October Monthly Giveaway

Ok, so I am jumping the gun here a little, since it is about 11:30 on Sept. 30, but I am all hyped up on sugar from eating cupcakes and m&ms at work. And yes that does just about sum up my job, sit around eating sugar. I worked a wedding tonight and they had cupcakes instead of a wedding cake - genius huh? especially since I didn't have to cut a big ol wedding cake but I digress.
This month I am deviating from the hat giveaway to showcase this cute trick or treat bag. The bag is about 10"x12"x4" and is fully lined with scary eye fabric. There is a felt bat sewn on and black rick rack around the top. What could be more fun? oh yea filling it with candy!

So to enter to win, please leave a comment, maybe let me know if you think this bag is gender neutral or not? since I tried to make it so. I believe that I have changed the setting so that anyone can leave a comment and you don't have to be registered. I will leave it up for 2 weeks and then pick a random winner from the comments using the random generator thingy. I will post the winner here on October 15th and then I will mail it out to you, just in time for Halloween. So enjoy, share and comment. To check out other cute bags click away here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6188913

Dear PTA,

Dear PTA,

I regret to inform you that I think this year's fundraiser will not be a success. In our home we are on a diet. A diet? you say in an incredulous voice. Yes, unfortunately it has come to our attention that we do not need tubs of frozen cookie dough. With the upcoming holidays approaching (or encroaching) we are in panic mode as to our waistlines, up coming ski season and the guaranteed onslaught of holiday goodies. So you see we can not be partaking of the goodies. Also 3 out of the 4 grandparents in our family has diabetes. The one great grandma who lives close and is always good for a fundraiser, also has diabetes. The remaining grandparent has high cholesterol and can not partake in the sinful goodness either. Everyone who is left in our family already has a slew of children of their own and will not support yet another children's fundraiser.

Furthermore, I feel that you are unaware of some statistics in the USA today so to help you out I thought I might share with you; the fact that over 60% of Americans are overweight and 30% are obese. And don't even get me started on Children's obesity rates. Maybe though you are aware of these statistics and that is what spurred this particular fundraiser.

Thank you for listening to my concerns

Laura Ford

P.s. I will take one double chocolate chip, one snicker doodle and two brownie mixes.

What not to Crochet

I found this website one day http://whatnottocrochet.wordpress.com/ I am not sure what I was looking for but somehow I stumbled on this little gem, and I laughed, and then I laughed some more. Okay maybe this site is not so funny to those who don't crochet, but the author is still hilarious. She searches the web and the world all over to find the most hideous and offensive crochet designs, and my there are a lot. Little bit of warning; she does seem to find a lot of crochet bikinis and lingerie. Little one's eyes should be averted.

I had to add the following picture from the site because I recently came into some of my grandmother's old sewing things, and I received this pattern! Yep. I got a few crochet magazines from the 70's and I had to keep them - how could I not, they are so cool - I am sure I will post on them later, maybe when I crochet Pete a bowler hat. Any who, it is the same picture, same design, can you imagine wearing that?

Welcome Fall (a few days late I know!)

So this is how I celebrate Fall - by picking my orange pumpkins! Yea, I know my front walk here is looking a little shabby, the heat has killed a lot of flowers, but the plants are still alive so I just can't bear to winterize my pots yet.

I was going to leave the pumpkins for a while, but the two biggest started getting some white crud on the outside, not sure what that is about, so I picked them quick. The one on the left; we call him lumpy. I thought there would be no way that I would get enough pumpkins from my vine since I usually buy at least 10 every year, but... I have like 4-5 more green ones on the vine, not to mention the 4-6 pumpkins that are growing in the neighbor's yard. That's right, my vine is stretched out four ways like 12 feet in each direction, right through the fence into 3 neighbors yards and there are big fat pumpkins taunting me from their side of the fence. Curses! Actually I told them they could keep whatever grows in their yard, my treat, uh huh Happy Halloween.

And the Winner is....

My friend turned me on to this website that generates a random number for you. Granted her giveaways get a lot more attention and that would be hard to put all those names in a hat, but I thought that I would give it a try. http://www.random.org/

I assigned each entrant a number based on the order they left a comment and the random winner was.... Number 2! Or Nichole - So congrats and send me an email with your address and the size you would like. Lauraford21@hotmail.com

Come back next month on Oct. 1 since I will be giving away a sweet trick or treat bag.

Pink, Pink Girly Baby Shower

I helped put on a baby shower for my Sister in Law who is having a girl after having two boys. She wanted it pink, pink, pink and very girly!

I don't know if it is fortunate or not for my Sister in laws that I am such a freak about parties (since I do do it as my day job) I sort of jumped right in and started taking over. We held the shower in another Sister in Laws newly finished basement, which was gorgeous, also the walls were blank, perfect for my decor. I made this little felt banner with the baby's name on it - Sophie Paige, thankfully this matched the baby's room colors perfectly so she can take it home and put it up in the nursery. This was really easy to make and I think it turned out super cute, gave me other ideas....

Here is where my planning and penchant for procrastinating kind of hurts me, at the last minute I had my husband grab some Christmas lights out of our storage and I didn't realize that only the top one was white and the rest were red! Oh well, so here is the (ghetto fab) entrance. I guess it could have been worse, like green.

And the buffet! Now, nothing is more girly and soft than a carousel horse! My husband might have thought I was crazy lugging this thing over but I feel like it really adds a sweet touch. And in case you are wondering, some of these things were borrowed from my job, I do not have a carousel horse on hand.

I made tags for the buffet, we had a little bit of a pot luck going on, but everything tasted so good! I used baby food jars (washed) for votives and put little pink tea lights in them.

Here is the cupcake tower! Very cute if I say so myself. I put different pink ribbons around the edges and then I made little sticks to go in them. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (dyed light pink of course!) from scratch which I had never done before, but I think they turned out delicious! I was wanting to do a cupcake tower, because what is more girly, I just couldn't decide on the tower. I was really torn between this Wilton one and the metal one from Costco. I went with this one for the versatility, but now I really want the other one too! I am horrible about that kind of stuff!

For beverages I did a cucumber water, and Watermelon Italian Creme Sodas, which I think was a big hit.

For games I got some good ideas from a co-worker and made up this animal embryo guessing game. Might seem a little gross, but I thought it fit my animal loving sister in law. Also I made up a Celebrity Baby game, where I put celebrity heads on babies bodies. It was sort of easy, but looked rather funny. Also we played Pregnancy Mad Libs and few other games. I tried to steer away from the normal games that had been over done, but some of them might have been too hard. Sorry.

And here is a photo of my three pregnant Sister in Laws. Yes you heard right 3!! I might have a few more posts in the future on baby showers.

Baby Shower Present

My Sister in Law's Baby Shower is this weekend (more posts about that will be sure to follow) and she is having, of course from the dress, a girl after two boys and she can't wait to go pink girly crazy! I made this little outfit for her present (and I think I am safe, I don't think she reads my blog.) I think it turned out quite cute and very girly and pink. I loved how the purple dress turned out for my niece, so I replicated the design and added pants.

My Sister n' Law has expressed to me how much she loves the idea of ruffly pants under a dress, so I whipped up these little matching pants. Hope she likes it! This is something I wouldn't normally do, not my style, but I think it will really turn out cute all together, if the kid doesn't drown in fabric first.

And of course since it is crazy me (conversation I had with my husband last night about this label) I had to make a little matching hat to go with it. I am sure she will look adorable in pictures with this whole getup. ( She will look adorable in person too, we just have a fabulous photographer in our family and I can instantly picture this ensemble photographed.)

Brownies at the State Fair

It's official! I am blogging instead of doing the things I need to be doing right now.... Sigh. Anywho last Saturday we took our Brownie Troop, minus a few girls to the State Fair. In my mind the entire time we are driving there and walking around I am saying over and over "I am so crazy!" We went on a Saturday night! But at least we saved ourselves some headache, we told the girls not to bring any money and not to expect to go on any rides.

So what else is there at the State fair if you don't go on rides and buy a funnel cake (mmm)? Well what's left is all the educational stuff that helps them earn badges. They went on a scavenger hunt in the craft building.

Saw the Biggest Pumpkins ever (really mine are puny in comparison).

And the biggest Sunflowers ever!

Then there were animals, lots of stinky animals - pigs were the worst smelling in case you were wondering. One goat tried to eat one of the girl's hair. Very exciting. Plus there was a cute little farm land where you could pretend to milk a cow and pretend to harvest veggies. Of course we couldn't leave without getting their photos in the wood cutouts. As we were leaving all the girls were talking about how much fun they had, and that makes it all worth while.

Martha Stewart - All the things I didn't know I needed

So here is the back story; Last night for my work (I work for a catering company) Macy's hired us to serve appetizers at every Macy's to kick off their Come Together Campaign, which is a great thing all unto itself. They stationed us right across from the Martha Stewart Kitchen collection. Let me tell you, nobody goes to Macy's on a Tuesday night in the rain. So yea, lots of time to look at everything Martha had to offer. Some made me shake my head, but some were genius. I couldn't list them all, but I definitely have a few ideas for Christmas.

First of all aren't these bowls gorgeous, I don't really need mixing bowls, but I love the colors, so cheerful!

This is a can strainer. And I, like a sucker, all this time have been using the lid of the can to strain. Wow where have I been?

This one made me giggle, sorry so immature, it is called a Citrus Reamer. Yes that is the name, note to the Martha staff, new name please! Besides I don't know when you have a need to ream citrus.

This Pizza cutter? - Genius to me, who knows maybe it doesn't work as easily as it would seem, but nice idea. This wonder is the Salad Chiller, to keep your salad cool while at work. There is a ring of frozen liquidy stuff in the lid, you freeze it then snap it in, then there is a little compartment in the lid for your dressing - so your salad doesn't get soggy! Wow, if I was a working girl I would need this.

I can't believe I don't have this! Especially since my daughter will only eat like three fruits and apples being one of them. Hello Christmas list!

The come together campaign was giving out 10$ off coupons with their info. 10$ off your purchase of 10$ or more. Fabulousness - this chopper came home with me for only 5$!

Just what I have been needing for peppers and onions, little things that I hate tediously chopping. - I didn't post all the ridiculous things I found, like a cake tester, does anyone need a metal tester in case you have a toothpick emergency? And okay the salad chiller is a little silly, and did I mention that her salad spinner has a brake on it?

Halloween Costumes

This is what my daughter wants to be for Halloween - no not the girl, that's right Kermit! I don't know, but I think it is a little off, but then again that is my daughter - no she is not a huge fan of the Muppets, she has seen them and likes them, but she just thinks Kermit is cool. She mentioned her idea a few months ago and usually every year she goes through like 5 different ideas but no this year she wants to be Kermit. So I need to start brainstorming ideas and, the added touch, I think my niece will be Miss Piggy. I think with the two of them together it will be adorable. - My daughter wants to be the boy, but whatever. This task might actually be easier then some of her costumes in the past.

Labor Day Weekend - Daniel Summit

Labor Day is indeed the day that we all sigh a breath of relief that we still have a job, but also for the Fords, it means four wheeling! Pete gave me a combined Valentines and Anniversary Present to go to Daniel Summit for the long Weekend. And yes those are both kid free occasions, but we brought along the kiddo, since she loves it up there too. For those who don't know Daniel Summit is a Lodge/Resort (that is kind of stretching it) up in Heber (or past Heber) near the Strawberry Reservoir. After all of our camping and "roughing it" it was quite a luxury to stay in a clean room, with a giant tub and a fire place.

And of course the four wheeling trails are tremendous up there. We have the luxury of riding out straight from the parking lot, and then the trails just go on and on. Fun would be an understatement. We did have a cool down this weekend so we had beautiful weather. One day it rained a bunch, but we still went out, Pete was in Heaven, but I was a little cold.

One day we went out on the Daniel Summit Loop, which took us about 3 hours of riding - how many miles this converts to, I have no idea, Pete thought maybe 45 I think it was closer to 30 - so maybe somewhere around there. We went so high that we drove right past the radio tower. We could see 3 lakes when were at the very top, and we were literally on the highest peak, it was truly amazing!

We came into this grove of aspens right when the sun was setting. These pics do not do it justice, the light was coming right through the trunks,

and Pete said it felt just like Halloween should. This little spot was by far the best part of the ride!

Since we got so high up we saw so much wildlife; hawks, a fox, deer, elk with full horn set, a moose, cows, sheep and of course chipmunks. Our path was crossed many times by herds, the one thing we didn't see though, was other people! On the one hand that is a great trip, but also a little anxiety inducing. We ran across a hunter and we had to stop and chat, mostly for our own sanity and to gauge how far away we were from the lodge.

I won't lie there was some relief when we saw that first tent site, and knew we were entering civilization again, or the civilization of the Mountain wilderness, sounds kind of like an oxymoron, huh

This is Cadence and Pete drenched in the rain, after this trip Cadence could not stop talking about getting her own license and four wheeler, apparently she is not counting the little 50 one Santa brought her.

This is just creepy. We crested the mountain and yes there was a little silver trailer. Now we came across some hunting ones lower down, but mind you we didn't see any people for at least an hour or so when we came across this one, really out in nowhere'sville. Creepy.

We also brought up a bunch of games, since we like doing this as a family. It was very nice and extravagant to lay about and play games. We tried teaching Cadence Cribbage, and her attention did not hold for Settler's of Cattan but we played other games as well (all of which Pete won I might add). Here is Pete and Cadence embroiled in a hot game of Clue.

And of course there was the swimming. Maybe Cadence's favorite. I have to say though after riding in the rain one day and riding for three hours another, the hot tub sure was a favorite.

We ate in the Lodge Restaurant a couple of times, and I don't know if it was hunger or the mountain air, but I have to say the food was fantastic. I never thought I would love chicken fried steak so much. I can not make this at home though! Vacations are meant to be a splurge and this one was we had a blast.

This weekend also correlated with Swiss Days in Midway - about 30 minutes away from where we were staying. We took the shuttle in to the fair, where there was authentic Swiss food for lunch, the mother of all craft fairs and the cutest small town parade ever. You can tell by this Seuss style horn right? Awesome!

We ran into the Dahls while we were there and invited ourselves to watch the parade with them (thanks Shaun for giving me your chair).

Ezra's face says it all. The kids were so cute and happy, especially since every person that went by threw candy at the kids. There were Horses and marching bands and Bears (costumed) riding scooters. The picture below is one of my favorites though, this little cage drove by full of goats, and two kids. Really Hansel and Gretel escaped the witch, to be caged with goats?

Overall it was a great weekend and I would love to spend every Labor day Weekend this way, relaxing, playing and just having a stress less fun family time.

Portabello Pixie Dress Patern

I have been having way to much fun with this dress pattern! I have been making different variations of the dress using up all the scraps from previous projects, so they are for little babies. I am loving them though, and loving the idea of using up scraps, since I have baskets of them!

My husband watched me working on this orange dream - and he asked "who is that for?" I replied with "I dunno" - he shook his head and walked away. Hey at least I am not spending money on more fabric (although I am doing that anyways). I love love love the blue Alexander Henry fabric with the pink and orange butterflies, so sad that I have none left, but what a statement this dress makes.

This cute one is a present for my niece for her first birthday. My sister in Law loves purple - so that inspired these fabric choices. I made her a lavender beanie with a turquoise flower to match. I am sure she will be adorable in this ensemble.

The other two dresses can be bought here - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6188913