All Hallows Eve. . .

Happy Halloween, everyone!

You know the one house on the block that goes a little crazy every Halloween?  The one with the fog, the graveyard in the front yard, the flashing lights, spiderwebs, and the creepy sounds coming from it?  Yep, that's our house.

We spent all day getting this together and it turned out really great.  I don't think I'd go to this much work all by myself, but my husband just loves Halloween and he gets a kick out of everyone Trick or Treating and taking pictures in our yard.

The poor little ones are convinced that someone will come jumping out to scare them, but we never do that.  I hate to be scared!  I just like the house to look really cool.

This was also the first year that my kids carved their own pumpkins.  My son wants an iTouch, so guess what he carved?

My daughter went traditional on her pumpkin.

Here's to hoping your All Hallows Eve was safe and spooky!

It's Wreath Time!

Yes, as the holidays approach I'm starting on my wreaths.  I made two Halloween ones tonight.  Really gets the cute but spooky feeling going, doesn't it?

 This first one is on a grapevine wreath.  The webs are crocheted and sprayed with fabric stiffener.  The spiders are crocheted and I've been told several times they look like an octopus.  My answer to that is why would an octopus be in a web?  :)

The second one has the same elements but the wreath is different. It's on a thinner, lighter wreath.  I kind of like the grapevine wreath better but this one is cute too.  I ran out of ribbon or I would have made the bow a bit bigger.  In fact, the more I look at this wreath the more I think it needs something.  It's a little sparse looking.  Maybe I'll add some ribbon around the edges or something.  I found the little jack-o-lanterns at Wal-Mart and I thought they were cute.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, what's with jerky people there?  I guess you find them anywhere, but tonight I picked up a few things there and I limped out to the car, pushed the basket out of the way but on to the sidewalk, and the guy waiting for my parking spot yelled at me to put the basket away.  Umm, whatever, dude.  I guess he doesn't know about my injury,but why be a jerk anyway?  OK, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.

I can't believe Halloween is this Sunday.  Next thing I know it will be Christmas!  As much as I love Christmas I'm not quite ready for that yet!  :)

My visit to the Dr this morning was good.  He said my leg is healing nicely and it should be a lot better in a few weeks.  That's excellent news.

Limping Along. . .

What a crazy week!  Last Saturday night I was leaning over the sofa to turn on the lights (the switch is on the wall above the sofa) and my left foot slipped.  Something in my calf muscle popped and I went down.  A trip to urgent care on Sunday confirmed that I have a torn calf muscle.  Is that a freak thing or what?  I took Monday off but responsibilities at work had me back on Tuesday.  I feel almost totally helpless.  You know what an active life I have and being on crutches has slowed me down to the point where I feel like I can't be me!

On the bright side it will heal and thank the Lord it wasn't my Achilles.  That would be a really long recovery. Tomorrow I have a follow up appointment so I should know more of what to expect then.  But for a girl who never sits still, this is pretty frustrating.  Last Sunday was my art class and I missed it because I was so miserable.

I was able to go pick up my Fall ceramic projects yesterday and boy did they turn out cute!  Randi carved our family name into this one while it was green ware.  I painted it with glaze and almost looks like a carved wooden pumpkin.

I bought a battery operated flickering tea light at Big Lots and it looks perfect inside the pumpkin. 

The next pumpkin has "Come in for a Spell" carved on it.  My daughter painted it.  I love the little froggy on the right side!  

I put a flickering tea light in it and it looks ready for Halloween too.  My daughter did an excellent job on it!

I also painted a plate stand.  This is more for Thanksgiving than Halloween.  The base has pumpkins and the sides are sponged yellow over a wheat design.  This picture shows the base with the glazed pumpkins and the wheat colored base.

I bought a fall plate and glued it on to the top of the stand.   You can see the top in this shot.   Why did I buy a plate instead of making one?   I just ran out of time and I was afraid I'd never get this one done if I committed to painting the plate.I used one that was more like a bowl.   I have plenty of cake stands, but I can see this holding the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, can't you? 

Another Curly Scarf

My friends just can't get enough of this type of scarf, so I feel like I'm making one pretty much all of the time.

This one was for a friend's birthday.  It's made from variegated brown and tan boucle.  It's really, really soft and almost looks like an animal print.

There's lots and lots of free curly scarf patterns on the web, so if you want to make one, you have a lot to choose from.  This pattern is so easy you can make it in one or two nights.  I seem to always be frantically crocheting to finish this kind of scarf on Christmas Eve or the night before someone's birthday.  What?  Poor planning you say?  Nah, I'm just an artistic type, that's all.  :)

New Address Postcard. . .

Digital that is.  If you look at the address bar of your browser, it should now say http://www.minimischief.com/.  I got my very own minimischief domain and I managed to redirect it all by myself.  It probably should say "www.blog.minimischief.com," but I can fix that later, probably with my techie hubby's help.  But for now, woo hoo look at me!  I'm official.  :)

I've been really swamped as usual with the new job, but I've managed to crochet a bit at night AND I joined Ann Venture's book of the month club which is pretty neat.  I just got my first book this week and I hope to assemble it before the week is up.  If you belong to the club for 24 months you get this really neat miniature bookcase at the end of the subscription.  I imagine it will take me that long to assemble all these books!  If you're not familiar with Paper Minis, check out Ann's site at http://www.paperminis.com/.  If you sign up for her newsletter you'll get her free printies every month and they are really something.  Take a look.  :)