Wordless Wednesday: At the End of the Rainbow

Hey, What's That?

Yes, there is a sticky frog stuck to my ceiling.

Yes, it has been there since yesterday.

Yes, my house full of boys thinks that having a sticky frog stuck to the ceiling is hilarious.

Yes, I took pictures of the sticky frog to share on my blog.

Yes, I am low on good blogging material so instead of something interesting, you get multiple pictures of a sticky frog.

Have a great day! And try not to get any sticky frogs stuck to your ceiling:)

Friday Flashback: Food Edition

PUMPKIN JIGGLERS
**It's another Flashback Post! This is a fun recipe that I shared last year. We are definitely going to be making these again this year because they were a huge hit with my boys! Enjoy**


Jello Jigglers

& pumpkin cookie cutters

 make SUPER easy

and SUPER fun

fall treats

for everyone to eat!

What kind of fun Halloween/fall snacks have you been making?!?

I Gave Into the Missoni Hype...A Little Late!

I know I am way behind the curve here considering most people were storming the doors of Target more than 3 weeks ago, but after quite a few trips past the {very small selection} of Missoni merchandise at my local Target I finally gave in. I bought a candle and a journal. I know big spender, right?!? 

 Honestly I just wasn't really a big fan of the majority of the stuff that I saw. A lot of the pieces seemed either way too retro or way too Southwestern for my taste. I will say that I LOVE the zig-zag {aka chevron}, but some of the the color combos just don't fit my style....except for the black and white {which is what I ended up buying}. 

 I did LOVE this bike, and these fun boots that my friend Carrie bought are SUPER cute too. There were a few other pieces that probably would have considered buying {like a scarf, a pair of flats, or some cute socks}, but when I finally decided that I desperately needed to have a least one Missoni piece to buy something, the pickin' were slim and the black and white things were all I could talk myself into buying. I do think that a lot of the little girl's stuff was cute....but little girl's clothes are never on my shopping list for some reason:)

For now, I am SUPER happy with my cute zig-zag candle that blends pretty well into my living room decor. It is black and white so it pretty much matches anything:) 

What do you think of the Missoni for Target line...like it or loathe it?

Wordless Wednesday: Flying with Pan Am

Anybody want to take a guess at what his airplane is made from?

Caramel Apples

I've shared more than a few apple recipes on my blog over the years {Inside Out Caramel Apples, Apple Sandwiches, Sauteed Apples}. My apple recipes are sometimes created out of necessity because I buy way too many apples and then don't eat them before they start to get a little mushy. But last week I actually bought a ton of apples on purpose...to make caramel apples for Grant's entire 1st grade class! Yes, when his teacher asked us parents to send in a fun apple treat last week, I didn't take the easy route and send apple chips or even a store bought apple pie. Nope, I decided to make 30 {yummy, gooey, peanut covered} caramel apples instead:) Crazy? Maybe a little bit, but they were really fun to make and even more fun to eat! And yes I made a few extra to keep at home:) Here's my step by step just in case you want to make some of these yummy treats:

Wash, dry, and insert sticks into apples. I put the sticks in the bottom of the apples because I found that they are a little more steady upside down:)

Open a ton of caramel squares. I used 3 14 oz bags of caramels and it was just about perfect to make 30 small-ish caramel apples.

Heat the caramel according to the package instructions, and then dip the apples in the warm caramel.

Add chopped peanuts to the dipped apple.

Place the apples on wax paper to cool and then enjoy...or send 27 of them to school:)

Have you ever made caramel apples?

Pinterest Inspiration: Football Door Hangers

My craft {and recipe, decorating, photography, holiday, and party} to do list keeps getting longer and longer...mostly thanks to Pinterest! I am seriously pinning amazing ideas way faster than I can create them! A few weeks ago I pinned a really cute Football Door Hanger that I knew would be perfect on my front porch along with my Football Windsocks! I had all the supplies in my craft stash, I just kept putting off making them...until I finally convinced a few of my friends to come over for a craft day! We spent a few hours turning plain burlap into these adorable Football Door Hangers:

I don't have a step by step for you...mostly because I was dealing with Eli and trying to make four of these without getting too confused! {Check out Amanda's blog post to see her step by step.} They are actually really easy to make. We started by cutting out some plain burlap in the shape of a football, two footballs per door hanger. Then we spray painted one side of each burlap football with brown spray paint. After the paint was dry we added the fun painted embellishments to the piece that was going to be the front. You can also paint on two of the burlap footballs and make it reversible. My friend Tonya is apparently a great free-hand painter so she did the letters:) After the paint was dry, we layered two of the footballs together and then used a stapler to attach them to each other leaving one end open to stuff them. We added in a ribbon to the top to hang them with, stuffed them with plastic grocery bags, and closed up the hole using the stapler. Pretty easy and SUPER cute! That's one project I can mark off my {Pinterest} to do list!

Have you been working on any Pinterest inspired projects lately?

Wordless Wednesday: Our Day So Far

I Learned All I Know About Cobblers Thanks to The Pioneer Woman

Cobblers. For some reason everyone else seems to make amazing fruit desserts, and I just can't figure it out. I admitted to this last year when I shared a great Cherry Crunch recipe. And even though I did figure out one fruit dessert, I still  had trouble with cobbler...that is until I watch the new Pioneer Woman cooking show on Food Network. She shared an easy recipe for Blackberry Cobbler that is apparently magic because this weekend I made the most scrumptious peach cobbler using her recipe {and some fresh peaches my hubby picked up for me on his way home from a business trip}. Besides the fact that this is a really great cobbler recipe, how cool is it that Ree is a blogger turned tv show host! Call me crazy but I think that is just awesome. Now on to the recipe.

 Fresh Peach Cobbler

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 stick butter, melted

6-8 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

cinnamon and sugar for the top

Directions:

Mix together the flour, sugar, and milk.  Stir in the melted butter. Pour the batter into a buttered 10X13 baking dish. Add cut up peaches {or whatever kind of fruit you want to try} on top of the batter. Top the whole cobbler with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Friday Flashback: Craft Edition

**I haven't been very crafty latley, so I'm sharing a little flashback craft. This fun Mod Podge project was originally posted back in November of 2009.**
*******
Fall Mod Podge Pumpkins

This is how our project ended:

Despite the major mess and the {now} dry and scratchy carpet, our Thanksgiving/fall pumpkins turned out SUPER cute!

Just in case you want to make a HUGE mess and some SUPER cute pumpkins...here is the list of supplies and steps we followed to make them.

*******************************

Plastic pumpkins {mine were $1 at Walmart}

Scrapbook Paper {8 sheets for $1 at Target}

Mod Podge

Paint Brushes

*********************************
Tear scrapbook paper into small pieces

Attach the paper to the pumpkin and continue to coat it with Mod Podge until all the paper is wet and stuck to the pumpkin really well. This is the messy part, because the only way to make the paper stick really well is to work it with your hands! Eli and I worked on some painting while Henry and Grant were finishing up their pumpkins. These SUPER cute and oh so chubby handprints are going to be turkeys and leaves once I get my paintpens after them! Just a little hint....be careful when painting with brown paint, because your kiddo might think it is chocolate and try to lick it off his hand! :)

Then use a foam paintbrush to apply a coat of Mod Podge all over the pumpkins and let them dry. 

Our pumpkins {coated with Mod Podge} drying on the table...picture taken by Henry {because I still had a two inch layer of MP on my hands}!

Our finished Thanksgiving/Fall Pumpkins!

By the Numbers

7

The number of loads of laundry I attempted to do yesterday.

5 1/2

The number of loads of laundry I actually finished. I say 1/2 because the trusty load of whites is still sitting in the dryer getting more and more wrinkly every minute they sit there waiting for a fluff and fold.

1

The number of people who knew what the medicines were in the picture I posted yesterday.

11

The number of awesome blog friends who were concerned and emailed or commented on my Real Life post. Apparently I forget that even though I share a lot on my blog, I don't always share the more mundane details of my life...like the fact that I have a chronic illness and have to take way too much medication for someone my age.

2

The number of shots that I have to give myself each week. Both shots are for rheumatoid arthristis which I was diagnosed with over two years ago. Here's the post that I shared back when I was first diagnosed with RA. Some things have changed since that original post...like my doctor, my real diagnosis {I technically have something called Still's Disease which is a form of RA}, my meds, and how I feel{almost normal most days}.

4

The number of times Eli peed in his pants yesterday. He did not have a very good day and for some reason didn't make it to the potty in time more than once. That makes doing laundry not very fun...maybe I should attempt something similiar to what Leslie is doing with her little boy:)

5

The number of times I made Grant write his spelling words yesterday. I still don't know how he is going to do on his test because he CAN NOT stop mixing up his b's and d's! One of his words is dad and I'm pretty sure his test is going to come home on Monday with the word bab on it!

3

The number of days I'm going to be spending over at my mom's house helping her with a party...it's kind of like a jewelry party on steriods:) Check out this website to see the stuff we will be selling.

0

The number of crafts I have worked on this week that I want to share with you. I have a ton of things on my list that I really want to work on...but I just can't find the time or the motivation! I'm hoping I at least have some fun door decor to share next week because it is time for my summer stuff to come down.

Wordless Wednesday: Real Life

It's a Tradition

Every year when the third weekend of September rolls around, my boys know we have big plans. And they look forward to those plans for weeks leading up to it. They will ask a million times when we are leaving...how many days left...when do we get to go to Clarkco.

{2010}

{2009}

Every third weekend in September, we load up the kids and head north to a little state park for a family reunion. The boys love playing with all their cousins and they love exploring. Here are few pictures from their adventures this year: