HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEENIE!

Everyone have fun and stay safe. Haunted House & Toil & Trouble made by Kathleen in Center Moriches, NY. Spooky...Scary...BOO! made by Maureen in Annapolis, MD!!

Shoot for the moon

I am watching Brittany today, she'll be here from 8:30 to about 5:30 while her mother works. This is her mother's 2nd day at her new job since she came back from school in Rhode Island. Long day ahead of me. I think we will spend some time at the library and maybe visit my mom & dad for a while.

Speaking of Dad...we got good news this week from his most recent test results. He remains cancer-free from the neck down! The lungs are completely clear. The worry now, as it has been for the past 6 months, is the tumors in the brain. Testing in 2 weeks on his head, first tests since the Cyber-knife radiation treatments.

My parents really got out a lot this fall, they went on THREE foliage rides! One was on Dad's birthday, October 8th, my sister took them all the way to Vermont! That's always been mom & dad's special place, so I'm sure it was a wonderful day for them. They drove up through northwest CT on 2 other days, and said the foliage was just beautiful. I wish I could have gone.

The trees have changed here now, beautiful colors, every color of Autumn you could imagine. Some days the sky is the most brilliant blue imaginable. Some days the sun is so bright it hurts my head. We had a big rain Saturday night, so many of the leaves are on the ground. Last night when I went outside it definitely felt like Winter was in the air! It snowed in the NW hills of CT the other night. Only a matter of time before it's here. Halloween tomorrow, still undecided about handing out candy, or just sitting in the dark with the porch light off.

Beautiful "Serendipity" cards made by Tess in Edmunton, Alberta, Canada. The little door opens to a quote inside! "Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open." ~John Barrymore

Nothin' goin' on here...

Completely lazy this week. Last week was busy, setting up & decorating for the Harvest Party at church. The party was Saturday, and it went well. It looked like the kids had fun. The pinatas worked out alright.

Beau got to see Ben, his friend he doesn't often have the chance to see, that was nice. My mother came to the party because she wanted to see all the decorations that I'd told her looked so great. My niece Autumn came, too. I think she had a good time. Her costume was so cute! She dressed as a Southern Belle, complete with hoop skirt and giant hat held on with a wide ribbon. On Saturday night, Beau slept over Alex's house, and I picked them up, took them to Youth Center, and then back to Alex's at 9 PM. It was pouring & extremely windy.

Sunday, we went to the Corn Maze at Lyman Orchards. It wasn't as fun as I expected a corn maze to be. It was my first time, though, so it was interesting to see. It was a beautiful, bright sunny day and the place was packed. They have fruit picking there and a pretty good sized store, too. They also have a large pond full of ducks & geese.

I went to the library last night and have to go to the post office today. The price of regular gas is down to $2.55. I checked that out on the way by. Could my life BE any more fulfilling?!? I haven't watched the baby this week. Haven't really done much of anything. Swept my basement floor today and did laundry, woo-hoo!

"Smile" and "Moments" ATCs made by me, for Serendipity swap. October 2008.

A Merry Halloween!

Surprise artist trading cards!

I listed 'Halloween ATCs' on my October "Wishlist" on Swap-bot & I got these!

They were made by Tammy (tropicalart77) in Ocala, Florida.

(she's) Always Busy...

"Eternal Embrace" ATC from Agonysdecay, (yes, Jenny! Jenny!) in Fresno, CA. Creepy-cool!!

I watched Brittany yesterday from 10 to 5:30. She wasn't having anything to do with napping, so I took her on a little 'field trip' to the public library! Our library is very new and really nice, and the children's room has toys & a train set to play with.

What else...well, I've been helping with preparations for the children's Harvest Party at church. It's an alternative Halloween party, nothing spooky ~ there's a pumpkin theme. Last night we were trying to set up the room, and let me tell you, I'm a bit concerned...about the pinata. Kids are going to be all spread out, doing crafts, games, pumpkin carving, cupcake decorating, etc. and when someone pops that pinata open, don't they think kids are going to rush from wherever they are ...? I do. I don't want to be stationed anywhere near there. :Shaking head: Yeah.

Thanks to Robbie, I think the code she gave me for breaking paragraphs is totally working?!!! We'll see when I click 'publish'!

My boyfriend David Cook has made a video for his new single, "Light On". I saw a teensy snippet of the making of it. I know you don't care, LOL, but I'm excited. I find my little joys where I can. What else, what else...I dunno. Got to go shower now, get ready for a busy day. More party decorating, some shopping *I think I got roped into going to BJ's with someone to buy food for the Harvest Party* oh boy, and Brittany will be along, so wow, looking forward to that...I need to go to Target...if we don't stop there today, I will have to go tonight or tomorrow. I NEED to go to Walgreen's and get my prescription and a few items, and HAVE to get some ground beef, 'cause dummy me bought everything for tacos the other day, thinking I had frozen hamburg here, turns out I did not. Grrr. And OH! I have things to MAIL!!! I MUST find 5 minutes to go inside the post office, some things need to be hand cancelled and another must be weighed for postage. Busy, busy, always busy!!!

Blue Monday

Can I moan for just one minute? For an entire week now I've been wrestling with a cold that is still in its final stages. If that weren't enough to make me grumpy, I've had a terrible stabbing migraine accompanied by severe neck pain since yesterday morning! No remedy I've tried is making it go away. Awful! I'll say again, as I've said before ~ if I did have a full-time job, how would I be able to go to work today? Last night we had some fun at our house! Beau and I had company, my niece and her friend/boy came over for a few hours. I made brownies, we played Rock Band, we cooked fried dough!! It was fun having more people and a bit of noise in the house again. It's usually soooo quiet here with just the 2 of us. That's not bad, mind you. Just sometimes too...quiet! I have been posting about the gas prices, and I think the last time I mentioned I had gotten some at $3.13/gallon. Well, the last time that I passed the station, which I think was Wednesday or Thursday last week, the price was down to $2.89! I haven't been out in a few days now, I can't wait to get over there and check it out. Probably tomorrow, it's library day. I hope it's lower still. Have the prices dropped more in your neighborhood this past week?? Do you think the government has purposely engineered this drop in prices to gloss over the fact that we are in a recession, and that this will be enough of a distraction to keep us happy? I don't think so ~ just one grocery shopping trip is enough to make my stomach queasy and keep the issues with the economy right up front in my mind!! I cringe inside with every other item I place in my shopping cart, all the while keeping a running tally in my head. And that's not easy! On another note altogether, does anyone know how to make paragraph breaks in this format? I hit enter several times, and it shows separate paragraphs while I'm composing, but after I save & view my entry, it's all one big block! I guess I need to go play around with my formatting?!?


ATC received in a swap: The card I have officially dubbed "Dunce Cat" made by Marie L. ~ Barnhart, Missouri in August 2006.

Mary Kay Giveaway @ A Giveaway A Day!

This is a good one, folks!!

Everything you need to pamper your tootsies!! Enter before noon Monday for a chance to win.


Photo from agiveawayaday.blogspot.com

Giveaway at A Cowboy's Wife!

I just found a wonderful giveaway contest via Loving This Mom Stuff! It's at a cool blog called A Cowboy's Wife and the post is entitled "Staying Warm With Style"! I entered, go ahead and check it out yourself! GREAT prize ~ a Land's End Women's Half-zip Pullover Jacket, your choice of ThermaCheck 100 or Sherpa Fleece! SO many colors to choose from, too!! Photo from Land's End.com

Kindness creates good karma.

Oh, I loved these little cards! I just came across them in my old journal. They were made by me in the fall of '06. Sometimes I make a card or an ATC that I like so much I just keep it. Did it again a week ago, teehee. For days now I've been going through my AOL journals and saving what I need to. There are hundreds of photos on there that were lost off my hard drive when it crashed last Easter. I am saving them over again before the journals are deleted. I think I may be almost halfway done there. I've been sick this entire week, finally starting to feel a bit better today. I'm so very tired. And bored! I am going to go watch Saturday Night Live in a few minutes, I know Sarah Palin is expected to make an appearance. Do you think that's a good thing? Ack!! She frightens me so.

A Giveaway A Day

I've come across this cute little blog called "A Giveaway A Day" where this nice lady named Liz offers a giveaway each day 'just because' she wants to! All you have to do to enter - and possibly win! - is leave her a comment. She offers something funky & far~out each day...one day it's a battery powered toothbrush, another day it's a month long subscription to Rhapsody.com, and still another it's a Polly Pocket toy! Check it out!



bird graphic property of agiveawayaday.blogspot.com

"Second Spring"

I woke up with a sore throat today. I guess it's time for my annual 'second spring cold', which I usually get in September. Beau already had his back-to-school cold, and he didn't share that one with me. Not so lucky this time.

I watched with great anticipation last night the series premiere of Christian Slater's new show "My Own Worst Enemy". I was disappointed. Have always loved him, all the way back to "Heathers" and "Untamed Heart".

I love this new Gavin Rossdale song, never really paid him any attention before. This song in particular- I think it's called 'Love Remains the Same' - is getting heavy radio play here. Yesterday was the first day that David Cook's new single 'Light On' was added to radio playlists, so I tuned my radio to a top 40 station (uuuugghhh...) and managed to miss it all day. I don't believe they'll play it on the alternative station that I listen to. My niece pre-ordered his album for me back in June for my birthday, so when the November 18th release date gets near, the CD will be shipped to me. Yay.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

"Autumn Faery" & "Second Spring" ~ Artist Trading Cards by Helen Campbell of Bellingham, WA. I received these in November, 2006.

Success!

I just successfully imported all 3 of my aol journals over to blogger. Hooray! It was simple and from what I see, they are all intact, including comments. Most of the photos came with, but those that didn't I'm not mourning. My "Always Busy..." main writing journal that was private will remain so for now. My photo journal, "Paragon" (dormant since Dec '06) is still public. The other little private journal was Beau's - he took some pictures a few years ago and wrote a little bit.


I am still working on saving photos off those journals onto my computer. That's taking some time. I'm glad to have the opportunity, though, because back in March when my computer crashed, I lost thousands of photos. This is a way to get some of those back.

Bette Davis

Here's a scan of the black & white ATC I made. It was sent to my friend Liz, who hosted the swap over at Swap-bot. She's the creator of the group North East Creative Swappers. Black & white cards are somewhat of a challenge for me, but once I sit down and start playing, I come up with something!

Movie ATC Swap

Made by one of my fave swappers, Jenny Boothe (agonysdecay) of Fresno, CA ~ this Labyrinth movie themed ATC & the Beetlejuice card are just perfect!



In keeping with the movie theme - the "B Movie" theme - Rita (bastcrystal) in Hayward, CA made these 2 spooky-themed cards. Dracula, yikes!!

Just in time for Halloween!!!

Got some gas last night...

and the price per gallon was $3.13 !

I am so curious - will it keep dropping? Will it go under $3.00/gal??

Never thought I'd be so excited over gas prices. What is this world coming to....?

On magic...and the price of gas

Magic.

Sometimes I wish terribly that magic was real.

Other times, I do believe it is.

I made this card for a swap and completely forgot where I sent it. That's okay, typical. I'm used to my forgetfulness.

I wanted to mention something amazing that happened right here in my little town.

I frequently drive by this little Valero gas station that's in our town's center. It's on my way to church & diagonally across the street from the public library (my 2nd home) so I look at the gas prices. Always checking.

Sunday, I noted that the price of gas was down to $3.49, which is much cheaper than it was a month ago. My car was down to almost 1/4 tank but I thought "Hmmm, let's see where this price goes after the weekend!" On Tuesday, I went to the library. The posted gas price was $3.39! My eyes widened, I wanted to turn in and pump some gas at this new, super low price...but it was dark out, and my kid hates the dark, so I thought I'd wait until the next day. I never go anywhere, so what do I need gas for? Yes, I am that little old lady who only drives the car to church & the grocery store. Okay, and the library. And Dunkin' Donuts...you would too, if you had my car.

So yesterday morning, before Brittany is due to be dropped off (I babysit a little girl), I find we are out of catfood so I run to the grocery store. $63 later, I have 4 bags of food, etc., and on the way home, I figure I'll run by the back door of the library to return a DVD that's due today. Drop it in the slot, and off I go - out the parking lot driveway, where the Valero gas station is across the street. Automatically look up at the prices on the sign and I see the regular gas price is down AGAIN ~ and this is the AMAZING part ~ to $3.24 a gallon! Holy crap! Did it really drop $.15 in one day?!?

Now you know what I was thinking...if it dropped fifteen cents from one day to the next, how much will it be tomorrow? Should I get my gas now? Should I come by tomorrow and see if it's lower? OMG, what if it goes right back up? What if it is even lower by Friday? Or maybe, because the weekend is coming the price will go right back up...? What to do? What to do?

I didn't stop. I'm going to chance it and take a gamble that the cost will be at least $3.24 or less the next time I go by there. Hoping for a little magic here. How much are you paying for gas this week?

Pumpkins, moons & witches!

I originally made these 3 for a swap in September. But guess what happened...I loved them so much, I couldn't bear to part with them! They're mine now, on display in the dining room on my hutch.

Trees

I joined a swap called "Trees ATC" then mulled over what to do, what to do?? for a while. I considered using one of my tree rubber stamps, then thought "Eh." Finally, I just sat down and found some paper I liked for a background, and took out a brown marker & began to draw. There they are! I really like them, and the recipients REALLY liked them, too!

September Sender's Choice ATCs

I made these last week & sent them out. Not my favorites, but there are certain things I like about each one. On one, it's the background paper. On another, the ribbon - and the 3rd, the colors. Ok, and the ribbon on that one, too. :)

We interrupt the artwork...

For a quick visit from my boyfriend. He hasn't been here yet. Hello, handsome.