October in a Flash~Labour of Love...halloween

for all my USA hearts...i'm hoping you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Holiday!

it was a wonderful time with my family. blessed to have such a beautiful family. blessed for all the good things the good Lord has so kindly provided for us...i love this time of the year...
relaxing by the fire and enjoying good food and great company.

bec. my hubby finally came home, we stayed close to home and enjoyed a feast fit for a king!

i will post pics of our fab time, our table, simple decorations etc...soon (i hope!) but first things first...

this Fall had me hopping. so many things to do, so little time to do it.

i know, i know...October came and went...we did so much this past October...i captured some really sweet images and would love to share them with you. our mini-getaway to the Mad City (Madison, WI), a secret place south of my home, our Thanksgiving Feast will have to be posted at a different time...

i'm really sorry for just getting these pics posted now but i'm afraid if i don't clean out my camera's or computer's memories out, i might have to deal with quite an explosion, lol...so again, this post is really about playing catch-up to what's been going on with me + my world... if you don't like long posts or loads of pics, you might want to book it outta here, um...like now...hee-hee...

here is

a little photo book about my world during one of our Favourite Seasons:

let the baking season begin...

cookies...who doesn't love cookies?

special pals: Lou-Lou + Bon-Bon...bakers in the making!

(click picture to enlarge and see how i made my 'Boo' wreath)

i like simple decorations.

better yet, i like when it doesn't cost too much. i have 2 front doors and i was so happy to find the spider wreaths at Deals for a buck or two. i saw a raven in a magazine on wood and thought, wouldn't it be cool if i could draw a raven out of paper and stick it onto the wreaths? perfect!



i really, really, really like (ok i really, really, really LOVE) Emily Martin's (the black apple) illustrations...so whimsical yet, adorably fantastic for any holiday (Emily has the sweetest blog-you will never want to leave!)...i have about 1/2 dozen of her prints of her magical people... that owl was a cool find @ clearance rack of Cracker Barrel (love that place-yum!) the boo ghosts were finds from a cute shoppe by my in-laws farm down south. the tree was a lucky find from Dominicks grocery store on clearance and of course Sweet Martha's
poison favour boxes...



i made this gorgeous banner a couple of years ago by downloading these awesome letters from this sweet artist, Jenny B. Harris allsorts (free downloads-Halloweenie Freebie-Jenny has the neatest blog, fab ideas and just a delight to visit). i bought the white pumpkins (big ones) from Michaels on clearance a couple of years ago as well as the 'Cast-a-Spell' plaque and kitty pumpkins from clearance at Target years ago...






more of Emily Martin's magical gals + white antiquey shelves + my mummy cuppies




the fireplace waiting to be lit...

my lil' mummy goody cups for the munchkins and their classmates... (click to enlarge for instuctions)



i love reusing stuff. i had leftover plastic white tumblers from an old party last year. i had leftover googly eyes. and who doesn't have paper towels? i just used a permanent black sharpie to draw a simple mouth, et voila...
a cute mummy cup to last for years!
plastic white tumblers are the best bec. the white paper towel strips glue nicely on them (i used modpodge for the glue). these cups are durable and could fit a nice handful of goodies inside. plus these lil' darlings
can be used year after year....i love to make these lil' guys...so easy.

i really like simple halloween decorations, don't you?



my sis, Mary Ann, sent me some Halloween characters. i thought they were adorable. but she only sent one of each...but we all love diy projects, right? i hand-made 31 one of those cutie-pies...drew them, cut them, etc. bec. i didn't want to waste our colour printer's ink...it took a lil' bit longer than expected but i saved on printer ink costs...cool!

the banner is of course from the Great Martha Stewart Collection...not on sale unfortunately but a great investment for years to come...

one day, my other younger sis said to me, "um, what's wrong with just sticking stuff into plastic zippies and call it a day?!" meaning, why go through all the trouble?

well, bec. my munchkins enjoy getting special treats like these and wanted to share this experience with their other buddies... plus, i just wanted to make them feel special, is that a crime? if i'm willing to do the time, it shouldn't matter much to anyone else...right?

school halloween parade+trick o' treating (check it out...don't you just dig the lil' kiss rocker and the Barbie in the box costumes?!)

here are my lil' sweeties: g.i. ian meets bride of frankenshioban...

i like bw photos...sorta like in the olden times...takes you back...

sweet shioban as bride of frankenshioban...

ok, strike a pose... um. you look like a robot...

now, that's much better...do you feel her now?

hooray...i think she's got it!

yep, we created a monster, alright!...

the next set of pics were taken during our trip to the Children's Farm...our annual pumpkin patch event.

such a peaceful place...

no wonder nature+wildlife lovers dig it here...it's such a pretty setting and serene...

just being here, one can truly get inspired!

i wish i had a place like this down by the country away from the city's rat race to find

inspiration...

it was such a perfect, warm day...wish we had this kind of weather all year long...imagine the happiness people would experience everyday? i'm finding out that when the cold hits some people, they just do not have warm hearts...sad, but true...i just try to keep my heart sunny everyday...maybe it might brighten someone's cloudy day, right?

simply breathtaking views on this bridge...i'm going to make it to the top one day and try to capture all the beauty surrounding this place...

Here we go...welcome the the Children's Farm...all aboard!

trying to find the perfect pumpkins can be really tough...but this year, i found one right away! (it's the big one infront of Shioban-yay!) we usually get 3 but pumpkins were expensive this year...46 cents a pound and the big one was about 30 pounds-um, 3 pumpkins for $50 bucks...yikes!!!!!!! as my hubby would say, 'hecks no!'

Tim found that really ridiculous one infront of him...um, kinda looks grody...if you know what i mean...i didn't want that on our dinner table, woa..it was funny to look at though...how do they grow wierdo stems? must've been the water, huh? eeewwwww! (Tim's touching the one i found...and we took that baby home with us!)

we had a blast, though...tractors, hay-rides, pumpkin patch and our picnic lunch (packed lil' wiener dogs, chips, apples, carrots/celery, mini-chocolates and sodas/water)...it was totally worth the $13.00 buckeroonies or so that we spent on that pumpkin... we're gonna make this trip annually, but next year, we'll be pickin' pumpkins at Aldi's supermarket (great sale of $3.99 a pumpkin-no matter what size...now that's a pumpkin sale!) i remember taking the kids to this touristy farm and spent over $200 there (parking, admission, rides, pumpkins, cider, corn, etc)...it was ridiculous...times are tough but you can still find sweet things to do with your family on a budget...

so beautiful!

scary pumpkin on the right...eeeewwww...nice one, Tim! lol

truly loved our picnic...we were just goofin' around...love it!

oh, you betcha...one day...one day!

wish my backyard looked this good!

it was another perfect fall day...moments like these are simply amazing...memories to last a lifetime!

i have a few more pics to share about our trip to Mad City (Madison, WI), a cute photoshoot in the the middle of chinatown w/ tart heart's sweet Jasmine, a secret place just south of our home, and our Thanksgiving Celebration...taking a break to play with the munchkins then it's off to empty my camera...so hopefully before the real snowfall arrives, i will post these fabulous Autumn treasures soon...

in the mean time, here's something i just thought about to sum up what kind of year we've had:

cry a little, live a lot and love forever!

bonne nuit

xoxo

Avertissement: Peut mettre un charme sur vous!

Remember my sweet French Sister, Rhonda , whispered into my ears about this fabulous Halloween Swap in blogland? You make 20 (in my case 17) lil' Halloween creation + goody. Then send it off to the host and she'll send back 20 (in my case 17) different lil' Halloween creation + goody...it's like trick o' treatin' around the world...I LOVE this idea!

Well, I finally finished my Frenchy Halloween Creation for Rachel Whetzel's (creator of TallyScrapper.com) Fantasmagorique Halloween Swap 2008. Because this Swap is very popular, Chris Breecher of TallyScrapper

created Group 2 and I was very fortunate to make it into this group. (Boo-hoo, I won't be in the one with my sweet French sista, Rhonda...but we'll be together for the Vintage Christmas Stocking Swap -yayyyy!!!)

But, I've been feverishly working to complete this project for a week now. Saw at the Dollar Tree some neat blackbird crows...my lil' noggin's wheels started to grind... I started thinking about a mask, some crow feet, black+white and then I gathered all the materials several weeks ago to start creating...

...see what can happen from one lil' idea:

My version of a French Crow awaiting Hallow's Eve.
You see, it's called, "Ye Olde Crow Feet...Nutritional Snack...
Avertissement: Puet mettre un charme sur vous!"
(Translation: Warning: Can Put a Spell on You!)

I was lucky to find these cute blackbird crows at the Dollar Tree. I then found a pack of mason jars...bunches of black ribbon, white crepe paper, toothpicks, cocktail umbrellas (I spray painted black), silver pipe cleaners, white, black, silver glitter and white cardstock paper. And Viola...

Inside I packed in these goodies:

white + black jelly beans (crow's eyes)
black licorice (crow's feet) and
white chocolate covered pretzels (crow's heart)

I handmade the labels from the computer and cut it into this adorable rectangular shape:

now it's flying off to the East coast and hopefully it'll get to Chris' hands by Tuesday...all in one piece!
I LOVED creating this Halloween Treat and can't wait for the Special Delivery coming to my mailbox soon...Thank you Rachel and Chris for hosting such a FANTASMAGORIQUE Swap!!! (Looking forward to seeing what other art challenges you'll be posting in your group!)
Thank you, Rhonda, for being a sweet lil' birdie whispering sweet French 'good things' into my ears...

Je'taime xoxo jo ;)