October 2023 Highlights

Here's a recap of our October 2023!

Scary Fox at Walgreens, love it.

October 1st means we decorate for Halloween!

The best holiday! Chris would disagree. He's a Christmas guy ;)

We got one new decoration this year - a light up tree for the foyer!

Grandma baked cupcakes with Fox & Jane and they enjoyed licking the batter.

My favorite meal Chris makes - Bethany's Chicken Tacos. Amplified by cute dinnerware!

It's so fun to have my mom/Grandma in town!

We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant for lunch, just the two of us.

3 generations of girls who love pink!

BeautiFALL. All of these were found in our backyard.

I was asked to decorate the bulletin boards in the Relief Society room - flowers and pretty prints for the win!

My mom helped me assemble and put them in place and it all came together quickly and beautifully!

Jane's last fall bake sale at her elementary school.

Can't beat this ensemble for lunch!

Jane got her hair French braided at Activity Days but immediately took them out, little stinker.

Jane took a selfie with Sandy lolz.

We went with Tom and Margi to the Magic of the Jack O'Lanterns at Hudson Gardens which was really cool!

The first Saturday in October we got dressed to go to a pumpkin patch called The Patch in Kiowa.

Same attractions as The Patch in Elizabeth a couple years ago, but a new and improved location.

It's a bit of a drive from our home but I love how not crowded it is, manageable to do in a few hours, the food is all yummy, and the gift shops are adorable!

The pig on the left made the cutest snorts! We saw more hairy coos at this farm than we ever did on our 12 hour excursion through The Highlands in Scotland lol!

Such a beautiful, picture perfect Colorado day!

My li'l punkins.

For lunch we got Tacos with Altitude. Gotta love the Mile High City puns!

Yummy tacos and funnel cake for lunch.

Apples for the canons.

Let's gooooo!

We had so much fun! This pumpkin patch is the best.

I got some new Halloween earrings!

This is my kinda trick-or-treat bucket!

I knew an eclipse was happening but didn't know exactly when. It got eerily dark and shadowy one afternoon which freaked me out but then I realized what was going on. Nature is crazy cool.

Fantastic Mr. Fox turned 13!

We have a teenager in the house, I don't know how that happened!

Fox is such a good kid and brings us so much joy. If you look far back enough in this here blog you can find his birth story and his entire life until now, it's all documented!

As per tradition, we went to Disneyland for Fall Break!

If we fly out of Terminal B we get Voodoo Donuts as a treat.

Snow dusted Rockies.

Let's go to Cali!

Hello LA!

We went right back to our old stomping grounds. For lunch we went to The Hat.

We drove all along Fair Oaks in South Pasadena, up to Colorado Blvd, then back to the tree-lined idyllic streets we used to live on from 2009-2013. The good ol' days! We even saw filming trucks, so fun. Do you ever go visit where you used to live? It feels like we're ghosts peeking into the land of the living. One day this place is called Home, the next, it's not. I don't know how to explain it but it's always a weird feeling visiting these places. Makes me so nostalgic!Then we drove down to Anaheim!

Happy Paige!

We brought an assortment of ears and backpacks, natch.

Evanses After Dark!

In the morning we woke up early to take advantage of early entry.

We're IN!

Visiting at Halloween time is so fun because of all the decorations.

We were at Disneyland on the very day of the 100 year celebration, total coincidence!

Entering Fantasyland!

We bopped around all the kiddie rides to knock those out of the way before the lines got to be hours long.

Big Thunder Mountain is their favorite, we rode it the most of any ride.

Chris with his decoder card that he asked for from a cast member at Indiana Jones. He's so proud of himself :)

Many treats were consumed on the premesis.

The Hat Box Ghost!

We met up with Adrian and he took us straight back to Rise of the Resistance which we missed out on when we visited in 2021 because it broke down the last night we were there when we finally had our virtual queue tickets. It was cool!

The new Mickey & Minnie ride in Toon Town is also fun! Technology these days!

Jane & Fox sitting at the front of the Story Book Boats!

Adrian told me the secrets to getting a high score in Buzz Lightyear and it totally worked. I got Level 4!

Over in California Adventure we rode on the old Tower of Terror, now Guardians of the Galaxy themed.

Once was enough for me!

After being outside in the sun and on the go go go for almost 10 hours, Jane puked so Chris took her back to the hotel and Fox & I continued our tour with Adrian! He's a hoot.

In an Ariel shell.

The next morning we started our day on Soarin'.

The Cars ride is so fun.

I did not go on the Grizzly Run, I don't like being wet lol.

Pretty decor!

I'd check the kitty cam eleventy million times a day and my heart leapt for joy when I once came upon this scene.

Spooktacular!

One time we were riding Big Thunder Mountain and it broke down. Cast members had to come get us out and we got a fun behind the scenes view of the ride as we weaved our way down to an exit!

Haunted Mansion. Loooove this ride.

Oogie Boogie Bash!

The next morning, our last full day, we took it pretty easy and tried to go on rides we hadn't been on yet.

No spinning rides for me either lol. I have a weak stomach as an adult.

Dumbo is acceptable though.

Casey Junior Train.

King Arthur's Carousel.

Chris took the kids on the Incredicoaster while I sat back and watched.

We had lunch at the Blue Bayou - the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean. Love the ambiance!

So delicious!

Leisurely rides around the park on the train.

Autopia.

And that concludes our epic trip to Disneyland!

We visited Spirit Halloween of course!

So creepy!

I picked up this fun Scream shirt at Spirit Halloween.

We handmade Jane's ghost costume from tulle and Fox picked an inflatable Pokeball as his first costume.

We walked to the annual trunk-or-treat at the high school.

Such a gorgeous spot for photos.

The Denver Broncos have lost the past 16 games IN A ROW to the Kansas City Chiefs. The last win was in 2015 which is when we lived in Germany! That's a long time ago. You may know that one of the Chiefs players, Travis Kelce, is dating some girl named Taylor Swift ;). Anyway, after watching Quarterback on Netflix a few months ago I'm totally into football! Check out this message I sent my parents on Sunday October 29th - I have receipts.

AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW, THEY WON!!!! I should play the lotto :)

And then it snowed 8 inches and was super duper cold the rest of October. Excuse me sir, I didn't order this, please return to sender lol.

We didn't see a single movie in the theater the entire month of October! That hasn't happened to us since the theater was shut down in 2020! So unusual! I did, however, watch Halloween Ends and the new Haunted Mansion AT LEAST 15 times each, I'm not even kidding. 'Tis the season!

Chris wearing his Michael Myers socks whilst watching Michael Myers on TV.

Merry Christmas! I mean, happy Halloween!

HALLOWEEN ARRIVED!! At long last!! Jane in her homemade ghost costume and Fox in his second costume, a spooky scarecrow.

In the morning Jane had her last elementary school parade.

Fox went trick-or-treating with his buddies.

So I took Jane trick-or-treating solo.We went to about two dozen houses before calling it quits cuz it was so cold.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2023!!

Mine! :)

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Amy and Sandy are as cute and furry as can be! This photo of both of their dangling pork chops makes me giggle.

Amy lookin' all comfy cozy.

Amy in all the spooky places.

Amy is such a little kittle.

Sandy is such a big floof.

Most of the time they're not close by each other, so when they are, it warms my heart!

This right here is the stuff of life.

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Onto the recap of all things scrappy that happened this past month!

I spent all of October working on Christmas things! But our house was decorated for Halloween! Straight out of Nightmare Before Christmas up in here :)

I switched out the bottom 4 rows of my scrappy wall with Christmas pages to film my intro Christmas video and go live on Instagram!

I shared 7 projects in October - click the links to see them in-depth:

 Grateful Layout // Bloom & Grow Double Page Spread
Ruffles of Repetition Layout // Pretty Amazing Layout // Stitched Circle Layout
Bellagio Double Page Spread // Paper Clip Pennants Layout

I also made this layout for American Crafts featuring the Shape-Shifters on HSN but didn't share it here on my blog yet.
I used all 3 bundles of Shape-Shifters: 1, 2, 3.

This was the first month in a loooong time that I didn't teach a live virtual class! But I was workin' hard on my Christmas Album Class! First step: look through my previous December albums for inspiration!

Then I made my sample album!

In the end I managed to fill all 15 page protectors and add lots of foundation pages to stuff the entire 3.5" spine of my Sugarplum Wishes Album!

I spent many days prepping kits by cutting out cut files, trimming ribbons, printing templates, collating cards, etc.

The last Saturday in October Chris helped me kit everything!

Check out my Christmas Album Class HERE!

I shared my third sketch and HERE are challenge details:

I made 95 MemoryDex cards for our upcoming in-person event called Sugarplum Wishes Weekend!

I made a layout for an upcoming event with scrapbook.com and here's a sneak:

If you're interested, I am looking for guest designers to work with my upcoming Christmas Advent Bundles! 1 bundle will feature 25 stitching patterns and the other will be 25 regular cut files - all Christmas-themed! To be considered, please send an email application to paigetaylorevans@gmail.com with the following info:

1) Your name and location

2) Social media links

3) 5 samples of your projects featuring cut files and/or hand stitching

The deadline to apply is Sunday November 5th and I will email those selected on Monday November 6th. Guest designers will be asked to create 2 projects due by November 30th and will receive free access to both bundles! Let me know if you have any questions!

And guess what?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
🎃👻🕸🕷🍬👹🧟☻😈🦇👽🤡🍭💀⚰♡ 🖤🕸️🔮🧛🌙🧙‍♀️🕯🍫☠️👺👾👀🐲
I GOT THE GREEN LIGHT FOR a PAIGE EVANS HALLOWEEN 2024 COLLECTION WITH AMERICAN CRAFTS!!!

I can't wait to fill up hopefully a matching 4x4 album with my own goodies!! This is a huge dream come true!

Check out my Halloween 4x4 Mini Album Class HERE!

Never a dull moment around here!

Hoping for a bit slower of a November :) But I must admit I have a hard time sitting still lol.