Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! We took the kids trick or treating tonight. The boys are really too old for it (Andrew especially), but they still go with Annah Brooke.

When I asked Annah Brooke what she wanted to be for Halloween a few weeks ago, she grinned really big and said, " a black eyed pea." Ha!!!!! I guess she wanted to be like her momma since that is what I was for my Halloween Bunco this month! I didn't argue with her though...cheap and easy!!! Just the way I like it :o)

So a black eyed pea she was! Ready to go trick or treating!
Daddy, Sadie, & ABS Since the boys are really too old for this, they don't really dress up, but we did let them get a mask at Wal-mart. Andrew is the red face and Avery is the gold face. Avery did have some black gown thing that he wore over his clothes that he had from a previous year.
We had a few neighborhood boys walk with us. Every time I take a picture of Sadie, she closes her eyes!!! ha! I ♥ this one! Andrew and Daddy Hope you all have had a fun and safe Halloween! I can't believe tomorrow is November 1st!!! Where did the time go?!?!

Oh, and don't forget to set your clocks back an hour tonight!!!!

The magic pan...

Happy Halloween! I am sitting here trying to figure out where the month of October has gone, but it's just that. Gone. :o)

I woke up Monday morning sick and by Tuesday, I just felt awful! I am not one to go to the doctor very easily, but I made myself go Tuesday afternoon! Everyone was pretty shocked when they found out I actually went to a doctor, ha!!!! But, I have way too much to do to let a cold (or whatever I had) get me down. Plus no one likes to be sick :o)

I was already feeling better by Wednesday night as I was in the kitchen baking more of these cookies for the kids.... And then tonight, I have been making brownies. Speaking of brownies...My kids ♥ brownies, especially Avery. The sad thing about it is that I don't make them often, because no matter how long I let those little jokers cool, when I cut into them they still fall apart and I NEVER get cute little square brownies. It is normally just a hot mess!

Well no more, my friends! My MIL gave me and my SIL a happy a few weeks ago, and to be honest, I thought it was such a silly purchase at the time. But after my SIL told me how wonderful it worked for her and I tried it tonight, this magic pan is NOT so silly!!!! I ♥ it....so much that I made two batches of brownies tonight, and plan on using it a whole lot more! :o)

You see, you pour your brownie mix into the pan and then put the divider into it. You bake it with the divider and then once done, it makes PERFECT little brownies!!!!!
No more janked up brownies! I was SO excited! I really love it, MIL! THANK YOU!
She ordered ours from QVC aka her favorite store, but you can read more about the pan here!

Well, I am off to bed. Sooooo glad tomorrow is Friday!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Decorating for Christmas....

You do realize that there are only....

Right?

Yes, FIFTY-SEVEN DAYS.......Oh My!!!! I have so much to do and so little time to do it!!!
I just wanted to share a quick idea for decorating the outside of your home this Christmas.....

Perhaps you could do what this clever neighbor on the right did...... :o)


I think this is BRILLIANT!!!! I ♥ it!!!!!

Happy THURSDAY!!!!!!

In case you are wondering....

The boys do still live here! :o) I realized I have not blogged about them much lately. Mainly because I do not have any pictures of them. When I try to snap pictures of them, I usually get this.... or a goofy look like this....Unless I sneak into the bedroom to snap a picture like this...

Other than that, I don't have really any recent pictures of them!!! :o( I mentioned this past weekend about us doing our Christmas pictures soon and they both moaned and groaned! They so do not like to be in front of the camera! ha!!!

They are having a lot of homework and book reports so needless to say, they are not happy campers! Their nights are usually full with reading and doing equations....blah, blah, blah!!!! Glad it is them and not me! ha!!!

They are both playing football, but I honestly have not really gotten any good pictures this season. Most of their games have been on the same night so Wade goes to one and I go to the other. Normally I have the camera with me, and it has seemed like when I have the camera, they don't get much playing time, but when I have forgotten the camera, they play the whole game...Go figure! My Luck...Note to self....take your camera EVERYWHERE you go and send the back up camera with Wade! :o)

Last week Avery brought home the middle school class ring form...Yes, you read that right. MIDDLE SCHOOL! We didn't have middle school class rings when we were in school, but they offer them now! Andrew got one in 6th grade and now its Avery's turn! :o) And I'm sure Andrew will be bringing home the HIGH SCHOOL order form any day now! My boys are growing up too fast!!!! :o(

They are both doing great though and just keeping us really busy! Hopefully I will have some football pictures to share in the next few days!

Good night!

Holiday fever & weekend fun!

I guess you can say I have Holiday fever really bad!!!! Not just one holiday, but all of them! I am so ready for Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas! I ♥ this time of year.....seriously!!!!

I have spent the whole weekend doing some of the things I enjoy most!!! Baking, sewing, & painting! And I'm sure there will be plenty more of those activities in the upcoming weeks for me!

I've told you time and time again that I am NO Cookie Mama, and even though I am NOT comparable to the Cookie Queen, I still love making my family sugar cookies! :o) I baked some Halloween cookies on Thursday night and spent most of Friday night icing them! I was so over it that I didn't even do the stems of the pumpkins, ha!!!! They are now almost gone so I promised the kids that I would do more this week so they would have some for Halloween! :o)

Saturday was a day full of football at the Smith house! We had it on ALL DAY long! I did sneak out late afternoon and make a Hobby Lobby & Target run! My friend, Julie, got me hooked on Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer so I had to go wipe them out buy some. It is SO YUMMY and I hate that it is a Limited Edition :o(

My Granddaddy has been on my mind a lot this weekend. He passed away a year ago today so in memory of him, I decided to start painting these..... He grew these gourds (not sure why, but he did)....I had a few last year and just never got around to painting them so I pulled them all out this weekend and got busy! They are all so different and funky, and I can't wait to display them with my Santa Collection in the years to come! I will always think of my Granddaddy when I look at them.

This was the 1st one I painted today....I call it my "trial run" Santa! I don't think it turned out great, but Wade and my parents loved it! I am now working on my 2nd Santa, but I am not done with it yet! I will show pictures when I am through! :o)

I have also been wanting to paint Annah Brooke a Halloween Pail all month and decided I better do it since Halloween is in less than a week! So I started with this....And it turned out like this.....She ♥'d it, but was quick to tell me that she would have it full of candy fast! I assured her that I would carry along a bag for her to "dump" her candy in so she could keep re-filling the pail! :o) Ha....Can you say greedy??? ha!!!I also started on some of my Christmas designs.....I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these hand towels. They make such great happies for teachers, friends, daycare workers, etc....Email me today to order yours! Christmas Present Shirt..... I have some new Christmas fabric and I am working on getting pictures of it in my shop. Email me at justbecausedesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com for ordering and questions. Can you tell I have holiday fever?!?! Ha!!!! I so love this time of year! It has been a great weekend and I have gotten a lot accomplished, but still SO much more to do! :o) Have a happy Monday!

Ready to ship!

I am done filling my Halloween orders, but I do have 3 "ready to ship" shirts that could be yours just in time for Halloween! They are $13.00 + shipping!

I have one 2T spider shirt available. And I have 2 Frankenstein shirts available in an 18 month & 5/6.

If you are interested, please email me at justbecausedesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com! Hurry before its too late!!!!!!!

Monday?!?!

I sure wish that I were this excited that it was Monday!!! :o)

Bows, shirts, & a bunch of ramble...

It is really a crying shame that I didn't like to do crafts and sew when my kids were small. I just really got into it in the last 2 years, and I feel like my kids "missed out" on so much fun stuff that I could have made and did for them and with them.

The boys are too old to wear any of my cutsie shirts and Annah Brooke informed me that she probably won't wear them in another year or two. Ha! Bless her! So I guess you can say I am making up for lost time....well, with her at least! I am constantly making her outfits, dresses, shirts, & now bows. I also have two nieces and a nephew who are still small so I can spoil them with some of Aunt Mellie's hand-made items too. :o)

Over the last few months, Annah Brooke and I have really gotten into bows. She has never really worn a lot of bows mainly because she doesn't have a lot of hair to hold them in. Well, I ordered her some before school started and she has been wearing them proudly everyday (with the exception of a few days when she asked could she wear her hair down without anything, ha). I always have a ton of ribbon around as I use it to make my bibs so I decided a few weeks ago to give "bow making" a go....I have been so pleased with the outcome and I hope Annah Brooke stays on her "bow kick" for now as she is going to have a gazillion of them! Ha!!!

She wanted a witch's hat shirt to wear to school so I made her one...

along with a Halloween bow to wear! Then I was playing around and made her a few more....And I can assure you there are tons of more bows in the making! :o) I made my sweet nephew this little turkey shirt. And before you ask...Yes, this turkey will get eyes, just not today! ha! I will also be adding this shirt to my shop in girl and boy fabric!

I made my sweet nieces some Halloween spider shirts to wear for the next few weeks. I love how they turned out!

And they get a Halloween bow too!!!!

This is the owl shirt that I made for Annah Brooke to wear Friday for her party, but I didn't even get a picture of her wearing it b/c she changed so we could paint!
This shirt has also become quite popular too! I have had several orders for this shirt! "Who" doesn't love an owl? :o)Sorry for all of the rambling! All of my free time is wrapped up in sewing lately so I don't have anything else "good" to talk about! :o)

Hope you all have a Happy Monday! I'm off!

Whooo's Birthday?!?!?!

We have been in party mode all weekend celebrating Annah Brooke's 9th birthday! The party started Friday morning when she celebrated with her class with these cupcakes for morning snack! I'm sure the kids were bouncing off the walls by lunch from all of the sugar! :o)

The BIG party started Friday night when we had 4 silly girls over for a slumber party! This was Annah Brooke's 1st sleep-over at our house and we all had a blast!!!!

We are "owl" crazy right now! Owls are so in, and we LOVE them!!! We decided on an "owl themed" party after Ms. Lucy had an owl party last month. I made her invitation after I was inspired by the talented and creative Jenny Holloway! Jenny is so good and if you need notecards, invitations, announcement, etc...go check her out! You will be so glad you did! We started with Pizza and juice drinks! I thought we ordered too much pizza, but let me tell ya, these 5 little girls CAN eat! ha!!!! I figured they would maybe eat one piece.....NO, they each had anywhere from 2 to 4 pieces!!! ha!

We even had some very special out-of-town guest come in to party with us! We've known all week that they were coming, and we have been counting down the days!!!!!!

Aunt Samantha, Mrs. Shannon, Macy, & Lucy all made the trip for the party! Nana Sharon was coming too, but ended up not being able too! She was missed! :(The girls had a dance-off and danced the night away! Ms. Macy showing off her moves! I think she "get it from her mama!" ha!!!We kicked all of the guys out, but Daddy was having a hard time leaving! ha!!! He hung around for a little while and watched the girls paint! Look at these little Picassos! MM watching sweet Lucy....She is SO into it! ha!I ordered some cookies to match her invitation from my bestie, aka The Cookie Mama! So adorable and SO good!!!!! This was her cake that I made to match the invitation as well!!!! I am no cake decorator, but Annah Brooke LOVED it and that is what matters! :o)I forgot something very vital for the party....CANDLES for the CAKE. So what do you do with a house full of girls at 9:00 at night when we are ready to sing Happy Birthday?!?! We use TOOTHPICKS, ha!!!!! This was not the greatest idea, but it did the job. :o)She got lots of loot! She was so proud of her $50 bill from MM & PawPaw along with all of the other money she got! :)She got a very cutsie gown from Macy, Lucy, & Mrs. Shannon. Gran Gran wrote her a special little poem in the card from them. She got some CUTE clothes from them as well! Lucy, Annah Brooke, & Macy in their matching gowns! These girls are definitely BFFs! :o) FINALLY!!!! Around 3 a.m. they were all sacked out! :o) Shannon and I were so relieved! ha! We sat up and talked for a bit more until I fell asleep in mid-sentence! ha!!!
We had to have a few more pictures this morning before they had to leave!

Look at those adorable shirts that Shannon and her mom made for Macy & Lucy!!!! They ALWAYS look so precious!

Me & my BESTIE!!!!! I SO love this girl! She is the BEST!!!!!

THANK YOU ALL for making the trip to come make Annah Brooke's 9th birthday so special! We had a blast!!!!!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNAH BROOKE! We LOVE you baby girl!