Happy Halloween, blog! Have you seen “Cruella” yet? It’s quite good. Excellent acting by the two Emmas, cool costumes, cool soundtrack. Much better than I expected! And if I hadn’t committed to Lady Miss Kier this year, I would have been Cruella for Halloween. What a fun wig!

Impulse buy at Michael’s yields idea for next mini painting! After a couple of special Christmas gift paintings first. Shhhh.

Navy nails for September, self-painted. I went back to Bothell to the nail place I used to go to for my October shellac, and the nail girl was awful. One of the worst shellacs I’ve ever received, and it started chipping within two days. I guess I should leave a negative review on Yelp, but I hate doing that!

Mid-September I decided to be blonder, via DIY hairdressing at home. Josh bleached my hair, and I applied an ash blonde toner this time, instead of the usual cool blond. I think we did a pretty good job! I had to resort to bleach earlier this year to get that awful orange Overtone dye out of my hair, and once you go bleach…

Busy busy little boys! Drawing, painting, reading, running, jumping–these guys are always on the move. Luckily the redhead still takes about a two-hour nap every day…so that Mommy can have a rest too.

I bought two small black canvases on a whim, and this was one of the paintings I completed. Here it is mid-glittering process. I used a white paint marker to hand-draw the Mandala, painted over the white with color, traced each line with glue and then glittered it in segments. Fun! I have always loved bright colors against black.

My favorite bum!

It would be fun to paint another set of nesting dolls. I also want to do an updated “Vision Board” for my 40’s, like the one I did for my 30’s. I’ve been listening to the audio version of “The Secret” since I had my eyes operated on back in July. IT’S KIND OF BORING but interesting.

“It’s just stuff from the Bible,” scoffed my mother.

“Maybe so,” I told her, “But this is easier than reading the Bible.”

A trip to GG’s in September! I often opt to stay at home and paint while Josh takes the boys to GG’s, but I felt that it was important that I go along this time, and I’m glad I did. Josh has the sweetest grandparents. I was even able to smoothly ignore the crack about Biden GG made to me, ahem.

Sunny Fall days are so beautiful here. I ooh and ahh at the trees every Fall like it’s a brand-new experience.

The aqua wig that I bought myself last year for my birthday has become the Favorite Wig this year. I leave it near the back door and often wear it in place of a hat when we play outside. It’s warm!

The redhead tried on my glitter Doc Martens and turned into a dinosaur (“Grrrr!”); Goo tried them on and turned into Godzilla (he was very specific).

I came VERY CLOSE to lopping my hair off into a shoulder-length “lob” (long bob) in September. Luckily Josh and my mother said NO. Phew! Now I realize that I would hate it. Long hair forever, babyyyy.

My little red! We have fun together on Mondays when Goo is in school.

Poor old Schnubs. She’s 13 now, and very slow. I take her for a walk at the park just once a week and she can maybe do two loops around. Last year at this time when I started the Couch to 5K program she was able to complete 4 loops with me. Sigh.

Goo and one of my favorite pieces of faux fur! I miss my fabric! I was digging through the fabric/crafts closet a couple days ago looking for my turquoise sarong (never did find it, dammit) and realized that I miss sewing. Note to self: sew something!

Glow stick dance party…until Mommy’s lower back pain kicked in. Boy oh boy has it been the year (or more) of Shitty Back Pain. Thanks to carrying two giant babies and having separated ab muscles, it’s been very hard to strengthen my back. I’ve finally been seeing a physical therapist for my back the last couple of weeks, and I’m starting to make some progress.

My hair texture is changing as a result of the bleaching…and I like it! This is what it looks like naturally–it finally has the waves that I’ve wanted my whole life. Gee, all I had to do was chemically treat my hair to look blonder and as a result I got texture.

October is one of my favorite months of the year (the other is April), and we started decorating for Halloween early this year! Our old, pre-children “scary” decorations are still in place, and new child-friendly decorations are starting to get added each year.

This was the last nature hike we went on, an explosion of fall leaves and mushrooms galore! Bear Cub even managed to walk an impressive two miles (and then collapsed for the rest of the weekend).

Dressed up in my “Fall” dress purchased at Eyes of the World years ago, teal stockings, and floral Docs. I had read on IG that some artists I had been following/admiring were doing a show in Pioneer Square, and my mother was kind enough to watch the boys while Josh and I went downtown.

It had been two years since we had been downtown, and Pioneer Square has changed drastically. Tent cities, so many homeless people, urine smell everywhere, even with a mask. At night, I didn’t feel particularly safe anymore, and I always felt safe in Seattle. It made us sad.

It made me appreciate street art like this even more.

Here’s my October painting–I made this little black-light friendly pumpkin, and Goo insisted that I give it to him. Done!

A visit at our house from the Broad, her first in two years! Her little sister was in town and wanted to see us, that’s how we finally got her ass over here. Whatever it takes! I missed her. I always miss her.

Be still, my heart.

BLOG THIS COMPUTER CHAIR IS KILLING MY LOWER BACK I’ll be back for part 2. TTFN.