Halloween Crafts

Here's what we did last year. We bought cheap T shirts and Stencils from Michaels and the girls made halloween t-shirts.

Halloween Party Food Ideas

I love Halloween! The whole dressing up in costumes, putting scary decorations, buying candies (and eating them too), carving the pumpkins, and many more reasons. Last year, we had our 'official' halloween party for the first time. I had a great time planning the meals and making sure the foods are halloween themed. So I want to share what I did last year. I got a lot of ideas from Allrecipes.com, Martha Stewart and Family Fun websites.

My Creative Mess

SCRAPBOOKER UNLEASHED!!! Yeah, that's ME this last 2 weeks! I have 3 ongoing projects at one point and I love every minute of it. As a result, goodbye tidy, neat and cute scraproom. There's papers everywhere but who cares, I've been whipping layouts left and right. Thanks to Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch Class. That Girl ROCKS!

Dash Your Stash Layouts

I joined the Creating Keepsakes Challenge -Dash Your Stash and today is the last day to submit the entries. I only did 20 LO ( way too low compared to how I did last year)and really has no time to post it all but here's a few. Sorry,for the poor quality of the pics but I have no time to scan nor play around with the lighting. I've been busy uploading to Valerie Salmon's Got Sketch Doubles Class (ongoing right now) and the bottom layout was from a sketch on her class.

Using Kid's Artworks from School in a Layout

I wanted to share how I incorporate kid's artworks etc. that they take home from school. Most of the time, I resize the papers so it can fit in my layout better.

SUMMER GETAWAY

We just got back from our trip to Niagara Falls and Philadelphia. In Niagara, we stayed in Canada side and did the "Maid of the Mist" boat tour. It went very close to the Horseshoe Falls and it was impossible to take a picture because of the mist. After this tour, we walked across the Rainbow Bridge to go to the New York side. We have to show our passports and for the kids, their birth certificates are enough. We did the "Cave of the Winds" tour in New York side. From my research, this is a much better tour than the Canada's "Journey Behind the Falls." Well, we had so much fun here. We got directly underneath the Bridal Veil Falls through the Hurricane Deck. The name speaks for itself. The thundering sound and the torrential downpour of water made my kids so excited. They love to stay under the falls while the rest of the crowd just zip through it. I stayed on the deck's perimeter because I'm protecting our passports and camera from getting wet. There is no locker available in the facility. However, they give special sandals
to use.

Maid of the Mist Boat Tour

Niagara Falls illuminated at night

Lots of action here in Clifton Hill. The street is lined with things to do. From Ripley's Believe it Or Not, Haunted Mansions, Wax Museum, Ice Cream shops, Fudge shops, T-shirt and other touristy knick knacks, you name it, they have it. Tacky yes... nevertheless, I like it. The more people, the merrier.

Hike to Pilcher Park

We took a nice hour long hike to Pilcher Park. There were different trails to take-from .5 mile to 2 miles. We took the 2 mile trail to the greenhouse. It was nice because you have a choice of taking the paved trail or unpaved. We took the paved one to minimize our exposure to the mosquitos. I forgot to bring the repellant. I'm so mad at myself for doing this so I'm picking up an extra can next time I'm out.

Latest Obsession-Kettlenetics

I love discovering new gadgets or new ways for working out. So I was excited to find this at QVC. It's called Kettlenetics. I have been doing this workout for about a week now and really loving it. It's simple and easy. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page to watch how it's done in You Tube. Just turn off my music on the right side. For everyone who knows me, Rap is not really my type of music but it has been a good one to listen to when I'm cleaning. LOL. So I cannot remove it yet. Here's the link for QVC just in case you want to check it out...http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.F06105.desc.Kettlenetics-Slim-Tone-Body-System-w5-DVDs-4lb-Weight

Nature Hike- Fullersburg Woods

Our family loves to commune with nature. My kids love to run and discover even the tiniest little creature crawling in the dirt. The thrill of what they might see along the trail keeps them moving. Along the way, there were photo shoots taken, games played, walking stick fights and imaginary stories being told. How fun is that! For this summer, I set up a goal of hiking 10 different places. However, with Bill's very busy schedule, we've only been to 2. Nevertheless, we've enjoyed the last 2 new places we've explored despite the scary mosquito bite that Kelly got. Here's some of the pictures we took.

Free Photo Editing Class

My friend Stacy told me about this and I want to share the info to everyone. Thank You CyCy. Jessica Sprague is a digital and hybrid scrapbooker. She is a wonderful instructor and offering a free class for those who want to learn about Photoshop Elements. Perfect especially for beginners. Registration starts in June 22. Class begins July 6. So here's the link for her class if you want to learn more about it...
http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=976:free-photo-editing-class&catid=1:latest&Itemid=148.

A Totally Digital Page

I am not a digital scrapbooker. But occasionally

it is fun to make one. My knowledge with the

Photoshop Elements are limited to cropping

so I was delighted to find a Photoshop for

Dummies in the library for sale for $1. And it

is brand new. I quickly devoured the book and

learned a lot in a very short time. So I want to

share this digital page made from scratch by me.

The very last picture is a free digital paper paper

by Jessica Sprague that I downloaded from

the Creating Keepsakes website. Here's the link..

http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/free_digital_kit

This is not what I used but the papers are beautiful.