From me and Isabella. To you. Don’t let Alien Pumpkin Man snatch you up while you trick-or-treat! LOL!

and as a crafty gal, I’m supposed to have this really cool project to show you. Well. I got nuthin. See, I don’t do holidays very well. The pressure of making everything so cute and perfect and fun and amazing and well, I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Now befor eyou bombard me with bad mommy garbage, do not fear. Isabella has a costume. And its cute. And she loves it. And she practiced wearing it when she went to a Halloween party held by a friend last weekend. On Saturday, we’ve been invited to a neighbor’s party and we will go. And then Scott will take her trick-or-treating and I will stay home to read a book pass out candy to all the cute little kids in all their cute little costumes until I get sick of them all the candy runs out and I turn off the porch light. That’s bad. I know. And I feel the same about most other holidays too. I’m not a Scrooge, I’m just. Not into it. I will enjoy a holiday when it arrives, to a certain extent, but I like it mostly when its over. Oh. I do love the candy though. So we don’t actually “run out”. Ever.

So I’m behind on sharing layouts and thought I would share this one. As a member of the Scrap N’Art design team, I got to play with a bunch of digital goodies from Divine Digital recently. Here’s one of my layouts.

Papers, doodle: Hazel Olive Designs “Urban Sketch Book”; Index tab: Elizabeth Jenkins “Summer Spice”; Brackets: SAS Designs “Sunshine” recolored; , all the above available at Divine Digital; Stitching: Lara Payton “Straight Stitch Brush and Style”.

When I got this picture of my cousin’s kids, I knew I wanted to create a layout. But it was SO bright since they were sitting in the lake. This is often true with outdoor photos, water can often be overexposed and difficult to showcase in a layout. Solution? Black and white or sepia tinting!

We need a creative team member over at Scrap N’Art. Maybe that would be YOU? Check this out and if you are interested, send us an email!

No, I don’t have one, but I made one out of paper and you can see it HERE. Its really cute, if I must say so myself! Have a great weekend!

So Tuesday night, I went to a Girls Night Out at our synagogue. It was a LOT of fun. Claire and I are trying to be more active with the other women, which is not always easy with our schedules. But we’re trying. And this was a really great event. They had wine tasting and game tables. We chose to learn how to play MahJongg (as opposed to poker or pan). This is not MahJongg, like the solitaire game on your computer or your phone, people. Oh, sure the game pieces with all the cool little Asian designs look the same, but that’s where the similarity ends. I now “get it”, but I have no clue yet as to strategy, etc. Any successes I have will be pure, dumb luck. But it was really nice to hang out with other grownup women, NOT talk about our kids, and just enjoy each other’s company. Along with the evening, we had to bring a dessert. Well, I only know how to make one two things: Fruit Tart and Macaroons. So I brought 24 miniature fruit tarts and I have to say, they were the hit of the dessert buffet. And you know WHY they were a hit before anyone ever put a single bite of their yumminess in their mouth? Well, because they looked so darn cute, of course!

I printed out a text path in Photoshop so I could personalize my labels. I made it the exact size to fit inside one of my Spellbinder circle dies. Then I diecut and embossed all the circles, tied them on some twine, wrapped that around some food wrap, and ta-da! instant happiness on the buffet table! Here’s a photo of my little creations!

Anyway, it was a fun, grownup woman kind of night. I hope we’ll do it again soon. And if you happen to live in our area and want to join a MahJongg group, email me!

Okay, so the weekend. Tomorrow, we’re heading to Austin to see some friends we haven’t seen in years. I mean, lots of years. Our kids were about two when we last got together and now they have THREE more kids so clearly, its been awhile! On Sunday, we also have a baby shower for my step-sister and I’m looking forward to that too! I have a LOT of projects I need to be working on so I am hoping I can do that on Sunday evening and maybe even tonight if I can stay up late after the rest of the family goes to bed!