Happy Halloween

In just a few minutes we will be out the door braving the cool weather to trick-or-treat. Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and Halloween!

My Jack Pumpkin

Doesn't my husband make a great pirate? He even was a good sport about the eye liner.

Me as "Sookie" from True Blood.

Our little "Scooby". Can you tell the Tooth Fairy visited last night?

Sweet Treats

Tonight my daughter's school is having a Harvest Carnival party and I signed up to donate cookies for the "Treat Walk" aka: a Cake Walk but with other stuff besides cakes. Most moms would probably feel obligated to actually bake the cookies but not me. Never even considered it actually. I don't particularly love to bake so why would I stress over something like that when there are dozens of fabulous places where you can actually buy pre-made cookies!

Of course, I had in my head what I thought the cookies should look like and didn't want to just bring the standard bakery chocolate chip. Which is where my perfection issues crop up. If I was truly embracing what should have been a no-stress attitude I would have been content with the cookies I found at the first store I went to, or even the second. In the end, I ended up driving to the other end of town to a bakery that I hoped would have something much fancier than the grocery store. They did, thankfully, fresh out of the oven.  I thought I was being particularly smart by only purchasing the minimum we needed for the walk as to not have leftovers at home. I almost made it out the store with just the cookies. Almost. But the smell in there is sinfully delicious so now we have doughnuts waiting for breakfast. Fabulously hand-made gooey doughnuts!

What did I learn? That driving store to store saved me little time and I could have easily baked the cookies at home in the time I spent. But at least this way my kitchen stayed clean!

The Life List

Quietly on my own I have been working on my life list. THE Life List. My story. My hopes. My dreams. It isn't terribly long yet or far fetched and I think that is OK. I tried to keep most everything tangible and measurable and all are very much in my reach. I have been so inspired from reading other lists on peoples blogs I figured it was time to share mine. I believe we all have a list whether we know it or not. Everyone has those secret dreams that are kept inside pertaining to things we want to do, "someday." When my husband found out I was writing a list he even shared a few of his wishes with me. I think the act of writing out a list is the first step towards living a more fulfilling life. I also think it is important to think of a Life List as a set of hopes and dreams instead of another reason to look for disappointment if they all are not accomplished right away. Do I think I will get to every single one of these before I stop walking on this Earth? Maybe, maybe not. Even if I don't that is OK. I have something to look forward to and something to strive for, one small check mark at a time.

If you need a little nudge getting started with your own list here are a few great links to help:

• This article on Writing a Life List by Chris Guillebeau
• 43 Things
• Bucket List

Halloween Treat Bucket

Just a quick post to share the gift my daughter, Hailee, and I made for her Kindergarten teacher. The plastic buckets can be purchased at the craft store for around $4 which is also where I found the yummy Halloween popcorn mix to go inside. The outside paper embellishments all came from a scrapbook kit. Quick and easy! Plus, Hailee felt so proud getting to hand it to her teacher today.

Monday Musings

5 E-courses to for personal development, creativity and self-exploration:

• Tracey Clark's Picture the Holidays. I am currently participating in the Picture Fall Photography class and am loving the prompts and inspiration. Sign ups are currently open now for the Holiday course.


• Susannah Conway's Unravelling Courses. Also a course I am currently participating in. Susannah is an absolute treasure of a person and inspires me so much. Her courses have limited enrollment and do fill up extremely fast so make sure to mark the next enrollment date on your calendar if you wish you sign up.


• Stephanie Lee's Homesteader Metalsmithing E-course. I made the leap and signed up for this course as well. It will be a totally new and challenging experience for me. I can't wait!


• Andrea Schroeder's Creativity 101 E-course. She is offering this for free, all you have to do is sign up with your email. I haven't had a chance to dive into this one yet but it is definitely on my to-do list.


• Drew Bennett's Personal Branding BootCamp. Another great free course currently being offered. If you are a blogger and want to streamline your brand then I highly recommend checking this out.

 

Quick & Easy Fall Cards

I wanted to share these quick and easy cards I made today for Fall. Literally they took me a whole 5 minutes. If you are in a pinch and need a quick idea for a thank you card or some party invitations these will do just the trick!

First you need words, a lot of them. Open up a new Word document and start typing. Brainstorm any Fall themed words that comes to mind until you fill up approximately 3 lines. Then highlight your text and copy and paste it until your page is full. I used a smaller font size around 8 points. Pick out your favorite Fall color of cardstock paper and print. To make even better use of your paper make sure to change your margins (something I did not do in the photo below).

Then you need to select a punch. The larger the better so you can actually see some of the words. Make sure your words are going in the direction you want them to read and punch out your shape.

For my card base I used plain white cardstock and attached the cutout with a raised dimensional adhesive. You could easily dress this up more but for a quick time-saving project I think the simplicity of it is just perfect! If you have a birthday coming up and need invitations this would work just the same with a balloon punch shape. The possibilities are endless!

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