Halloween (and my sis's b-day)

Happy birthday to my beautiful little sister!!! This is us circa 1994.

On an unrelated note... I was working on Halloween fun... I got these great little bottles on B-Muse.com and was having fun with them. The labels came from various sources. The fillings are all random stuff I had on my workbench.

Oktoberfest

We went to Oktoberfest... We love Big bear. :)
 We stayed in the village this time, normally we stay in a little further south. The cabin was fab. In any case, fun, food and beer were had by all. :)

These kids were adorable!!! They called them the "Polka tots"

I get a flower head band every year. :)

New ATC

:)

I used chalk on the background, along with paper from a chldrens book. I added stamping with alcohol ink, some gel pen accent, and beaded some thin wire, along with a key hole charm. :)

My uncle Harry died last night

My great uncle Harry passed away last night after a brief but brutal battle with cancer. He was my grandma's youngest sibling and an amazing guy. I grew up running around his resturant, playing darts in the back, and getting extra whipped cream on my hot cocoa. He always set the juke box in the bar so I wouldn't need to put money in and never complained when I drove everyone nuts with repeated playings of the beach boys and madonna. (To my defense, I was under 10. My music taste is much improved.) In 1990 our house was lost in a flood. We lost everything we owned. My uncle Harry and aunt Janise let us stay with them, even though it had to be a bit much having a houseful of people and made my birthday special. I turned 10 only a few days after this happened and as you can imagine it was not an easy time.

Here is to sneaking up after everyone else is asleep to eat birthday cake and drink big red soda. You will be missed uncle Harry. I love you.

Day of the dead

I made a mini shrine for the day of the dead. It isn't finished yet. The 'sugar skulls" were harder than they looked. The whole thing is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches tall. :)

Caramels.... our first attempt.

These turned out AMAZING!!! They are of course Toad tested and approved. They kept their shape and didn't get sticky. Perfect flavor. Love love love.

Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup evaporated milk
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 cup butter
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. Grease a 12x15 inch pan.
2. In a medium-size pot, combine sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, evaporated milk, whipping cream, and butter. Monitor the heat of the mixture with a candy thermometer while stirring. When the thermometer reaches 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) remove the pot from the heat.
3. Stir in vanilla. Transfer mixture to the prepared pan and let the mixture cool completely. When cooled cut the Carmel into small squares and wrap them in wax paper for storage.

Baby rattle snake

We found this little guy on the driveway. McHottness was nice enough to move it off the road so it wouldn't get killed. I realize it is a rattlesnake, but it is also a baby and pretty cute for a harbringer of doom. :) I named him Mr. Cuddles.

My husband is such a softie.

Curio box project

I started working on this after being inspired by a new art book McHottness bought me on altered dollhouses. I didn't have a doll house but I did have a stash of these little shelves from the dollar store. (I didn't know what I would use them for, but I bought several at the time)
It isn't finished yet, but it is coming along... I made a ton of button clocks too. Not sure if I will use them here or not.

Painting the base

cutting out the backgrounds

adding some other stuff

This fairy was sort of random. I decided to cut out limbs from text. Her dress is silk flower petals. Wings from a butterfly empherma. All in all though, I like her.

Button clocks, I used clock facesand antique buttons.:)

Adventures of Squishy and Ted

Mchottness went backpacking with the great and powerful Eli on the pacifica crest trail (just part, the whole thing takes months) leaving the Toad and I to our own defenses. We decided that a roadtrip to Los Angeles was in order. We spent two days at Universal Studios and managed to squeeze in the Santa Monica Pier Saturday night... Good times. Somewhere along the way we adopted the names Squishy and Ted. The Toad is Squishy.

Santa Monica roller coaster

Simpson ride

I do in fact <3 zombies. I respect anything that can eat your face if you piss it off.

The Toad, in serious Toad mode.