halloween weekend

happy halloween weekend!

agenda for the weekend: we are both flying to san francisco today to spend the weekend there.  giants are playing the rangers in sf so i'm trying to get into one of those boats in the bay.  it's possible.  hair clients.  couch sitting with movies like hocus pocus, practical magic and any other harmless movies that won't give me nightmares.

jackson is spending it with his dad in san francisco as pinocchio.

last night we carved ONE white pumpkin.

just his name and put a candle in it.

then i made his costume for his preschool party...

every year he is a JACK of some sorts.  this year he is his favorite cereal...

his head goes where the A is.

should be entertaining to see him try to sit.  all the other kids in his class will probably be luke skywalker or woody... i'm turning him into a homemade cereal box.  trying to stay classy here.

okay enough of my jabber.  i'll try to be back sometime next week but this will keep you busy:

haven't carved your pumpkins yet? make them mod.  supppper cool.

i saw this shirt on a lady with a round belly at disneyland a few weeks ago. i couldn't stop staring.

who woulda thought a bat cake would look so creative and original?

a cute trick-or-treat bag for the kiddos.

emergency costume? here's a nose.

need a treat to bring to a party?  i'm making these.  linds has the best recipe for sugar cookies.  she makes them look too professional.  sometimes i question myself after i make her recipes... like shoot, i must have missed something, no, she is just really neat and perfect.

remember when your high school boyfriend brought you to a place like this at night to watch a extremely scary movie and you freaked out the whole time?  yeah, me neither... right...

wedding in october.  so simple and pretty!

this isn't in english, but you don't need words to understand these characters.

i'm not one for buying kitchen rags and aprons for the season but if you are, you can get a skeleton print.

anyone else watch dexter?  i could only stomach one episode. i'm such a woose.

stay safe.
------ happy halloween!

patches of pumpkins

the other night jackson and i went to a local pumpkin patch.

he was determined to get it done in five minutes.

and we did.
he is so efficient.

this year we chose white ones.  something different.

the patch owner gave us two extra little ones & a pumpkin carver for free because he thought jack was so polite and funny.

they are currently sitting on our porch, waiting to be cut into.
to be completely frank, i'm not a big pumpkin carver.
i'm hoping to get away with a sharpie and paint on these things :)

sandlot

listening to: jenny lewis

favorite song, "you are what you love, and not what loves you back."

yeah, so this was like a few months but ya know, whatever.
my family are big baseball fans.
each of us played on teams (i did until i realized you have to be tall and strong to play as a girl), we were blessed with strong arms, dad coached for years and we have been to many, many games.

my littlest brother blake has been an all star on many teams lately and was invited to start out the angels game and be the team's ball boy.  he had the opportunity to meet all the players, get a whole uniform, a ball signed and a bunch more.

angels vs. rangers.
angels won!
not a big fan of the rangers anyway.  i hope the giants knock their socks off in the world series.

here are more in the stands with us common folk.


congrats blake!  so glad you got to do something you've always wanted!
{most pictures by alan gibby and my pops}

hey shorty

have i mentioned my hair is short and dark?

my friend took this picture  with her phone, of this photobooth 

picture from last night's charity event we went to.

.

i swear that white shirt is sabotaging me in the last one.

i'm not with child.

a week is over

here are some highlights of the past week. 

monday:

disneyland with the boys.
i'll do a post about disneyland...

tuesday:
i took jack to the irvine spectrum for dinner, and rides.  he told a random fella he has "pazel eyes."

wednesday:
it was my cute friend's birthday party.  her boyfriend nephi threw her a bomb dinner party and desserts after.  i made her gluten-free cake balls and got carried away with the decor.  i'll try to post the recipe soon. (no pictures yet from the party...sorry)

- i tried to make them look like candied apples.  they turned out looking like donut holes with sticks in 'em.


thursday:
made dinner for the kids (chicken parm, pasta, homemade sauce, pumpkin bread muffins) and found out the kids don't like anything except pasta with olive oil :) i couldn't sleep so i stayed up watching P.S. I Love You and then The Backup Plan. right, all girl movies. P.S. I Love You makes me tear up every twenty minutes, still.  maybe it's not the best for divorcees.

friday:
cooked with the five kids plus jack.  we made oatmeal waffles for breakfast, homemade pizza for lunch and gf coconut oatmeal cookies.  we played in the rain, jumped, danced, swung, played cars, built train tracks + made lego characters.

saturday:

he had a fun play date with my bestie's twin boys and then while driving back my tire light came on.  costco was close by.  we waited three hours walking around costco, watching the tire-men lift cars and found games to play, ie: jumping in the fresh mud, drinking the "red smoothie" until we got freeze headaches, got the gluten-free samples two times over, hit every button that made sound in the toy isle and so on and so forth.

sunday:

jack had his first primary program.  he is a little sunbeam.

he stood on his chair, hung upside-down on his chair, waved to me most of the time, always was smiling, sang so loudly that i have a feeling he is going to be the child that screams instead of sings in choir and then mouthed "hi mom" when he caught my eye.  i was a beaming mom in my seat.

drenched

you can buy these spiders here.

halloween is around the corner.

i am babysitting for a friend of mine with her five adorable kids, so i'm taking the next couple days off from school and work to play mom. 

here are some things to keep you busy with:

so i kinda like this flouncy shade lace cover. 

i don't think you can have enough boots. especially in this season of rain and grey weather.

10 photographers took 10 photographs on 10/10/10. so interesting.

there has to be some people who still scrapbook.  if so, keep the fire alive through these.

cargo pants are in, again.  i think i've had two sets of donations with this print. 

a twenty-four-year old artist paints portraits on the actual people! i found this simply fascinating.

if you sew you will like these. 

kate spade came out with some super cute mittens for city-habitators.

have you ever thought of blowing up a personal photo of your family doing something fun? i love this idea.  you can order them here.

have a nice weekend!

chest tap

a friend of mine who is a birth doula, told me that if you place your hand on someone's chest, it takes the stress away from them.

i asked my all-natural eastern chinese doctor about this concept.
he said it's true.  you are soaking up their energy. 

this artist
walnuts also take away stress... per doctor oz.

what?!

pretty sure i've established how much i fancy some peanut butter.

image found here

it all started when the atkins diet came out.  remember when everyone started eating tons of meat, cheese and peanut butter but no carbs?  well i didn't actually do the diet but did do the peanut butter.

then i was vegan and found more adoration for this jar of goodness.

then i was vegetarian, then pescatarian (veggie but eat fish) and now i'm gluten free not by choice.

so peanut butter has been my constant. always there for me when i need a little thrill.

a client came into the salon and owns a factory where they test food, chemicals around buildings and houses etc to make sure they are environmentally sound and consistent with FDA regulations.  he is an older gentleman who has a plethora of knowledge.  he told me a little bit about everything...

i shared an experience with one of my favorite mexican joints that got caught for using cat meat instead of red meat... gross.

well i asked him about peanut butter with one ear muffed.  

he told me that 45% of all peanut butter is rat hair.

RAT FRIGGEN' HAIR.

i felt a gag coming on.

he said the barrels of peanuts they use to put into the factories to make this peanut butter has rats hanging out.  they get mixed in the peanut butter... their whole bodies.

this may change your mind about taking a dip.

it did for me.  i see it now in my pantry and feel a sudden sick feeling knowing i've digested many rats. ew. 

was it anne of green gables that the rat is in the peanut butter?  why didn't i pay attention to this hint?

i googled it of course.

here is some articles i found:

they say rats in peanut butter aren't that healthy. i don't care. a rat is a rat.

is there rat hair in your peanut butter? - no bodies are in the peanut butter according to cha cha. (cha cha?)

alright now i'm grossing myself out and never want to eat.

here's my question, is there rat hair in your almond butter or cashew butter? i hope not but why not? they have to be in the fridge but might be worth it. 

no more peanut butter and jelly/banana/honey sandwiches for jack.  i've gotta get creative and might loose a few chubs.

weekend cheek kisses

listening to: the smiths

because it's that kind of day.

so today was a little premature on how i lined up the posts last week.  

TODAY is give someone a kiss or two.  

like when you meet someone for lunch or dinner, kiss their cheek.  or both cheeks.

it will surprise them if they aren't expecting it from you but you'll notice it softens up your conversation.

i have a few clients that kiss me on the cheek when they see me and it makes my day.

it's that european way of saying hi and respect.

so try to kiss someone on their cheek.

ya?

okay fun!  have a good kissing day.

okay, let's extend it all weekend.

why not.

organize your life

lolligaggin

listening to: sunshine, lollipops and rainbows by lesley gore

sitting next to a realllllly boon  person

this week is going to be dedicated to inspiration.

so come back tomorrow and then the next day and then the next day... because you might crack a smile sometime this week.

today is lollipops.

so i had a few lollipops this week.  they were just really swell.  all kinds, flavors and sizes. 

i say the smaller lollipop, the better because you don't get that sugar hangover that those large ones from disneyland can give... but that's the adult in me; the kid version still says the bigger the better.

so i encourage you to dedicate one of your treats of the day, to get a lollipop and enjoy it.  the entire thing.

all natural lollipops

godiva chocolate lollipops for the season

some history of these things

can buy these edibles here

more ideas to be creative with these

example of what is too big

and if you can't get to a lollipop, frozen juice on a stick works too...

okay, so tomorrow, something else to inspire you...

stay tuned and enjoy a lips-macking lolli sometime today