Happy Halloween!

We celebrated this weekend by carving some pumpkins and taking a quick trip to Savannah with the neighbors!  Love that place, and it is the most haunted city in America after all!   How about you?

H is for Halloween - Toddler Teaching

It's been super busy around here, I've been working extra late, and I'm fighting off a cold, so all those combined are excuses for my lack of posting as of late!  I don't have a super long post today either, but I didn't want Halloween to pass without posting some of the great stuff I've found for toddler activities. The tot and I made this with his hand and footprints (idea taken from ok stolen, from Handprint and Footprint Arts&Crafts),

and we painted a pumpkin with some stripes using painters tape then drew on a cute face.

We did lots of the other stuff on my H is for Halloween Pinterest Board too (like soda bottle bowling and frozen "boo"nana pops), but I didn't take pictures, so check out my board if you're interested in more ideas!

Oh My Gourd! - 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

I found this pin on Pinterest of 2 ingredient pumpkin muffins from Sweet-Verbina, originally made as a pumpkin cake on Big Red Kitchen.  The hubster and I both LOVE pumpkin, so I knew I had to try it! I used Spice Cake instead of the Vanilla Cake used in the original recipe, and it was amazing!

You just empty the cake mix and the 16oz. can of pumpkin into a mixing bowl and mix it.  That's it! No eggs, no water, nothing!  I did this at work so there wasn't an electric mixer, and mixing it by hand made it kind of sticky and not batter-like like it was supposed to be, but it tasted yummy anyway, even if it didn't look the best.

Tah-dah!

I ate some plain, but I also bought some Cream Cheese frosting for the top and it tasted really great too! 

Other Variations :

• Big Red Kitchen has a recipe for a glaze with her post
• Sweet-Verbina dusted hers with powdered sugar
• I bet it would taste great with chocolate  chips added in
• I might try making these as pancakes too; yum!
• I'm thinking about trying it out with carrot cake mix too

Have you tried these out?  Any other ideas to change up this simple recipe?

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Link Parties - I don't get to all of them with each post, but you should check them out!

Sundays:  I <3 Naptime, 1+1+1=1 ( kid friendly), Little Wonders' Days (kid friendly)
Mondays : C.R.A.F.T.,Making the World Cuter, The Girl Creative, Skip To My Lou, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, Sew Can Do, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Home Stories A to Z
Ninth Street Notions, Polly Want A Crafter, Ask Anna, Pinkapotamus, So Creative
Tuesdays: Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Sugar Bee Crafts,Tales of A Trophy Wife, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just A Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Crayon Freckles,
Wednesdays: Fireflies & Jelly Beans, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Lil' Luna, Polka Dots On Parade, Free Pretty Things For You, A Little Tipsy (DIY under $5), DIY By Design, Raising 4 Princesses(kid friendly), This Chick Cooks (recipes), Lollipops (what I love), Sew Much Ado, Organize and Decorate Everything, The Girl Creative
 Thursdays: A Glimpse Inside, My Repurposed Life, Simple Home Life,
Fridays: TaterTots & Jello, Sun Scholars (kid friendly), Remodelaholic, Bacon Time, Stuff & Nonsense, At The Picket Fence
Saturdays: I Can Teach My Child (kid friendly), Be Different, Act Normal,

Pumpkin Party @ Confessions of a Stay At Home Mom

Weekend Wrapup

The hubster and I are on a budget this months so we're not really going out and doing a lot, but this weekend I had to get out of the house!  It was a beautiful day so we spent the day strolling the farmers market, stopping by his office to get some awesome apple cider in the cool Keurig machine they have (seriously, have you guys seen/used these!?  They're so quick and make all kinds of yummy drinks), and then went strolling around Target to do some inspiration shopping for decorating his new office building.  We only spent $5, and it was on these beautiful flowers (have I mentioned I'm a sucker for sunflowers?)

and it was some of the most fun I've had in a while!  The best part...driving around hand in hand with the windows down!  Yay for great weather and company!

Side note...I bought these chairs from World Market (in the color "soap") because they were close to what I wanted for the cheapest I have found by far (especially since I had 2 coupons, they equaled about $60 each!), but not exactly what I wanted (they had brown legs and I needed black). So I sanded down the legs and painted them (making them nonreturnable), and now that I have them with the table, I think I like them, but the hubster is bothered that the whites of the chair and the table legs aren't matchy matchy.  Do you think they look ok? - be honest!

I also made some 3 ingredient pumpkin spice muffins (recipe coming Thursday) that were delicious, 

 and watched this movie (not really recommended, but I couldn't pass it up because it had Mandy Moore and one of the vamps from Twilight in it!).  We have a Blockbuster movie pass, so for $15 a month we have unlimited rentals (one out at a time) of anything in the store (games and movies) - Blockbuster's making a comeback y'all!

 Oh, and one of the cutest things I saw at Target - this adorable snowman!  But at $50, I had to pass him by...maybe I can figure out someway to DIY!  It really is super cute!

Hope you all had a great weekend as well!  See you tomorrow for Must Make Monday!

Tasty Thursday - Copy Cat Mexican Shrimp Dish

There's this one Mexican restaurant by my parents house that has a dish called "AC Shrimp."  I haven't seen it at any other restaurant, but it is amazing!  I decided to try and recreate it at home, and while it's not exactly like the dish at the restaurant (really, it's never the same is it!?) it still turned out pretty dang good!

I started some Spanish Rice,

 I cut up a green bell pepper, half an onion, a summer squash, and some broccoli and sauteed them in the skillet until they were soft.  Then I threw in some precooked shrimp to heat them up.

 

 I put some mexican cheese dip in the microwave and melted it,

 

then served it all on top of the rice.

Yum!  

Do you have any good copy cat restaurant recipes?  I know this isn't a complicated dish, but I was pretty proud of myself for thinking this up, and it totally satisfied a craving I was having for Mexican food!  If you try it out, or if you've had it before and have any suggestions for making it better, I'd love to hear!

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Link Parties - I don't get to all of them with each post, but you should check them out!

Sundays:  I <3 Naptime, 1+1+1=1 ( kid friendly), Little Wonders' Days (kid friendly)
Mondays : C.R.A.F.T.,Making the World Cuter, The Girl Creative, Skip To My Lou, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, Sew Can Do, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Home Stories A to Z,Ninth Street Notions, Polly Want A Crafter, Ask Anna, Pinkapotamus, So Creative, Mrs. Happy Homemaker
Tuesdays: Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Sugar Bee Crafts,Tales of A Trophy Wife, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just A Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Crayon Freckles,
Wednesdays: Fireflies & Jelly Beans, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Lil' Luna, Polka Dots On Parade, Free Pretty Things For You, A Little Tipsy (DIY under $5), DIY By Design, Raising 4 Princesses(kid friendly), This Chick Cooks (recipes), Lollipops (what I love), Sew Much Ado, Organize and Decorate Everything, The Girl Creative
 Thursdays: A Glimpse Inside, My Repurposed Life, Simple Home Life,
Fridays: TaterTots & Jello, Sun Scholars (kid friendly), Remodelaholic, Bacon Time, Stuff & Nonsense, At The Picket Fence
Saturdays: I Can Teach My Child (kid friendly), Be Different, Act Normal,

http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/10/halloween-ideas-party.html
http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/10/fall-fun-party.html
http://www.craftyconfessions.com/2011/09/pumpkin-addicts-anonymous-link-party.html
ishareprintables 

Whatever Wednesday

 I hung out with the toddler inside a McDonalds playspace because the older kiddos were still in school and the toddler decided he was too big to be satisfied with the age appropriate section.  He was excited, me not so much...those things are stinky! P.S. Sorry for the blurry pic but since the kiddos not mine I didn't want to show too much.

Some of the neighborhood ladies all got together and we went to Diva Night at Crazy Glaze.  It was tons of fun, and in a week from yesterday I'll have a new spoonrest to match the placemats on my kitchen table! 

Must Make Mondays

I've found some fantastic ideas floating around this week, and here are a few of my favorite...


Procrastination Station shares this cute idea for a baby shower gift - to go bags with wipes, formuls, onesies, etc.

Be Different Act Normal featured this adorable witches hat and broom meal - my kiddos would love it!

Big Red Kitchen has a recipe for a delicious looking 2 ingredient pumpkin cake - I'll be tryin this soon!

Tablespoon shows off some cute Nutter Butter Ghosts - wouldn't this be adorable for a Halloween party?

A Brooklyn Limeston In Progress writes a how to for this wonderful DIY Dinnerware!

  

Dashing Dish shows off how to make mini deep dish pizza - this would be great for a party too!  I could even see buying some muffin tins that make 6, throwing a party and having a pizza bar set out where each couple takes their own pan and adds their own ingredients!  How fun!?


Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas!  I can't wait to try these out!

Weekend Wrapup

Fall weather has arrived and I'm LOVING it! A cool 60 degrees is my favorite type of weather!  I've spent the weekend getting out all the Fall decor and sanding and painting the legs on some chairs we finally found for the kitchen table I painted a while back.  I'll share the story of the chairs with you in a later post when it all gets done, but for now I'll show you what I have out for the new decor!

 First off, I made a wreath for our front door.  I used the same grapevine wreath frame from my July 4th wreath, bought 4 bunches of flowers from the Dollar Tree

ripped the flowers off their "stems" and placed them all around the wreath.

 

I used the "Happy Fall Y'all" printable from It's A Crafty Life, cut off the boarder, and taped it to an empty picture frame to weigh it down.  The "leafs" on the printable are foam table scatters, also from the Dollar Tree.

I switched my Summer mantel out for this one

 

I made the banner with scrapbook paper and cut all the circles and letters by hand. The pumpkin on the left side is from Kohl's last year after Halloween, and all the figurines come from Dollar General.  The turkey votive holder also came from Kohl's last year, and the candles and candle holders came from my bridal shower years ago (yay for repurposing)!

I finally got that bookcase and console table I wished about in this post, and decorated them as well. 

The console for Fall, 

(you can't really see in the picture but the chair has a pillow that says "Boo!" , and check out the cute owls my awesome hubster picked up for me from Pier 1!

and the bookcase decorated for Halloween.

 

The "ghosts" on the 2nd to bottom shelf are glass light covers for a chandelier I picked up for $0.75 each at the local thrift store and colored ghost faces on last year.  They have battery powered votives under them and cast a cute glow at night!  The wooden sign up top is also a thrift store find for $1.75!  I covered the 6 books on the shelf with some scrapbook paper I had, and the rest of the Halloween stuff is all from clearance after the holiday last year from Big Lots and Dollar General.  

I threw some cute Halloween stuff on our dining room table

I made the pumpkin with a white craft pumpkin and some ribbon.  I just ran some glue dots up to ridges of the pumpkin, cut some ribbon to fit, and cut a tag using scrapbook paper and stickers to say "boo."

The lanterns came from this HUGE antique barn in Asheville, NC.  The table runner from, once again, Kohl's (seems to be a reoccurring theme in this blog post).

  

Did you spot the birds above my window?  They're up there year round, but can totally pass as Halloween-y too right? 

So there you have it!  All decorated, at least until the end of the month and Halloween is over...until then I'll be searching for some cute Fall bargains!

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Link Parties - I don't get to all of them with each post, but you should check them out!

Sundays:  I <3 Naptime, 1+1+1=1 ( kid friendly), Little Wonders' Days (kid friendly)
Mondays : C.R.A.F.T.,Making the World Cuter, The Girl Creative, Skip To My Lou, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, Sew Can Do, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Home Stories A to Z
Ninth Street Notions, Polly Want A Crafter, Ask Anna, Pinkapotamus, So Creative
Tuesdays: Today's Creative Blog, All Thingz Related, Sugar Bee Crafts,Tales of A Trophy Wife, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just A Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Crayon Freckles,
Wednesdays: Fireflies & Jelly Beans, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, Lil' Luna, Polka Dots On Parade, Free Pretty Things For You, A Little Tipsy (DIY under $5), DIY By Design, Raising 4 Princesses(kid friendly), This Chick Cooks (recipes), Lollipops (what I love), Sew Much Ado, Organize and Decorate Everything, The Girl Creative
 Thursdays: A Glimpse Inside, My Repurposed Life, Simple Home Life,
Fridays: TaterTots & Jello, Sun Scholars (kid friendly), Remodelaholic, Bacon Time, Stuff & Nonsense, At The Picket Fence
Saturdays: I Can Teach My Child (kid friendly), Be Different, Act Normal,

Halloween Party @ Come Together Kids
Fall Party @ Come Together Kids
Pumpkin Party @ Confessions of a Stay At Home Mom
ishareprintables