cornbelly's...

Last week the kids had Thursday and Friday off school for UEA. Brad was able to take those days off work (sort of...if you don't count having to take calls on his cell phone all day) and we spent 3 days doing lots of fun family things.

Thursday, we headed to Thanksgiving Point for Cornbelly's. We knew there was a corn maze...but we were pleasantly surprised to find lots of other fun activities too. There were huge jumping mats, tractor rides, slides, tunnels, big and small mazes, and so much more. I took tons of pictures (or course).

Everything was so fun...except the food (it was expensive and greasy greasy greasy).

We'll definitely be going back next year!

pumpkin cookies...

...my mom's recipe

...my favorite cookie recipe

...and now it can be yours too - because you asked so nicely! :o)

p.s. The last time I made these, I used my new kitchenaide to mix them up...I like the texture much much better when they are mixed by hand. They're still yummy when the machine mixes them...but I'm a texture girl, and it's better when they are mixed by hand. :o)

p.p.s In case you were wondering...I always triple the recipe.

p.p.p.s. I'm making these again for Super Saturday this week...i can't wait!

ETA: Yes, Karin, a cube of butter is 1/2 cup! :o)

two times...

Twice.

That's how many times I've gathered up these ingredients

to make my favorite fall cookies ever. Twice in about two weeks.

And it's only mid-October.

I'm already craving more.

I may be going for a third time this coming week...

little halloween decorations...

These were also for Making Memories - using the Slice.

A bat garland:

And a little transparent ghost:

I heard the Slice machines were starting to ship today...I hope it's true...I want to make some more fun Halloween projects soon!

another halloween project...

I just thought I'd share another one of my Halloween projects -

these little napkin rings were made using the Slice to cut the spiders.

Of course I had to add some googley eyes...and more Spellbound paper, tags, and ribbons.

halloween shirts...

I'm so glad my big kids will still play along, and wear these Halloween shirts for me. (and Christmas PJ's, and Valentine's Day shirts, etc.)

I found cute shirts at Target for the 3 biggest kids...but nothing fun for Zach...so he only gets a hand-me-down this year.

That's okay though - these shirts really don't get worn a lot, so it looks pretty new ...and he's only 2...so he doesn't know the difference.

Now, if I could only get them to ALL look at the camera and smile at that same time...
...that would be a true Halloween miracle, lol!

a witch's brew...

My friend Shantelle says she's always wanted to host a fun halloween party. It was her turn to host bunco this month. She decided to combine the two and held an incredibly fun bunco/witch's brew on Tuesday night. Several weeks ago, she took witch's hats to everyone - we were supposed to decorate them (or not) and wear them to bunco. I was trying to think out of the box because I wanted to do something nobody else would think of. When I saw these cute little monster items at Target, I decided to turn my hat into a little monster party.

Here's my hat before I attacked it with the hot glue gun:


I rolled cardstock into a cone and put it inside so the top would stand up:


And the monster collection:


And a few items from my scrapbook/craft stash:



And here's what my hat looked like when I finished:


I know it's a little bright and gobby and silly...but my kids thought it was fun. Brad wasn't rude, but I could tell by his reaction to my lovely little hat that he wasn't overly impressed. It didn't matter though - I had fun making it and the kids liked it (Meagan's even going to incorporate it into her Halloween costume this year - she's so creative and likes to make up her own costumes). It was a bonus that I won the hat contest at bunco that night! The prize I won is the cutest little witch's broom with a sign that says "The witch is in/out" - it looks so fun by my front door!


Anyway, Shantelle really got into the evening and dressed as a witch from head to toe. She looked great! And she went all out for the dinner too. Here are a few pictures from the dinner spread:








She did extra games and incorporated some fun changes in our bunco game too. The prizes were amazing. Shantelle never does anything half-way. If she does something, she really does it and it's always incredible. It really was a fun evening - the perfect way to kick off the month of spooks and treats!!

spooky...

One of my projects is on the Making Memories Blog today -

I used the Slice to make the cute little ghosts out of vellum.

(here are the photos I took before I sent it in)

You can read more about it here. :o)

a dozen red roses...

A few days ago, Brad came home for a minute.

Right in the middle of the day.

This is a rare occurrence.

He came home to bring me these:

And he brought them for the most amazing

and romantic reason I can even imagine...

No reason at all.

He just wanted to.

Yeah, I know...

I'm such a lucky girl!

more cards...

So...are you all on "card overload" after last Saturday? Is there even such a thing? I don't think there is. Here are a few more of my cards I thought I'd share.

Have a great Monday!!

wcmd prize winners...

here's how I picked the winners:

comments 1 and 12 were by

bumblesnbees and krys72599

Congrats! Please e-mail me with your addresses so I can send your books to you on Monday!

Thanks so much for playing.

I hope you all had time to celebrate World Card Making Day!

I'll be back later to share more about what I did today...

world card making day...

Do you know what Saturday is? You don't?!?

Well, it's General Conference, of course!

AND it's also WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!!!!

Truly. A day to celebrate one of my favorite things - handmade, heartfelt cards!

You can visit the official website here - it's full of fun things...especially handmade card ideas!

You all know how much I love making cards...here are a few I made recently

{with American Crafts products for an HSN air date last month}:

Want even more ideas?

I'm giving away two copies of this great idea book,

thanks to my friends at Paper Crafts Magazine.

All you have to do is leave a comment here, and I'll draw two winners

on Saturday evening (October 4th).

I hope you will find some time on Saturday to celebrate World Card Making Day &

create a handmade card for someone you care about!

inside out...

woohoo, October is finally here! I love the change of seasons and I am so excited to feel Fall in the air...the mornings are crisp and cool, the mountains are colorful and bright with leaves, and I am anxious to start wearing cozy sweaters adn drinking hot chocolate in the mornings. I have had some of my autumn decorations out for a few weeks, but tonight, I'm getting out the Halloween decor - I can't wait to bring Halloween to our house - inside and out!!

And speaking of inside/out...I was invited to be the guest designer at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out this month. The kit for this month is colorful and happy - full of great products from American Crafts, Scenic Route, Tinkering Ink, and more...so it was a lot of fun to work with. This month's theme is "JOY," and it was really theraputic to just sit and reflect for the last few weeks about what truly brings me joy...and where it might be missing. Hands down, of course, my family is where my joy lies - sometimes it's just good to remember that...in the day to day scuttle, it's far too easy to forget.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my projects here...

I'll add some detail photos to my gallery blog (link over in the right column---------->) and you can also go to their website to see what the design team created with the same kit and theme - it always amazes me at how people can start with the same ingredients and the same theme and come up with such different projects...I love it!

While you're at their site, be sure to check out this fabulous inspiration page - full of quotes, music, links, and all kinds of good things here. This page changes every month, along with the monthly theme. Thanks to Rachel for the fun opportunity to work with SFTIO this month...and for the opportunity I've had to really think about JOY and how it relates to me!