Boo! Wreath - Part Deux

My younger sister recently moved back to Texas after living in California for a few years.  I decided she needed a feathery Halloween wreath just like mine for the front door of her new house.  Jake and I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found a wire wreath form, a black feather boa, a small wooden Boo! sign, and a package of glittery purple spiders.  This time around I used small pieces of black pipe cleaners to twist-tie the boa to the wreath form.  They blend right into the feathers and you can't even see them.  I used a few dabs of hot glue to attach the Boo!, the spiders, and a few of the glittery black bats leftover from my wreath.  I thought about attaching a big black gingham bow at the top, but couldn't get it to look right, so this wreath is ribbon-less.    

I'm still finding tiny black feathers all over my kitchen, including inside my toaster!  But my sister loved the wreath and it looks great on her front door, so this one goes down as a crafty success.

Beware!

I have wicked pipe cleaner craft skills.  Oh yeah!

Halloween Treats

There are so many cute Halloween themed snacks and treats floating around Pinterest, I couldn't resist sharing them with you all this week.  All images are courtesy of the original idea source, via Pinterest.

How cute are these Spider Krispy Treats?  I'm thinking about making them to send with Bailey for her Halloween party at school.  The kids would love them! 

 
I have only attempted meringue cookies once before, with disastrous results, but these adorable little Meringue Ghosts make me want to give it another try!

Or maybe I'll just stick to making these Frightfully Easy Ghost Cookies.  With only three ingredients, even I can't mess these up!

Cheese pizza is one of Bailey's favorite foods, and she loves black olives, so she will get a kick out of these Mummy Pizzas.  I have a feeling we'll be making these for lunch a few times next week!

I hope your little ghouls and goblins enjoy these Halloween treats!

Boo! Wreath

When it comes to holiday decorating of any sort, I take a minimalist approach, which is really just a fancy way to say that I stick a few pumpkins by the front door and call it Halloween.  But last year I decided that I wanted to make a Halloween wreath to along with the pumpkins, so I worked my magic with a wire wreath form, a feather boa, and some twist ties and this is what I came up with...

They are impossible to see, but hidden amongst the black feathers are little glittery black bats.  I promise they really are there.  And there is also a sheer black ribbon tied into a bow above the word "Boo." 

Trust me, it's much more impressive in person!  ha!  When I put it up last year just a few days before Halloween, I promised myself that I would tweak it and give it some more personality before the next Halloween rolled around.  Hey, I've still got a few weeks, right?  I'm thinking of recovering the bats with some bright purple glitter (if I can find the right color) and giving the wreath a new bow, maybe something black and white like gingham or a damask print.  More than likely it'll still look exactly the same this time next year, but we'll see!

Quilt in Progress

My goal for this week is to finish quilting and binding this quilt (and then maybe organize that green basket in the back corner).  I'm about 3/4 of the way finished already, so in theory this should be an attainable goal.  I started by straight line quilting the length of the quilt, both vertically and horizontally, a quarter of an inch from the outside edges of the large squares, creating a large grid pattern.  I've already "stitched-in-the-ditch" around the small inner squares, so now all that's left is to stitch the inside edge of the larger squares (also stitch-in-the-ditch).  I have an entire jelly roll of these 2 1/2 inch strips leftover that will make the perfect scrappy binding.  If my darling son isn't feeling very cooperative at naptime, I may find myself burning the midnight oil to get this one finished, but I am determined to finish it this week!

Spooky Spider Web

Spooky, isn't it?  I love crafts that are quick and easy, and not to mention inexpensive.  Believe it or not, this spider web only took 10 minutes to make.  All you need is yarn (we used a dark charcoal gray) and tape.  Following this tutorial on the MADE blog (one of my favorites!), Bailey and I taped the yarn in a criss-cross all the way across our big kitchen window to make the foundation for our web.  Then, starting from the outer edges and working our way in to the middle, we looped the yarn around each piece of the criss-cross, forming the rings of the web.  Each time we completed a ring, we tied it off and started a new one a bit further in toward the middle, making 6 rings in all.  

There really is no way to mess this up.  The crazier and more crooked it is, the better!  Bailey had a great time helping me create the web and now she's looking forward to making a few spiders to put on it.  Spooky!

Friday Favorites

Pumpkin patches are popping up left and right, and the leaves on the maple tree in my front yard are showing the slightest hint of orange.  That's about as close to fall as we get here in Dallas.  Sometimes I daydream about living in a place that has a great fall season, with beautiful changing leaves and crisp, cool weather that requires sweaters and boots instead of short sleeves and flip flops.  A girl can dream, right? 

It's the end of the week and time to share some more great recipes!  Thanks to Pinterest, I've been batting a thousand this week in the dinner department.  Each one of these recipes is a winner.  All images are courtesy of the original recipe source.   

Creamy bean soup with bacon...what's not to love?  This White Bean with Bacon Soup by Centsational Girl was just as delicious as the photo makes it look.  I used canned beans instead of dried, so this soup came together in no time at all.  My husband and I loved this soup.  My daughter gobbled it up.  My son threw the bacon on the floor and squished the beans in his hair, but he's only 15 months old, so I expected as much.  In time I'm sure he'll learn to appreciate the awesomeness of bacon.

I believe that no bowl of soup would be complete without a warm, delicious piece of bread on the side.  These Homemade Olive Garden Breadsticks by Full Bellies, Happy Kids were the perfect sidekick for the White Bean with Bacon Soup.  Making yeast bread from scratch can be messy and time consuming, but this recipe was relatively quick and was definitely easy.  I mixed the dough in my Kitchenaid mixer, then formed the breadsticks and let them rise while the soup simmered.  After rising for about 45 minutes, I popped them in the oven and 15 minutes later we were enjoying a delicious meal.  I cut the amount of garlic butter topping in half (even less than half the salt) and it was perfect.  We enjoyed these so much that I'm making them again this week!

On Monday afternoons, my daughter goes to ballet/tap dance lessons at the community center.  Her class ends at 5:15, which means that when we arrive home at 5:30 I am really squeezed for time when it comes to making dinner.  This recipe for No Boil Baked Penne by Plain Chicken is perfect for those nights when you want a great meal without a ton of prep time.  I had half a pound of leftover cooked ground beef seasoned with garlic from a previous recipe, so the prep time for me was nearly zero.  Mix everything together while the oven is preheating, pour it in casserole dish, cover and cook for one hour.  I had my doubts about not cooking the pasta first, but after one hour in the oven the penne was cooked perfectly and had the taste of lasagna without all of the fuss.  And this is a great excuse to finish off the homemade breadsticks from earlier in the week!

It seems like at least once a week we have breakfast for dinner..."brinner."  Brinner usually consists of eggs, bacon, and either pancakes or biscuits.  I have tried to make biscuits from scratch in the past with less than stellar results, so I usually fall back on frozen Grands biscuits, but this week I decided to give homemade biscuits another try using this recipe for 7UP Biscuits from Plain Chicken.  The combination of 7UP, sour cream, and Bisquick sounds crazy, but it seriously makes some of the best biscuits I've ever eaten.  Give it a try...you won't be disappointed.

Have a great weekend!  :)