Happy Halloween!

Thursday was the start of the Halloween Festivities for us and the fun continues through tonight.  We started with the Story Time party at the Library.  It really snuck up on me this year and I forgot that we were supposed to take treats to share until the night before at bedtime.  So Brailee and I browsed through some past Halloween issues of Family Fun and found something that would work with what we had on hand.  She picked these Skeleton cupcakes so the next morning when we woke up we got to work baking and decorating.  I didn't have a good selection of cupcake wrappers on hand, and most of them had been smooshed together, so they were mis-shaped.  I tried to straighten them out but it didn't work so I baked them as-is and it ended up being a happy mistake.  After I took one batch out of the oven, I looked at it just right and noticed that it was shaped like a skull.  I actually liked them better than our original cupcake plan!  I added M&M's for the eyes, a chocolate chip for the nose and used decorator gel for the mouth.

Here's my little owl on the way to the party - bet you've never seen a pink and striped owl before ;-)  Everyone thought she was cute, but nobody knew what she was - but she loves it, so I'm happy!

And my little handyman.

That night we started out at the town activities - which began with a costume contest.  I didn't get a pic of the older girls in their costumes but I will have plenty of chances today.  By the time the contest FINALLY got over, the kids were cold and hungry, and it was almost bedtime so we headed home for dinner.  We missed the costume parade and trick-or-treating to all of the businesses and their activities, but oh, well!  Then Saturday we took the kids to a Haunted House put on by the Young Men and Young Women from our ward - the kids had been BEGGING to go to a haunted house so we chose that one this year.  Today all of the kids have their school parties and then tonight is Trunk-or-Treating at the church, and that will probably be it for this year!  I am so glad I had all of the costumes done well in advance this year, it's been fun to relax and enjoy the activities. 

Yesterday we decorated and carved pumpkins...

I didn't get pics of the two little ones and their pumpkins, I'll have to do that tonight, but here are the big girls.

...and made eyeballs and bones.

We found this fun idea online for Halloween Treat Bags and Boxes and couldn't wait to try some out!  Using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge from Close To My Heart, I cut everything we needed to create the fun bat boxes, including the Chinese take-out box.  I used the holly leaves to create the bat wings, the holly berries to cut various circles for the eyes, the circle band (cut into thirds) to create the mouth.   The only thing I didn't cut from the cartridge were the teeth - those were freehanded from scraps.  Here's my little crafter gluing them together this morning.  These were for the preschool kiddos.

Here's the final results - aren't these the cutest little bats you've ever seen?  I especially love the fangs that are pointing up ;-)  One of them ended up being a spider because I either lost or failed to cut one pair of wings and it was just easier to turn it into a spider.

Today I am making banana bread, and if I get a chance, some Dracula Dentures!  If you're looking for some more last minute creepy cupcakes here are some more fun ones I found - click here!

Flower Topiary

I gave a little sneak peek last week and now, while the treats for our first Halloween party are baking in the oven, I'm finally here to share the finished project.  Thanks to inspiration from the super talented Kelly English-Triggs, this is the gift I created for my MIL for her birthday last week.  I cut all of the flowers using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge from Close To My Heart.  I don't consider myself a flowery girl, but I just can't get enough of these flowers!  I guess I like them because they won't die on me ;-)

I forgot to take a picture with the ribbon on it, so just imagine a big ribbon tied to the dowel ;-)

I cut a variety of shapes and sizes of flowers for this topiary, but I think for the next one I do I will cut all the same size and shape and hopefully it will be easier to fill the ball.  My MIL's favorite color is pink so I used Tulip, Blush, and Colonial White to cut the flowers.  I used a sponge to ink the edges of the Blush flowers using Tulip ink, and the edges of the Colonial White flowers using Baby Pink ink.  I sanded the edges of the Tulip colored flowers, which proved to be tricky as I had to be careful not to rip the paper - I will stick with sponging the edges from now on for that many flowers!  I ended up with somewhere around 80 flowers - this is on a 4" foam ball.  I had the moss in my craft stash and I really like how it looks with this project.  I am excited to create some more of these - I picked up some more pots on clearance at our local Pamida and have a lot of projects in mind, even some for myself!  I bought lots of corsage pins from our local flower shop as well so I'd better get busy using them!

Thanks for looking!

Painted Pumpkins

Here is a project we did earlier this month while we listened to Conference.  I saw the idea in a recent Family Fun magazine and knew I had plenty of jars and supplies on hand to create it.  I originally got out just one jar for each kid, but when they were done with their first jar they asked for more so I dug more out of storage and our recycle bin.  Here is T-dawg painting his jar with just a bit of pumpkin cookie hanging from his lip ;-)

I only got a couple pictures because I was too busy helping the little ones make their faces.

We ended up with 13 total pumpkins - we put battery operated tea lights in some of them and they look so cool at nights!

Thanks for looking!

I take back what I ever said...

...about never wanting a Cricut machine - I LOVE it and have had so much fun playing with it!  Here are some quick projects I have recently created using the Art Philosophy cartridge from Close To My Heart.

A friend had a birthday earlier this month.  I remembered she loves candy cane goodies so I cut this fry box and tag using the Believe paper and Art Philosophy cartridge and filled it with the goodies.  I also tried something new by adding crushed candy canes to chocolate chip cookies - I thought they were pretty tasty but they could have used more candy cane bits!

I have been in charge of the birthday board in our Primary room at church this year and I needed to create the last 3 months - we put the kids' names and birthday on each shape. 

Here is October - I used the cricut to cut the leaf and 3 ovals for each pumpkin, sponged the edges with ink.  The stem was just hand cut from scraps.

November - various sizes and shapes of leaves.  I quickly sanded them to make them look more rustic.

December - I couldn't decide on just one shape to cut so I did a variety.  I ended up adding dots of Glitz Gel to the garland on the tree and distressed all of the edges since I can't seem to leave anything alone, it either needs to be inked, distressed, or sanded!  It's a sickness I tell ya ;-)

Here is my latest project.  I have loved these rolled paper flowers for a while now, and enjoyed making them before I got my Cricut, but this is one project that I wouldn't even attempt without the Cricut to cut the flowers for me!  Stay tuned to see the final project which I can hopefully post by next week!

Progress and Changes - Master Bedroom

When we moved into our house last summer we did a LOT of painting.  We painted our entire upstairs which is almost 2000 sq ft - I think that's a lot of painting!  I haven't shared much of our house work here on my blog yet, but figure now is a good chance.  We recently got a new bed (thanks Gpa T & Shelly!) and made some changes and swaps to the bedrooms.  I will start with the Master Bedroom.

Here is what it looked like when we bought the house:

With a new paint job, it seems so much bigger!  We also added a ceiling fan.  I thought with our new King bed our room would be more crowded but everything fits nicely!

We originally bought the bench/shoe storage shown here for our mud room area - while it was the perfect size we just didn't like how it took up so much room so it's in our bedroom for now.  My curtains look really sad in this picture but I like them.  We haven't bought blinds for this room but these curtains darken the room nicely and provide privacy.  This is what our room looks like...when there's not baskets and piles of clean laundry at the foot of the bed...which isn't very often ;-)

Since we needed to replace the drawers that were on our old bed, we got this new dresser.  It all took a while to finally arrive, but I love the big mirror!  This dresser matches the smaller dresser that we already had.  We also got two matching nightstands (which you can't see in the pics) since we no longer have the storage headboard that was on our old bed - we needed something to hold our alarm clocks and various junk ;-)

Here is our walk-in closet before:

With some rearranging of the shelves and rods to better use the space, you can actually walk into our walk-in closet (you really couldn't before if there were clothes hanging up).  Our closet is also directly over the laundry room in the basement, so the hamper in the corner is the laundry chute that we added.  David cut a hole in the floor and screwed the hamper over it and when we had the sheet metal guy do the ducts in the basement he built and installed a quick chute for us.  I loved that feature in our old house and I'm so glad it worked out perfectly here!  We have since added a hook rack in place of the odd duck hook that was here in the house when we bought it.

Here is our Master Bath when we moved in.  The toilet is behind the door which I don't like, but it's not really a big deal.

While this is not the cozy jetted tub that we would love to have, it it huge!  It's the biggest tub we've ever had!

Here is our bathroom after we got done with it - new paint, mirror, and fixtures.  I thought I would love the double sinks but now I think I would prefer more countertop space.  I think when we build the bathroom in the basement we will use this top for that and get a new one with just one sink for us.

Our old shower curtain barely fits this tub is so long - there is actually a couple inches of gap at the end!

Thanks for looking - stay tuned to see the rest of our changes!

There's a first time for everything!

Halloween is quickly approaching and this year brings many firsts to our family. 

***For the first time since we started our family, our kids' costumes do NOT coordinate.  I always let my kids choose their costumes as soon as they are old enough to be able to tell me, and they all chose different themes this year.  I should be glad the matching lasted as long as it did!

***For the first time ever, I actually BOUGHT a Halloween costume for one of the kids.  In the past I've always made them or thrown something together to resemble a costume.  I could have made this costume easily if I had a fabric store or more shopping options here, but the closest one is an hour away, so it was just easier to buy it this year!

***For the first time ever, all of the costumes were done and ready two weeks before Halloween - that has to be a record for me!  Of course, I only had to actually make ONE of the costumes, so I shouldn't be too proud of myself, but I'd say after cutting and sewing 150+ feathers, I'm just glad I got it done on time.  Last year I literally created up to the last minute and ended up leaving out a lot of last minute details and didn't get any time to fine tune.  It's so nice to be done and now I have time to create Halloween goodies.

I'm not going to reveal any costumes yet, but if you want to see our past costumes, just click on the following links:

2010

2009 and previous years

Bundled Buddies

I have really been MIA on the blog - we have been busy, busy and I just can't seem to get ahead lately.  Hopefully I will get a chance to catch up and possibly update soon, but for now I wanted to post this card that I recently made.  I am a sponsor this month over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog.  I really wanted to play along with each week's challenges but it hasn't happened yet, so far I've only done the first week's challenge, which was a sketch. 

***

For my card, I finally cut into my You & Me papers that I have been hoarding for a couple of months now ;-) the striped pattern in the paper reminded me of the bands on the sketch.  The Dark Chocolate Striped Grosgrain Ribbon also came from the same You & Me kit, but is also available to order.  I also received a new, adorable stamp set this month, called Bundled Buddies.  Brailee loves owls and Kaylee loves racoons, so along with the other cute critters, this set was a must-have for me!  I stamped and cut the owls' scarves from the same patterned paper I used on the cards and colored in the polka dots using a Cocoa marker.  The branch was cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, and I added Mocha Gems to finish it off.

I had fun playing along and hope to do more in the future.  I hope you'll play along over at Heart 2 Heart, or at least go see what everyone else has created!

Quick Give-Away Today!

I am placing a Close To My Heart order today.  Click HERE (www.ctmh.com/jenabeestampin) to visit my website and browse all of the available products.  If anybody would like anything, feel free to e-mail me at jvdevries22@hotmail.com with your order.  As for the give-away?  The first person to e-mail me with an order of $60 or more will automatically get $20 in free select product!  After that, EVERYONE who orders $100 or more will get $20 in free select product!

***In order to be eligible for the give-away, you must e-mail your order to me - do not place the order on my website.  Orders must be received today, 9/30/11 by 8:00 P.M. Mountain Time.***

TODAY is also your last chance to get the September Stamp of the Month - Limited Edition.  You can buy it at full price ($17.95) or with an order of $50 or more, you can get it for just $5!

It's also your last chance to get the Pair-a-Phrase stamp set for FREE - with an order of $75 or more you qualify for the free Double D stamp set with a retail value of $35.90!  Contact me if you would like to see a flyer with a picture of the complete stamp set and full details.

Don't miss out on these great offers!

CTMH Spotlight Hop - Cricut Art Philosophy Collection

Welcome to this month's CTMH Spotlight Blog Hop.  We are featuring the new Cricut Art Philosophy Collection from Close To My Heart - you don't want to miss this!  If you came here from Lori's Blog, you're on the right track.  If you're starting here, just keep hopping along and you'll catch everyone's awesome creations!

***

As for me, I never thought I would ever own a Cricut - didn't think I would need one or even enjoy using it.  In fact, for Christmas a couple years ago David got me one, but I had also won a free Creatopia on Christmas Eve so I talked him into letting me take the Cricut back.  So this summer when Close To My Heart came out with their Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, I was interested.  After I started seeing everything you could create with just this one cartridge, I was sold.  Luckily it was my birthday last month so I knew exactly what to ask for ;-)  I am so glad I did - I have had so much fun with this cartridge and I have barely scratched the surface on what you can do with it.  Here are some of my favorite creations - there are a lot more floating around up in my head, and a lot that I want to recreate - hopefully I'll get more chances to play and share!

Something I have had fun creating are these drink pouches using the Door Hanger Pouch (cut at 9" or 9 1/2").  I made these ones for the attendees at my Crop 'Til You Drop event last month.  I was addicted to these spiral flowers before I got this cartridge - now that they are so much easier and there are 6 different styles of flowers, I am even more addicted!

Then I made these ones for the girls' teachers, the principal, and office ladies for the first day of school.  I wish I had come up with more things to put in the pouches, but it was such a last minute project (literally the morning they started school) so I didn't have time.

The first day the girls finally rode the bus we made a quick one for their bus driver.

Now it's time to hop over to Haley's Blog. 
I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with using this versatile collection!

Here are a few other things I have created lately using this collection.
Here is a large jar I decorated for Primary (the children program at church) to remind them to R.E.D. -Read Every Day (their scriptures).  I used the Cricut for the scallop circle on the top, the pennants and letters, and the tag.

Here is a project that I've previously posted but it's a favorite - I plan on creating a few more of these!  The letters, flowers, and swirl were all created using this collection.

Thanks for looking!

The rest of our summer

Well, I knew this was going to happen - I got completely behind on my weekly summer posts, and now summer is over!  The kids started school on Thursday - they enjoyed their summer AND they were excited to start school again, win-win!  I need to catch up on the rest of our summer happenings, so here is a super long post - you've been warned!  If you missed our previous summer happenings, you can check them out at the following links:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Family Reunion

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week of August 1st-7th

It was so nice and cool where we were camping over the weekend - when we got home on Sunday it was so HOT!  Luckily on Monday we had a nice little storm blow through that cooled things off - I even got to open the windows in the middle of the day to smell the nice rain storm.  We saw this tiny rainbow - I think it's the smallest we've ever seen from up here - I was actually able to get a picture of the whole thing, which never happens.  If you look closely you can see the double rainbow - I learned this summer that on the double rainbow the colors are reversed - I never noticed that before!

The rest of that week we spent a few days just bumming around the house, cleaning up from our camping trip and taking it easy.  We skipped playgroup day on Wednesday since we wanted to go to the matinee movie (Rio)and I was hoping to get a nap in for Trysten before the movie (which didn't happen so he fell asleep on the way in instead). 

Kaylee got this idea in her head to make a doll so we made up a pattern that we cut out of cardstock.  She traced and cut out all of the pieces out of felt (the only material I had the right colors of) and here she is stuffing her doll.  I don't have a pic of the finished project but I'll post it when I do.

All of the kids had fun one day with the Potato Heads - then Brianna and Brailee took it to the next level ;-)

She's so goofy ;-)

Trysten loves when he gets a chance to sit with the cats.

Brianna is our hula hoop master - she can do multiple hoops at once and she can even add more as she's going.  She loves doing it to music and her favorite is one of the songs from the Happy Feet soundtrack.

We made some yummy fun filled cupcakes for our FHE treat - just love this messy face!

Kaylee licked her plate clean ;-)

I have such good helpers on cleaning day!

The kids always love Skyping with Gma Nae

That Friday my early birthday present arrived - the kids and I all enjoyed playing with it ;-)

It's had a LOT of use so far - the girls are always coming up with new creations.  If I would have known how much fun they are I would have had one sooner!  I love that the girls can use it all on their own - we spent lots of time creating together this month.

I love how my kids play together - here is Brianna and Trysten riding horses.

Love the smiles on these faces!

Week of August 8th-14th

Brianna had a slight rash on her legs the week before - when she woke up this Monday morning it had suddenly spread to her face.  We had tried Benadryl and Cortizone but nothing helped so I took her into the doctor.  We couldn't figure a trigger, so he just recommended Zyrtec and it eventually went away later that week.

I took a picture - it looks like a mugshot - ha!

David left Wednesday morning for a Scout camp trip. They hiked a few miles into their campsite - here is David right before he left with his 80 pound pack - wow!

Wednesday was our final playgroup day - we floated the river.  The mom that planned this summer's activities, her in-laws live right there on the river.  This spot was literally in their front yard.

We would walk up the road a bit and get in the river at a public access spot.  Then we'd float down and get out in front of the house.

We took our raft and a couple of tubes.  The kids rode in the raft, my bigger kids even just swam down the river, and the moms stayed out and guided the raft.

Trysten would say 'Try again!' everytime we got out of the water - he loved hanging out in the raft...

...and splashing!

He played some hockey with one of our oars and a rock he found.

The kids had fun catching ladybugs...

...and snakes!  Brianna LOVES snakes so she was totally digging this.

Kaylee didn't mind it, until it bit at her then she dropped it.  I made her hold it one more time so I could get a picture - love the face she is pulling!

It was a blast!  I am looking forward to going on a longer float through town hopefully next summer.

Randomness

Trysten can be full of trouble sometimes - and always a smile on his face. And yes, this summer he ran around in his underwear most of the time while we were at home - it was just easier for a newly potty trained boy. By the way, he is still doing awesome - and he now wears his underwear to bed. So glad to be DONE with diapers!

Thursday I hosted an all-day Crop - the kids had fun playing with the other kids that came over and the moms had fun creating and chatting together.

Trysten has had this Tonka truck since his first Christmas - he takes it everywhere, every single day. Once in a while the front wheels will fall of so he just gets out his tools and gets to work.

Friday night we drove to a nearby town and met David and the Scouts as they were coming back from their camping adventure.  There was a Triathalon there the next day that some of them were participating in so it was easier to stay there than to come back.  We camped in the back yard of our Bishop's parents.  Most of us slept under the stars but Kaylee wanted a tent all to herself.

Brianna got cold in the middle of the night - she came and climbed into our sleeping bag, luckily we have a huge queen sized one so we kept ourselves, Trysten, and Bree warm.  Brailee was nice and cozy - she's in there somewhere under that hair.

Trysten enjoyed some Chocolate milk the next morning.  Love those eyes.

Love the milk mustache, too!

Week of August 15th-21st

This was a pretty slow week - Kaylee and Bree had a church activity, we went to the last summer matinee movie, and did some more creating at home. 

One evening we saw more smoke from one of the wildfires.

The sun was bright red, I couldn't even capture the true color in any pictures.

Brailee had fun fixing her own hair.

One of the highlights of the week was Brianna's flight on Friday.  Earlier this month at the last day of the Summer Reading Program at the Library, she won the grand prize which was a free ride on an airplane at the local airport.  She was a little nervous at first but by the time we landed she thought it was "AWESOME!" (her words).  I got to fly with her, it was pretty cool seeing everything from that point of view.

She even got to fly it herself!

Such a cool view of the reservoir and canyon.



We got to fly over our house - here she is checking it out.

Here she is helping to land the plane.

That afternoon Gpa T and Gma Shelly came over - then we drove to Lovell for Shelly's daughter's wedding reception.

We had fun hanging out with Gma and Gpa this weekend.

Playing Blink

Painting Toes

Eating lemons - I tried to get some sour face pics but I didn't really get any...

Trysten said 'don't like it!'

...oh, wait, here's a good face!

Week of August 22nd-28th

Monday was my birthday.  We went to the lake with some friends - it was fun to soak up some sun and be lazy!

The kids had fun catching crawdads

That night the smoke rolled in again, this time it settled and you could actually smell it, so we had to sleep with our windows closed for a few nights.

It did make for a beautiful sunrise, though.

Thursday the girls started school - and that officially ended our summer.  They are growing up so fast.  Kaylee is in 4th and Brianna is in 3rd.

They only have 1/2 a day of school on Fridays this school year so we went swimming one last time after school got out on Friday, before our yearly membership expired.

Our water camera got lots of good use this summer!

R-ton didn't start school until today, so there were a couple of friends that came over to swim one last time this summer.

We went up these stair SO many times this summer - all 55 of them - yes, I counted ;-P  Trysten spends more time on the stairs and slide than he does in the actual pool.

Here's Brailee and I as we were getting ready to head down the slide together.

We truly had a fun summer - last year we spent our entire summer painting, packing, moving, and painting some more, so it was nice to get to play!  Thanks for joining me looking back at our summer adventures.