Pumpkin Carving Night!

Check these out! We had Pumpkin Carving Night. We decided to paint on them a little this year and boy am I glad, the cat turned out great and you can actually see him on there....Natalie painted her's too, like a clown. They look great on the porch flickering away! Can't get a good photo in the dark tho, but take my word for it, they are very happy next to the scary rat on the porch!


Natalie took these photos below, she has got some mad camera skills. Well she is OUR daughter!


While outside I took this one, see the orb?
Hope he/she is a nice one...boohoohoooohhaaahaaaa!!!!!

Halloween Carnival with ALAN!!! and New Family Portrait

Natalie and Alan attended the Halloween Carnival today. It was busy day we had dance with a lil party thrown in, then the Halloween Carnival in Dublin. They have such a good time together Jo Ann and I could hardly talk because these two kids were actin' crazy! They LOVE eachother so much it is cool! They are pure silliness!


Oh and here are some new family portraits...now that I gave mom&dad their copy, I can post them. Here are the other ones too. I just couldn't wait till xmas.

More Art Journal Pics

New Cover - I have some great foam stamps that I have NEVER used. Now, they are coming on handy! I just paint the paint on them, then stamp and they come out GREAT!




Just some pages I did a while ago - found Samantha today, so I will be making more this weekend, of course!
Here are Natalie's pages, we did glitter on her first page, she loved that!

Lil Tidbit.... LOL

Ok, last night, we were watching Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the TV talking about the fires and what is going on and Natalie says, "He sounds like a robot."

LOL We were cracking up!!! I love these lil things that she comes up with. Well, of course he does, he's the Terminator! LOLLLLLLL

Look what I made today!

Yes, I started this last night and finished it today. Just now. Whew! Took a long time, but I think this is my fav thing I have ever made. It will keep me warm in the winter and I just love these ruffles. Been wanting to try ruffles and finally did, now I am hooked, prob everything I make from here on out will have ruffles. :)
I got the crochet pattern from here, see, she is wearing it on the cover! Fun stuff, great day, got nothing done around here, but who the heck cares.
Vivent le jour. *live the day*
Oh and it is for ME not Natalie, she is just a cuter model than me.

~Angel Cards~

These are my angel cards. Daily inspiration if you will. Every morning I ask a question in my head and pull a card.
Today, it was Balance.
My angel cards have been with me since college and are never far away. In college (1996) I made this bowl with wet clay, fired it, and painted it. It seemed the perfect place for my angel cards and to this day, they sit perfectly in the palm-sized bowl. I also aquired a moon stone at some point and put it in there too since I am a cancer and my ruler is the Moon.
Happy places = happy days.
Also, when I was putting the cards back into the bowl, one flew out. I love it when they do that, almost like it HAS to show me the word. Freedom. This is what I have been trying to acheive for a long time. Life freedom, financial freedom, artistic freedom, body-issue freedom, emotional freedom, and creative freedom.

OMG - Wii Princess Game

Have you see this yet? Just in time for the holidays, of course, but WOW what a great game. The girls are going to love this one. Definitely on the list for xmas. :)

Awesome Horoscope Today

The good news is that your career is about to take a very exciting turn -- the bad news is that it might also take up a lot more of your personal time, at least for a while. Your past problems at work are all water under the bridge, and you have learned some very valuable lessons. Things are much more under your control than ever before. You have proven yourself capable of the responsibilities you have been given, and everyone is ready to see what you have to offer!

My Art Journal (mon journal d'art)

I started an art journal. There is this totally cool chick named SuziBlu and she totally inspired me to create and put all of my excuses aside and just do it (for the lack of a better term).

It is the coolest thing ever. I have been feeling very stifled by the scrapbook industry these days and wasn't creating at all. I felt like I had to have the coolest product and the hottest embellishments and I said f-that.

Mon journal d'art lets me be free to create without any competition or hoping that I would be published one day. F-that! This has been great, I can look around and get inspired by just opening my eyes wider.

I purchased a moleskein book, some oil pastels, acrylic paints and some brushes and went to town. I always thought that drawing was something that you could or couldn't do, but now I am convinced that there is no one way of 'drawing' that everyong interprets it in a different way.


This was my first page.

This is from suziblu's lesson. She also has two mixed-media items on ebay.

This was...just because I always see blonde angels...what up with dat?

Cats!

These two are hilarious! Natalie and Tony are at school and I think I am getting a glimpse of what these cats do all day when we are away!
Check out the video, they are too cool!
Charlie and his fluffy self. Talula loves boxes, especially this one that has crinkly paper in it.

Went to Walmart Today

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Gee wiz this was cool! We went to the Pumpkin Patch today with Natalie and it was awesome. They said it was going to rain, but instead, it was a beautiful day. We picked out 2 pumpkins, some dried red corn and a lil white pumpkin, perfect for painting. We came back home, ate lunch and I went back to work. What a great ending to a very busy fulfilling week.

Couple of Cool Things Today

1) There was a discussion that happened on Stacy Jillian's blog a while back and it really made me think about scrapbooking and WHY I do it. I have thoughts that I will post this weekend, but realize that there are stores going out of business and the idea of scrapbook "celebrities" are making people frustrated about their work and don't really want to scrapbook anymore due to the contest pressure and I sorta feel the same way....more to come.
2) For $5 you can get your own Kleenex box made....cute eh??

That was fun....

Natalie and I made some ghosts and a scary tree today. I found this cute lil video and we made some ourselves. There were just a mixture of salt, flour and water, so it was stuff I had here. You pop them in the microwave for 20 second intervals and they harden up.
Oh and of course she wanted to make a snake too, so she happily colored him up and he looks great! I figured next time we will add some food coloring, because she wanted all the ghosts pink and for some reason the pink makes them "scarier".




And, again, I left her in a room with Sharpies so she decided to draw a face on my fav cutting board....oh how I should learn from this, the entire time I was here in the den I thought..."Ok, you left her in the kitchen with those pens, be prepared that something will be written on"...but I didn't think it would be my cutting board..sheesh!!!

Spirit Halloween Shop Trip

Natalie and I went to the Halloween Store here in Tracy, it is in the Outlets, and it is pretty cool. Kinda scary things hanging from the ceiling and crawling on the floor, but she did pretty well. She knows that all of that stuff is fake, she tells me all the time so that I don't get scared either. So cute!!

Love My Girl!

The Boat... yup The Boat

Now that's a smile of a crazy man. He got this boat, took to his brother's house and now his brother wants to buy it. All's well that ends well.

First Day of School

Today was Natalie's first day of pre-k. She was really excited and way too comfortable to just be left somewhere. :) It is a blessing and a curse for her to be so confident. She said she had a great day and I love that her Wesley was there too!

Tony's Birthday Pics

Happy Doodle Day!

Doodling is an art-form really. It lends itself to more and more open creativity. Today I just relaxed and doodled! (oh and worked a bit = meetings) Nice to just draw, not knowing what it will be, but then making it into something. My approach to creativity has always been direct, clear and planned out, like everything else in my life, and doodling helps me do something that is not planned and just let it grow into something.
A lot of people doodle and don't know it really, when Tony is on the phone he doodles these funny people with funny faces and they are great. Creative really, but that is what comes out of his subconscious.
My Doodle Inspiration