Costumes of Halloween Past

There's not a lot going on here for Halloween this year so I thought I'd drop in and share some of my costumes from years past. Somehow I could only find 3 pictures from childhood and 2 pics from my Corporate America phase. lol Ah well, here they are anyway!

All the way from 1978, I was a...what is that? A bear I guess? This was definitely one of those costumes in a box you could get at the drugstore. I miss costumes in boxes...



This was 1979 and my favorite costume when I was a kid. We didn't have a lot of money growing up so Mom paired my Wonder Woman Underoos with a Wonder Woman mask and my red rain boots and voila, instant super hero!



I think this was 1982...again, not much money so this fabulous costume was holes cut in a sheet with a lipstick mouth and my Easter hat...ta da! Lady ghost!



So for my first Halloween in the corporate world, I was so excited to find out that all the departments dressed up and I was all about being a fairy. Then I found out that each department picked a different theme and ours was military...what the what? So I put together this military fairy thing, complete with wings, camo shirt, fishnets, black boots, glitter belt and fake grenades...tell me I can't be a fairy, huh!



This one is my absolute favorite costume of all time. The next year I made sure to organize our department's Halloween so I could pick the theme. I went with Time Warp. Muwahahahaha I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to go as and I ran across this cigarette girl costume. When I got it home, I realized that it was the cheapest ugliest thing in the world except for the fake cigarette box carrier thing that came with it. So I kept the box, threw the rest away and came up with my own thing. This costume is totally not period correct but whatever, I loved it! I even found stocking with the seam up the back and wore a short red wig. My mom made the hat for me out of a paper box from Michael's. The rest were just pieces from my closet I put together.



Ah, sweet memories...do you have a favorite costume from your costume-y past?

Happy Halloween and/or Happy Harvest everyone!

Friday Night Fab Five: Random Fabulousness

Heyyyyyy youuuuuu guuuuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyys! (Goonies...hee hee)

Welcome to another Friday Night Fab Five! This week we're going random again, don't you just love it? I am all about some random so let's jump right in!

1. PaperBack Swap



Believe it or not, before I started playing video games and putting glitter on everything in site, I was a reader. lol I still read but the price of (new) books is getting nuts. Enter PaperBackSwap.com. I just learned of this site and instantly fell in love! You basically swap books with other people and they are totally free. All you pay is postage for the book that you send to someone else. They have a TON of books available and I found a couple of out-of-print celeb bios I had been looking for, huzzah! (I'm also going to use this site to get Toot some books, kids books are SO freaking expensive!) This looks like a great way to get rid of some book clutter and save money adding to my library. Click the logo above to check it out!

2. Kristen Bell


Photo from People.com

She was great as the cheater in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, she was awesome as "one of the boys" in Fanboys and she was amazing in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical. Plus, she was the ONLY thing good about the second season of Heroes. Kristen Bell is cute, fun and I bet she would be a blast to hang out with!

3. Awesome T-shirts

As a stay at home mom, there's no real reason to hang out in my suits and dress pants from Days of Corporate Yore. My current favorite every day outfit is jeans (complete with my Assets ;) and a rocking t-shirt. I adore this one from Loyal Army.



4. Retro Inspired Appliances

Ah, my dream kitchen...Some things you can buy "vintage" and they last for years. I'm pretty sure appliances don't work that way. So what's a vintage-lovin' gal to do? Get appliances from Elmira Stove Works of course!



Elmira's Northstar line includes fridges, microwaves, stoves and dishwasher panels AND you can choose from NINE different colors including PINK. Um...yes please! The only problem? Money, my friend. It cost money to look this awesome unfortunately. *sigh* Time to save pennies to get these babies...they'll look good in my retirement home at least! :P

5. Hairstyling...Vintage Style!



I love love love this book by Lauren Rennells. Vintage Hairstyling is a must-have if you're looking for how-tos on vintage hairstyles. She covers styles from the 20's to the 70's and I love the variety. She also has a section on make-up and tools needed for the styles (she makes a point to list modern hair products and appliances to make it as easy as possible). The book site is HERE and you can check out Lauren's blog HERE.

So that's all for this week's Friday Night Fab Five Blog-Post-O-Random-Rama! Tomorrow is Halloween, Sunday we're going back to the Renaissance Festival (I still need to post pics and videos from the first time we went, yikes!) so it should be a fun weekend! What are your plans? Do share with the entire class! :D

Have a great Friday Night everyone!

Circle Journaling, Now With 100% More Cannibalism!

This time around on the Gauche Alchemy Circle Journal...uh...circle, I got a chance to work in a very special journal that belongs to my good friend Callista. I knew this would be a fun CJ to work in because 1. I like Callista and 2. Callista likes cupcakes. Not surprisingly, the theme of her journal is "Cupcakes"...how fun!

Except that...I was viciously attacked by that nasty beast: Artist Block. Boo! Hiss! Come on Artist Block, really? Give me a break! Grrrrr...

So I thought and I schemed and I planned and I racked my brain trying to make my entry in Callista's CJ the best...but what would make it the best? What could I do with sweet sugary fairy cakes that hadn't already been done? What could I do? WHAT?!

Wait a minute! I know! I can't believe I didn't see this before...duh! Everyone knows that cupcakes are known cannibals. It's in their nature...their delicious delicious nature...







Naughty naughty little cupcake!

These pages were fairly simple. I made the "bitemark" with my trusty office hole punch. I glued dictionary pages to the chipboard and I noticed the words "bitchy bite" on the right hand side and that got me thinking about the devious nature of cupcakes. Sure, they taste good but then they move to your stomach and thighs and refuse to leave! Stupid delicious sons of...ANYWAY, I added some acrylic paint and sequins and pieced together the cupcakes from patterned paper and cardstock scraps. Some Stickles and my label maker and woo hoo! Cupcake Cannibals! (Not to be confused with Cupcake Cannabis...TOTALLY different thing!)

hee hee

Family Pictures: Album Four

Hello all! Time once again for some pictures from our Family Vault (i.e. the box in our den) and if you're just joining us you can read about these albums and see the first one HERE, the second one is HERE and the third album is HERE.

Album Four is interesting because it contains pictures mainly from the 40's with some 20's, 30's and 50's "misplacements" thrown in for good measure. I was lucky to find some years written on the back of a couple and have noted it with the specific picture. There must have been at least a couple of the men in the family that served in WWII because I found quite a few shots of men in uniform. I hope you all enjoy Album four!

And as always: I'm sure it goes without saying that these pictures are not to be posted anywhere or used in any way without express permission from me. Period. I can be contacted at katamommy at gmail.com. I promise I don't bite! :D


This one has "1926" written on the back.


This one has "1937" written on the back -EDIT: just got a call from the husband and he said that the happily married couple in this photo are his grandparents.












This one has "1944" written on the back.





Have a great day everyone!

Welcome to Steampunk

One thing I noticed during this year's birthday jaunt to my local Renaissance Faire was the infusion of Steampunk amongst the feathers, corsets and capes. I drooled, I envied and I was delighted by this fanciful addition to the various costumes. If you've never encountered Steampunk, just think Victorian England with a dash of gears, brass and mechanical hybrids. You can also read about it on Wikipedia HERE. I think this style is fascinating and such an intriguing artistic question begging to be explored and answered. I would love to share some fabulous Steampunk finds with you, an area filled with possibilities! I think if I were currently on a scrapping design team, I would so create a Steampunk challenge! lol


I love this custom made hat from Gypsy Lady Hats
(Actually all of the hats in this shop are amazing, give them a visit!)


Crystals add some much loved "Maggi Bling Need" on this necklace from A Second Time


Must have these goggles from Maelstromme's


This sculpture from Reclaim2Fame is stunning!


And this gorgeous ensemble from Silver Leaf Costumes *Note, listing is for corset only*
(Believe it or not, this is the EXACT outfit I saw at the Faire that sparked my interest! How funny to find the seller randomly online...go go Gadget Internet! lol)

I could keep listing Steampunk beauties forever and I hope I've given you some new things to read and learn about. (Hint: do a Google image search for "Steampunk laptop"...trust me on this one) Steampunk incorporates so many elements (vintage, technology, distressing, metal, textiles, etc etc etc) that I can literally hear the creative brains out there smoking from all of the possibilities, I know mine is! lol :D

Coming up this week are some more vintage family photos and videos by the barrel full! Have a great Sunday everyone!

Friday Night Fab Five

First off, just so y'all won't think I haven't been getting my creativity on lately, a sneak peek on what I've been working on that is taking me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to complete:



Hello everyone and welcome to another Friday Night Fab Five where I list 5 things that I think are fabulous this week. This week is all about the random and I am the Queen of Random!

Without further ado:

1. Assets by Sara Blakely



Sara Blakely is the creator of Spanx and Assets is her more affordable line sold in Target stores. If you are looking for a body shaper you can wear outside of the wedding or fancy party, get this one! It's comfortable and doesn't give you that thigh bulge. I really love how it smooths everything out and my hubby noticed a difference before I even told him I had it on!

2. Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice Creamer



The coming of Fall means many things to many people but for me it means that the fancy seasonal creamers will be hitting stores and hitting my coffee, woo hoo! I love anything pumpkin and I could drink this creamer right out of the bottle...but I don't. I swear...

3. My New Autumn String Lights

I have this shelf in my kitchen that has these metal string lights with butterflies and dragonflies on them. I added some ivy and then the shelf above has birdhouses and whatnots. During Christmas, I take all of this down and decorate with my little 70's plastic village houses, lights and ornaments. Here it is normally:



But what about Autumn?! And then, once again, Target came through for me and provided something I wasn't aware I was looking for until I saw it:



How perfect are these to go under my little shelf?! (You may not be able to tell from the picture but the cut out is a leaf) So I got these lights and some Autumn leaf garland and I'm going to redo this shelf for Fall, woo hoo! come to think of it, I'm a big advocate of twinkle fairy lights in your house year round period. If you're looking for a cheap way to add some sparkle and magic to your rooms, add some fairy lights! Trust me...

4. My New Hat



My husband can blame Jessica for this one. I was innocently reading this post on her blog when I was attacked by the cutest little Fall hat you ever did see! So of course the only logical thing to do was to rush over to Etsy and buy it. I couldn't let anyone else have, could I?

5. Happy Mail

I have been so lucky to receive some fabulous happy mail in the past couple of days! The first was a prize I had won from Y and she added some extra fun stuff, awesome! Thanks Y!



Then I got some awesome pictures from Julie! She had a bunch of family pics, specifically school pics that she thought I might have fun using in my artsy things and she was right...these school pics and fun postcards will be glued onto something ASAP. Thanks Julie!



And then my fantastic Callista! First she posted about my birthday on her blog and then she sent me the most fun birthday surprises! A beautiful ring and matching hair pin (which she MADE!), some teas to try out (she knows I am so helpless when it comes to tea!), a handmade birthday and Halloween card, a fun little magnet AND a 1950's vintage apron her great aunt made to wear at cocktail parties! Wowowowowowow, instant love! Thanks Callista! (And that apron will be making a reappearance once I stop being lazy and take pics of me wearing my vintage dresses! :)



Speaking of happy mail, I am seriously considering hosting a Secret Santa swap here on the blog. I know that a lot of us visit the same blogs and I thought that exchanging things and surprising someone with some happy mail would be a lot of fun! I'm thinking of doing one that's crafty and one that's not so that everyone will feel welcomed to participate...plus with the ideas I have, it wouldn't cost anything but postage...hmm.....must think more....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Takin' Care of Business...Told You I Would Forget Something!

Thanks so much for all of the fabulous birthday wishes everyone! I so appreciate it! I've actually been sick the past couple of days which has slowed me down a little (boo! hiss!) but we're getting back on track! I have so many things I want to tell you about (new projects, my day at the Renaissance Faire, Toot's birthday, major happy mail)! I wish I had a project to show you but I'm currently crocheting some different things and crochet does not lend itself to instant gratification (again: boo! hiss!) lol. So instead I have some news from here and there from people getting more accomplished than I:

1. Life Preservers Scrapbook Club is having an online crop this weekend and it's sure to be amazingly fun if the previous crops are any indication. LPS is my online scrappy home and I do hope you'll consider joining us this weekend! We have a lot of fun and the LPS gals are really awesome (read: 100% drama free).

2. There's a new challenge blog on the horizon and this one looks like lots of inspirational fun! It's brought to you by the super Julie and it's called Play Date Cafe Challenge. These are color based challenges with prizes and different hosts every week and it's sure to be a blast so check it out!

3. I took Toot to get her picture taken today to mark her turning 1 year old. I was going to pass but just couldn't stand not getting something professionally taken, I'm such a sap. By the way, did I tell you I caught her eating cat food the other day? Fantastic...

Anyhoo, I won't bore you with them all but here are my two favorite shots:

In other Toot news, I entered her in the Baby Gap casting call and I was going to post a link for you all to see but their site is 100% craptacularly s...l...o...w so I figure I like y'all too much to torture you with the site so...just wish her luck! lol

EDIT: their site seems to be moving faster now, you can see Toot's pics HERE and vote for her too if you wish :D

EDIT II: 4. I forgot to bring up National Novel Writing Month! Anyone feel like writing a novel next month? I think I'm going to go for it! Check out the details HERE!

Let's see...was there anything else? I just know I'll hit publish and then think of 100 more things I meant to tell you! Grrr...Oh well! If I do, I'll be back!

Happy Thursday everyone! :D

I'm Pretty Sure This Is The Best Day Ever...

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you that partied with me over the weekend at Vanessa's Halloween bash. There were so many awesome blogs participating, I enjoyed visiting each and every one! I was a little worried when I wrote my post as I wasn't sure everyone would "get" my brand of humor but most seemed to enjoy it so THANK YOU! In the end I left around 180 comments and visited over 200 blogs (not all had party posts) so I count it as a success! lol

Next, I'm not sure you if you knew this but 10 days after Toot was born, I was born! All right, 10 days and a few years after. Yes, you guessed it - today I turned 33! Go me! :P

My hubby started the party early last week by getting me a crochet magazine I'd been drooling over and 2 new crochet books. This past Sunday my mom took us to the local Renaissance Faire which we go to every year to celebrate my birthday (pictures to come later, I was lazy :P) and tonight my dad is taking us out to dinner (pizza, oh baby!) AND Toot slept until 7:30 this morning! Woo hoo! lol

I don't have much going on on the ole blog here for my birthday but I do want to share a project that I recently did that displays what my entire life philosophy is based on: a quote. I finished another journal for the LPS circle journal and the theme of this one was "Favorite Quote". This is a fun one for me because I quite like my favorite quote, which is from the movie "Harold and Maude". Here are my pages (P.S.-These pics are craptacular, I had to take them at night - boo, hiss!):



And a close up of each side:





So the quote is: "Everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves, you can't let the world judge you too much." I love love love this quote! If you've never seen the movie "Harold and Maude" I really recommend you check it out. (Cat Stevens did the entire soundtrack for the movie and the music is amazing!) It's all about being who you are, which is a unique individual and to embrace life. Here is a scene where Maude is talking about being unique.



It reminds me of this song that "Happy Monster Band" sings on Playhouse Disney (yes, I went there) it goes,

"I'm someone no one else can be,
I'm different than you, him or he,
I'm happy too as you can see,
Cause I'm the best at being me."

This may seem like a silly kid's song but I wish there was more of this philosophy being taught to our kids than being like celebrities or copying each other. Here's the entire song:



Anyhoo, didn't mean to wax poetic there! Thanks for sharing this day with me and have a cupcake before you go!


Want to make these cupcakes? Go HERE for the recipe! (and then send me one! ;)

Have a great day everyone!

Welcome to the Blog of Horror...Enter If You Dare...

Contained within this blog are the most unimaginable horrors known to man. Things only whispered in the dark have clawed their way to the surface to revel in this thing we all know...love...and fear....the Blog Party. And not just any blog party. We're talking about the Mother of All Halloween Blog Parties...



Mothers, hide your children! Men, bar the door! Super old people with heart conditions, take your aspirin! For you are about to enter...Just Add Glitter and Stir's:

House of Oddities

Muwahahahahahahahaha!

Banned in 51 states, this is the show you've tweeted about...in your nightmares! Never before has this collection been on display for all to see, to witness, to lament! (Except for that one time. There was some...unpleasantness and we are no longer allowed in Home Depot.) And yet, here it is! For today only! (or until the next blog post is written) Prepare to be amazed! Prepare to be horrified! Prepare to be boarded! Step right up and see...

The Playlist of HORROR, discovered deep in the ancient tomb of Mount Craptacular...

For the first time ever, live and in person The Amazing Beeman! The man that's half bee...half man!



A farm accident caused a lamb to be fused with the World's Cutest Baby! Shudder in horror as you witness the terror of...BambLamb!



And for the naughty child that wants a puppy but refuses to eat nutritious food...

Dumpkin, the legendary creature covered in fur and full of seeds!



And now the biggest terror of them all: the Terrible Traveling Troubadours, beware their bewitching antics of talent...and horror!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

*Please pause the Playlist of Horror to enjoy the show*

Yes, the House of Oddities is frightful and 100% pure cute, uh I mean evil! EVIL!

Please exit to your left and now that you have been properly horrified and delighted, head on over to A Fanciful Twist to experience even more Halloween celebrations!

Have a Boo-tiful day! Muwahahahahahaha!