Whats that you say??? already on the prowl for some halloween goodies???

Well, I guess I’m gonna have to give you a TREAT!

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ok, really, I was just randomly in the mood to doodle so Happy Halloween everyone! Click on the image to download.

If you like these, be sure to check out my swooshy swoony sets, lots of cute swirly words and doodles!

And since I have you here, I might as well show off my newest kit!

This week, aside from the mood for random doodles, I also felt in the mood for owls!  You can get this kit (and all the new releases at SSD) for 20% off – tomorrow only!  Plus my kit has a free stamp set with purchase! So quick go shop before you take those little spooks out on the town!

Have a safe, fun candy filled day everyone! I hope you enjoy the boo-dles! I’ll be back soon I’m sure with some pictures of my own little candy mongers!

… just try to tell me this isn’t the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen!

T fell asleep next to me on the couch the other day…

This weekend we took advantage of our one sunny day and took the boys to the pumpkin patch.  I decided to be adventurous and try a new pumpkin patch. We headed to The Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island, and although it was fun, I think we are going to stick with something familiar next year,  I missed the wheelbarrows at Joes, and although there were loads of things to do at this new patch, it was just muddier and not quite as pretty as places we’ve gone in the past.  Still, we had a really great time, and I managed to get some pics!

The highlight was probably the hay pyramid they could run/jump/climb on.  With the fall here, its so rare that the boys have the chance to let their wild monkey selves go crazy with out being told to calm down or sit still or get down from there!  Tennyson was so brave and actually went through the long tunnel that went under it, big brother gareth followed him, but was a bit creeped out by the long dark claustrophobic little space, but tennyson being the little dare devil he his was completely un phased!

Here are my favorite pics from the hay stack (I’m being lazy about resizing, click on them to see them bigger):

Ofcourse, the pumpkin patch portion of the day was fun!  The boys got there with dad before I did because I LOST MY PHONE and was desperately looking for it!  Luckily I finally found it on the little cow train ride, it was covered in mud but managed to survive!  Ofcourse as soon as I found it I rushed to the pumpkin patch to take some pictures!  I thought Tennyson have fun picking out his own pumpkin for the first time, and well he did, but he was convinced the pumpkins were balls, he kept picking one up, saying “ba!” and then throwing it!  Gareth, Owen and Reece apparently thought they were balls too, and kept rolling them on the ground. LOL good times….

I always love days we can do something fun as a family! It’s fun too to have this all documented so I can come back next year and see what we did.

Just like every year, I tried really hard to get the four of them all in a picture together…. these are the best we could manage:

LOL, oh well! At least they are in the same area and kinda sorta looking at the camera! Look HERE to see how they’ve grown from last year!

Well thats all for now!  Be back sometime soon with pumpkin carving pictures I’m sure!

So! I randomly found this post on my blog when I was looking for the date I started designing (April 2006 btw. Can you believe it!?) I was rather amused with myself, think it was pretty cute! So I’m using it again as a perfect way to catch everyone up and spur some blogging for the day.

The Good:

1. I am so proud of myself! I’m on my fourth week of preparing meals for our family every night!  Those menus4moms meals have been a God send!  Not only does it give me ideas and take all of the “what should I make?” stress out of cooking.  It is also, surprisingly, making me feel more and more capable in the kitchen.  I am actually starting to feel like I’m sort of good at this whole cooking thing as I’m making one good yummy meal after the next.  They boys have definitely not hurt things with all their praising me up and down at every meal.  Gareth said the other day (as we were making buttermilk biscuits from scratch) that I have officially “Mastered Chef-ery”.  That kid knows how to make his mommy smile! You know, I can’t help but agree with him, I am quite the “chef-ery” master now.
2. My work routine is really paying off, I’ve actually been consistently releasing something new EVERY WEEK.  I have always strived to be more consistent about my designing, and I’m really proud to finally be doing that!  My store is briming with new things, and even after the big retirement extravaganza, I still have a bunch of great RECENT things filling up my store!
3. I think the severe depression is subsiding some. I still have my moments, but I have been feeling suicidal less and less.  I wish that meant I was “better” but I have so much work to do as far as my mental health goes – still, it is so much easier to function when I don’t feel like it is a constant fight to just keep myself alive, and I can feel some of my energy and enthusiasm for life returning. What a gift.

The Bad

1. Now that I am seeing a bit more clearly, I am looking around and seeing how TRASHED my pour house is.  I mean, we’ve been been doing generally well at keeping it straightened up for the most part, but every time I look around me I can see so so much just calling out for a real deep cleaning… you know vacuuming the corners where all the dirt has hidden out… scrubbing my kitchen floor… really really tackling the bathroom (between the whole standing while peeing issue and some serious toothpaste… I don’t know flinging maybe!?  The boys bathroom just looks like a war zone or something!)… trying to find my desk underneath the piles that have accumulated there.  The only problem is that with the cooking and the straightening and the getting the kids on a fairly consistent schedule, trying to keep enough clothes clean for them,  plus keeping regular working hours!  …it all just seems insurmountable.
2. This next step forward in getting emotionally well is scaring the crap out of me!  Now that the depression has cleared some, there is some sort of scary intense emotions/memories/coping mechanisms to try to face and cope my way through.  Now instead of fighting the suicidal impulses I’m  finding myself having to fight the urge to go hide in a corner , or eat a cupcake, or to just sorta shut off and float away in my mind.  Just keep trying to hold on to the hope that when I do get through this, I’ll be so so much stronger and healthier than I was. I have made it through some really scary stuff this past 10 months, I CAN do this.
3. I need to make a hair appointment sooooo badly, I had to cancel my AUGUST appointment and now I’m just letting the days, months, go by with out calling and scheduling… WHY do I not just pick up the phone and do it???   I have no real reason, other than that I am just really bad at taking care of myself!

The Ugly

1. Yeah number 3 in the bad constitutes ugly but this is worse…  Uggg, this one is hard for me… with the thyroid instability (we are working to get that under control with meds), some emotional (see bad #2 – I’m sure those multiple bowls of captain crunch a day did not help!) – I’ve gained a little under 10 pounds over the past few months.  Its not so much that I know I can’t recover from it, and really in the grand scheme of things it is not enough to cry over, but uggg!  I totally don’t WANT to be counting points/calories again!  Still, the past few weeks I’ve been more careful and I’ve stopped creeping up on the scale, but man I wish the going DOWN would be happening much quicker!  I have some emotional issues attached to my weight and with bad #2 going on, I’m having to fight to not be constantly just berating myself for it.  The truth is it IS something I can control (well to an extent) so I just need to breath, and do what I know how to do…. why does that seem so hard!?

So there you have it, a little bit of everything! 

Now I think I’m going to go try to tackle bad #1, I’m sure 30 mins of focused attention in my bedroom might get me closer to finding my desk top.  Then it will be work time!  I just love my Monday work time!

(ps. keep reading if you wanna see what I’ve been up to the past month or so)

This is a post of few words, just wanted to show off a little and show you all the great stuff I’ve been up to with work! You can find them all in MY STORE.

Yay me!  I’m very proud of all of them!

Ok now I’m going to write an actual post.  For reals!