Decorating Sugar Skulls

[Before I forget, I can't take ANY credit for the photos in this post. All were taken by Sarah. So thanks, Sarah, for letting me swipe these!]

Just a few days before Halloween, Carter and I attended Sarah and Matthew's Sugar Skulls Decorating Party! Just WHAT is a sugar skull, you ask? Well, it's a little molded skull that's made out of sugar. Sarah makes them in honor of The Day of the Dead (which is actually tomorrow, November 2) and has a whole host of pals, co-workers, family, etc. over to paint them up! This is the third year she's invited me and I finally made it over (sans Matt; he had to work).

Prior to the party, Sarah asked for some marigolds (a traditional Day of the Dead flower) so Carter helped me cut these from our garden:
And here's a shot of the flowers all vase'd up and some "naked" sugar skulls just waiting for their artist:
Most people were using paint right out of the bottle and some beads, glue, and such. Carter didn't quite get it and kept asking Sarah for a paint brush (he was VERY insistent on needing a paint brush - thanks for obliging, Sarah!). Here we are decorating his skull (I applied the paint, he smeared it around):
And before I get too far, here's a shot of Sarah and her mommy (two of my favorite people):
I didn't get any photos of Carter's finished product, but you can see if off to the side in this next picture (still on the plate, awaiting the two tons of paint to dry):
And finally, a few shots of the finished skulls from Sarah's party (I'm guessing she took these toward the end of the night - and click to make them larger; you WILL be impressed!):
(And mine is the very bottom right one - the "double rainbow" - done one-handed while Carter was paint-brushing up a storm on his skull...) I suppose I will display them proudly on a shelf somewhere [in the closet...]!

Thanks for the fun Sarah (and Matthew!)! Next year, I hope to bring Matt and he can show me/us how it's done!
~kerrie

A Pumpkin Carving Party!

[Ah yes, over the next few weeks as I attempt to update the blog, it's going to be all sorts of out of chronological order... I suppose you should just enjoy the randomness, ok?]

Since the Greenies bumped the annual Halloween Party back a week (or is it up a week? Whatever, ours was on the 22nd; this one was on the 29th), we were actually able to get out and about to some other spooky festivities! We got in costume (Carter too!) for Lauren and Matt's Pumpkin Carving Party on the Saturday before Halloween. I must say that Lauren and Matt have a GORGEOUS (and huge!) home near the Sandia Mountains and I'm super jealous of all of their cool Halloween decor - they even had a life-sized dude that takes his own head off - wow! We should totally join forces for our Halloween parties (or they could just GIVE me their cool decor, eh?)!

Anywho, I'm not real big on carving pumpkins (WAY too much work), so Lauren had all the gear out for painting pumpkins (ain't she sweet!?). We happily obliged and went to town painting up our pumpkins. Here's Matt's:

And mine:
And then we tried for a few family shots as Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Swee' Pea - Take 1 (Carter won't wear the hat):
Take 2 (Carter's playing with a pumpkin gut scooper thingy):
Take 3 (Matt's closed his eyes):
Take 4 (I give up...):
[Yes, expect to see one of these, or part of one, as a Christmas card photo...]

Hope you had a great Halloween too! Thanks again to Lauren and Matt for the fun!
~kerrie

Chef Spidey

Two more posts before I end my blogging marathon of the day! Yes, thanks to some clever deleting skills, after these two, I'm all caught up! (Ugh, yes, I deleted some files...my bad...wasn't on purpose, I swear it...)

This weekend was jam-packed with a trip to the Farmer's Market, the Library Book Sale, and even the Hipsters Craft Fair. We typically do a lot of local supporting, but this weekend was local overload!

After a visit to the Craft Fair, I picked up Carter a cute little Spiderman apron so he can "help" in the kitchen. Plus, he's big on singing the Spiderman song ("Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can..."), so it was the perfect choice! And I'm only too happy to support a local crafter!

I also bought him a couple hand-puppets (to benefit a charity) and he thought they were potholders (awww, isn't that cute!). So we were cracking up as he ran around in his apron and oven mitts:
He was doing a little "cooking" too (from the bed of his semi-truck?):
Even some sharing with Daddy:
Yumm, tastes great!
And one of my favorite shots, putting his fork back into his apron pocket for safe-keeping:
Here's hoping that someday Chef Carter will prepare us a fine, home-cooked meal! We'll supply the local goods and he can do the cooking!
~kerrie

[SWE] Tea Time!

I've blogged about my local section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and how they do a fantastic "tea party" each year for their awards banquet. For the second year in a row, there was a hat contest and my super creative husband, Matt, is my "official" tea hat maker. Last year's hat theme (birds) was WAY out done with this year's "bee" hat! (You see, we're part of the Sonora Region of SWE, or "Region B" - get it, B, bee?!).

When the hat was finally finished, I asked Matt to pose with it and this is what he gave me:
I then asked him for a SMILE at least and to be a good sport about it - so here's round 2 (ha!):
And now me, in all my bee hat glory:
Carter wanted to touch it (i.e., destroy it...), but settled for a hat of his own:
While I'm not exactly the ideal tea customer (I'm loud, not exactly proper, and don't own many dresses...), I always have a great time and the food is wonderful! I actually look forward to going each year and eating some dainty foods with the gals. Here's a shot of my tea cup and the beautiful display of goodies:
Thanks to SWE-CNM for another great tea party and thanks to Matt for making the WINNING hat! Cheers!
~kerrie

Blankets for Joplin

My sister-in-law, Katrina, is a HUGE supporter of Project Linus. I've blogged about them before, but I thought I'd put up a few pics from the recent round of blanket-making for the tornado survivors from Joplin, MO. Katrina and the Kansas City Chapter of PL did a big blanket round-up and I was only too happy to send a few from Albuquerque! With my help, Katrina was able to turn in TWENTY-ONE blankets! Whooo hooo!

I made four simple flannel blankets using fabric from my stash. Here's a "boy" blanket from my superhero fabric:
A "girl" blanket with cute little ladybugs:
Another "girl" blanket with some adorable froggies:
And a third "girl" blanket with some sweet flowers:
Jennifer made this monster blanket by hand and that sucker weighed a ton - but boy was it gorgeous!
Here are all the blankets before they were shipped off to Kansas City:
The gals that weren't able to make blankets for the first shipment, came through for the second round. Here's a shot of my co-workers (Bobbie and Danita) with me and the blankets:
A couple close-ups of each treasure. The red one, made by Suzanne:
Two pink ones and a race-car blanket made by Stephanie:

Bobbie's dinos:
Danita's monkeys:
And a shot of the bunch before they were shipped off to Kansas City:
Thanks to all of my creative pals for helping support this fantastic charity! I wish we could have done them under better circumstances (poor Joplin folks...), but I'm glad we could help from afar!
~kerrie

Playin' with Chickens

With the recent warm weather, Carter has been a playground fiend. As in ALL he wants to do is play "outside"... (I often joke that toddlers are no different than dogs... "Want to go outside?!")

Anyway, I had Carter in this super-sweet outfit (he was telling me that he had his water):
...and ALL he wanted was to open the back door and run free:
Except the door was locked. And he was sad:
REALLY sad (this photo is simply priceless):
So I let him out to play (even though he was dressed all goofy...).

Later we had a little dinner and Carter selected the "chickens" napkin. I've been making cloth napkins (we don't use paper) and I chose some super-fun fabrics, most are kid-friendly. Napkins help with A) the mess... and B) teaching Carter a few new vocabulary words (for instance, he learned "stripes" by using the balloons napkin!).

Anywho, a few photos (and a fun little video) of Carter telling me about chickens and "what they say"...
[and in case you don't know what a chicken says, watch this short little video - it'll help you with sheep too...]




Thanks for the laughs, Carter!
~kerrie