From the Archives: Hershey Bar Haunted Houses

Here is a video Avery and I made for Hershey Bar Haunted Houses. I thought you might like to revisit it as making haunted houses from chocolate is a fun family tradition to do year after year and it's a crowd pleaser for all ages.

If a chocolate haunted mansion is too big, or too much sugar for you, you can always make a smaller house, which is just the left or right side of the mansion. For us, making the grounds with the pumpkin patches and tomb stones was always the best part anyway.

Alternatively, the whole family could work together and make one large house to share.

These are some of the houses the boys have made over the years:

Shelves & Jars Two Ways

 

I loved Junelle's mason jar project posted on Christy Tomlinson's blog yesterday so much I decided to try making one myself. I was careful to just glance at the picture once and close the window as I wanted to be "inspired by" not out right follow along step by step.

In the end, we're talking jars on shelves so there's going to be a lot of similarity. But, being me, I wasn't content  just making one. I decided to make a Halloween themed canvas as well. 

Both canvases measure 8x10x3/4

 

To me, nothing says 'abundance' like a full pantry. And if that pantry is filled with the bounty of summer all the better. I wanted to take the jar idea a bit farther so I filled mine with the things that make me feel exceedingly blessed - like good health, play and rest.

 

This one was a fun, seasonal different take on the theme.

It was a hoot making potion bottles and using up all the cute bibs and bobs I had in my stash to make them spooky.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing this project interpreted two ways. I'm itching to make a Christmas one, or a shelf filled with little house... the possibilities are endless.

Two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end.
                                            Hamlet IV.ii.19-

Check out these super-fun jello blood worms:

Serving Time:

3D Skull Cake Pan by Wilton

Blood Worms Tutorial from The Idea Room

Halloween?

Yep. I made a Halloween decoration. Why? I'm not sure other than I have my box of Halloween crafts out as I've been sifting through them. I guess it spilled over into my creative life.

When I saw this week's sketch from 2S4Y I immediately thought bookmark or wall hanging so I kept that in mind while creating. I also had the Tuesday Trigger in the forefront of my thoughts and I set out to make an Eerie Elegance project for the Macabre Monday challenge. Somehow, completely without intention, I combined all three:


Sketch:


Color:


This wall hanging features Bombshell Stamps: A Pirate's Life, Holiday Accessories, Sacred Heart

Today, pain and mobility wise is the worst day I've had yet. It's scary. I feel like I'm holding on for dear life. Only six days until surgery :-)

Halloween Picture Post

I thought it might be fun to start the week with a Halloween picture post featuring both old and new projects and my You Tube Chocolate Haunted House tutorial. Maybe these simple projects and pictures will spark some ideas:

Gift bags are simply the best, easiest most fun way to use your extra paper and images:


Fun Pic I took at a Graveyard:


What I Did With It:


Easy- Peasie Embossing Project:



Here is a video Avery and I made for Hershey Bar Haunted Houses:



Here are some of the houses the boys have made over the years:

World Card Making Day: Part Two

If you are here from the Bombshell Blog hop, please scroll down to my "official" WCMD card and post.

There are so many awesome challenges and contest online today that I dropped everything and played along for an hour. Even if you just get a chance to hop around some blogs you'll be richly rewarded with inspiration. Wow. People are KILLING IT!

Over at 2 Sketches 4 You they had such a cute sketch I had to give it a whirl.

Here's the sketch:


And here's my take on it:


Stamps Used: Tattoo Background and Holiday Accessories

And here's a Christmas one:

World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day. I thought I'd make something befitting the season and what is more appropriate than a wickedly cool witch. I haven't decided if she's just playing dress up or if she should be moving to Eastwick. All I know is that she can pull off the pumpkin colors and still look darn sexy!


Stamps Used: A Pirate's Life, Holiday Accessories I can't believe how often I use these two stamp sets - it's crazy!

Jacquie Nordaune, AKA Ms.October at Bombshell Stamps issued this months challenge. You've seen my entry, now make something of your own and be sure to let me know about it. The details:

CONTEST GUIDELINES: (CONTEST ENDS OCT. 31, 2009)
The creation can be a card, layout or altered item, but must have:

1. a Bombshell Stamp somewhere
2. use of ORANGE, BLACK, GREEN, and purple is an optional substitution color.
3. tag the photo's of your submission with "BSSOCT09", to be entered in the drawing!

And look what you can win - SUGAR SKULLS:



Here's a link to the other Bombshell Gals in the blog hop:


Jacquie

Glittery Katie

Kas

Kathi

Sarah K

Shannon

Terra

Cardvaarks Sketch #5

Hello all. Here's the card for Sketch 5:

Open:


Closed:

Stamps used: Man's Ruin

I feel rotten. Hopefully tomorrow will be brighter. Doc said to expect 3-5 miserable days.

Healthy (Ha!), Wealthy and Wise

Thought it was about time to do another update. So... I'd love to cry in my beer but I signed a contract with the pain folks that excludes beer for the foreseeable future. I'd cry into a bowl of pudding but I'm vegan. I guess I need to put on my happy face and keep going.

Had my pain clinic appointment and was terrified as I was under the impression that I'd be getting my spinal injection. Nope I got two hours of talking instead. And a whole new treatment plan.

Turns out my back is trashed - to put in mildly. MRIs are wonderful things. If I ever need to take a friendly witness into court I'm bringing an MRI machine. No kidding. Tell someone you have pain and they give you that, 20 pounds overweight housewife... bored? Needs attention? look. Show them a seriously icky MRI and you're as legit as Snoop Dogg's claim of being OG.

According to my doc I must have had a very full childhood replete with sledding accidents, falls from horses, bike wrecks, car wrecks, tubing mishaps. To that I said, " Heck, Ya!" And he replied, " And now you're paying for it." I guess it doesn't take a CSI expert to piece together a misspent youth :-)

The skinny - L5S1: desiccated disc (hard and flat, not wet and puffy), retrolisthesis (posterior facing herniated disc), broad based posterior disc bulge, left paracentral annular tear, degenerative disc disease, compression on the left S1 root

All that explains the type of pain and numbness I'm feeling so we are postponing any fiddling with the tailbone and SI joint for the next six months and are focusing on the new list of issues. Apparently my degenerative bone disease is the least of my problems. Ditto for the broken, unattached, goofy tailbone.

I am getting a root nerve block on Wednesday and am officially being prescribed buckets of narcotics. I've been taking - for the most part - Advil and the occasional Vicodan and the doc says that is why my world is getting pretty small. He thinks taking an appropriate mix of pain meds and being able to hike, volunteer, attend church etc. is a lot better than stoically not being able to leave the house but being "drug-free" I have mixed feelings about this.

I'm also in a registry and have agreed to all sorts of crazy things which are part of a "pain program" for example, they can call me at anytime and I have 24 hours to come to the clinic and have my pills counted. If it's 15 days since refill I better have half left. Also, (and I thought this was only in the Stepford Wives movie) to "better help their patients" all the toilets in the clinic are rigged with a drug testing apparatus so whenever you pee you are providing a sample. Weird. I don't know how people abuse prescriptions - this process has been very intense. Did you know whenever I get a refill it takes 24 hours because they run a police search on all state pharmacies to make sure I haven't filled any other prescriptions? Crazy!

So that's healthy in a nutshell. I'm a little freaked out, but I'm managing. I have a lot of years left (36 isn't very old) and my back needs to carry me through them. I hate to ponder how it's going to be when I'm 70.

Wealthy: We're about 50 days into our budget and it's going smashingly. I ran a little over in groceries so I borrowed from hair care and clothes - all "legal" moves in our plan. We've become a magnet for money. I wonder if we always were and just never knew it. There is a pretty constant flow of rebates, overcharges, sales, refunds etc. and they are adding up big time. We hope to have our car paid off by mid-October and then we'll get to work on the Visa bill. We are still living on 38% of our income which is super-awesome. Next month we'll have to pay our mortgage again which should bring down our debt payment a bit. Still, our drafted budget for next month shows us paying 40% to debts and living on the other 60% which is still impressive (to me at least) and is a far cry from the 110% we were living on three months ago.

Wise: Nope. Not wise at all. Although, with my new position at Gauche Alchemy I have been writing a lot more consistently and I love to be using my skills again. So it's not a total wash.

I bet all my crafting readers are bored stiff right now. Sorry, but you guys are the target for most of my post and this one is for my near and dear. Just so it's not a total waste *grin* Here are some Halloween tags I've been working on featuring my beloved Retro Cowgirls set from Bombshell Stamps:



And this is a LO I did for SassyGirlScraps last week:



And last but not least, Welcome Willows, thanks for popping by :-)