Happy Halloween!

Halloween has to be one of my most favoritest holidays of the year (I know that's not a real word but I like it).  Some people can argue that a Christian shouldn't say that, but in my personal opinion those people are dumb.  I love Halloween.  Not because I worship the devil, but because it is so FUN.  I love the weather, I love the scary old movies on TCM, I love to dress up, I love to decorate my house in gawdy stuff, and its the one day a year I don't have an irrational fear of people in costumes.  I was totally that kid that had to be sat down by her parents and told that I was too old to go trick or treating.  I remember I was already dressed up like a "dancer" in a leotard and tutu and had already painted my face. 
I remember being devastated, probably more so than realizing Santa Claus wasn't real (sorry for all those that still believed).  Granted, I was well into my teenage years so it needed to be done.  But now, I am so excited that I have children so I have the excuse to go again!  I mean I'm excited for them and all that crap, but I can't wait.  I decided not to dress up this year...I mean, I guess I won't steal Ellie's first Halloween thunder...but give it a couple years and I will be the weird parent out of the group that wears a costume just to stand on the sidewalk and watch their kids trick or treat.


Some of my best childhood memories are at Halloween.  I think because it was a day that people, even serious people, could be silly.  I'm embarrassed to say what I was my first Halloween...not that I could control any of it at two years old, but my parents (in all of their non political correctness) dressed me as buckwheat from little rascals...  I know what you are thinking...and I can't believe I am admitting it now, especially after all the flack Julianne Hough got for dressing up in "black face" last Halloween.  The guilt has followed me around my whole life.  My parents meant no offense, I think at the time they thought it was hilarious to see the whitest baby, with the whitest blond hair dressed as a popular black character.  I see how offensive that could be, although I saw the movie "White Chicks" and was not offended and thought was hilarious.  Anyway, needless to say, everyone I saw that Halloween thought it was funny and I thought I was just really popular because I was dressed as a witch.  I'll have to upload a picture later, but honestly, thinking of me as a baby, dressed up as this...you gotta chuckle a little.

And now you know one of my deepest, darkest secrets....




One year for Halloween, my Dad dressed up like the Noid from the old Domino's Pizza commercials.  Any of you that know my Dad knows that he has no business being in a full body leotard.  But he was so hilarious I still laugh about it to this day.





Now that I have children it really has become funner.  (not proper but I like it - lets just call them Sarisms).  This is the past two Halloween's with our son:

It's not Halloween without a random assortment of bloody eyeballs

Ellie bug will make her Halloween debut as a Strawberry.  I can't wait.  Here are some pictures from Halloween's past.  You will see just one of the many reasons why my husband and I are made for each other.  He would be so mad if he knew I posted these (snicker).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes I once made a Halloween gingerbread house...and this is before we had kids...

Gosh I love this man....takes a special something to pull off Officer Dangle...

Stitch Fix #3 & 4

Stitch Fix #3 was a bust except for one item.  I should have taken pictures but I didn't.  Really because one of the shirts was the most hideous shirt I had ever seen on the face of a planet.  Mom kept one of the shirts, and I kept this lovely orange and white skirt.  The rest went back.

After that fix, I was starting to fear that the stylists were thinking that I was a 60 year old spinster.  Granted I talked a lot about covering up, that I didn't want to flaunt anything, and that I was losing weight and was self conscious about my post baby belly that will never ever go away.  Let's face it, if its not going away after losing 65 lbs, it ain't goin' no where.  I am learning to accept that, but that doesn't mean I need to shove it in other people's faces.  So with my last fix I emphasized that I was starting to feel a little more confident but there are just pieces that don't work for me.  We have already visited the fact that if it has some sort of elastic or drawstring at the waist I don't know what to do with it - so those are really out.  I do, however, realize that I look much better in things that fit rather than concealing my entire body in potato sack like garments.  The fat girl in me is still afraid to change my size to the smallest size I have ever been on my profile, because I don't want them to send that size and then not be able to get them on.  I'm so weird.  So with this fix, I asked them to send more fitted pieces or cardigans because it makes no difference what the temp is outside, inside my office is always a very cold 68 degrees.  So even if I have cute outfits, they end up being covered up by the same old sweater or jacket everyday.

Can I please preface my sad photography attempts with the warning that I took them after a long day of working with bronchitis.  Usually, I like to fix myself up to the best possible so that I don't discriminate against an outfit merely because the rest of me looks like total crap.  But, lets be honest, I probably do have bags under my blood shot eyes and crazy hair 90% of the time, so maybe its an honest portrait.

 

 I shall lovingly refer to this dress as my June Cleaver dress.  I wish I would have photographed it a little better, because I really liked it.  You can't see in the photos but its a wrap dress that allows you to sort of cinch in at the waist but the A line goes away from the belly.  I thought it flattered my figure and would be a nice dress for church.  Thanks for listening Gemma the stylist!

I wanted to like this blouse here, but I just couldn't get over the dreaded waist elastic thingy.  You can't really see it all that well in the pictures but it has it, and again, I don't know what to do with it.  Also, I don't really do the capped sleeve sort of look.  This shirt was sheer over a black cami.  I liked parts of it, but over all I think its a no.

You guys...this might not be the prettiest cardigan ever, but it is the most comfy.  It is like this faux suede and I wanted to sleep in it when I first tried it on.  Its a little bulky and I'm not thrilled that the back is so much shorter than the front since I like to cover up my hiney, but it will be great on frosty mornings or regular days in my frigid office.  Already took the tags off and wore it the first day.
The black skinny jeans in this pic were also sent with this fix.  I think I have enough skinny girls for one big girl, so I don't think I need another pair.  There was nothing wrong with these except they may have been a little too big and gave me saggy butt.  They are going back.

This is another cardigan that I liked.  Pretty standard really, but I did like the ruffles in the back.  And there is that dadgum tongue again!  I definitely have a problem.  Keeping this one too.

So I am concerned about this sticking my tongue out all of the time business.  I thought it was just something I did occasionally that my dear loving husband loved to make fun of me for.  I probably took 20 photos and when I went to weed out the bad photos, I counted at least 8 where my tongue is sticking out.  And I even remember telling myself to keep my tongue in before I started taking the pictures!  Nothing says I am struggling like a tongue wagging in the wind...  So I decided to google it...apparently its an actual syndrome!!!!!!!!  "Lingual protrusion syndrome is a diagnosis neurologists dread giving to patients. Otherwise known as Michael Jordan syndrome, LIPS sufferers may be the subject of ridicule and social ostracism due to the involuntary sticking out of their tongues when concentrating. ..This is simply a reflection of the nervous system's immaturity and often, although not always, goes away by the time the adult brain is fully developed."  Definitely nailed that one!  This is one of those times I am glad my husband does not read my blog, he would be rolling on floor laughing right now.  Well babe, eat your heart out:

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/08/11/3252707/professional-opinion-why-do-people.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/08/11/3252707/professional-opinion-why-do-people.html#storylink=cpy

Stitch Fix #2

Sorry these are late, but the kids and life in general takes precedence...

I have now received four Stitch Fixes and I am still in love.  I am over the initial falling in love stage and we now have a full blown relationship :).  Since my first stitch fix, I have tried to physically shop for clothes on about three separate occasions.  On one occasion I found myself back in Old Navy rushing in and out, grabbing random things to try on before I had to rush off to pick the kids up.  The other time Don and I attempted to take the kids to the mall, which I should have just chocked up to a "non shopping trip" but the desire to see what size I could fit in overtook me and twenty minutes later Don is in the middle of Express with one of those gigantic rent a stroller things that look like cars and I'm trying to throw on things in between trying to keep Isaac from crawling under the dressing room partitions into other occupied rooms or opening the door at the moment that I am in my underwear.  Bad idea.  These shopping trips only reinforced my love for Stitch Fix.  If those shopping trips were other dates, all they did was solidify that Stitch Fix is the relationship I choose for now.

So this was my second stitch fix.  I had heard through the grapevine not to get too excited about stitch fix because the first one was always really good and then the next were crappy.  Not the case for me.  I really spent some time building my Pinterest Stitch fix inspiration board and I felt like the picks were definitely trying to suit those things.

1. This shirt is hideous and looked terrible on me, I'm not gonna lie.  I know where they were going with it - I spent a lot of time talking about how I just had a baby and I didn't want to accentuate the post baby bump.  So I understand the cut of this shirt.  But it looked like a doily, and did nothing for me.  So that was a no.
   
2.  This dress I wavered on.  I loved the colors and I thought it could be a good Sunday church dress.  But I gotta say, I don't know if I am short waisted, or no waisted but things that scrunch or tie in the middle like that baffle me.  I don't know where to put it.  Do I pull it down or fluff it up?  If I fluff it up my post baby belly bump flops out underneath it, if I pull it down its too wide.  I don't know, I just don't do well with those things and in the end I decided this was just not flattering on me, so it went back too.
   
3.  Let me say, I LOVED this shirt.  It was totally me and I thought it looked nice in the pictures.  Sadly, very very sadly, I couldn't move my arms at all.  I couldn't quite figure out where it was so tight, I guess right up under my arms, but either way I was totally Chris Farley's "Fat girl in a little coat" when I tried to move them at all.  Sniff, sniff...
   
4. These red pants were my favorite by far.  I think the stylist probably got the hint after I posted about a gazillion pictures of red pants.  Again I had the initial fear of the skinny jeans, and you must take note that I didn't take a rear view picture, but I did love these.  I realize that neither shirt in these pictures are really flattering but I was in a hurry.  So I definitely kept these and have been happy ever since.  BTW, I would have NEVER had the courage to pick these up in a store and try them on.  So weird how this little process is working on me.

5.  So I just lied about the rear view shot with the red pants, but I wanted to show the pretty part of this blazer and why I ultimately decided to keep it.  I do realize that the blazer should not be worn with the red pants (see rear view picture), but I did like it.  I was on the fence because the front (which is hard to see in my less than stellar photography) of the blazer was really worn and distressed looking and parts of it looked like a 20 year old dish towel.  I couldn't decide if I liked the dish towel look, but I loved the feminine ruffles in the back and thought it balanced it out.  I know you like my fashion forward descriptions right?  Just goes to show I have no clue what I am talking about.  Anywho, I kept this one too.

(You should have seen all of the pictures I had to delete with my tongue inadvertently sticking out.  I really need to work on that because I think it makes me look special)


If by chance you are gonna try Stitch Fix yourself, how about helping a girl out and using my reference here:  https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3970713  so I can get a discount.    My husband will thank you :)

My red pants make a debut on our 5th anniversary:

Pinterest Project #6 of infinity

So, I, like most of the known pinterest world, tend to pin things randomly and with really no intention or energy to follow through with doing any of them.  Sometimes, this gives me minor guilt, you know, that there are fabulous people out there with the will to try to do new creative things.  Me?  I don't have the time, and in the recently learned words of my 2.5 yr old - "am over it".  Out of a bagillion pins, I have, in fact, taken it upon myself to try a few of them in momentary spurts of creativity.  Here are some of the ones I have actually done. Note:  All of these were performed pre two children.

The shutter porch table

Front Porch Swing

Eliza's Nursery

Eliza's Glider Redo

Pom Pom Curtains for Ellie Bug's Nursery

 I, for one, think my copies have been pretty dog gone spectacular...especially for a construction / non girly girl that doesn't know how to sew or draw block letters.  It is funny to think back on now, but I was once, at the very beginning of my college career, a Secondary Education English major.  I knew very quickly that since I could not draw block letters that I would be completely useless as a teacher.  I was right.  I do feel like I have always had a good eye for design in construction and especially around the home.  If I had the money and/or the time, I am sure my house would look much more super cool that it does, but alas, I do not.  For this reason we have several really cool things in our house that are overcome by the cool things that are just stacked together because I haven't done anything with them, therefore making my home look mostly like a hot mess of cool areas and areas of "what the crap is that".  This latest pinterest inspiration was a must for me, and I was really kinda peeved that the concept hasn't been mass marketed yet so I could just pay for one on Zulily.  I am not a super Mom by any means so don't let the fact that I actually made something fool you - it was only performed out of necessity.

There is no other element in my home that can shove the fact that I am getting older in my face than my hardwood floors. I had no idea how old my body was getting until Isaac and I made a pallet on the floor one day and after laying for thirty minutes, I tried to get up and threw my back out.  Yikes...there is never a more "old" feeling than doing something that should be really easy and throwing out a major necessary component of your body.  I also have hurt my knee trying to show Isaac to crawl.  I knew if I was going to get in the floor at all, I was going to have to succumb to buying one of those ugly brightly colored foam play mats.  I abhor those mats.  Okay, well, I have strong negative feelings towards those mats.  I remember babysitting for a family that lived down the street that had those things.  The kids were terrible and the home was in chaos and for some reason every time I see one of those mats I think of those terrible rat kids.  I mean, I rank it right up there with things I never wanted to do - Mom jeans, minivans, and foam mats all over the floor (no offense to any of you out there with these things, I realize these are my own personal issues).  Nevertheless, I broke down and got the gawdy thing....and I friggin loved it!  It felt so nice to play on, and especially now with Ellie bug, I am on the floor all of the time.  I wanted to cover my entire house with them.  Two things that kept me from doing that - my toddler takes the letters out ALL OF THE TIME and I just couldn't get over seeing them and thinking that my life is chaos (again, my own personal issues).  It's just that nothing said "my house is no longer mine and it belongs to my kids" as the neon floor mat.  No, its not the toys that surround every inch of space - its the dern foam mat (again my own issues).  So I saw a need to reconcile this matter so I took things into my own hands.  I searched for hours for a foam mat that I could live with...no such luck.  Closest thing I got to was hardwood floor colored, but I thought that would just be too trippy so then I went to Pinterest. 

I realize I had much more pressing things that needed to be done during this time - like the laundry, washing bottles, etc, but I got sucked into the vortex of Pinterest and I could not rest until I had corrected this foam mat issue.  I found four or five pins about painting foam mats and one negative Nancy that said whatever you did in this world, do not try this because it was a waste of time.  There is one in every bunch, so I just ignored that pin.  I knew sort of what I wanted the mat to look like.  We have one of my favorite quilts from Target that seems to have made it into every picture of the kids we have because it was the only thing I had to throw on the floor when I was still in denial about the foam mats.

I always did like the way it looked when it was on the floor, but it would always end up with some kind of food, drink or poop stain on it.  That, and our dog loves to pee on anything that resembles a rug.  This was one day when I caved and used the alphabet mat.  If Ellie wasn't so cute I would be cringing:

But I figured I would use it as a basis for design for my mat.  So I went on my beloved Zulily and bought two sets of Tadpole mats like this one:

Yes bright blue and hideous brown please?  Said no one ever.  I just picked one because I knew that I was gonna cover that stuff up. Here is the other stuff I got:

1. Primer
2. About five different "Colors to Go" from Sherwin Williams
3. A stencil from Amazon
4. Stencil kit from Amazon
5. Two cans of top coat

And here is what I did (Note:  I would have never had time for this but I had to stay home with Eliza for 2.5 days so I did all of this while she napped):

1. I wanted my mat to be larger than the four squares, so I put six together and then left the other two to use as a bath mat or kitchen mat.  Make sure you get the mats with the solid edge pieces or you will still look like you just painted a foam mat...
2. I primed all of the pieces with two coats.  One right after the other - ain't nobody got time for waiting for paint to dry
3. Next day I did two coats of base color. I kept the pieces detached just to be able to move them around to let them dry.
4. That afternoon I stenciled using a foam roller and a couple stencil brushes for the inside flower colors.  It could have been a lot simpler by using one color and the stencil but like everything else I like to make things difficult and had my heart set on the design of my favorite quilt so I spent the rest of the evening painting the flower doohickeys.
5. I thought the Negative Nancy pinner that said you shouldn't try this pin screwed up by not doing enough of a top coat so I used all two cans of my top coat on the detached pieces.  Be careful when you detach the pieces after the stencil though I had some that had stuck together and the paint pulled off the edges.  No biggy, but could have been avoided.  Make sure you detach before you do the top coat or you won't be able to detach them to move them out of the way - negating one of the pros of using the foam mat to begin with.
6. Plop that sucker down and enjoy! 

Some things to think about - If you have dogs with sharp claws, it will poke a hole through the design.  We found that out with our precious Emma.  I think it just gives it that "distressed" look like everything else in our house so I was okay with that.  Also, shoes with heels will mess it up.  Just be smart about what you put on it and it will last.  It has already withstood several dance parties and my knees are oh so thankful.  So, here is our final product.  Looks like Ellie bug loves it too.  And pay no attention to the toys everywhere that may give the impression that we live in chaos :).