Happy Halloween!

John-David and I in our costumes! We won funniest costume at our church's halloween party. It was really fun making the costumes and something we enjoyed doing together.

John did the top part (cut out, painted the circles, attached the strings), and I did the costume underneath (made my bow, pencil skirt, hemmed my tshirt to make it fitted, painted our pacman faces on, died his thrift store khakis yellow...) It was fun, I learned some new skills and it was and well worth the effort :)

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Recent Projects: Baby Gifts

Some of my absolute favorite craft projects are baby gifts. I love giving homemade baby gifts to friends. Something is just so sweet and innocent about babies, I feel like I get to participate in the wonder, joy and excitement of an expected baby when I make projects for them. So, really they are all made kind of selfishly for the happy feeling/ good baby bliss, but hopefully their momma's like them too :)

Here are some of the baby gifts I have done this past year or so:

Tag Blankets
I have done these for a while... are really fun, quick, and from my understanding babies love playing with and sucking on the tags. A good tutorial is here. Sometimes I quilt these from cute prints, sometimes I use silky fabric, fuzzy fabric... just depends on colors and what sparks my fancy.

Nursing Covers (Sometimes called "Hooter Hiders")

These are for women who are nursing want to make sure they are covered. I found the tutorial to make these from Sew Much Ado.

Softies

I went through a softy phase about a year and a half ago. I did highlight my sock monkeys here, but was pretty despondent about the other projects I did.

Clucky the Hen* from Melly & Me



Elodie the Elephant* from One Yard Wonders



Baby Quilts*
I don't get to make baby quilts as much as I would like to. I did get to do a quick paneled Winnie the Pooh Quilt for a Colleague. Don't be too impressed though, this is just a panel from walmart that you add batting and a back to and then quilt over the lines to make it look legit/took a long time quilt. But! It works for me.


Onesies
I have spruced up a lot of onesis this past year with ties and bowties for boys, cute flowers and birdies for girls, but alas I have not been a good picture taker of most of these. Here is my nephew Vincent in a Cowboy Onesie I made him. (Hat and Baby provided by the sweet Lara)



My mom just made these for her future grandkids. I thought they were adorable. You think she is anxious much? lol



Again, I love baby projects. It will be exciting one day when I am doing these projects for me and a new mcelderry. For now though, it is fun to revel in the happiness of friends and family members and share my happiness for them with a simple gift.

*OK, I am a slacker and couldn't find the pictures of my projects for these. So these are not the EXACT ones I made, but ones I found on the internet that are the same pattern and look pretty much the same.

the best kind of friday night

homemade tomato soup for dinner, made especially for me by the hubby



flowers for sweetest day


working on home projects together as we listen to our favorite music

These are my favorite kind of Friday nights. Just relaxing and being home with the man I love.

simple fall wreath

whipped this together Friday night. All you need is a twig wreath, lace ribbon, a few fall leaves and a sunflower. Add a bit of hot glue... and voila!

Loving fall and fixing up my little home :)

Like jalapenos much?

This past spring John and I hade dinner at a local chinese restaraunt one night. When John asked the server what their best dish was, she replied Jalapeno Chicken. John was not in the mood for poultry, so he order the Jalapeno beef instead.

I guess at this place they take their jalapenos pretty seriously. John probably ate 1-2 full jalapenos in the course of his scarfing the food down. And this is what was left on the plate:



And this is what it did to John*:



So glad I captured this. We laughed all night that he and jalapenos were done for a while.

*clarification: I do have a very handsome husband. The excessive jalapenos make him look a little posessed.

Cancun Trip: Ruins of Tulum

On our second day we went on a tour to Xel Ha and Tulum. Tulum is a beautiful Mayan ruin right on the water. While we toured the ruins there were some crazy flash rain spells, but it was actually really refreshing as it was a pretty hot day. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time there:

Halloween Costumes the past few years

I love halloween. Fall is probably my favorite season. I love making caramel apple cider milkshakes, eating cinnamon donuts. I love carving pumpkins, baking all kinds of pumpkin yumminess. I love the smell of the crisp air, the beauty fo the color. AND I REALLY LOVE dressing up and creatively selecting a costume. In honor of the season, I thought I would show you all this beauty from two years ago. John and I were Peanut Butter & Jelly (we even did a PB&J dance for our singles ward talent night).


If only I had that filmed, it would be a You tube sensation my friends. What this pic doesnt show is that we had cardboard bread slices we could put on our backs easily and when we hugged we were a PB&J sandwich. Yes my friends, ridiculously obnoxiously cute.

We are still considering our costumes this year... but we are pretty sure what we are going to do. I will be a better blogger and give you the big reveal when we have them done. I love doing family costumes. Aren't these some fun ideas? In the spirit of this great holiday -- I thought I would highlight some of my halloween costumes I have done the past few years. Especially as I have not blogged on many of them. Here we go:

2010 - War & Peace (I was peace) We won best couple costume at our ward halloween party. (no pictures as I was a failure at documeting this time period). Imagine greek goddess of peace. Pale blue flowy fabric draped over white toga. With doves in my hair.

2008 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer


2007 - Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)

2006 - Zorro (or Zorra, whatever) WHY CAN'T I FIND THIS PIC?

2005 - Athena This year I threw the coolest party.



199? - Cute Pumpkin Had to throw this in.



Halloween is just fun for me. What do you like about halloween?

Cancun - Day 1: The Grocery Dilemma

So remember back in April when I said I was going to Cancun? Well I never told you how it went. For all you know I was swept away in a tropical storm, survived on a island with only coconuts for a week and somehow made my flight back (you know I survived per my existent albeit sparse blog posts). Well we didnt just survive on coconuts. But there is a fun story around how we got our food for the week.
1. We ate out our first night there Quickly we realized why our plan was to rent a condo and buy groceries rather than eat our every day-- those were some expensive nachos!

Condo in Cancun. Was really nice, made the trip a lot more affordable than a resort.
2. Sunday AM we get up for mass, after mass we jumped on a public bus and headed for wally- world (i.e. walmart). We get off at the wrong stop so have to walk a ways, but finally make and spend approximately 1.5 hours picking up groceries for the week. Insert foods that are packaged different than in the U.S., debating the merit of different juices to make tropical drinks and lots and lots of mexican pastry samples.

Beautiful Church we went to mass at. My parents also had their vows renewed here. It was an open church so you felt the breeze.

Panaderia in Wally World. Since this was a 4-5 hour ordeal, the snack was great.

3. We finally prepare to leave Wally-World, and realize we have to be able to CARRY all our groceries back as we did not have a car. WOOPS. Commence get rid of most of your tropical juices.

4. We make it through check out, and head out each heavy laden with numerous bags of food. Dad does not let us take a cab (those nachos were expensive!) so we get on the bus again.

5. We get off at the wrong bus stop again and have to walk another mile or so to the condo. Did I mention it was like 90 degrees? Oh! And 90% of our bags broke on the way. Imagine juggling, barely able to walk and cursing the tropical juices that made the cut on our list.

6. FINALLY! One by one we slowly stagger up to the condo. Completely exhausted, we decide to take the elevator up. Preface: this is a small elevator, 4 of us took it, and we had approximately 1 ton of groceries.

7. Just as the elevator starts moving it stops mid floor. We are stuck in elevator. And VERY sweaty from aforementioned grocery trek. Commence Panic.

8. Fast forward to Dad is hogging the air from the vent, Sisters are wondering if we will die in the elevator. I am praying to get out.

9. Mom finally hears our shouts (she was the only one not in the elevator)and "panic button". Miraculously Dad finds a button and we all crawl out of the elevator with our groceries in tote.

We got back and we laughed... and boy did those groceries taste good.

Everyone is glowing from the grocery excursion.