It's a Halloween Parade!

Happy November 1st; I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween. I had a first, NOT ONE trick-or-treater; I usually get 2 or 3. What shall I do with all of these Milky Ways, hmmm? Guess I'll have to put them in the freezer. Today Heather & Stephanie, the SITS girls are sponsoring a Halloween Parade. What a great way to get ideas for next year's costumes.
My sister has made almost all of her kids' costumes for the past 14 years. I have pictures of many of them, and thought I'd give you a look in chronological order.

2 very scary skeletonsA pair of smiling crayons in their favorite colorsA scary scarecrow & batThis is my favorite year! She even made me a fireman costume!Pulled out the scarecrow and bat again, but different kids are wearing them.

The boys think they're too old for dressing up now, but last year J & her friend J were a speedbump and a caution sign.Their soccer team was also in a tournament where all the players and coaches wore costumes.K made the costumes for all of the Eagles, and even one for the coach!This year J&J are back as a clothesline! Very simple to make, and easy to wear over heavy clothes if it's a hot night, like all of these costumes are. As you can tell, I am very proud of how clever my sister is; you should see the birthday parties and cakes she does!

For more trick or treaters, visit SITS where the Halloween Parade is in full swing!

Pink Rosebuds

Welcome to another Pink Saturday, a happy day to share all things pink. Beverly @ How Sweet the Sound is our hostess for this weekly meme, which regularly has more than 100 participants! Please visit Beverly and some of the other participants, and think about joining us next week.
While you're here, I'd love some help with a decision, if you have time. There is a poll on the right sidebar, and I'd like as many opinions/votes as possible. You can get more information on yesterday's post, which is below. Thanks in advance!
Look at this beautiful lamp! I remember the pair being on the night tables in the room my mom and aunt shared as children. They are a deeply frosted pink with three dimensional rosebuds. I think the shades have been changed by my sister, who now has them in her bedroom at the lake house. I remember the shades being a weird kind of plastic that was accordion-folded. The ones she chose are the same size and shape and fit perfectly with the 1930s/40s style of the lamps. Among the family these were thought to be junk lamps, which is how they ended up at the lake, but I found them on etsy for a price I know my sister wouldn't pay for any new lamps!
I hope you enjoy all the pinkness you visit via Beverly @ How Sweet the Sound! Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Variety Pack of Projects

I'm participating in Finished for Friday at Lit & Laundry this week. I am a sporadic participant, as I am a great procrastinator!
I've complete several projects this week, even with assisting my parents in watching the grandkids.I wasn't getting any custom orders for the initial cards I was showing on etsy, so I made up some with the most common first-name letters for women.I'm slowly getting them listed, and have already sold a couple.They come in coordinating sets of 2 in a cello bag, making them great stocking stuffers.I also made a few pairs of these Christmas angel earrings. I like the mix of silver and colors, and they are larger than my other angel earrings. For me, personally, these are the ones I would wear.I thought these were a cute idea. They are Christmas Wish bracelets, which can be tied on well before Christmas, with the wearer making a wish, and not taken off until Christmas Day. Or, the long strings can be cut off and the bracelet can be taken on and off with a knot and loop closure. I'm selling them for only 1.50, but they take longer and are more challenging to make than you'd imagine. A few Christmas stretch bracelets, some funky, some more elegant. The one above I call Candy Pillows, and below is Christmas Geometry.They range in price from $6.00-$8.00 depending on the cost of the materials. Some of these fancy beads cost more than $1.00 a piece! Above is Christmas Treats and below Space Age Peppermints.Check out those red beads that look like the planet Saturn with its rings!I also have a few that are smaller for a child's wrist, like this one I call Sweets for the Sweet.
Now I have a job for those of you visiting this week. I am participating in a Secret Santa Swap and plan to send one of these 4 bracelets to my swap-ee. Please vote in the poll on the right for which YOU would most enjoy. I can't decide which I like best, so I figure I'll go with a group vote. Thanks in advance for your help!
For more fun projects and accomplishments, visit Three Under Two @ Lit & Laundry, our Finished for Friday hostess.

Spooktacular VTT

WOOO! WOOO! [That's supposed to sound scary, BTW.]
In two days it will be Halloween and all the ghosties and goblins will be out and about. Let's see what vintage goodies have come out of my parents' basement this year!In the 1970s, those little tricksters were greeted by this great pumpkin on the front door of my parents' house. It hung there for many years, as you can see from all the dried cellophane tape and torn parts. For some reason I always thought this pumpkin was a little scary, but it really isn't. Is it?Not only were there store-bought decorations, we had all sorts of projects created by my sister and me. This was a school art project about positive and negative space when I was 11.And here's the one Kathleen made 2 years later. When I taught 4th grade art I did this assignment with my students every year. We'd laminate them and they'd be placemats at the class Halloween party.
I know many of the Vintage Thingies Thursday folks will have all sorts of great Halloween things this week, so skip on over to ColoradoLady and check them out! Maybe someone will be giving out treats to visitors!

Perfect Timing

Perfect Timingby Jill Mansell is the first book I am reviewing for Sourcebooks, and I really enjoyed the breezy story of a young woman re-inventing her life. On the eve of her wedding, Poppy meets a man who could have been THE ONE. Thinking about this, she reevaluates her feelings for Rob and realizes that she cannot marry him. In the ensuing bru-ha-ha, it is revealed to Poppy that the man who has raised her is not her biological father. This suddenly puts a new perspective on their relationship, as Mervyn has always been distant with Poppy.

Armed with this information, Poppy is off to London to start a new life with broader perspectives and possibly find her father. Here she finds work as a waitress and in a vintage shop. The right circumstances give her a home renting a room from Caspar, an up and coming artist, who likes to have roommates in his large home. Along with their third roommate, Claudia, Poppy eventually forms a new family for herself.

Although Perfect Timingis Poppy's story, Claudia and Caspar have their own sub plots, and since the book is written in the third person the reader is given insight to their opinions and feelings about different situations, which is something I liked. Even the secondary characters are given a little more life outside the realm of Poppy's story, which I don't often find in books of this genre. Jill Mansell is a huge author in the United Kingdom, and I'm surprised I haven't run across her before this opportunity. She is now definitely on my TBR list, especially when I need a laugh, or a good book to take on vacation.

Book Blogger Help Needed!

OK, Folks, I'm doing a much-needed re-evaluation of my blog, as well as how I occupy daily life and trying not to waste time, which is my greatest skill, especially since I have no true obligations in this world.

So, my Book Blogging friends, I am in a big conundrum and need some opinions. I am getting overwhelmed with record keeping and posting. I have accounts with Good Reads, Library Thing, and Shelfari, and only notice subtle difference in each. I would like to cut down to just one and am looking for opinions on what people use and why. Do you use it as social/reading networking as well as your own records? I know these are all personal preferences, but they'll make me think about my particular priorities, also.
Not only am I trying to cut down on my record keeping, I'm trying to put more effort into building a community of book blogging readers. Do you read and/or post reviews in other places like Amazon, Book Blogs, BlogHer, etc. If so, has that expanded your readership?
Let's see if I can streamline my book blogging stuff before 2010!

I got this great image at http://www.missabigail.com

A BOO-tiful Pink Saturday!

Yay! It's Pink Saturday, which will hopefully brighten the yucky, cold, rainy day we are having here in the Boston area. One week from today is Halloween, so there's very little time to decorate while you're rushing around making costumes and treats. Shop from home for your own Halloween "treat"; I found some great pink Halloween decorations on etsy this week.This fabulous felted candy corn from Art Sincerely is what inspired me to do this post. I was just checking to see if my own Halloween items were coming up in a search, and this is something that popped up. I love it, and she has them in so many colors.My sister always changes out the hand towels in her guest bath for the seasons and holidays. I thought this one from Britt Design was a fun change from scarecrows and pumpkins.Isn't amazing how far tussy mussies have come from being just a little nosegay of flowers? Stef's Cottage has several of these in different motifs. I love the flowers that she hand-makes.
Here's the big finale! Be sure you're sitting down so you don't swoon, ladies. Two things I know all of you gals love, PINK & GLITTER!Sunflower Haven is a new etsy shop that has a lot of original primitive items, and the prim shape of these shoes and hat are just super. What a cute set!
I hope to see you again next week for actual Halloween, but for now visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to check out more Pink Goodness.
Great deals! All Halloween items in my etsy shop are 25% off and free shipping. In addition, some have already had their price reduced.

Good Little, Bad Little Girl

Yay!! It's Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Suzanne at ColoradoLady!This week I have a Little Golden Book that was well loved by my sister, as you can see from the peeling cover and the taped repairs by our mom.The back of the book has little pictures of some of our all-time favorites like the Pokey Little Puppy, the Little Engine that Could, and Smokey the Bear.Good Little, Bad Little Girl has great Hollie Hobbie-ish illustrations, of a little girl from the early 1800s.It's sort of like Goofus and Gallant in Highlights magazine, with one boy doing things properly and politely and the other being rude and self-centered, except in this story the reader finds out at the end that the good girl and bad girl are the same person. Doesn't she look totally evil slurping her porridge?
Suzanne has all of the Vintage Thingies Thursday participants listed at ColoradoLady for your viewing enjoyment. Hope you'll be back next week!
With less than 2 weeks until Halloween, I am offering free shipping and 25% off all Halloween jewelry, cards, and banners at my etsy shop, Little Somethings! Stop in and see if anything catches your eye.

New England Mixer

New England Bloggers is a group I began hosting in January 2009. We have grown to over 100 members, and I suggested a "mixer" of visiting other members at random to find others with common interests. Today is the day for sharing our visits and discoveries. If you are a participating NE Blogger, please enter the name of your blog, and the URL to the direct post, not the main blog url, into McKlinky below.

I decided to visit one blog from each of the 6 New England States. I hope you'll take a ffew minutes to visit one or all of them, and see who has signed in with McKlinky.
First up was Eva who is Wrestling with Retirement in Maine. I love reading about what Eva is up to as she enters this new stage in her life. As a former teacher, this September was the first she did not go "back to school" and it looks like she's having a grand time.
Vodka Logic in MA is always cracking me up, whether on her blog or via Twitter. Her post on Monday was all about her Blackberry and its good and bad points.
The Tome Traveler's Weblog comes from New Hampshire. She has great book giveaways and I've never read a book she recommended that I didn't like.
Liz in Connecticut is a new blogger who shares her super beach art at Shorely Chic.
A Sea of Books is written by Gwen in Rhode Island. She has very eclectic taste in what she reads, very similar to mine.
Pat in Vermont is A Scrappin' Nana and has fantabulous layouts she shares daily.

Prison Blues

Whew! I haven't blogged in a week, except for a fast re-post for Vintage Thingies Thursday. I've been in lock-down, known to many as Brigham & Women's Hospital. I prefer to call it lock-down or prison, because I never go willingly. Last weekend I felt kind of yucky, and woke up Monday feeling like I had a fever. Because I am still recovering from a bone marrow transplant, this is a BFD. Any temp over 100 and I have to call the doctor. Instead I called my mom, who jumped in the car and was here in less than 2 hours! Super Mom to the rescue! She made me sleep all afternoon and eat toast and applesauce. In the late afternoon my temp was 102, but with Tylenol it was down to my usual 97.7 by bedtime, and stayed there through the next morning. My mom went with me to my regularly scheduled Tuesday morning doctor appointment where there was still no temp, and I still felt fine. Then I made the crucial mistake. In the effort of full disclosure, I mentioned the fever. Do you hear the iron bars rolling together and crashing shut? That was it; IV antibiotics and hydration, put into a room in the afternoon and stuck there for 48 hours waiting for the results of blood cultures, which came back, you guessed it: NEGATIVE! But better safe than sorry I am constantly being told. At least B&W has free tv, DVD players, room service, and because of my compromised immune system, I always get my own room. Here are some of the blues I was able to enjoy for those 2 1/2 days; unfortunately I forgot to have someone take a picture of me in the blue jonny, but I only wore it for a few hours. My mom brought my hospital go-bag very quickly.As soon as you enter the room, you can use the antibacterial cleanser in the blue bottle by the door. There's also a blue sign saying that no one can come in without wearing mask and gloves.It's a standard hospital bed, but the bottom sheets are blue, and the various control buttons are also blue. The brown pillowcase is my own. I always bring my own pillow.Again, standard hospital issue IV pump in blue, but check out the bathroom sign behind it. No one can use my bathroom when they visit me because of germs.I like the little boxes of tissues they give patients and I always manage to take a couple home to keep in my car. Next to the tissues on the windowsill is the room service menu. Patients can just call the kitchen and order food anytime 7 AM-8 PM. Much better than the old check-box menus. They have awesome carrot cake!Also because of germs I can only drink Aquafina because it is processed water.
So that's the saga of my prison blues. For prettier blues, be sure to visit Smiling Sally, our Blue Monday hostess to find links to the other participants.