He’s got a beard, a shoulder tattoo, a flower tucked in his “hair” and oh so much attitude.

I could not be more proud.

This year we trick or treated in our new neighborhood.  It was a totally different Halloween for us.  In our old neighborhood, located on a very very steep hill, we got very few trick or treaters.  We could leave a bowl out with a sign reading, “take a couple” and it would still be there in the morning.  Ok, to jump to new neighborhood in different town.  We had truckloads of Trick or Treaters, they just kept coming.  We had some smoking teenagers (and that’s not a costume idea) daring us not to give them candy and a grown woman happily thrusting her big a** pillowcase at me (no child in sight)- o  k  a   y, but most were decked out kiddos thrilled to be lugging their humongous bags of candy up and down the street.

The “sparkly dancing shoes” of my little skeleton.

My wee one in a hand me down costume my husband and I freezer paper stenciled back when we had free time.

We ended up not waiting until nightfall.

Potentially my favorite image of the night, boo for blur.  Not about to ask this unknown fella for a second shot, in fact I was rather pleased that I summoned the guts to do it a first time.

High five from the netherworld.

These are from my school’s Halloween celebration.

Good old-fashioned balloon shaving fun.

Someone ate the D.

Something tells me that toothpaste might still have been hanging out in the prize bucket at the end of the festival.

And here is my old Alphabet Sunday friend (we have to start something up again Lauren!) showing us all how Halloween can be HEALTHY!!!  Orange Carrots for all my friends!

Now on to Thanksgiving, ever marching forward…

I was finally able to host craft night!  Kind of a big deal since our last apartment was too small to host such an event.

I think Trader Joe’s is the new Martha.  I hoisted 7 boxes of various  fried cheesy bites of goodness from the freezer and my hostessing job was nearly done.

After the “what? I always keep the place this clean” cleaning and the hors d’oeuvre heating up, I was too exhausted to think of a craft so I took photos of the crafts of others in progress plus odds and ins around my kitchen with my iPhone.  Is there a crafty app?

This craft night we had a new member join us.  We sent emails back and forth suggesting a light hazing might be in order, an excerpt:  Maybe the first time she comes, we could all be working on fake projects like an artificial floral arrangement, bedazzling a sweatsuit, and making a toilet paper cozy.  We’ll ask her things like, “Do you think this is over bedazzled or just enough?” “Does this floral arrangement look classy, like it would be in a really fancy hotel?”

Yeah, I know, we’re CRAZY.

But despite all our big talk, we welcomed the new member with open arms and she’s great.  She is doing this cool project, the pattern of which you see above.  She is crocheting the kippot (yarmulkes) for her daughter’s bat mitzvah.  ALL of them!  I wish I had gotten a photo of one.  I imagine she’ll be working on them next craft night as well!

Another crafter made a lovely necklace from these beads.  I set the bowl on top of my lame attempt to craft.

What I love the most about the Polaroid app is there is no cropping.  It is what it is.

Scarf on chair.  After this I gave up “crafting” for the night and focused on the aforementioned TJ bites of goodness (and badness).

And I don’t know if any of you are still with me because I have become sporadic because life has become more hectic (in a good way) but here is a teaser.

Our attic is FINISHED!  I will do a before and after post this weekend.  Total transformation of the space and how our family will use it.  Woot!

Front  yard, spooky make-over.  Former owners dug out tree, makes for good loose soil to stick scary styrofoam in!

We made these specimen jars last year, remember?

We’re in a new house & there is no window to put them in so we’ve made the mantle our haunted lab.

Full view of mantle.  Still have not set up the haunted dollhouse.  Link here.

Thanks to Kate for helping me style the mantle.

Bird’s eye view of the bird.

Scary dude from last year, story here.

Still have not replaced keyboard.  Working too much!  Miss you madly.

Happy Halloween!

boo.

I have been remiss in posting.

Going back to work after 7 years at home will do that to a blogger.  That and the fact my keyboard has decided it will no longer put out the letters ‘h’ or ‘y’ so every time you see them, know that I cut and pasted each badboy .  Not fun.  And not to sound like a complete whining baby but something is seriously wrong with WP and/or my computer because it took 13 minutes to post each photo.  And now to rapidly move from whining to bragging, photos taken on my new iphone (using the Polaroid app).  Woot!!!

Sharing of a bit of what has kept me from you:

My teaching partner (love love her) and I worked really hard to set up the classroom this summer.  She has taught in the room for a long time so even though we made some changes, I am not taking even half the credit!

Art area.

Wall in the math area.

Monarchs!

The building area.

I particularly love the chalk board where kiddos can plan a building, make a representational drawing of their structure, or just doodle!

Dramatic play after some serious work of play.

There were more photos but due to the crazy time thing, I’m holding at 5.

The transition from stay at home mom to a working outside the home one has been a relatively smooth transition.  Ok, the first week we did leave the house at 7:30am, both of us thinking the other had locked up.  I came home with the boys after school, errands and dinner out at 7:00pm to find our door WIDE open.  Two nice police officers walked through the house to confirm that yes, we were at once the flakiest and luckiest residents in town that day.

So schedules will evolve but the good news is that I was ready to go back to work, I got my dream job at a school of amazing teachers, I highly respect the game of my teaching partner,  I love our sweet little class of kiddos, and I still GOT IT (it just moves a little slower)!

So just a check in to say that I miss your blogs, I miss VPF (keep ‘er strong), I miss blogging and I miss you but I will ride again!

Attic in it’s raw state.

After the insulation spray foam guys were through. (P.U.)

After they laid the blue board.

It’s still really wet in this shot so you can’t see how beautiful the plaster looks.

And a different angle of the attic.

There is still more work to be done.  Painting and flooring being the biggest two.

But it looks like a livable space now and we’re getting really excited to see the finished rooms!

It’s off to work I go…

Vintage Photo Friday Friends (let me know if you want to play along):

Green Jello

Knot Sew Crafty

Sheep on a Spring

Pineapples & Artichokes

Pamdora

Through the Looking Glass

Handy Crafts

My Own Crafty Wonderland

Woolanthropy

Los Angeles is My Beat

The Bee Bonnet Report

Living, Laughing and Loving in Austin

A Jen Too Many

Raine-works

dobco

Cheetah Velour

Bollops

On the Bus with Laurie

Check out the free photo freakery here.

Got the “Befunky” tip on a super cool new (to me) blog Browntown.

Thanks all for the extremely nice comments.  Glad you like our little under the stairs bathroom.  I imagine all my bloggy folks appreciate it much more than some of the people who will actually park their bums in there.  My FIL, for example, is probably not going to “get” our vision of a surprise woodland.

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I thought I’d share some more snippets of a room still coming into shape.

The boys share a room and each gets his own wall space.  My youngest is still taken with all things duckies and here is his display area.  I still have to hang the banner from his b.day party, me + ladders are not a great match.

I got a bunch of vintage chalkware ducks from etsy and ebay, hope to supplement collection with thrift scores to come.  Good friends gave him the top framed rubber duckie photo for his b.day and I took the bottom shot at the carnival this summer.  On the shelf (which is not quite the right size yet) sits a vintage valentine I gave him last year, more chalkware,  old book and a duck & egg toy I got from Charlie and Pats.

3 little ducks went out to play…

The previous owners painted the ceiling to look like a lovely calm sky.  The boys love it.

The center curtains I scored at the thrift store, new and unopened for 4 bucks (I think) and the side windows have panels from The Christmas Tree Shop.  Cheap cheap but are working well in their room and is keeping it from being a TOTAL Ikea experience.

If anyone would like to join my Flickr group, Just Moved, please do!  You do not need to have just moved (as the name would imply).

I also just found this Flickr group that I’m digging, Thrift Store Decor.  Wish I had thought of it first.

]]> http://paperdollsforboys.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/duckie-love/feed/ 4 paperdollsforboys Vintage Duckies Trio Boy's Room http://paperdollsforboys.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/bathroom-redo/ http://paperdollsforboys.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/bathroom-redo/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:13:50 +0000 paperdollsforboys http://paperdollsforboys.wordpress.com/?p=3997 ]]>

Before we Bought it:

The bathroom wasn’t properly vented, which I thought meant a fan but it means something I don’t quite understand about the pipes and gas and stuff.  So we had to take it to the studs

During:

After (but not quite done):

We got the Cole & Sons wallpaper (I’m the last to jump on the bandwagon, I’m a big girl so I run walk slowly).  I also would like to add that the periwinkle step thing is also a “before”.  On the list of things to rectify.

I bought if from Rose & Radish and I have to say the owner, Cate, was delightful to talk with over the phone.

It was my husband’s idea to do the “grass” tiles.  We love it!

Not quite done, still have to install the super cool mirror I scored on ebay and put in a handle.  But I could not wait to share!

Hard to take a photo  inside the tiny bathroom but you get the idea.  We were going for a secret little woodland world under the stairway.

Edit to add: Want to acknowledge the other players on the team -wish we were DIYers but we’re really not.  Our contractor is AMAZING.  He thought of things I would never have like mimicking the trim around the door so it relates with the rest of the house and the baseboard molding, nice touch.   My husband had the idea for the grass flooring and our contractor hunted a distributor down.  I love that my husband trusts my instincts but also brings so much to the creation of our home.

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Thanks for all the kind words.  I am embarrassed to admit how good it feels to read them.