Making Earrings to Match

 I picked up this necklace on clearance awhile ago at Target:

I love it!  But I every time I wore it I had the darnedest time figuring out what earrings to wear.  The metal was so dark that bright silvers looked wrong.  And the style of the necklace seemed to clash with a lot of my black earrings.  I looked and looked every time I was in a store for something that might work, and I just couldn't find anything that seemed right.  So I decided I had no other choice than to make my own earrings.

I took a trip to the craft store to buy some black earring hooks.  Then I took my needle-nose pliers to the necklace and removed two same-sized balls, one from each side of the necklace.  Luckily, there are so many balls, that you don't really notice 2 are missing.  The balls were just attached to a chain grid, so it was super easy to find symmetrically placed ones to remove. I just bent open the looped wire attaching them to the necklace and bent it closed onto the earring hook:

I love the result!  Although this necklace was especially conducive to scavenging earrings off of, I bet this could be done with more necklaces.  I totally need to go see what other necklaces in my jewelry box have earrings on them waiting to happen!

Old Dishtowels are Scary!

When we got married, I registered for several sets of flour sack towels.  I LOVE them, especially for drying dishes.  But it turns out that after 10 years, towels wear out.  Especially when you bleach them along with all your other rags.  My towels had reached the point that I had to accept them as "dead."

But I looked at those ragged pieces of cloth and said to myself, "G, you should save those!  You can't fake that kind of wear and tear.":

What do you think?  I think they make great Halloween decorations!  I have them inside over 2 windows in the living room, in the big front window, and hanging in the sidelight by the front door.  I just bought a package of black plastic spider rings, cut the ring part off, and stapled them in a few spots on the old towels.

Pumpkins 2012

Things have been SO busy lately.  I am totally exhausted. Beyond exhausted.

And yet despite it all, we still couldn't resist our traditional pumpkin carving endeavors.

This year we let the kids pick one design and then M and I picked another design.

The kids opted for Po from Kung Fu Panda:

We chose to do a the Mockingjay design from the Hunger Games:




But a little advice from me. After you print off your pumpkin design and cut it out, make sure you don't accidentally turn it sideways when you start taping it to your pumpkin:

As I started poking holes to transfer the design, I thought something looked a little odd, but I couldn't put my finger on it.  And then when it was already too late, I realized.  The bird is supposed to be flying with its wings up and head down, and not with its wings back and head up.  Luckily, once it's dark you can't see that we have the pumpkin turned on it's side!

Chimp Stamp

So there is this other mom at the kids' school.  I see her when I pick up Scott in the front hallway. I've been pondering something about her for awhile now because I don't have much else to think about while waiting for school to let out.  In warm weather when she wears a tank top (like today - 90 degrees on October 17th!!!), I can see that she has a chimp head tattooed on the back of her shoulder.  Yes, chimp as in a chimpanzee.

I don't get it.

I'm trying to imagine the situation in which a person thinks to herself:
"You know what would be awesome?  If every time someone comes up behind me they are accosted by a chimp face.  Preferably one where the chimp is bearing it's teeth in some sort of display.  (Display of what? I don't know what as I'm not Jane Goodall. Is it grinning? Is it about to rip my head off? The world may never know.) And the head should definitely be disembodied. Oh and I'd like this image to be a permanent lifetime commitment."

Is this supposed to be a turn on for guys? I can't imagine it increases her status among her girlfriends. Or am I the only girl who isn't gaga for chimps?  Cuz they kinda give me the jibblies.

Or maybe she's like a zoology major or something and feels the need to loudly advertise her zoologic expertise and/or unhealthy obsessions?  (But it's not like I have a circuit diagram tat on my upper arm or anything...)

Then again, I don't really understand tattoos in general. I could never be sure enough that I would continue liking something long enough to commit to it like that.  Does anyone less baffled by tattoos in general want to take a guess on the motivation of the chimp stamp???

Oh, and I'm really hoping to see her in a halter top some day because there is totally a part of some sort of striped tail peeking up from lower on her back! Raccoon? Lemur? Stripe Tailed Cat Tat? The suspense is killing me...

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

Practice three times a week (she WANTS to go to the optional 3rd one done by the league), plus a game on Saturdays. I feel like Claire is living and breathing soccer right now:

I am surprised to find that I miss her a little. I don't stay at her practices any more.  I just drop her off.  All this soccer is eating up a lot of the time that she's not in school and I actually don't see her as much as I'd like. I'm thrilled that she's enjoying herself, spending time with the great friends she has on her team, and getting exercise.  I love that she's learning non-academic things. But she has actually reached an age where she's kinda helpful and fun to talk to, so when she can keep from fighting with Scott, I really like having her around. So yes, I miss her.

Great. Now I'm a sap AND a soccer mom.