GHDP & Metal Men

Good Sunday Morning Y'all!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. :)

Guess what?
I finally got some night shots of my decorations. Yippee!!
I actually went out after last week's post and took them.....it's only taken a week for me to get them posted. Hahahaha. I took two sets...one without a flash and one with. That way you can actually see what you're looking at. Without further-ado.......

the whole yard (from the street) with flash

the whole yard - in the dark - this is what drive-bys see (i get a lot of slow down traffic in front of my house)

looking up the steps - with flash

the steps - without flash

this is off to the right side (didn't get one without flash)

going up the steps - with flash

the steps - without flash

the porch (so far. this is where the table and fog machine will go, just behind Bart) - with flash

the porch - without flash

Not too shabby, huh? Can you believe it's only a week away? Wow that went fast. I can't wait to see all the lil' trick or treaters. We usually get a good mix of kids...young (some even in strollers), slightly older, middle schoolers and high schoolers. Some show up without a costume.....this year I think the ones you show up 'undressed' are gonna have to do something to get candy.....dance? sing? I don't know yet. I put a lot of time into decorating, so if you're 'undressed' be prepared to earn the candy. :) HA!

Yesterday I made some CrockPot Chicken....it was yummy! Easy too. That's always a plus! Here's the recipe I used....

I have a small crockpot and this still had enough left over for another meal. Don't say I didn't warn you!

3 chicken breasts (mine were still frozen)

4 potatoes

onions (I used pre cut from the freezer)

peppers, red and green (again pre cut from freezer)

sweet potatoes (small, pre cut bag from freezer)

water (1 cup)

Put everything into the crockpot (i usually put the chicken on the bottom) and turn on high. Cook on high for a couple of hours. Then stir the whole pot and reduce to low (you can use medium if you have a larger crockpot - mine only has two settings). Continue to cook, stirring once every half hour to hour. I started mine at 11 am and served it at 6 pm. The chicken was fall apart tender.

That's all there is to it!

Of course, you can add or substitute whatever ingredients you like. That's the nice thing about crockpots, you can cook whatever in them!

I finally got a picture of Alex's metal men. Alex is a friend / coworker of mine and he does some amazing metal  work. He saw my post about my sculptures and told me about his stuff.....so I got him to bring them in so I could see them. Wow! They're really great. I don't think Alex has a website (I will find out for sure, though). So for now if you would like to comment you can do it here and I will make sure he gets them.

these are two of Alex's metal men. I will have to get a close up of the one on the right.

Each finger is seperate and moves independently.

I started a new project this weekend too. Actually I guess it's a revamp of sorts. I redesigned a pattern for one of my dolls. Why you ask? Well, a new found friend made the comment that she wished they celebrated Halloween in her part of the world. I was shocked! No Halloween? What's the world coming to? LOL!

So I said "we'll have to get you some decorations so you can start a trend in your hometown".

We all know it will catch on like wildfire!!

Anyway, I decided that I would make her a Halloween doll to get her collection going...so begins the Great Halloween Dollie Project!

some pieces cut and ready for the sewing machine....

then I decided to 'tye dye' some of my own material...ORANGE of course.

here's the second stage..all wrapped and ready for.....

the BLACK dye! (what were you expecting? red and green?)

Roxxy gaurding the freshly dyed material. I wouldn't try to take it from her....would you?

this is what it looked like after I ran it through the dryer to set it (I think I like it better 'wet')

and here are two of the semi-completed revamped dollies.

I want to use my paperclay for the faces. That way they will be strong but lightwieght. Gotta get started on the faces....hopefully today I can work on them. I will post more as soon as I get some more work done on them. I don't know if I'm gonna make a Halloween deadline. They have a long way to travel. They may have to be for 2012. Wish me luck!!

I guess that's all for now.....

TTFN

p.s. ONLY 7 DAYS!!