Mish Mash Monday...

Happy Halloween on this Mish Mash Monday! It's such a fun time of year.

Fall...totally love the changing of the seasons and the earthy colors this time of year. I soak it all up while it lasts because soon enough all the leaves will be gone. The earth will look brown. And Winter will be here soon which means I tend to hibernate inside.
Family time......I've been enjoying a little down time just hanging out with the family, organizing some projects to hopefully complete before the end of this year...and having fun with the family. Our weekends are free again since volleyball is over so Jordan and I took an afternoon to get artsy with her oil pastels. Not my best art medium to work with but we had fun coloring sketching and coloring one of the last tomatoes from the garden.
Halloween happenings....A few weekends ago we took the girls and 4 of their friends to the scary haunted houses in a warehouse district in Kansas City. So fun to watch the girls hunch together, arm in arm as they screamed the night away. Of course I wasn't too far behind Eric, holding on to his belt loop the whole time. We also spent Saturday night at an annual Halloween party at a nearby hunting lodge that our friends rent for the night. We all went as bikers this year, complete with original t-shirts from the Sturgis bike rally this summer. There was a hayrack ride at dark and then a scavenger hunt after that. Our 2 year winning streak ended this year, much to our dismay.
Fall apples....There's nothing like apples in the Fall. My once favorite Jonagold apples have perhaps been replaced by Honey Crisp apples. Oh, they are good. Jordan will be making caramel apples tonight after basketball practice.
Birthday pie....My dad celebrated his birthday yesterday and I made him an apple pie. He devoured his piece and said it was seasoned just right with spices and the crust was flaky and perfect. Score one for the baker. He's embarking on another world adventure this month..China for 20 days. I'm so excited for him but we miss him like crazy when he's gone. Stay tuned for a post where I tell you how we surprised my mom with a special gift to use while my dad is away.
Holiday Journals.....I'm gathering up all my supplies for my own personal Holiday Journal/Daily December album. I'll be assembling basic pages ahead of time for the entire month of December. Stay tuned for photos of those basic pages soon + some ideas of how to use items from the kit if you purchased one.

Edit: I just wanted to clarify that the journals I offered in my Etsy shop are all sold out at this time. The ones from Studio Calico are are still available and if you act fast, Marcy Penner has one of her holiday albums left in her shop here.
Enabling....I've fallen victim to a little enabling it seems. I caved and purchased Ali Edwards' December Daily kit from Studio Calico. After wanting to add a few alphabets, some overlays, etc to my own kit, I took the plunge and ordered the whole darn thing.
Noel Notions.....There are still a handful of items in my Etsy shop and I'll be adding a few more items tomorrow morning.

Project Life....I counted up how many weeks I am behind. Let's just say lots. The summer months just got away from me because of our busy schedule. But I can happily say that I have each photo slot filled and I'm diligently whittling down the weeks. This weekend alone I've completed 5 weeks. My goal is to complete all the weeks for 2011 by the end of this year.

And that's it. I'll be busy getting some posts ready so stay tuned this week to the blog. :)

Mish Mash Monday.....signs of Fall

We are well into October and our Kansas temperatures are still nearing the 80's. I'm loving that the temps are staying up there, but there are definitely signs of Fall all around us.

Nothing quite says Fall like a Homecoming parade. This is Josey's Freshman class float.

And some of her besties throwing out candy. I can remember all those years ago when Eric and I road on floats down this same small town street. Next year Jordy will be on her class float. Good times.
I've been taking a few photos of our beautiful maple tree in the back yard. Rosie's keeping it company these days.
It's turned from green to bright orange to a deep red color. So beautiful to watch the trees change. In our area we don't have a lot of maples or oaks out in the country. We usually get a full display of yellows and that's about it. So to have this blazing maple is a real treat. She's suffered through many a deer antler but she's standing tall and proud.
We had a nice rain last night so this morning it was nice and cool outside. I took my flower snips and gathered up quite a few flowers that are still hanging on. From deep reds, yellows and oranges....to soft yellow, pink and purple. All this pretty little bouquet needed was an old time canning jar.
Just look at the rainbow of colors. So vibrant!
Lots of little pumpkins and gourds from the vining garden this year.
And a few beautiful leaves from the maple.
What Fall images have you captured on your camera this year? My sister went to her home in Colorado to shoot photos of the yellow Aspens....but this is what she got instead. Snow already!!

Whatever your weather, I hope you're getting outside to enjoy the seasons.

Mish Mash Monday....

Hi there. Hope your week is off to a great start. Thought I'd share a few things on this Mish Mash Monday...

Kansas countryside......we took the buggy (the Gator) and went for a little Sunday drive through some of our pastures. I love that my dad mowed big paths alongside all the pastures. The grasses and wildflowers are all turning colors. And there are an abundance of Kansas sunflowers this year.
Love that the butterflies are out in full force too. So pretty to catch on film.
This girl.....she makes my heart swell up so big. I get a lot of questions about how we're handing having a high schooler now. People immediately think teenagers are meant to get into trouble. Well, knock on wood, but Josey is a great kid and her dad and I are so proud of her.

This weekend Josey's team took 2nd place in their JV volleyball tournament. What her team mates didn't know was that Josey was asked to move up to the Varsity squad and play with them at the same time that day. Josey has worked toward this goal all season long. But she politely declined and told her coach that she wanted to finish up this last JV tournament with her team mates. So unselfish. Such a team player. So proud of her. My sweet red.
She also has been dying to see her little sis play volleyball this season. With the two reds being at different schools and having practices and games at the same time, it makes it hard for Josey to get to Jordan's games. We made a plan last week that Josey would rush out of practice, jump in the Blazer and we would scurry off to see Jordan play volleyball 20 miles away. Josey got to see her play for about 2 minutes tops. But she was happy and Jordy knew that big sis made the effort to be there. Note: We would have seen lots more of the game if that Sheriff hadn't have popped over the hill. Just sayin'.

And yes, Josey has a boyfriend now. He got up early after being beat up the night before in the football game to come see her play volleyball an hour away. We introduced ourselves formally and he sat by us at the game. He's a nice boy. Other parents are nervous of this.....they see that their girls will start dating soon too. I'm a lot more calm than I thought I would be. I guess you do your best as parents to raise your kids right and then you watch them fly. You hope they rise above and soar to great things. It's all you can do. Trust yourself that you've done the right thing. And then let them go. Teenagers are great people and we need to give them a lot more credit. Note: It's not without limits here people...Josey is not allowed to go on dates or be driven anywhere by her boyfriend. I know, what fun is that!!? A lot of the worry is eliminated right there though. :) Believe me, Eric is just dying to use his line that he's practiced for years......*Young man, I've been in prison and I'm not afraid to go back!*......whatever Eric. And no, he's not really been in prison.
Something crafty....I've been working really hard to get the Craft Department cleaned up. It's time. Way overdue. One of the things I like to do is keep all my smaller scraps of patterned paper in this little wooden tray on the left. When I have a few minutes...or perhaps need a little warm up exercise before tackling a big project.....I take the scraps and cut or punch them into little shapes.
For example, the longer strips of scrap paper get turned into little notched flags.
I use parcel tags from my Etsy shop to create scrappy little tags. These will in turn be taped to Etsy packages as little thank you tags. Very scrappy and I can make a lot in a short amount of time. And no adhesive is used. I layer scraps on top of tags and then sew it all down with my sewing machine. Then a button goes on top.

Check out this amazingly fun post by Tara Anderson over at Crate Paper. She uses her scraps in a different way by creating the cutest little garlands. I am so inspired by Tara's work.
Once I get over looking at the cute tags all lined up, they get stacked onto one of my many vintage receipt spikes. They're perfect for holding my tags that go on Etsy packages. I just pluck one off and tape it to a package as a thank you. Fun stuff!
Okayyyy, I'm outta here for now. After sitting on hard bleachers for 9 hours at Josey's volleyball tournament this weekend, my hip/back are outta whack.

Coming tomorrow....another Project Life update. I'm on a roll!

Back in stock soon.....more of the fun bags that sold out so quickly. Look for them this week in the shop.

Coming soon for holiday crafting.....Noel Notions. Fun holiday embellishments & notions to add to your cards, pages and gift wrap.