tis halloween!

and boy oh boy have I been busy! It's just quietened down now, and we only just ran out of treat parcels!
ETA NOT SURE WHY THE WHOLE PICS AREN'T SHOWING- LOOKS FINE IN PREVIEW- WILL PLAY WITH IT LATER ON

Lots of pics and not many words tonight methinks! A lot of these are just so I can look back next year for reference!

The guests...(sorry for blur- darn kids were too hyped up to stand still lol)









Nibbles...



My witchy things in the kitchen



and in the dark...wooooooo


close up of vampire blood (so proud of my scientific moment)



mega close up of blood...oil, water, food colouring and salt- love how it went all gloopy!


close up of oozing grubs- cornflour gloop, food colouring, cut the tops off q-tips



hmmmm lid kept falling through one of the pumpkins, so I wedged spider rings in to keep it on!



In serious danger of collapsing, (I gutted it too thin- but it survived the night!)


Eye of the beholder...



Great night- kids were all polite and well mannered- had some real little cuties round, tiny pumpkin toddlers galore!

sheesh

it's been a really super hectic couple of weeks with lots of horrid things happening :(

I have been armed with my big shoulders for other people to use (that is what they are there for) and they have got very damp on more than one occasion lol!

Still- things are looking better- onwards and upwards eh?



So the preparations for halloween are underway, getting there slowly but tomorrow is gonna be manic- so much still left to do- 2 pumpkins to carve, witches kitchen jars to finish, decs to go up and so on...

managed to get the treat packages made up though, same as last year (so much easier to give each child a package rather than the shy ones taking one small treat and the greedy ones taking handfuls- this way they all get the same)

The lounge....



and the finished articles...





Last theme at ATF was pets and their owners...



supplies- papermill card, a fab gsd file that I cut on my robo but I am so sorry I cannot remember who made it- if you let me know I will edit with the correct credit to the creator, lots of angel kisses and primas, twinkly gems, and some craft robo letters that I layered up to give a bit of dimension and some brads



Had a flippin nightmare today- we inherited a pond from my brother the other week, so after shifting a couple of tonnes of soil we got it in, complete with plants and fish, it all went really well. The pump and filter system was all working great and the water was clearing nicely. So on Sunday we shifted another tonne or so of soil, and moved the pump and waterfall, all looking really nice, ready for the next stage in landscaping. So this morning I went to peg out the washing, and there is obviously a major leak somewhere, no idea where, but the water has dropped to almost half- in one day! So I have now spent the morning measuring and treating tap water (after carefully saving all the pond water and rain water so we didn't have to have any tap water in there at all), leaving it to get to the right temp, and am about to go and lug it all back down to the pond again. One is not amused! GRRR! Still Mart and I have had a lovely snuggly day *wub*



Will be back with the halloween updates as soon as I can!

ETA FOR KIRSTY: Last year we made up about 70 little packages like the ones above...we ran out and made up about another 30-40 and they all went too!

I've been tagged by the delicious Katy

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).

4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

Ok here is mine...

1- I can bend my fingers backwards, and my toes too- in fact my toes bend so far I can lie them against the top of my foot (I know gross huh?!)

2- Like Katy, I am petrified of clowns *shudders*

3- I am fantastic at keeping secrets

4- I have 5 goddaughters and one godson

5- I am currently relearning how to play my fave tunes on the piano (I gave up lessons many years ago)

6- I work best under pressure (although I don't like it)

7- My kneecaps are in the wrong place (no they aren't on my shoulder lol they are shifted round at the wrong angle so my legs never look straight! There's no hope really is there lol!?)

I am gonna tag (sorrrrry!)

The mucky one

Jennie

Paula

Jo

Soo

Shirleen

Heather

And this weeks ATF layout on the theme of routine

The stamped panel is actually acetate, but because of its see-through-ness I had to pop a bit of card behind or all you would see is my green carpet!

Supplies: bazzill, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, random brads, basic grey gypsy paper, buttons (most of which were nabbed from my Nan's button tin), Rhonna Farrer stamps, sakura gel pen, teeny crystals. I also filled the 'holes' in the letters with ranger matte accents (hard to see on pic)

breast is best

Ok so I wasn't gonna upload this to my blog but ho hums now I am!




In aid of Breast cancer awareness month, the girls at it's a creative world have challenged us all to get our knockers out and scrap a page about them. Not one to miss out on a challenge, particularly when it is about a subject so close to me personally, I did it, and here is the layout








Supplies: Bazzill, crate paper, basic grey paper, anna griffin, stamps away and rhonna farrer stamps, karen foster brads, part of a necklace I ripped apart, bit of hand stitching and inkyness




I also thoroughly recommend you visit this site and if you can take part in their study into breast cancer and its causes, please do. I signed up when it was first launched, and if I remember rightly you don't have to give blood (I did and it was no big deal) but if you can all the better :) There are questionnaires to answer every so often, and hopefully they can make some headway into curing this awful disease.



Also, forgot to upload the last challenge from ATF





Supplies: bazzill, sei paper, Heidi swapp chipboard letters, Queen and co chipboard letters, American crafts thickers number, lots of random buttons and brads from my collection, and some chipboard brackets from poundland :)
Next challenge goes live tomorrow and the winner of our fab prize is being announced tonight

A public declaration of love

AMY I LOVE YOU!
For those who don't know- this is my truly spectacular bestest friend :D
If you don't have an Amy in your life, I strongly recommend you get one for yourself (cos you aint having mine!)
Today I received a most wonderful surprise. The doorbell rang, and there stood my Amy (with no children!), totally unexpected; armed with flowers and chocolates :)
Just cos!
Apparently she was thinking about how she tells everyone else how much she appreciates me, but doesn't tell me (she so does!).
So she had planned on buying me flowers on wednesday (which is girly wednesday when we always get together), but after a mammoth reading session on here today, and some tears lol, she decided it needed to be done right now.
So there you go! How lovely was that?!
It couldn't have come at a better time either, I have been noticing over the last couple of days that I think I am on a bit of a downer with my depression, lo and behold I suddenly feel so much better.
Amy you are a total angel- and I love you so much- I too, truly appreciate having you in my life, you are the only person who can decipher my blubbing fits when I ring you crying and really, nobody should be able to understand anything I say when I am in that much of a state. You always say the right thing at the right moment and make me feel better. You listen to my incessant random waffling, and somehow manage to make sense of that too!
I am a better person for having you in my life, not to mention the two precious god-daughters you have given me.
I know it is a two way street, but I need you to know how very much you are loved too. *sniff sniff* -x-



Onto other things- check out It's a Creative World , get your wabs out for the camera, and scrap them :D