Catching up

Oh my gosh, I can hardly believe it's been about ten days since my last post! Life is very crazy right now!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. We had very few trick-or-treaters at home this year, but we certainly partied at Anthologies. We had a fall backdrop set up outside and took pictures of people, children and pets in their costumes (or not). We also had a make-and-take to create a cute little folder to mount the printed pictures. If you look closely, you will see that it was made from a white paper lunch sack.

Here's the Anthologies gang in our costumes. From left to right: Nita (store owner) and her husband, Tom, as Lucy and Ricky; Cheryl as a Sonic drink (note that costume was made by her husband!); Kristyn as a slumber party girl; Lynn as Raggedy Ann (great makeup); Tracy as Miss Smartypants (Smartee candies glued all over her jeans); Rhonda as a truckstop waitress (perfect dress found at a thrift shop); and Susan (me) as Minnie Mouse. We had a great time.

The week before, one of our customers had a birthday party "crop" at the store. Here is the celebrating crowd with Linda and her cake in the middle. We are all wearing the darling hats Linda made us from molded newspaper and spray paint. You can see that the majority of us were "red hatters." Who says work isn't fun?!

And earlier in the week, my daughter visited from Chicago so we could work on wedding plans. Since she will be married in May on the beach in Mexico, this is what we came up with for the save-the-dates. A similar one from the Martha Stewart wedding website caught her eye, but we changed it up, adding starfish (did you know that you can get real, preserved ones from Hobby Lobby?) and substituting twine for ribbon. The numbers for the date were cut with the Cricut, tied onto the twine and attached to the layered postcard with a knot over a starfish. (The wording says "Save the Date - Kelly and Josh are tying the knot.")

We also spent a day shopping for wedding dresses. I don't think she expected to actually find one the first time out, but she did! After trying on about 15-20 dresses, she decided on this one. It fit her beautifully and is a beautiful silk satin. Even without her hair done and little makeup, I think she's gorgeous.

So that's what I've been up to, along with teaching and prepping for classes. I promise to try to post more often.