all the pillows myself! (The bed skirt and original bumper, quilt, and curtains are from my wonderful mother-in-law)