Happy Birthday Logan!

How did we go from this....

 and this....

To this.  Wow, two years have blown by. Where did my little baby go? 

Please say a little prayer for us.  Logan threw up last night and he and his brother have low grade temperatures.  So, we are hoping that everyone will be better for Halloween.  Otherwise momma made need some "spirits" to get thru. LOL

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!



Halloween Flip Flops= High Frightening Fashion

Halloween flip flops.  Do you have any?  Well, now I do.  I made these flip flops by taking ribbon and tying them to the straps.  I've made Halloween flip flops in the past and they were worn out.  This year I thought I'd change it up and get some of the pretty wired ribbon at Michael's.  I liked all of these different colors. 

So here is my latest bootiful creation.  What do you think?

I'm in the throws of Halloween preparations and tomorrow is a big day here.  My youngest son will turn the big 2!

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Howloween at PetsMart

Yes, we are those crazy people who dress up their poor dog.  Saturday we went to PetsMart's Howloween event and had Miss Zoe's picture taken.  It might be hard to tell, but she is a squirrel.  Very ironic since she loves to chase them off our deck.  She is such a good little sport.  I don't know if we will put this on her on Halloween or not.  I may spare her. LOL  She is such a sweet pup and puts up with our craziness.  You have to be a nut to be in this family. LOL

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Bootiful Pumpkin Tags

Today I'm blogging about a craft project I did yesterday.  I wanted to make little treat bags for my son's preschool class and I realized I needed some cute tags to put on them.  So, I got out some of my scrap booking supplies and scrap paper and went to work. 

A few weeks ago, I was sent an awesome package in the mail by the folks at BzzAgent.  It is contained supplies from Elmer's CraftBond and X-Acto.  They have a new collection of crafting products that are available at Wal Mart.  The Elmer's CraftBond products range from $2-$9 which I love because you can really shell out some bucks for adhesives and scrapbooking supplies.  Even before receiving this kit, I had used the Elmer's glue pen and glue sticks and had found them to be great, inexpensive products for crafting.  They are all acid-free and archival safe which is good.  

The X-Acto Designer Series has items such as scissors, trimmers, rulers, punches, knives and cutting mats.  I was sent a pair of Zig Zag Decorative Edge Scissors and Scalloped Decorative Edge Scissors.  I normally don't use scissors like this when crafting, but I pulled out the Zig Zag Scissors because they reminded me of the jagged teeth of a Jack O' Lantern and I thought that might look cute on the edge of my tags. 

The pumpkin punch is from Martha Stewart's craft line. I have to say I'm very disappointed with it.  It was hard to use at first and I messed up some of my paper.  I got it at 50% off and even still, her stuff is not cheap.  I would think something like that would be sharp since it has never been used.  But once I punched a few it started to work better.  I was annoyed I had to mess up some of my paper on the first few to get the thing to work.  Also, I don't like it that the bits of paper get stuck in the teeth and nose part easily. You have to constantly pull it out of the punch.  

So, as you can see I used my X-Acto scissors to cut the jagged edge on the tags and then I punched out a pumpkin. I used the Elmer's glue stick to adhere the pumpkin to my tag.  I also cut out slips of orange paper to add to the tag so I could write Happy Halloween from my son on the tags.  I punched a hole and put the tags on the bags through the twist tie that came with them.  You'll see the finished tags in our little bucket ready to go.

At the bottom of this post, you can see pictures of the Elmer's CraftBond and X-Acto Designer Series items available at Wal Mart.  I've found them to be helpful tools and products for doing craft projects.   So you may want to check them out the next time you go through Wal Mart. 

You can find helpful tips and project ideas online at www.elmers.com/crafters . You can sign up for Craft It! and they'll send out free samples, craft project ideas, news letters, specials offers and new product news.  Get in the know now. 

The count down is on to Halloween.  We are so excited here.  It is also a big week in another way for us too.  My little guy, Logan will be two on Friday.  Oh where has the time gone?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Disclaimer: I received a BzzKit of products from BzzAgent which included: one glue stick, one glue pen, one box of craft bond, one tape runner, one X-acto corner round punch, and a pair of zig zag and scalloped scissors.

Sequin Tanks

Today I wanted to talk about one of my recent purchases.  For over a month, I've been on the hunt for a sequin tank top. Everywhere I've gone they've been over $25 and to me that was more than I wanted to spend. I happened to go into Charlotte Russe and found this sequin tunic tank.  It is a little longer than I had wanted, but then I realized this was a good thing because I could pair it with leggings or skinny jeans and have my back side covered. 

I was fortunate that they had a sale going on and I ended up getting two of these tops for $24.  I will need to wear a camisole/tank underneath.  BTW, I've found that pieces like that are great to transition to winter to wear under shirts for layering.  Now is a great time to search the clearance racks at places like Old Navy and find deals on tanks.  I stocked up at Old Navy's sales during the spring and summer, so I'm good to go with a number of color choices.

I bought two of these tanks one in silver and one in black. I plan to wear them under a jacket of some sort. 

So, are you into wearing sequins and if so, what have you recently purchased that you like?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Charlotte Russe Tunic Tank

Trick or Treat McDonald's and Burger King Coupon Books

Have you seen the McDonald's & Burger King coupon books on sale right now?  I found out about these last year and made sure I was on the hunt for them this year.  I've found that not all McDonald's will sell them, so you may have to visit a few or call a few to find out.  The same with Burger King.

They are great little coupon books and a wonderful way to save some money.  Of course, they are a great thing to hand out to Trick or Treaters.  Who wouldn't love an added bonus with some candy to be able to go to BK or McDonald's?  The Burger King coupon booklet comes with 7 free fries coupons and a bonus drink coupon.  The coupons in that booklet are valid from 10/1/10 to 12/31/10.  The booklet at Burger King was $1 with any purchase.

The McDonald's coupon booklet coupons are valid 11/1/10 to 12/31/10.  It does say on these redeemable by children ages 12 and under.  It comes with 3 free hamburger, 3 free apple dippers, 3 free small cone, and three free small apple juice/or milk jug coupons (you pick either or on that coupon).  If I remember, they have upped the price on these coupon books from last year.  This year they were $1.99.  I bought two of these because we go to McDonald's on Saturday mornings and if we buy milk, one milk alone is $1, so this saves us some money that way.  Also, picking up a free hamburger when we are out running errands is nice. And we will probably share the ice cream coupons.

I do know that Wendy's has also sold coupon books for $1 in the past so you can give out free Frosty coupons. I haven't had a chance to get any of those yet.

So, that is one thing I've done to get ready for Halloween.  Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Halloween Decorations

Today I thought I'd share pictures of my Halloween/Fall decorations. The lighted vine I have around my door I got at Garden Ridge a few years ago.

This is my scarecrow collection. I had no idea what I was going to do with them and then I got the idea of putting them in the hay bale since they come on those long sticks.

I love having this lighted garland because I'll keep it up even after Halloween until we are ready to put up our Christmas lights. Since it gets dark earlier with fall getting here, I love having some lights around the doorway. It makes things so cheery. By the way, I used clear 3M hangers to hang this around the doorway. I bought the pack of 18 at Michael's that hold 1/2 a pound each. They've worked great and are easy to take down when you are finished using them.

This is my new wreath I made this year. I bought all the supplies at Michaels. The Charlie Brown/Peanuts pieces are foam. The container I bought that contained these shapes had a ton of different shapes and characters. I am trying to think of more crafty things to do with them. We are huge Peanuts fans here so I'd love to use more of them to make something else. It was easy to make this wreath because I hot glued the foam pieces on. The pieces have a piece of paper you peel off to reveal a sticky back, but I knew they probably wouldn't stay on the wreath as well, so I opted to hot glue them. I'm very blessed that my mother in law didn't mind making my bow for me. She is a great bow maker and I can't make one to save my life. I thought the black gingham would tie all the pieces together.

So this is how I've decorated the front of my house for Halloween. Do you have any fun decorations up?

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Halloween Foods

I have been so excited to recently find Kraft and Pillsbury Halloween themed foods. I love finding foods that are changed up for the holidays. I think it is a fun way to get the kids involved in preparing meals. And who doesn't love to jazz up their meals with some fun Halloween Mac-N-Cheese? I'm making these cupcakes later today. Hope we have some left to send to preschool tomorrow. LOL

So, what bootiful new food finds have you found recently? (wow, say that fast five times!)

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Pirate Pumpkin

Arrrrggg, me heartys! Shiver me timbers, it is our Mr. Potato Head Pirate Pumpkin, Pirate Pete. Pete is guarding our front porch from scallywags who might be thinking mutiny.

Isn't this guy adorable? I got this kit this year at Target in the Halloween section. I love these kits like these because they are so much easier to let a preschooler safely decorate a pumpkin. The hardest part was getting the holes in the pumpkin. I think I picked out the world's toughest pumpkin. Once the holes were in place, the rest was a piece of cake. Or should I say pumpkin. LOL

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Birthdays

I'm still feeling a bit heavy hearted this morning after losing my adopted grandmother. I spoke at the funeral yesterday. It was a beautiful service for a beautiful lady. So, having been gone out of town all weekend I didn't get a chance to get some pictures off the camera I'd hoped to for my blog. So, that will be coming later in the week.

Today is my sister's birthday, as well as our sweet Boston Terrier Miss Zoe. I won't reveal my sister's age, but Miss Zoe has given the ok to share her age. Zoe is eight today. It is hard to believe. I think she will be getting a small bowl of vanilla ice cream to celebrate her birthday today.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

There is another angel in heaven today

I just got word that my neighbor who lived behind my house where I grew up passed away. She was another grandmother to me. I'm so sad. So, I won't be blogging the rest of this week and will pick back up on Monday.

Halloween Decorating Ideas

Well, I'm headed out the door so I didn't get a chance to pull pictures off my camera to share my Halloween decorations. So, I thought I'd send you to another spot that has some great Halloween eye candy. A friend of mine, Chris, has a wonderful blog that she writes that has incredible decorating ideas. She also has a small events business. Go over and check out all of the great ideas Chris has for celebrating Halloween and other events. She has great ideas. You won't be disappointed. http://www.celebrationsathome.blogspot.com/ Please leave her a comment and let her know I sent you.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Pumpkin Palooza

Today I thought I'd share so more of the beautiful pumpkins we saw at the pumpkin patch over the weekend. Hope you enjoy these fall treasures.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went in search of the most sincere pumpkin(s) we could find at a local pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch we went to has a ton of different activities for the kids which is so much fun. They have: animals, bouncy castles, barrel rides, a corn cylinder, corn maze, and of course riding on the wagon to the pumpkin patch.

The pumpkins they had at the patch were amazing. They had the traditional pumpkins that you normally see everywhere, but they also had some really cool other varieties as well.

This little salmon colored pumpkin that Logan was trying to pick up is called a Kentucky Field Pumpkin. I thought they were so pretty so we got one of those.

Hmm, this looks like a sincere pumpkin "The Great Pumpkin" will like.

As you can see, the boys had matching Halloween shirts. We picked these up at the end of the season last year. I highly recommend doing that for holiday shirts. We've done that for the last few years. It is a great way to save money and have shirts ready to go. This is pretty early for us to go pick pumpkins, so I was glad we already had shirts. I love seeing the boys matching and they will look great when I scrapbook these pictures.
Yep, Logan liked this whopper and we did get one this big. Lord knows how I'm going to carve that thing.

Just as I was going to take this picture, my child decides that it would be a good idea to eat dirt. Only my child.

Logan was so cute clapping his hands when the wagon to take us out of the patch pulled up. He loved riding in the wagon. Thank goodness for that wagon since we got five pumpkins.

He was the entrance to the large corn maze. There were about 30 questions you had to answer to get through the maze.

Sawyer was great with trying to help us get through the maze.

Here I am getting ready to text my sister from the corn maze. To tell her we were wandering through the thing. With two tired kids. Who needed a nap. And needed to be carried out.

So that is some of our pumpkin patch adventures. I'll be sharing more pumpkin pictures this week of the beautiful pumpkins we found at the patch, as well as some of our fun fall decorations here at home.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch

Recently I've been swamped, but today I wanted to share my latest and greatest recipe find for Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch. It is in the Oct./Nov. issue of Taste of Home magazine. Just a warning that this is very addicted. And my house smelled wonderful when this was cooking up in the microwave. You might want to make a batch at the end of the month when you are sitting on the porch waiting for Trick or Treaters to come by.

Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups Cinnamon Chex Cereal

2 cups Honey Nut Chex Cereal

2 cups Wheat Chex Cereal

8 oz. pecans


In small bowl, mix brown sugar & pumpkin pie spice; set aside. In small microwave safe dish, microwave butter on high about 30 seconds or until melted. Stir in vanilla. In large microwavable bowl, mix all cereals and pecans. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly distributed. Add sugar and spice mixture and stir until coated.


2. Microwave uncovered on High 5 minutes or until mixture begins to brown, stirring every minute. Spread on wax paper or a cookie sheet to cool. Store in airtight container.

So that is all from here today. Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!