Boo Update

Not more than 24 hours after I initiated the "booing" in my neighborhood, I've been booed back! I'm so excited -- I guess that means the boo recipients enjoyed the surprise!

Whoever booed me took a big cue from my treat selections. I got some pumpkin Peeps, some little cans of Jones Berried Alive soda, Halloween Oreos and a pack of Reese's pumpkins.

We'll be back at Target tomorrow for round two.

Spooky Surprise

Steve and I just returned home from booing our neighbors. What is booing, you ask?

Well, what you do is fill a bag of Halloween treats and anonymously, in the dark of night, leave it on your neighbor's porch. Usually it includes a little note telling your neighbor to spread the fun and do the same to another neighbor. Does that make any sense? I'm not sure ... It's late.

In the past, I'd only encountered homemade boo bags. Well, while shopping in Target the other day, I came across an awesome boo bag kit. It includes two cute bags, some candy corn, a poem instructing your neighbor to go to Target and buy the same kit, and a little ghost sign to hang on your door to indicate that you've already been booed. That is genius, because it sucks when you keep getting booed back by the people you booed. I said boo way too many times in that sentence. Boo.

Anyway, when you buy the boo bag kit, you must stuff it with goodies. Lucky you: You're in Target. And they happen to have goodies. Here is what I bought for my bags:


Some Dove chocolates, Halloween Oreos (with orange cream), ghost Peeps, little cans of Jones Spooky Cider, and some little Halloween candles. Here's the finished product:

So, we just dropped them off on two of our neighbors' porches. I don't know if they'll suspect us.

The only problem with the boo kits is that they don't include a little ghost door sign for the person who initiates the booing (me). That means I'll probably get booed back. But I'm cool with that, cause it gives me an excuse to go back to Target and to spread more Halloween fun!

If it wasn't for bad luck ...

Happy Friday the 13th from my favorite black cat! (Well, he's not totally black, but you get the picture.)

This is Halloween

Fantastic news: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is being re-released in 3-D!

Not so fantastic news: The closest theater playing it is at the Metreon in San Francisco.

Maybe *somebody* would like to take me for my birthday?! :)

20 Days

A few people have been on my case to make a birthday list, so I just wanted to mention that my Amazon Wish List has been updated (link is to the right).

I've included some "Karaoke Revolution" games for our PlayStation so I can start practicing for future karaoke engagements.

There are a few other things I want/need, so I'll fill you in personally if you're interested.

Bargain Bites

I read an article about this today, and I think it's fantastic. Amazon.com now sells restaurant gift certificates at a discounted price. For example, you pay $10 for a $25 gift certificate. It's e-mailed to you, you print it, and you're good to go. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?%255Fencoding=UTF8&me=A2MDGNBFSCCZAG

It's organized by city. Several of the ones in the Bay Area are restaurants that I actually go to. Some I've never heard of before. I hope more establishments jump on the bandwagon!

Sunday Stamping

My friend (and fellow SU demonstrator) Gina had a bunch of girls over this afternoon for a "stamp and chat." It was quite fun, and I got to finish up these cocoa holders I'd been wanting to make for a swap I'm in on Splitcoast. As you can see below, when you pull the ribbon on the top of the card, a fun surprise pops out.


I think these are great little holiday gifts for friends/co-workers you don't want to buy something big for. I'm thinking about doing a workshop on how to make them.

Bombed

We went to a party at the diviest of dive bars last night with a bunch of Steve's friends from work.

I sampled my first Irish car bomb (a perennial Steve favorite), and it was actually good despite the gross combination: Bailey's Irish Creme and Guinness.

There was karaoke at the bar. I'm always sad when there's karaoke, because it seems like people have these great practiced routines. Afterwards, I say I'm going to commit myself to practicing a song and making a routine, but I never do. Maybe that'll be my New Year's resolution.

Fauch

Continuing with the old lady theme, I went to the DeAnza Flea Market this morning. I bought three exceptional "fauch" (or faux Coach) items. I also purchased a set of framed vintage Halloween postcards. I've started a little collection of vintage Halloween images.

When I checked out, the lady running that booth complemented my shirt. I just stupidly said "thank you" and walked away. Then I realized I was wearing a shirt that I made from one of the vintage Halloween postcards in my collection! So dumb!! I should have told her I made it, and then maybe she would have wanted to order up a batch to sell at her booth! Then maybe a famous celebrity would buy one, and there would be a massive demand for an original "Ashley Tee" (that's what I decided I'd call my line of apparel). Anyway, here's a picture of the shirt:

I'd explain how I made it if I didn't fear some blog troll would happen upon it, steal my idea, and make millions of dollars ;)

Penny Pincher

We had a really wild Friday night out.

We went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. I had a coupon.

Then we went to Target to buy some cat food. I had a coupon for that, too.

I think I'm becoming an old lady.

Smelly

I just got the new Yankee Candle catalog in the mail. It looks like they have some really delicious new holiday candles! And I have a coupon code to share! If you buy online and enter CAT610A when it asks for promotional codes, you'll get $15 off a $45 order.

I think I'll be stocking up!

The Rose

Oh my gosh -- I did NOT want to watch "The Bachelor: Rome." But it happens to be on the TV right now. And I happen to be sitting right in front of it.

I don't understand why they're still making this show. I mean, there have been like eight sequels, and only ONE has worked out. Actually, I bet Trista and Ryan broke up. I expected to hear about their babies a long time ago, and I haven't heard a thing. I want an update. Seriously.

Anyway, this bachelor is a prince. And he's totally dumb! There's a girl whose occupation is listed as "socialite." I can tell already that she is going to be fantastic!!

Yay! Now I have a Monday night show!!

EDIT: What the heck!?? ABC just went out on our DirecTV! It says they are "working to restore the signal." They better work a little faster!

Tickled

If you haven't heard yet, Tickle Me Elmo TMX is the hottest toy for the holidays. We heard about the frenzy last week, and Steve went on an Elmo search. Our local Toys 'R Us was sold out and didn't plan to receive its next shipment until mid October. But they did have a few of the Elmo TMX Barbies, so he bought two.

Steve sold the Barbies on eBay for over double the price he paid for them. So, yesterday we went out and found a bunch more to sell.

Our Sunday ads came early, and the Wal-Mart ad featured Elmo on the cover. So I called Wal-Mart and they guaranteed they would have some today, but recommended coming right when the doors open (7:00 a.m.) if I wanted one.

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. today and headed to Wal-Mart. We were the first in line. When they opened the doors, there were six of us. We scurried to the toy section and found NO ELMOS! The employees in the toy section said they didn't have any.

Needless to say, I was PISSED. Additional Wal-Mart employees confirmed that there were no Elmos to be had.

Now there were about a dozen shoppers looking for Elmo. We all gathered at the customer service desk and the angry mob mentality started to set in. After about 20 minutes of waiting, a manager came out and told us that they did actually have some Elmos, but they weren't supposed to sell them until 10:00 a.m. Obviously, that was not going to work for us.

She ended up having us line up, and we each got to buy one Elmo.

THANK GOD! Cause if I spent my precious sleep time standing outside of Wal-Mart for no reason, I was going to kick somebody.

Now we're just wondering if we should put them up on eBay now, or if we should wait until closer to the holidays. If anyone's in the market, just let me know and we can work something out ;)

October Flowers (and Showers!?)

After watching Martha last week, I learned that now is the time to plant bulbs to bloom in the sping. So I went to the nursery and bought a bunch of tulips and crocuses, which I planted in the front yard yesterday.

I also bought these pretty mums and planted them in a big pot. I think they're quite lovely!

And I'm excited that the newspaper predicts rain for tomorrow. Yay! Not only will I be able to fully embrace fall, but I'll get to skip a day of watering my new flowers.

True Colors

I came across this really cool site yesterday:

www.scraptitude.com/colorcombos

It's an automated tool that lets you pick any combination of Stampin' Up colors and suggests other colors that compliment them. It will also generate random palettes in case you're looking for suggestions. Even if you don't have a lot of Stampin' Up paper and ink but enjoy paper crafts, I think you'll find it quite useful!

Ouch!

I ordered these shoes from Zappos.com last week. I thought some leopard shoes would be fun for fall. Plus, they match black and brown outfits.

They came in the mail today. They are SO CUTE on! But I cannot stand up in them! I have never put shoes on my feet that fit so awkwardly. I'm really sad that I have to send them back. At least they make the return process very easy. I just had to print a pre-paid UPS label from their site.

As a humorous side note, I pitched Zappos.com as a client at my former job. On that day I happened to be wearing some shoes from Payless by Star Jones. And someone asked me what brand they were in front of the whole meeting. I was afraid to lie, thinking that these people know shoes, so I just admitted to being a bargain shopper. That was truly one of my most embarrassing moments.

Time Killer

If you're looking for something fun to do, check out this game:

http://us.mms.com/us/dark/index.jsp

It's a picture with a bunch of different things going on. The different things symbolize the titles of 50 horror movies. For example, the lady screaming is the movie "Scream."

Steve and I got 38, which I think is respectable. Anyone think they can beat us?

I did find the answer key, so I'll post that in the comments in a day or so ...

I should mention that it's to promote dark chocolate M&Ms. So don't get thrown by the M&Ms in the picture.

Ashley's Book Club

I finished "Shopaholic and Sister" last week. I hadn't read a Shopaholic book in a while, so it was fun. Definitely not the best so far. But now I can't wait for "Shopaholic and Baby" in February!

Hey, Big Spender

Last night was our first show at AMTSJ as subscribers. Even though our seats were high up, they were right in the center and the view was good.

We saw "Sweet Charity," starring Molly Ringwald. The show was good and it was fun to see someone in-person who graces such a large portion of my DVD collection. (Actually, I think I have all those movies on VHS tape!) I'd previously only seen the original version of "Sweet Charity," which is sort of weird and really dated. I'm glad this revival cut out a lot of the weirdness.

Before the show we went out for drinks and dinner, so it was a fun night overall!

Chapeaus

Crockett in his Halloween hat:

Me in mine: