A costume for baby

I finished another tutu! This one is for part of a costume for my new little cousin. It's bigger than it needs to be but I think it will work. They can remove a few knots of the tulle and then cut the ribbon to fit once it's tyed onto her. Then they can trim the whole skirt to fit. She is going to be the cutest Tinkerbell out there!

And it's that time again

It's time to start getting ready for Halloween!!! It's my favorite holiday mainly because I get to get my large collection of Frankensteins out of the attic and decorate our living room and kitchen. That's right I have enough creepy decor to extend into multiple rooms of my house.

Frankenstein is my favorite character to use while decorating. I don't know if it's that frightful green complexion or the resemblance to my husband in body frame but there is something about that tall green man I love.

This year is going to be an even greater Halloween because my good friend and I are hosting a Halloweenie Roast. We are having our very first adult costume party and Mark and I have the best costumes ever!

Mark and I are going as Herman and Lily Munster. We spent all day today gathering parts to Mark's costume. We found him a head piece that is the top of a Frankenstein head and a brown blazer. We found the perfect blazer at our local Goodwill. Mark was hesitant about going to a used store to find the jacket (he can be even more neurotic than I am at times) But it's a good thing we went because this jacket is perfect for $5. Of course we bought it and then he promptly drove straight to our dry cleaners, asking me on the way if I thought they would 'run it through twice.'

So now we have to find all shoes that we can screw blocks of wood into to make Mark even bigger than what he is now. Mark is 6'4 and I'm 5'3 so we feel we are the perfect couple to portray Herman and Lily.

Mark is pretty much set for the party. I know some may wonder how I talked Mark into gluing a faux-front to his forehead and painting his skin green but Mark and I are very competitive and when he sets his mind to something he goes all out. So Mark wants to make sure he has the best costume of everyone at the party and that he looks accurate. And that's how I ALMOST have him talked into painting his fingernails to go along with the theme!!!

So now I'm really excited about Oct. 31. I'm going to a costume party AND I'm going to have a real, live Frankenstein! It's going to be a good night.

My new toy

I brought my Dad's old Pentax K1000 home with me tonight. I'm super excited. I'm so excited I made Mark rush me to Wal-Mart to get batteries for it at 10 p.m. And much to his surprise they had the exact battery we needed! I haven't used a 'real' camera since my senior year in high school for a graphic arts class. I totally feel in love with it then and have no idea why I waited this long to ask my dad to use his. For some reason I thought the flash was broken on this old camera but he said the base is only cracked and he thinks it will be fine.

I've been saving up for a Canon rebel and I am still no where near ready to buy it so this 35 mm will be perfect practice for me while I wait for my fancy digital. Mark and I have been looking for a hobby that we can both get into together and I think we might have found it. All our other hobbies (quilting, scrapbooking on my part; video games on his part) just don't appeal to each other. We have been talking about taking up photography together for a few years now and I'm ready to make the jump into 'new hobby world' with him.

I guess we'll see how well the old Pentax works tomorrow. Mark has a half day and work and I'm off the whole day so we are going to go to the park and use a roll of film and see if this old thing is still in working order.

Sweet little furbaby

I thought I would talk about Mack. Over the course of time he has turned from something I wanted to return to the pound to someone I can't wait to snuggle with at night. But some days I love him and some days I still want to make him sit on the patio.

Mark and I adopted Mack the summer before we got married. We were buying a house and decided we needed a dog to go into said house. Well we went to the shelter and picked out this little, jumping, hairy thing. (I wish I had a picture of him. He looked HORRIBLE. He was so matted he had hair falling off of him. He had to be shaved and start over once we got him home.)

So after getting Mack from the shelter of course the lady we were buying the house from backed out on our deal. This left us without a house and Mack homeless again. At this time in our life, Mark worked at the car place and didn't get home until 4:30 a.m. I brought Mack home with me to my mom and dad's house. Upon meeting my family and my mom and dad's wonderful Shiz tu, Mack tried to pee on him. Yes that's right. Mack hiked his leg on my beloved little Shiz tu that I helped raise and train. He did this not just one time but EVERY time he came near our beloved Max.

Mack was banished to the garage for the night.

After crying all night long (on both mine an Mack's part) I told Mark we had to find somewhere for him to live. So Mark rented our lovely (not) duplex that we live in now and took Mack with him.

Our first cue that something was amiss should have been when we were trying to get Mack to come tous, we found him crouched under our kitchen table snarling at us. We just thought he was adjusting to the situation. NOPE.

Pretty soon Mack had bitten most of our friends and a few relatives. I invested in a Beware of Dog sign to hang in our living room. We had a monster on our hands here. And we also realized our dog had been mistreated in his past life before us. Not only would he bite at the least notice, he was so protective Mark couldn't even touch me when I was laying on the floor or throwing up in the toilet as was the case when our duplex became filled with carbon monoxide (that's definitely another post!) Mack literally jumped on top of me and growled and snarled at Mark while I was hunched over the toliet. He has also climbed on my back while I was doing push ups on my exercise ball and Mark got a little too close. The things someone can do to a little animal just infuriates me.

The worse part was this little monster who I had to knock across the living room because he was ravaging my friend's arm would then punish himself by growling all the way to his kennel where he would stay for a while. He is always so remorseful after being bad.

It's been 3 years now since we adopted Mack. I will admit he is 20 times better than he was when we brought him into our lives. Mark can now come near me. And we can have people over again. Now he will give a warning growl before he clamps down on your hand, arm or foot. But he will also climb in your lap and try to hug you when you sit on our couch. That's right even though Mack has bitten ALL of our friends, he also loves those same friends with all his heart. Mack just wants to be your friend but he DOESN'T want you to touch the person you are sitting next to!

Now if we could just stop him from Hungry Hungry Hippoing out from under our bed with the intent of snatching our toes off our feet when he's mad.

Christmas time

I project for Fall is quilting my Christmas quilt. I'm so excited to get started on this project. I bought my backing fabric last weekend and the batting. I have have 5 yards of Christmas tree fabric to cut in half and sew together then I get to pin the sandwich together and it's time to quilt. The actual quilting is my favorite part and I'm ready to begin that just in time for Fall TV. So each night when I get off work you'll find me on the couch quilting and watching tons of random TV. YAY for Fall!

Keeping mouth shut

A recurring fight in the our house would be over laundry. I wash, dry and put away almost every load. Every now and then Mark will wash and dry his work clothes or a load of towels. He NEVER puts these away. They wait in the dryer, on top of the dryer or in a basket until I come along and find their proper spot. He will NOT touch my clothing. He MAY put them in the dryer but he will definitely never put them away. 

So imagine my surprise last night when I came home from work and found Mark had cleaned the house, including putting ALL of my clothing away. Upon further inspection I found that he didn't really put anything where it belonged. There are shorts in the shirt drawer, Pj in the shirt drawer, shirts in the Pj drawer and socks in the completely wrong place. My normal nit-picky self would loudly proclaim 'Hey you didn't put ANYTHING where it belongs' but luckily something came over me and I thanked him for putting all the clothes away and  then reordered my drawers when he went to work today. 

Am I really learning to Keep My Big Mouth Shut? Possibly but probably not I figure it was a fluke. :)

Day two or Wanna know a secret

Today was the second day of 30 Day Shred. It was much worse than day one because my arms were burning when I woke up from day one's work out. I could barely do a single push up today. It was really killer. And on a related note, I found one of my favorite pairs on jeans in the back of my closet. I really wanted to wear then today so upon finding that they were really uncomfortable when they were buttoned, I unbuttoned them and felt immediate relief. I'm now at work with the top button unbuttoned and very happy about the decision I made. Thank goodness for long tops!