Being Brainwashed by Disney

This is not actually on the teacup ride. Tyler told me that when he went on that ride as a little kid, it always made him nautious, thus he selfishly robbed me and the kids of the opportunity to stand in line for 45 minutes to get onto swirling teapcups that would make US want to vomit.

This was a store totally devoted to The Nightmare Before Christmas. I love the outside of the shop, and would have to have a house that looked like this!

I couldn't remember this villain's name....it was sort of awkard, like when you see someone from high school and try to remember their name and fail miserably (only in this case, the guy didn't go to my high school...just many homely odd kids like him.)

This is Wall*E and us! After we took the picture, Todd turned around and gave Wall*E a kiss.

I just want everyone to know that while I'm writing this, Todd is standing behind me screaming and trying to repeatedly shove a battery powerered Black & Decker drill into my back. Anyway, here's us with Mickey. Does he look like he's gained some weight in recent years? Maybe it's just me.

Halloween in Fairview, and a slice of our working life.

(Hello, the family. It's Jill.)

I love Halloween. Part of the reason we've enjoyed hanging out with Renfest types so often is because everyone loves an excuse to dress up. Modern clothes can be cute and comfortable, but as for just killer STYLE, give me Victorian or Regency era any day. I'm a girl who wishes it was still required to wear hats when one leaves the house.

But Fairview is really killing my Halloween buzz. We didn't have plans for the big day, but made them fast when our first group of trick-or-treaters made an appearance. A group of punky fourteen to eighteen year old kids, without costumes, rang our doorbell and requested candy. One of them was actually SMOKING. Come on, kid. Unless you tell me you're Anthony Bourdain, no candy for you!

Just in case any of you were thinking of moving to Effing-view!

Now, some pics:
The little girls really love to get in there and "help" us sew and grommet bodices. They mostly like to lose my pins and bobbins, then drive Toby crazy by shoving grommet pieces in the way at maddeningly inappropriate times.

In this first picture, Maggie is singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Next, we see Ivy servicing the big sewing machine with a seam ripper and a point turner.

The ever elusive Barrett and Emma

Hey....pretty nice blog you've got going here...
Hahaha, anyway, The B and me are still kicking it old-school up here in Montana. We've had a really awesome time and seen many BEAUTIFUL places....but none to live in sadly enough. It is more or less the price; they want umpteen million dollars for some worthless ugly acreage that you couldn't hardly live on, and if you want something pretty (which there is much of)...I don't know, I guess it is just a little bit frustraiting that some punkerish Californian with more money than sense will swoop in, buy up thousands of acres of land, swing back out and only come to see it a few times a year and all the while making sure the price of property is ridiculously high.
NEVERTHELESS, we have truly had a fabulous time and have been treated like royalty by Barrett's many generous friends.

The rabbit is a nerdily-awesome as ever; it apparently can climb up steep mountains with boulders embedded in the road and somehow magically survive...but just BARELY. I'm sure it was sobbing oil ever inch of the way but even though the roads got progressively worse--rocky, steep, jagged, sitting-on -the-edge-of-a-cliff, etc.--it chugged along like a real trooper and is still packing us all over the country. Bless its little rodent heart, it somehow manages to contain Barrett, me, Nixie, a tent, two backpacks full of clothing, a tool box, a cooler, two milk crates: one full of food/equipment, the other oil, grease, and other car stuff, all kinds of bedding, dog food, dog dishes, dry goods, three big pairs of boots, a small set of bagpipes, leather working tools, and I don't even remember what else, but still more stuff! I'm sure most of it is due to expert packing by Barrett, but for a car that you could park on the bed of our truck, it does pretty well.

Anyway, we have all kinds of pictures, but I will just post them later...if you're lucky. We're having a super time and are looking forward to seeing everyone in Utah in...eh, 2 days or so. We still aren't sure what we are doing this winter, but we only have been offered a place to stay by everyone we know! Anyway, we love you all and hope to see you soon, or sooner or later, or sooner than later, or later....whichever works out.
BYE!

Apron I Made for Lucy's Apron Swap

OK, some people (ahem) publish all of their cool projects and activities on their blogs and I am always excited to see what they are doing. So, I wanted to show off my latest project. It seems like anything I make with black
always turns out good.

NOT, that I am trying to brag, but I just really liked this.





I love this paper pieced leaf pattern. It looks like a quaking aspen leaf......which reminds me that I need to publish a few pictures from our trip to Utah. So I will do that later.

Happy Halloween!!.......Really Early

Today, Brynn, The Todd Show, and I made Halloween cards. We all sat down and pulled out my paper and scissors, and Todd immediately procured the scissors and went for our couch. Brynn grabbed a marker and started drawing her goofy little faces that consist of two eyes and a dissatisfied line of a mouth.(To see these masterful work of art, see the little green monsters below.) Basically, that's all she draws these days, and when she wants to draw herself, she adds some swirls and scribbles all around the little face to depict her signature curls that all hairbrushes fear.
I yearn to imbed a desire to create in both of my children, and I let Todd keep cutting and Brynn keep drawing faces. Then, I had an idea! Perhaps we could use my kids' extraordinary talents to make some cards! Unfortunately, the only pictures I could think of for "Labor Day Cards" were somewhat sardonic and ironic, thus we skipped ahead a holiday. (I didn't think it would be quite appropriate to cut and draw a pregnant woman screaming profanity because labor sucks soooo bad. Labor day......yes, I know it's not celebrating us women who perform great physical feats, but it should be!!!! OH yeah, that's mother's day. How the crap did I get off on this tangeant? )
Brynn drews her little faces on green paper, and I cut around them to make globby little monsters, and Todd just kept opening and closing the blades of some very dull little craft scissors while I strategicaly placed pieces of paper between the blades. Thus, on the picture Todd is holding, there are random monsters with big awkward jaws. When Todd saw his picture, he kept pointing and growling, which is what he is doing in the picture up there. Anyhow, I think the result it quite charming and the children and I are thinking of starting a line of designer stationary adorned with goofy monsters.

The Amazing Maggie

Here is a reasonably good shot of the house. The pictures I took of Maggie were on the porch on the picnic table. This was a little girl's outfit I wanted to take a picture of and show Michelle. The pictures didn't turn out, so we edited them for light and then found she had the most delightful expressions on her face. I only wish I could say that she got her good looks from me.

We are contemplating a trip to Utah on Wednesday. It was up in the air and kind of a last minute thing. Jill keeps saying that she wants to see people while they are alive, and not just go to funerals. (The last time they went out was for Nile's funeral.) We will miss Dana and Corinne and Josh being out there as we loved hanging out with them. It would be a quick trip as school is starting next Thurs.

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