picture decor

This documentary came out a few years ago, but I just saw it last week. It's called Other People's Pictures. I found it fascinating to know that someone would collect people's old photos. All for different reasons. I wonder if the pictures I take would someday be something that strangers would want.
This got me thinking about our Halloween decor this year. Last year, I did a search for the words "victorian" and "civil war" and printed some of those images. I put them on the wall going up the stairs. This year, I actually had them made out into different sized photos and placed them in frames. I added a few spiderwebs, some candles and black roses and it really has the creepy effect I was looking for. We were heading up to bed one night when we started talking about these pictures. Both Rodrigo and I were creeped out for a minute thinking that these were real people that are now dead and we have no idea who they were. -shudder- Heebie Jeebies!

This is what you see as soon as you walk in through our front door. . .


This display is in our living room (on the other side of the above picture) . . . .


A close-up of the same display . . .

I have to admit it looks way better at night!

feeling: into the Halloween spirit
listening to: I just realized I'm not playing any music. All day I've had "A Kiss is not a Contract" stuck in my head. Too funny!

that elusive sponge

After weeks of begging Brianna to please, please, please tell me what she wanted to be for Halloween, she finally decided. This is the first time she's actually going to wear a costume I make for her and I'm super excited! Every year I want to make her costume and every year she'd rather me just buy her one. This year, I showed her about 75 million homemade costumes and she chose a pink poodle. I was tres happy and started getting the things we need to make it. Everything seemed simple enough. We'd need some pink leggings, a pink turtleneck, a pair of pink socks, bubble wrap, and eight pink mesh sponges. Easy, right? Not so fast. . . . . I can't find pink mesh sponges anywhere. These things should be easy, right? They're just like these. . .

I've been to every discount and dollar store in the area and can't find them in pink. I found two in our grocery store of all places, but I still need six. Friends were telling me about several other discount stores that are not too far from here where I could maybe find them. I'll be going there. Plus my mom is on the look-out in Texas. I've seen some online, but I'm not willing to pay $4 on each. Is that super stingy of me? I mean, I want these from like a dollar store, not Sephora (which are the ones I keep coming across). I went looking at a body shop in a mall this weekend and each one was $6.99. No thanks. I didn't even stay to look for the right color.
If I'd have known that this was going to be a hassle, we would have picked another color. She could have been a white poodle. We have everything in pink now, though. Isn't it always the case that when you're looking for one specific thing, you can't find that? I bet you after I don't need them anymore, I'll be seeing these things everywhere I look. -sigh-

feeling: it doesn't feel like Monday to me
listening to: John Mayer (Free Falling)

the #1 thing I need to stop doing

Halloween went off without a hitch. The weather was so amazing that loads of neighbors were having cook-outs, sitting outside handing out candies and passing out food. I LOVE where I live. There was such an aura of friendship outside last night with everyone over at everyone else's house, all the kids recognizing each other. I just can't describe it, but it was awesome.
We were one of the houses that had a cook-out. Rodrigo had some co-workers over ready to scare the trick-or-treaters, the kids had friends and their parents over and I hung out with everyone. It was pretty awesome. Then someone left without Alec noticing and he came and asked me, "Did Jake Long go home?". I was mortified, but luckily nobody heard.
You see, I have this horrible habit of giving people nicknames. I don't mean it in a cruel or mocking way. It just sort of happens. It could be how someone looks (like if they remind me of someone), what someone does, or something they say. I was thinking about how I have to stop doing this since now the kids are aware of it. Thinking about it, I made a list of the nicknames I regularly refer to people as. Just within people we see on a regular basis are: Jake Long, Voldemort, F*f*fini (replace each "*" with an "a". I didn't want any searches ending up here. Also, look up what it means since this is my favorite nickname), the quails, the basketball players, the frat house, hot dog, tattoo, the funnies, the office, the scotty. I think the list can go on and on. See what I mean? Am I horrible? (here's the part where you leave a comment and say that I'm not awful and make me feel better) What's more is that I've always done this. Old friends and ex co-workers can certainly vouch for this. So, yeah, I think I should stop since I really don't want the kids to be doing the same thing. Except for Voldemort because I can't remember his real name and he really does look an awful lot like Voldemort (from the last two movies) I'm not the only one that does this am I? Rodrigo and I were wondering what other people call us behind our backs. Hee, hee.

feeling: I can't believe how warm it still is
listening to: Morrissey (Suedehead)

Happy Halloween!

Happy, happy Halloween, all!

quickie post . . . halloween tip

I really need to stop being such a slacker about posting here. It's getting pretty redundant to say that I'm busy. I just have to get used to it and make the most of it.

Ok, so since I'd adamant about posting more often, let me start off by not making my posts novel long. . . . . .
I don't like to give decorating advice since taste varies so much, but I really liked this. We were looking for some more Halloween decorations that we could make at home. We were thinking about some sort of creepy portraits since we have the whole wall going upstairs to work with. Well, I did a search for civil war and one for Victorian era. I found some cool pictures of people from that time. We just printed them out, made some frames (because I didn't want to use my nice frames) hung them and added a spider web around it. It is the only decoration we have that we didn't have to buy anything for and I think it looks the creepiest. I only regret giving away my old picture frames since old frames painted up black and silver would've been awesome!



So that's it for now. I uploaded some new pictures on flickr. Oh! I had someone tell me that I take bad pictures because you can never really see the people. Uh, you all realize that those are just the public pictures, right? If you really want to see ALL the pictures, add me as a friend. Anyone that comes here to my blog is welcome to see those. I just don't like having too many public pics because I get creeped out about internet weirdos. Let me know if you need a flickr invite. There will be more pictures in the next few days, we have a full weekend ahead.
Last thing . . . if you guys have any easy recipes for creepy Halloween food, please let me know. Our house is going to be the meeting place for a few trick or treaters this year. It seems that all of my kids' bestest, bestest friends all live around here. A house full of three to eight year olds . . fun, fun, fun.