Just Make Stuff

The costume reveal...

We had our own pumpkin carving party...

Which involved Sean carving the two leftover pumpkins from Friday night and me sitting there watching.

He was stumped for designs this year so I requested a chevron pattern. Sean's pumpkin is on the left, Mac's is in the middle and "mine" is the best one.

Starred...

1. 1 bouquet dans 1 cafetière bleue…, 2. Photinia Rainbow, 3. Valentine gifts for interns, 4. Untitled, 5. new shelves in our living room, 6. pumpkin time!, 7. At my workspace, 8. crimes...

Just a couple of things from this week...

• More autumn color combinations...one, two, three, four.
• Color Me Pretty columns are always a very favorite.
• And now I am seriously craving corn chowder.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

One party down...

Tonight included lots of happy teenage energy and heaps of pumpkin guts.

Slightly crazed...

Each school year we gradually get busier and busier and it often ends up in full force craziness. Historically that craziness starts just about now. We're hosting four parties in the next eight days...two Halloween parties, a sleepover and a neighborhood breakfast. We have ended up with five doctor's appointments scheduled between the three of us. I have two papers due. Sean starts coaching in just over a week, which means boys basketball, then girls basketball and finally track which will take him to just about the end of the school year. I also managed to get a job.

Much like the beginning of the summer, the Sociology department generously offered me a job, ten hours a week as a writing tutor. Then they offered me two jobs, an additional ten hours as a graduate assistant. Then they took the first job away 72 hours later as they "reorganized". Yesterday they finalized the ten hours as a graduate assistant for one professor, five hours working as a writing tutor and the final five hours assisting a second professor.

Did you follow all of that? I barely did as it was happening. Regardless of how it all happened I am just ridiculously lucky to not only be earning some money, but most importantly doing a little resume building.

This means the previously described craziness is intensified around here. Anyone have some productivity tips? I'm going to need them. 

Mac Made: 04

It was actually last year when Mac first wanted to make his own tombstone decorations for Halloween, but it finally happened this past weekend. He spent hours out in the garage with styrofoam, lots of paint, and his iPod blasting music. I didn't exactly know what would come of it, but the results were pretty darn cool. I thought the best part was the way he scratched it up to look weathered...

 

Mac's year-long persistence with this project was a good reminder that you can have something crafty you've been wanting to do forever and, even though it may take awhile, one day you will get to it.

Glowing...

I mentioned last year that the Halloween lights are starting to compete with the level of Christmas lights in this house. I think there's really few things better than a room lit up by twinkling lights. 

And yes, there a seven pumpkins lined up on our dining room table...we're getting ready for Mac's carving party on Friday night. I have one of his Halloween crafts to share tomorrow.

If there's a will...

I have been wanting to go to Oak Glen like we did last year, however we really didn't have time to. I'm a big believer that when there is a will there is a way so I managed to convince Sean and Mac that we could carve out five carefully accounted for hours on Sunday morning...make the hour-ish drive, take some photos in the apple orchard, eat donuts, buy some cider, head back, stop for lunch, get home and finish everything we needed to do to be ready for the week. We could totally do it.

We got there with perfect timing right before the crowds set in, it was 80+ degrees with glaring sun and that apple was the only one I could find on the stripped trees (it was rotted on the other side).

So we got photos in the apple-less orchard instead...

We used a tree stump Sean rolled over as a make shift tripod and then as a place to take off for the all-important jumping photos...

We actually got home a half hour ahead of schedule, but I managed to end up with a horrid migraine that landing me in bed for the rest of the day. Now it's Monday morning and I'm frantically trying to catch up on everything. Just trying to remember that if there's a will, there's a way, right?

Starred...

 
1. First Snow in Autumn, 2. Fat Quarterly Designer Challenge: wild flower, 3. Galvanized Farm Pail, 4. Decorate Envelopes With Japanese Masking Tape, 5. Zinnias!, 6. Freestyle Embroidered Wall Art Two Birds, 7. Untitled, 8. fall fun :: mini-album

A few good things from this week...

• This house has so many details that I love.
• I never considered that triangles were cool until I saw this.
• Fall color combos...one, two, three.
• And I am obsessed with every detail of this party.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

Weekly Randomness...

1. So Sean won the cheddar cheese caramel popcorn survey (it's actually called Chicago Korn) hands down. Oh well, more for me then. 

2. Mr. Kelly's trees (the huge liquid ambers between our next door neighbor's house and our house) are just barely beginning to change. 

3. I wore a jacket when we went for a walk last night and tonight.

4. Both of those fall facts make me very, very happy.

5. I was extremely fortunate to be offered another graduate assistantship for the remainder of this semester which makes me the luckiest grad student ever.

6. I also wrote a Sociology 101 syllabus for the very first time this week. It only took me a couple of hours.

7. We will just forget about the fact that I've been reading other syllabi for FIVE months as I decided how I'd want to structure a class. I'll just stick with saying that it only took me two hours to write one. 

Are you with me or against me?

I have a random, but important poll to take tonight.

Caramel popcorn covered in cheddar cheese...

Sean thinks few things could be more disgusting. I'm a big fan of most sweet/salty combos and this is an especially fantastic one. 

What side are you on?

If you're on my side I wish I could share some of this stuff with you. 

That was scary...

Today has an edition of Nora Made which is nowhere near as awesome as Mac Made. 

Three days after Mac's pumpkin carving party is our annual get-together with our family and neighbors to have dinner before trick-or-treating and drown ourselves with hot apple cider throughout the night...

I used some digital elements to design most of the invite, but I really wanted to use one of my new favorite Catslife Press stamps too so I saved space for it. And then I freaked out because I needed to get the stamping perfectly positioned...and I have pretty horrendous spacial skills.

I held my breath as the ink touched down on each piece of cardstock and thankfully I managed to stamp just well enough. Don't look too closely though.

Mac Made: 03

It's really wonderful to watch your child to become better at something than you could ever hope to be. Mac can draw, which is something I have never been able to do, so I think it's just the coolest thing. 

He decided to draw a pumpkin for the invitations to his second annual pumpkin carving party. Thankfully I can slightly make up for my lack of drawing ability with a little bit of digital arranging ability. So here's our collaboration...

Halloween memories...

Although I mentioned it on the day it was shared on Eighteen25, I never officially shared my memory board project. I was just thinking about it tonight as we'll be decorating for Halloween very soon. My very favorite part of this entire project was digging through boxes and computer files to gather together photos of Mac...

He was three months old on his first Halloween. He'd only been out of the hospital for a few weeks and weighed somewhere around 5 pounds. The clown costume is my favorite ever...my friends helped me make it with some fabric and a pair of sweats. I love the look on his little face as he waited for Mom to get one more photo of him in his Woody costume. The Mad Hatter was my second favorite costume...it was a great fit for his enthusiastic personality. And Peter Pan from a couple of years ago...time is going just way too fast.

This year will be his last costume for school and we have some homemade plans that will hopefully work out well. I cannot wait to share it with you in just a couple of weeks.

Starred...

1. home sweet home, 2. ..., 3. Better Homes and Gardens Home Office decorating, 4. Untitled, 5. Butterflies, 6. Desks Look Great And Not So Boring When You Use Japanese Coloured Masking Tape, 7. happy last day of summer!, 8. a is for pincushion - apple pincushion.

This week's favorites...

• Somehow there hadn't been any color combos that had caught my eye for the past few weeks...all of a sudden that changed this week. here's one, two, and three.
• Great idea for packaging a gift card.
• AMAZING scrapbooking.
• Mac's dad's very favorite candy bar as a cookie...I think we'll have to make them for him (and sample a few to make sure they're good)
• Such an adorable fall craft...gives me so many ideas.
• I really love this idea about sending mail.
• I have wanted one of these stamps...after seeing this I really, really want one. 

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

You'll never guess what it is...

I wrapped two birthday gifts to give this evening, but neither of them were very well disguised...

For the bottle of wine I sewed a quick burlap bag with rough edges and tied on a simple tag.

I got a couple of foam wreath forms in two different sizes for a friend who I had discussed making yarn wreaths with...but then I couldn't resist wrapping them up together like a wreath.

Now I want to make an official wreath wrapped in fabric...good thing we're planning a craft day soon.

More tomorrow...

I have a card and some gift wrapping to share tomorrow, but I have to give the gifts first.

Although I can share that today I fell in love with punching out Sizzix leaves from Amy Tangerine patterns...

Love you because...

When I first saw this idea here (from this Etsy shop) I knew we needed one. It went on my crafty to-do list to make one and it just got crossed off last night...

I figured I could leave it around the house as a surprise for Sean and Mac. For instance I wrote this for Sean yesterday referring the the new parenting strategy...

The design includes my current chevron obsession and my now old wood-grain obsession...

I made it into a PDF to share because I also love my blog readers. Download Love You Because. All you have to do is trim it down to an 8x10 and stick it into a frame...oh and make sure you have a dry erase marker handy too.

My kind of learning...

I usually don't have much to say about school, unless I'm worried about something or complaining that I'd rather be crafting. I figured you're not coming here to read about Sociology. 

But tonight I found this very important collection of feminist theory. I am endlessly entertained since I've read most of what's been mentioned. I'm also simultaneously shocked that I've read most of it...I guess all those pages my eyes have glazed over have added up over the last few years.

I just wrote a paper expanding Patricia Hill Collins theory of the "outsider within" to individuals with disabilities and I was just reading Mohanty's work this morning so these are funny to me too...

As I look towards teaching next year I've been focused on how to bring some practicality and lightheartedness into Sociology...I really appreciate that Feminist Ryan Gosling is supporting the cause. 

Randomness...

1. Sean and I have developed a new super secret parenting technique. It's super secret because our dear, sweet teenager will likely be reading this. And if it actually works look out for the parent handbook we'll author sometime soon. Although the only advice the book will contain is this one little idea.

2. I had a little too much fun picking out colors to make the bracelet I mentioned this past weekend...

3. Tonight I told Sean the next crazy project I want to work on for our bedroom. Remember what I did back in August and now I want branches holding up flowy curtains in our bedroom. I was trying to describe that I wanted a room that was "cozy...bohemian..." and then added "love nest" to tease him. He one-upped me with "shag shack". So we will now continue to work on our "Cozy Bohemian Shag Shack".

4. I finished a packet of Statistics homework tonight because I bribed myself with a reward. You will never guess what it was.

Shhhh don't tell her...

When I got the call about Mac last week I had just pulled into the mall parking lot to pick up part of our niece's birthday gift.  I'm usually at home pretty much everyday so it should have been just a short drive to Mac's school. Instead it was a terrifying trek through a very rare rainy day.

Since it's her 5th birthday I decided she needs my favorite alphabet stamps as she's learning to read and write, so I was picking her up some stamp pads to go along with them. A little box full of crafty items was sent to Iowa on Friday...with this card tucked on top.

Can I admit though I was actually nervous to drive back down to the mall again the next day? 

Starred...

1. color for the artists, 2. summer celebration, 3. my home office/ studio, 4. Until summer comes around . . ., 5. IMG_4167, 6. Gravensteins , 7. no. 5 - reversed junk mail envelopes, 8. New Colors - 20 Minute Totes

Good stuff from the last couple of weeks...

• Look at this and these...don't you want to scrapbook now? I do.
• Best crafty idea ever.
• Love these pumpkins.
• I think I could actually sew this.
• This collection of ideas has me wanting to make pompoms.
• And I need to make these bracelets with Mac.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

Giveaways...and thank you

Sorry I am a little behind with selecting giveaway winners...

The Catslife Press stamp goes to...

Comment #29 Gale said...We are huge sports fans at my house. Love all the sport stamps. As always, great stamps from CatsLife Press. October 03, 2011 at 04:50 AM

And remember the Halloween twine giveaway? I just did. 

Comment #25 Lillian Child said...I would be so delighted if you were to PICK ME!  September 28, 2011 at 10:51 AM

Congratulations Gale & Lillian...please e-mail me so I can get the prizes to you.

Thank you all so much for each and every comment for Mac...he was so excited to read them and is doing really well so far. Happy weekend everyone...

Thank goodness he's okay...

That's what Mac said when he left a voice mail for my sister this afternoon. He had a lot of people worried today when he had a seizure at school. He's doing pretty well after an ambulance ride and a long visit to the emergency room with lots of tests. We still don't know exactly why it happened though. He had a couple of seizures as a premature infant, was on medication for a year, and the neurologist released him from care. Fourteen years later we'll be back visiting a neurologist soon. 

I asked Mac if it'd be okay to post the photo I quickly snapped as they unloaded him at the hospital (had to document what, God willing, will be his first and only ambulance ride) and he said of course...and then added "Hope I get a lot of comments".

I'll be holding my breath until we find out more, but as I closed Mac's bedroom door tonight I stood there for a second thinking how lucky we were today. Scary to have a reminder that it all can change in a moment, but thankfully tonight it's all good in the neighborhood.

G3: September

This month we...

• Drank a little too much Starbucks. 
• Had college football playing in the background on Saturdays from the time we woke up until we went to bed.
• Shockingly, Sean ran 109.06 miles. 
• And, as you can see, the three of us did a heck of a lot of schoolwork. 

{G3 is a end of the month wrap-up for our little family}

I have big plans for these...

It's one of the best days of the year when I open my mailbox and see a package full of brand new of Catslife Press stamps. There are big plans for all kinds of new crafty projects to be made with these...

I have football & baseball game photos from the last couple of months just waiting to be scrapbooked. There are Halloween invitations to make. And the holidays to start preparing for. Lots of thanking to do. But my favorite plan is with the basketball stamp (using the circle punch it fits in perfectly) and making little treat bags for the two teams Sean coaches each school year.

I got started with one of these plans the other night when the stamps arrived. The "Big Thanks" stamp will be so fun to include on cards...

If you'd like to make big plans for new stamps too, you can check out Catslife's Facebook Page for information on the current free shipping deal (ends October 8th). And the owner of Catslife, Susan, has offered to send one person their favorite stamp from the new release. Please just leave a comment and I'll select a winner on Wednesday evening.

Operation Write Home Blog Hop...

                  

So happy to be taking part in the Operation Write Home blog hop and start some holiday crafting.

I plan on sending off about twenty of this design...

                                                                         

Now I just need to get to work on the rest of them.