My new little brood

We made the Little Red Hen pincushions at quilt group last week. Once I started, I couldn't stop and if it wasn't for To Kill a Mockingbird and my card swap tomorrow night, I'd be making MORE! I'm working on making my very first tutorial. After showing a few people, I'm thinking a tutorial would be a good idea. I'm hoping to post it on our quilt group blog http://quiltgroupbees.blogspot.com/ when it's finished.

Halloween FUN

I decided to take the kids to Disneyland for some spooktacular fun on Friday before Halloween. This was probably not one of my brighter ideas since Disneyland closed at 7 for Mickey's Halloween Party BUT, we ended up having a great time and we talked Aaron into going in the Haunted House. The decorations were awesome! That was my first time seeing it decorated asThe Nightmare Before Christmas and guess who ended up liking it? Aaron! He wants to take Mike on it now.

Here are our trick-or-treaters! We went trick-or-treating with our friends the Hernandez family. The kids had a great time and our neighborhood did not disappoint! I was happy to see Aaron get use out of his Jedi costume once again and Connor wore Aaron's skeleton costume from last year. Aubrey was our little pink princess thanks to Grandma's mad sewing skills!

 Nothing like waiting to the last minute to carve pumpkins. On Hallow's Eve we got busy scooping, cutting, poking, slicing, gutting, mwuh-ha-ha and finally lighting our jack-o-lanterns. Aaron had the idea to have a happy face on one side of his jack-o-lantern and a scary face on the other side. Mike suggested placing the happy face towards oncoming trick-or-treaters and then as they'd leave, they'd see the scary face. Aaron really got into the Halloween spirit and helped me with a lot of the front yard decorations! I wish we would have gotten a picture! bah. It got to be late so I decided to make mine in the morning.

I really wanted to make a pretty pumpkin this year. Had smoochy lips all prepared and everything but Connor thought it was way to nice and frankly not my style. He was absolutely right! What was I thinking? So I turned Vicky into a vampire much to Connor's delight.

It's a mad craft world!

Yes, I've been happily crafting a lot lately. Last month, I was asked to teach the women in my Relief Society how to make fabric flowers at our October mini craft night. Since I hadn't attempted any prior (seriously do not know what took me so long!!!), my first instinct was to google "fabric flowers" and boy, did I find a great many excellent tutorials on fabric flowers! My favorites were the rolled (fabric), carnation (fabric), and peony (ribbon type) flowers. Here's a few pictures of some that I made and taught.

Check out these amazing tutorials.

http://tipnut.com/fabric-flowers/

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/03/22/10-beautiful-fabric-flower-tutorials/

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/12/tutorial-rolled-fabric-flowers/

So after I got home, I realized I needed something to put all of Aubrey's flowers on. My friend made a cute board to display the flowers for our mini craft night and so I decided to do something similiar. Here's what I came up with.  I definitely should have added another row to utilize the space more but not too shabby if I say so myself.

Our little pumpkin patch

On Monday, the kids and I did this cute little craft as our FHE activity. It was so much fun and the kids did great! I even got the boys to pick up a needle and thread! Thank you craftbuds.com! They have tons of great tutorials! Beware, you'll want to make everything!
http://www.craftbuds.com/fabric-pumpkins-tutorial/

Connor made one for his teacher to give to her for her birthday. He was really proud of his pumpkin!

Halloween Mumbo Gumbo Table Topper

I'm very happy to finally post something on my blog! I have been busy having so much fun with lots of projects and I just haven't had time to blog about it. I've been going between quilting and card making. I just don't know how all these talented crafty bloggers find the time to blog, craft, and raise a family! It's crazy! Anyway, after my wonderful trip to Utah for the quilting retreat last June, I decided it was finally time to share what I learned. So I showed my quilt group how to make the Mumbo Gumbo pattern ( http://www.pieintheskyquilts.com/mumbogumbo.html) and we used it with Halloween prints to make this fun Halloween table topper. It's a little busy but that's kind of the idea and hey, it's all about October FUN!

Last week, a friend asked me to help her with making some table runners. I remembered a runner that a friend of mine in my quilt group made last spring and thought it would be perfect.  She sent me the link to the tutorial she followed. This blogger has fantastic tutorials btw! http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/08/table-runner-tutorial.html So after helping my friend out, I couldn't wait to get started on my own. Here's mine.

I liked the idea of throwing some turquoise in there. It doesn't exactly go with my dining/living room decor but it's definitely a fun and fresh fall mix of color. I might just surprise a friend who happens to love turquoise. I'm thinking I'll do another one with my leftover Halloween strips. And then it's on to Christmas prints! I'll try to get some pictures of my cards up! But in the meantime, here's a link to my friend Tina's blog who posts all our card swaps. Check out her cute blog here: http://needles-n-notions.blogspot.com/ You'll also see a post on our quilt group action. Oh, my card was the Wild About You!

Best Padres Souvenir

Mike took the boys to a Padres game with a bunch of friends a couple weeks ago and they had some great seats. Matt Latos tossed a game ball up to Connor. Thanks Matt!