Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween: Always Have a Plan!




Got this pic from here.


After reading Jill's post, it got me thinking back to the days when I would go trick or treating, many, many, many moons ago. :)

October 31st is just magical for kids. There is an air of excitement the whole day. And I went to school before all this PC crap when kids could have actually have a Halloween party in their classroom. Nowadays, there is so much worry about offending those that don't celebrate Halloween, or kids can't have sugary treats at school because they will get fat. Not that I'm about offending anyone...but I'm not gonna get started down that road. It's Halloween and we are having fun!

Our family didn't really buy Halloween costumes, but would just kinda put together some stuff from the house. For some reason, I'm finding it difficult to remember what I was for Halloween. Perhaps it was so traumatizing that I've blocked it out? Lol. I do remember being a clown, i think because I could pretty much paint my face and wear whatever. In college, I remember being the Chick-fil-A cow and The Great Pumpkin. Man I wish I had pics. My Great Pumpkin outfit was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. That was before everyone was carrying cell phones and all this social media stuff. Man, I am really sounding dated, lol. I'm really not that old...

We would run home from school and couldn't wait for it to get dusk. For dinner Mom would fix whatever she could find in a hurry because she knew we were ready to go.

Finally...dusk. My dad would take me and my sister trick or treating. Mom would stay home and hand out candy to the few trick or treaters that we had.

We always had a plan.
It's kinda amazing to think how many miles we covered in two cities in just a matter of hours, lol. First we would hit the neighbors. Next we would go to the grandparents' houses. Grandma Robertson lived in a neighborhood that gave out good candy so we would most def hit that. Then we would hit my Aunt Pat and Uncle Anthony's house. They lived in a real neighborhood with a cul-de-sac and everything. The cul-de-sac would put on a sort of party. We could hear the spooky music as soon as we turned in the neighborhood. Their neighborhood meant business. When our bags started getting full with candy we would take some of our bounty out. According to my dad, people would feel sorry for us and give us even more candy. It worked! I think my dad enjoyed Halloween just as much as us kids.

Once home, I remember sitting on the living room floor and spreading all my candy out and just staring at it. Then I would sort through it and separate out all the "good candy".
Good candy = chocolate!

Sometimes I really miss being a kid. Sure, now I can buy my own chocolate, but what's the fun in that?



Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Body Surfing and Fried Butter: Weekend Recap




 
It's Tuesday so I figured i'd link up with Shawn and Impulsive Addict for Talk To Us Tuesday!

You know that lovely fall weather that we were having here in NC on Friday? Well, Old Man Winter has roared in here somethin' fierce and pushed that fall weather outta here. It's super windy but I think it's a cold front moving in and not Sandy. Luckily where I'm at in NC we are not feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy. I pray that everyone that is affected stays safe.

Well, I had big plans for the weekend, if you remember from Friday's confession. Did we stick to plan?

We did go to the Lexington BBQ Festival. It was soooo many people. Ugh! It was hard to get into vendor booths, so I didn't really get to see what people were selling. I felt like I had to body surf through the crowd just to get to the booths, lol. I only took a measly four pics because I didn't even feel like whipping out my cam. I didn't want to be that person stopping randomly and disrupting the crowd flow. Never mind trying to get pics! You know who I'm talking about...usually it's a group of people. Surely you know those people. They are everywhere, shopping malls at Christmastime, Walmart, any crowded event. They randomly stop and stand there oblivious to the chaos they have caused to those behind them that are trying to go around them. So, again, I took no pics worth posting.


NOTE: This is not me but a representation of what I almost had to do just to see people's wares! And i think this pic is Lady Gaga which will explain the outfit-or lack of one.

First thing we did when we got to the festival was eat BBQ. It was ok. And we also had a funnel cake. To die for! Literally, to die for, I think it shaved a year off my life with all that fried dough and powdered sugary goodness, but it sure was yummy! And did you know that's the first time I've ever eaten a funnel cake? Usually I like the elephant ear at the fair. Same concept, fried dough but they use cinnamon sugar instead of powdered or something like that.

And speaking of, the place that we got the funnel cake from also sold fried butter. Um, really? Do people really eat that? I mean, don't get me wrong, butter is yummy on mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and grits, but by itself, no way! If anyone out there has ever had fried butter, I want to know. You can remain anonymous if you so wish.

Ok, so curiosity got the best of me and I could not wait for my readers to email me so I googled fried butter. Paula Dean has a recipe for fried butter balls. Really? I love Paula and she is the Queen of Southern Cuisine but I would not have seen coming a recipe for fried butter balls from Paula.

We did get to see Chairman of the Board, who I love!  They are a regional band that does beach and shag music. I think they were a lot bigger back in the day.

On the way back, we stopped at a pumpkin patch at a local church. Of course, the Hubs was like "Why don't we just go to Walmart?" To which I replied, "It's for a good cause. It's for the church." Plus I need happy pills before even entertaining the idea of setting foot into our local Walmart. It is really that insane. So when we got to the pumpkin patch, pumpkins were higher than we I had anticipated so we only ended up getting one. I wanted a really big one but they were asking $35. I just wasn't prepared to drop $100 on some pumpkins. Hopefully I will not get struck with lightning on the way home, lol.

And no, we have not yet carved our pumpkin yet. Maybe tonight?




Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday Confessions

Photobucket
 
Mamarazzi is on break, so Aubrey over at High Heeled Love  is the ever gracious host of this party.
 
Figured I'd link up today. I've got some things to say.
 
I confess:  I just made a rhyme! :)
 
I confess: Today is the perfect fall day. There's almost a chill in the air and the leaves have changed and are falling off the trees.
 
I confess: I'm not sure who has more of a crush on Ian Somerhalder, me or Jill? Dibs!!
 

I confess: Got and actually implemented a great tip that I got from Stacie over at Park Avenue. Put all your manuals in a binder so that they are in one place and when you need something, as long as you know where your binder is, you are good to go. This is one of those things that when I read it, I thought, "Genius!" So simple you'd think it would be common sense, right? Not for some people (raises hand, lol). Anyhoo, I did this. I went all around the house searching in all the nooks and crannies and drawers looking for my manuals.

Picture this, if you will:

Hubs: "Neet, I'm gonna put the TV manual in the drawer beside the TV.
Me: "Ok."
Hubs: "Are you looking? It's right here."
Me: "Ok."

Six months later....

Hubs: "Neet, where did we put the TV manual? The blah blah blah isn't working right."
Me: "Dunno, you didn't tell me."

Ha ha, so no more of that! Thanks Stacie! Now to just remember where my binder is...

I confess: This weekend is kinda like a fall kickoff. There's that chill in the air that I mentioned above, and we are also going to the Lexington Barbecue Festival in Lexington, NC. It's a festival, so there will be lots to eat (my personal fave), and they also have craft vendors. Usually it's so crowded it's hard to see what people have in their booth, but I think I'm gonna really stop and look at stuff.  They also have bands and entertainment. And the Hubs doesn't know this yet but we will be carving pumpkins, me AND him. It's the perfect time to do so since it's just a few days before Halloween. 

I confess:  Speaking of Halloween, we don't usually get hardly any trick or treaters. It's kind of a bummer. I'll probably still go buy some candy anyway, ya know...just in case. *wink, wink
And it will be the good kind, ahem Stacie :), because I don't want it to go to waste just in case I don't have any trick or treaters.

That's it for now, head on over to High Heeled Love (who doesn't?) and see what everyone else is confessing this week.






 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Inspired by Random Acts of Kindness

I have been so inspired!

Jessica of The Swell Life and her friends turned a birthday outing into a day where they performed 30 random acts of kindness for perfect strangers. And this was at the birthday girl's request. How awesome is that?

I absolutely love this idea and have already emailed my girls for us to do this.

They made super cute tags and then randomly passed them out, making a fun day of it.


photo cred: here

Here are some of the things they did:
  •  A note of encouragement to a driver's ed instructor (on a student driver car)
  • Coffee shop drive-through, paying for the drink of the person behind us
  • Tape a bag of popcorn and $ to a Redbox rental machine
  • Leave quarters in a soda machine
  •  A note of encouragement on a police car or fire truck (thanks for keeping us safe)!
  • Tape a coffee gift card and a note saying "You're a great mom!" to a baby changing station
  • Tube a surprise note to the drive-through bank teller
  •  Hide sweet treats in the pumpkin patch
  •  Candy bars under windshield wipers at the grocery store (it was a cool day so they did not melt)!
  • Tape an unscratched lottery ticket to the gas station pump
  • A note of gratitude along with $ in the tip jar at our dinner spot
  •  Bring fresh flowers to a nursing home
  •  Bring toys or blankets to a children's hospital
Not sure when my girls and I will get together to do this, but I am going to start working on the tags tonight! :) Will post our day once we have it.
 
 
 

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

First Friday November Indie Market

If you are local come see me!

My stuff is much more fabu in person and the Indie Market is always a fun time.


And did you notice that I'm a featured vendor on this month's poster?

Awesome!


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Public Service Announcement: Magic Mike Available on DVD TODAY!

Attention ladies! This is a public service announcement. In case you haven't heard, Magic Mike is available today on DVD! Run, run, run ladies to your nearest Target and get your copy.

I told Rob, aka Mr. LeeLu, that he could get it for me for Christmas and you should have seen the look in his face! You would think that I had told him I wanted a pink Hello Kitty cruiser. (I did that too.) His response, "I'm not buying that. They might think it's for me." Umm, doubt that hon, but ok.

This is the perfect movie for a girls night. Have the girls over for some pizza and cheap wine. Or maybe I'll just have Channing, ahem Mike, all to myself. Then I can pause the DVD on all the good shots, lol. Now that's my kind of a party.

I can just hear Matther McCounaghey's Southern drawl now: "The law says you cannot touch...but I think we gotta lot of lawbreakers up in this house tonight!" Yes! Me, me, me!!!!




And if you are still not convinced...


Run, ladies.



Monday, October 22, 2012

Shop Swap!

I just stumbled upon the lovely blog oh, hello friend.

I just love the name. I can hear it in my head. But to me it sounds like you're at the store and see one of your besties that you haven't seen since high school, "oh, hello friend!" Lol. But then again, if it were one of your besties, ya probably would've seen them since high school. Unless you are me. I'm horrible, horrible, horrible at keeping in touch.

But, one thing I am good at is digressing. Which is exactly what I've done here.

I wanted to ya'll tell that if you have a shop, the shop swap is about to go down over at oh, hello friend. So mosey on over there and see what it's all about. It sounds super fun so I signed up! Hurry because it is limited to the first 100 signups or Oct. 31, whichever comes first.




Monday, October 15, 2012

The 13 Project Needs You!

It all started a few months ago on Facebook. I "liked" a local animal shelter's page. I didn't realize it at the time, but they post pics of dogs and cats that are, as they put it, "urgent". It means they are on death row, that their name is coming up next on the euthanization list if they are not adopted or rescued very, very soon. The shelter and volunteers post pics in the hopes that people will help either by sharing the pic on their own fb page, adopt the animal, or pledge money in hopes to attract a rescue group to take the animal. The more pledges an animal has, the more attractive it is to rescue groups. How can I see these urgent posts and just turn a blind eye?

This particular shelter also has an album on their page of the animals whose status is PTS (put to sleep). I would sit and look through the album literally in tears. These animals end up at shelters through no fault of their own. It just breaks my heart to look into their eyes and see how scared they are. I so badly want to help these animals but feel helpless and powerless to do so. This is a viscious cycle where one animal is rescued but ten more are lined up to take it's place at the shelter. So, I can choose to do nothing, or I can choose to do something knowing that I can't help them all, but I can help some.

And this inspiration comes from Serena over at Pretty Fluffy. She has started the 13 Project. "The 13 Project is a Pretty Fluffy initiative that involves 13 acts of kindness towards animals before 2013." Just come up with a list of 13 ways that you can help animals.

Here is my list:

1.  Donate a portion of proceeds from my shop, LeeLu Creations, to an animal charity.
2. Share adoptable animal pics on Facebook.
3.  Make a donation to a rescue group to help save an "urgent" animal.
4.  Donate old towels, blankets, and sheets to the animal shelter.
5.  Donate dog and cat food to the local shelter. I coupon so I snag deals when they are on sale.
6.  Go through Buffy and Chi Chi's toys and donate any gently used items.
7.  Donate a couple of old cell phones I have to ARFP. They are able to recycle them and get money.
8.  There is an amazing group in my area called Project Pearl. They work with the Forsyth County Animal Shelter by taking fun pics of the animals that are available for adoption. They clean them up, make 'em purty (haircut, etc), dress them up (jewelry, hats, bows, so fun!) and take their pics. This has been highly successful. I want to consider finding time to volunteer with them. I'm afraid that I'll fall in love with only every animal!
9.  Repurpose an old dog calendar into gift tags to raise awareness about shelter animals. Donate a portion of the sales.
10.  ARFP is collecting books. Donate books for their annual book sale.
11.  Do the "Daily Click" to donate food and care to homeless dogs and cats over at The Animal Rescue Site.
12.  Continue to spread the word on Facebook about anything animal!
13.  Share and promote The 13 Project!

Now, what's on your list?



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Dogfest 2012


If you're local, come on out to Dogfest on October 14th! 

I've been super slack this year, on all fronts :), and this is my first vending event of the year.

 I have a special place in my heart for all animals so I think this will be a lot of fun! It breaks my heart that so many people find animals disposable. They are not. They have thoughts. They have feelings. They hurt and feel pain. They know loss. Likewise, they are happy. They love. They want to be part of a family. Just like you and me.

But, on a much lighter note, I'm gonna try to crank out some fun doggie themed jewelry and accessories!