Tuesday, August 30, 2011

DEVINE INSPIRATION

You know, when you have Halloween on the brain as much as I do, you can't help but find everyday things that reflect your love of all things spooky.... anytime of the year!

Check this out from fab.com. Wouldn't these funky plastic chairs be the perfect place for your guests to sit and rest their bones at your Halloween bash? Or how fun would these be to have at this year's family bar-b-que?

I'll take 13.....

Friday, August 26, 2011

FREAKY FRIDAY

After almost two months of no rain...we got it good yesterday! Finally! We had severe lightning and thunderstorms and lots of rain.

Love the rain... and the cracks of thunder lasted well into the nite! We even got another down-pour this morning about 6 am! It would be a good, dark and dreary day to stay home and have a "Munsters Marathon"!

Who's with me????? I'll make Bloody Mary's.......

Happy Friday!

Monday, August 22, 2011

OH BABY!

You know Halloween is right around the corner, so if you think you're just gonna whip-up a fabulous costume for the kiddos overnight....guess again!

How many times have you heard me say....start planning NOW!

Well, this is one of those times.... babies and toddler costumes aren't too difficult, but if you have a specific idea in mind, you want it to be as perfect as it can be...so you don't want to put it off!

Check out some of these amazing ideas that I found floating around on the web.....


















For more great costume ideas for kids of all ages, check out Kaboose!

Friday, August 19, 2011

'TIS THE SEASON

With only 72 days until the Spookiest Day of the Year, I loooooooove seeing all the magazines in the racks that are filled with ideas for projects and recipes for Halloween!

My wonderful hubby got this for me, when he made a stop at the grocery store yesterday, and I've already read it from cover to cover!

This issue is filled with great recipes and ideas, so make sure you pick one up!

I think I may try out a few of these recipes this weekend, and remember...it's NEVER too early to start planning!

Monday, August 15, 2011

LET THERE BE LIGHT

I'm always looking for easy projects that the kiddos can help out with, that won't take a lot of time or crafty skills.... sometimes it can be tough for mummys and daddys to have projects that aren't too difficult for everyone in the family!

Well all you need to try these cute lighted pumpkin faces...  is a few glass bottles and jars, an old plastic dishpan or tub,a few strings of twinkle lights (plain white or colors) green and black acrylic paints, orange or white tissue paper, black construction paper, scissors, and some good old white school glue.

Be sure all the bottles and jars have been washed and dried. Put about half a bottle of white glue in an old plastic dishpan fill half way with water. Mix well.

Take a single sheet of orange (if you're making a pumpkin face....use white if you want to make a ghost) tissue paper, open it, and lay in glue/water mixture. Swish around to coat with glue (don't fold it or rumple it too much, it'll be too difficult to spread out over the glass) then tear or cut off in smaller sections, and lay inside the jar or bottle. Repeat this step until the glass is completely covered. Let dry. Move on to next jar or bottle.

Once you've completed all the faces that you want, take black construction paper and glue on eyes, nose, mouth, etc. on the front of the glass. (Or you can paint with black acrylic paints, whichever look you like better) If you're making ghosts, that's the final step.

To complete the pumpkin faces: once all the faces are on all of the jars and bottles, take some green acrylic paint and go over the rim with a paint brush. Let dry.

Then set in a line (this looks great on a window sill or along a walkway or porch) and put some of the lights in each jar or bottle, and move down to the next one, until you come to the end of the string. Plug in and watch all the faces light up!

Monday, August 8, 2011

HALLOWEEN PILLOWS

You know, when it comes to decorating for Halloween, you don't have to decorate every nook and cranny, like I do at the Manor. Sometimes just a few well placed and festive pillows add to the holiday spirit!

Maybe you've got lots of little goblins running around the house, and you just don't think it's a good idea to put time and money into elaborate decorations....that's understandable! But you can get really creative and making pillows is pretty easy, so don't be threatened by some of these amazing designs.

 Just get some fabric paint and scrap material and go to town! I think you'll be amazed at what you can do. A few spooky bats, pumpkins and maybe a witch with a pointy hat aren't really too difficult to create.
Give it a try.....I'm sure they'll be BOO-tiful!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

MONSTER BROWNIES!

I have to tell you...I wish I could take credit for all these amazing ideas that I share with you all....but I CAN'T! I trudge through the world-wide-internet jungle to find the coolest Halloween stuff, I can....so I can show all of you! And one of my favorite sites is Amanda's Cookin'! She's amazing!

She has step-by-step instructions for these Monster Brownies, and she makes it look sooooo easy, you're gonna wanna try it! Take it away, Amanda......

I give you Brownie Monster Treats! Because decorating these treats can be time consuming, I chose to use a boxed brownie mix. You can certainly use your favorite recipe or do the same. I used three cereals: Trix, Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs. To make things easier on myself and to make this kid friendly, I also used Betty Crocker decorating cookie icing. Pretty cool stuff, Royal Icing in a bag! They sell all the colors I needed, but my rinky dink grocery store only had red, green and white, so I used some gel food coloring to get what I wanted. The icing from the bag dried much smoother, so I would definitely recommend buying the colors you want over mixing it yourself.

Here's something fun too. Because this is Royal icing, that means the frosting is dry (unless you use the gel like I did, that never dries LOL) so you can package them in cellophane gift baggies. While you are at it, be sure to make some bread tag monsters to close the treat bags with!


Here's what you'll need:
Boxed brownie mix
Betty Crocker Cookie Icing in desired colors
Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, and Trix cereals
Mini chocolate chips
Pretzel sticks
Red and black decorator gel
1/4 cup powdered sugar
milk

First prepare your brownies and allow them to cool. I refrigerated mine so that I could get nice clean cuts. When your brownies are ready to be cut, cut off the edges and eat them :) (you could share too, just sayin') and cut the brownies into different sized rectangles and squares. I cut some of the odd shaped leftovers into triangles too.


Make the Eyes

It's important to do this step first to allow adequate time for the glaze to dry. To make the eyes you'll need any variety of Cheerios, some mini chocolate chips, powdered sugar and a little milk. Place the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Using a spoon, stir in some milk, a little bit at a time, until the consistency is good enough for dipping. Start with about a teaspoon and add a couple drops at a time until you get it where you want it.


Drop a few Cheerios into the glaze coating the cereal. Use a spoon to lift the cereal out of the glaze and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet

Place a mini chocolate chip, upside down, in the center of each glazed Cheerio. Gently press the mini chip to set. Set aside.



Icing Colors

You could certainly use your own recipe for Royal icing, I have one myself as well. However, because this is such a great recipe for kids to get involved in, using these prepackaged icings is an excellent alternative. They are available in all of the colors that I used by my store only had a few. Therefore, I added some gel food coloring to mix up my colors. This icing is great, squeezes right out of the tube and onto the brownie, love it!


If you have to mix, like I did, you might find the easiest way to apply the mixed icing is with a new paintbrush.






Decorating

Gently press Trix and Cocoa Puffs cereals into the frosted brownies for the monsters' polka dots. Lift the eyes from the waxed paper using a toothpick and gently press onto the frosted brownie. You can use pretzel sticks for arms and legs, and add eyebrows, mouths and hair using decorator gel.
 
Then you eat them!!!!!
 
Check out more great ideas from Amanda!
Monster Treat Bags
Bread Tag Monsters
Juice Box Monsters
Halloween Luminaries

Didn't I tell you she was amazing????!!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

KID STUFF

One of the best parts of Halloween is all the fun projects that you can do with the kiddos! And one of my favorites is working with paper mache..... I love it!

Making a Jack O-Lantern from a large orange pumpkin is the usual Halloween craft projects but perhaps you are having a hard time finding pumpkins....depending on where you live in the country. Or maybe you have a slight problem with "time management" and it's the night before the big bash!

Well, our fiends at Unique Craft have made it real easy, with step-by-step instructions for these paper mache Jack O-Lanterns!

What would you need is a large round balloons, paper and paper-mache (paper-mache) paste made by mixing one part flour and five parts water and boil mixture for about three minutes with a little salt to prevent mold. For the pumpkin stem was cut about an inch from the tip of the toilet roll core.

Blow up the balloon and tie with a long rope. Cut the paper into two inch strips and dipped into the paste. Cover the balloon with a piece of paper, build a good few layers to help keep the ‘pumpkin’ strong.

Hang to dry your craft to remember to put something below to catch any drips from the pasta. Once dry gently with a needle through the lantern balloon deflation. Toilet roll core can be attached to the lantern with pasta and more paper to make a rod.

With a sharp knife to cut eyes and mouth in a lantern. Children will have fun painting looks like a big orange pumpkin Jack O-Lantern. Stems in green paint. Your paper mache Jack O-Lantern is ready to light. Have fun with arts and crafts for children Halloween projects and happier ‘booing’.

For more great, crafty ideas, CLICK HERE!