Outfitted

This Halloween I decided to dress up for the first time in years because I knew I would be volunteering at my old job for their fall festival. It had to be something easy that I could make with things from around the house which led me to channel my inner Amanda McCleod and go for a dinosaur hoodie. Here was my example:

She used felt, but because I didn't have any of that I just used some old curtain fabric I got from work last year and started sewing.

Measuring out my spikes.

Goofy dino face.

Finished!

With zombie Elijah..

Overall I would count this one as a success... thanks for letting me rip off your idea Amanda, I'll probably wear this for the next 10 Halloweens haha.

Social Media

I FINALLY caved and got a TWITTER... I know, I already feel ridiculous. If you have a twitter too you should find me and be my friend, I don't know all the tricks yet and I'm still a little opposed to the whole idea. I guess I can't proudly proclaim "no I don't have twitter" to people like a pompous hipster anymore. Oh well...

In the meantime, be my friend! My username is @danabrichards.

Sunday

This weekend was perfect. It was relaxing and just what we needed as we step into a crazy busy week. We spent Friday watching the World Series with friends and Saturday with a date to the movies. Today was spent lounging on the couch and enjoying our much needed down time. This week will be full with a Halloween party for my students, job interviews for Keith, a show for his band in Murfreesboro and all ending with a trip to Philadelphia this coming weekend. We couldn't be more excited to go back to our old hometown for the first time in a YEAR! We just need to make it through the rest of the week first...

Oh and just as a treat, this is me forcing Keith to take pictures with my new favorite app incredibooth :) It's pretty great, but nothing beats the real deal. 

On The Go

My new job has definitely been treating my well these past couple weeks, granted there are a few kinks to work out, but I could not have asked for a better transition away from my Americorps term. I'm finding that one of my biggest struggles is finding a place to store all my supplies and all the students in progress projects since between Monday and Thursday I see 4 different schools twice. Thats A LOT of students, and A LOT of projects with no place to store things at each site. Here are a few photos that I snapped this week of the craziness that comes along with being a portable art teacher:

Pumpkin paintings drying on the kitchen table.

Middle school magazine bowls that got glued and are also drying on the table.

The absolute chaos that is my back seat. Keith kindly dubbed this my "art truck" 

Spirits

Tonight I made this delicious cocktail with fresh apple cider, ginger ale and (Tennessee) bourbon. I would HIGHLY recommend it this fall. It's sweet, but warm and tastes like the changing of the leaves. Now that I have all the ingredients I can see myself making this a few more times this month...

via

Dance Party

This morning when I was driving home from the gym I heard Kesha's Your Love Is My Drug on the radio and was instantly transported back to the dance floor at our wedding reception. It sounds so silly because that song is far from being a favorite, or a classic in our home but it brings back some of the best memories, from the best night. I don't know why or how but that song brought everyone I loved onto the dance floor and we danced like there was no tomorrow :) Thanks for the memories Kesha?

Maybe I'll go be a creep and put on my wedding dress...

Roasted

The best part about pumpkin carving? Roasting up those yummy seeds! This week I made some pumpkin seeds with a bit of Cajun spice on them and I'm having trouble putting them down haha. Would it be weird to carve another pumpkin just for more seeds?

Final Goodbye

This week we said our final goodbyes to our friends the Meyer's. Right now they are on their way west to California, and I'm already missing Elliot's chubby little cheeks :) I've said this a hundred times, but we love and you we're so excited for you! Good luck on this awesome new adventure!

Here are some pictures from our "final goodbye" dinner with them on Tuesday night:

Keith Day

Saturday was SUCH a beautiful day, busy... but absolutely beautiful. I started super early by visiting Ryan and Chelsey's yard sale, then dropped Keith off at his Ultimate Frisbee game, went to Zumba and then back to Keith's game to cheer on his team. They lost their first game, but won the second game (which is the one that I watched, good luck charm???). Look how crazy blue the sky was!

Anytime he was on the sidelines Keith was constantly shouting out advice to his teammates and I had a vision of what my life will be like if our future children decide to play sports...

Red team celebrating their first win!

 After the game we went straight to Keith's band practice (hence dubbing this "Keith Day" haha) and I got to listen to them run through their set of songs. Bennett's girlfriend McKel also joined so it wasn't entirely boring ;)

They practice at the church Anthony works at which has some BEAUTIFUL stained glass. Loved it. 

If you haven't yet, you should listen to Keith's band: Steven Bradley and the Cumberland River Revival.

Pumpkin Birthday

Saturday night our friends gathered to celebrate Tytus' 27th birthday with some good food, a little World Series baseball watching and best of all... pumpkin carving! It was so great to see Tytus and Jamie, it feels like it's been forever!

Our Kroger purchases for the evening.

Tytus and his Boston Creme Pie

Trick candles! It took him forever to get them all out haha

...and now for the abbreviated version of the pumpkin carving story: I told Keith that I wanted to do something interesting with our pumpkin and not just a standard jack-o-lantern so he searched online for a picture of something he could recreate. He found a super cool cat face that he wanted to do, but like only a terrible wife would do, I doubted his ability to recreate it without a stencil. It was very advanced! Seemed like something that would take a really long time! This doubt fueled an incredible fire in him, and he conquered that cat pumpkin like you wouldn't believe! I couldn't be anything but impressed, and I had to eat all of my previously negative words.

We carved out the bottom instead of the top so it wouldn't do that annoying cave in thing when it sits for awhile. Good idea Jamie!

Removing the guts!

Master carvers

Trent and Jordie's adorably cute jack-o-lantern

The master at work... can you see that determination?

Everyone gathered on the porch to check out our pumpkins all lit up.

Check that out!! this is our cat next to Tytus and Jamie's namesake pumpkin

It's only a little terrifying... but still, he did an AMAZING job!

All in all I learned something new about my husband: he is a pretty talented pumpkin carver and I will NEVER doubt him again ;) and thanks Tytus for having a birthday party so that I could learn this about him! haha