October Basketball!

Since I have been participating in Blogtober fest I have been trying to think about all the things I love about October. I love the weather, the trees losing all their leaves (and changing color in normal climates), I love that you can bake without striping off all your clothes because it is so hot, I love Baseball post season, I also love that october marks the beginning of Basketball! Pre-Season just began and on the 29th of this month the real season starts! GO SUNS! A couple years ago I decided that even though my uncordinated self was not going to develop any sport playing skills at this point in my life I could still learn to appreciate sports. So I have done my best to learn a little about every sport. Basketball and Baseball are my favorite but I tolerate football (american style...) and listen to dads excited highlights whenever he wants to give them to me. I also have learned a bit about hockey, volleyball, and soccer(least favorite by far!) Two years ago I was WAY into the suns... and what do I do when I am way into something other than crafty things? I create crafty things having to do what the obsession...

These are cookies/suns players... We didnt have a gingerbread man cookie cutter so bears had to do. I did them for the 2007 playoffs and it was suppose to give them lots of luck but I suppose they didnt work... oh well they were tasty! My friend Mandy helped... the only way to get her to create is if it has to do with sports, a brilliant plan I thought...
So here is a little basketball memory for you! I am very excited for the season to start I love watching the suns!

Happy Trails...

A Heart of Gold...

This tree is from is from the Golden Wood... Straight out of Middle Earth/ My house! I decided to make a tree out of copper wire and I thought it turned out just lovely! It is not quite as strong as my steel wire trees but neater! I havent gotten a base on it yet, my "project manager" is off somewhere in the wilderness being "Square Knot" (he has decided that Slip Knot is his evil nemesis and that he gains strength by drinking cran-raspberry juice... I come by my oddities honestly!) so I will have to wait a few days on the bases. Enjoy!

Happy Trails...

Mummify Me... (again)

My creative bakeing juices were flowin today and I wanted to make a tasty hallo-treat. I had big plans... big plans... and then I looked at the clock and realized that the "big plans" I had would not fit into the minimal time I had before I went to work (wednesdays are evil... all school and work... no time for creation!) However, I did manage to wip something up in the midst of the craziness of wednesdays! These are some cute sweet little mummies. I adore them and I am sure they are very tasty to eat... I wish I had one with me here at work! I saw these last year and just had to give them a try. They are about as simple of a sweet Hallo-treat as you can get.



Mummified Cupcakes

1 package cake mix (chocolate or any kind you like)

Cupcake Liners

Frosting (canned or handmade)

Bake the cupcakes like the box says (you can also make the dough handmade... they are better to be sure just not quite as easy). You then let them cool a bit and when they are nice and cool you get your frosting and get a plastic baggy and make about a centimeter long slit in it. You can then mummify your cupcakes.

Soundtrack of My Life

A couple of years ago I saw on my brothers I pod a soundtrack of his life. This seemed like a rather good idea to me so during the last couple of years I have slowly created my own. These are songs that may completely apply to me... and may not have any apparent thing to do with my life, but it is the music I live to. So here it is... The Soundtrack of My Life!

Tire Swing- Kimya Dawson
I Feel It All- Feist
Rain- Bishop Allen
Naked As We Came- Iron and Wine
All these Things That I've Done- The Killers
Come Downstairs and Say Hello- Guster
Career Day- Format
Our Swords- Band Of Horses
Anna Begins- Counting Crows
Merry Happy- Kate Nash
Hanasakajiijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash)- Anathallo
The Background- Third Eye Blind
Rebellion (Lies)- Arcade Fire
Oh, Sweetheart- Shout Out Louds
The Queen of the Rummage Sale- Bishop Allen
Blues Run the Game- Jackson Frank
Running To Stand Still- U2
Fireflies- Bishop Allen

Have You Seen Me Lately?

I love Counting Crows... I love Adam Duritz... I have an obsession I admitt it... With all that being said, however, can I just say that I got a self esteem boost today when I saw this picture... All of a sudden the hours spent reading Adams blog, looking at the website, reading concert reviews from the last 8 years, spending lots of money on T-shirts and concerts, and the hours upon hours listening to the music does not mean i am obsessed. I am not obsessed... I am not obsessed UNTIL I get one of these on my back, if i do that then i will admitt to my obsession and everyone is aloud to drown me... or at least torture me until I come to my senses. I have a nagging suspicion that the person who got this tattoo instantly regretted it, but then again his love must run really deep... so I am not to judge! I love you Adam... just not enough to put a gigantic tattoo of your entire head on my back, and for some reason that makes me feel alot better about myself.

Adelia...

This is Adelia... She got caught in a bit of wind today and has left the ground at the moment. She was frightened at first but has now decided that she likes the freedom of not being bogged down by that very inconvenient thing called gravity. She is not sure if she wants to come down... She is content to live up with the wind and the clouds...

I love her hair... and her scarf!

Happy Trails...

Nick, Norah, and the Eye of an Eagle!

I realized today that I see a ridiculous amount of movies... If I dont see it in theatres then I watch it at home... So now and again if I feel like reviewing a few I think I shall. Last week I saw Eagle Eye and I was pleasantly surprised!

The last few months I have felt cinematically deprived! I did not go to the theatre for about 2 months which is unheard of for me. I was itching to go to the cinema when Eagle Eye came out last week. I had only seen 1 trailer for the film and didn't know what I was getting myself into, but it was definitely a good surprise! I thought it was a good action suspense movie with a good plot. They developed the characters very well the acting could have been alot worse. It was not a ground breaking Oscar worthy film, but it was good. I would suggest going... It is alot like I Robot but better in my opinion.

Friday I went and saw Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist... Let me start with the things I did like about it. First of all Bishop Allen was in it which is always a positive thing if
Bishop Allen is in anything. They played a gig in the movie at this little place in NY where they are from. It was fun to see them on the big screen :) There were also Bishop Allen posters plastered everywhere throughout the whole movie... that made me happy... Infact the film would have been excellent if they would have just showed Bishop Allen the entire time (the picture has nothing to do with the movie by the way, except that it is Bishop Allen...) The soundtrack was awesome! I would buy the soundtrack but I have every song on the it except for a few newbies. I knew almost every artist in the movie including some songs in the movie that arent on the soundtrack like a National song they snuck in there. I also really like the new Vampire Weekend and Rogue Wave song featured in it. As far as the movie goes, there were some entertaining bits... I laughed alot (partially because of the comments from group of guys behind us who loved it more than snow on Christmas... I seriously thought that they were going to cry at the end) I also loved the sight of NY at night, but on the whole it was not very good. The main characters were very like able enough and I adore Michael Cera. (I love arrested development and JUNO... I also love juno) I thought there were alot of odd parts that could have been left out and honestly if you wanted to see it I would say stay at home buy the soundtrack and look at pictures of new york and pretend you are on a rigid search to find a band called Where's Fluffy? and you can call it good... you experienced the highlights of the movie. I will probably never watch it again, but I will listen to the music for years to come.

Theres my movie advice for now... feel free to disagree with and ignore everything I have said, I would if it was me!

If your a dreamer...

I am reading Inkheart (Review to follow...) at the moment and found this lovely poem by Shell Silverstein in it. The second I read it I realized that it had to go on my door. So here are the welcoming words to my fantastical land/ my room/ art studio/ dwelling of my dreams. Again, Lord of the Rings is in the background. My lovely brother-in-law Doug gave me some old copies of LOTR to use in my art and quite frankly there is no book I would rather use. So if any of you have the desire to entire my room you have to meet one of these specifications... magic bean buyer is preferable by the way.

Enjoy Everyone... Have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Happy October... Happy Trails...

Mummify Me!

Today I got up and it officially felt like fall. It was a bit chilly this morning (yeah okay 75) and it didnt get passed 85 all day! I had soup for lunch and when I got home mom had gotten all of the halloween decorations out! Yep... tis the season for ghosts, gouls, zombies, and yummy things! I cant wait until it is cool enough for me to wear my scarves... they get vastly deglected, i feel bad!
In celebration of it finally being fall we had chilli made by mom and I made some yummy mummy sausages!

Dad cut the cheese in the shape of cats! MMMMMM it was good!
I instantly fell in love with these guys the instant I saw them! They are super easy and great for parties or just a fun family meal! Truely mummifying dont you think?
Yummy Mummy Sausages

1 can Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations refrigerated flaky dough sheet

Breakfast sized (or any size you want) sausage either pre-cooked or not (just cook them before you are ready to wrap them)

Some kind of Mustard

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or any kind of paper)

2. Roll out 1 can of Pillsburry Crescent Rolls. Cut into thin strips. Get your pre-cooked breakfast sized sausage and wrap your thin strips around sausages like you want them. Then place them on the paper about an inch apart.

3. Bake about 5-10 minutes or until pastry begins to turn brown. Get your mustard and a toothpick and put dots of mustard for the eyes.

This concludes day 2 of BLOGTOBER FEST... happy FALL everyone! Happy Trails...

Blogtoberfest!

A couple of days ago I was looking on my blog friends Cathy's blog and she has come up with a month full lovely blogtivities called BLOGTOBERFEST! I instantly decided to join in on all the fun. I love fall and Halloween and everything October! Basically what I have agreed to do is to post everyday but it is a no pressure deal so even if I fall off the wagon a bit I will not be banished or ostracized. I will post about all sorts of fall-ish things and am very excited to whip up some tasty treats and some awesome craftiness and my blog will show all this craziness. In Arizona October is finally a month were the intense heat of summer starts to give way to the beautiful weather of winter. So even if our fall lasts about two weeks it is still lovely and I shall celebrate it.

A picture my mom took up Manti Canyon... look at the tree's and their beautiful leaves! This is NOT in Arizona, these colors do not exist here... and I shall be moving to somewhere with those colors ASAP I assure you!

So you may be wondering what will be going on in Tessa's Life and Blog in this long month of October?

*Crafts (my life never ever exists without crafts but they may be more fall-ish)

*Recipes (you cannot believe how excited I have been to try out some ghouly and ghosty recipes... dad said I could start october 1rst so here we come...)

*Trees (I LOVE TREES.............................)

*Blog Highlights (every week I will find a blog that I love that I want to highlight... very likely it will be crafty but it is of course not a given)

*Thoughts

*Road Trip Highlights (been planning some road trips... going to post about them)

*A Giveaway (yes watch out for my first ever giveaway!)

*Halloween Costume Idea's (as a child I would plan my halloween costume at christmas...)

*Everything Lovely and Fall!

I do know that most of you are busier than Santa on Christmas Eve and cannot possibly post everyday... but you still may want to participate in BLOGTOBERFEST. All I ask is that you post about any fall activities you are doing or craft ideas or just thoughts about fall and life. It doesnt have to be frequent just join in on the loveliness of fall.

Happy October Everyone... Happy Trails... and Happy BLOGTOBERFEST!