As Seen on Ohdeedoh!

Sadie's magnolia costume from last year was featured on Ohdeedoh's Homecrafted Halloween! You can see the entire post here. I'm so excited her costume made the cut (on October 31st, no less!).

If you don't read Ohdeedoh for ideas for your kids (or their parent site Apartment Therapy for home ideas), you are missing out...especially now that Sadie Lou is on there ;) !

My Candy Monster

Oh. My. Goodness. What kid does the costume thing twice? Mine, apparently. Sadie was pretending to be a "nice monster" tonight, and asked me if I could paint her a monster face. Sooooo...one coat of pink monster paint later, and a few minor clothing adjustments, and Voila! A Candy Monster. A last minute addition to our costume repertoire. The difference between this costume and the Butterfly Princess one? This one was 100% free. :)

Check out the "eyeball ring" - who knew that little gift would come in handy one day?

Peek-a-boo Candy Monster!

Monster Booty

Buh-ling!

Incidentally, the Candy Monster lived up to her name tonight...

My Butterfly Princess

Wawa...I Still Don't Get It.

There is a lot that I'm still "not very good at" when it comes to living in the great state of Pennsylvania. Turning left in front of oncoming traffic, refraining from saying "y'all," and appreciating Wawa round out my top three.

If you don't live around any of these red dots...:

...then you probably need some help understanding Wawa.

• Everyone in and around this area knows what Wawa is and knows where every Wawa in a 30 mile radius is located (and they. are. everywhere.).
• When you ask people, "What is a Wawa?" They look at you like you just asked, "What is indoor plumbing?"
• When you tell them that you've (wait for it) never even been to a Wawa, they vow to personally make it their life's mission to get you inside of the doors of a Wawa so that you can appreciate how UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY LIFE ALTERING it is.
• When you tell people you aren't in love with Wawa, they look at you like you just said, "I hate puppies" or "I hate the Phillies" (that would probably be worse than hating puppies, actually).

In other words, people are obsessed with Wawa. What are you picturing in your head? Some sort of Utopian Garden with Rainbows and Unicorns? Something like the even cooler even more economical, BETTER younger cousin of a Target? An amusement park made of ice cream, lollipops, and those video clips of babies laughing on YouTube?

You are wrong.

Wawa is a (drumroll please) convenience store. Ba-dum-bum! That's right, friends. It's like those little shops attached to a gas station. It has coffee, those off-brand apple pies with green and white rappers, chewing gum, and gas station attendants. BUT GET THIS: NO gas. Ok...well some of them have gas pumps. Others are just plain convenience stores. With no gas pumps. And convenience store food. And people are in love with them.

So now you know. Don't you feel educated? Learn more about Wawa here. What's that you say? You don't want to read a wikipedia article about a convenience store? Well...clearly, you ain't from around these parts. Don't worry - I don't get it either.

God Hears Prayers That Fall As Tears

God hears prayers that fall as tears. When you don't have the energy or vocabulary to tell Him what you need to say and all you can do is cry, don't worry...He knows exactly what you mean. He's listening, and He will make it better - whether that means holding you tight while you're hurting, or taking your hurt away altogether, it will get better.

Don't forget that you are teeny tiny and sheltered under His vast wings and don't forget how absolutely and unfailingly perfect His love is for you no matter what your circumstances may be. You don't have to carry your burdens alone - God has broader shoulders than you can possibly fathom. Let Him carry your burdens - not only does He want your cares and your anxiety, He is undoubtedly and exceedingly better equipped than you to handle them! When you've given everything you have, when you're exhausted and unsure whether or not you can lift your head to face one more thing, remember this: Your sorrow may last for tonight, but joy comes in the morning...and joy always comes right on time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We pour out our miseries

God just hears a melody

Beautiful the mess we are

The honest cries of breaking hearts

Are better than a Hallelujah

~Better Than a Hallelujah - Amy Grant

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:14)

Butterfly Princess Costume Tutorial

I posted a couple of weeks ago on how to do an easy magnolia costume, and at the time, I wasn't sure what Sadie was going to be. Decision made! I wanted to call her a "butterfly fairy," but she insists on "butterfly princess." It's her costume, so "butterfly princess" it is!

Step 1: Procure dress (makes life a lot easier when you can build a semi-home made costume instead of a completely home made one). We started with a dress she already owns for dress up. We decided to base the entire costume on the little butterfly on the dress...

Step 2: Make a butterfly princess headband. You'll need:

...scissors, ribbon, glue gun, headband form (purchased from Michaels)

Step 2b: Wrap the ribbon around the headband until the form is completely covered:

Step 3: Using wired butterflies (in the craft store aisle with floral tape and wire), wrap wires to create a bouncing butterfly headband. Butterflies should be of various heights and positions so that they look like they are flying. You'll end up with something like this:

Step 4: Accessorize! We made a butterfly bracelet:

...and embellished a pair of shoes with butterflies by wrapping wire around the bows:

TA DA!

We'll paint her face to look like a butterfly, and if we can find some good (cheap) wings, we might spring for those too...otherwise, we're done!

A no-sew butterfly costume fit for a princess! The best part? None of the embellishments affect the shoes or the dress so she can keep wearing them for play!

Total Cost:

Dress: (already owned)

Shoes: (already owned)

Wired Butterflies: $13
Headband Form: $2

Ribbon: $4

Face Paint: $6 (and we can re-use)

$25 total and VERY fast and easy!

UPDATE: Here's my little butterfly princess in full costume..

Here are a few more Butterfly Princess Photos.

30 Before 30 - Crime and Punishment

5 down, 25 to go! The clouds parted, and the angels sang on the day that I turned the last page of the most draining novel I've ever read. I am officially 1/5 of the way through my literary trek!

Some people love this book. I can see the value of the plot...maybe it was the translating from Russian that made it so difficult to read? I'm not really sure. It's not that I'm unimpressed with it as a book (who am I to criticize? I've never written a book...), but I'm not necessarily impressed with it either. I could really not care more or less for this book even if I tried really hard.

Having said all that, here's my Crime and Punishment quick and dirty review (spoiler alert): The protagonist, a guy who thinks he's in a special class of people who are qualified to commit murder (so long as the murder rids the world of someone parasitic as opposed to someone good), goes ahead and kills a lady who has a pawn operation in his town. His intention is to rob her in order to save his sister and mother from a fate worse than death. He bungles the murder and ends up having to kill her sister as well. Not only does he screw up the killing(s)...he doesn't take very much loot from the house, either. Afterwards, he becomes a paranoid lunatic...he could easily evade being caught, but instead, he hints to EVERYONE that he's the one that did it just to get a rise out of them. He holes up in his tiny (teeny teeny tiny) apartment and falls ill (presumably from psychosis?) In the end, he gives himself up, goes to jail, and falls in love with a prostitute with whom we assume he will live happily(ish) ever after...once he gets out of jail, of course.

It's an interesting concept: Is it worse to murder someone who is a drain on society, or is it worse to leave them alive despite the ruin that they will inevitably create? Obviously (to me, anyway), the nullification of horrible people should be left to the proper authorities, but you do understand why the poor protagonist is doing what he's doing...even though you want to jump in the book and tell him to stop being such a moron (a lot).

So there you have it...I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that one is over. I have moved on to the much lighter, much more pleasant, and so far MUCH more entertaining To Kill a Mockingbird.

First Pumpkin Carving EVER!

I carved my VERY FIRST PUMPKIN today! Of my whole life!

That's right, folks...of my whole, entire life. Sadie carved a pumpkin before me (her first one was last year at Grandma and Grandpa's house). I am very proud of my pumpkin efforts.

Drum roll please:

Ok, so he's not perfect but he is pretty stinking adorable in a crooked sort of way, if I do say so myself :)

Here's Tallulah May posing with the pumpkin!

Me and the doob together - she's excited :) Remind me to tell you about the nickname "doob" sometime. It's an entertaining story.

Incidentally, I think that spending quality time with my family (carving a pumpkin) is a FABULOUS way to spend the ten year anniversary of the day that Eric and I began dating. I would tell you about how much I love that man, but you probably already know...

Happy Saturday!!

North Carolina Misses Me

A few of my favorites from the trip to NC...

The more I look at this one, the more I love it. I know they don't look too excited to be sitting there, but it just looks so vintage (with the lack of smiles and all) that I just can't help but love it!

Sadie and Em again...they really missed each other. You should have heard the squeals when they first saw each other!

Feet - in order from left to right: Sadie, Emmie, Brey, Ayden (on Brey's lap), and Andrea. They were all throwing bread to the fishes under the dock.

Sadie and Charlie catching up on things. Don't they look like they're having a pleasant little conversation?

And my favorite of all...me with my two sweet nieces and my little girl. :)

Ode to My Heart