Welcome October










I love to decorate for Halloween in October. This year I decided to add two pumpkin topiary to the front porch utilizing the flower pots from the summer. The boys helped pick out the right sized pumpkins and then we stacked and fixed them together. Then I applied some of Stampin' Up! seasonal Decor Elements to the pumpkins. After Halloween I can remove the spiders and still keep the pumpkins for November.

I thought I'd go with a snake and spider theme this year. I like the Spiders crawling up the pumpkins, they are kinda creepy. I also found some larger spiders at the dollar store to hang above the pumpkins. They are attached to wire and they sway nicely with the wind.

Some of you may remember the snake wreath I made from last year. I touched up the paint on the wreath an hung up the creepy thing and then topped off the door with another Halloween decor piece applied to the door. We had our carpets cleaned the other day and the carpet cleaner guys really liked the wreath and so I'm considering that piece of decor a WIN.

I couldn't resist adding the crow silhouette to the bottom of the double garage door. It's a small detail and at first glance looks pretty real. I do a double take every morning and a few neighbors have as well. The dogs in the neighborhood are also fascinated with this addition. I might have to remove it!

Inside I've kept it fairly simple with pumpkins in jars and dishes.

We are loving this fall weather and now that it's not so hot spending much time outdoors. Happy fall!


Craft room in Creating Keepsakes


My craft room is published! Photo proof. I am pretty excited to announce that Creating Keepsakes has featured my craft room in their September 2011 issue. Friend and Editor Megan wrote a nice little bit about my room and how I store stamps. I am tickled and really surprised how organized (and full) my room looks in a photograph.

Joellyn - does this room count towards fung shei Friday?

Side note: sorry I have been neglecting the blog a bit lately. It's been extremely busy at work, home and life and unfortunately blogging first seems to be the first to go. I'll try harder, even if only by phone.

SU convention 2011 - product park









Another year another Stampin' Up! convention has come and gone. The theme this year was GROW and all of the displays and classes tied into the theme really well. Many folks in our department were charged with creating displays using our products. The product display theme was Product Park and each display was a little garden of products tied to the product suite theme. I was given two product suites to display (Flirtatious and Letters to Santa) and enlisted the fabulous folks from my team to help pull them off. Here are photos from the two displays I was in charge of. Most of the hours spent on these displays were volunteer outside of work hours (yes, I do have a real job that takes up the work day). So I took great advantage of the evening hours the month Chris and the boys were traveling the country. In all I believe I spent a good 40-50 hours creating these displays. It was a fun project and a great opportunity to use Stampin' Up! products in abundance. Here is a link to photos of many of the other displays as taken by a demonstrator at convention. And another link here. I didn't take the greatest pictures with my phone (terrible really), I'll see if I can find some better ones...