me : Halloween-a-palooza!!!

 Hi ya'll! Whew! What a week! Let's recap shall we? Last Monday we got a call that we might get a foster placement that day. Well, it didn't happen that day, but by Tuesday afternoon BB was in our home and we were absolutely giddy with excitement. He's adorable! I've always been the type to say that I would be totally happy if I had all girls, because I just love how cutesy and precious they are. But BB is totally cutesy and precious and has changed my mind. I'm totally in love with this little pudge and am perfectly happy being the momma of a baby boy. 


Since bringing BB into our home, life has carried on as usual. Just on less sleep and with a baby in tow. This weekend was spent cooking and doing the final prep work for the Halloween Party we had last night. And, just like the years past, I got completely consumed by everything going on and did not take the pictures of everything that I wanted to. But, I did get a few pictures so, here is my short abbreviated Halloween Party guide and how-to on a super tight budget. 

Cake Pop eyeballs. 

So here's the thing, a few years ago, when I was throwing my first Halloween party, I made peanut butter balls with white chocolate and did icing on them to make them look like eyeballs. See below...

See? Not exactly my best work. But, it was a good idea, I just didn't know really how to execute. Then, I started seeing cake pops EVERYWHERE, and I knew that one day, I would make eyeball cake pops. And this weekend was that day. They turned out completely amazing. It's great when I see something in my head and it actually works out the way I think it will. YAY!

1 black table cloth - $2

cheese cloth - 3 pieces for $2

pencil holder, glass, frame & cauldron - free, from around the house

lights & witch hats - $3 plus extra hats for elsewhere

black card stock - $3

a couple hours watching your fave shows to cut them out

I didn't come up with this idea, I saw it here. 

It was super easy to do and it made the front room look awesome! 

Cheese cloth is SUPER cheap. And every package comes with quite a lot. I used it all over. I love the look of it draped over my current decor. It made everything look eerie and all haunted-house-esque. 

Like I said, cheese cloth was awesome! Add a couple of those witch hats I was talking about (I got a bag of them for a couple of dollars at Hobby Lobby. The chain was $2 or $3 from Wal-Mart and I've had the spiders for a while and can't remember where they're from.

I think it's fun and sets the mood for the party if you give all of your food and drinks a spooky name. Regular pinwheels become sliced spine. Guacamole becomes monster mash. Sausage balls become goblin eggs. And so on and so on. 

The party really was a blast. We had a costume contest, another game that got everyone involved, some prizes, and a whole lot of laughs. 

Oh... our costumes???

We went as the power-hungry and ever scandalous Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. BB was the cutest monkey you've ever seen. Absolutely precious! 

inspiration : thursday thoughtfuls

Hi ya'll! WHEW! What a week it's been! As most of you know, we got a new foster baby this week and ohmygosh am I ever in love? He's so cute and wonderful. He's teething... that's not so much fun... but most of the time he's a completely happy baby and such a joy to us already! I'm sure you'll forgive me for not being around much. We're all trying to get adjusted to this new schedule. 


Anyway, I couldn't skip thursday thoughtfuls, so here we are with my regular weekly feature. :) 

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This is lovely. I love the collage look and that quote is so poignant. 

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This lovely quote might even make it on the wall of the nursery when we get that made over. ;) 

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Oh Julia Child, you give wonderful advice! Oh... and I love the colors of this one. Beautiful color combination!

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This is so true, so wise, and so simplistic. I love it!

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And lastly, one for the hubby. haha. I'm sure Joey has thought this a time or two before!

Okay, ya'll have a fabulous Thursday! Joey's in class today so it's just me and the little man all day. He's napping now so I'd better get some work done while I can. :) 

♥

me : foster parenthood : anticipation

Yesterday started out as a totally normal day. After two nights of staying up too late (don't worry weekend, I'm not holding any grudges) I slept in a bit and did my usual roll out of bed and stumble straight into my office routine. (A routine I've been working on breaking by getting up earlier... [oh, how God has a sense of humor...]) I worked on my blog, ran some reports for work, piddled with this, caught up on that. Had my cup of coffee. Had my breakfast. And then what was my normal, regular ol' Monday got flipped, turned upside down (thank you Fresh Prince). 


The phone calls began. Some little ones needed placement. Are we interested? : Now, after our first and only other foster placement experience of getting two children, right at school-age, we decided we were going to go a different route and go back to what we originally wanted. One child at a time. Very young, less than a year old preferably. After some back and forth phone calls with the caseworker, and with Joey (who was out doing church stuff), and after some waiting... we finally got the news that we were getting another placement. {Now, as a refresher, I can't put any information on here due to privacy laws, so from now on our little one will be known as BB (Baby Boy).} 


So... after a training class we had last night (for licensing purposes), we scrambled around Babies 'R' Us and Wal-Mart, getting a few necessities. We came home and worked on prepping the house. This morning I got up at 6:30... {6:30} and before 8 am I already had done a load of laundry, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned my office (if you only knew...), took out the trash, and did whatever prep work was left. Whew!


Here's the thing: When you're birthing the child yourself, you have some time to prepare. Granted, some people may not use that time as wisely as they should and are left scrambling at the last minute. With fostering though, you don't get that luxury of having so much prep time. You also don't get the luxury of a bringing home a tiny infant, which is all anyone cares about, so who cares if at this point you haven't put an outlet cover on every outlet possible. With fostering, you are bringing home a child of whatever age and you have to make sure your home is up to code and meets the requirements. Which means scrambling around making sure everything is as it should be. With birthing, you get some time off from work and you get to ease into a routine. With fostering, it's sudden. You have to be completely adaptable and able to work around things. For those of us who are planners, this can be an issue. 


But in the end... you're still bringing a child into your home. Into your heart. I'm okay with the scrambling, the frantic cleaning, my plans going haywire... it's all okay. Because tonight, there's going to be a little one sleeping in this room. 

This room has done a complete turnaround since yesterday morning at this time. This was the guest room. The crib was in the pink room across the hall and this room had the guest bed in it. Yesterday we took it down, moved it across the hall, and moved the crib into this room. All of that sounds very easy but there was a lot more that went into that than just a switcharoo. I don't imagine BB would want a bright pink room. Just a guess. ;) lol. I'm also guessing that there will be a painting party at my house in the next month or so for a little nursery makeover. I'm thinking grey and white chevron on the walls with accent colors of turquoise and lime green. Hmmm... and maybe orange? Hmmm... still pondering that one. Either way, it doesn't matter. Because...

Dear BB, 

I don't know much about you, but I can hardly wait to meet you. 

Love,

Your Soon-to-Be Foster Momma

Did I mention we've already got him a Halloween costume? Yep, he's totally ready for the party on Sunday... I'm so excited!!

♥

giveaway : winner announced

Hi ya'll!

Happy Monday! :) 

Well, the new shop, Live Delightfully, is officially up and running! I've got several headbands listed in it. I will have a few more colors added later this week and hopefully sometime soon, some brand new items coming. :) YAY!

Anyway... thank you to ALL of you who entered my giveaway! To win a fabulous bow headband in your choice of available color like the one shown below:

And now for the winner..... 

Comment # 12 is the winner:

Jade Steckly said...

I have really wanted to start using more headbands lately! I love sage green, grey, or rhubarb!
Jade
www.constant-chatter.com

October 18, 2011 12:24 PM 

Congrats Jade!!! Thank you for entering my giveaway! I'm so happy you won! 

Please email me at livedelightfully (at) yahoo [dot] com for details on claiming your prize. :) 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday. Don't let the Monday grumps get to you, you're alive, you can read and you obviously have access to a computer and internet so be grateful. And those are just the things I know... I'm sure you have your own things you know that you can be thankful for in your life. 

♥

inspiration/goodies : shades of autumn f7:a11

Hi ya'll! Happy Friday! 

Welcome to week 7 of my shades of autumn series. This weekend it's supposed to be a warm weekend. Ugh. I'm tired of warm weather. This week we had two days that were cool enough to wear boots and sweaters and it was glorious. Now we're back to the heat. I need my heater on at night and my AC on during the day. That's just ridiculous! I'm ready for consistently cold weather. Bring on the snow!!! Haha. 

But alas... no such luck. Not yet anyway. I'll stay hopeful... 

Anyway, on to the feature!

shades of autumn : f7:a11

This week's inspiration comes from this lovely photograph:

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That's beautiful. I love the bokeh and the texture of the handwriting. It's so romantic. 

And now for some lovely goodies inspired by this photograph:

1. Booties - $18

2. Infinity Scarf Necklace - $25

3. Leaf Hair Accessories - $15

4. Cup Cozy - $15

5. Earrings - $14.50

6. Monster Feet Slippers - $48

7. Satchel - $35

8. Sweater Pumpkin - $12

9. Yarn - $16

Aren't those monster slippers adorable! I want some!!! 

Tonight is another football game. It's an away game... bummer. :( I hope we win, our poor boys need another win soon to lift their spirits. If anyone is interested, I'll be tweeting live from the game. ;)

This weekend I've got some grocery shopping to do and some Halloween Party prep work to do. I'm pretty excited about the Halloween Party. I'm planning on doing more photographing of the things I'm making as well as the processes of such so I can share with you all. The past few years I've been in such a rush with the Halloween Party that I haven't had time to document much of anything. But this year I'm hoping to change all that. I'm coming up with a game plan...

Also, I think I'm going to browse around on Pinterest and find a new recipe to try out this weekend or next week. I need some cooking inspiration and I know that if I need any inspiration, Pinterest is the place to go. (Feel free to follow me if you'd like.)

Any fun plans for you this weekend? What's your favorite goodie from this feature?

♥

inspiration : thursday thoughtfuls

Hi ya'll! Today I woke up and it's Thursday and guess what, it feels like Thursday. Maybe I finally broke out of that space time continuum. Maybe I won't tell you that all day Tuesday I thought it was Wednesday. Maybe I'm destined to live a life one day off. Maybe I should stop with all these weird, random thoughts and get to the good ol' thoughtfuls before you think I'm completely crazy. Maybe. 

In life there are those people that are so happy, so positive, they are like a ray of light, beaming into your soul. They feel you with happiness when you're around them so much that you want to be around them all the time. I know some people who are like this and one person in particular, Amanda (yes, I'm calling her out haha), is that kind of person. I knew from the moment I met Amanda and started getting to know her, that I wanted to be around her as much as possible and I wanted to be her best friend. She's just that kind of a person. And better yet, she makes me want to be that kind of a person. I strive to live a life worthy of being called a ray of light. 

This is true. Everyone... everyone is fighting a hard battle on their own. You may never know it, but they are. Kindness can go a long way. Plus, part of being a ray of light is being kind. Even when you don't want to be, be kind. 

Another part of being a ray of light is to love with such greatness and depth and you pour yourself into every small thing. 

I absolutely love this verse. There's also a song that we sang with the youth group based on this song and I adore it. In fact, I've been singing it lately and I think another part of being a ray of light is singing. Maybe not going around like a musical, but having that song in your heart that reaches out to others and lifts them up as well. I hope that we can sing this song with our new congregation soon and that if they don't know it, we can teach it to them. 

These are wonderful goals to have. I'm definitely going to take them to heart. 

I hope you have a wonderful Thursday and that someone around you is a ray of light, beaming into your soul. And if not, that means you're the ray of light and you'd better get to beaming. ;) 

♥

giveaway : something new

Hi ya'll! This Sunday was a wonderful day of tv watching and headband making. I've finally got my NEW shop up and running and I listed three of the new headbands that I just made. I'll be listing more asap so keep checking back for updates or just follow my twitter and see my new listings. You might remember some of my previous designs which can still be found in my old etsy shop here and here. I'll slowly be moving things from the old shop to the new shop, it's just taking some time to get everything ready for it. 

But in the meantime, to kick off the grand opening of my new shop, Live Delightfully, on Etsy, I'm having a giveaway. YAY!!!

Large Grey Bow

Large Navy Bow

Large Yellow Bow

{ the prize }

One bow, either large or small, in your choice of color. You can choose one of the three colors shown, OR visit any of the listing links under the picture for a chart of available colors. 

{ to enter }

Required: Leave a comment, telling me your favorite color(s).

Additional entries: Tweet about the giveaway and leave a comment with the link. 

Post on Facebook about the giveaway and leave a comment with the link. 

That's all you gotta do to be entered to win a cute headband for yourself or to grab a cute stocking stuffer for someone else. 

The giveaway will be open until Sunday 11:59 CST and the winner will be announced Monday, right here on the blog. 

ALSO, in honor of the grand opening of Live Delightfully, anyone who enters "GRAND25" in the coupon code at checkout will receive 25% off their purchase!

GOOD LUCK!!!!

♥

Boob Tube Babble : the new shows

Today I'm bringing you another post that is merely for entertainment purposes. I'm linking up with my friend Ashley and her friend Neely for their weekly dose of Boob Tube Babble. You can go to their blogs to see their topics but for me, it's all about the new shows... :) I've discovered recently that I'm really an ABC girl. So to start with, let's look at some of the new shows on ABC this fall. 

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Revenge - Wednesday nights on ABC at 9 cst. 

I love this show! I'm not sure how long it will last because the plot is basically the main character, Emily is getting revenge on everyone who double-crossed her dad and had him killed. Once that's done, I'm not sure how long the show can survive. But pushing aside that one negative, I really do love the show. It's so interesting to see how she's going to get revenge on certain people and all the lines and connections between everyone and how she manipulates those connections just right. And every time I think she's about to get tangled in her own web, she pulls out of it, completely differently than I thought she would. So interesting. Really, if you've got some time on your hands, go to abc.com and watch all the episodes online for free. ;)

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Plus, the show has some major eye candy including Jack and... 

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.... Daniel. Which when put like that, actually sounds kinda funny. But anyway, yes, serious eye candy, twists, turns and lots of sub-plot entanglement, this show is a hit for me!

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Pan Am - Sundays on ABC at 9 cst.

This is another newbie for ABC that I really love. I think it has the potential to be around a long time. The main plot is following around a group of Pan Am stewardesses and pilots but the sub-plots are great! From Collette who is harboring secrets about where she came from, to Kate who has been recruited by the CIA to be an international spy. It's some good stuff and I'm really loving this show. 

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Plus, it's got some good eye candy as well. Dean totally reminds me of Jake from The Bachelor every single episode. The fact that he's a pilot and just his mannerisms, definitely Jake-y. 

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There's also Ted. Who is the bad boy pilot. He reminds me of someone COMPLETELY different from Jake that I actually know but we'll just leave it at that. He's a jerk, but I feel like he wants to be good. (Kind of like what we all thought of Mark when he entered Grey's Anatomy... we all loved him and hated him at the same time.)

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Moving away from ABC to FOX...

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Have you seen Zooey Deschanel's new show? If not, go watch the episodes online. Seriously!!! The pilot episode has been the best episode by far, but all of the episodes are great! And while that may not be in the cards to work out, I still really love the Nick character and am hoping for a happily ever after between Jess and Nick. 

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Yeah... Nick's character is bringing some serious eye candy to this show. I totally have a crush on this character!

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And on to CBS.... 

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Anyone else watching Jim Caviezel's new show, Person of Interest? It comes on Thursday nights at 8 cst on CBS. A friend of mine told me about it and now I'm hooked, thanks Tracy, you were right. ;) The plot of the machine shooting out these numbers of people is a little weak, but if you look beyond that to everything else, it's a great show. Plus just looking at Jim Caviezel for an hour is nice. Am I right or am I right?

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And I loved Jim Caviezel even before he was Jesus. Has anyone else seen Angel Eyes and Frequency? I love those movies!

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And coming back full circle, I'm excited about ABC's new show that is coming out soon...

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Once Upon a Time - It looks interesting. I'm looking forward to it!

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And lastly, for a little nod towards NBC

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I've seen a few commercials for Grimm, a new show on NBC and I'm intrigued. I'm definitely going to check it out when it finally debuts soon. 

Okay... that's enough tv talk for me.

What about you? Any new shows on that you're loving, hating or couldn't care less about?

Link up with Ashley and Neely!

inspiration/goodies : shades of autumn f6:a11

This morning as I was putting together this week's 'shades of autumn' feature, I realized it was week 6. I looked down at my calendar and realized today is October 14th, October is nearly halfway over. My shades of autumn series is nearly halfway over!! Where is time going??? Didn't I just yesterday write about how September was almost over and October was nearly here? 

Time, you old gypsy man, 

Will you not stay,

Put up your caravan,

Just for one day?

Excerpt from "Time, You Old Gypsy Man" by Ralph Hodgson. It's strange how quickly time seems to be flying. I know I talk about it a lot, but it's because I'm constantly reminded of how quickly time goes by. But, enough of the time talk, on to the feature:

shades of autumn : f6:a11

This week's inspiration comes from this lovely photograph:

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Isn't that just lovely?!? Who wants to meet me on that bench and write and read and drink coffee while discussing life's great mysteries?!?! Haha! And I love the combination of colors for this week:

{chartreuse}

{plum}

{light brown}

1. Owl Bank - $39.99 

2. Kindle Case - $20 

3. Knitted Cowl - $63

4. Journal - $50.33

5. Jacket - $100

6. Purse - $38

7. Paper Pom - $4.50

8. Bear - $27

9. Tiny Bow Necklace - $11.34

What a lovely collection! 

Happy Friday all you lovely people! 

Thank you for taking up some of your precious time to read my blog. As quickly as time passes now, I know how precious that time really is. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart. 

♥

inspiration : thursday thoughtfuls

Hi ya'll! I inadvertently took a break from blogging this week. Sort of. I posted two blogs on Monday. One about a poem I wrote and the painting that went with it. Another about some fabulous musical numbers from some of my favorite movies, mostly circa 80s. But that was it, no other regular blog posts and I've missed it. But it's good to take a mini-break from time to time. ;) And now, that's over, time for some blogging... here we go:  

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This is so me. I do this all the time.

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I love this. I'll add this to my list of quotes-turned-art for my future kid's room. :) 

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You all know you've done this! haha... this makes me laugh! 

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Ask yourself this every day. 

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When I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to say I was bored. If I did say that, Granny always told me there was work to be done. I hated it when she did that, but now I see what she was really doing... turning me into a completely unboring person. ;)

Have an awesome Thursday!

♥