Temple Square

The same night we went to the Grand America, we took the kids to Temple Square. This is the first time they have been to see the lights at Temple Square because I was always too terrified to take them up there in that crowd.


I haven't been to Temple Square at Christmas since B and I were dating, so it's been a long while for me. I don't know if things have really changed, or if my childhood memories of Temple Square are grander than the reality, but I was disappointed. It seems like only the small trees were decorated with lights, and the only place that resembled my memories of Temple Square at Christmas was the small courtyard between the south visitors center and the Temple itself.

Main Street Park was also full of lights, more so than the square itself.

It's not the Temple Square I remember, but it was still beautiful and worth the trip I think, even though it was raining the entire time we were there.

I still think the Salt Lake LDS Temple is one of the most beautiful buildings in existence. And for those of you who are not LDS and are curious about what the inside of a temple looks like, there is a diarama in the visitors center that shows what the inside of the Salt Lake Temple looks like.

The Windows at the Grand America

When I was little, the ZCMI Center downtown used to do a Christmas Window display.

Sadly the ZCMI Center is no longer there, and the tradition of going to see the windows was lost.

This year the Grand America Hotel decided to take over the tradition of the Christmas Window display. You go to the hotel and you are given a card. You go around to each window and record what each of the letters represents, then you take your card to La Bonne Vie and trade it for a little bag with cookies and an alphabet card.


I was instantly smitten with the retro feel of the cards and asked if there was a way to buy a whole set. Happily there was and I brought home this sweet set of cards that I plan to turn into a holiday garland.

Funny story about the hoity toity toilets... apparently my kids are solidly locked in their middle class world. B took them into the bathroom and PK was totally stumped, he washed his hands then said "Dad, I can't find the paper towels!" as he was standing right next to the nicely folded pile of cloth towels.

This hotel is something else. I am glad I got a chance (an excuse) to go inside and see it. It is beautiful, but I kept waiting for someone to grab my arm and escort me out becuase it was obvious that we didn't belong there.

I hope they do the windows again next year, I would definitely like to go back.

Things are lookin' up!

Sorry, things are kinda crummy around here, I gotta get a laugh in wherever I can!

Last year I got the wild idea to make a Mad Scientist's table as part of my Halloween decor.


I had so much fun dreaming up weird little things that would be found on a mad scientist's (Or a witch's) shelf. I have kind of an odd sense of humor, and it seems to really come out at Halloween. I got off to a good start last year, and have some ideas for more things to add this year. I have spent the year watching my local thrift store for unique bottles and jars.

We have Rotten Sweets- A nice little jar full of webs and spiders.

I got this bottle from the thrift. Filled it with polyester stuffing from the craft department and then added plastic spiders. I got these at Target for about $3 I think. It was quite hard to find plastic spiders that weren't #1 Rings #2 Fluorescent green or orange.

Vampire Blood-

Another thrift store bottle. I mixed Caro syrup and A LOT of red food coloring! I mean A LOT! You also need to add a little blue to make it more blood colored. It's still not as dark, or as opaque as I would like, but I don't know how to fix that. After I got my blood as close to blood colored as I could, I poured it into my bottle, and corked it with a cork that came in a multi sized pack from the craft store. Then I turned on my Scentsy tart warmer. Once the wax had melted I carefully tipped my bottle upside down and dipped the top portion of the bottle in the hot wax, let it cool then dipped again. I did this several times until I liked the way it looked, the added the tag with a bit of raffia that I wrapped around the bottle a few times.

Werewolf fur-

My plan was to go to the craft store and buy a little piece of fake fur. Well guess what? I couldn't find any! I don't know if it's something they don't normally carry (I swear I have seen it there before) or it if was just scarce because it was Halloween and everyone was making costumes. Who knows! I hit every craft and fabric store in the valley and came up empty handed. So, I decided to go to my local thrift and just buy a fluffy teddy bear and shave it. Found a good bear, multicolored fur, good length etc. Bought him for $.50 and brought him home. No one in the house would let me shave him, he was too cute UGH! The hunt continues! So I stumbled across this fake fur trim at Walmart in the craft section. It's about an inch to an inch and a half wide, and I just wrapped it loosely around my fingers then arranged it in a pickle jar with a spray painted lid. I think it looks great! Very convincing!

And Swamp Fog-

Which is another thrift store jar with polyester stuffing pulled very, very thin.

So, this year my plans are
A Jar of Eyeballs- I have already made one, I think it turned out awesome, don't you?
Witch's fingernails
Flies and Maggots (Found both at the dollar store today YIPPEE!)
Snow White's poison apple (They have really cute, realistic apples at the dollar store)
Vampire Fangs (if I can find some that aren't green and orange this year!)
Snake oil


Any more ideas for me? I would love to hear them!
I am also hoping to make a tutorial so that you can have some eyeballs too! =0)
And if you want some totally AWESOME vintage looking mad scientist labels, you can get them at the Love Manor! I asked her last year for a Poison Apple label, hopefully she hasn't forgotten =0)

Tuesday UFO finish...
I stuffed and blind stitched my ruffled T-shirt pillow closed.


I wish you could see in the pictures what color it really is, it's a rusty, earthy red, not as red as it seems. It looks really cute with my two little fall pillows that I made last year or the year before, I can't remember.


Wednesday UFO finish-
I started these little skeleton heads several weeks ago then they have just sat in a little stack on my computer desk since then. I cut out backs, stuffed them, and sewed the backs on. They look so cute mixed in with my little candy corns and halloween colored yo-yos.

Neglect

Sorry, I feel like I have been ignoring my blog lately, but the truth is, I have nothing to say. Life has been going on as usual, work, kids, commitments.

Christmas was good, the boys were thrilled despite constant complaints before hand that "Santa never gets me what I really want anyway!"

PK was determined to rat Santa out this year. I think his belief has come to an end and he wanted to prove he was right by not telling us what he wanted for Christmas, to see if Santa really did know his heart and what he wished for.

Apparently Santa got it right "Whew" and PK hasn't said a single word about Santa not existing since Christmas morning. I guess we will see what next year brings. I am just not ready for my children to be grown up enough to not believe in the magic of Santa anymore. Christmas is never quite as enthralling once you stop believing.

Ally, my niece, is home again. She is stationed at Camp Douglas and it's nice to have her back with the family. She spent the night at our house on Christmas Eve and helped us wrap presents. The boys were thrilled to have her here with us.

I hope Christmas was merry for each of you and that you felt the magic that is most potent this time of year.

Our Christmas Tree

Well, I finally bit the bullet and decorated our tree today. I had to go somewhere and the lady picking me up was about 20 minutes late and I had to do something while I was waiting, might as well get this thing done...right?

So it's done, it's finished. I'm not thrilled, but I don't hate it enough to do it over.


I don't think I am going to let B be in charge of the bead garland again next year. He's just not nearly as anal as I am when it comes to some things (in other things he has me beat by a long shot!)


I tried this year to bring a little of the aqua blue into the color scheme and I think that is what I didn't like. I removed all the blue and suddenly I liked the tree better.


I put my most favorite blue ornaments on the little (shockingly) green tree by the red door. They are still highlighted but not messing up the feel of my main tree.

I still have the dining room tree, and the family room tree to decorate, and they may just not get done this year. I am treed out.

I am NOT management material!

Back before I became a mom my boss tried for over a year to get me to be a manager. I kept turning her down because I don't like being the boss, I don't like being the one in charge. I like to be responsible for myself, and making sure my own work is done, I do not like being the one who has to make sure that everyone else is doing their job. I am not management material!

But, one day I caved and took the job. Every morning I cried getting ready for work because I hated my job so bad. I would literally make myself sick every time we had to have a disciplinary meeting. I don't like giving bad news, I don't like reprimanding people, I just want to do my thing and let someone else be in charge of making sure everyone else is doing theirs.

Which brings me to my latest fiasco. The PTA president asked me to be in charge of the Halloween carnival at the school this year. And for all intents and purposes it wasn't that big of a deal, everyone did really well on making sure their part of it was done on time and that they had everything they needed but my own fears got in the way. What if the kids hated it, what if their parents weren't happy, what if something horrible happened? What if what if what if what if....


(K making "Slime")

So, by the day of the carnival I had managed to make myself absolutely SICK. I was having anxiety attacks, I was sick to my stomach and just feeling generally crappy. I tried my best to see it through but around 11:30 my PTA president got tired of me looking faint and slightly green and ordered me to go home.


(Our FABULOUS Principal, seriously we love her! and her incredible office staff, can't say enough good things about them!)

I came home and slept most of the day while B carved pumpkins with the boys. I got up and managed to take the boys trick or treating for a bit, then over to mom's for Chili (Which I didn't eat for fear my stomach would strongly rebel) and poor B headed off to work. Then home and back to bed by 8:30 where I was very rudely awakened by teenagers knocking on my door at 10:00 PM. How annoying.


(If I didn't know how much food this kid could pack away, I would seriously doubt that anyone ever fed him, look at those ribs! Good heavens! And this isn't even the "Skinny" twin *sigh*)

Today I am feeling much better, although still mildly panicky, like something is looming over me that is about to come crashing down, but all in all feeling MUCH better now that this whole thing is over.


(Poor K accidentally drew his face on my pumpkin then burst into tears because he thought I would be mad at him. Poor kid, he has such a tender heart.)

The carnival happily seemed to be a huge hit. I had tons of parents come and tell me how much they loved it and how great it was, everyone pointed out that the kids all seemed to be having a fabulous time. We had games, crafts, and cookie decorating and more candy than Wal-Mart. And I am so unbelievably glad it's OVER!!!! I am not good at being in charge!


(PK and dad working out the details)

I hope everyone had an awesome and safe Halloween! The weather was beautiful here we didn't even need jackets, this is the first Halloween in years that we haven't practically frozen to death trying to trick-or-treat. It was so nice! Not even any snow.

(PF as Men In Black (Wonder where his tie went?), K as a practically invisible Darth Vader, and PK as a cowboy.)