Hallween Candy Corn Hair Wrap Pattern.

Oct. 1st  is tommorrow!

Are you ready?

Time for a new hair wrap. Candy Corn style!

But maybe you can get your order right and do White Orange Yellow

instead of flipping the two around like I did.

Opps!

Shhh.. She won't notice.

Oh well. My favorite part is the purple and black stripe anyway.

To make stripes, just use one purple and one black and wrap both at once.

Need a hair wrap tutorial?

Click on Hair Wraps if you are a first timer. That will tell you what you need to know.

Hope you have fun with Halloween Hair Wraps!

Stay tuned for Christmas, Valentines day, and St. Patrick's day patterns.

Don't forget the Superbowl!

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Pallet Slate Sign Photo Prop

We took fall photos today. I looked though photos I liked on Pinterest and tried to recreate my own versions. I am not a professional by any means, and I am not great at photo editing yet, I just got Photoshop and have no clue where to start, nor do I think I have the time to do so, but maybe now that I got some pretty good shots I will take the time to play around with them a bit and learn something. But you will just have to put up with unedited photos for now.

What do you think??

The photo I saw on Pinterest and really liked, used a photo prop sign made out of an old window painted into a slate chalkboard and they wrote on it Merry Christmas.

You can see the awesome photo here at Ron Putnam Photography.

Well I didn't have an old window, so I made my own chalkboard sign. It didn't have to work as a chalkboard forever, just a one time thing. So I used what I had.

Pieces of a Wooden Pallet

Cardboard

Black Tempera Paint

Chalk

Staples

Staple Gun

Wood Glue

Using the wood glue and small nails I made a simple frame out of broken pallet pieces. I painted some cardboard black and stapled it to the back of the frame. Then I used the chalk to write Merry Christmas on the black cardboard.

Here is the back, which no one ever sees anyway.

You can see it is not the first time the cardboard has been used. I did some painting on top of it last week for another project. Reuse!

Speaking of Re-use. I think this might end up on my mantle or in my entryway come Christmas time.

I think this one has "Christmas Card" written all over it!

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Pumpkin Time-Vine

My daughter needed to create a timeline for a school project. She was to use photos from when she was born until now and attach them to a string, or strip of paper. They said any idea was fine and muttered those words no one should ever say to me.. "Feel free to be as creative as you want!"

Lucky for me, my daughter loves projects just as much as I do, and when I told her my idea she was pumped to get started. All I did was provide supplies and the idea, the rest was up to her.

The idea was to make a pumpkin time-"vine" instead of a time-"line." The time-vine used photos of all of her Halloween costumes from her first Halloween until now. It was a great idea I think since each photo was taken at the same time each year so you can see how much she grew in a year. Also it provided her something fun to write in each description.

The Supplies I Gave Her:
Printed Photos
Glue
Orange Paint, you could use crayons.
Paint Brush
Yarn
Tape
Scissors
Glue
Green paper with leaf shapes printed on them.
Sticky Foam Numbers (optional)

She spent hours on this project but loved every minute of it. It really was a lot of work for a 6 year old, and she could have done something more simple, but like I said she loves arts and crafts projects so took it and ran. I suggested she use orange crayons, and a single strand of yarn to make the pumpkin vine more simple, but she asked if she could use paint and spent an hour finger knitting a vine out of the green yarn to make it thicker than a single strand vine.

She painted the 6 plates orange. Glued on her photos. Cut out 7 leaves I printed out using a template I found online. She wrote descriptions for each picture on the leaves, put the photos in order, added the appropriate number sticker for her age that year, glued the leaves to the pumpkins, did finger knitting to make a vine out of yarn, and then taped the vine to the plates.

She started on Sunday, and finished it up Tuesday evening. I honestly marvel at how much time and effort she put into it. HOURS! I think you can really tell, and she was very proud of her work.

Here are a few closeups.. I LOVE some her phonetic spellings.

The word "fairy" she decided to look up in a Tinkerbell book we had. Great thinking!

"I was Buzz! To infintee and beeond!"

"I was a pirate! ArG!"

I love the "ArG" she added.

"I was Pippi."

On the last leaf she put a question mark and wrote "Wait and see!" because she wants this years costume to stay a surprise, and it is not Halloween yet!

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Girls Fall Florals Skirt

This year when I got clothes at a rummage and thrift stores for my daughter I purposefully didn't buy any skirts. Skirts are pretty easy to make and I did want to make some of her clothing this year.

I told myself I was done buying her clothes last spring so didn't dare look at anymore since then, then when the weather changed to fall, I went searching for a skirt for her to wear with her denim jacket.. There was none there?? I couldn't believe I left a skirt out of her wardrobe. Then I remembered that I was planning on making skirts for her this year.

I knew right away what I wanted to try. I used another skirt of hers for a pattern. She didn't care for the colors of the other skirt and wouldn't wear it. I liked the fun pattern though. I let my daughter pick out of my fabric stash, letting her choose her favorites from the fall florals. This way she will like it better. She was excited about her choices. And I think she did a great job choosing as well.

It is a circle skirt in a sense.. But you make it with two shapes. Rectangles and a fat neck tie diamond shaped piece. Alternate patterns and fabrics anyway you wish. Here is what we ended up with.

Then I sewed the pieces together one at a time so that they made a circles. Then added a fabric tube to the top for the hip part and just made a tunnel for the elastic waistband. This is what the original skirt had as well. I am not sure it would be as long as I wanted if I had left that part out. I did a simple rolled hem at the bottom.

We both like how it turned out.

Great for twirling as well.

Yep I am glad I didn't buy any skirts!

It even matched the circle fall flower brooch I made last year, so it added a nice accent to the jacket.



SO EASY Cinnamon Almonds

I just love Pinterest. I love all the neat ideas I find. I am pretty good at trying them out too... If I have easy access to the stuff I need. Turns out this idea I found I had everything I needed. Not only that.. but I was actually looking to a solution to my almond problem.

Last spring Walgreen's put their canned nuts on clearance. I got a few cans of almonds, some salted, and some natural. They were only $1.99 a can at the time because they had a new label design and wanted to clear the old cans out to make room for the new.  I do like almonds but enjoy the salted variety much better than the natural. So I here I was with two cans of natural almonds taking up room in my cupboard and I really didn't want to just eat them. I was not too excited about trying to salt and roast them myself, just didn't seem too interesting. So their they sat until I saw this pinned on Pinterest.

Cinnamon Almonds!

SUPER EASY, SUPER QUICK,

And Pretty tasty too!

Sugar, water, Cinnamon, and almonds are all you need!

I used up all my almonds, they taste much better than the natural ones I wasn't excited to eat, and I now have a fun thing to set out for a friend's brunch I am hosting tomorrow morning.

They suggest that it makes a good holiday and teacher gift too.

What a good idea!

I think I should have cooked them a bit longer than I did. I waited until it caramelized instead of crystallized. Oh well, I now know for next time. That is why they look a tiny bit different than the original recipe.

 But they still taste good.

Fall Wreath Re-do

I have a fall wreath I got cheap at a thrift store a couple years ago. I have used it outside my house for a few years. But this year I decided Mr.Scarecrow was just not my style. More like a grandmother's style.

I wanted something a bit more sophisticated than the faded scare crow character.

So I pulled him off. I also pulled some plastic fall leaves that were on this wreath and used them on my fall wall hanging frame project.

I was left with this.. I was ok with the Harvest Blessings sign, I can always repaint it later and put different words or house number or whatever if I wish. So I went to work to make this wreath look nice again.

My first idea was to make some crochet flowers out of yarn. My friend Erin over at

Home With The Boys

has made a few of these necklaces with this technique of spiraling a daisy chain and I had not yet seen them on a wreath as a decoration, so I thought it would be a great idea.

Problem was... I didn't have any good fall colors of yarn, and I don't use yarn too often so I wasn't sure I wanted to make the big yarn investment for something so small.

I also thought these felt flower wreaths were cool.

 People all over are making these right now.

This one was made by Katie over at Little Things Bring Smiles. She has a link to a tutorial on how to make the felt flowers too if you are interested.

Yet.. I honestly didn't have any felt in the house either.

But I do have fabric...

 and there are neat fabric flowers out there people have been putting on wreaths like these that Sara made over at Our Best Bites.

Yet... I couldn't decide on what I wanted to do..

 I liked all three ideas..

So I decided to COMBINE a few of the ideas to make something new and original.

I took some fabric and cut it into strips, then used my crochet hook and made them into chains.

Then I took the chains and spiraled them into fabric flowers. I think it made a nice mix between Erin's yarn flowers, and the fabric twisted ones that Sara made.

I splurged and used my coupon at Michale's and got a couple sheets of felt. So I could try out the felt flowers too.

Then added a sprig of garland here or there from a strand I have in the house, and some fabric leaves.

Yes, I do have a purple front door. I LOVE it. It was there when we moved in. :)

I think it turned out nice. Much nicer than what I started with.

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Cheesy, Ham, Corn, and Potato Chowder

Fall is upon us!

Ok not quite yet really.

It was 77 here today which is not soup weather but...

I had to use up the garden produce I had so I made our families favorite soup.

But no worries about the warm day because it FREEZES well. :)

Cheesy, Ham, Corn, and Potato Chowder.

MMM....

This is the best ever!

I am not just saying that. 

I actually entered and won a soup making contest at my husband's work with this recipe.

So I will share the awesome yummy goodness with you!

Cheesy Ham and Potato chowder

10 strips of Bacon diced
1, lg onion
1 cup diced carrots
3T flour
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cup water
2 1/2 cups cubed potatoes
1 can drained corn
2t chicken bullion
pepper to taste
3 cups shredded cheese (sometimes I substitute low fat Velveeta but only around 1 cup then.)
2 cups cubed ham

Fry bacon in soup kettle. Remove the cooked bacon and set aside. In drippings saute the onion and carrots until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually add milk and water. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 min or until slightly thickened. Add potatoes, corn, bouillon and pepper. Reduce heat. simmer uncovered for 20 min or until potatoes are tender. Add cheese and ham. heat until cheese is melted. (add bacon on top if you wish).

If you freeze it, put the bacon in a separate baggie to use as a topping later to prevent soggy bacon.

Enjoy!

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Fall Outdoor Wall Framed Leaves

Labor Day was so yesterday.

No serously it was just yesterday!

Time to take down my Red White and Blue Porch Wall Decoration

and make something new for fall!

I used to hang a wreath with a scarecrow on it, but I never really liked it, and he was so faided this year I knew I had to do something different.

I am am a DIY girl, not much into buying things, I would rather make my own. I wanted something fun, yet a bit more grown up looking instead of the scarecrow.

I got inspired by a couple ideas on pinterest, feel free to follow me if you are on Pinterest, Kara Weber, so you can see them. I wish I could link to the the images that inspired me, but they are in a flickr so hopelessly lost  and I tired looking.

So off to Y's Buys we went to search for a frame.

Today was 25% off like every Tuesday so I found this georgous picture there marked for $1, so I spent 75 cents on it.

There was no glass, and although it looks fancy, everyone wants a picture of a coffee pot and cantelope right?, the mat and picture are printed on paper and backed by cardboard.

I had to do a bit of deconstruction since it was attached to the frame on the back with staples.

Nothing 2 and 4 year old boys and some needle nose pliers can't fix. My boys LOVE deconstruction. I even let them punch the picture out of the frame with their hands once the staples were out.

My two helpers.

They also got in on the Paint action. I had a small can of crimson red paint in the basement that I had gotten out of grandma Weber's garage when she cleaned out paint.

Perfect.

Orange Ribbon I had on hand upstairs, although I wish I had the size bigger than I had.

Then I deconstructed my old fall wreath and took the plastic leaves off of it, they were not faided like the scare crow.

Sewed a bit.

Had the boys attach the screw in hooks that I took off one of their home depot kids workshop projects they never use.

The boys helped tie the ribbon onto the hooks.

Then we hung it up outside!

Our own leafy take on the ever popular bunting projects going around.

Can't wait to add the pumpkins to the porch next month!

It's a live moving piece of artwork blowing in the breese.

Bare feet and shorts won't be around much longer!

Ah, isn't fall pretty.

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