"Hallowmas" - Scare people and get presents

I had an extremely busy weekend full of decoration making, trying on my wedding dress, and the "Santaland Diaries." I can't show a picture of the dress or certain people might see it. Sorry, you'll just have to wait!

I also got to do something that I've been wanting to do for a long time...I got to bake!!! Yay!!

I made these:

They are orange scones with a glaze. They were pretty yummy. I might have to make some more tomorrow.

I got the recipe from here but I altered it slightly:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Scones/Detail.aspx

Baking makes me happy :)

Here's a picture of my adorable nephew Malachi in a hat that I knitted for him:

He a cutie pie and I love those chubby cheeks! But the hat is getting too small. I'll have to make him another one.

So Jess and I decided to put up our Christmas tree, but as stated in a previous entry, we are sort of making our own holiday this year. We are extremely broke right now (especially due to our upcoming wedding and a tardy Excel bill that hadn't come for five or six months and we called three times trying to get them to send us a bill) and we are also extremely sick and tired of Christmas starting in October instead of December like it's supposed to. Not to mention all the Christmas songs that we are forced to listen to for three months straight and the horrible commercials. Since when do people buy eachother cars for Christmas?!? Well, except for rich people.

Here's our first Hallowmas present:

All this commercialism has gotten way out of hand. I personally don't know anyone who has gotten a brand new car or computer from Santa. Seeing all those commercials just makes us feel bad because we really can't get much for our loved ones this year.

But that isn't supposed to be the point of Christmas, right? It isn't supposed to be so much about the presents, it's supposed to be about spending time with the ones you love. And your family (ha! Sorry, that was just a joke). And if you are of the religious persuasion (which we are not), apparently Jesus is the reason for the season, not a brand new Blu-Ray disc player. It really annoys me.

And one other thing which I am pretty sure isn't just me, I am so sick of red and green and the traditional symbols of Christmas: Santa, Rudolph, Bells, Holly, etc. I know I am not the only one because I have seen all different color combinations of wrapping paper at the stores with polka dots and stripes instead of Christmas trees or Santa.

Jess and I are making a holiday that we like to call, "Hallowmas." Since Christmas has kind of taken over the whole last quarter of the year, we've decided to extend Halloween instead and make it three months long. This is awesome because we can keep the Christmas tree, but have scary decorations if we want and candy. And presents. And scary movies. And Christmas movies like "Elf."

The color scheme we decided on is black, red, blue, and purple. What we did was took a bunch of polymer clay and made our own ornaments. Some of them we kept from last year, though, because they are blue. I tied purple, black, and white ribbons to the Christmas lights.

Here's a scary cone guy I made inspired by this lady http://www.theholidayqueen.blogspot.com/

He's sparkly!

The garland I crocheted with leftover red eyelash yarn and black acrylic yarn.

The topper is a tophat that I crocheted.

Here is our wreath:

Mr. Sprite is playing Santa:

I don't know if we'll do much more. Maybe next year.

I really need to get going on the wedding stuff again. I managed to finish my March Hare with the help of my lovely painting teacher/fiance:

I think he needs a spear or something like it that has a club on it. Then he'd be complete.

Last Sunday, we went with Jess's Aunt Connie and Uncle Boggie (not his real name)


to see "The Santaland Diaries." http://www.bugtheatre.org/calendar/default.aspx It was pretty good, and I recommend it to anyone who likes dark humor.

Now I must go finish crocheting coasters for my co-workers.

All work and no play makes Cori a sad panda

Not much new on the crafting front because I've been working on nothing but the flowers for my wedding. I'm getting close to being done, though. I have about two and a half bouquets left to make and five boutineers (which involves just one flower), so I'm almost done!!! YAY!!!!

Here's what I have done so far:

It's my little crocheted garden.

But I've decided to take a teeny break because of the upcoming holiday, "Hallowmas" (read previous entry for details).

I've managed to make a deal with a few people (who are also hurting for money) that we will not get eachother anything for Christmas (as all you traditional Christmasy people call it) and just enjoy eachother's company, the way it's supposed to be.

As for the rest of my peoples, I have no freakin' clue what to do. Except for one. And I don't think she will read this so it's probably okay to share. But just in case:

***WARNING FOR RACHEL SLISKO***

Do not read this or it will ruin the surprise!

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Ok, I think it's safe now.

She likes the show "Firefly" and the movie they made based off of it, "Serenity," and I just happened to find this:

It's a "Serenity Illusion Scarf"!!! Yay!!! Illusion scarves are awesome because if you just look at it straight on, it just looks like stripes, but if you look at it from the side (like on the picture), you can see a hidden picture. I made a similar one for myself with alien heads. Here's where you can find the pattern for the "Serenity Illusion Scarf":

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ddc3xndf_0dz359fgx or

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phP32_Qt6sw8SHZZf4lwcVw

It's nice to be able to knit for a change. I was starting to get crochet-ed out, if that's possible.

As for my sanity, it's starting to wear thin. I think I need to bake something. Maybe this weekend.

I'm having a hard time getting out of this lazy mode that I got into when Jess and I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving. The only thing I could work on out there was the illusion scarf, and I can only work on that for so long. It doesn't help that I'm not feeling really well right now. Oh well. It'll pass.

I was really glad I got to go this year. It's nice to be able to see family that you haven't seen in years. Jess and I have been together almost ten years and the only family on my Mom's side that he's gotten to meet (prior to Thanksgiving) was my Grandma and my Uncle Kent and Aunt Gail.

Here's Kent picking on me:

This time he got to meet two of my cousins, Josh and Shane, and my Uncle Curt. We both got to meet Shane's new wife, Roxanie (sometimes Shane calls her Roxie).

From left: Roxie, Curt, Shane, and Josh.

We had a lot of fun and ate a lot. Curt is hilarious and kept us all entertained. He's missing part of his pinky finger, so he's able to do this and make it look real:

My Dad took Jess and I to the Arboretum. It was beautiful there:

It was fun, but it's always good to come back home.

But it's hard to get out of that lazy mode. There is so much that I need to get done but all I want to do is play videogames and be lazy. Oh well, I get there eventually.

I better get some work done. Have a good day!!

Ten little things that make me happy today

Free Lunch – It’s only fair that I get a sandwich too, after the guys at my work forgot to tell me that they had this big meeting today and I had to scramble to get lunch for them.


People named “Kermit” – Seriously. I got a letter today at work from a man named “Kermit.” That’s awesome.


The thought of going to see my family – Jess and I are going to Arizona for Thanksgiving and he finally gets to meet some more of my Mom’s side of the family. My Uncle Curt will be there, my cousin Shane and his wife (whom I’ve never met), and possibly even my cousin Josh. Jess hasn’t met any of them yet and I'm excited!

Friends coming back from other states and distant countries – Yay friends! I've missed you!

Vetoing a money-induced Christmas that starts before Halloween is even over – That was ridiculous. It was the day before Halloween and some of the stores I went to were already taking down the Halloween stuff and putting up nothing but Christmas stuff. What the crap?!? So, Thanksgiving doesn’t even count anymore? There are still people who buy Halloween stuff the day before Halloween. I would be dorky enough to do that.
Because of this and the fact that the radio is already playing Christmas music (and because we are extremely broke), I am going to spend as little money as possible on Christmas decorations and paraphernalia and make my own. Plus, I don’t have to have Santas and reindeer and all the other overdone symbols of Christmas and just make spooky decorations so that Halloween is three months long instead. Ha! Take that Christmas!! But my “Hallow-mas” is awesome because you not only get candy, you get presents too!!!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like Christmas. It’s just that the stupid stores, radio stations, T.V. commercials and everything else that starts with the Christmas sh!t way too early have a tendency to ruin it for me. It’s overkill, and you know the only reason they make such a big deal about Christmas is so that we’ll spend more money. That’s not what Christmas should be about. Oh! I forgot about all the people in my family who are Scrooges and big downers and ruin the whole thing for me too. My family is not that big and the Scrooges outnumber the non-Scrooges. I think it’s probably because we don’t have any little ones in our family. It’s too bad that grownups need children around to get them in the holiday spirit.


Finding friends who share the same interests – The internet is an amazing thing. Without it, I would truly feel like an outcast. Who knew there were so many weirdoes out there just like me who love to create and make things out of paper, thread, paint, yarn, buttons, etc., who love to cook and bake like I do, who love all these obscure bands just like me, who know and love movies that not many people have heard of, and who still are a bit on the childish side. And oddly enough, a lot of them have birthdays in October too. Weird!



My kitty sleeping (and purring) at my side or in my lap– This is the first pet that's been mine and only mine. My other pets belonged to the whole family, not just me (well, technically, Sally belongs to Jesse too, but he's my other half, so it counts). I never knew how comforting it is to have a purring kitty at your side until I had one. It’s meditative, like knitting. She's so sweet and loving and mischievous and bratty, just like me ;)




New projects -Don't get me wrong, I love my current projects. But when it comes to crafting, I have a form of ADD. I am easily distracted, especially when I find a really cool pattern for a scarf or get it in my head that I need to play with sculpy right now! That would be why I have so many unfinished projects. *sigh*



Soup – I love soup. Especially Jesse’s homemade potato soup. It’s never the same every time he makes it. Sometimes it’s potato and leek soup, sometimes he uses sweet potatoes, sometimes he adds celery; but every time it’s scrumptious. With so many varieties, I could eat it for every meal and never get sick of it.


Ghost Hunters - I am addicted to that show now. I blame Brian. It just gives me more reason to believe in ghosts. Like I really needed one ;)