"Book 'em Dano, I'm 5-0!"

Heh, 50th post, just couldn't resist a little SNL humor there...

I've been busily crafting away this weekend. And so far there's no end in sight! Well, until next week. My sewing machine decided to die on me Friday night right in the middle of the pirate skirt. See, I had a method to the sewing for Halloween. I decided to work from the bottom up, and the easiest to the most difficult, to kind of get the machine (and me) warmed up. So I started with the underdress, with the ruffle. Easy enough, a few seams and some elastic. Unfortunately I forgot that my machine (which was given to me by my mom for *free* - so I'm very thankful for it, except for the fact that it's very, very, old and hates me) doesn't like to have the tension changed. At all. Because it will never go back to how it was after paying $40 dollars to have it fixed and cleaned up last time. No matter what you do. So I eventually had to give up for a bit, until I got down to my sisters to borrow her machine. Which is heaven itself, and of course I never ever want to give it back to her. So on Sunday the sewing commenced again, this time at a ripping pace. My sister has a Baby Lock and let me tell you, I can't get enough of it. It's computerized, makes inserting a bobbin a dream and has so many features and stitches it's a tragedy that I'm not doing more with it while I have it. This week is *crazy* though, so I'll have to just keep borrowing it from her... or something like that. So the pirate costume is almost complete. Just a little tweaking to do with the vest and maybe a bit with the skirt (hem needs to come up) and I'm good to go!

I also made progress on the Crafster Circular Shrug, and since I was babysitting last night for the cousins, am almost done! Just a couple more inches of 2x2 ribbing to go. I'm hoping I didn't fall prey to the "this-doesn't-really-need -*20*-inches-for-the-body-so-I'll-end-here" thinking that many people have run into and then not been too happy with how short their shrug was, but, hey, I'm sick of it and want to wear it already, so I'm ending, alright? We'll see how that turns out. And if it's not so good, I'll just do another one, in a smaller gauge, and a pretty red color. I'm also thinking it's going to need a lot of ironing or something of the sort to flatten it out. It's pretty stretchy right now.

The Halloween party is coming along! That's why this week is so crazy, I have a million things to do to get ready and I still need to finalize what food I'm going to do. I remembered that my mom always used to make us chili on fritos for the night of Halloween which was yummy, so I thought about maybe doing that and having the small bags of fritos that you just add your chili to and eat right out of! Takes care of the paper bowl thing too! Along with some other little "finger food" (no pun intended) and some dessert I think I'll be good to go. I think we're going to have some games going on in the kitchen like "donut on a string" and bobbing for apples. Then in the front room will be scary movies playing (more old than scary) and downstairs some Halloween dance jams going on. I'll be sure to take pictures. The house is looking spook already with cobwebs, blackened wreath, scary pictures, candles, red and black lights and hopefully some tombstones out front by tonight. Still haven't found time to carve a pumpkin! But will have to since roasted pumpkin seeds are a must!

I'm also preparing for church "Enrichment Night", which is this Thursday also at my house. I'm giving the lesson on "Emergency Preparedness" and might even be teaching the demo on jam making. So it's going to be a fun week!