Pampered Chef Party

October is my favorite time of year, so I try to find many ways to celebrate it. This year, I decided to host a Pampered Chef Party. I have spent the last 6 weeks pouring over my Taste of Home Halloween magazines and my menu kept growing. Part of the Pampered Chef Party is that you make a dish, but I still wanted to serve some fun Halloween dishes. At first I was only going to make the pretzel pumpkin grahams, but then I remembered my cake plate. So I decided to make something to go on it. Then I remembered my spider dish, so I had to make something to go in it.

For punch, I made Spooky Citrus Punch. It was so good!

The chocolate bars I had my Pampered Chef Consultant make. They taste a lot like an Almond Joy bar, only better.

The Pumpkin Pretzel Grahams.

Goblins Popcorn.

Pumpkin Ribbon Bread.

Somehow, I only took picture of my nephews at the party, but none of the other guest. :) Sorry friends, I guess that means they are cuter. I also had to get a picture of them each wearing Halloween shirts I gave to them a few weeks ago. It melted my heart how cute they each looked.

I had to get a picture of Barb holding these two. The older child, Tyler is her grandson. When she decided to hold my sister's baby, he was a little concerned. When his grandma got up to pass the baby on, he was right at her elbow so his grandma wouldn't forget him.

Daxsen in his Halloween outfit.

Valex in his Halloween shirt. He had just looked outside at Zipper. He is so CUTE!

Sleeping Cats

During my Pampered Chef Party, some of my guests wanted to meet Gaby. I knew she was hiding in the bedroom because our cats are not social creatures. What I didn't expect was to find her hiding in the same place Pyro was hiding. That is the closest I've ever seen her get to Pyro without Pyro hissing at her. I think she had to have snuck into the other side so Pyro didn't know she was there.

I also had to take this picture of Gaby and Zipper sleeping on the bed. I think he's pinning her down so she won't bite him when she wakes up. Chewing on him seems to be her favorite thing to do.

Fall Swaperoo '11

I told my Swaperoo partner that I was obsessed with pumpkins. I am so glad she took that to heart. I LOVE the wood pumpkins she sent me and the pumpkin lantern. And the pumpkin cupcake holders. I also loved the chocolate and potpourri.

Hair Makeover Reward

One day, back in March, I woke up with the desire to start a diet. Trust me, it felt very strange to me. I only told a few select people, simply because - I didn't think I could do it. I didn't want to tell people about it and then fail.

Thirty weeks later I'm proud to announce, I did NOT fail. I'm now down (almost) 50 pounds!!!

I'm not done with my weight loss journey yet, but I decided it was time for a big reward for all my hard work. So I got a hair makeover. I kept the same cut, but all new color. I.LOVE.IT! Its hard to see, but even my bottom layer is a darker color, which I LOVE. And I LOVE the red. Yep, I LOVE it all.

I also switched to an orange feather for Halloween.

October Book Club - "The Blog" by Carolyn Adams-Hanchett

This month it was Tina's turn to choose the book for book club. I was excited to read the book when she mentioned the author was a sister to a lady I knew growing up. The book was "The Blog" by Carolyn Adams-Hanchett.

It was a pretty political book and I enjoyed some of the concepts in it. What I didn't like was the ending and how it left it wide open for another book. Since this book only came out this summer, it will be a while before a sequel comes out. I don't like waiting on sequels, that's why I don't usually read them until I know the author is done with the series.

Tina fed us dinner and we had a great time visiting about the book and other parts of life. I love book club and can't wait for the next one.

Breast Cancer Awareness

I'm 28 and expecting a lot of BS on facebook.

A few weeks ago this fad (insert eye rolls) circled its way around facebook. "I'm 28 weeks and craving skittles."

The first one I saw was on the wall of a birth mom. MY.HEART.STOPPED. My first thought was a prayer to God, "How can she survive this again?" I didn't comment or anything, simply because I had no words that could ease the pain I was sure she was feeling. Instead, I kept watch on her wall for details.

After several people posted comments she replied back that it was just one of the facebook thingies.

I was beyond the moon grateful that she wasn't really pregnant. Don't get me wrong, she will be a great mom someday. I just hope that she can be more established in life before that happens.

Nevertheless, I was still clueless. What was this facebook thingy all about? She didn't go into detail.

Overnight they exploded on facebook. It felt like EVERYONE was expecting and craving something. Well not everyone. On the other side, all of my infertile friends were heartbroke by being surrounded by so many pregnant people at once.

Finally in the midst of this, I learned what it was really about. Josh was sitting on the couch. I turned and read one to him, "I'm 32 weeks and craving gummy worms." He looked at me funny. I repeated it and asked if he knew what it was about. Like me, he had no idea.

Breast Cancer! This was being done to raise awareness about breast cancer. Except it didn't. At least not until the rest of the online world became upset.

I'm sorry, how is NOT talking about something raising awareness about something? It happens every year. Post a statement saying ,"I like it on the ....." and then list where you put your purse. List your shoe size followed by the word inches. All of this is supposedly done in the name of breast cancer awareness.

BS. (I wish I could find the courage to swear on my own blog, but since I print it out each year, I'll pass, for now.)

This is NOT about raising awareness for anything except public attention. These all start by someone sending you a private message. "Remember last year when we put where we like our purses? It was so huge that it made the news." Aha, the news. Still not about raising awareness, except to get attention to how dumb we are being.

And another part of that private message? "PS, don't tell your husbands or boyfriends. Let's leave them guessing."

Two thoughts there. Men can get breast cancer. And even if they don't, it still affects them deeply if their wife, daughter, sister or mother gets breast cancer. Seems to me they have just as much a right to be made aware of breast cancer too.

Wow, I was not going to go off like this. Getting back to the point of this post.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In preparing myself to see more of the BS circulate around facebook, I want to do something to ACTUALLY raise breast cancer awareness. I wanted to post something every day during the month about breast cancer, but I don't want to be so pressured to post something that I start posting dumb stuff or inaccurate stuff.

So this is my pledge. I want to post a few (or maybe several) posts on breast cancer awareness this month. No pressure to post TONS of stuff, just to post good stuff. I also am trying to put a giveaway into the works.

To start the month off, I'm starting with myself. It is that time of year again for me. You know, the uncomfortable visit to the doctor. Each year I put it off longer and longer. But I shouldn't. I know better. Its not about feeling uncomfortable at the doctors office. Its about doing a procedure that could detect cancer early and help save a life.

Breast cancer has touched my life. My grandma had breast cancer. She's had family members who have fought breast cancer. My mother has had a few scares where they found a suspicious lump, but luckily weren't cancerous.

I can not hide from breast cancer. I can't stick my hand in the gravel and pretend it won't affect me. This is not one of those things that only happen to other people. This is NOT something that should be turned into a stupid joke on facebook.

(Back off my box...again and back to me). To start off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I called and scheduled my appointment. I'll go be uncomfortable for a few minutes, but then hopefully will be able to have the peace of mind for the next year that I don't have any signs of breast cancer.

My challenge to you is call and schedule your yearly appointment if you haven't been in a while. Call and schedule if you haven't been this year. THIS is my cry of Breast Cancer Awareness.

Conference Breakfast

This year the weather was nice, so we went up to Rock Creek for the semi annual family breakfast. It was GORGEOUS. I only took a few pictures because I was too busy visiting with everyone.

Everyone took a hike up to the dam while. As Krista said, "its like being on top of the world!" Of course, that is when it started to rain.

The kids had a blast riding the Wiggle Racers down a small hill. I was so impressed at how well they behaved at taking turns. 

While breakfast is cooking, they warm up water for hot chocolate. I loved how all the kids lined up for their own cup. This was probably the most peaceful moment during the morning. We knew where each kid was because they were drinking their hot chocolate.

I thought Tyler had fallen asleep....

but he was just watching for ants to squish.

I always eat too much at these breakfasts. To me, this is better then Thanksgiving. Now to just wait six months until our next breakfast.

Ringlet T-shirt Scarf

I saw a tutorial for a ringlet t-shirt scarf about a year ago and decided to try it out. I bought some shirts at the DI. Then I forgot about them. Its a pretty lazy weekend, so I've been trying to get some crafts taken care of. While looking for something else, I found the t-shirts and decided to make the scarf. 

First cut the hems off and set to the side, you will need them later. Then cut the shirt into strips, about 3/4 inch wide. 

Then stretch them all out. I stretched them between my hands, but used my foot once so I could take a picture. This is where I learned that each shirt was made from a different material, the white shirt stretched out much better then the pink or brown. My OCD suggested I go look in the hubs closet for some t-shirts I could cut up, but I had already cut 50 strips, I didn't feel like starting over. 

After they are stretched, circle them around your hand. 

Cut your hem into lengths about 5 inches long. Near the end I didn't have enough, so I cut the hems off the sleeves too. Use the hem strips to tie the loops together. 

Now to just wait for the weather to turn colder so I can wear it. 

UPDATE - August Swap Group - Picture Frames

Remember THIS post where I talked about swap group and how we learned to make picture frames?

I finally finished mine today. In August, we all agreed that we would finish them and bring them to Swap Group in October to show off our final project. October Swap night is on Tuesday, so I just barely finished mine in time. 

I LOVE how mine turned out.

 I have a few more to assemble, but we need to buy some new bits for our drill. Have I ever mentioned this drill? We were driving down the road one day and found it. There was no name on the case or the drill so we took it home. It didn't have a battery charger, so I watched for one to go on sale. Several months later Amazon.com ran a sale for 60% off! So we now have this wonderful drill, for only $40. But apparently it needs some drill bits still. Then I can finish my other frames and a few other projects I have going on right now. 

I can't wait for Swap Group this coming week. I bought the supplies I needed on Thursday. It is going to be fun.