Currently

Reading: Finishing up Hidden Figures for Sunday's book club. Such a great story, but so dense with information. I've had to take my time in reading it.

Watching: Dirk Gently started again! Woohoo! The super weirdness is back!

Listening: Every day, I've picked a different radio channel from Apple Music. Makes our music listening very interesting and eclectic. I really love The Mixtape.

Making: Kicking my Christmas card making into high gear.

Feeling: Tired. Just tired. 

Planning: Last week derailed our meal planning a bit. I'm back on track and needing to plan out the meals for the rest of October. 

Loving: The fires in North Bay are slowly being controlled. The wind has died down. Overall, our air quality is much better than it was. I can actually open the windows.

Trio of Witches' Hats

Today's post is a simple and fun Halloween card. I stamped the witches hats in the three Halloween colors from last year's catalog: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, and Perfect Plum. Using those colors gave me a chance use some of the leftover Halloween Night Enamel Shapes. Cute and simple.

• Stamps: Spooky Cat
• Inks: Pumpkin Pie; Perfect Plum; Old Olive; Basic Black
• Cardstock: Spooky Night DSP; Pumpkin Pie; Basic Black; Very Vanilla
• Accessories: Halloween Nights Enamel Shapes (retired)
• Tools: 

Sunday Haul #15

I took advantage of Stampin' Up!'s World Cardmaking Day sale. I snapped up a few stamp sets for 15% off and took advantage of the Fast Fuse deal (buy 1 get 2 free!).

• Cherry Cobbler Cardstock
• Merry Mistletoe Stamp Set
• Gold Satin Ribbon (clearance rack)
• Gold Embossing Podwer
• Snowflake Sentiments
• Fast Fuse Adhesive and refills
• Just Add Text Stamp Set

Pirate Party Round-up

We had a great joint birthday party for Arthur (4) and Quentin (1). Today's post is my photo dump of all the fun!

Finding clues during the treasure hunt:

Outdoor activities:

• Ring Toss with skeleton hands
• Walk the plank with water (blue tablecloth), a piece of wood, and a "scary" crocodile
• Fishing for treasure with beaded necklaces and hooks
• and the water table filled with ducks

Pirate Party Crafts

Today's post is another installment of my coverage of our big joint birthday party. Of course, I had to make a ton of crafts. For Arthur's first birthday, I had made a photo board so I had to do one for Q. Instead of a board, I went with cute banner for the fireplace. Very cute!

Next up, I made the goody bags. Each bag had a foam sword, eye patch, pirate hat, bag of Pirate's Booty, pirate tattoos, a compass, and a ring pop. The baby bags had a pirate rubber duck, graham cracker goldfish, and a beach ball. I made these cute little name tags featuring images from Message in a Bottle Stamp Set.

I covered the dining room table with some kraft paper, stamped on some anchors, and put of two pirate ships in the middle. I later added some chocolate gold coins, bags of goldfish and pirate's booty, and ring pops to the table.

Time to decorate the kitchen aka main party area.

I bought this huge pirate flag to hang on our back door. (The flag will find a permament place somewhere in our house).

I grabbed these awesome pirate signs, fish net, skeleton, and great white shark for decor.

I also couldn't pass up this fun Happy Birthday banner.

This table was used for eating during the party. I added the other pirate ship for decoration. The baker's rack served as our present holder during the party. I featured my cute crafted letters, a pirate book I bought Q, and a fun stuffed parrot. Pirates have to have a parrot!

I conquered my fear of piping to frost some vanilla cupcakes. I added some gold rocks and homemade pirate flags. These cupcakes were so yummy! You can just make out some skull plates in the background. Very cute!

The cake came from Costco, because nothing can beat $18.99 for half sheet of actually good cake. I did buy and add these cute pirate decorations. 

For the food, I made fun pirate themed placards and tags. We featured:

• Rum Punch -- for the adults
• Caribbean Sea Water -- punch for the kiddos
• Seashell Pasta with crab
• Seaweed Dip -- spinach artichoke dip
• Fish and Chips -- goldfish and potato chips
• Pirate's Jewels -- fruit tray
• Walk the Plank -- blue jello with a graham cracker
• Polly's Crackers and Pirate's Gold -- crackers and cheese
• Pirate's Booty 
• Doubloons -- Oreos spray painted gold
• Just Fish -- goldfish bags
• Fish of the Swedish Persuasion -- Swedish Fish
• Life Preservers -- peach rings
• Driftwood -- pretzels
• Hot dogs and Brats

Pirate Letters

Another cute piece of Arthur and Quentin's birthday party. I took two chipboard letters and start covering them with paper and fun bits and bobs. I pulled all these pieces from my random bits drawer. I love using up embellishments I've had laying around for years. These were great decorations for the party.

Cupcake Birthday Girl

Today's post is another cute birthday card inspired by the Birthday Memories DSP pack. I fussy cut this cute little cupcake girl to use as my main image. From there, I added some great DSP as a background, and little frame for my cupcake girl, and a sweet birthday sentiment. My card was still missing something so I added some great gold glitter washi tape. Who doesn't love a bit of sparkle on their card? Finally, I cut out a present and a cute party hat. Such a cute little card.

• Stamps: Cool Treats
• Inks: Real Red
• Cardstock: Birthday Memories DSP; Blushing Bride; Whisper White
• Accessories: Gold Glitter Washi Tape (retired)
• Tools: Stitched Shapes Framelits

Pirate Treasure Map

Our big activity at the birthday party is a pirate treasure hunt. I started with a large piece of kraft paper. I created a path at random knowing I had 12 clues for the kiddos. Arthur picked out some pirate themed stickers to use in decorating our map.

Detail of the map:

The squares are where the clues will be attached as they are found. I went with simple little riddle rhymes. In case the kids don't get it, I also printed out images of where to find the next clue.

And at the end of the path, the treasure chest is waiting with coins (plastic and chocolate) and jewels (beads, plastic, and ring pops). 

Sunday Haul #14

A stop at Michael's for other party supplies (cupcake liners, frosting tips, gold spray) and came out wth some crafting supplies of course. I snagged some cute Halloween and fall stickers, leaf tags, and some pretty clearance washi tape.

I also received my small planner sticker order from Brianna Nicole Designz on Etsy. I grabbed some cute craft stickers, cleaning stickers, Hocus Pocus images, and two fall themed kits.

Pirate Thank Yous

Today's post is the first of my series celebrating Arthur and Quentin's Pirate Birthday party. Being the crafter, I had to make a ton of decorations and bits and bobs with the pirate theme. I needed to make some thank you cards, settled on a design, and then couldn't decide which image to use. Instead of deciding, I made multiple of each. I stamped a bottle with different fillings (whale, octopus, or pirate ship) and fussy cut the bottles out. From there I stamped a fun background on my kraft paper with repeating images. Time consuming, but I do love the effect. The addition of the gold glitter washi tape was the perfect finishing touch. Loved these cards!

• Stamps: Message in a Bottle; Labeler Alphabet
• Inks: Island Indigo; Crumb Cake; Real Red; Basic Black
• Cardstock: Real Red; Kraft; Whisper White
• Accessories: Gold Washi Tape (retired)
• Tools: Stitched Shapes Framelits; Washi Label Punch (retired)