Quest For Bread.

My parents bought a bread maker many years ago and I have been fascinated by them ever since. We were in the Hat some weeks ago visiting said parents and they must have made 10 loaves of bread during the weekend. All perfect. No problems.

They obviously did not pass their bread magic down to their son. I have been fighting for a few weeks troubleshooting my bread making. Lately, I have been getting these tiny, embarrassing loaves of bread. So frustrating! I bought the special bread flour, I replaced the yeast - still no luck.

Today I did a bunch a tweaking, more yeast, less salt, a little more flour and bam - I got the formula right - a non embarrassing loaf of french bread! Mom and Dad - you'd be proud!

Play day with Maddie

Maddie had Friday off and so did I so I told her to find some fun free things to do on Friday. She came up with a list that consisted of games, building Lego, make play dough and the first on the list was make monsters.

She got a kit last year that had all kinds of cute little monsters in it, so from that idea, we suddenly were making a quilt with monsters on it, and in it.... I'll explain in a sec.

I have a box of old jeans that I had been collecting for a picnic blanket, nothing is more durable than jean. I had saved the pockets, some buttons, and some patches also for decorating. So that is what we are using for the monsters. They can be lurking in the pockets..... hehehe

We ran out of supplies before the day was over, so this project will have to continue, but so far, it's really cute. I need some colored jeans now..... may have to go to Value Village and hunt down some!!

the start of it all.....

yes that says... "curious creatures for immature adults" hey if the shoe fits.....

a couple of the monsters....

Maddie's favorite... the bat-cat :-)

We'll have to update you with the finished product!

Hallow-scream 2009

November again, like a wedding, Halloween has a year of planning and it's over ( poof ) like that!! lol, onto the next years plans.....

So the weather was warm... but the wind was being a pain, delaying set up, I was worried, but then it died down and we happily continued on.

Maddie went to the Zombie walk earlier in October, so she had her zombie nurse fix for that day. Tonight she was Raggedy Anne, I think she made a very cute doll. Jenn went as a nurse. ( A cute nurse )


Raggedy in her box

Me being the vampire that I am chased down the doll, but she hid behind the many crosses

Moi hahaha

This year at Eerie Acres.......

on 1313 Mockingbird Lane....

a poor unsuspecting victim gets tangled in trouble and the spiders quickly made supper out of him...

the front door, kids love the smoking bowl, they all want to touch the water

the friendly skeleton opens his coffin door to greet everyone as the walk up...

close up of the mummifed body...

Welcome....

a mad scientist was on the loose, collecting body parts from anybody who lingered too long...

a few crows sitting on my Kia....they usually mean trouble, I wonder what's up?

....oh I see, an accident, a poor soul squished between the cars. He kept yelling over and over again ( thru a recorded device in his head.... ) "help me... help me"

well it's no wonder there was an accident with Chuckie at the wheel...

and sidekick Tiffany!

looks like someone was in trouble here?

back at the mad scientist, nothin but trouble!

latest victim

....tray of doom

this guy was scared to death of something he saw on TV??

or coming out of the TV!

your typical graveyard, zombies breaking thru the ground...

....and ghosts lurking about.....

That's a wrap!! Hope everyone had a gloriously spooky night :-)

Maddie's Pumpkin

It was time to carve the pumkins... Me and Maddie looked thru some pictures, but we couldn't find what we wanted to carve. So we hit the internet... off to Google, type in Jack Skellington... and a whole new world opened up! Maddie found the perfect picture! It looked like a tough one... lots of tiny lines.... I was scrared for her, but she was determined...

... first get the pumpkin ready

start carving

hold your breath as you carve the tiny pieces...

and light it up when it's complete!

Great job kiddo!! She makes me proud! :-)

Crazy Moments In Traffic

As I have mentioned many times, I always have 660 News on in the car. They constantly update me on the happenings in the world. I hear many news stories from remote places. But today I drove right past one of their news stories as they were reporting it. Cool!

660 News reported:

Victim injured in home invasion in Hidden Valley
Melissa Ramsay and Glory Przekop 2009-10-28 16:54

A violent home invasion in the community of Hidden Valley Wednesday morning sent one man to hospital in serious non-life threatening condition.

Duty Inspector Vic Tricket tells 660News police responded to the scene just after 9 a.m. to find a man who had apparently escaped the home with knife-inflicted injuries to his head and arms.

The police tactical team arrived on scene a short time later, in case the offenders were still inside the home.

Investigators say two men told the person inside the home they were police officers before entering. The pair then attacked the victim with a machete-style weapon.

The victim managed to escape through a second floor window where he flagged someone down for help.

He is in a serious but stable condition.

Police do not think this is a random attack but say it could be drug related.

Teasers

Here are just a few samplers. They aren't outside yet in their chosen home, but this is just a teaser...


my mummy... up close

the whole mummy

my mad scientist...

my prized possesion, the ring prop...

her head shifted under the wieght all by itself,.... ahhhh spooky!!

she can come out of anywhere....!!! where and when you least expect it!! moi hahahaha

Moi hahahahahaha

Well it is almost the haunting hour, I have made my TV and wrapped Maddie in Duct tape to make a torso for the body coming out of the TV for the movie "The Ring" , I'm quite impressed!! I think we will get many uses out of this prop thru the years!!

Have a new addition to the haunt family, my mad Scientist that I bought at Spencers last year closing out sale. I will greatly miss Spencers at Halloween time :-( but he is a very cool addition. The best part is he came with a stand so I can place him anywhere! I think a blood soaked cloth over a table with body parts will be spooktacular! I can't wait to set him up. Of course I have to wait til the day of Halloween as most of my props are delicate... scary but delicate.

I also made a "mummy" or dead creature covered in spiderwbs that hangs upside down that I am proud of also. I think he will go by the door, maybe the wind will rotate him and you won't see his scary face til he turns?? Regardless, he's awesome. I will post pictures next... happy haunting everyone. On the down side :-( I did not find a record played for this year. I need that so that I can make Regan from the excorcist, her head MUST spin, otherwise it isn't Regan!! The hunt will be on again! I just can't take my good record player out anymore!onward.... spookiness go forth

How to make a torso

Halloween is right around the corner, and we are short a few dead bodies, or pieces of bodies anyway.... so Maddie discovered how to make a body form. Get some duct tape. Wrap yourself, and cut it off, voila you have a perfect form!

Hard to drink with hands and arms that don't move!

Finishing the wrapping....

time to cut it off...

now we tape it back together, stuff it.... and we are done. I'll post the finished result in a couple of days :-)

An Evening With George W. Bush.

After waiting more than a month, the day finally arrived. Russ and I made the trip north to Edmonton to see George W. Bush. We were not disappointed.

When we got to the Shaw Convention Center - we were greeted by 150 or so protesters. However, they were outnumbered by the two thousand people that lined up to see the President speak.

They chanted and booed at us. One guy even had a camcorder and was filming the people in line as if to shame us into going home. The police looked alert but bored.

We got through the line and through airport style security and into the auditorium. We sat down and lights went down. After a few introductions from the evenings sponsors, the President walked on stage. Russ and I stood with the rest of the audience and enthusatically gave the President a standing ovation.

Retirement looks good on him. He was relaxed and passionate about what he was saying. Even though I knew that he gave this same speech many times, the way he delivered it felt as if was giving it for the first time to us.

He spoke on many topics - Iraq, Afghanistan, September 11th, the First Lady, the recession, the USA's relationship with Canada, life in retirement, his dog Barney and many other topics. He said he wanted to be The Education President and ended being The War President.

He had kind words for Canada. He said Canadians may feel that the United States sometimes takes our relationship for granted. He said that is not the case. He again thanked Canadians for all their help in hosting people stranded on September 11th. He also thanked Canada for what he described as our "disproportionate" committment in Afghanistan.

He spoke most passionately about the cause of freedom. He said that terror groups are able to find recruits in nations where there is no hope and no freedom. He spoke about his program to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to fight AIDS in Africa. He asked what hope in the world does a child have in Africa when both their parents have died of AIDS?

Russ described him as "older distinguished gentleman who was modest and proud to serve his country for eight years." Well said Russ.

History selected President Bush to make some of the toughest decisions a President has ever had to make. Whether you agree with the decisions of President Bush or not, you walked away knowing why he made the decisions he did.

A great night!

Human Peace Sign

They did a Human Peace sign at Maddie's school for the international day of peace. Maddie should be easy to spot, she has pink hair, it's just to far to tell!!