The couple costume that almost wasn't

The day before the Halloween party Jeremy starts making noises about not wanting to wear the costume we bought for him. {insert grumpy face emoji here} We had spent good money on two costumes and they were both getting worn...by somebody. So I decided that after I wore the first costume to work if he still didn't want to dress up I would just wear his costume to the party.

My half of our couple costume. At work with my chain gang.

After work on Friday, when we started getting ready to head out to the party, Jeremy tried on his cop costume but he wasn't happy with how it was fitting. I took off my stripes and put on the cop uniform and I was ready to rock and roll. Jeremy put on the prisoner costume and even though it was a little small, he was willing to work with it. So...we ended up being in costume together after all.

I had a receipt book that I used to hand out tickets all night long. People got tickets for not being in costume, for being scared of spiders, for not being scary, for being too cute. I even wrote a ticket to subtract 10 points from Ravenclaw. It was a lot of fun to be both prisoner and police office all in one night.


Ravenclaw Wizard singing the blues.

This is the proper way to take down a perp.

Our hosts, Holy Cow and Mr. Beer-b-gone.


 

Gearing up for Halloween

Halloween has been a bit of a bummer holiday for the last few years. We have no kids so there are no school festivals or trunk-and-treat events. Door to door trick or treaters are rare in our neighborhood. And we aren't ones to hit the bars.

So usually we just pull the curtains, turn off the lights, and hide in the back of the house to avoid those random (as in one every other year) trick-or-treaters.

But this year...this year we are actually getting dressed up in costumes and going to a Halloween party. Our friends are hosting it and we wanted to have some fun games for the kids, so I handled the bean bag toss.

First, I stitched up some bean bags.

And then I worked on the board. I'm no artist, unlike my husband, and this is my first attempt at making anything like this. I am NO professional, but I think it will work ok.

Can't wait to show y'all our costumes! What do you have planned for Halloween?

New Adventures

Last summer I bought a cross stitch kit as a Christmas present for my sister. It's the Tardis from Doctor Who and it says 'Tardis Sweet Tardis'. I started working on it as soon as I got it, but thankfully I didn't get far before my mom checked my progress. Turns out it's called a counted cross stitch for a reason! Ha ha. I learn something new every day. I started the cross stitch border on the very edge of the aida cloth and my mom gently encouraged me to count out from the center of the picture guide. Turns out that my entire cross stitch pattern was going to be much smaller than the size of the cloth. She set me up with an embroidery hoop to hold the cloth and a storage box for all my
thread and cute little scissors. And once I had counted and started over again in the correct spot, I was in business.

But...I found that I was having a hard time making myself sit at home and work on it. I was too distracted with the TV and the animals and the husband and the Facebook. So, I was lucky enough to be invited to join a sewing group. I know, I wasn't really sewing but the ladies were nice enough to let me come and sit there doing my cross stitch. And I really, really enjoyed it. As Christmas drew closer, I finished up the cross stitch and decided to make it into a pillow. I ordered the fabric online and brought it along to the sewing group. One of the ladies, my co-worker, was nice enough to help a girl out and sewed it all together for me.

Once I was finished with that, I started wondering what I was going to work on next..so that I could keep going to the sewing group. I have a sewing machine. My mom gave it to me for Christmas years ago. But its been up in a closet unused for nearly all that time. Was it time to actually get it down and learn how to sew? Once the thought was in my head, I couldn't get it out. So I took to trusty Pinterest for simple, easy, beginner sewing projects. One project I came across was a tie-on dinosaur tail for little kids. I'm not sure how "beginner" this project was considered but I really wanted to do it for my friend's little boy. He turned three this week and I thought it would be the perfect gift.

Instead of getting my own sewing machine down (I'm working up to it) I took the fabric and directions to my Grandma. Thank goodness she was there to help me because I would have never figured it out on my own. Keeping to the seam allowance is SUPER important, I learned.

I did most of the sewing, and some of it had to be ripped out and re-sewn. But my Grandma did do a little bit of the sewing for me (mostly because I was over there for three hours and it was getting late). Either way, for better or worse, the tail was made and shipped off to the birthday boy.

It's the elusive Kidasaurus.

According to my friend, Jonessa, the tail was a real hit with Jethro and he even sent me a video to show off his dino ROAR!

Well, as much fun as I had putting that together, I did it outside of the sewing group. So, I still have to come up with a new project (maybe one that actually includes my own sewing machine). I might try infinity scarves next. How hard can that be?

I have another cross stitch kit heading my way...in case this whole sewing thing doesn't work out.

1 Halloween Costume

Day 31. Halloween Costume Reveal 

I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a couple years now. I really haven't had a reason to. So, instead, I'll share my costume from several years back. I threw it together super last minute to go to a Halloween party.

Is anyone still here?

Hi.

I'm Jinny. You may remember me from back in the day when I actually posted regularly to this blog. Work totally and utterly devoured my life for about four months. Most everything outside of work came to a screeching halt. But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on.

So, let me get you all caught up.

The hallway project we started in March has finally come to a (almost) finish. It's down to painting doors, so I'm calling it finished.

We've started on the bedroom but it's going at a snails pace. Which is fine, we aren't on any time schedule here.

We spruced up our outdoor space. The café table and chairs was actually a surprise birthday present from Jeremy. I went out of town for a weekend and when I got home this was waiting for me. I cried, I was so surprised.

I've been out of town a few times. I went to a wedding in Austin. So, Kenedi, the bride, met my sister when they were both in college. This is how I met Kenedi. Eventually Kenedi ended up in San Marcos and started going to the same church that my cousin and her husband work at. So now Kenedi is practically part of the family so when she got hitched this summer we all had to be there.

I went to Canyon, TX to see Texas, the musical, at Palo Duro Canyon. It was a charter bus trip and my Grandma invited me to go (who says no to their Grandma? Not this girl). It was a fun trip and I had a good time spending the weekend with the ladies of my family. I'm very thankful that my aunt Gail didn't laugh at me while I had a death grip on her hand when the charter bus drove us down into the canyon. It was pretty hair raising.

Aunt Bev, Grandma, Great Aunt Lynette

 My Mom and I went to Dallas to help my sister get her new apartment situated. She's lived in Dallas for many years now but this is the first time she has ever had an apartment by herself. After living with our cousin for years we have jokingly compared it to a divorce. I wasn't sure what she got to keep or what she needed to replace. So we went shopping and did manly things, like put together furniture.

We adopted a new family member! Ferguson, the fish. He's pretty low maintenance, doesn't make a peep, and doesn't need a lot of attention...no nail clippings or insulin shots, no grooming or heart guard meds, no walks or toys required. And he is pretty to look at.

We had to take Harley to get her teeth cleaned. I wouldn't even mention this but her recovery from the anesthesia and pain meds was unlike anything we've had to deal with before. If any of y'all have had to have a pet put under to have any type of work done, I'm sure you are familiar with the little speech the office people give you on the way out. "Keep them quiet", "They might not feel like eating", "They will probably be drowsy", etc. In the past, all of our pets have bounced back from being put under with ease, not even a hitch. But poor Harley girl, she's old and doesn't bounce like that. She couldn't walk, but she sure did try, and when she fell over she would just lay very still like 'I'm just going to stay right here'. She was the funniest little drunk kitty ever. But while it was funny, it was sad at the same time because we could tell her mouth was bothering her. They extracted 5 teeth and noted that there were others already missing. So now we call her Toothless.

So, you see, I haven't been a complete couch potato this summer (although there was plenty of couch wallowing). Overtime at work is easing off, for now, and I really hope to have more time to come back to this space. I've missed it.

 





Puppies and Pedicures

We held our first fundraising event for West Texas Angels for Animals on Saturday. Putt for Pups was held at our local putt-putt place. We had hot dogs and face painting, we were selling home made dog treats and t-shirts. Raising money for the animals and promoting adoptable animals that are available. For our first event, I think it went well. Maybe a hiccup or two, but over all..a very good turn out. It was great to see so many families bring their own rescue pups out for the event.

The AFA crew.

My sister even helped out.

AAnnndd, as you can see from above, my sister was in town for the weekend. Yes, we DID just see her earlier this week when we went to Dallas for the concert. This is probably what it would be like if we lived closer together.  We went to see our friend, Benita, in a play on Saturday night. It was held in a modular theatre which really gives the audience the chance to get up close and personal with the stage and actors.

Sunday was fun day! We continued our family tradition of having lunch at the church's spring festival. The brisket is NOT to be missed. Every year for as long as I can remember we have gone to the spring festival. My Grandpa use to help make the sausage and brisket and the women in my family volunteered in the arts and crafts room or in the dining hall. It's just one of those things that has always been.

And then we went for pedicures...with wine! Because we are fancy.

 

 

   

Metal 'Til We Die

We went up to Dallas for a fast and furious trip, go one day and come home the next. Jeremy wanted to go see Iced Earth and they were playing a smaller venue in Downtown Dallas. My little sister, who were staying with, decided to tag along. And thank goodness..because she did all the driving..and driving in downtown Dallas was just stupid confusing.

This was my sisters first ever heavy metal concert. Before we headed out she asked me, "What should I wear?" She had pulled out a melon colored tank top with flowers on it. "Just wear something black", I told her. So she did...although it still had flowers on it. While we waited in line for the doors to open my sister was checking out the crowd and she says, "Good call on the black". Yeah, this isn't my first rodeo.

This was NOT at our concert.

When the first band started playing, the guitar player started whipping his hair around in a perfect headbangers circle. I yelled in my sisters ear, "We are going to teach you how to do that tonight!" Never mind that I have never headbanged in my life. It was fun to see her eyes get big.

Also NOT at our concert.

Overall, we all had a good time. Well, I mean, of course Jeremy had a good time. He was totally in his element.

Jeremy at the concert.

My sister and I managed to entertain ourselves. Concerts are always good for people watching, at the very least. By the end of the night, our ears were ringing. According to my husband that is very metal. I'm not sure that we completely won my sister over to the heavy metal side but she walked away with a very memorable experience.

What I did this weekend

You know those weekends when you get to lay around in your PJ's and do nothing? This was not one of those kind of weekends. I've been busy, busy, busy.

Saturday morning marked the first official meeting for the West Texas Angels for Animals Project. I didn't manage to snap a picture of us because I was too busy eating and/or talking. In a two hour period I don't think there was a moment of silence. We were hashing thoughts and ideas so fast I was lucky to get notes down on paper before we were on to something else. Feel free to like our Facebook page (linked above) if you like. We are open to networking dogs out of San Angelo to surrounding areas so if you are a Texas reader and you love animals, we'd love to have your support.

After the meeting, the husband and I went to see a new piece of public art. We have an organization in town called 'Art in Uncommon Places' and they have installed several pieces of art all around town from sculptures to murals. This new piece is at the base of the Lone Wolf Bridge and its called 'Forever Love', a large metal heart to put padlocks on..ala the Love Bridge in Paris.

On the back of our lock it says 'Beyond Forever'

Today we went to the carnival with my in-laws and our niece. The rodeo has been in town for the last two weeks and that means carnival time. When we were growing up, the fairgrounds were THE place to be during rodeo time. It was always crowded and the rides all seemed so large and loud and lit up. You could run around with your friends and ride your favorite rides over and over again, eat food that was terrible for you, and laugh at the silly side shows tents they had set up. I remember one year it was the snake lady. You would give up a ticket to go into this tent and there was a (fake) coiled up snake body with a (real) woman's head inside this (mirrored) box. Of course, the woman was able to talk but she couldn't move the fake snake body. Anyway, we haven't been to the carnival since we were dating. And there were no freak show tents.

I picked up the baby goat even though the sign said not to. Breaking the law!

Dolly riding the merry-go-round

Nanny had some crazy hair on the slide

She got a sno cone AND cotton candy

Dolly and I riding the caterpillar roller coaster (twice)

I tried a deep fried snickers for the first time ever. Y'all didn't want to see pictures of that. It was probably the worst thing EVER for me, but it was pretty dang delicious. Between the sunshine and the fried food I was worn out and I came home to nap for an hour.

Even though I enjoy my 'lay around and do nothing' weekends, this was a pretty awesome weekend!