*Sigh* First Halloween

It's been a long eventful week and it's still not really over. No mojo to get a buzz with either, hopefully I can snap out of it soon.

The kidlets had a Halloween parade at school today and, yes, they were all very cute in their outfits, boy they're loud. About 400 kids from ages 3 to 10 packed into a gym, vibrating their way across the floor, laughing and talking and teachers on the mic and music in the back and parents yelling at their children to stand still to take photos, it was so nice to leave. Dh has some pictures somewhere....

It's not over yet, trick or treating still to come...

6 things about me

I got tagged by Vicky to share 6 facts about me so here goes

1. When I was about 14, I thought I was going to marry an Australian. I didn't have a particular one in mind, it was more a philosophical idea - like I was going to drive a red car or have 7 kids.
2. I actually did want to have 7 kids.
3. I can't stand reality TV.
4. I can daydream into tomorrow if I'm not careful.
5. I have a basket fetish.
6. Ferns are my favourite plant.

My turn to tag now...

I think I'll tag Jude, Kylie and TBD

Schemes!

It's no secret that one of my kids is a picky eater. DD will only eat from a list of about 10, maybe 15 things, all bland, all dry, all single foods. She won't eat anything with a sauce and hates to have her food touch or mixed. Can you see OCD tendencies?

Anyway, one of the things that she's dead set against is pizza. We only have to suggest pizza for dinner and there's wailing and gnashing of teeth. So this morning, when she say quite clearly

"Mom, I tried pepperoni pizza. I liked it"

"Oh really?" My almost nonexistent eyebrows are about level with my hairline. I'm waiting for the punchline.

"That means we can go to Chuck E Cheese now right?"

Ah, the other shoe dropped! For those unfamiliar with Chuck E. Cheese, it's a children's arcade who's sole reason for being is to take your money. In a desperate attempt to keep you there as long as possible, they offer assorted fast cardboard meals, most of which are cooked in a microwave and arrives about 2 hours after you've ordered from the 13 yr old serving staff. If I remember correctly it's either pizza substitue or wings substitute.

I can't stand the place - it looks and sounds Lord of the Flies in a room of pokie machines. I've been able to avoid the place by saying that there's nothing there that she'd eat - namely pizza but it appears that she has overcome that last hurdle. I'm going to have to test this quite vigorously before commiting to risking my sanity.

Well, I did it!

After weeks of fighting with kidlets about cleaning the playroom, picking up their stuff and putting their toys away, the boom dropped. I told them over the weekend that "On Monday when you're at school, I'm going to throw away anything that's on the floor so make sure that you put anything you want to keep away"

They thought I was playing....

I collected 3 garbage bags worth of assorted trash, toys and craft items and they are currently on the curb awaiting pickup. I think there are going to be a couple pairs of very large eyes after school this afternoon. Ah....

Doh!

Well, I didn't make the Scrap4Life DT team. The last challenge was a Christmas themed OTP item and I did a mantel setting. Yes, yes, we don't have mantels in Florida but I did one all the same. It started off with the clock and I decided it needed candles around it and that spawned the circular NOEL and the trees but thetrees were too big for the circle so they got their own spot. Ideally the clock would be between the 2 sets of candles, maybe 6" over the surface.



Here are some close ups -
Here's the clock. I completely lost focus on the fact that the clock frame is pink so it doesn't quite match the blue theme I was going for...


Here a shot of the candles on the table.


I was having a serious mojo deficiency with all the stuff that was happening during the week too and I wasn't sure if I was going to get it in on time but it happened. I'm a little bummed out but that's ok, it just means that there's something else for me coming round the corner. The girls that did make it are really really deserving as well so it's all good.

Ugh - it's been an eventful week...

This week did NOT start well and it's ending isn't very relaxing either. Monday, we had to go to the kids' school for the little one's parent conference. After hearing that he's clearly the most advanced and well adjusted child in the class and that he's been telling embarrassing stories about me, the car decided to go on strike and not move.

Eventually it gets towed to the shop to find out that the shifter cable's snapped and it needs to stay overnight and have a new shifter installed. Thank God for good neighbours. They came out while the car was getting dragged up the tow bed and offered us their extra car while ours was getting fixed.

Did I mention that while all this was going on, DH was away? At least he was around most of Monday but with getting the car back and dealing with a bunch of crap that came up out of the blue along the way, I'm really tired right now. Tuesday was getting all the stuff I missed from Monday done, Wednesday was still playing catch up and dragging them all over for after school stuff, kids had a school holiday yesterday, DS is home today sick. At least he's supposed to be sick. If I didn't know that he projectile puked all over the back seat floor, I'd be packing him back to class. He NEVER pukes - I think I can count all the times he's puked like that on one hand - so just in case, we felt he should stay home. He's not acting sick though...

In between all of this, I needed to get my project for the DT Comp I'm in, it's the make or break it week and I bit off more than I could chew. This thing took on a life on its own and I went a little overboard so now I need a nap. It's done and photographed thank goodness. Will find out on Sunday, fingers crossed.

Round 4

Woo hoo!! I've made it to Round 4 in the Scrap 4 Life DT Contest and I am chuffed!! Last challenge was to use paper piecing in the layout and that's not something I do at all. Came up with this:



Here's the fairy on the left as I was trying to leave it alone to dry



This was one of the more painful challenges since I really needed to think of something that I'd use. Die cuts and paper piecing are NOT my go to items. I am really pleased with how it turned out though.

Off to have a think now on the next one...

True Blood and books

Ok, I've had a vampire fixation since I was about 3. One of my earliest memories is watching Dark Shadows with my grandparents, howling with the wolf. The last 30-humph years of my life has been littered with countless books and movies about Count Dracula and his ilk, Christopher Lee was my favourite bad guy. Needless to say, this my tastes have expanded to all sorts of other sci-fi and fantasy but the undead has always topped the list.

I'm very geeked about the True Blood series that's been airing on TV for the past few weeks, they've made a few character changes from the original books by the FABULOUS Charlaine Harris. As an aside, I've been a fan of her books for many many years and I love her books' character development and social commentary. Anyway, back to True Blood, I'm finding that I'm making time to sit and watch it and I never do that and I think part of the reason is all the eye candy that's parading across the screen. Whatever the reason, I'm there!

Now there's the Twilight movie coming out and I'm a little miffed that I don't have the rest of my books yet. I bought the first Twilight book when it first published about 4, maybe 5 years ago and I didn't get the rest because I thought the publishers were taking too long to release them, I made the decision that I'd get all of them once the last one came out. Having said that, I'm waiting for my box set and my fingers are drumming...

After all this, the only vampire books I can't read are the ones by Laurel Hamilton. For some reason I can't get into them and trust me, I've tried many times but Miss L.A Banks is my next target.