Splendid

spooky soiree

Happy Halloween you all!!! We had our Halloween party Friday night, so fun!  We had over 80 people at times, people filtering in and out.  People started arriving at 9:30 and until after 1 am! (That's Mexico for you).  The last of the people to leave was after 5:30...soooo tired yesterday... but it was super fun!  I made all Halloween themed foods; mummy dogs (turkey hot dogs wrapped in pizza dough), cemetery salad (with a garlicky-balsamic dressing- to keep Vampires away), witches fingers (bread-sticks with a small, red bell pepper as a fingernail), shrunken pumpkin salad ( a pasta salad that looked like mini pumpkins with a garlicky-alfredo sauce and sun-dried tomatoes), cupcakes decorated as brains, and some with stitches, blood-shot eyeball cookies, magic wand cookies (pretzels on one end dipped in white chocolate and dipped in sprinkles), and various chips and dips and such....Wish you could have come!!!!

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
   
 
Hope you have a great Halloween?  We're carving pumpkins with friends and having another Halloween inspired dinner, and the 2 American houses on our block are waiting for us to trick-or-treat. Any special plans for you??

mas moda; island of the dolls

I saved these from a couple weeks ago when we went to the Xochimilco and visited the island of the dolls (Isla de las Muñecas). Fitting for Halloween, no?

 
 
sweater- nordstrom rac

shirt- pull and bear

pants- bought a year ago somewhere in Philadelphia??

shoes- way old dr. scholl's I got on sale at macy's---hands-down the most confotable shoes I have

hat- bought in california, where?

necklace- UO

when I should have been cleaning...

I was scrapbooking...

This is my newest addition to my "scissor sisters" album, Vee, who I got to hang out with this summer at Mandi's house.  She's sweet and funny and I admire her creative craftiness. (as well as her insanely broad knowledge of reality tv shows which she is always filling me in on which I need to watch, which I appreciate because before living south of the border I rarely watched tv, here I need something each week to laugh at.)...

 
then just some others...

 
 
 
 
and there's a few more, but I'll post them tomorrow or the next day.  Hope you all had a great weekend!  Did you do anything special?

mas moda; sunny window

 
  
  
dress- pull and bear

tights- target

moccasins- UO last year

necklace- modcloth

hat- bought in Europe

belt- thrifted

purse- forever 21

Getting a jump on Halloween...

Some American friends across the street had their annual Halloween party.  My friend Amy is so uber creative when it comes to decorating or entertaining.  Like me, Halloween is her big thing and she has for years been collecting swash-buckling beheaded pirates, crawling zombies, eerie looking dolls with jagged teeth and a plethora of rats and spiders. She's like Martha Stewart, glittering skulls, crafting crawling spiders and making themed foods that could be in Living magazine. Since 80% of our Halloween stuff is in a storage place in the US, I was so excited to go to her magically scary place! It was fun!

 
 Do you think it's too short?  It's the angle, too...just saying...  This is my new Amy Whinehouse meets Snookie wig.  I LOVE it, I may start wearing it everyday.  We took pictures at our house (pictures of my decor to follow in the next week) before we walked over.

 
Athena was big sis' costume and little sis went as a geisha.  I love her with dark hair!  And a couple family portraits.  Yes, that is my lovely husband as an aerobics instructor with too tight of a leotard on...

 
and across the street at Amy's...

 
    
 

Athena says from her foggy apparition, "My people, you have disappointed me!"
 
 
Are you planning something extra fun this Halloween????  and I mean it, do you think my dress is too short?  Or not short enough? (just askin'...)

feather your nest; give me a hand with my jewelry

I have a similar one on my vanity at home I bought from Anthopologie last year, but I love the simple, faded detail of this victorian hand jewelry holder.

Hope you're having a lovely day!

30 Truths, #5 Something I hope to do in my life

Day 5 of 30 Truths, something I hope to do in my life. It's funny, a few years ago I did a mini book that had 100 things I wanted to do before I die.  Due to my husband's constant change in position in his company (always for the better, but still moving around the world every 2-3 years) has allowed me to do many of things I had on the list.  Climb a pyramid, french kiss on the Eiffel Tower, ride a gondola in Venice, learn another language, get a blessing by a shaman, live abroad, learn to cook Indian, the list is 100 long...but something I have NOT done that I hope to do is read the Bible (new Testament), Torah (old Testament) and the Koran which I have always wanted to do. I want to know more about the 3 most powerful religions. Why they work, why they don't. I went to Catholic school, but sadly never really read, or absorbed what was in the Bible. Shame, shame, shame...

but I guess that goes with being raised Cathloic...

atc, little white rabbit

Simply ArTistiC has it's last Alice in Wonderland challenge.  This was my take on the prompt given to us, a cover of an Alice book that was pink and black and had silhouettes.

 

and the back

 

Go play along to swap your atc with someone else, it's so fun!

Creative Type, inspiration part 2

I posted my Creative Type somone of inspiration layout on the first about my lovely friend Steph, now I'll share the other one I did about Vanessa.

I met Vanessa at SisCon 2 years ago and again we met up this past summer in Ohio and I just love her.  She's witty, pretty, independent, FUNNY and my wing-man when I've overdone my spending of midwest milkglass (so much at such good prices in the midwest though-agh...)  We're both Pennsylvania girls and have emailed back and forth many times, talked on the phone, and shared dreams. She taught me how to twitter (not rocket science I know, but she showed me the ropes...).  I dig her style and her sense of humor is effervescent!  And spending the girls only weekend with her in Ohio at Mandi's house was a blast, so here she is.

Come play along with us, do a layout or project about someone special in your life that inspires you.  The Creative Type is also doing a Design Team call, so come over and tell us about yourself!! 

my first Dare...

Jen has told me a couple times to do a Dare and I always meant to, but then life would happen...But I saw her and Vee's Stand layouts last night and made myself go do one real quick at 10:45...here is is...

 
 

30 Truths, #4, Something I need to forgive someone else for.

#4, Something I need to forgive someone else for.  Agh, yes, forgiving someone else, so Dali Lama of me, but sometimes not so easy.  Okay, let's see, who to forgive, who to forgive.... how about this one.  The guy who date-raped me when I was 16?  I do feel I've really let it all go, the actual act, but I have always obviously held pretty negative and condemning feelings for him.  Word on the street is he's in jail for drugs and did dome other not so fab stuff.  I feel I have worked on letting go of hate for him, however, I would have no desire to go grab a bite to eat. But as far as I feel I am capable of forgiving him, I have. And moved on. 

prelude to halloween; la isla de las muñecas

There is a part of Mexico City called Xochimilco that is very famous for it's canals and boats rides.  One can hop upon a canal boat and take a slow, leisurely trip through miles and miles of canals.  This is where Mexico City actually started thousands of years ago. People lived on the canal banks and on the small islands tucked in the waterways.  They fished and grew vegetables, used canoes and made barges to cross the water.  Now there is a huge population of greenhouse growers surrounding the area.  The largest florist market in North America is down from the entrance of the canals. 

We took a day to visit the canals and go for a boast ride. I nice man named Lupe steered the boast using a long stick. We asked him to take us to the isla de las muñecas (island of the dolls), famous on many travel chanel shows for the strange, eccentric man who lives there.  Many years before he started decorating his very tiny island with dolls; small, big, Barbie, peek-a-boo, with heads, without, all different types...He believed the dolls would ward off evil spirits and protect him. It was the perfect outing to get us into the mood of October's spoooooookiness...(insert a maniacal laugh here)...

 

  
   
 
Then we headed back down the canal and saw boats with singing mariachis, boats with ladies frying tortillas for sale, a large pig I'm sure on his way to be slaughtered, and a man coming by our boat with a assortment of plants for sale. We bought an ceramic elephant with a plant and a small ceramic pot with some sort of greenery.

  
We're having a kids Halloween costume and cupcake decorating party the week before Halloween.  We have our costumes picked out; big sis is a Grecian Goddess and little sis is a geisha. Dave and I are also having an adults only Halloween party. I was thinking of being Sookie and Dave could be a tall, bloody Eric . I have a vampire lady costume, we'll see about Dave. If you're celebrating Halloween, hope you're getting excited for it!  Any special plans or costumes?

30 Truths, #3 something I have to forgive myself for

Day 3 of the 30 Truths is something I need to forgive myself for. This was hard one, too.  Self- forgiveness...That within itself is a hard one for me to wrap my brain around.  Hmmmm...forgiveness for "things" I've done in the past.  In high school and a bit in college I was I wasn't always so responsible and didn't use my noggin.  Sometimes I look back and silently beat myself up for dumb choices.  I need to forgive myself and move on.

mas moda; down at the pier

 
 
  
   

  
 down at the Bodega Bay Yacht Club (California)
 sweater: forever 21

shirt: modcloth

skirt: forever 21

sandles: older, bought ?

necklace: UO

earrings: made them

30 Truths- #2, something I hate about myself

Continuing on with the 30 Days of Truth project, #2 something I hate about myself. I know, sad to say, this was easier to come up with than #1, something I love about myself. I can be be judgmental. Sometimes I know I'm probably being to hasty in judging, or if someone has burned me, I have a hard time letting go and in the future am quick to judge their behavior or actions again. It is not a pretty side of me, one I try not to let out, but it does rear it's ugly head every once and awhile.

social ironies...

Aside from my wanderlust posts I'd like to make a staple, I often see things that I'd call "social ironies" and would like to make them a regular post.  Things that make my jaw drop, make me laugh, make me wonder, these times when I'm out and about and see things that are ironic.  

I'm here in the States for a week and saw today at the Target parking lot this site that make me bust out in laughter...this blazer had obviously been stolen and everything stolen off/out of it. The tires, a door, the stereo, even the windshield wipers...all under the sign "security cameras in use" which is just so ironic, no?

 

it was 14 years ago today...

10/6/96, we said yes to a long life together...

 
  
   I love you!!!!   I love I get to spend the rest of my life with you!

30 Truths- #1,Something I love about myself

I decided to do the 30 Truths project, after I saw Vee's post about it.   Like she mentioned, reading some of these daily prompts of "truths" was hard to divulge in a blog. But I find the concept of this 30 Truths very interesting, so I'm going to try my best to play along.

#1, something I love about myself;  loyalty.  I had to think about this, which is kind of sad within itself that I had a hard time thinking about something to come up with for what I love about myself.  But I have always been a loyal friend.  I stand by my friends and family, and try to be there for them, be strong for them and supportive.

mas moda; cup o' josef

 
 dress: forever 21

purse: zara

shoes: modcloth

necklace: bought in Philadelphia, old bakelite mold

earrings: etsy

belt: forever 21

shades: thrifted 
(picture taken at a Mexico City Starbucks)

this is me

Category Stories October prompt is "this is me." Come play along!!

welcome back The Creative Type, it's been awhile...

Welcome back to autumn scrapbooking and new challenges! The Creative Type is back in full force, y 'all. Come over to the newly revamped blog and play along!!!!  Meet the new members, try out for the upcoming DT call, say hola to the old-timers,  see what's new...I love all my Creative Type team members, but when the newest prompt was to do a page about another CT team member, I knew I'd have to do Steph, my Brit friend I adore!  We were lucky enough to meet when we were in the UK a few months ago.  She's warm, genuine and lovely!  My girls were enchanted with her accent and friendliness and we hope to see her again when we go back to the UK next year. Here's a pic of her, my girls and me outside Hampton Court Palace where we spent the day walking through the grounds once ruled by Henry V111.

 
So come play over at the Creative Type, the prompt is to do a page about someone special in your life, a friend, family member, someone you admire.  There is also a new Design Team call, we're looking for some new blood, so get over there and tell us about yourself!  Come play along!!!!!!