Archive for October 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Halloween: 2009 & 2010 decor and food: No More Mummy Dogs



We can't eat Mummy Dogs again this year. 

No plans as of yet to what our Halloween Menu will be this year. Still looking for ideas.

One thing I will be doing is adding more spider webs and spooky decor everyday as it gets closer to Halloween. My goal is to have it look like the barn from Arachnophobia by the 31st, but you know, tastefully done. I thought it would be fun for it to "creep" up on us. I started small yesterday with covering some of our spooky stuff that's been out with spider webs.

No one noticed.

Repeat. 

No one noticed.

 Am I doing this for myself? Probably so. Either way I'm going to have to step it up a notch today.

Today will be about finishing costumes, trying to plan a spooky menu, figuring out what appetizer or dessert to bring to a Halloween party, and, ahem, covering the house in spider webs. Tastefully though in case we have a showing pops up. You never know.

How do you decorate? What spooky foods will you be making? Any ideas? 

   


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Ke$ha's is love, Vanilla Ice's is rhyme, & mine is apparently spinach.

If spinach were a drug then you can say I've been on a week-long bender and yesterday I finally OD'd. 

It wasn't pretty.

Justin was the one who brought up the idea of making a spinach salad last weekend. It was my mom who gave me the recipe. I haven't eaten this salad since I was a kid and I guess I had been missing it because I couldn't get enough of it. 

Good thing our recycling bin has a lid so that it hides all the empty spinach containers. I can still show my face around town.

The crazy thing is I don't really like spinach. It's the dressing that makes this salad so dangerous. 

Prepare at your own risk: Danger Salad, aka Spinach Salad. 

What you need:

Hard boiled eggs
Baby spinach (Oh, geez! They're just baaaabies!)

For the dressing:

2/3 cup sugar
1 chopped onion (I only use a half of one)
1 tsp. pepper 
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. yellow mustard
1 tsp. celery seed (I didn't add this. Fresh out.)
1 cup veggie oil
1/3 cup vinegar (I used a combo of white wine, red wine, and apple cider. Use whatever vinegars you like.)

Throw the dressing ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. 

Crumble eggs on top of spinach, pour on the crack dressing and you're ready to go.


Word has it that my mom and my sister made this for dinner last night. Here's hoping they're stronger than I am. 

Monday, October 24, 2011

Weekend Update


This weekend Vance scored a goal at his soccer game. 

(That brings his total for the season up to 5 goals. Yes, he's keeping track.)

We also attended an event for the kids. They decorated pumpkins and cookies, played games, went on a hayride, and invaded the driving range which may or may not have made the golfers cranky.

It's October in the Midwest which means it's hot. And cold. Then hot again. And then cold again. Our HVAC doesn't know which end is up. 

What's up for later?

Spinach Salad!

I'll tell you about the salad dressing that has made me eat almost 3 tubs of spinach last week.  

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Spooky Halloween Lamp Shades


I have seen themed chandelier lamp shades in many magazines and am always blown away by the price. I decided to try making some of my own and discovered that felt sticks to the material of the lamp shades. As in no gluing and no sewing! A craft-iracle! Let's go!

I first start by doodling. Once the idea is drawn, cut it out so that you're able to make a stencil. Trace it onto the felt and cut your design out.



Here's a tip for tracing onto a dark color: Trace the outer edge with chalk.


Once the pieces are cut simply press them onto the lamp shades.

(Quick Question of the Day: What's Spookier: the ghost or the hot-glued gold trim on the lampshades that the previous homeowner left that I've never changed out? It's a toss up!)


For the ghost's eyes, I used a paper punch to punch 3 circles and used a glue stick to adhere them.


Think of all the possibilities for! Such a simple idea that makes quite the impact.




Thanks for stopping by!

made in a day

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Tech Support

I've heard that my blog is looking a little wonky for PC users. 


My About Me and other columns on the right side have migrated down to the bottom left side of the screen. Heading south for the winter, eh? 

I use a mac and everything looks normal to me.

So, would you be kind enough to leave a comment as to how things look and if you're a PC or a mac?

Nothing fancy. Just a "wonky - PC" or an "okie dokie - mac" would be much appreciated. 

Thank you!
 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Monday Mundane

It feels as if fall is finally here. 

(That's a lot of F's)

The kids and I went to the library yesterday. We payed for the book that met its demise in the recent car sickness debacle. It was a Mercy Watson book (Vance loves those - I think he's read them all) and it was $12.99. Our library doesn't take credit cards and weirdly enough the only cash I had with me was $13.00. The kids picked out a ton of books and 3 movies. When we left it was pouring down rain, which made a great afternoon for reading books and watching a movie.

If you would have peeked in our windows yesterday you would have noticed Vance wearing a bright red baseball helmet and Vaughn's hair in a wacky do. My parent's bought the helmet for Vance and he likes to wear it all the time. Goofball. Vaughn "took a haircut" yesterday. (That's what she calls it.) 3 inches came off and a bang trim, so now she can see. The lady always does her hair in some wacky way and finishes it with plastic butterfly clips in the most peculiar spots. Vaughn loved it. 

The kids (finally) go back to school today. I'm looking forward to a solo trip to Target. Ahhh, the little things. 

Happy Tuesday!

    

Sunday, October 16, 2011

S'more Pops


I've seen these all over the internet and they're brilliant. S'mores without the messy, sticky faces and fingers afterwards. Here's how I did mine:


Melt your chocolate. 
Grind graham cracker crumbs.
Poke sucker sticks into marshmallows.
Dip into chocolate and Roll in crumbs. 
Voila! S'more Pops!

For packaging, rap in saran wrap or put them into lollipop bags. They also fit perfectly inside of mini muffin liners. I love it when stuff works out like that!

Mine stayed soft for two days this way. They were still okay on the third day, but were definitely starting to harden. 

  


As a plus, this is a project that's very kid friendly. Set up stations and let them poke, dip, and roll their very own!


I'm linking to these parties this week:

The Girl Creative

Becolorful









Passionately Artistic




Sumo's Sweet Stuff



Tidy Mom

The DIY Show OffTodays Creative BlogTip Junkie handmade projects


PhotobucketPhotobucket
Classified: Mom
















Photobucket


tatertots & jello

delicate construction

bacon time

friday food

Friday, October 14, 2011

Survivor & Questions


I'm behind in regards to Survivor. We missed the show two weeks ago and I have no idea how Stacey got the axe but it hurt as she was the first to leave my team. Justin's team took a hit this past week, but he's still sitting pretty with Coach and Jim.

***************
Now it's time for the Question & Answer portion of the show.

Q: What's up with the food on the masthead wearing masks?
A: Because the elf who's in charge of that department was busy and didn't have time to take new "fall" pictures. So they're dressed up for Halloween. 

Q: What's worse than one kid with motion sickness?
A: TWO kids with motion sickness. And about 15 minutes apart. We may never leave the house in the morning again. Except for today because Vaughn has gymnastics class. Darn. There goes that idea.

Q: When did you become a 70 year old lady?
A: Yesterday when I went to the grocery store with the kids in the late afternoon. It was crowded and my normal old man baggers were off duty and replaced by teenagers who squashed my bread and put frozen stuff next to non-frozen stuff which made the boxes all wet and wrinkly. A reminder of why I usually do my shopping in the morning when the ruffians are not about. 

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Hair Fail: Headband Curls

This technique looked easy enough for me to handle. I was wrong. 


I've been burdened with this No Hair-do trait my entire life. It comes as a slight surprise because I consider myself to be good with my hands. I can draw fruit, I can sculpt a dinosaur, yet I cannot achieve a simple messy ponytail. Some of you may even remember my sad attempts with hot rollers. The only technique I can handle is flat ironing. And that's questionable. 


Here's what I think went wrong:


When you tuck your hair it needs to be done neatly and orderly. It would help me to have a tighter fitting headband. I have a child-sized head so adult headbands just slip away. My headband slipped down so my curls kinks started at the nape of my neck which looked silly.


Silliness. That's about all I achieved from this. It made for a good laugh in the morning though. Someone give it a try and let me know if it worked for you. Skip that giant flower though. 

Monday, October 10, 2011

My Granny

Normal life was put on hold last week as my Granny was in the hospital and not doing well. Family came in from all over and we had a week long party. Of course I'm using the word 'party' very loosely, but that's what it seemed like. I can say with assurance that Hospice room #318 has not or will not ever be as lively as it was while we were there. 

Yes, there were lots of tears and sadness but there was also laughter and story telling and overall celebration for the great life that my Gran had. If anyone loved a party it was her and I believe that's how she would have wanted it to be.


Gran passed away yesterday morning and I'm sure there's lots of this going on in heaven (or Kevin, as Vaughn calls it) right now. 

My two favorite Betty's. (Gran is in the purple.)
Cheers to you Gran and Betty. Both are dearly loved and missed. 

Monday, October 03, 2011

Convo with The Kids: Parking, Foghat, & Chocolate

Scene: After soccer game. Busy parking lot. Parked next to a SUV so it's hard to see around it as I back up. 

Aaaaannnd....Action. 

Me: Kids, I need your help. Tell me if you see any cars coming.

Vance: (Looking in wrong direction) No cars!

Me: No, Vance, look the other way.

Vaughn: I see shooting stars!

Me: I don't even know why I asked.

FIN

...............

Dinner conversation was lacking last night so I started asking the kids hypothetical questions.

Q: If you had to choose one type of soup to eat for the rest of your life what would it be?
Vance: tomato soup
Vaughn: Joe's O's

Q: Would you rather live in hot weather or cold weather for the rest of your life?
Vance: Cold weather. Because we could drink hot chocolate.
Vaughn: She was leaning towards hot, but jumped on the cold bandwagon once hot chocolate was mentioned.

Q: Would you rather be a bird or a fish?
Vance: Fish. No, bird.
Vaughn: Birdie!

Q: You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What would it be?
Vance: Slow Ride. No, wait...Christmas music!
Vaughn: Ariel's song. 

We break here to sing Slow Ride, Christmas songs, and Vaughn starts singing a made up song that goes on and on and on about a beautiful flower.

Q: Vaughn, what's your middle name?
Vaughn: Chocolate. Vaughnie Chocolate.
Me: No, it's not. It is now though.  

 Happy Monday.

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Spooky Black Glue Drawings

It's been awhile since I've broken out the black glue. It's a no-brainer to make and the kids are always excited to use it. Everybody wins!

Black glue has endless possibilities. Let's call it your craft drawer's little black dress. Or not. Totally your call. BUT, it can be used with any different medium (crayon, markers, oil pastels, chalk, watercolors,...) or just by itself. It can be used first, then after drying can be added to. It can also be added to a finished project to add emphasis. Wait! There's more! When dry it acts as a relief that can be used for crayon rubbings. 

Here's how we're going to use it today: Spooky Halloween drawings.

Make your black glue. No measuring, just squirt in some paint and shake, shake, shake, senora. Shake it all about.


Hand it over to your kids or if they're too little you can draw something for them.


Here's some of our finished glue drawings.




This time around we chose to use watercolors to add color to the dried pictures. 






Below is the crayon rubbing from the dried pumpkin glue drawing.


There you go. Just one of the many ways to use black glue!


I'm linking up to the following parties this week:






Becolorful



Sumo's Sweet Stuff


Todays Creative Blog


Classified: Mom

 

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