Purple Wedding and Halloween

Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. Mine was jam packed with events. My roommate Angela was in charge of a wedding reception on Saturday morning and she recruited a group of us to help! Now, when I say this was a "purple wedding" I really mean a purple wedding! These were the decorations we were given and Ang gave us a great pep talk to "make it work". So we did. :)

Bringing in the cake.
Somehow we convinced Daniel to come help us. His job was the hang the purple pom poms over the cake table.
Then I had to clean off the pom poms when one of them fell onto the cake. (Luckily this all happened before anyone got there and the bride never knew! :)
Katie sure knows how to make those floral arrangements look fabulous.
After our long morning of wedding festivities we came home, took a quick nap and then began preparing for our Halloween Party! We hosted a costume party at our house. It was such a blast.
Roomies! Me as a girl scout (yes, that is my vest from when I was a girl scout), Katie as Bat Girl, and Ang as Dora the Explorer!
"On my honor I will try to serve God and my country and live by the girl scout law."
The Sparks' made a quick appearance with their kids. Ella was so excited to see another Disney princess there! Joey as Snow White and Ella as Ariel.
Jennafer and I. She was Sweet and Low and her husband was Equal. She made their costumes herself - very impressive!
Our "family". Only missing Adam. In his absence Daniel, Alec, and Austin came as the three largest aspects of his personality. The fisherman, cowboy and the Aggie. And of course they had Adam's signature laugh going all night long. :)
Kara as Juno. I actually watched the movie today because of her costume.
After we were worn out from all our awesome dancing Austin lead us all on a "ghost tour" of the neighborhood. Pretty hilarious.
Just happened to capture this creepy pic on my camera during the tour. Yikes!
I love Halloween. It's another great excuse to act like a kid again. :) I was so thankful for the extra hour of sleep last night. I don't think I would have made it to church without it!

Perfect Pumpkin Patch!

This weekend my friends and I took advantage of a perfect fall day and went to the pumpkin patch. We were probably the only people there without kids but it didn't take long for us to start acting like kids! It was so much fun. We came home with a bunch of pumpkins to carve and some delicious baked treats.

They had the most beautiful pumpkins and gourds. I wanted to buy one of everything!

On the hayrack ride. These are my sweet friends Addie, Sarah, Kara and Katie.

Haha!
Kara and I on the "dinosaur" tire swings. They were definitely not made for adults. :)
This day will go down as one of the best memories this fall!
I'm so thankful for such great and fun friends! Love you girls!

Confession

I have a confession. Tonight I started listening to Christmas music. I'm not sure if it's here for good, but I'm afraid it might be. There was just something about a cold day today and maybe all of the Christmas crafts that put me in the mood. I just couldn't resist it! On my drive home from work tonight I put a few of my favorites in the CD player. I'm a fan of almost any Christmas music but I do have a select few that are always on the playlist.

James Taylor - I got this album last Christmas and it instantly became a favorite. There's something about James Taylor that is just soothing. I think he reminds me of my childhood and riding in the car with my dad. My favorite songs on this album are his duet with Natalie Cole "Baby it's cold outside" and his version of "Auld Lang Synge".

Then of course there is Celine. Really she should be at the top. She can do no wrong in my book. I can't pick a favorite song on this cd. Every single one is amazing. I can listen to this one over and over and never get sick of it.
Oh, Josh Groban how you tickle my ears with your many languages and your beautiful voice. And then there's the heartbreaking version of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with stories of soldiers who are away from their families. I've listened to it probably 100 times and I still tear up. I love his version of "Little Drummer Boy". I never really liked that song but he changed my mind.
Branson has officially put up their Christmas decorations including the big tree at the Branson Landing. That may have something to do with me getting in the spirit a little early this year too. :)

I have a busy weekend planned with lots of crafting! I'll probably start drinking peppermint hot chocolate and lighting my Christmas scented candles. Ok that might be a little much...I'll try to hold off for a few more weeks but I'm not promising anything.

Wide Awake

Disclaimer..I wrote this the other night but I'm just now posting it because I didn't have the pics uploaded yet.

It's 12:10am...and I'm awake. Why? I don't know. I'm usually ready for bed about 10. I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a new post! This week I broke out the knitting needles again. I forgot how much I love to knit! I haven't knit anything for probably over a year but knitting is like riding a bike. It took me just a few stitches to get back in the rhythm and I'm loving it. I started making some ear warmers (ear bands? winter headbands? what are these things called?). Then I knit a simple little flower, attached some ribbon and a button and ta-da! Presh.

I gave you a sneak peek of this the other day. Tule tutu's! I love my nephew Finn more than anything, but honestly right now I wish he was a girl. I don't have anyone to dress up! So, buy one for your little girl so I can live vicariously through you. The Christmas ones are just asking to be on your Christmas card this year.

Neither of these things are listed in my etsy store yet but will be soon. If you want something you see just shoot me an email at plainlyjanemats@gmail.com.

Tonight my roommate and I started planning our Halloween party that we are throwing. We are really excited and hope that our friends get excited too. We decided costumes are mandatory so we've been brainstorming all night. Right now my list of ideas is really long but in the running are: a girl scout, audrey hepburn, polly pocket, the 3 blind mice (obviously a 3 person costume), and a loofah sponge. Let me know if you have any other ideas. I'm open to suggestions. If you live in Branson, or even if you don't, you are invited! Just don't forget to B.Y.O.P. (bring your own pumpkin). There will be carving.

Ok, I really think I need to go to bed. I just read over this and I'm talking like a college student that has had too much caffeine. Sorry about that! :) Good night!

Home Sweet Home

I survived. After a week of being "mom" to three I'm back home, settling back in to the life of a single 26 year old. I think after being surrounded by kids for so long it's going to take me a little bit to come back to normal! Ok, maybe not that long. I just made myself a scrambled egg and I'm watching The Office from this week. The sun is finally out after hiding behind the gray for like the past 3 weeks so Joey and I are going to head out on a walk around the neighborhood. Then, it's time to start crafting again! I did a few little projects this week and have some fun ideas in the works. Here's a sneak peek: Yipee! Does tule make you as excited as it does me?! :)

Good Morning!

I told you that I'm keeping my friends' 3 girls this week. I am in serious mom mode. We are having a blast. I managed to get up a few minutes before the girls today. Just enough time to make a cup of tea and take a few quiet sips. Then I heard little footsteps creeping down the stairs. Today is a preschool day for one of the girls so we got dressed, made some oatmeal, and now they are watching cartoons while we wait for the carpool pickup. I have promised the girls we would do a craft together this week. So this afternoon I think we might try potato stamping! So fun.

As my sister said yesterday a blog post without pictures is just boring (and I agree even though I do it sometimes) so here are a couple from my weekend in Arkansas for the K-Kountry staff reunion.

Some of the wonderful K-Kountry crew. We have the greatest staff around!!
Whitney, me, Blair, and Kara. Blair has lived in Branson 3 of the 4 years I have but this fall she moved to Texas. :( It was so fun to get to see her and catch up. Thanks Blairsie for making the drive to see us! Hope you're having a great day! Can you believe it's Wednesday already? I feel like this week is going fast. :)

thanks kelley :)

kelley tagged me. i really needed something mindless to do right now to wind down my day so this is perfect. you probably don't care to read this, but i'm going to post it anyway. :)

Rules
1. Answer the survey below…you can only use one word answers (which for a blogger can be hard sometimes). :)
2. Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers
3. Alert them that you have given them this award
4. Have fun!

The Fun Part…
1. Where is your cell phone? close
2. Your hair? undone
3. Your mother? loving
4. Your father? generous
5. Your favorite food? dessert
6. Your dream last night? lost
7. Your favorite drink? dietcoke
8. Your dream/goal? self-employed
9. What room are you in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? crafting
11. Your fear? failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? mother
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren’t? married
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. Wish list item? toms
17. Where did you grow up? iowa
18. Last thing you did? pack
19. What are you wearing? pjs
20. Your TV? friend
21. Your pets? no
22. Friends? lifesavers
23. Your life? blessed
24. Your mood? stressed
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? roxie
27. Something you’re not wearing? contacts
28. Your favorite store? bookstores
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When was the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? forgotten
32. Your best friend? many
33. One place that I go to over and over? michaels
34. One person who emails regularly? jill
35. Favorite place to eat? home

well that was fun. i'm trying to slow my mind down. it's whirling with the millions of things i need/want to do this week. i'm putting everything (in the plainlyjanemats world) on hold until the weekend because i'm watching my friends' 3 girls while she and her husband are out of town. it's going to be a blast hanging out with them, but it's a little stressful stopping my crafting world. once it gets going i can't stop it! :) to tell the truth, i packed a bag full of little crafts to do while i'm there. there's just no way i can go 5 days without doing anything creative. as always, i'll share what i come up with. oh - and kelley i will try to do a diaper cake tutorial soon. it's super easy!

sweet dreams.