TRICK OR TREAT

Oh good...my least favorite holiday. I LOVE Fall but hate Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the spooky decor. I wish I could skip it all.

Don't get me wrong, I love kids...especially mine ;) but the absurdity of this holiday really gets to me. To dress up and take your kid house to house and beg for candy iritates me so much.

All year long we tell them "don't talk to strangers" "don't take candy from strangers" "don't walk around outside(espically on the road) at night" "be nice" "be kind" "be gentle" "don't scare people" But for tonight...forget all the rules!!

Of course, even with all my complaining, I jump right on the stupidity bandwagon. My kids are going to be Nintendo's Mario and the classic Little Red Riding Hood. We made Jack O'lanterns (which have nearly rotted on the front steps), bought candy and decorated the living room with pumpkins.

Just so today wasn't a complete waste of time...I transformed my new (on clearance), boring brown file holder.

yet another

I'm on a roll today!!

This era always fascinates me. The women were so put together. Sort of June Cleaver like.

I always wonder what things were like behind closed doors. Take a couple Valium...get out the rouge and red lipstick...your gloves and hat...and stroll to the market like everything is perfect.

Vintage fashion

I pulled out my Vintage Fashion altered book that was in a round robin. There were still a few pages left unadorned. I whipped this one out this morning.

Hopefully I can get a little more inspiration and finish this book up.

Small canvas

I put aside the sewing for this evening and this is what came of it. It's a 5x5 inch gallery edge canvas. Fun size to work with. The crown is actually a shank button. I cut a hole in the canvas for the shank to poke through the back.

New Pants Purse

I finished up a new pants purse today. I've been working on it for the last couple days. I fell in love with the red corduroy and remembered the fun retro print fabric I had stashed away. Perfect match. The L.L. Bean corduroy pants I got on $3 a bag day at a local church rummage sale. They were like brand new. The other pants I got all showed much more wear...or maybe that's just more "character".

I have a custom handbag that has a drawstring closure that I love. I wanted to emulate that in this bag.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out...of course with every thing a person makes, it's easy to "knit-pick" it apart with the things that could have/should have/would have done differently.

Thrifting again

I went to one of my favorite thrift shops today and came home with some nifty fabrics and a large zipper bag of fun fibers. I even found a nearly new pair of Columbia snow pants for my boy for $4. It was a fun morning...I'm showing my almost 5 yr old the joys of thrifting!

On our way home, my girl and I stopped to buy some notions from the fabric store...I should be able to get a couple of purses done in the next few days. That's the hope anyway.

Finished my houses

I got some inspiration and was able to come up with the "backyard" for my house shape tip-ins.

This was a fun little swap...only 6 houses. Not quite as overwhelming as the last set of houses I made for a swap.

My muse is on vacation

She left me behind. I'm a very frustrated artist right now. Every time I go to make something either no ideas come or the ideas I have don't translate to paper. I hate wasting supplies so I often don't let myself just "play".

I pulled out a couple books in various altered stages hoping to maybe get a page or 2 done in one of those. Nope...was not to be today. I did slap some paint on a couple pages..we'll see what becomes of that. I like the colors but that's is so far.

Stampin' Up! party

My neighbor invited me to a card party/demo today. The woman's studio was fantastic!! I wanted to move in..I'd sleep under the tables..no biggie. I started my paper arts journey as a rubber stamper making greeting cards. That was 13 years ago. A lot has changed. I still use my stamps but not to make cards. This was a nice opportunity to get a few made without having to think up a design.

I also got the cutest little box as a gift walking in the door. I'm going to be taking it apart so I can make a template. I am SO going to make a bunch of these for quick little gift boxes.

Treasures

I went to my favorite bi-annual church rummage sale. Yesterday I went for the "good treasures" such as some cool books to alter as well as a cute little fabric book cover with built in bookmark and handles for carrying. I was lucky enough to find a book that fit it very well at the same sale. SCORE!

I also bought a dress..not my size or style..but it had great potential as fabric ATC's. It had rectangles of different tropical scenes all over it. Here are a few quick fabric ATC's from it. Fabric that small seems to give me trouble. I'll have to keep trying. I think I'll be doing more hand sewing than I had anticipated.

Today was $3 bag day..pretty sure I got over a dozen pair of jeans and cords to make into purses. Too fun!

New look for the blog

I've been playing with Paintshop Pro again. I made a new banner for my page from a picture of some of my own art. I changed the colors, cut, resized and tweaked it in many ways. I like the end result. I had to change the other colors of the blog though since they didn't really mesh with the new banner. I'm thinking of making up several banners...maybe even seasonal...don't know but stay tuned.