Happy Halloween again, blog-reading peeps! I'm writing this on my laptop in the living room in between rounds of handing out candy to all the little ghouls, goblins, princesses, and ninjas in my neighborhood.

My Halloween actually started yesterday with the Spooktacular 5K in downtown Huntsville. Bunches of people ran in costume. I didn't (because I don't have a costume at the moment), and since Darren was away camping with the kids from church on Friday and Saturday I also don't have any photos of me at the race.

But, I can tell you that I wore this shirt...

...and this skirt (and I wish those were my legs!) and leave the rest up to your imagination.

Here's just a peek at a few of the costumes. Princess Leia was the first one I spotted.

The Chilean miner had us all cracking up, plus this guy won the costume contest.

We were all really cold and kept jogging around to try to warm up, so the only other photo I managed to take (these are all from my iPhone) was this group shot of the cast of Mario Bros. Love it!!

As for the race results, I didn't do so well- 31:46- but in my defense I haven't run at all since the Monte Sano 5K on September 4th (because I've been in taekwondo class 5 nights a week ever since). That, and it was really, really cold and my legs were completely numb the entire length of the course.

Today after church Darren and I stopped by a farmers' market in town to buy...more pumpkins!! I simply couldn't bring myself to carve up the big, pretty (and warty, in my case) pumpkins that we picked out earlier this month, so we decided that we would buy some smaller, less pretty pumpkins to cut. Lucky for us, the market had marked all of their pumpkins down to $2, so we left with two of the biggest ones they had instead of the small ones I intended to buy. They were completely lopsided (mine actually has to have a prop under the front end to hold it up), but they had awesome flat(ish) faces that turned out to be perfect for carving. We also left with several more pretty squashes (also $2 each) to use to decorate the house (and eventually eat), and the big pumpkins on my front porch will remain out through Thanksgiving as decorations.

This year I decided to choose a more intricate template that usual and carved a stormtrooper into my pumpkin (and see what I mean by lopsided?).

Darren designed his own Dalek and freehanded his!

It's been a lot of fun hearing the kids yell, "look, it's a stormtrooper!" as they run up our front steps. I just love Halloween!

Halloween Cupcakes

::giggle:: I've been collecting vintage images from around the web for a while now, and I just couldn't help posting this old pin-up today. As an aside, my Mom will either laugh herself silly or flip over it. She'll have to let me know which. :)

I haven't done a Flickr cupcake roundup in a long time!! How about some spooky sweets for Halloween? You know, since you can't be here to share all my leftover trick-or-treat candy with me.

1. sugar skull cupcakes, 2. Happy Halloween!, 3. Halloween Cupcakes, 4. Many Eyed Monster Cupcakes, 5. More Halloween Cupcakes, 6. Halloween Cupcakes, 7. Happy Halloween!, 8. HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES!, 9. Halloween Cupcakes, 10. Halloween Cupcakes, 11. Halloween Cupcakes, 12. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween, 13. Halloween Cupcakes, 14. halloween cupcakes!, 15. Halloween Bat Cupcakes, 16. Halloween Cupcakes, 17. Halloween Cupcakes, 18. Halloween Cupcakes, 19. Happy Halloween!, 20. Foiled Cupcakes - Halloween, 21. Green Halloween cupcakes, 22. Halloween Cupcakes!, 23. Cathys_Rum_Cake_Halloween_CupCakes_CupCakes, 24. Apple Ginger Halloween Cupcakes, 25. Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Cupcakes, 26. Halloween Cupcake, 27. Bat Cupcakes for Halloween, 28. Cappucino Halloween Cupcake, 29. halloween-cupcake, 30. Foiled Cupcakes - Halloween, 31. Halloween Screamsicle Cupcakes, 32. Vegan Halloween Cupcake with movie poster topper, 33. Halloween Spider Cupcakes, 34. Halloween Cupcakes, 35. Halloween Cupcakes, 36. Halloween cupcakes

Friday Favorites

Did my little post earlier swooning over Bath and Body Works' new packaging make you think I'd forgotten about Friday Favorites? Not to worry!! I was just having a spell of coder's block at work and needed a break, and a quick blog post was the result. :) Oh, and the code problem got solved and everything was in its place at 4:59, just in time for me to leave at 5:00 for not one, but TWO taekwondo classes!

And, now, without further ado, let's have a look at today's Friday Favorites!

From left to right:

• It's a little late for Halloween invitations, but I just had to share these super creepy cool spider-sealed envelopes from Zakka Life. Just put it in the hopper for next year's party, okay? :)
• Visit Mae to download some gorgeous desktop wallpapers and calendar backgrounds. Love the colors and patterns!
• Paper Crave shares a free template to make these adorable owl treat boxes. Isn't it amazing all the things you can make out of plain ol' paper? 
• Allison Davis recently wrapped up another sketch week on her blog. You can find a new sketch and five example layouts to inspire your next scrapbook page.
• Tomkat Studio and Hostess With the Mostess both have free downloadable, printable party goods as part of Operation Give Thanks.
• Check out Paper Crafter's Corner for the scoop on the lastest color forecast by Pantone.
• Unclutterer recently posted this sample of JK Rowling's outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's interesting to think of how an organizational style like this could be adapted to outline a scrapbook album or photobook before you start assembling it.
• This post from Young House Love has me wanting to buy unloved brass objects from the thrift store and spray paint them back to life. Love the two-tone treatment they gave to these cups.
• And, also late for Halloween, how cute are these eyeball-in-a-jar party invitations from Live. Craft. Learn.? They'd make great invites for a monster themed birthday party, too.

Have a scrappy weekend, peeps! I'm off to run a 5K in the morning!

Beautiful Sparkly Packaging from Bath and Body Works

I love, love, love Bath and Body Works. I have embarrassing amounts of their product taking up an entire shelf in my bedroom, and I'd stopped going to their store for a long time while I tried to use up some of my scented stash. Alas, last weekend I found myself once again walking through their doors while I was running a quick errand at Bridge Street (really, my feet were on autopilot and just went there of their own volition). I managed to escape with only a few bottles of some of their fall scented hand soap and a sample of their newest fragrance, Secret Wonderland, but their new packaging is so beautiful that it's still haunting me.

They've dressed up several of their fragrances for Christmas, and the snowflake motif and gently sparking colors are just gorgeous.

They remind me a bit of the Flickr collage I put together last year when Shimelle challenged us to document our idea of the perfect Christmas as part of her Journal Your Christmas class.

1. Pompom Parcels, 2. its christmas time in the city, 3. christmas globes, 4. I'll be fine and dandy., 5. Merry Christmas, 6. Christmas light, 7. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, 8. Zimtsterne (2/4), 9. Christmas cookies, 10. Christmas Snowflake Cookies, 11. Christmas? Did somebody say Christmas?, 12. Denver City and County Building 2008, 13. Snowflake Curtain, 14. KEVIN+BECKY-530, 15. wrapping lights, 16. - Helpful Gingerbread Guys -, 17. Lights, 18. it's beginning..., 19. Can You Guys Tell I'm Ready For the Holidays???, 20. Christmas wrapping, 21. Christmas bento, 22. simplified, 23. IRONY MAN - THE IRON MANGER, 24. Vintage Stamps + Brown Paper =, 25. Untitled, 26. tis the season, 27. Christmas 2007, 28. Christmas Baubles Stored in Vintage Hat Box, 29. “Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.”, 30. “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”, 31. Vintage Christmas Activity Books, 32. Pink Heaven, 33. Old Balls - our vintage Christmas Baubles, 34. pink to drink, 35. I see stars, 36. O tannen bonbon

Of course, my obsession with sparkly lights probably has a little to do with my new love, too. :)

Bath and Body Works' packaging gorgeousness doesn't stop with Christmas items, though- they've refreshed many of their older fragrances, too. Take just a peek of some of these beauties:

And we can't forget the one that got me hooked all over again in the first place:

Yeah, I'm going to have to go back and get more of that. :)

Geek Girl: Geeking Out For Halloween

I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for a geeky Halloween! I won't be putting on a costume this year, but I will be running in a 5K Saturday morning and haven't yet decided between wearing my H2G2 or my Doctor Who t-shirt. Any opinions?

Hair Watch

I also haven't yet decided what I'm going to carve into my pumpkin this year (last year we made 1Up mushroom and Apple logo jack-o-lanterns), but I'm leaning toward this pattern of the Tenth Doctor. The problem is that it looks kind of intricate, and I'm very gourd-carving challenged.

Or, if Eleven is more your style, you can find a pattern here at Epbot.

OMG, They Made That!?!?

There are plenty of other genres represented on the pumpkin carving scene, and I've collected just a few of them here.

I love this R2-D2 pumpkin (via NPR), but, again, carving challenged!

Or how about the ladies of Star Trek (via Great White Snark)

Jen Yates at Epbot made this awesomely blinged-up pumpkin. You can hop on over to her post to get the down-low on the how-to.

This Death Star pumpkin is amazing, but it makes me tired to reading the directions!! Thanks to Aimee for sending the link over to me.

There's been lots of other craftage floating around out there, totally unrelated to either pumpkins or Halloween.

Take, for instance, this knitted Yoda hat (via Great White Snark)...though I suppose it could pass as a costume.

This awesome sampler featuring Jabba The Hutt has me wanting to pull out my cross-stitch thread and needles again!

Grins, Giggles, and Grimaces

This R2-D2 swimsuit (adorning a Jamie Lee Curtis lookalike) definitely got a grimace from me. I mean, really? I'd rather wear a slave Leia bikini!! (via Club Jade)

Book News

The fifth installment of John Jackson Miller's Lost Tribe of the Sith series was released earlier this week...Club Jade has all the info and a link.

A rough draft of Timothy Zahn's upcoming Mara Jade novel has been revealed. Can I get an amen?!?!?

A short story based in the new Knight Errant comic series has been released. Get all the details here.

The Randoms

I think I should be appalled at this lightsaber lip gloss, but instead I'm oddly entranced and want them all.

And, finally, I'd like to end with a moment of silence in honor of a dear, departed friends. Yes, Sony announced earlier this week that they are officially ceasing production of the cassette player Walkman. Excuse me while I sniffle and dab at my eyes with a tissue.

So long, old friend.

Until next time, geek out, peeps! Have an awesome Halloween!

Oh, and be sure to check out Club Jade's Halloween post for more fun stuff. 

Happy Birthday, Dad! (Clean And Simple Sketch 113)

Today is my Dad's birthday (though we actually celebrated it last weekend). So, happy birthday, Dad!!! :)

This is the card I made for him based on a sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping. Instead of stamping I punched out cupcakes to match the flags on his birthday cupcake tower. :)

I hope you have a great birthday, Dad!!! :)

Creature Comforts- Decorating for Fall

I finally finished my fall/Halloween decorating inside the house (see the outside here) tonight, and just in time! I decided to not get out everything I have since there are a few projects still going on around the house and some of my open spaces are a little cluttered, but I did make a sweet little scene on the mantle.

I found the pretty little pumpkins that I'd so admired in my Halloween Glam post (at Hobby Lobby) and purchased several. Oh, and of course I had to get some purple lights. :)

The word art prints are from the site that I mentioned in this post. I had them printed at the Sam's Club photo lab, then stuck them in inexpensive frames from Target.

This apothecary jar contains a shimmery bat garland that I picked up on clearance at Michael's last year. It was 90% off and cost me a whole 30 cents!!

I've had these little ceramics for several years (I have lots more that I didn't get out this year). They were made by a sweet little old lady who sold them at one of the craft fairs that my Mom always used to have a booth at. I bought pieces from her for several years in a row and love them.

I nearly had a heart attack when I dropped my third little bird onto the tile and he broke. Thanks to some super glue he's almost as good as new now (and drying on my desk).

This little collection of gourds is in a cube of my Expedit shelf.

And these gourds are on the dining room table. I scattered a lot of gourds from the farmers' market around the house thinking that they'll be great decorations for both Halloween and Thanksgiving (and somehow I forgot to photograph the stack that I have sitting right next to the bowl).

I made a little wall art, too. The printed "Spooky" sign is from House of 3, the idea for the specimen box came from this site, and I made the collage of silhouettes using my Cricut Expression and the Happy Hauntings cartridge.

The beauty of this gathering is that I can easily change out the art in the frames as the seasons and my mood change.

I've also got this little pile going to use in the rest of the house, including some fun hand towels (one of which my Mom embroidered for me), some fun paper napkins, and pillowcases that I sewed last year.

Oh, and I have a pair of Halloween Domos on the bed, just because I like to be different. :)