Happy Halloween!

Love,

Princess Chloe Jo

Cross-Body Bag

Chloe Jo has all but outgrown the stroller. We are keeping it around just in case for now, but I don't plan on taking it to the zoo or to the mall any more. Lately I've ended up pushing dolls around or just the empty stroller.

One thing that I don't particularly like about this is that I have to carry my purse all of the time. My purse is heavy. I never used to carry a ton of stuff, but that has changed since having a little one. I have been looking for a cross body bag for a while to use on zoo trips and other times when I just need a few things. I haven't been able to find what I am looking for so I went on a search for a pattern. I had a specific idea in my mind and I wanted to use things I had on hand. Again I struck out.

Last night, I finally got out my trusty graph paper and made myself a pattern. I went to work and a few hours later I had an adorable cross-body bag perfect for those zoo trips!

The pink polka dot fabric is a pocket. The back of the purse does not have the pocket.

It is fully lined with a divider. I had a black zipper on hand so I used that for the closure.

I'm looking forward to using it the next time we go to the zoo!

Do you think this is something I should offer in my store?

Pumpkin Carving

One evening last week we brought 2 of our pumpkins in from the flower bed to decorate and carve for Halloween. Chloe Jo was so excited about this! We were going to eat supper first, but she wasn't having any of that (and then she ended up getting hungry and throwing a fit and then sent to her room...sigh...the joys of having a 3 year old).

We have carved pumpkins every year for the past several years, but it is so much more fun with a little one to assist (except for the throwing a fit part).

We did the tall pumpkin first. I bought that face set last year and kept it. Chloe Jo likes it because she doesn't have to get slimy and gross to do it.

I first drew the face on. CJ decided she wanted a traditional pumpkin face. I have a book with images from Monster's, Inc. but our pumpkin wasn't quite big enough for them. I'll have to remember to get extra large pumpkins next year.

Chloe Jo was not impressed when she saw what was inside of the pumpkin. She was even more unimpressed when I acted like I was going to eat it.

CJ and her non-messy pumpkin.

Hold the phone, ya'll! The neat-freak is getting in there...but only with the shovel. HA!

 Daddy helped carve the face!

She is so proud of her pumpkins! This was taken after she had been sent to her room to calm down. :-)

And here they are on our porch just waiting for the trick-or-treaters!

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-19-94 and 11-20-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-19-94

We went sight seeing today. We saw a statue of a guy hailing a taxi while two other guys were carrying a fridgerater. We saw the second biggest square in the world too. It had a statue of Lenin on one end. He was standing so that it looked like he wanted to shake your hand. We told Bogdon to get up there and shake it. He said okay. We told him no though. At dinner we were changing peoples names around and Bogdons is Nodgob. Mom accidently called him Dogbon. It sounded like dog bone. It was really funny.

11-20-94

Today we went to the Church in Harcoff. It was really different. Bogdon (Dogbon) was dads transulater. When they were taking the collection they passed around a pink grocerie-bag instead of a basket or plate. It was really unusual. We went to see a new apartment they bought before we left to ride the train back to Keiv. It was really nice. They are going to tile the walls in the kitchen. It used to be a dentist office and it had a pair of false teeth on a table. We boarded the train and we stayed up and played cards until we wanted to go to bed.

SUYL: Halloween Costumes

Today, I am linking up with Kelly for Show Us Your Life Friday.

This weeks theme is Halloween Costumes.

I think Halloween may be my favorite holiday. I have always loved handing out candy to the little princesses and ghouls and now it is even more fun with a little one of my own to take trick-or-treating! I take Chloe Jo to a preschool class on Friday mornings and today she was so excited to wear her costume! I didn't get any pictures today because we were running late, but I'll be sure to do another post about the Halloween festivities later on.

Here are her costumes from past years:

In 2009 we were given a pumpkin costume. She was the sweetest little pumpkin evaaaaaaah!

In 2010, we took Raggedy Ann trick-or-treating...and, honestly, this was the best costume and we will probably never do better!

Last year, Little Red Riding Hood made an appearance.

This year, Chloe Jo chose what she wanted to be (tear...gone are the years where I got to choose her costume) and she chose a princess. I knooooooowwww...so cliche. Since that is what she wanted to be, I decided to try my hand at sewing her costume and we are both very happy with the results! This is a picture from when I was making sure everything fit. I did end up take up the skirt a little so it wouldn't drag on the floor. Today she got to wear sparkle makeup and I did her hair up pretty. She also decided she didn't want to wear the cloak so it was just an arm accessory for me. HA!

If you are stopping by from Kelly's Korner, please be sure to check out and "like" my store!

My Recipe Box: Parmesan Chicken Nuggets

Chloe Jo doesn't normally like chicken nuggets. I knooooowwwww...she is soooo weird....

Even though I knew this I decided to make chicken nuggets one evening for dinner last week.

And she actually tried them!!!!

Woo hoo for small victories!

And she loved them!

And she asked for seconds!

And thirds!

Um, success!

So I thought I would share how I made them.

Chicken Nuggets

1 pkg of chicken tenders, cut into small pieces

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

milk

egg

Mix the Italian bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix milk and egg. Dip chicken in milk/egg mixture and then in the bread crumb/parmesan cheese mixture. You can double dip them if you like a thicker breading. Lay the chicken out on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, flip chicken and bake for another 10 minutes.

Kiev, Ukraine journal - 11-17-94 and 11-18-94

*Disclaimer: Please remember that I wrote these when I was 12! I could be a snarky brat! I also am typing these journals exactly as I wrote them, bad spelling and all, except I have abbreviated names to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent.

11-17-94

Today we were getting ready to go on a three-day trip to Harcoff. We left around 10:30 at night. It took about and hour to get out of Kiev. Kiev is real pretty as you are going out of it. We took along a transulater named Bogdon. My family and I were in one cabin and Bogdon was in another. The cabin was really small. Four beds, bunks. It was sort of uncomfortable. The beds were so narrow Mich woke me up a mission times so I wouldn't fall off. It was very annoying.

11-18-94

I woke up in the train. It was being very bumpy at the time. We arrived in harcoff around 11:00 A.M. on Friday. We ate pop-tarts with Bogdon. It was his first pop tart, too. He said they were really good. We met Mr. PB when we came off the train. He's just as teasy as ever. He was sick (He had a bad cough). We went to the ladys apartment were we were going to stay. Her name was Luba. She came to feed us and left the rest of the time. Kind off weird don't you think. Well thats all for now.

*Harcoff = Kharkiv

The Thunder Rolls!

Tonight Russ, Chloe Jo and I got to go to a pre-season Oklahoma City Thunder basketball game! Some friends had several extra tickets and gave us 3! It was so much fun!

The Thunder played the Phoenix Suns at the BOK Center in Tulsa. I've never been (or can't remember going...I went to a hockey game in Tulsa when I was in college but I can't remember where it was at) to the BOK Center and was kind of amazed at how big it is! The announcer said there were 18,000 people there!

We loved yelling and cheering for our team!

It was a sea of blue in that stadium. I kind of wanted to cheer for the Suns a little just for moral support. NO ONE was there for them.

We also enjoyed all of the fun time-out and half-time fun. This is the Thunder mascot being a bowling ball!

I talked to Chloe Jo a lot today about how loud it was going to be and how we weren't going to be scared. She was very unhappy for about 5 seconds, just enough to say "it's too youd!" Then she realized everyone was clapping and cheering and she thought that looked like fun after all. At the end of the night she had had a great time!

I thought this picture turned out so cute!

And this one not so much. And it was the 3rd try.

The best part of the night was that The Thunder won!

I hope your Friday evening was fantastic! Have a great rest of the weekend, Peeps!

Pottery

I mentioned in a precious post that Chloe Jo and I went with some friends to paint pottery on Monday. We had so much fun! Chloe Jo loved picking out the pottery that she painted and the paint colors. I know that I will be taking her back at some point!

Chloe Jo chose to paint this plate. I actually bought it the last time I was there and they held it for me. I told her she could pick something else, but she wanted this tiny plate. Silly girl!

 As Russ said, "it is one of a kind." I think it's adorable!

I chose a sugar bowl and I am so happy with the way it turned out! I couldn't be more thrilled. It matches my craft room perfectly!

This is the platter I did a few weeks ago when a couple friends and I did girls night.

I so love this activity and I am looking forward to going again!

3 1/2

I still can't hardly believe Chloe Jo turned 3 1/2 on the 10th!

How can that be?!?

So what has Chloe Jo be up to?

*In the last few weeks her speech has improved tremendously. We are planning to start her in Preschool next August and I thought I would have to, for sure, put her in speech therapy. I knew she was behind on her pronunciation of things and I couldn't understand a lot of what she says. Just in the last few weeks she has started saying words correctly and I am amazed at how fast it has happened (although I shouldn't be...she is very extreme with all of her development). Instead of saying "Brenis" she is saying "Brenson" now. Her "dabee" has changed to a very understandable "Thank you". There are several other words, but those were the two most exciting.

*Chloe Jo has started trying to dress herself. She has never been interested in this before, but she has finally started trying. She can get her shirt, panties and pants on by herself (she needs help with buttons on jeans). She can get her socks on, but I have to straighten them out for her, and she puts on her own shoes.

*We have started working on memorizing Bible verses. I made a chore chart for her and that is one of the things on the chart.

*She loves to paint. We went with a friend who has twins just a bit older than Chloe Jo to paint pottery on Monday and she had a great time. She has also painted at home a lot lately.

*Chloe Jo has started to tell me the names of shapes lately. I tried to work with her on this for a long time and I finally gave up. The little stinker really does learn what I teach her. She just doesn't like showing me until she is ready.

*She is obsessed with going to Wal-Mart. The other day she got on to me for eating "her" marshmallows and told me to put it on the list and that we were going to Wal-Mart. HA!

*She loves to tell me that "you look beautiful". Mer. Warms my heart.

*She also loves to tell me that "you're my best friend."

Now for her stats:

Chloe Jo broke 40 inches recently. She is now 40 1/2 inches tall and in the 90th percentile for height.

She weighs 34 1/2 pounds and is in the 75th percentile. I'm really surprised by this because she is a very skinny child. I guess her height covers up her weight. She has been eating like a horse lately so I'm pretty sure a growth spurt is on the horizon.

And just for funsies, here is the Sweetie Pie on Monday before we went to paint pottery. She wanted to wear all of her butterfly clippies so I put them in her hair and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. I thought it was so cute!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!

Tidbits

*If you try the carpet cleaner I posted about here, make sure you don't put too much hydrogen peroxide in the solution. I ended up bleaching my living room carpet just a tad and I'm sure it is because I put a tad too much in. I made one batch and used it for the stain I showed and it didn't bleach the carpet at all. Then I made a second batch later and it bleached the carpet. My sister and brother-in-law didn't even notice so I think Russ and I are the only ones that see it.

*I am going to have to find a new dishwashing detergent recipe. The one I had been using (you can find the recipe here) is not liked by the dishwasher in this house. It is leaving a bad film on everything. I have tried rinse aids and they aren't doing anything. I am so sad. The detergent worked great in the last dishwasher we had so I'm not sure what the problem is.

*I received an interesting comment about the nails I used for my String Art a few days back. The comment said that I used screws and not nails. Well, apparently, my husband and dad thought the same thing. I assure you I am not that stupid. I wanted white nails so I used paneling nails and the extreme close-up showed the ridges in the nails.

And that's all she wrote, folks!

Dollar Store Pumpkin Craft with Tutorial

Several weeks ago when I was just starting to see fall decor in the stores, I saw these ugly styrofoam pumpkins in The Dollar Store.

I have been in that store a couple of times since and continued to pass them by. Then I kept seeing pictures of things people have done with those ugly little pumpkins and that inspired me. I went and picked up a couple of those ugly little pumpkins, a couple of tubes of acrylic paint and went home. Last night I got started on my craft.

I knew I wanted to hang my craft on the wall so the first thing I did was cut the pumpkin in half. I tried a serrated bread knife first and then a "Carrie: She's going to kill them all" knife second. I finally went and got my hacksaw and that worked the best.

I hated, like for real, HATED the ugly tangerine color these came in so I gave them two coats of orange paint. Incidentally, the name of the orange paint I chose was...you guessed it...pumpkin. I also painted the tiny nubs of stems a nice leafy green.

After I was happy with the color, I got to work taping the pumpkins so I could paint designs on them. I chose to paint the designs in black.

After the paint was all dry, I sprayed the pumpkins with a coat of clear gloss to seal them and give them shine.

I then broke out my ribbon and tulle and decorated the tops of each pumpkin.

I glued them to one long ribbon and then glued a loop of ribbon to the back to hang it with.

And it turned out so cute! I love it and I'm happy that I can save it and use it year after year!