Halloween

Sometimes Bug's brilliance and creativity just astounds me. This week has been one of those times.

This year we just haven't had the time to visit our normal Halloween-time haunts. We have been overbooked with soccer, Cub Scouts, school activities, and working on the house in between. This actually gave Bug a little more free time than I had though.

For those of you that don't know, I'm kind of a scrooge when it comes to store bought Halloween costumes. I'm not sure if this is because of my penny-pinching side or my creative side, but I really don't see the point in spending upwards of $30 for a costume that will only be worn once, is a copy cat of every other kid at school, and will invariably rip before trick or treating is over with. So every year I encourage my kids to be creative and work with what we have on hand. I am willing to shell out a few bucks for clothing that they will wear again or a handful of supplies needed to complete their project.

It has been a lot of fun to watch their creativity grow. From their year as Harry Potter and Hermine or Sis's jaunt as an emo/Gothic rock star, to Bug sampling life as a hobo last year, these kid's have really proved that they can think outside the box and work with what they have. Bug really proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt with this year's costume.

He has been a little obsessive about playing Mario Cart on the Wii lately. He comes home from school and tells me about how he and his classmates pretended that they were characters from the game during recess. Everything around here lately seems to revolve around his favorite character Yoshi. So it came as no surprise when he decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to be the little green dinosaur for Halloween.

He begged for me to give in and order a $50 costume off the Internet for him. I just couldn't justify spending all that money though and helped him look up ideas on how to make his own costume. We found a site that offered a suggestion on making a paper mache head of the character. So after the purchase of a couple large balloons, Bug set to work with piles of old newspaper and a water/flour/glue concoction.

I did help him attach the two balloons together after they had dried and took over the spray painting in an effort to minimize the mess.

He took the reigns of his project back again after the green spray paint was dry.

There are peep holes cut out of the black parts of the eyes and nostrils so he can see where he is going. We purchased the camouflage fleece pants and green thermal shirt on sale at Target for only $15.

The tail came from an old stuffed alligator that he had slated to be given away to Goodwill with a belt looped through it. Sis was mildly disturbed to see us hack away at the stuffed toy but was pretty impressed with the outcome.

Today is Bug's big classroom Halloween party. I had to commission a friend to give him a ride to school with the big costume. I am excited to hear his recount of the event when he gets home.

Shadows

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme did not fit so easily into my daily life as it should have. It was a mostly bright sunshiny week that should have afforded many opportunities to shoot a shadow. I had a lot going on as usual though, and the vast majority of it was indoors. By the time I sat down to devote a little free time to my creative projects each night, it was too dark to make any use of the shadows that were lurking.

I was really hoping that Sunday would be the day I could venture out of doors to enjoy the lovely weather and feel inspired. That wasn't in the cards as Bug had an accident with his scooter and I spent the afternoon tending to him with his bruised leg and skinned elbow. He is fine now after a lot of ice and rest. I put myself to work baking his favorite snicker doodle cookies and Sis a chocolate Oreo cheesecake that she had been craving. I feel quite a bit more relaxed after an afternoon of baking, so maybe there were some perks to being stuck in the house.

Towards evening I realized that I still hadn't found my shadow shot for the week. Bug instantly perked up and began making shadow puppets on the wall. Great idea Bug!

I did work on my poem at the beginning of the week. You can find it over at Impassioned Versifier as usual.

I was very glad to see several fantastic outdoor shadows posted over at Photography139.

Dry

Is it really Monday again? I suppose it is. Although barely at this point!

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Dry. There are definitely not any dry spells in my busy schedule as of late!

This post is a little later than I planned since I had a busy evening watching Bug's last soccer game of the season with Grandma & Sis, visiting Bug's open house at school, and then dining out for supper with Grandma & Bug.

I am still plugging away at fixing up the house. Hopefully some big improvements will be made this week now that Bug is done with soccer until the Spring. Somehow I managed to fire off another photo in line with the theme and come up with a few lines of verse as well.

These beautiful golden stalks were part of a dried fall flower arrangement that once occupied a crock in my newly remodeled guest bath. Belzerz decided the flowers need a slight bit more arranging and took the task of doing so upon himself. By the time he was done I only had a few stalks of dried wheat and grass left. These were slated for the garbage, but luckily hadn't made it so far when the theme for the week was announced.

Following the nature and garden idea, I squeezed out a couple of verses relating to Dry and have published the resulting poem over at Impassioned Versifier.

The submissions over at Photography139 were rather sparse this week but very well done. Be sure to check them out! Next week's theme is an exciting one, but you will have to read his post to figure out what it is.

Odd Angle

Once again the Random Weekly Photo Experiment has chosen a theme that fits in perfectly with my week. This week's challenge theme was Odd Angle. I don't think there was much that seemed normal about my last week.

On Wednesday I had a bizzare encounter with a customer at work. There may eventually be a blog about that, but in the meantime I have promised someone close to me that I will use the incident to fuel the creative juices and create a short (fictional) story loosely based on the events.

On Saturday I drove to the lake to take possession of some hand-me downs from my Grandmother's recent move. That certainly put me in an odd frame of mind as I sorted through cupboards and boxes. I took a short trip down memory lane and then returned home motivated to commence de-cluttering my own abode.

With my busy week I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about my photo submission. As luck would have it our dear Belzerz was quite wound when we returned home. I only had to follow him with the camera for a short while before I caught him plotting an attack on poor Buster. Belzerz is a playful and rather ornery feline. He likes to stalk his pray and attack from un-thought of heights and angles.

Buster was not caught unaware, this time, as I gave away the feline's plan.

Photography139 has posted more than the usual number of submissions this week. All of them fantastic. Be sure to check them out! While you are there be sure to check out the photo project I helped out with Fun With Light. We had a lot of fun playing with the rope light until it broke! Photography139's wonderful photography skills have even earned me a compliment this week on my appearance! The fun we had definitely helped alleviate a little of my camera shyness and I got to learn a new camera technique!

This week's poem at Impassioned Versifier has everything to do with looking at life from a different angle. I hope you enjoy!

Fast

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Fast. It seemed very timely, as I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately on just how quickly time passes us by.

Given that thought process I could have easily gone a "traditional" route and photographed the hands of a clock (as my first inclination was). But instead I decided to take a fun turn with the theme. As those of you close to me know, I have a tendency to paint my nails at least once a week. I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for the "fast finish" products available.

I'm afraid that my poem at Impassioned Versifier this week did follow my thought process of time passing us by quickly. I would not consider it one of my great works, but merely a thought (and heartache) that needed release.

Photography139 has posted the rest of this week's great submissions. Be sure to check them out!