Halloween Facts and Superstitions

Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

Superstition ~ In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

Superstition ~ In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Superstition ~ Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces.
Resource: ~~ History.com - The Real Story of Halloween

Beautiful Fall Colors

I think Fall may be my favorite time of the year.  The colors are changing quickly here in North Carolina and they are just beautiful.  I want to drive up to the mountains to see the colors there.  I'm sure they are spectacular!!  We went out on the lake today with a group to view the fall foilage and enjoy snacks with friends via a "raft-up."  Here are a few of the beautiful colors we saw: (click on the pictures to see the full view!)

CARROT FINGER FOOD

 Ingredients

* vegetable dip
* 4 long carrots
* 1 medium carrot
* softened cream cheese
* sliced-almond
* baby carrots

Instructions

1. To prepare them, just fill a serving bowl with your favorite
vegetable dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers
and 1 medium carrot for a thumb.

2. With a paring knife (a parent's job), cut a flat, shallow notch
in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of dip or softened
cream cheese to glue a sliced-almond fingernail atop each notch.

3. Stick the fingers in the dip, as shown, and serve with
plenty of peeled baby carrots for dipping.

Resource: ~~ Disney Family Fun Halloween Recipes

My Digital Studio Card

I worked on getting my certification for My Digital Studio today.  Stampin' Up has provided us with "webinairs" to watch.  There is one for making an album, making a card, making a calendar and doing multi-media projects.  The webinairs are about an hour each and are really quite helpful.  So, I learned a lot tonight!  Then we have to take a quiz on each of them.  Whew!  I feel like I'm back in school!!  Anyway, here is the card I designed that I am sending in to Stampin Up.

inside of card

Can't wait to receive it back and sending it to SU for printing!

Drinking your Calories

BEVERAGE CALCULATOR – Calories Per Fluid Ounce

As you can see below when you drink your calories they can really add up!

♦ 125 Creme de Menthe
♦ 100 Coffee Liqueurs
♦  85  100 Proof Liqueurs
♦  60  Manhattan, Martini
♦  40  Nonalcoholic Eggnog, Table Wines
♦  30  Ice Cream Shake, Sherry
♦  25  Champagne, Dry White Wine, Frozen Yogurt Shakes
♦ 20  Whole Milk, Fruit Juices (Cranberry, Grape, Prune), Fruit Smoothies
♦ 17   Fruit Punch
♦ 15  2% Low Fat Milk, Fruit Juices (Apple, Grapefruit, Orange), Orange Sodas, Lemonade, Orange Breakfast Drinks
♦ 12  Regular Colas, 1% Low Fat Milk, Beer
♦ 10  Skim Milk & Buttermilk (made with skim milk), Flavored Coffees, Sweetened Tea, Coffee w/cream & sugar, Lite Beer
♦    0  Water, Sparkling Waters w/o added sugar, Club Soda, Perrier, Diet Sodas, Unsweetened Tea & Coffee

Resource: ~~Dr. Jo's Dining Lean by Joanne V. Lichten, RD, PhD

Did You Know?

• Cashews are not sold in their shells because the oil that surrounds the shell is highly irritating to the skin, and peeling the nuts by hand can cause blisters.
• Unlike vinyl records, a CD begins playing near the center and spirals outward toward the edge.
• A cockroach has two brains. [I say, "who cares?" to this one!]
• Ronald McDonald is considered the second most recognizable character in the world, after Santa Claus, and ahead of Mickey Mouse.

Resource: ~~Little-Known Facts About Well-Known Stuff by David Hoffman

Birthday Cards

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a beautiful day here in NC!!  Sonny took me out to breakfast and then filled my car up with gas!!  I had a good day just playing and doing what made me happy ... like NO laundry, NO house cleaning, etc!  We had a Red Cross meeting at 6:30 and after it was over, we went to Chilli's for dinner.  I just love their chips and salsa and had been wanting some for a long time.  My family is coming over Saturday night to celebrate my birthday, Sonny's birthday (10/30), my nephew's birthday (10/16), and my brother in law's birthday (11/1).  Lots of birthdays this time of year!  And we got a call yesterday from our good friends who live in Texas and they are coming for a visit tomorrow.  Margaret's birthday is October 1 so guess we'll be celebrating her birthday too!

The card Sonny gave me had the most beautiful verse, I just have to share it.  We always tease him that he doesn't really read cards all the way through but I know he read this one before he bought it! 

Once there was this guy; A nice guy, really.
And he met this girl.  An incredible girl - truly amazing.
So naturally the guy falls head over heels in love with her,
and pretty soon they're picking out china patterns and rings
and there's a weding and the starry-eyed couple rides off into what will surely be a rosy future.

(open card)
Okay, so now some time has passed and the guy is living in that future.
He's still married to this girl, but now their life includes a lot of stuff -
appliances and bills and loads of laundry and home repair projects.
But between all the to-dos and have-tos, there are these moments
when the guy stops for a minute and looks around him.

(open card)
He looks at his wife, who is still truly amazing,
he looks at their life together, all the ways and different directions it's grown,
he looks at all the responsibilities he's got, and he thinks to himself, so, this is my life.

And then he thinks,
I am one helluva lucky guy.

And then I got a great one from my daughter although it killed her to have to buy a card.  Her stamping supplies are in storage still so she wasn't able to make me a card.  But she found a great one that says it all about our relationship!

Happy Birthday to my go-everywhere, do-everything, tell-each-other-anything ...
couldn't-be-a-better, always-and-forever friend to the end.

I got some beautiful cards from my friends and family and I want to share the stamped ones with you.

From Margaret

from my upline, Carol

from Judy Nelson

from my NCSU Demo group (made by Pat Wilkinson)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!! 

Here are a few more of my beach pictures made with My Digital Studio. 

..

Beach pictures

Well, I'm back from the Reunion.  It was fun and on Saturday night there were actually a couple of people I had run around with there.  It was good to see Jeanne & Carl.  I used to candy stripe with Jeannie and they both went to the same college that I did.  I actually went out with Carl a couple of times in college.  That was before he and Jeannie got together and got married.  They have been married for 41 years!  Wow!  It was amazing how many couples from our high school class married each other ... and are still together.

The Shag dance (a lot like the Jitterbug) is the state dance of South Carolina.  (see the video HERE)  Couples who have danced together a long time and do the shag are just magical to watch.  There was a couple at our reunion who we all enjoyed watching dance - Sheila and Ham McGarity!  Sheila was a cheerleader in my class and Ham graduated a year before we did.  They are actually in the Shag Hall of Fame!  Yes, there really is such a thing.  There are shag clubs all over North and South Carolina and they dance and teach others to do the shag.  I grew up doing my own version of the Beach Shag.  When we moved back to NC, I enrolled Sonny and I in shag classes while he had gone back to Washington to finish the closing on our house.  Well, he was not thrilled about taking the classes, but he did .... grudgingly!  I have tried to get him to take some more refresher classes but with no luck!  In fact, he told me this weekend that he had been afraid that when he died he would go to hell .... well, now he is afraid when he dies, he will have to listen to beach music for the rest of his life! 

Here are few of the pictures from our trip.  I loaded them into a scrapbook with My Digital Studio today.  You can click on the pictures to see a larger version - you just need to click on the back arrow to get back to my blog.

DEAL OF THE WEEK #3

Don't miss this week's Deals Of The Week!

•  Circle Designer Brads  -  Regular Price: $5.95 Special Price: $3.99 
• 1/2" Library Clips  -  Regular Price: $6.95 Special Price: $3.99 
• Basic Jumbo Grommets  -  Regular Price: $6.95 Special Price: $4.49 
• Mini Library Clips  -  Regular Price: $12.95 Special Price: $8.99 

These products can all be seen on page 179 of Stampin' Up!'s current Idea Book & Catalog. These specials are good only through October 26th at 9:50 am (MT) that's 11:50 am (ET).   Let me know if you are interested in placing an order!