Beyond Grey - X marks the spot

I am hosting this fortnight's challenge over at Beyond Grey again.    I planned a straight-forward challenge this fortnight, so you can adapt to whatever you are celebrating or in the mood for. I love paper crafting, but adding a different texture can take a project to the next level. For this challenge try to incoorporate stitching as one of the main design elements of your project.  Head on over to Beyond Grey to see what the other designer's have come up for the challenge.

I used this new 5th&Frolic patterned paper from Dear Lizzy as a template. I let the arrows spill off the paper and repeated it to highlight the title. The burlap feather embellishment came pre-stitched.  I am also in love with the gold glitter and gold foil letter stickers.  They just feel so luxurious, and perfect for the pirate theme I think.

Link up your stitched projects here too (direct links only, please).

 

Costume Obsessed

  I was never much into Halloween growing up.  I struggled with figuring out a costume and always seem to put it to the last minute.  Somewhere in the 90's everyone figured out we could just don our flannel shirts and be farmers, but it was still a stretch.  I was never much into scary movies or candy either.  I did work as a professional face painter in New York though, so I learned a lot.
  One of the unexpected parts of parenthood is rediscovering, or discovering, really, the joy of Halloween.  As soon as Avinash - my October baby- was born I realized that I loved dressing him up.  Over the years I started hitting up Carter's and Old Navy in early November and stocking up for next year.  I love the Carter's prams for under 2.  And the princess dresses at Old Navy are way nicer than the 'brand-name' ones I think.  I have also been known to pick up things at Gap and Gymboree clearance.  I have a nice stockpile of animal outfits, Steelers jerseys, dragons and monsters.  Slowly getting more princess things now.  For me, it is just easier to buy than make something. The crochet mermaid tail for Nandini last year was the exception to the rule. 
   I think it's worth it because we dress up in the costumes all the time.  On vacation, at Christmas, trips to the zoo, football games, talk like a pirate day, Purim or just because. 

 

 



(She's dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh dressed up as a bee.  I'm pretty sure I saw this on the show once, but I realized that day, in the book he just dressed up as a little raincloud.  Doh! I was totally proud of this idea at first, esp since the bee dress alone was too itchy for her to wear.)
I am still abysmal with costume ideas for myself.  What are your plans for Halloween costumes this year?

Project Life - Oo owl

I did this week in a flash before our trip to Disney last week.  Lots of pictures, a few labels and journaling cards.  The Elle's Studio fall journaling cards and tidbits made things a lot easier.  

 Love the new Amy Tangerine leaves. A quick and easy way to add color and embellish a photo pocket.

And yes, I'm still taking weekly pumpkin shots at the grocery store.  I added the blue photo log washi for contrast. 

I'm keeping my post very simple this week too.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.  I am linking up with ProjectLife Tuesday as well.  I will be back soon with some Disney highlights and sharing more of my October mini-album.

Fantasyland Dress Rehearsal, Disney 2012

 

Our first day at the Magic Kingdom.  I love everything about this place. The sense of whimsy and magic, the rides, the shows, talking pictures, reliving my childhood with my children and recording the memories.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the new Fantasyland is partially open for 'dress rehearsals' already!  They were shut down half the day to film a commercial, but we got to go in after that.  I sort of suspect the filming is the reason for the perfect looking clouds in the sky today too.  If anyone could make perfect clouds on cue, it's probably Disney.

He's so excited.  I can't believe he let me take as many pictures as he did.

The new dumbo ride was a little hard to find so we went on Winnie the Pooh first. Nandini totally earned her nerd nickname by heading for Eeyore's gloomy place first. I think she might have stayed there all day if I didn't pull her out.  She already loves going on rides luckily.

The new Storybook Circus is awesome.  Mostly a facelift of what was there before, like the barnstormer, Pete's side show and Dumbo's new location.  I have to say I really really miss it being right behind the castle and one of the first rides you get to if you walk straight up main street and through the castle. 

I didn't even have to pose him for this, he started twirling on the lamp post all on his own. 

I love Dumbo pictures.  Note the awesomely perfect clouds in the sky.  Nandini was there too, but I was holding her in my lap at an awkward angle for pictures.  I'll have to wait until Ryan joins us for that.

For the first time in the history of ever I actually rode the mundane carousel at Disney World.  This little baby wanted to, and  how could I say no the one ride request all day (that I could understand).  We rode Small World and Peter Pan after that too.  It is amazing to see them both looking at everything together with so much wonder. 

Then, we got to see the new Fantasyland. 

First we went to Belle's interactive storybook experience.  They loved exploring Belle's cottage and then traveling through a magic mirror to see 'drawers come to life.'  The animatronics are pretty amazing.

Then all the kids got to be in the show. Some one is the Beast, Belle's father, the Mrs. Potts, Chip, etc.  Avinash was the horse!  He gave the softest, cutest little neigh on stage but luckily Belle knew what he meant.  The whole thing is really just a photo-op with Belle, but done in a fun and different way.

The big surprise was Ariel! The new little mermaid ride was up and running as of a few days ago.  We were all so excited, Avinash included, who decided to put off eating fries to ride.

The pictures don't really do it justice.  Everything is so life like.  Her hair had this movement to it, like it was really floating underwater.  There are so many songs and fun moments along the way.  Definitely glad we got to see it this year!

Project Life - Party

This week was all about Birthday! Avinash turned four on Sunday and we had so many family members visiting and fun activities throughout the week, capped off with his pirate party.  The party was a huge hit (and I swear I will blog about it soon!).  Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz so I took these pics of the spread with my cell phone, gah.  Please bear with me.  The full page views are blurry and the colors are a bit off, but I tried to clean it up as best as I could.

I used this SC 5th anniversary stamp a lot, along with OA midway, Elle's studio Halloween stuff (which is all 25% off right now) and some letter stickers.

 I thought myself very clever for not sewing through the OA 'sew fun' banners (which are not pre-sewn like I thought) and just using the pieces as die cuts instead.  I did a little faux stitching around the edges with my white sharpie instead. 

This is a picture of me snorting laughing while Nandini kept stealing bites of Avinash's birthday cupcake at school.  Pink and red washi with that SC stamp again.  I know it's silly, but I derive an inordinate amout of satisfaction from using my SC stamps. 

 So blurry, right?

Avinash has loved this pumpkin shirt since last year.  I got it at Janie and Jack and am determined to get all the wear out of it that we can since it pretty much looks weird the other 11 months out of the year.  I included a picture of our glitter pumpkins next to it.  You can see Nandini peeking out with great longing to get glitter everywhere. 
Those silver stickers are old AC.  I used the pumpkin fun die cut and a spooky tales tidbit.

 I like using the core kit arrows for weekly recap cards.  I was feeling a bit unsure of how to add in all the journaling I wanted while including enough pictures.  As it is I had to edit the number of party pictures way down.  Love this set of 4x6 Elle's Studio spooky tales cards.  After we had a series of scavenger hunts for things like loose change, books and instruments I had to get the Knock Knock Scavenger hunt pad.  I plan to use most of the rest in my mini book. 

Vintage month flashcards, silver thicker, SC stamp and orange arrow.   The group shot from the party had less kids in it than the random ones, so I included a shot of them watching the pirate show all together instead.  Can you tell they are all saying arrrgh?
Still loving the Midway letter stickers.  I want to use them on everything now.  The news from Avi comes from his (almost) daily journal mostly about his observations of the natural world and a good place for me to record his quotes. 

Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit, with multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards. I love the new 3x4 cardstock packs too. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too!