Happy Halloween

I wasn't home tonight since we're in Bakersfield so I can go to the Taste of Home Cooking Class tomorrow morning.  Tonight we're eating at David's favorite restaurant -- Bill Lee's Bamboo Chopsticks.  We try to eat there whenever we're in the area or just passing through.

This first picture is of a Halloween House made of graham crackers. One of my coworkers brought it in for our potluck today.  It's fully decorated on all four sides.

 Here is the picture Janice sent of Kyleigh's loot.  This is a combination of trick or treating at Treats in the Streets in Old Town Orange on Thursday and trick or treating around their neighborhood tonight.

A few weeks ago, we went to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch and purchased several pumpkins to be decorated for Halloween.  Here is the yard display at Janice's condo:

I know Kyleigh did the bat, but I'm not sure if she also did the cat or not.

Devin did Frankenstein.

 And Janice did Elsa.

WIWO - 10/27/2014

In addition to finishing the Queen Anne House, I also worked on the Cowboy Santa over the weekend.  This has been my travel project, only being stitched on away from home.

Happy Dance - Queen Anne House

This is the Queen Anne House, part of Mill Hill's Christmas Village.

I plan to make several more of these and make them into a wall hanging so I switched out the perforated paper included in the kit for 14-count pewter Aida. The other change I made was to use two strands of floss instead of the three that were called for.

I started it on 9/27/2014 and finished it today (10/26/2014) so it took just under a month to stitch.

Only my Child

Janice emailed me this picture tonight. The subject of the email was "Only my Child".

Janice and Devin were having a conversation and when they looked at Kyleigh's plate, this is what they saw. She had been separating her mixed vegetables into piles. When she finished, she ate the corn, the peas and the green beans, but no carrots!

WIWO - 10/20/2014

I didn't have a WIWO last week, because I was too lazy to take a picture, so this is two weeks worth of work on the Queen Anne House. I started the beading this weekend.

I also started the American Cowboy Santa from Charlette's Collectibles while we were at the Tractor Show on Saturday. I started with the hat because I was afraid the white beard would get dirty and the color was easier to see in the available light.

A visit to Disneyland

This morning Kyleigh's first grade class sang in church at the 8:00 service. After Kyleigh sang, she, Janice and Devin went to Disneyland to finalize the purchase of her annual pass.

They also went on several rides including Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain. Kyleigh says it was her first time on Splash Mountain, but I remember her going on it a couple of years ago, when the seats weren't individual and mama could hold her in her lap.

This time she held onto Devin, but when they got off the ride, she said it was fun; she just wasn't real crazy about the drop.

Tractor Show

This weekend was the first of the two weekends in October that we go to AGSEM for their fall show. We demonstrate making jump ropes and then sell them to benefit the museum. My primary duty is to watch Kyleigh and keep her out of everyone's hair.

She had a really fun time, checking out the crafts, riding the train, eating cookies at the farmhouse, doing a scavenger hunt amongst some train layouts, playing with the junior Marines, picking potatoes in the potato picking race, doing a pedal tractor pull, talking to the "sheriff" and some princesses and riding on the back of a tractor in the parade.

She also got to help demonstrate the machines and help make jump ropes. Here she is taking a break to make a sign for the sales table.

One of the highlights for her was meeting the Celtic Queens. One of them even let Kyleigh wear her sash and crown.

Elsa

David and I drove down to Vista this afternoon to the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum where we demonstrate two braiding machines during their semiannual festivals.

Janice and Kyleigh decided not to join us until tomorrow so that they could go to the Fall Festival put on by her school at our church. Kyleigh decided this summer that she wanted to be Elsa from Frozen for Halloween and that mommy needed to make her costume. Janice was able to find the pattern for 1.99 and the material was on sale so it wasn't an expensive costume. Here she is, both front and back (so you can see her braid.

Janice said there were something like 27 Elsas there and they were all different. There was one other that was homemade, but Janice said that although she's prejudiced, she thought Kyleigh was the cutest. There were also a couple of Annas.

WIWO - 10/6/2014

I spent this past week working on Mill Hill's Queen Anne House that I'm stitching on 14-count pewter aida insteaad of the included perforated paper. It looks like I got quite a bit done, but between having to frog and restitch some 400 stitches, some of it twice and not stitching a couple of nights, I should have had a lot more done.

I also had a mishap with some red colored water that Kyleigh managed to spill a few drops of on the piece. Fortunately, a short soak and a little scrubbing took the stains right out.