Wordless Wednesday: Cruisin' the Coast

Two Tulle Fall Wreaths

Summer is officially over, which means it is time to take down my fun summer plaid wreaths and put up something with a little bit of fall flair!

I decided to try using tulle on my fall wreaths...I was looking  for something different and I found some great fall colored tulles to use. Plus this stuff is only a little over $1 a yard!
I started with 2 wreath forms and 4 yards of 4 different colors of tulle: orange, green, yellow, and brown.

 I unrolled my tulle and cut each color into four long strips of material. Then I gather all four colors into a really long bundle. I was going to do a step by step tutorial, but I didn't think pictures of me tangled up in 16 yards of tulle would be very helpful:)

 For the first wreath, I cut the bundle of tulle into 12 inch pieces. I wrapped the cut pieces around the wreath form and then tied them into a knot on the back of the wreath.

 For the second wreath, I kept the bundle of the four colors of tulle long and simply wrapped them around the wreath form. To add a little interest to this wreath, I added a little bit of orange felt that I then covered with some of the brown tulle that I tied in knots facing the front of the wreath.

 For now, I have both wreaths on my front doors. Kind of different since I usually make two of the exact same wreaths for my front doors. I think they are fun and quirky, though my OCD may get the best of me and I may have to move them to other doors and put something else on the two front doors!

 For now, I am just excited that my front porch is finally looking more like fall and less like summer....even if the weather isn't cooperating!

Cake Decorating with Kids

I spent a couple hours yesterday doing this:

The boys' school fall festival is today and this year we decided to attempt the cake decorating contest. So while they were at school, I got busy making two three cakes. When they got home, and after the cakes had been cooled, they got busy with the icing and decorations.

I didn't get any action shots of Henry making his cake, mainly because I had a billion things going on at once, but here is the finished shot of his Campfire Cake. It is a big version of THESE cupcakes that we made for his birthday last year.

Grant made a Candy Corn cake. After the cake was cooled, I cut it out in the shape of a candy corn and put a crumb coat of icing on it for him. Then we colored some orange and yellow icing and he got busy making a SUPER cute candy corn.

I was pretty impressed with Grant's decorating skills. He did an awesome job smoothing out the icing and was very particular about getting it just right.

I think it turned out pretty cute for a 5 year old decorating it...I don't think I could have done much better!

How to Clean Pewter

I love the idea of homemade cleaners and scrubs and polishes....but for the most part I go the easy route and just buy those things at the store. I know that homemade cleaners can be cheaper, safer, and just as effective, but sometimes convenience wins out!

Last week, I really needed to clean a pewter chip and dip bowl that I bought a few years ago. It had gotten kind of tarnished and dirty, and I had no time to find the correct cleaner at the store. So I googled "how to clean pewter" and found a recipe for a homemade cleaner.

This is the piece I started with:

And these are the three ingredients I need for the homemade pewter cleaner.

1 cup of vinegar

1/2 cup of flour

1 tsp of salt

You mix the ingredients together and make a kind of paste. {I ended up adding a little more flour to make the consistency a little thicker.} Then you smear the paste all over the piece you are trying to clean. I scrubbed a little bit and then let the cleaner dry on the piece for about 30 minutes. I scrubbed a little more and then rinsed the chip and dip bowl off. I ended up cleaning it twice to make sure that I had gotten it as clean as possible....and I was pretty impressed with how well it worked.  

The cleaner didn't get out all the marks, but it did make the chip and dip bowl a lot shinier and clean! Sorry no after pictures, as soon as the bowl was clean I loaded it up with a ton of fruit and yummy fruit dip.

I think I may try to make a few more homemade cleaners....when I have the time:)

Are there any homemade cleaning products that you love to use?

Wordless Wednesday: Guess Who Caught the 1st Fish

{It was me!}

Guest Post: Lizard & Ladybug

Hi everyone...I'm Staci from Lizard & Ladybug.  

I can't tell you how excited I am to be here!  

I a huge stalker fan of Kelli so I was THRILLED 

when she asked if I would 'guest blog'.   

What The What..was my first thought :)  

After I told everyone I knew that someone else was interested in what I had to say...

I had to come up with something to share.

I don't know about you but I LOVE Halloween.  Having 2 little ones really pushed me into "Halloween crazy town".  This year, my son began preschool (& loves it) so he wanted to invite his entire class to our Halloween party.  I decided that this year's theme would be 'Halloween Carnival' complete with games (sack races, eyeball toss, pumpkin bowling etc) and lots of treats (candy, candy and candy).  

I wanted something a little extra but I didn't want to spend too much extra moola.  

Candy skewers are what I really wanted for the carnival..and even though they are SO cute, it doesn't really fit in my budget when I need 25+.  

So I made my own!  And here's how you can too.  

So easy (and so versatile). 

Start with your supplies.  Candy (preferably gummy candy) & skewers 

(I intended on using the 10" ones but went with the 6" skewers).

I wanted to do a 'creepy' candy skewer and a 'gross' one.  

I bought gummy worms, bugs, spiders, body parts and sour gummy dots.  

Then it's time to get to work.  Slide your gummies onto the skewer.  

*I will tell you that the gummy worms were the easiest to slide.*

Here's a shot of the 10" skewer...

I realized that a longer skewer meant MUCH more candy..

I switched to the shorter one...

Here are the shorter ones with eyes, a finger and worms

I am really happy with how they turned out.  

If you were giving them as 'takeaways', 

put them in a clear cello bag & tie with a cute ribbon.  

If you want to display them..stick them in a floral foam brick covered with candy.

I tested these out on the kids...I passed with flying colors.
Looks like I'll be making more :)

Thank you for letting me share these creepy/gross little treats with all of you.  

BIG Thanks to Kelli for trusting me with her SUPER blog!!

Your bouquet of eyeballs, spiders and worms is on the way :)

***********************
Thanks so much Staci for sharing such a fun {and kind of creepy} Halloween idea with us!
Make sure to head over to Staci's SUPER cute blog Lizard & Ladybug and check all of her other really great ideas!
Here are just a few of my favorites:
Sq'eek'y Clean Soap

 Candy Corn Pinecones

 School Spirit Bucket

 Dollar Store Spiders

National Homemade Cookie Day

I'm not really big on keeping up with obsure {aka celebrate for no reason} holidays, but when I saw that October 1st was National Homemade Cookie Day I knew I had to share some of my favorite cookie recipes with you....and maybe even make a couple dozen too!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are my favorite cookies, and the ones that I make the most!

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar {I always add more}

1 cup of butter, softened

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups of all purpose flour

12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla on medium until sort of fluffy...about 2 minutes.

2. Gradually add in all the dry ingredients and mix for about 2 minutes.

3. Add in chocolate chips and mix for about 15 seconds.

4. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies

Coconut Cookies

What is your favorite kind of homemade cookie?
Link up any cookie recipes that you have posted on your blog so everyone can check out your yummy homemade cookies!

Candy Corn!

I love decorating with stuff that can be used for multiple seasons and holidays. I love that instead of sitting in the attic for 11 months out of the year, that I can change some of my decor up and use it year round. So when I started working on new decorations for Halloween/fall I knew I could figure out a way to makes something that would work for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and maybe even Easter.

I started with some clear glass bottles that I have been saving for three years. I knew at some point I would find a good use for them:)

 I used my Cricut and cut out some vinyl letters.

 I used some transfer paper to attach the letters to the clear glass bottles.

 I lined the bottles up to make sure that the letters were even...the "d" is a little high, but not enough to worry about.

 I spray painted the lids white so they would match almost any holiday decor.

 Then I filled the bottles up with CANDY CORN...

 ...and lined them up on my kitchen counter.

This was a SUPER inexpensive project...all I really bought was the candy corn. Now when fall is over and Christmas decorations start going up, all I will have to do is empty out the candy corn and add in some red, green, and white M & M's!