Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

While my Mom was here we went to a pumpkin patch and got pumpkins, then carved them the next day.

They had some really unique pumpkins!

Gillian almost went for this one but changed her mind.

Due to the magic of Photoshop, I got all of us in one photo:



Saturday morning we carved the pumpkins. I think Grandma did the majority of the work.





We finished them up after we dropped off Grandma at the airport, so at least the kids had a little something to look forward to. They did a great job!

And the late-evening shot:


The sunset was pretty amazing that night, too:




We had an eventful evening of Trick-or-Treating at the Night Out on Crime on Main Street tonight (Halloween) and the kids came home with quite a haul of candy!

Here are the kids before we left:

Ryan didn't want to wear his mask so at the last minute we used some of Gillian's face paint and made an attempt to add Optimus Prime type markings to his face. [Look at that beautiful, freshly-mown lawn!]

Here's Gillian's haul, just after she dumped out her bucket. (It promptly got spread out all over!)

And Ryan, showing off his candy:

Halloween was very successful all the way around this year. Greg stayed home to greet any trick or treaters, and when the kids rang the bell after we got home he said that our own kids were the only trick or treaters all night!

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The lastest home improvement project has been replacing the back door, and it's made a HUGE difference.

Here's the door as it is now:

Last weekend Greg mudded it in and it is *fabulous.* We need to repaint the header (and the rest of the exterior) but that's going to take a lot of work and replacing of wood, so that's probably not going to happen until at least spring.

Here's the old door:



And here's the rotted section:

While the wood was pretty, it was warped at the top and let in a ton of air, not to mention the rotting sections of wood! I also really, really didn't like the divided light aspect of it. It visually closed off that area. I LOVE the new door and how open it makes the room feel.

I also don't notice the huge temperature difference between that room and the rest of the house any more. It's been such a wonderful improvement in so many ways!


I hope all of you are having a great weekend, too!

Non-Quilt Sewing

I've been frantically working on about a million different projects, but I wanted to post this to show BeLinda:



It was a really fun project! The dress should fit an 18" American Girl doll. (It had *better* fit! LOL!)

Family Trek to the Fair

As promised, here's the post about the family trip to the fair.

We ended up going on Saturday, October 10. It was fairly cold and we finally got our act together and got to the park and ride shuttle around 11:30. Here we are on the bus:




One of the first things we saw was an area for fishing, and the kids really wanted to try. Because the water was so cold the fish were really sluggish, so they didn't catch anything, but they had a good time trying.

After fishing, the kids were dying to ride one of the rides, and they chose this one:

I think they really enjoyed it (despite Ryan's serious face).

After that we wandered toward the kids' building and came across this neat display in the Made in Oklahoma building:

I took three pictures and pasted them together to make sure I got as much detail as I could. We think our pecans are the Squirrels' Delight ones.

In one of the animal buildings we came across a woman holing a bunny and I couldn't resist taking a picture:



The kids rode two more rides on the way out. One was a climbing thing:


And the other was a roller-coaster-type ride. Gillian loved every second of it, but Ryan was kind of touch and go judging from his expression. At the end he said he really like it and would definitely ride it again.



All in all it was a very pleasant time. There were tons of people coming in as we were leaving so we timed it just right!

Tulsa State Fair wrap-up post

I've been a bit scattered lately, but I finally got the pictures ready for this post.

My friend Calista and I went to the fair on Monday, October 5, just the two of us (NO KIDS!) and had a great time looking at all of the Creative Arts stuff. We spent about an hour and a half just looking. It was great!

We found the kids' stuff first.

Gillian's Lego kit entry:


Gillian's decorated T-shirt entry:


Gillian's weaving:

Ryan's drawing:


Gillian's drawing:


Ryan's Christmas ornament:


Then we wandered over to the Creative Arts exhibit area and found my stuff (and Calista's, but she's got pictures elsewhere).

My quilt (which will be going to Karen for her birthday, which was in January):


My socks (at the top):

The Sweepstakes winner for knitting (Rori's Hey Teach sweater is the blue one on the right):


My broomstick-lace-ish crocheted scarf, next to the first place winner (not sure why that one got first, but it's not up to me LOL):

My crocheted hot pad, which was in the Crocheted Article, under 24" division:

And my Hyrna Herborgar shawl, center bottom:

Last but not least, here's my rubber stamp entry, in the scrapbook page category:


Here's a view of the glass cases:

Everything still smells like fair food (fried), but at least they're secured in the cases.

These were some really neat baskets that I loved:


And finally, Calista and me:

I'll post pics of the family excursion to the fair a little bit later!

I bought myself a present

My birthday is coming up, but I couldn't pass up this when I found it on the clearance shelf at WalMart for $15:


I used one at scrapbooking night a few weeks ago and I was hooked! I know, they've been around for at least two years, but I'm tragically unhip.

Speaking of birthdays, Greg's birthday was last week and all he really wanted (besides his two front teeth, hahahaha Greg) was a steak dinner.

Since I don't work the grill, he had to cook his own dinner.

They were SO good! Gillian wanted a sausage, but both kids finally tried the steak and decided that it was really, really good.


The next post will be about the fair and booties. (NO, I'm *not* pregnant, these are for some of my sister's friends.)

Fair opened this evening

I'm knee-deep in quilts to be done, but for those who are wondering how I did at the fair, I have a couple of results thanks to Kim, who was there tonight.

My socks got first place, and Calista's got second. Yay!

My crocheted scarf got a second place.

My shawl got nothing, which was a bit of a surprise, so I'm eager to see what got ribbons! I'm sure my friend Denise's gorgeous silk Aeolian shawl got sweepstakes.

I still don't know how the kids did, or how well my crocheted trivet, quilt, and rubber stamped scrapbook pages did, but I suspect they didn't get anything.

I'm eager to go see everything!