Oooh spooky!!!

The tombstones have been pulled from storage, the fog machine is out of its box, the pumpkins are lined up in the living room, everything is awaiting their placement in the front yard tonight...sounds like Halloween! My family has always done it up fun on Halloween from costumes to yard decorations, we have a great time with it. I bought over 300 pieces of candy yesterday in anticipation of the kids. My dad is going to start the yard decorating this afternoon. My mom is putting the pork roast in the crock pot so we can have pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw for dinner. Can't wait!!

Here is a pic of my boys at Legoland's Brick-or-Treat a few weeks ago.

DESIGN YOUR OWN TOTE!

I've had so many requests for just one more custom tote that I had to do an auction. See the Ebay link on the left!

Christmas Village is back!

This will likely be the one and only time that I will be listing this dress. The main print has been discontinued, so bid while it's still available!

Mommy Guilt

I'm going to the movies with friends after work today. The last movie I saw in the theatre was WALL*E with my 4yo. Today we are seeing The Secret Life of Bees. Though I do leave the house for 9 hours a day to go to work, other than a quick stop at the fabric store or a run to Target on the drive home, for the most part I am in the company of my son. Granted, a portion of that time consists of me behind the sewing machine and him playing in the same room because, well I need to pay the bills! Weekends are commited to him and his brother (my stepson who stays with us on Sat/Sun). Evenings out with friends are few and far between, maybe once every few months. My parents take care of my son while I'm working and when I do make "grown-up plans", they watch him then too. I have no other options for childcare. My husband & I have been separated for over 3 years and he lives out of state, so having my son stay with him is not in the picture. And since I live with my parents, hiring a babysitter would be silly and awkward. My parents have never said anything about my going out. I give them advance notice, call when I'm out, make sure things are taken care of, etc. So why do I feel so guilty going out once in a while? I don't go on dates, I go to work and I go home and I take my son with me most everywhere else. Is this just a single mom thing or do happily married moms who leave the kids home with their husbands get this guilty feeling too?

The proper way to enjoy chocolate

Sitting here, sucking the last of my little Ghiradelli's dark chocolate square off my fingers. I'm not a huge fan of dark chocolate but well, chocolate is chocolate and beggers can't be choosers when they crave something sort-of sweet! My friend offered my one from her stash and since I'm trying to be a good eater, I went for it. Dark chocolate is good for the heart, right? :)

I was reminded of a conversation we had with a coworker a few weeks ago. My officemate friend had received a lovely gift box from a vendor full of wonderful Swiss chocolate he'd brought back from his vacation. We spent the afternoon slowly tasting each different piece, from the hazelnut cream-filled milk chocolate to the flakey little chocolate cookies. One of the men from our warehouse came through our office and caught us savoring the yummy chocolate so my friend offered him one. That darned man, he took the whole piece, tossed it in his mouth, and CHEWED it! I'm sorry, but you do not chew delectible Swiss chocolate. Swiss chocolate must melt at your own body temperature. Swiss chocolate must be slowly sucked on and licked from the fingers. Teeth do not touch Swiss chocolate. Believe me, we let him hear about exactly how Swiss chocolate should be eaten after that! Of course, now he thinks we are a pair of crazies.

Fat vs Sugar vs Taste

In an effort to try and be "good", I decided to try the low-fat version of my breakfast staple, the Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Pop-Tart (yeah, I know... I should be eating egg whites and fruit instead!). The original version is so yummy, rich and flaky but the low-fat version, not so much. It doesn't have the same flavor as the original, it's actually sweeter tasting, blech. And it wasn't just my taste-buds that were detecting an extra sweetness, the low-fat version actually has more sugar. The original Pop-Tart has 7 grams of fat and 16 grams of sugar. The low-fat version has 3 grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar. Now, that's for ONE pastry but who eats just one? They are packaged as a pair and that's how they're goin' down! So double those numbers and that's breakfast...yikes, I think I need to develop a taste for egg whites instead!

CRASH!

My home computer crashed about 2 weeks ago and my brother is fixing it at his work. Unfortunately it's become more of a "back burner" sort-of thing and not a high-priority. But I WANT my computer back!! I have photos sitting in my camera that I've not been able to upload to the computer, I have launches to list but can't because I don't have the pictures uploaded, and I have launch templates to work on but can't because I can't get into Photoshop (are you sensing the trend here?)
Truly, I know that I'm getting more painting and sewing done at night because I don't have the interruption of checking emails 20 times or mindlessly surfing the Web. However, when I need to color match a fabric online to something I'm painting or trying to remember if I used red or white thread to topstitch on a sample, having a computer at hand would be nice!

UPDATE! We ordered a new computer last night, should be here next week, hurray!

Yee-Haw!

Every morning at 6am, my alarm goes off to the twang of the local country music station. Now, I don't listen to country music, particularly what they play on this station but it's the only station that comes in clear!

Sweet & Simple for Fall

Just listed this 3-piece set, see my Ebay link on the left

A puzzle box puzzle

My son got a new puzzle this weekend. In order to open a puzzle box, you have to score along the edge of the underside of the box. Sometimes I run the open scissor's pointed edge right along the ridge and in a cinch, the box opens wonderfully. Not this time...I had a terrible time finding the ridge that separates the top of the box from the bottom and ended up scoring right into the bottom of the box and had to tape the entire mess back together! It was so frustrating. Why do they make puzzle boxes like that? They don't make board games like that! Can you imagine having to slice into a box of Candyland or Chute and Ladders like you do with a puzzle? Or what if your box of rice or cereal came like that, what a mess!

Waiting & refreshing

I emailed someone last Friday and have been waiting on pins and needles for the response. 20 times a day (ha! What am I kidding, more like 50), I refresh my email, hoping and praying for their response. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing, no response at all yet. It was very hard for me to take the leap and even send this email and to not even receive a teensy response, well...that's made me really disappointed. I just wanted some kind of response, a yes, no, maybe, just something to let me know that my email was even received. Instead I sit wondering if my email even went out or perhaps it's lost in space somewhere or it's really been receiving and now I'm driving myself crazy that now I've possibly made myself look like a fool by sending that email in the first place. And so I try to erase it from my mind, pretend that I didn't even send it, all the while checking, refreshing, praying...