Month: October 2008

Friday Fun

Friday Craft: Halloween Pumpkins

Karen

We used to carve a pumpkin every Halloween.

We don’t do that much anymore. *sigh* It’s sad when you stop doing something you’ve done for years. I don’t really know why … well yes, I do know why. The husband simply doesn’t want to put up with the mess anymore. And the boys don’t really “help” anymore so it’s sort of boring without their participation.

BUT, I know that a lot of you DO carve/decorate pumpkins for Halloween, so let me pass along some of my favorite “how-tos” from Family Fun.

I’ve posted this little guy before, but I have to say, he’s still one of my favorite pumpkin characters:

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Ball Player Pumpkin

Transform a pumpkin into a bubble-blowing major leaguer.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Pumpkin
Carving knife
White paper
Acrylic paint or markers
Pink balloon
Baseball cap

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Cut the pumpkin’s top off and hollow out the shell.

2. For eyes, carve holes in the shell and tack white paper behind them.

3. Use acrylic paints and colored markers to add hair and eye black below the eyes.

4. To make the gum bubble, blow up a small pink balloon and pull the knotted end through a small hole in the pumpkin’s shell. Then add a baseball cap for the finishing touch.

Here’s a really easy one that would look really cool lined up on your front porch:


Say Boo! Pumpkins

(The instructions on this one are self-explanatory).


Frank N’ Friends

You can find the instructions for the pumpkins pictured above, as well as a Frankenstein pumpkin here.

And here’s a new one this year:


Bat O’ Lanterns

Stage a spooky scene by assembling a colony of these winged creatures made from miniature pumpkins and craft foam.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Black acrylic paint
Ornamental (miniature) pumpkins
Black and white craft foam
Hole punch
Glue dots
Black duct tape
Toothpicks
Wooden skewers

Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours
1. Cover your work surface with a drop cloth or newspaper, then paint the pumpkins. Allow them to dry completely.

2. For each bat, snip two identical eyes from the white craft foam and use the hole punch to make pupils. Adhere the eyes to the pumpkin with glue dots.

3. Cut matching pairs of ears and wings from the black craft foam (our wings are about 6 inches long). Attach the ears by taping a toothpick to the back of each one, leaving about 1K inches of the toothpick exposed, then inserting it into the top of the pumpkin.

4. Finally, tape a skewer to the back of each wing, leaving a 2-inch point exposed, and push it in place.

Have fun making memories!

Photos

From the Past: An Early Halloween

Karen

Halloween Past

Let’s see … this was most likely taken around 1973-ish? This looks like I’m about 8, my sister (the little witch – hehe), looks about 5.

My mom made our costumes. She made us a lot of great childhood memories, actually. I was a tiger, in case you were wondering.

ADDED: I just noticed how much bigger my pumpkin is compared to my sister’s. Apparently, I was SERIOUS about collecting my candy. 😀

Have you ever made a Halloween costume for your child(ren)?

Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction – Calling It a Day

Karen

Fiction under 250 words
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It wasn’t as if that would happen to me. If anything, I’m overly cautious and NEVER drive over the speed limit, much to the annoyance of the other drivers.

I tossed my keys onto the kitchen counter and walked over to the hallway mirror. I studied my eyes through the Plexiglas visor of the motorcycle helmet. The usually light brown eyes were almost black with anxiety.

It had been a beautiful day – sunny and warm. And yet, I passed two motorcycle accidents; one looked serious. Were people being careless? Were people so happy to be out and about on an unusually warm day in January that they forgot to be cautious?

I shivered and pulled off my riding gloves. I hated driving on city streets. People were oblivious enough without having to pay attention to small moving objects zooming past them at high speeds.

My family hated the fact that I rode a motorcycle. They didn’t understand the exhilaration, the sense of freedom, the sheer beauty of riding that close to nature. It was exciting to feel the air rush past my face; it was somehow comforting to feel my clothes plaster themselves against my skin.

This sense of freedom, however, did come at a cost, especially to careless riders.

I reached up and tugged off my helmet. I ran a hand through my short hair, trying to calm the static electricity.

Two accidents in one ride, maybe it was time to call it a day.

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen – Shame on Me

Karen

Thirteen Things About Me I’m Not Proud Of

1. The really, really mean thoughts I have about stupid drivers.

2. When I add to my husband’s stress levels with my irrational behavior.

3. My lack of patience (truly, it’s a problem).

4. My intolerance for, um, less than intelligent people.

5. My inability to listen to people’s excuses (because sometimes there IS a good reason why they did what they did).

6. Jumping to conclusions before hearing all of the facts.

7. My outspoken, sometimes arrogant, opinions.

8. The fact that my lazy streak can last for DAYS, Grr.

9. The fact that I can sometimes be selfish with my time.

10. Not taking the time to really get to know my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

11. My tendency to avoid people because of my insane shyness (which is weird, I’m not always that way, but there are weeks I simply can’t bring myself to TALK to people. I know, it’s weird).

12. The two days of the month when I’m a walking hormonal witch and could care less about people’s feelings.

13. The fact that I spend way too much time on this blog and not enough time on my writing. (Seriously, I need to focus).

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The October photo contest has started!! Don’t miss out on a chance to win a great prize!

Photo Contest at writefromkaren.com

Life

Revealing 25 (More) Things About Me

Karen

I had to reformat my computer this past weekend (for those just tuning in), which was a good thing, actually. In fact, I think I’m going to do that about every six months because WOW, my computer is running good.

But I forgot to save my Blog Topics folder – which had a ton of blog ideas stewing inside, just waiting for me to scoop them up and serve them to you, dear reader.

Now? I’ve got nothing. Blank. My brain is dead and I don’t have a fresh idea to write about. At least, for today – don’t worry, this is only temporary. *grin*

So … I’ll continue the things about me, dealie-bopper.

(You can find 25 more things about me here).

26. I was a manager at Wendy’s for seven years.
27. I was a teller at a bank for seven years.
28. I worked in the cash office at Wal-Mart for seven years.
29. My husband and I nearly split at seven years of marriage.
30. Apparently, I have a seven year itch.
31. I need to stop scratching it.
32. My first car was a ’72 silver Monte Carlo.
33. It looked hot, but was a piece of crap.
34. I owned a dark green Mercury Capri.
35. I owned a white Nissan Sentra.
36. I drove a Dodge Grand Caravan white/woodgrain van for a few years until someone hit me and totaled it.
37. I’ve been married since 1990.
38. We paid for our wedding by using a student loan.
39. We honeymooned in Cozumel, Mexico.
40. It was my first time out of Missouri.
41. It was my first time out of the country.
42. I totally freaked out and cried.
43. My first son was born in 1992.
44. He was eight weeks premature.
45. He was in NICU for six weeks.
46. We rented our first house.
47. We bought our second house.
48. We’re still here.
49. We have no intention of moving.
50. My second son was born in 1995.

Your turn. Tell me something about you. Something you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing with the rest of the world on your own blog. It’s okay, your secret is safe with me. 🙂

Life

Making Excuses and Being Too Confident

Karen

I saw this video on Pensieve’s blog today and thought I’d pass it along. It’s a classic.

I love how Theo tries to convince Dr. Huxtable that it’s okay to be “regular folks.” That we can’t all be as successful as him, all in order to get out of working to his full potential in school.

Pfft. That spiel sounds so familiar I could have written this script myself. GD has given me that speech before and that’s exactly what it was – an excuse to be lazy and not even try. GD is the sort of boy that if he thinks it’s too hard, he either won’t try very hard or he’ll give up before giving himself a chance to try. That irritates me to death because when it comes to achieving a high score or a special rank on one of his video games, he NEVER gives up until he reaches that goal.

Hello?! *knockknock* Real life is more important! How do you teach a teenage boy that lesson?

I also love Theo’s cocky confidence. Again, this sounds familiar. MK is almost arrogant in his confidence. Case in point:

His grades have been dropping in English, Social Studies and Algebra. Social Studies is because he wasn’t being thorough enough on his answers. He’s been working on over killing every assignment and test he’s been turning in. English is tough because he can’t stand his teacher. LOATHES her. He had her in sixth grade and, well, I’ve met the woman, she really isn’t very … personable. So, I understand where he’s coming from on that front. However, life is full of people you don’t like and will have to put up with so, deal with it.

Algebra though … MK is just like his dad – math comes easily to him. And he’s never really had any trouble in math. And he’s not really having trouble now – at least, according to MK. But his grades? Hhmm, they’re telling me a different story.

Last night, right before he went to bed, I asked him if he had allowed his father to look over his Algebra homework – just to make sure he was on the right track.

He ASSURED me it wasn’t necessary. In fact, he snarled and said something about it was only subtracting negatives, or something like that.

But I insisted. What could it hurt? I asked him. This way, we’ll all know he’s doing the problems right.

So he showed him.

And he had gotten nearly every single one of them wrong.

Oops. His confidence sagged. And when the husband went over his homework with him, it became apparent that MK? Didn’t know as much as he thought he did. His confidence downright deflated.

He was pretty depressed after that episode. I didn’t really lecture him, but I did talk to him about even though confidence was important, it was also possible to be TOO confident, even cocky, when it came to learning. His arrogance was in fact, preventing him from making sure he was doing his work correctly.

Which he was not.

I know MK. And that boy will pout for a few days due to the blow to his ego, and then he will snap out of it and work harder on making sure his work is correct.

I suppose it’s my fault. I’ve always told the boys they were smart and could do anything they wanted to do, if they were determined, and patient, enough to see it through. But I suppose I might have gone a bit too far with MK because his confidence actually ended up getting in his way.

Those humility pills? Can be hard to swallow sometimes, don’t you think?