Gotta Run!

I'm off on the next two weekends to conferences to obtain Continuing Education Credits for my certification in my work field (is it ok to hope it rains so I won't feel cheated out of my day sitting in a hotel room all day long?!) but I snitched some really awesome pictures off of my daughter's blog to show you of my granddaugher Madison with her Mommy at the Dallas Arboretum this past week...

Yesterday Megan had her six-month picture taken with a photographer (not the pictures above) and we some the unedited pictures last night and we were calling each other saying, Oh, my gosh, did you see how pretty this one was, that one was?! Megan said it's going to be hard to pick which ones to have the photographer edit because they're all so good!
Have I told you lately how wonderful it is to be a Grandmother?!
I hope even though I'm stuck in a dreary hotel that you have a sunny day (but don't have too much fun without me, ok?)
I have a friend flying to Hawaii for vacation today, she thought it funny she'd be a plane today on the way to heaven while I sit in pergatory in a conference. Good thing I have a sense of humor, or I might have strangled her! Just kidding! But I could sit there today dreaming of Hawaii still, right?.....

Yes, it's true, I "dream" in cartoon form! Smiles!

I Won! and It's Fall!!

Yes, friends, it's a double-doozy day here in Suzie Button land! First, I was a very lucky blogger to have been randomly picked to win this wonderful mini Halloween foldout scrapbook...

And I can't wait to fill it with little Halloween scenes with baby Madison...

Thank You Ruth for such a lovely, well-made scrapbook!
Also, I noticed specifically today here in Texas that the leaves are really beginning to fall off the trees as I joined the dogs for the morning backyard ritual...

Hubby needs to close the pool for the year!

This chair is my favorite outside hanging on the tree! Plus this tree shedding it's leaves is wonderful, it gives us late afternoon shade over part of the pool during the summer months and keeps the water from turning completely into bath water!
Have a wonderful Fall day wherever you might be!

Weight Loss Wednesday!

Hi, Friends! This is my first week as part of Weight Loss Wednesday! If you'd like to join in the cute icon is right there on the right, just click and join too!
I am trying to lose weight along with my daughter Megan (who gave me a beautiful first grand baby girl, Madison, in April).
I've "done" W.W. before about 20 years ago successfully, but this time it's a lot more fun because I have a weight loss buddy, my daughter!
I've lost 18 pounds so far, she's ahead of me at 25 pounds!

Isn't that funny?!!
My biggest dilemma is getting in enough exercise. I have many excuses...
1.} I'm too tired.
2.} I'm mentally drained from captioning all day.
3.} I am not a morning person, so I don't want to exercise in the morning.
4.} I would rather craft, read, watch TV, shop, talk on the phone.... than exercise.
Well, I could go on and on here.
Really, my goal right now is to just walk the dogs on MOST evenings.
After last week where I thought I had a "good" week and found i had gained 1.4 lbs and Megan gained .4, we made a goal for me to lose five pounds by Thanksgiving and to walk the dogs every night, and she's going to lose 7 pounds and go to the gym.
Wednesday's are our WW meetings, so we'll see how this past week went. I "feel" thinner! Ha,ha!!
I'm ok with losing weight slowly, I am happy with who I am no matter my weight. It comes from having a husband who loves me just the way I am (we've been married 29 years!) and I believe you should honor yourself as a child of God and that includes loving yourself. On the other hand, weight loss is a health benefit and I want to be healthy and to be around for a long, long time!
I made a low-fat dinner last night that I thought I'd share with you through a link...
YUMMY Parmesan Baked Chicken Breasts that were WW 7 points per serving... very easy to put together and delicious!
And also a Low-Fat Macaroni and Cheese dish that was interesting as far as ingredients, a mixture of low fat cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and cheddar cheese and a bit of nutmeg too! It smelled very Fall-like heating in the oven! It, granted, wasn't as yummy as regular mac and cheese, but at 4 WW points, I'll be happy and not gain weight from eating dinner.
Do you have struggles with getting to the gym too? Maybe you could share how you convince yourself to go! See you next Wednesday!

Kite Stars!

Hi, Friends! I thought I'd show you today something I made for myself, actually, to celebrate the Fall Season...

Kite Stars!
I saw the idea somewhere in blogland and the pattern is HERE
It's easy, fun and quite relaxing! Enjoy!
P.S. Ignore the toys, tubing through the window, I have a puppy, Ollie, that is quite the rabble rouser!
Heeeeerrrrrrreeeeee's Ollie! With another one of the LOVES of my life, Grandbaby Madison!

There are mice in the house, Mommy!

I just had to share a picture my daughter took of the cat's reaction to the mice and scaredy cat shapes I cut out for her home. She said he was so frightened! Such a funny kitty!

There's still time!

Hi Bloggie Friends! There's still time to add MORE Halloween splendor to your home, and so I'm still trying to make a few more goodies for, not mine, but my daughter Megan's home!
I am for no reason not really into decorating my home this year for Halloween so much, but being a young mother and with Grandbaby's first Halloween, Megan is excited to decorate, so it's fun to make surprises for her!
I am a troller (in a good way!) on blogs and came across this fabulous blog with directions and templates to make bats and Halloween masks over at A Little of my Life
and I added my own flair to the projects and this is what I came up with...

My flair included jewels, feathers and glitter!

It was a relaxing Sunday crafting these!

I also made the wall cutouts that I had featured a couple posts ago, but mine are cut out of stiff felt so they can be used year after year!

OOHHH, mice running along the baseboards!

Keep your craftin' on!

What do you see?

I received an email with these wonderful ink blot stamps and realized I see a beautiful dress there in that black ink, how about you?

Quite interesting! You can see more over at Stampington
So then I thought about the famous ink blot tests that I suppose determine your sanity (or not?) depending what you see in them! That's a scary prospect, isn't it?!
What do you see?
This iRorschach card and certainly the most colorful, consisting of blue, gray, pink, green, orange and yellow inks. It's a very complex mish-mash of shapes with lots of "activity" and plenty of places to "see" things. Possible Sexual Imagery: Male sex organs at the top center of the card

A very colorful card with blue, orange, pink, and gray ink. A roughly diamond-shaped image with lots of places to see things- a mask, animals climbing up the outsides, a moth or butterfly, a person with their arms akimbo, etc etc. Possible Sexual Imagery: Female sex organs, usually seen at the bottom of the card.

Just continuing on with ways to see things and to connect, but this time with word challenges, I was lying in bed listening to NPR radio ( i know! NPR?!) Well, my husband turns this on during the daily morning ritual of getting dressed. This morning they were going over word games and the challenge was this:

The challenge is to find a chain of "C" words to connect "carbon" to "circuit." The chain has seven words between "carbon" and "circuit." The answer doesn't have to match Will's (the host), but each word has to start with "C," and each has to combine with the words before and after to make a compound word or familiar two-word phrase.

So I'll start you out with the first one, and you fill in the blanks to the last one...

Carbon...copy..........................circuit

I love things like this! The answer can be
found at NPR.org

There is also a new challenge for this week up! I think I'll have to keep up with this puzzle site now, it's Fun!

Happy Pink Saturday, Friends!

Hi, Friends! I hope this Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound is finding you happy and well!
I love Fridays at my house, it is my one day off per week and I get to spend a lot of FUN loving time with my grandbaby, Madison, so I treasure my day off! She's now six months old and so adorable, a sense of humor and mischeiviousness in her eyes and a desire to try to figure out how to purse those lips to try to talk, which is hilarious! So I thought I'd show not just her getting bigger today, but also to show you an adorable playmat pattern I purchase over at One Girl..

Isn't it just CUTE and adorable?!! Now if I can just find the time to make it! The pattern is available in her Etsy shop, just click on her link and also you can find the link to her blog there.
And I shared a couple months or so ago the photos that are part of a year long process that my daughter Megan and I are doing to document Madison's first year by taking photos of her each month in a basket (whose liner I made and embroidered on for her!) and the same one year size outfit each month...
Month One

Month Two

Month Three


Now I'm MISSING month four here! That picture somehow ended up on my daughter's computer and I have to see if she'll send it to me to sneak in here, but you can still see the progression...
Month Five

She's our sweetie pie! Happy Pink Saturday!
ATTENTION: I wanted to let you know too there is a lovely giveaway going on right now at Pink and Pretty Designs You might win!

Fabulous Friday!

I just wanted to add...

One: I LOVE downloadable FREEBIES, don't you?!!
And HOLIDAY inspired freebies are EVEN BETTER! Yoo-hoo!!!
I found a new website with just this very wonderful Download category over at Paper Crave and I had to print me out some! Oh, yeah!
TWO: Get your craftin' on!

A bit more Halloween!

I wanted to share just a bit more of my Halloween crafting fun with you today...

This is a framed 8 by 10 framed picture on black felt.
And a close up for you...

I bought a downloadable kit from Angry Chicken that made classy but simple crafts to spice up the Halloween season!
And you always need a Halloween garland!

Happy Halloween Crafting!

Halloween is in the Air!

It's a wet and grey day here, perfect for a little Halloween crafting inside my toasty warm home!
I have been finishing up the final touches on my Halloween Swap and will share that in a minute, but, first, here's a little web-inspired Halloween crafting to inspire you to pull out the black paper and ephemera and close off yourself in your craft room to create!
All of the crafts can be found at Better Homes and Gardens website

Just by copying Halloween designs on paper and wrapping them around candle globes you've already spiced up your home for the season!
This craft is for the rodents running along the baseboard, but I LOVE the chair too, how easy if you have that type of chair already in your home!
You can buy precut felt shapes and turn them into delightful napkin rings to accent the Halloween table too!
Just one more and then onto MY Halloween crafting!
Here's an easy way to spice up those pumpkins without having to carve into them, I'll do this one next week myself!

I went to the First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX, on Friday with the specific purpose of finding inspiration for my Halloween Swap, and, oh, boy, did I!

I found an old metal bank safe deposit box and instantly knew that THIS was my inspiration (even though I could see the DOUBT in my daughter's eyes!)

I think my daughter Megan thought oh, no, Mom's buying JUNK again! No, sir, I had a VISION!
So I immediately starting searching for the details to create it...

A scary room to enter on a wet, grey night!

There are even bottles of witchy brews awaiting those who dare enter!