Put a cork in it (and burn it!)

     

     Time for an easy project idea! All you need is a cork board (Ikea has some cheap options if you don't have a plain boring one already in your house) and a wood burning pen.  I have this pen and while the price is right (under $10) I hate it, it heats up at the handle making it uncomfortable to hold. You can either draw or print up a stencil or if you're more creative than me you can free hand something. Once you have things laid out the way you want you can use the wood burning pen to burn directly through the stencil and onto the cork. It takes about 3 seconds of  pressure to burn into the cork. Once I had gone through my entire stencil I removed it and went back to darken and fill in areas. This one is pretty simple and it only took me about 30 minutes. I can't wait to pick up more cork board and make something else!

Operation Gratitude: Halloween Candy Buy Back

     Did your kiddos get way too many Mounds or Banana Laffy Taffy? Did you just buy way too much candy for trick-or-treaters? Get rid of the extra by participating in Operation Gratitude's Halloween Candy Buy Back and have that candy sent to soldiers stationed around the world. Find a participating dentist near you and chose to either donate your extras or they'll buy it from you for $1 per pound.

I may have bought a little too much candy.

  

Flash Speedman's Chicken Suit

    Since my brain can not shake this writers block I figured I would share pics of Flash Speedman's chicken costume that I made for Halloween. Harper HATED wearing it but in all honesty it was so worth it, she was the cutest/funniest chicken baby ever! Credit has go to marthastewart.com which had the basic directions. I wish had taken pics as I had made it but it was super easy, even I could do it with my very limited sewing skills!

   

Happy Halloween: Very last minute decoration ideas!

     Happy Halloween all! We only have a few more hours before the sun sets and we're invaded by tiny princesses, monsters, or in our case, a chicken. If you're just now running out to buy candy to appease the masses, here are a couple decoration ideas that require things you may have laying around your house already.

Jar-o-Lanterns

Find a glass jar in your recycling/trash and use painters tape to block out a face or design. Spray paint or hand paint on a few layers of paint till you have decent coverage.

The Handy Man Had the great suggestion to paint the inside back of the jar white so the light from the battery powered tea light would be more reflective. He constantly lives up to his name!

This would be super cute if you used a range of different size jars and used different colors.

Dress Up Your Pumpkins

It doesn't get any easier than this! If you have an cute fabric scraps laying around use them to decorate pumpkins! Lace works very well, looks great, and can add to the creepy Halloween vibe! I just tied strips of black lace on and tied a bow in the back.

Carve or Paint

It's not too late to carve a pumpkin! Last night was the first time in forever The Handy Man had carved a pumpkin. He was super nostalgic about it! 

If your little one isn't quite old enough to help carve a pumpkin or is scared of the gooey insides like Flash (not something she gets from mom or dad) bust out the finger paints and let them paint a pumpkin! Flash had fun painting pumpkins with her friend VJ this afternoon!

A squirrel took some chunks out of the middle pumpkins mouth :(

"...or keep your snit to yourself."

     A friend of mine posted this on Facebook the other day and I had to share it here. Let me preface it by saying since it caused a bit of a stir when I re-posted in on Facebook, I'm not looking for argumentative drama. I'm not saying stay at home parents have it harder than working parents or visa versa. I'm not saying "boohoo, poor me". I just think it's interesting insight into what many people who have never been a stay at home parent think is an easy job.