Halloween Coasters

With Autumn and Halloween comes sitting back with a cup of hot cider, or other yum-e-ness! 
Enter-the need for a coaster.

Since it’s Halloween, why can’t your coaster be adorable?  These are made out of that counted plastic canvas and yarn!  Love them!

These are my Mom’s genious-ness!

My Mom made all of these, too.  I have more, too.  One set for each month to be exact!  Check out this post to see a tutorial on working with counted plastic canvas.

Now don’t your coasters need to be cute, too?!

Rebecca
Happy Drinking!

Fun School Lunch Ideas

 
One thing I love to do with my kids’ school lunches are themes.  I have two children that just need encouragement with their eating (not so much picky eaters as they just don’t eat enough, and take too long) so anything that makes it more entertaining and enticing is worth it for me!   
The above picture shows the lunchbox that we use.  I love our laptop lunches as there is no waste and it’s easier to eat healthy!  The system is called Laptop Lunches.  I am not affiliated with them, I just really love their products!
The first lunch was my mini lunch.  It’s hard to tell but that banana is one of those mini ones.  The grapes are champagne grapes and they are so tiny.  Other things I included are mini sandwiches (meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, on a hawaiian roll), baby carrots, mini pepperoni, mini pickles, and a mini babybel cheese circle.  I also included a Mini Note (envelope and card were a 1 inch square! 
We also have a cat named Mini, so the note said, “Mini sends her love!”

This theme was Halloween.  I just cut a PB&J sandwich with my large pumpkin cookie cutter.  Pumpkin desserts, orange carrots, and oranges!  Along the side are purple grapes.  
I am big about cutting their foods into shapes.  This lunch included an egg mcmuffin.  I used my metal cookie cutter shapes on the frying pan when I made my eggs and cooked it right inside the cookie cutter.  Then I used the same shape cutter to cut out cheese, canadian bacon, and the bread.     
Rebecca 
PS It is hard getting good pictures of these meals as I put them together in the morning (I actually do put together parts the night before, but that wouldn’t be a very cute picture).  The lighting is bad at the time I’m getting the kids off, and I don’t have lots of time to set pictures of their lunches up! ;)

A Bushel of Apples to Play With

 
I loved my Mom’s crocheted apples so much that I had to make up some polymer clay ones!

These were so quick and easy to make.  Then, I let my kids play with them!

After I made my tiny apples, I made up this paper to use them with. 
I keep adding to my list of manipulatives for my children to play with.  There are so many ways for the kids to play with these.  They can sort them by color, do pattern work, use the above sheet and sort by numbers, etc.  I love this kind of stuff!
Rebecca

I'm joining the following fun parties; Its A Blog Party, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Much Ado, Just A Girl, ABC and 123,

Halloween Blog Hop

I LOVE this woman, from Fabulously Artsy! She is soooo funny! She is also wickedly talented. Oh how I wish I could attend her retreat that she puts on! Well, I just saw that she is doing a Halloween Blog Hop and I had to jump at the chance to join in! Who doesn't love everything Halloween?

"This hop is all about Halloween! If you've made something for this spooky holiday, show it off! Stamping, Scrapbooking, cards are all welcome, as well as home decor, sewing, costumes, recipes, you name it. As long as it's Halloween, it's all good!

If you'd like to play along, you just need to scroll to the bottom of the thumbnails and click on the "click here to enter" button. It will walk you through the steps to submit your own picture that will show up on my blog, and get a code to put on your own blog. The blog hop will then be on your blog too, easy peasy!" (from Tresa @ Fabulously Artsy)

Football Calzones

With all the great football action going on I figured many of you would be in need of some fun Football food.  Here are directions on how to make Football calzones.  We posted this, along with some football crafts to make, for superbowl 2 years ago!  Enjoy!
Rebecca

Autumn Fun-Apple Garland or Wreath

Anjeanette showed us how to make this adorable apple garland.  We get lots of people coming to our blog to look at it.  Here is the tutorial for this Apple Garland.
Here is one of our reader’s, Heather, take on the apple garland.  Well, we love when people use our ideas and then show us what they came up with!
Isn’t this wreath adorable?! 

I love it!
Thanks, Heather, for letting us show this to everyone for another variation on the apple garland!
Rebecca

My Dream

Can I let you guys in on a little secret?

It’s a follow up to my amazing egg mold post!

I’m so Jonesing (again, yes, this is a real word…in my book!) for this egg mold!!

Holey Mother of Greatness!

You slice those bad boys up and people will think somehow there was a chicken that laid an egg with a shaped yolk!  Come on, you know that would blow people’s minds! 
I just gaze at that bad girl and dream…..

It might even get my kids to eat the yolk of the egg and not just throw it away! ;)

Rebecca

Amazingly Fun School Lunch Idea

My children LOVE hard boiled eggs.  Can you believe that is what these are?!
Aren’t they the cutest!?

What Mom doesn’t need help making foods more enticing to her kids?
To make those eggs I bought the above molds.  Just google Bento Egg Molds and you can find many places to order them online, they are super cheap.  It’s still shocking to me that you can mold hard boiled eggs.  There were a few other shapes to choose from as well!
  The Fantastic Fish
The Brilliant Bear
The Creative Car

The Bouncing Bunny

The instructions come with the molds…but they are in another language! HA!
Here’s how I make them:
1. Hard boil eggs.  While they are boiling, keep the eggs moving.  This will help the yolk to end up centered.  If it cooks up to one side, this will not work.
2. Take an egg out of the pan and break the egg shell.  For best results roll the egg lightly on your counter to break up the shell.  How is it that no one told me this tip before?  I had to lose a few eggs before I figured it out on my own! ;(
3. Quickly (because they need to be as hot as you can handle) and carefully peel the shell off.
4. Put hard boiled egg into your mold and close the clasp. I put mine in sideways. It’s pretty obvious which direction to put your egg in as the shapes tend to have a bigger and smaller end.  However, I have seen other people say to have the fat end of the egg down into the bottom of the mold and then clasp the top of the mold down over the egg sitting up.  This doesn’t seem logical to me, though. 
5. Put mold into cold water.
6. Let the eggs cool completely in the molds, in the water (about 10 minutes).
7. Open molds to reveal your shaped eggs.
I first made these with regular eggs.  I found them too small so the tips of the shapes did not fill in.  Then I bought Extra Large eggs and they worked perfectly!  YAY!  A little of the egg white does squish out on 2 of them, but you can trim that off.
Other options:
If you had the heart or star shapes you could make the cutest deviled eggs!
You can also dye these shaped eggs fun colors.  I think it would be best to do this using natural dyes like beet juice.
Shaped rice balls would be so cute using these molds.  I’m going to try that out next week!
I have read online that you can also buy premade hard boiled eggs at the grocery store for this.  You just heat them up in a pan of water and then follow the rest of the directions starting at #2.  However, I have not tried this myself.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my kids’ school lunches /bentos.   Is this something that interests people? I’d love to know what everyone thinks about this.  Do you have these molds?  How do you make your kids’ lunches more enticing?
Rebecca

I'm joining the following fun parties; Under The Table and Dreaming,

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Pumpkins!

I love Autumn (though anyone that knows me, knows that Winter is my favorite season)!  I get jonesing (yes, that is a real word…to me!) for Pumpkin Pie Spiced…anything!  So, I looked in my cupboard to see what I could come up with.  This is what I made up….Delicious! 

I took Puff Pastry, let it thaw, and then cut out Autumn shapes.  The only two Autumn Cookie Cutters I had were pumpkins (in 5 different sizes!) and a leaf (which is what I was really wanting, but that’s for another day’s post).
 
I made a few variations of these.  The first one I made like an apple pie pocket.  Easy peasy, I tell you!  This is a take off of one of my favorite desserts from Anjeanette.  Cut an apple into tiny pieces and put some in the middle of your cut out puff pastry pumpkin.  Then, sprinkle on some brown sugar.  If you are totally naughty (and I was) then, add a drizzle of caramel.  Top with some tiny pats of butter (I’m talking dime size or smaller and totally thin like a dime).
 
Add another Puff Pastry pumpkin on top and seal the edges.  Then, spread a thin egg wash (egg white and tiny bit of water) on the top and sprinkle some more brown sugar on top! 
Cook @400 for about 10 minutes.
Aren’t they nummy looking?
 
Inside shot of the Apple Pie Pockets…just because.

Other variations:
-Cut cute Jack-O-Lantern face into the Puff Pastry and Bake as is, to be layered later!
-Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of the egg wash.
-My Favorite:  Sprinkle Pumpkin Pie Spice on top of the Egg wash.

OK.
Here’s where it gets even better!  Slice one of these Pumpkin Pie Spice topped Pumpkins in half so you have 2 pumpkins (not 2 halves of pumpkins, if you know what I mean).
Now, let some Vanilla Ice Cream (don’t we all have this on hand?) soften.  Then, stir in more Pumpkin Pie Spice.  Put this mixture into a ziplock baggie and return it back to the freezer to firm it back up a little (as it melts quickly).
Snip the end off of the ziplock baggie and basically frost the bottom half of your Pumpkin Pie Spiced Puff Pastry Pumpkin with this delicious mixture.  Put the top back on the pumpkin.

Refreeze the whole thing.
Eat
Maybe save some for the kids.  Mine LOVED these!
The very top picture on this post was where I let the ice cream mixture harden a bit more and so I got a thicker layer of it, this was a gooood thing!

Don’t forget to use your scraps!
 
Use the leftover Puff Pastry scraps to fill in some mini muffin pans.  Then add some apple chunks, brown sugar, caramel (again, only if you are naughty), and pats of butter.  Bake same as directed above.  These are totally quick, easy, cute, and YUMMY bite-sized apple pies! 
Seriously, to die for!
Rebecca
ps 11 uses of parenthesis is NOT overkill.  It’s giving extra tidbits for everyone’s entertainment!

We're joining the fun in some parties:  This Blessed Nest, Under The Table and Dreaming,

9/11

Thrifty Decor Chick posted this today.  You must check it out!

I am not a New Yorker, and have never been to New York.  However, I am an American.  That day I was glued to my TV, and really, I was glued to my TV for the next week.  I couldn’t stop watching.  It felt like a nightmare, not reality.  I still have such strong emotions about that day.  I am so sorry for all those lives we lost.  Not just the American lives, but all the lives.  I am so thankful for all those men and women that risked their lives to save others!  I am so thankful for all the men and women who continue to risk their lives for my freedoms!

One thing this day also brings up for me is not just terrorism and sadness.  I also had such strong emotions about how wonderful people are.  There were so many heroic things happening during that day and as a result of that day.  I always want to think more about how good people really are.  We have to think about how we are being a part of that goodness.  We have to have hope. 

Rebecca

Amazing Apples-Super Cute Decor For Fall

Want some fall decor inspiration?  My children will be getting these crocheted apples first thing in the morning, for a fall treat.

There is a red apple, a green apple, and a yellow apple. 
My Mom made these for all of the family!  Isn’t she amazing!?  They are similar to these pumpkins she made when we all grew up.

Now look how much cuter they are with gummy worms coming out of them!  Yup, all my Mom’s idea.  I love my Mom.  She’s so brilliant, talented, and thoughtful!

They can even hold an apple treat inside of them! 
Now quickly, go and make some of your own!  Thankfully, mine are already done!  ;)
Rebecca

We are joining the fun at the following parties; Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts, Serenity Now, This Blessed Nest,

Cat Birthday Party Invitation

Sometimes you make things harder for yourself when you have taught your little ones that you can make things.  ;)  My little girl is having a Birthday and requested a cat theme.  She wants everything to match her real cat, Minnie.  Minnie is black and lt brown.  This little girl of mine is all girl.  Brown and black are…well, not very girlie!
Side note, we are looking at getting a dog next year.  Boy or Girl, my kids want to name the dog, Mickey.  Get it?  Mickey and Minnie!  Pretty clever, I think!
These are the invitations that I made.  The Birthday girl LOVES blue.  She was so excited about the blue ribbon.  That was my inspiration to add a dash of color into the party!  Now it will be very “her”!

My daughter’s cousins number around 12 kids.  So, I told her she could invite 5 school friends.  She figure out a way to invite 6.  One invitation went to her two new friends that are twins!  Again, pretty clever don’t ya think!?

I’m in full-steam mode getting this cat party together.  I always get a bit teary eyed when it’s my kids’ birthdays.  I am simply enamored with my kids and totally blown away that I get to share their life with them!  I don’t know what I did right to get them, but man I’m lucky!  All three of them have been in school for a few weeks now (we start early!).  I love watching them learn so much and have so many amazing events and opportunities!  I am so thankful for amazing teachers that already have my kids doing such neat things and loving school!  Another year older for this little one of mine.  I’m so proud of her and in awe of her at the same time.  She is one of those kids that can wrap anyone around her finger.  You even know she is doing it, and you are ok with it! ;) 

Please excuse me while I go and listen to that song from Mamma Mia,  “Slipping Through My Fingers”.  Go listen to it to refreshen your memory and make you teary eyed about your own kids! ;)

Second side note of this post: My Birthday Girl’s favorite song is from Mamma Mia (she loves the whole show!), Money Money Money.  She has no clue what it means, just likes it.   In fact last year she had her tonsils taken out.  As she was waiting for the surgery she got really nervous.  So, she watched that scene from the movie over and over again on an iphone to keep her mind off of her fears!  It was so cute!  She’s one tough cookie and I love every ounce of her!

Rebecca