This month has flown by as fast as a witch on her broom! Can you believe that Halloween is almost here?? Well, unfortunately this is the last Terrorific Tuesday of the year, so whip out that glue gun and scissors and get to work on one of these great ideas that will be sure to delight ghosts and goblins of all ages!

Spooky Jewels Katie Hacker strings this red and black set using a Fresh resin pendant, polka dots, and metal skulls.

Fangtastic figurines Retta a.k.a. Attercat breaks out the polymer clay and whips up some glow-in-the-dark figurines.

Cool canister Serena the Crafty Mom revamps a bargain bin canister into an awesome Halloween decoration!

More spooky pendants Rebecca Hull for HHH Enterprises does it again with these ultra fabulous pendants!

Gothic Pink Melissa J. Lee explores the spooky side of one of her favorite pastel colors.

“Eye”gor pin cushion Kiki of Kiki’s Craft World knits up this eye-catching pin cushion bracelet.

Stamped paper coffin Kate Pullen, the Rubber Stamping Guide at about.com folds and stamps up this little coffin box that Dracula would envy!

Fun party food ideas Amy at Living Locurto threw a Halloween party and came up with tons of great ideas for the food table including this adorable witch cake!

Double the goodness from Margot! The Impatient Crafter™’s final Terrorific Tuesday offering is a two part story of friendship, Goth Style. Here are links to see Morticia Invites Miss Havisham to Tea and The Invitation.

Spiderman pendant (but not the Spiderman you’re thinking) Kim Ripley a.k.a. Stoopidgerl pours up a glittery sweet skull and crossbones resin necklace.

Quick & easy polka dot treat cups Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner shows you how to make quick and easy Halloween treat cups sure to wow your guests!

3 brand new Halloween jewelry projects! Tammy Powley, the Jewelry Guide at About.com does an all-nighter (almost) as she pushes for a few more Halloween jewelry projects, including a super cool sterling silver spider, a glass framed mixed-media Halloween-themed pendant, and to top it off, a silver headless skeleton charm.

Fast & Fun Halloween Boa Sarah E. White, About.com’s Knitting Guide knits up this super cute boa perfect for those chilly fall nights!

Dia De Los Muertos Cigar Box Shrine Kathy Cano-Murillo a.k.a. The Crafty Chica honors the Day of the Dead with this beautiful shrine.

Happy Haunting Greeting Card Phyllis Dobbs treats us once again with this cute Halloween card, perfect for all your favorite goblins!

Gypsy Traditions Lorilyn Hurley of the Dream Life shares a touching story of her family’s love for Halloween & their passion for playing dress up at their annual party!

Boo Bucket Michelle McGee crafts up a spooky and scary bucket that will leave goose bumps on all your guests!

Vintage Postcard Banner
Kris Tuey aka: the Collage Contessa has made it official. Now you know exactly what time it is when you walk into her house. It’s HALLOWEEN time! This vintage project using fun Halloween postcards is so simple you can even entice the kids to help as well!

Fall Wall Hanging
Kim of Sew Sugary Sweet stitches this wonderful and whimsical wall hanging for her Fall Swap partner.

I LOVE this cake. It made me laugh and laugh. This makes me want to decorate a cake of my own and put something as awesome on it.

The chest hair is the best!!

I was tagged by my friend Patrick (a counter-tag if you will) to write the following post:

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”

Since I just tagged several of you for another meme I will not tag you again, but feel free to do your own if you like.

Limiting myself to seven songs is going to be hard but here are a few that make it in my playlists almost without fail.

1. When U Love Somebody - Fruit Bats
   I sing this song loudly. The lyrics can be rather depressing I guess but boy the music is oh so awesome and happy.
2. Sing, Theresa Says - Greg Laswell
   Love this mans voice. This song makes me dance in my chair and think about noisy June bugs.
3. Fly Me Away - Goldfrapp
   “Miles and miles of sun
   Endless roads
   twist on
   Don’t wanna live a life
   In a world that’s all the same
   The crazy little things
   That you do are magical”
4. Heartbeats - José González
   After seeing him live and seeing his amazing abilities on the guitar, I can’t stop listening to him. I totally have a star crush on him
5. Ramblin’ Man - Lemon Jelly
   The summer makes me want to Ramble:
   “John you’ve been on the go ever since you were born and I
   imagine few people in the world today have travelled as much
   as you have. Now why? Well I dunno. I suppose some of us are cave dwellers, some of us live in houses, some of us like to be loose footed. I’m a ramblin’ man.”
6. Resurrection Fern - Iron & Wine
   His lyrics are so poetic. I love listening to the stories he tells in them.
7. Doors of Perception - Thievery Corporation
   This is the background music for many of my days. I love the entire “The Cosmic Game” album. Great for working, yoga, driving, chilling out. It’s good stuff.

James Robinson tagged me, so here it goes:

What i was doing ten years ago

I was working at The Council of State Governments as a graphic/web designer. I had also just bought my first house, a tiny little townhouse, and started putting down roots in Lexington, KY.

Five snacks i enjoy:

1. hummus and pita
2. tortillas and salsa (apparently I enjoy dipping foods)
3. cheese-its
4. crackers and cheese (It is different than cheese-its!)
5. frozen grapes

Five things on my to-do list today:

1. work on eXtension training Moodle courses
2. make corrections to the Imported Fire Ants decision tool
3. send out a quote for a freelance web design job
4. get together images and artist statement for a photography show that some friends and I are in at a local coffee shop.
5. take my niece and good friend to yoga class with me

Five favorite recipes:

1. Broccoli-cauliflower salad ( I can send it if anyone wants it…. It is always a hit at dinner parties)
2. Spiced Black Bean Burgers
3. My mom’s broccoli casserole
4. My mom’s sweet potato casserole
5. No Bake cookies

Five jobs i have had:

1. swimming pool concession stand
2. tutored children with dyslexia
3. fast food (Wendy’s) and cashier at Ponderosa Steak House
4. McAlpin’s (Now Dillard’s) cashier
5. web/graphic designer

Five of my bad habits:

1. procrastination
2. not exercising regularly
3. eating too many carbs and cheese (see the favorite snacks list above)
4. spending too much money on magazines and books (I’m trying to get back into the library swing)
5. Caffeine… I quit drinking soda but now I’m a coffee fiend.

All the places i have lived:

1. Ary, KY
2. Leburn, KY
3. Morehead, KY
4. Lexington, KY

Five random things:

1. I spent the first 7 years of my life growing up in a holler. It was awesome.
2. I have a HUGE family. My dad had 8 brothers and sisters and my mom had 5. I have a great aunt that had 16 children. Family gatherings were always chaotic.
3. I wore acid washed jeans and heavy metal concert tshirts in high school. My favorites bands were The Cult, Guns and Roses, Metallica, Anthrax…others until I discovered Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and, oddly enough, Jackson Brown. I discovered those in my older sister’s vinyl collection. Music has always been important in my life. I got a portable record player that I carried around with me when I was 3 or 4 and played everything from “Rubber Ducky You’re the One” to Sheena Easton’s “Morning Train” on 45s.
4. I graduated number 3 in my high school class and had to give a speech. I wasn’t thrilled about that. I never participated in group sports but was a member of the Honor and Art Honor Societies.
5. My husband and I dated for 11 years before we married. We have been married for almost four years now.

Five Folks i Would Like to Know Better:

1. Alexa
2. Terri
3. Jason
4. Patrick
5. Lori-Lyn

Sometimes seeing something in a different context makes all the difference. Stats and data are not always easy to visualize. Chris Jordan translate some very sad statistics into a more meaningful picture in a recent TED talk.

Between yard work, house stuff, freelance jobs and work in general I feel like I have been running full speed for some time now. I was looking through my photos I have taken over the past month, that I haven’t had time to process and upload to flickr, and I realized that I have been busy! John and I created a new flower bed in the back yard and planted it full of herbs and veggies. Hopefully we will have tomatoes and peppers soon as well as some basil and oregano and much much more.

I have also been weeding, planting and mulching the front flower bed and it is really starting to come alive. There are a few areas I want to work on but I’m pretty pleased with the results so far.

Gratefully I have been able to spend a lot of time with friends the past few months. In April I went to the wedding of some good friends in Gatlinburg, TN and they asked me to take photos for them. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to. It was outdoors near a stream and was attended by close family and friends only. It was a small, informal wedding and it was perfect. I decided I wanted to surprise them with a book so I came home and started the task of processing the photos I took and laying out a book using the online book template software from blurb.com. I finished the book a couple of weeks ago and sent it off to print. When I got it in the mail this past Friday, I was really excited to give it to them. It turned out great! The print job was wonderful. I gave them the book this weekend and they loved it! Mandy even teared up on me. That is a thank you that you don’t get every day and I’m glad I decide to do this for them.

Speaking of flickr, I have met some wonderful new friends through flickr and it has been amazing. Not only do we have the photo taking hobby in common, we are all alike in many other ways. They are all interesting, wonderful people and I love when we get together because it always a lot of fun. Just a couple of weeks ago I had dinner at my house to get everyone together for one and also so that we could celebrate one of the flickr peeps new job and her journey south for that job. Kristy is now working for Teach for America and has moved to Louisiana. I know it wasn’t easy for her to leave all her friends here but what an exciting journey she is making. She is going to do great and she has flickr and the internets to stay in touch with us all here. I’m already planning a trip to see her sometime as I have never been to Louisiana.

I love this photo below taken by Chris who is the photo above with Kristy. From left to right is Alexa, Kristy and myself, aka Swelldesigner, Posey Pinkerson and Attercat on flickr.

Ladies, originally uploaded by Universal Stopping Point.

A couple of days ago I was watching one of my favorite tech video podcasts called Tekzilla and they were talking about DSLRs. They mentioned the new Canon Rebel XSi which is a pretty significant upgrade from the XTi that I owned and one that I was not aware of until watching said podcast. “Owned?” you might say… “Don’t you mean own?”

Well I did own it for approximately one hour after watching the podcast and then I sold it by simply asking through twitter if anyone might be interested in a camera because I was thinking about upgrading to a new one. I got a response in less than 30 minutes and after some Q & A back and forth it was sold! It sold so fast that I almost panicked when I realized that I had just sold my camera without having a new one…. even knowing if I could get one of the new XSi.

Everything worked out in the end and my brand new camera is on a UPS truck on the way to me now.

Thanks to my good friend, I was introduced to a wonderful artist yesterday. My friend Kathy emailed me a few weeks back and asked me if I had heard of Charley Harper and if I knew about an exhibit he was part of at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC).

CINCINNATI’s Contemporary Arts Center ends 2006 with the most anticipated exhibition of the year. Graphic Content: Contemporary and Modern/Art and Design unites the internationally praised work of Cincinnati’s modernist pioneers with the work of today’s most exciting emerging artists. Designer/celebrity Todd Oldham’s enthusiasm for Modernist painter and illustrator Charley Harper’s work sparked the inspiration for this exhibition.

I had not heard of him and, being one that is always open to a road trip, I agreed to drive to Cincinnati with her to see what it was all about. I’m happy to say that I love his work, his wonderful sense of humor and his dedication to environmental causes. Part of the exhibit was a video of his life and work described by him himself. It is always nice to hear what the artist was thinking when they were creating a piece of art.

Read more about Mr Harper on Wikipedia
A large collection of Mr Harper’s works for sale at Fabulous Frames