A few good times... *aka Hallows eve photos

Happy very belated Halloween! Yea, I realize it's almost been a week, I'm lazy remember? So anyway, as usual... this is a pic heavy post. The pictures start with Friday at ServiceMagic, and continue into Saturday night at a party at Annies' place. Enjoy ;)

Feel free to contact me if you would like to order prints of any of my photos.


Good morning Dr. Annie! *Muwahahaha!!!

Ah... yes... say it with me now the contractors wont get "nun" *Rolls eyes and giggles

This is Russle and Blane :D Great guys with a wonderful sense of humor :) They both work the early shift with me and make mornings A LOT more bearable.

Now since we had a Fred Flinstone (See pick above lol) we had to have a pebbles...

It had just finished snowing about 2feet the morning before... so yea... hence the jacket. Sooo cute tho :)
LOL I had to get a pic of this one to show my dad, he still says "Hello! McFly!" to this day! Such a great movie!

Loved Matts costume this year! Not what I would have expected for him... kinda makes you wonder :P

*Now... heres where we take a little break... I have a little back story to tell you. Technically all of the customer service teams (there are 4 of us) all had different costume themes... for example...

Aaron's team did pirates...
Yar!

Ahoy!

*giggle*

I love working for this company....

Robert's Team did Mario brothers...
Dustin and Scott :D They made a great Mario and Luigi

and my team... well... we were supposed to be rock stars, but only 3 of us dressed up...
A great shot of Maggie and I :)
*I just had to share that side story... thank you for listening... back to the rest of the photos lol

Scary clown!

At first I just walked right by him, but then I realized... well... peek-a-boo!
This was one of the best... I wish I would have gotten a better shot :(

This is my friend Dennis... well it's Jack but... well you get the point. Anyway, I helped make his costume... see that ginormous head? yea... I did that :D it was awesome!
And he had a grat time playing with it LOL
This is one of my favorites from that day :)

Later that night, Seth and I returned to ServiceMagic for the trick or treat walk. We had a very good time, and Seth had a blast dressing up as Frankenstein.

Mmmmm... snacks :D
Scotty went to a party dressed as a hippie... LOL love the outfit :P

On to Saturday!

Self portrait

Hooray Annie! I love this woman! She is just so much fun to be around *when I grow up I want to be just like her ;)

Everyone looooves standing in the kitchen... *one of my favorite shots of the night :)

Annie had the place all decked out! Found this guy hanging out on the fridge :)

These we a couple candle holders, couldn't really get a good shot for some reason...

This was my favorite costume of the night... Octomom ROFL
I told you it was one of the best movies! :) Hooray 80s flashback!

Lovely Ladies, with lovely costumes, one had amazing wings :)

And another was one of the hottest zombies I'd seen :)
And last but not least... These 3 costumes had me laughing all night and this was the best shot of them all :)

I really hope you have enjoyed this post :)

I love a good swap!

I joined a knitters online swap a few weeks back, and it was a blast! The group I joined was apart of the Raverly communities and I met two wonderful women! If your not familiar with a swap, I'll break down the basics....

A group of people with similar interests (in this case knitting and beverage cozies LOL) get together online weather in a forum or on a blog list, and the group moderator (the guy/gal running the show) sets up pairs of 3 and exchange goodies related to their interest. You typically are given one person to knit/crochet for and a separate person to knit/ crochet for you. It keeps it really interesting and it's a great way to meet a lot of really wonderful people! I hope I explained it right, it's really fun and if your a fiber addict it's a great way to get new yarns for your collection and its a wonderful way to meet new people. :) Here are some pics from my swap.

First the pictures of what I sent out. My swap buddy was a young mommy, like myself, named Jen, Shes about the same age as me and she has 3 beautiful little boys. They are trying for a third, (hoping for a little girl) and just found out they are expecting! :D Knowing that she was hoping for a girl, I tried to send a little girlie energy her way with my goodies and knits. First, the yarn I picked, It's a wonderfully soft Ella rae fiber. I wanted to pick something fun and colorful :)


Next.... the star of the show! Mr. Bunnymen the pink can cozy! LOL Seth thought it was hillarious and I've already made a seccond one for the lovely Mrs. X.



And some chocolates I picked up from a little shop in old Downtown Littleton. MMMMM tasty
I also wanted to send her a special thank you for being so understanding, there was a slight delay in the package getting send due to.... well honestly I was broke LOL... so I picked up a little extra pink. ;)
I also "picked up" some local caramel and cranberry ice cream topping, but I forgot to take a picture of that before I sent it off, it was the last thing to arrive and the first thing in the box LOL.

And now... for my goodies, this partner was from Vancouver, BC. Her name is Melnida, she too has a couple of youngsters but they are almost all grown up at this point. She and I really connected and have alot of similar styles and tastes, not to mention chaotic lifes and goof ball sweeties. One of the little snaggs we ran into tho is I'm not a big soda drinker and so I asked her if she could make my soda cozy a coffee cozy... and boy did she!!! Not only did she send me a new coffee cozy but she sent me 3 new coffee cozies!!! Each one is soooo... beautiful! Almost like minni sweaters for my mugs :D
This one is my fave as you can see, It fits even my super tall travel mug in the mornings to keep that first cup extra cozy warm.
I haven't had the chance to use this one yet, It's really nice and thick, hopefully it'll fit a couple of my mugs :)
This one fit Scotty's tea mug great, (even if when you've got rum and coco instead of tea in it LOL)
She also sent me a beautiful photo album, full of amazing photographs that she and her husband snapped of some of their favorite places near their home. The photos were stunning and just took my breath away. (I'll try to scan in a few of my faves and post them later)
Inside the cover was a darling little book mark with a photograph of a coast close to her home.
She also sent 2 amazing balls of a rusty orange Italian Merino wool, I can't wait to make it into something, I can't decide what to make... it's killing me searching and searching, it' has to be the perfect... thing... maybe slippers, maybe some gloves, or a cute little hat :D hmmmm.... any suggestions?
And the last 2 items that came tumbling out of the green almost see through envelope... well they brought me to a mix of tears and giggles. One was a post card, with a lovely little note and an amazing shot of BC.
The note says..."Hi Melanie~ I sure hope you like your cozy swap package. I had so much fun making the different patterns and am really hoping one will fit on your favourite mug. Have to admit I caught the bug and have (made) my daughter a bodum cozy and 2 mug cozies using the Debbie Bliss pattern. Hopefully the album doesn't bore you to deth and the woll color is ok. Enjoy. Your swap partner, Melinda a.k.a Cluxewe"
Start the water works! Eyes watering... soo happy.... This is by far one of the best gifts I've gotten and it's perfect! The seccond item had me in stitches!!! It was...
The cutest turtle measuring tape!!! You tug on his left front foot and *click click click!* out comes the measuring tape then you push the little button on his belly and *zip* in it goes and he's back to normal! So cute!

I have to say, I'm really glad I decided to participate in this swap. I met two lovely young ladies, with stunning taste, amazing children, and a spark for life that resembles my own. :) I'm so excited I can't wait for my next swap!

I leave you all with a little food for thought for the day... be true to yourself, because you is all you truly have.

Oh happy Grammie days!!!

One of my good friends at work has recently become a grandmother, and I wanted to surprise her. She has been really down on her luck lately, and I wanted to give her something to cheer her up. I decided to make her a hat and blankie combo for the new little cutie booty.

I hope she likes it :D
I think I'll make a couple more as back ups for last min baby showers
and Christmas/ birthday gifts. :D

Deadly bacon bliss

So, I stumbled on this a few months back, and Scotty has been begging me to make it since. I had a few hold backs (not including the health issues involved in eating one of these things!) Click here for a link to the blog were all this madness started.

Some of the other hold ups I was facing were the fact that I've never woven food before, it seemed kinda foreign to me but that was small potatoes as I knew it wasn't rocket science. Also, came the issue of not having a pan big enough to cook the monster in. I decided to make a slightly smaller version so it would fit in the pan we do have, I only had to cut it down by a slice in either direction.

So I finally decided to give it a try and bellow you will find the cheesy fatty doom that ensues....

Step 1:
Weave the bacon in a small square in a frying pan (make sure your pan is oven safe for both in the oven and under the broiler, because mine wasn't I had to swap pans at the end, it was messy, and I would suggest just using the one if you can)

Step 2:
Fry in the oven set at 400 degrees. There was no time line on the website, so I guesstimated (basically I stood there and kept a really close eye on it) Since ovens are a bit different I would suggest doing the same, Mine was in for about 15 min but I would still stick close so it doesn't get too crispy. (you want it still slightly chewy at this point as you want to be able to roll it.

Step 3:
Cheese! and lots of it! I decided to use some deli slices I picked up just for this, but if you have shredded cheese that works awesome too :D Layer it on and...



Step 4:
Roll that baby up! Stick it back into the oven and let it get nice and crispy (at this point I raised the oven rack a level, and turned on the broiler, I wanted a nice crispy outside layer and this method worked great!)A very happy Scotty pointing at his tasty tasty treat! ( on a side note, the next afternoon, Scotty said "baby, that bacon thing you made yesterday.... yeah... it tasted wonderful... but don't ever make it again... ok? " turns out all that cheese and bacon fat had wreaked havock on his whole body and he fealt soooo bad all day. Maybe next time I'll let some of the oil drain off before just inhailing it LOL that might make a difference)

Step 5:
Once crispy, slice up and enjoy! We decided to make ours a sammich, with a little bit of mayo and thats it, hope you enjoy, I know we did :D

*one last note, to prevent your tasty doom from ending up like this, use a sharp knife instead of a cheapo like I used.