Happy Belated Halloween!

Hope you all had a sugar induced coma type of Halloween!

I had a blast with the kids. (I will post their pictures later.) The 4 of us went trick or treating, we made it around the block, probably would have gone further, had it not been 40 degrees and windy as all hell.


Afterwards we got the kiddies to bed, and I headed down the street to my friend Michele's for a little Halloween Party. She went crazy decorating. But it was bad ass. She even took her family pictures out of ALL the frames around the house, and replaced them with some pretty fucked up black and white ones she googled. (think creepy, bizarre and just demented pictures)


BUT that is not what these pictures are from. THESE are from my stamp camp "Grave Yard Gala" that I held last week. Halloween is a big thing for me. And again in my life marks a milestone. 5 years ago I had my first Stamp Camp and it was a Halloween one!

And so the Halloween Stamp Camp has become more of a dress up, contest winning and some cute Halloween cards and 3D projects to go too! (All for $15!)
Here are the girls! Linda the Witch (coolest gloves EVER! Pipe the Penguin, Patti the Witch, Michele didn't play along (shocker for me! She LOVES Halloween!) I was... dead? and my mom was the walking dead. (I told her she should have worn all pink and been the Birthday Girl! It was her birthday this day!)

So Aerial and I took pictures together, lots of them. We tend to do that. We were born for digital cameras. I'm talking I have about 35 pictures of us just from this night. AND we narrow it down to about 3. Call us crazy but it's fun!

Me and the Queen got the giggles, we were trying to make scary faces!!

Tee hee. So the story is. Aerial has big boobs. Aerial likes to show off her assets. She takes a bit longer then the average bear to primp before each picture is taken.

Adjust boobs.

Primp hair.

Check make-up.

Ask if hair is ok.

Primp hair again.

Re-adjust boobs.

So while Aerial and I were getting ready for one of our many photos that my mom took (believe me my mom left WAY before ALL the 35 pictures were taken) and my mom has patience, but after the whole adjust and primp for 2 minutes prior to each shot my mom made the comment

"Jeez, I could have another birthday by the time you get your tits in order."

This then caused a rage of laughter, and then after we were all done wetting our pants, we had to re primp, adjust, rinse and repeat.

But they did take a cute picture. No?

I had these BAD. ASS. tattoos you put on. LOVED them!

So again I don't know what I was, besides full of scars, black spray in my hair, and this big robe thing I was wearing... any suggestions?

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Calm.

Dear Target,

Thanks for having a nice clean family bathroom. No I mean it. You chose to use a nice clean scent and it wasn't the gag-me-lemon that is usually used in bathrooms.


Your staff was very friendly, and my children behaved. Bagel even walked along side the cart and enjoyed shopping (she helped the staff keep busy by loading things onto the bottom of the cart, and then we give the check out lady a big pile of what we don't want. Your welcome)


It was nice.


Dear Local Mall,

Thank you for being nice and quiet on a Thursday afternoon. Shopping with two kids by myself was fun today. I enjoy stopping at any older person that wants to say "hello" and visit with you guys, makes their day and mine too.


The stores were clean, well stocked, and thanks to Hallmark and Yankee Candle for having the perfect gifts.


It was one of those days, where you sit down at the end and go "hmrph, that wasn't so bad. I wish everyday was as calm and uneventful*.


I am planning to have more of these days. I like having just house work, and kids to play with, as my day to day agenda. I am taking out an upcoming Stamp Camp, I just need a break from the class and the planning (last night was my big "Graveyard Gala" Halloween party, we all dress up, eat and do projects)


I also found out that I am hosting Christmas Eve for Spaghetti's whole family, it's fine, ever since his Gramma passed in February, and so I have some cleaning, planning, and freaking out to do. (must make room in the schedule for that)


*Uneventful up until Weaky trippped over a chair leg, and got a big o' knot on his head. He's ok, just another boo boo.

Darby threatens to cover herself in silver glitter

It was late. It was 8pm. Bagel was still up (I was lazy let her sleep WAY late through her nap, in thus resulting in her up till 9 pm) we were in the Art Room working on Stamp Camp.

Bagel was sitting across from me at the big table, my papers, tools, stamps and accessories spread everywhere. Bagel has her own desk, and the t.v. room right next door. BUT NOOO she needed to sit and stare at me. While I banged my head for some sort of creativity.

Bagel also insisted on having Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Darby at the table, in a high pitched conversation. She insisted also that I play.

Bagel: "Mommy wanna be Darby?"

Me: "No. I'm thinking"

Bagel:" Mommy wanna be Darby?"

Me: "Nooooo. I will be angry mommy lacking creativity. You be Darby"

Bagel: Thinks... "Mommy wanna be Darby?"

Me: "No. But sure. Gimmie Darby."

As you can tell I was in a piss ass attitude, but I know that someday too soon she will not want me to play, so I took Darby.

Bagel: Grabs Minnie Mouse and says in the most high pitch voice ever "Hello Darby. How are you?"

Me: Wanting play time with Darby to be over, but I still found it to be a creative outlet, I picked up Darby and said "Well Minnie, my day has been crazy. I have to take care of two kids, with a wicked head cold, gagging and hacking all day, I peed my pants at least 5 times so far, and I still have a boat load of work to do for a class of 8 people in less then 24 hours. I wish I could go to bed. But I still have to cook Daddy dinner, put Bagel to bed, and wake Weaky and care for him. I think I will go stick my head in this big jar of silver glitter."

Bagel:"..." with a blank stare.

Bagel then holds out her hand and asks for Darby. She takes her toys and goes to the t.v. room to watch the Goodnight Show on Sprout.

Sorry kid. I needed a creative vent, and your Darby doll was it. It did help, and I did play, just not how you wanted. Thanks for the outlet.

Pity Party for one!

(Alright so this picture of Weaky in a fun inflatable crown, banging himself with a plastic rattle, has nothing to do with this post. Beside the simple fact that I would love to hide in an inflatable crown right now, and bang my head with a plastic rattle. Plus this is just too damn cute not to share right?)

Hi.

I'm still sick.

I cough. I gag. I wheeze. I sneeze. I pee. In my pants. 6 times today. Not cool.

Still have Stamp Camp tomorrow. Still working on projects. Should've done the work when I was healthy.

Which leads me to one of my favoritist quotes...

"Procrastination. It's a whole lot like Masturbation.

Seems like a really good idea in the beginning.

But in the end. Your just fucking yourself."

So that sums me up the past few days. Lethargic. Whiny. Unmotivated. Uncreative. And OH so much fun to be around.

Thanks again to Queen Mom for coming over today, not only did she entertain my kids, buy us yummy Culver's, help me prep and create for Stamp Camp, but she stole 3 bags of dirty laundry to take home. Clean and return to me tomorrow! Super Queen!

The other highlight of my day was from Face Book, alright I know, it's trendy. Damn, it's a shocker something that I am on that is trendy! (Blogger, Twitter, MySpace, FaceBook...) Anywho, my highlight of FaceBook for the week... my best friend in second grade... yes this was in addition to Maternal Mirth, Renee, D. Mudd Pimpster, there was Cindy R. she moved to Schaumburg in 1986.

So I randomly looked her up, and now we have connection! Magic of the internet! Wait till my kids are grown and I tell them about pens and paper, and how the telephone worked before texting or caller i.d.

(damn it. I just sneezed. Make that 7 times today.)

Alright this is a tired, sick, pity party for one. That is coming to an end. I would like to be in bed before double digits. 9:56 pm.

Gooo Nih.

New News...

(Yep that is me, in our kitchen cabinets. I was cleaning and rrealized

I could fit in the cabinet by the dishwasher! Days like today I want to hide in there!)

Here is what is new so far this week... well whatever my sad brain can conjure up for you to enjoy...

Weaky is doing great in his DOC band, he is too cute, I will have pictures up for you eventually. He only gets mad at it when he is over tired, or really hungry, he grabs for it and yanks on it, then makes the cutest sad face!

But sleeping well, and last Monday they already saw a difference! We go back for another adjustment on the 23rd.

Bagel is getting more and more attached to her time out chair, mostly for her screaming tantrums, and some throwing, and hitting (me usually, sometimes the dogs)

Thing 3 is here, for a while. When my IL's suddenly flew to Arizona to be with Gramma, we picked her up.

She will live under the couch till we all go to bed, and play with Thing 1 and Thing 2. I don't blame her. Between the dogs and the kids, I would be under the couch too.

Note to self.

Do.not. wait until the day of stamp camp to attempt to sanely create, cut and prep for 6 customers to come over for a 5 greeting card stamp camp. All while attending to the children, and pets.

You are insane. But you had some brains in going to bed at 8 pm last night, waking at 6 am and getting your creative butt down to the art room to crank out some new catalog amazement.

On a funny note, Weaky was eating "Hawaiian Delight" level 2, and with a full mouthful, and mommy's face with in range. He sneezed a big, fat, Hawaiian Delight sneeze all over my face, shirt and pants.

Super.

Not much else, trying to make plans for this Sunday, maybe the car show with my family, I am attempting to pick out what everyone is wearing for Friday so I am not running around like a tard throwing together outfits.

I have Weaky's done. Corduroy's and nice brown onesie with his Baptism dress shoes. Spaghetti's clothes are at the dry cleaners, those are the easy ones. I have NO clue as to what Bagel is wearing, and for me... what ever fits I guess...

That's the new news round here.

Funky.

I am in SUCH a funk. I have an Open House for Stampin' Up!'s new catalog, and I am SO not in the mood. I do feel a bit better since I ate, and watched the end of Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End (love those movies!)

I have an hour and a half till my mom gets here, I still have to shower, get ready, pickup the front t.v. room (everyone walks in through that room) the kitchen table (not bad) and shove it all into the pool room.

I also got up nice and early finished the make-n-take project, set the table and finished staging the room. But now I need to take all the stuff out of the basement t.v. room (another room to walk through to get to my art room)

3 hours, 38 minute till Open House... I need a nap... maybe just a shower, some make-up and coffee will do me some good.

I was hoping after this post I will feel a bit more like hosting. And maybe due to the fact that I haven't had class since December, whenever I get in a lull, it takes some energy to get back into things.

Well I have a class scheduled in two weeks, and another 2 weeks after that. Now I just need them to sign up!!

Time to put on my happy face!!

Toast to Thursday

Since I missed Tuesday here is a Toast to Thursday! Still the same, just everything I am happy for today!

• It's sunny outside!
• Spaghetti is taking Bagel for a long ride so I can possibly get stuff done (or stare at the walls)
• The adorable pictures of Spike from his 6 month pictures we did on Tuesday are awesome! Yes but Babies-r-us did not email them to me. Bastards. I need to get them, so I can share them!!
• I feel good. (I felt shitty the last few days)
• Tomorrow is Halloween!
• My desk is 1/2 clean. I feel good about it.
• I have the urge to purge (stuff around the house)
• I am excited about Thanksgiving with my family and Spaghetti's family being together this year!!
• I am excited about the November Dauber Diva meeting! I am showing chip board and some fun uses, and the new Country Living Ornament Kit! Yikes!
• Speaking of I need to make 3D's to swap! Convention style!
• I also need to prep for my Big Shot stamp camp, and the Crazy for Christmas Stamp camp!
• I am excited about the above, because I love what I do!

Ok, ok enough of the perky. I know you non morning, half awake people are flipping the bird to your monitors right now. I understand.

My sister had these p.j.'s she wore often. It had three cows on the front. (all standing like humans) one (I would guess as myself) was all cheery and smiley. The other two were frowny and getting ready to pour coffee over the perky cows head. And in quote "Punish the Perky" was below it.

It happens. Some of us are just a bit more cheerful, see the glass half full, and well lets just say I have my helmet on for you perky punishers out there! Happy Thursday! I am off to clean, take care of kids, and drink an insane amount of coffee!!

Wordful Wednesday. 2 foot scissors = one butt kisser.

In the spirit of Halloween, I must share with you, the ever so cute Halloween class I taught a few weeks ago... I must explain. I am a Stampin Up! demonstrator. I have been for 4 years now. I don't do home shows much, unless you really want one. I teach classes twice a month from my home. Yes it does make extra money, but that all gets turned right back into the hobby I love! Papercrafting!! So for this class, the Halloween Bonanza, they paid $25 for the class. In return the got a $9.99 pack of the 12x12 Halloween scrapbook paper from Stampin' Up!, and the $9.99 pack of Halloween rub on's from Stampin' Up!, so stamp camp was really only $5. Using some of there product, they made these adorable projects (yes I made them up myself...)

This first picture is of the card that everyone made, along with the cute envelope, we even lined the envelope! (the bats are made from the square scallop punch, too cute!!)

Then we made these adorable 7"x2" pencil boxes ($1 at Target) into Halloween scrapbooks!

Here is the book inside, just using the paper, rub-ons and some fun ribbons!

Then they made two 12x12 page layouts, here is the first one... (tombstones from the keytag punch, and grass from the wider Olive grosgrain ribbon)

This one is not complete, I didn't finish it so I could show them how I put the bats on the twill tape. They were rub-ons too.

So that was my Halloween Bonanza Stamp Camp, we had a blast (that is when I dressed up as P!nk) and everyone else did too!



Here are some of the Creative Maniacs. My friend Pipe came as a smart ass, myself as P!nk, the Queen as a scarecrow, L as a flu shot victim, Lego as a mummy, D came later after pictures, she was covered in glitter, and wore a shirt that said "Supermom, somewhere between Paris and Martha" I loved it! and 2L's as....drum roll please... not only the biggest butt kisser, but the best costume ever....

A stamp camper. Seriously, she won first place (a pack of paper and a stamp set) she puffy painted a shirt, she sewed that vest, made little stamp camp badges, the hat had our snail adhesive on it, with markers. And my open house project was adhered to the back of the vest. Oh and she had these 2 foot plastic scissors on her side.

Happy 4th annual Halloween party!!

Happy Halloween Bonanza, P!Nk.

Yeah, I rocked it. Eye makeup, hot pink hair, gutiar pick earings.
My concert tank that I love.
I was so damn excited about how awesome my costume turned out.
Here are my beloved Creative Maniacs at Stamp Camp, in my post-it note yellow art room. From left to right, Pipe and her "smart ass" costume, myself as "P!nk", the Queen as the "Scarecrow", L as the "Flu shot victim" Lego as a "Mummy" and her sister the official brown noser and hands down the winner (besides me) as a "Stamp Camper"!!

The projects were fun I will post them later. We had fun, food (Pipe brought a to die for cake for Queens birthday) and as always fun. Oh and D was there as "Supermom, somewhere between Paris and Martha" but she came about an hour after pictures were done!

Happy 4th annual Halloween Stamp Camp!

I do it best.

"Procrastination is a lot like Masturbation. It seems like a great idea in the beginning, but in the end your just fucking yourself" (unknown author)

Yes readers, check the blog post time. About 10 till 4... AM, yes folks this is procrastination at it's best, I am amazing. I again find it necessary to wait until until the late night before my Halloween Bonanza Stamp Camp to start, yes start any projects. (Now that I am all done creating) We are making an awesome Halloween card (yes I will post pictures...) a very easy 12x12 scrapbook page, and taking a plastic pencil box, and making it into a mini scrapbook! To freakin cute. Class is $25, that includes $10 for the Ghostly Greetings Designer Series Paper, and $10 for the Creepy Crawly Halloween Rub-ons. So that leaves me $5 for class. Not to shabby for what ya get.

In economical times like these I am just excited that people still love to come and scrapbooks, and make cards! Yipiee! So I should go to bed now, since it it just about 4 am, and the children will be up in a few hours... sleep is so over rated. Now I just have all day tomorrow to decorate (Halloween party ya know) figure out my costume, make food, wrap up door prize, oh make hand made gifts for those dressing up, all while my children run under my feet... just like fucking yourself...

No nap method and some flower power

As much as I tried to procrastinate yesterday, I really had to get my shit together, and do things on time. I had Stamp Camp, I have it every two weeks, I teach my customers how to use and love all things Stampin Up! (an amazing and wonderful rubber stamping and scrapbooking company, I have been demonstrating for four years!) Stamp Camp was at 7 pm, and in the last 4 years of Stamp Camps this would be only the second one my mom was unable to attend.

Which means, I need to finish class projects, cut and have all the pieces ready (did I mention that it was the World Card Making Day class? Yes this past Sunday was World Card Making Day, so in honor of it. Stampin' Up! is doing a promotion, and I too am running a special. And the class was 24 cards. Yes I said 24 cards.) art room cleaned, house picked up.

These 24 cards came from the Flower Power card kit, this one is $15.95, comes with ribbon, brads, buttons, textured cardstock, and die cut stickers. I added in white cardstock, to make 24 cards instead of the kits original 9 cards. They made 2 of each design, so 12 different cards, times two. Below is a sample of a card done with this kit. (not mine a great demonstrator none the less)

So I cut all the pieces for my own samples on Monday night at my friend Sylvester's house, and thanks to my other stamping friend B, I was able to be inspired by her samples.

Now even though I had two wonderful customers in attendance (oh the sheer joy in a tiny class!) I had three others who pay me an extra $5 to put them together for them. Yes, the sales are nice. But if you do the math that is 3 peoples sets of cards. Times 24 cards, yep I get to make 72 cards. Bet your sweet ass, I will be sick of these adorable cards. Yep. But since I took a 5 month vacation from teaching classes since Spike was born. My dear customers were running out of cards to send to friends and family!

Anywho, back to yesterday. I did get all the pieces cut for the two attending, (I will cut and assemble the other 72 on Friday night) I did get the house picked up, I did get the art room cleaned, and the t.v. room too. I was dressed and ready to go.

Did I mention the best part... both... yes both Spike and Bagel were in bed, at 6:55 pm, and not a peep. I had just enough time to run down the stairs, and greet my customers. Phew. With out the Queen to be my assistant, I had to come up with a plan to make both little ones happy and tired by 6:30 ish.

This took careful planning, I did the no nap method with Bagel, and it worked. I had her fed by 6 pm, and we took Spike up and fed him a bottle, put him to bed, fed the cats, and dogs, then off to bed with my Bagel. I was hoping, there would be no screaming-like-she-was-missing-a-limb, and there wasn't.

On top of the kids, I also had to keep the dogs quite because Spaghetti was sleeping, he had worked a night shift, then a day shift for 6 hours, sleep then off to his night shift again. Phew, he needs all the rest he can get. So no barking allowed! Ding and Dong, were perfect, they slept in the t.v. room during class. It was a dream for me!

It was a long day, we spent the most part in the art room, which makes Bagel a very happy girl, covered in ink, rub on tattoos, and stickers. She worked on her projects right by my side. Spike was in his bouncer laughing as Bagel shared toys to keep him happy.

Class was great, both ladies also got a little technique show at the end, I also got orders, and interest in future classes. It was a good night!