Elvis is in the House!

Whew! I haven’t posted lately. It’s been super crazy with our kindergarten kid and our high school senior! But it’s that time of the year again and Elvis is in the House! Elvis is Spencer’s Elf on the Shelf. Just wanted to share Elvis’ shenanigans for the past couple of days. First, Elvis left magic candy seeds for Spencer to plant in sugar.

Spencer was so excited to “plant” his magic candy seeds in our sugar container!

Elvis returned the following morning with a special note!

Spencer grew giant candy canes from his magic candy seeds!

Hope your Elf on the Shelf is bringing lots of smiles to your precious babies! Elvis is working wonders in our very blessed home! Happy Holidays!

Happy Mother’s Day

Looking for a unique, inexpensive and super thoughtful Mother’s Day gift? Look no further! Make her therMOMeters! 

They are pretzel rods dipped in white candy melt with a drizzled red line and drizzled black hash marks. They were so easy to make! Literally took a total of an hour to make over 60 of these! The hardest part was finding 60 intact pretzel rods! I used 3 squeeze bottles (like for ketchup and mustard) to make these. I filled one bottle with the white candy melt discs. Popped the plastic bottle in the microwave for 60 seconds. Then I squeezed the bottle and put it back in for 25 seconds. Although I filled the bottle to the top with the candy melts, once they melted down, it was about 1/2 full. I just put more candy melts inside and gave it another two times in the microwave at 25-30 second increments squeezing the bottle between cycles. Make sure the white candy melt goes all the way to the top! Do not put on the lid. Lay out wax paper. Dip the pretzel rods straight down into the bottle. Gently swirl the rod in a circular motion over the bottle opening to allow the excess candy melt to drip back down. Lay flat on the wax paper. Repeat until all rods are dipped. I had to refill the plastic squeeze bottle one time with candy melt discs and put it back in the microwave. Toward the end, I would dip the rod and gently squeeze the bottle (don’t squeeze so tight that you are touching the rod inside) and the candy melt would come up the rod and cover it. Repeat the same steps in melting the red and black candy melts in their own bottles. Squeeze a dollop of red (to create the bulb) and pull down the length of the white. Repeat until all rods have red bulb/lines (be sure the white is fully set before squeezing on the red). Once the red is fully set, squeeze black hash marks in even increments up the rod). These were so easy to make and so cute. 

Here’s the tag above that you can download and paste into a Word document. Just right click over the picture and choose something like “save as” and save it to your computer. Tie the tag with a ribbon around the rim of the mason jar for the cutest Mother’s Day gift ever!

DIY Fall Wreath – Dollar Tree Craft!

So Spencer has really settled into preschool. He loves it and is learning so much. It is 3 days a week but only for a few hours. I hate to waste gas going back and forth so I just hang out in the little town his preschool is in. Unfortunately for our bank account, there is a Dollar Tree store just around the corner from his preschool. Everything is just $1.00! So with $10 or $20 bucks you feel like you went on a massive shopping spree! I literally go in there everyday Spencer is in school. So much so that the other day an employee was trying to find fake eyelashes for a customer who wanted it for Halloween…I was in the next aisle and yelled out where they were located in the store, hahaha! When I checked out last Friday, the cashier literally said, “See you on Monday” hahahahaha! She is so right! Last week I spotted these gold, glittery, filigree maple leaves. I am a sucker for anything that sparkles! Then I saw the spool of sheer gold wire ribbon…9 feet of it on one spool! Then the deep purple and orange flowers. Then the plastic green gourd and jewel-crusted, plastic orange gourd. I felt a new fall wreath was coming on! $7.00 later I had the makings of an awesome wreath! I hopped on over to Walmart and picked up a straw wreath for $2.97. With my magic glue gun, I created our new $10.00 Fall Wreath in under half an hour! Be sure to visit your local dollar store, there are treasures to be found within! Happy Crafting!

DIY Photo Block Ornaments

I’ve blogged before how I live life a little different. I do stop and smell the roses everyday. I appreciate the priceless things in life like love and friendship. My family and my friends are my sanctuary. In them I find peace. Peace with being diagnosed with PH. In them I also find hope. Hope for the future no matter how short or long mine may be. I am a very thankful person. I let go of anger as fast as it comes. I tell those who are important to me that I love them ALL the time. I say it because I mean it. Am I this way because of my death sentence diagnosis? No. I really don’t believe that. I have always been a passionate person, if anything, PH has made me even more passionate. I am passionate about living versus just existing. There is a huge difference.

So when birthdays, special occasions or the holidays come around, I don’t run to the nearest mall or megastore looking for perfect gifts. The truth is that we are on a fixed income thanks to my PH. So what I believe my family and friends deserve are things I can’t afford to buy them. So instead, I always try to make something for those I love dearly. I pour all my love into the things I create and I am giving a piece of me when I make something for someone. This past football season, I made large 4×4 wood blocks for each senior that on each side had a different photo of them in action on the field. You can check out how I made the large photo cubes HERE. The kids loved them and they turned out so great. Then it hit me! I can scale back the size and create personalized photo ornaments! This post has written directions but the post with the large 4×4 photo cubes has detailed photos to go with the written directions. I pretty much followed the same steps other than I inserted eyelet screws into these smaller photo block versions to create a hanger.

The hard part was gathering memorable photos of my friends and family. Thankfully social websites make this part less daunting. I visited my family’s and friends’ Facebook pages and found 5 special pictures of theirs that I knew were important to them. For the 6th side of the block (the top), I found a wintery background picture (just type “winter wallpaper” in the Google image search bar and you will find tons of graphic backgrounds to choose from). I used a cute snowman picture and added text that said “Our Sweet Snowbabies 2012” or “Our Sweet Grand Snowbabies 2012” or I just put their name with the year on it. I used a photo editing software to crop down the photos into perfect squares.

Then I went to Michaels to find 2×2 wood blocks. They were selling them for $1.29 each! Highway robbery! The hubby took me to Lowes and got a 36 inch 2 x 2 railing banister, eyelet screws (to make the hanging ribbon) and sand paper. He cut a few by hand using a hacksaw and then my dear friend, Rhonda, had her dad cut up the rest. First off, let me tell you, those hardware megastores get away with murder! There is no such thing as a 2 x 2 or 4 x 4. Everything is always at least 1/2 an inch smaller than stated! If the wood is not 2 x 2 then just say that! Sheesh! it’s a good thing those mega hardware stores are geared toward mostly men because if enough women were aware of their cheating ways, there would be a major ruckus! Us women don’t do well with false advertising, lol! After choosing all the photos, I added them to a Word document. I scaled down the size of each picture to 1.5 x 1.5 size. I was able to get several photos onto one sheet of paper. I saved them to a memory stick and took them to the FedEx Kinkos to print them in color using their laser printers. I know from experience that photos printed from my deskjet printer at home doesn’t work well with Mod Podge. The ink runs, smears and ruins the photo. I had the photos printed on plain old copy paper because again from experience, I know it works best to have thin paper when Mod Podging (is that a word? LOL).

Steve sanded down the edges and the freshly cut sides to make them as smooth as possible. Steve then used the black spray paint left over from making the senior photo blocks and spray painted all the 1.5 x 1.5 blocks black. Following the same technique I used for the 4 x 4 blocks (which again were really 3.5 x 3.5 blocks, lol), I cut down the photos just slightly smaller. Each side was slightly different so I laid the block on the photo, traced around it and cut just slightly inside of the square. The black creates a frame around the photos giving it a really cool effect. I applied Mod Podge to the wood block and using an old expired credit card, I smoothed the picture on to the wood block side. I repeated this for all the sides and for all the different blocks I made. I then applied two layers of Mod Podge (glossy) over each photo all the way to the edges of the block (allowing the 1st layer to fully dry before adding the 2nd layer). I hand screwed on the eyelet screws (using the pointed scissor ends inserted into the eye to do the last few tight turns). I then attached a color coordinating ribbon. They turned out so freaking cute!

I decided to go back in time and make one of Spencer for every year we have been blessed to have him. I used a different winter graphic design for every year and always added “Spencer” and the coordinating year to the image on the top of the wood block. I also made sure all words were toward the top or bottom and not in the middle where the eyelet screw would be screwed in. I will continue to make one every year for Spencer choosing 5 photos of importance for that year. When he turns 18, he will have 18 keepsake ornaments! I made one for our oldest son using special photos of him from the past year. There are very few photos in general of Steve & I together. Mostly because I am usually the one taking pictures. I found 5 photos of us taken some time in the past 17 years we have been together. Then on the top block I put “Steve & Kathy” toward the top of the block and “In love since 1995” toward the bottom of the block. I loved how these turned out and am so thankful that I was able to create a gift that is worthy enough to be given to those I love.

These would make for great “Baby’s 1st Christmas” ornaments using 5 baby pictures of that year. Or a fantastic wedding gift using wedding photos. For one of my friends, I used some of her daughter’s senior school pictures. For another friend, I used photos from a loved vacation she had taken with her daughter to London. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination! So get those creative juices flowing! It would be so awesome to have just a tree only decorated in little mirrors and photo blocks! Make some of just specific family members and some of specific vacations! Oh, this will be a future project for sure, a photo cube tree covered in wonderful memories! Because I had black spray paint, ribbon and Mod Podge on hand, the 20+ ornaments cost less than $10 to make. Again, that doesn’t matter, these cutie patooties are priceless gifts made with tons and tons of love!

Keepsake Hand Ornaments

I have seen several versions of this craft project around the internet. I couldn’t wait to make this with Spencer! It is just a super cute way to create a keepsake of your child’s precious hand print!

All you need to create this cutie are some glass balls (I used frosted blue balls I purchased from Hobby Lobby for around $2.50 on sale), white acrylic paint (purchased from Michaels for .69 cents), a foam brush and different colored permanent markers.

First, pour a small amount of paint onto a styrofoam plate. Generously paint your child’s hand with white paint all the way to the finger tips. Spencer just laughed and laughed saying it tickled and was cold.

Before placing the ornament in his precious hand, I first showed him what to do. I placed an ornament in my palm and slowly wrapped my fingers up and around the ornament. I told him to “hug the ornament with your fingers”. I then showed him how to open his hand back up pulling his fingers off the ornament slowly. Once he understood, I laid the ornament in the palm of his hand and said, “hug it!” Spencer did exactly as he was told and shrieked in delight when he saw his big white hand print! We repeated these steps for the other 5 ornaments. Once done, I secured the ornaments (see below) and helped Spencer wash off all of the paint.

I strung the balls onto a dowel rod. I taped the hanger piece to the dowel rod so the ornaments wouldn’t slide and move up and down the dowel rod. I then suspended the ornaments between 2 TV trays and allowed them to fully dry for a couple of hours.

With Spencer’s help, we used permanent markers to decorate his hand prints turning them into snowmen. First I drew the eyes (black marker), mouth (black marker), buttons (black marker), nose (orang marker) and stick arms (fine point brown marker). Then I let Spencer choose the colors for each hat with matching scarf for each of the 5 snowmen. I gave him the choice of earmuffs, a ball cap, top hat or Santa hat. He picked the color, then picked which type of hat and I drew them all on as he delightfully watched.

Don’t forget to turn the ornament over and write your child’s name and the year it was created. Spencer loved this craft project as much as me! Spencer is mighty proud of his little Keepsake Hand Ornaments! A perfect way to turn  your child’s hand print into a keepsake item that I’m sure his or her grandparents would love to get as a Christmas present!

Polar Express Round Trip

The holidays are fast approaching! Never fails, we are always pinching money during this time of year to ensure our kiddos don’t go without. BUT, that doesn’t mean we can’t take in all of the holiday activities in our own special Pack Family way! The Scioto Mile was lit yesterday as well as the Columbus Commons downtown. The Columbus Parks and Recreation Department has made great strides in cleaning up the downtown area making it a place where people don’t just work there, they play there! There’s also Zoo Lights going on and a bunch of other activities all around the city. As much as we want to do it all, the cost for all those activities adds up quickly! So Steve and I hatched a plan to create the Polar Express Round Trip for the Pack Family.

It started with help from one of our closest friends, Beth. She beats out Wikipedia when it comes to being a source of information and will give you a run for your money on Jeopardy (I let her win when we watch it together because, you know, it’s important to her…bwahahahahaha). She also pretty much has her own library because not only is she an avid reader, so are her two fantastic kiddos, Jodi & Jake. I asked if she had some kiddie books around that I could borrow that would be age appropriate for our 3-year-old. With a wink and a blink, she rounded up over 30 kiddie books and demanded we not borrow but instead keep them.

I did a search online for the Polar Express Ticket. I wanted something that looked authentic. I found the perfect image! I pasted the image into a Word document and enlarged them into fun-size tickets! Looking for Polar Express Tickets? DOWNLOAD THESE! I printed them and cut the tickets out. While I was doing this, Big Steve took the books into our bedroom and locked the door. He wrapped each book up individually in bright red wrapping paper. Ok, as I look more closely at the picture, I am guessing the name in the bottom left corner is “Aidan”? Oopsy, I should have photo-shopped right over that name lol. Oh well, the tickets still looked very real! Actually, I just officially named our minivan “Aidan” so it’s all good! LOL

We told the kids we had a surprise for them and to get their PJs on. They returned in their flannels after just a few short minutes. We handed them their tickets and said let’s go! It’s time to get the Pack Polar Express Round Trip on the road! The kids were both excited, yes, the 3 year old and the 16 year old!

While Stevie helped his little brother into his car seat, Steve stayed behind just long enough to put all the wrapped books under the tree.

As we turned off our street we were saddened to see a huge house fire just around the corner on Sedalia. Here we are ready to embark on the Polar Express and someone lost their home. Just another reminder to always be thankful every second of everyday. The road was closed off so we had to circle around. This additional time was good because we called in our family favorite pizza, The Founders Favorite, from Donatos and had 20 minutes to kill before we could pick it up. Wonder what’s on the Founder’s Favorite? Ham, sausage, pepperoni and green peppers! Super delicious!

The first thing we had to do was fill up the Polar Express. Gas was $3.27 a gallon. Not too bad although I do remember when gas was .99 cents when I had my very first car. Of course, that was 23 years ago, lol. Steve picked up our sodas while paying for the gas.

Big Steve is always so thoughtful and thinking one step ahead of everyone else. While the gas was pumping, Steve cleaned off the windows of our Polar Express so everyone would have a clear view of the Christmas lights to come.

We left the gas station and picked up our pizza. We all enjoyed our pizza as we headed first toward the Port Columbus Airport. What is really fantastic is that we received coupons for buy one ticket, get one ticket for the Zoo lights attached to the pizza box! So maybe in the near future we can do that as well!

We found a little parking lot just off the runway and watched a couple of airplanes fly in. It was dark but the planes were lit up! Spencer really enjoyed that. Did you know there is a big “X” that flashes down the runway? I never noticed that before. Spencer was quick to see it and point it out. I guess for the pilots it means, “X hits the spot” or maybe “X this lane closed for Santa?” LOL

Off we went down Broad Street heading west into downtown. We took side trips down well-lit streets in Bexley. Some folks go all out decorating their homes with Christmas lights (others do not, lol). Spencer loved it all and would yell out what color the lights were. Can you tell we were driving in the pictures below? LOL

We finally arrived downtown and I was saddened for a moment to see the manger scene again not put up on East Broad. That’s ok because a couple blocks later and we were by the Columbus Commons. Downtown was busy and full of bundled up families taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of downtown! They had kiddie rides, food vendors and even a campfire to roast marshmallows. This is definitely someplace I want to come to next year with the family when the holiday season rolls around!

We then drove further to the Scioto Mile and the lighting was so very impressive. We drove over the newly opened bridges and once we were on the other side of the river, we all got out to take in the lights and get some pictures of our beautiful downtown Columbus. The colorful lights reflected off the river creating a very magical view of the riverfront!

Even though we were in our PJs, we also took keepsake pictures of ourselves.

As we drove away, I had to get a picture of the LeVeque Tower downtown. The colors are always changing depending on what month it is. The traditional red, green and white lit up the top of the building for December. It is my secret wish that one day, the LeVeque will be lit purple in the month of November to raise awareness about Pulmonary Hypertension. Maybe one day.

We drove into German Village just south of downtown to look at more lights the residents had put up. We eventually weaved down to 104 and headed back home.

Once home, we gasped and said, “Look Spencer! Santa had called and said he was bringing you a few presents to get you started and he must have come by while we were gone!” We told Spencer that tonight he can open one present. He looked them over and picked one. I think Santa knocked some pine needles off of the tree? LOL

He eagerly unwrapped it and was smiling ear to ear to find it was a book. Spencer crawled up on my lap and we read the book together. I explained to Spencer there are enough presents under the tree for him to unwrap just one every night. So every night, Spencer and I will be reading a new book together! Thanks again to Beth who made this possible!

Make your holidays bright whichever way you financially can. Anything is possible if you just BELIEVE and get a little creative!

Heart-shaped Homemade Hand Warmers

Can’t believe it is that time of year again for mittens, winter coats, scarves and boots! Today I’m sharing a very simple craft project that is functional and super sweet! It is Heart-shaped Homemade Hand Warmers! It takes very few materials to create this cutie patootie. So let’s get started:

Materials:

Scrap Felt Fabric

Scrap Cotton Fabric (any color or pattern will do because you will not see it)

4-5 inch Heart-shaped Cookie Cutter

Pen

Scissors

Sewing Machine

Sewing Needle

Sewing Thread (in matching color with the felt)

Funnel

Rice

Directions:

Fold your cotton fabric in half so that you are cutting through two layers. Trace the cookie cutter with a pen onto your cotton fabric. I am using an old plain white pillowcase.

Cut out the pattern following your traced line through both layers of fabric.

Fold your felt fabric in half so that you are cutting through two layers. Trace the cookie cutter with a pen onto your felt fabric.

Cut out the pattern following your traced line through both layers of the felt.

Layer your fabric in this order: cotton, felt, felt, cotton. Make sure the hearts line up.

Sew around the heart leaving a 1/4 inch seam and leaving about a 1 inch opening (be sure to backsew at both ends).

Trim within 1/8 inch of the sewn heart being sure to not cut through any sewn pieces.

Turn the heart inside out.

Place a funnel into your opening.

Scoop out 1.5-2 tablespoons of dried rice.

Pour the rice into the funnel right into your heart. You don’t want it overstuffed but full enough that you can’t feel fabric to fabric. Slip stitch the opening shut using the color coordinating thread and sewing needle.

Tadah! You just made the cutie patootie hand warmer!

Repeat the steps to make a second matching heart. To use the hand warmers: heat in the microwave between 25-45 seconds on high. Place in your gloves or mittens. My microwave takes 45 seconds but every microwave is different. Test your hand warmers first before giving them to a young child. You don’t want to burn their precious little hands! So please use common sense! This would make an awesome stocking stuffer. Tie a ribbon around your hearts with a label explaining how to use them. I found these cute little red and green bells at the dollar store (18 per package). The bells were strung together and I just cut the string and strung the bells directly onto my ribbon for a finishing touch.

Quick and easy, functional and sweet! Just the way I like my craft projects to be! Enjoy!

NOTE: It is filled with rice so it can’t get wet! Be sure to include that in your homemade tag! Here is a link to a Word document that has the tags I used: Handwarmer Tags. You can certainly change the fonts and font colors to make it your own! I used a tag design paper punch to punch out my homemade tags. That made it super easy!

Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn

Before I go into the Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn, you must watch the following oldie but goodie video in order to understand how I feel about this recipe:

Hello? Is it me your looking for? Yes, I believe this recipe has been searching for me all my life! It is that fanfreakingtastic! Holy Mother Mary of God! This will knock your socks off, possibly blow off your toes as well!

I found the recipe on my favorite internet hangout, Pinterest! Let me back this up for a second. There is a gourmet popcorn store off of Bethel Rd. It’s a little hole in the wall kinda joint in a strip mall. When you walk in there are tins and tins and tins galore! I love tins because they become instant storage or re-gifted when I make cookies at Christmas time. After you get past the tins, there is an area with what looks like 55 gallon drums of every flavor combination of popcorn you can imagine! Amazing flavors and colors of popcorn! Our favorite is the cookies-n-cream popcorn they have made with Oreos. It is to die for. All my friends who always wonder what to get me for special holidays and occasions, this popcorn is what will ensure I leave you something in my will, I promise, LOL! The problem is that it is expensive and I seriously won’t have anything to leave in a will. Don’t get me wrong about the popcorn, it is worth the money, seriously worth the money. I think a three foot bag of popcorn costs like $30.00. Crazy I know but once you’ve had it you will understand why it is worth every penny (and more). I don’t even know the exact name of the place but it is a slice of heaven here in Columbus.

So the other day I found this recipe on Pinterest. I almost fell off my computer chair and needed a bib for all my drooling just looking at the pictures of it! I knew I would be making this and today was the day! So my dear friends, Horny, Cindy-rella, Rockin’ Rhonda and Angie Apple Bottoms are going to love me just a little bit more because they are getting this sweet treat from me! I altered the recipe just a little, for one I doubled it and secondly, I used two full sleeves of the Oreos (out of the 3 in a normal package) because is there such a thing as too many Oreos? I didn’t think so.

Without further adieu, here is my altered version of the Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn recipe along with a great idea for packaging it as a gift!

Printable Recipe: Cookies-n-Creme Popcorn

Ingredients:

2 packages of normal size microwave popcorn (I suggest extra buttery type!)

12 oz of white candy melts

2 rows of Oreos in a normal size package (don’t skimp, get the good stuff!)

Directions:

Microwave the popcorn per the package directions and your specific microwave. You know what I mean…I have the “popcorn” button on my microwave which really equates to 3/4 of a bag popped so I know exactly how long on high to nuke my popcorn to get the best results. It took years of burnt popcorn but I finally figured it out, lol.

This is the hardest part, separate the kernels from the popped kernels. Place the popped kernels in a large bowl.

Put your Oreos in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. Using the side of your meat tenderizer, smash them cookies to smithereens! You want to use the side to prevent puncturing huge holes into your ziploc.

Stir the crushed Oreos into the popcorn.

Melt your candy melts any way you normally do either by double boiler, microwave or candy melting crockpot. Yes, Wilton came out with a small crockpot for candy melts. It holds exactly one 12 oz bag of candy melts. You have 3 settings: off, warm or melt. Next to my wedding rings set, this is the best thing my husband has ever given me for Christmas, hands down! The hubby got it at Walmart, here’s a link so you know what to look for because trust me, you have needed this all your life: Wilton Deluxe Chocolate Melting Pot. I drop the bag of candy melts in, set it to “melt” and in less than 5 minutes I have perfectly smooth melted chocolate. When I make cake pops I would then turn it down to warm and the crockpot keeps the candy at the right temperature to stay melted. It is absolutely amazing! It can also be used for caramel but I haven’t gotten past the candy melt recipes to try it, lol! I keep saying I’m going to make caramel apples, maybe I will get to it in the next couple of weeks? It really is the perfect size. It is wide enough and deep enough for all your candy/caramel desires! In this recipe I don’t need to keep the candy melts “warm”, I just needed those suckers to be fully melted!

Once fully melted, pour half of the white candy over your popcorn and Oreos. With a spatula, give it a good but gentle stir to coat all of the popcorn and Oreo crumbs. Once thoroughly stirred, pour the remaining half of the melted candy over the popcorn. Again, gently stir until all the popcorn and Oreos are thoroughly coated.

Pour out the Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn onto waxed paper. Spread it out and let the candy set up. This took about half an hour.

Store your sweet bliss of a snack in an airtight container and good luck getting it to last any longer than a couple of days! I of course had to share these with my besties! I took out some Ball canning jars. Gave them a good cleaning. I dug deep in my pantry to find my cupcake liners. I’ve collected them for years. I would use some for a special occasion and end up having leftovers. I just put them all in a Ziploc for future use. I found some Halloween cupcake liners and dug them out.

Fill your jars (mine were 8 oz jam jars) close to the top with the Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn. Put on the lid. Place your cupcake liner on top upside down. Screw on the ring and tadah! You have the cutest little container to give away goodies in!

No fussing with pinking sheers trying to cut up some cute fabric into a perfect circle or square. The cupcake liners worked perfectly on my wide mouth jars.

Wondering how much this will make? Well, I filled up 9 eight ounce canning jars and had an overstuffed gallon Ziploc left over for little ol’ me to eat ALL by myself! LOL

I am not lying, this Cookies-N-Creme Popcorn recipe is the BOMB! Hmmmm…I don’t think it’s cool to say “the bomb” anymore, but I don’t care because they were the BOMB!

Halloween Costumes

Trick-or-treating is a huge event for American kids! It is always fun for them and the parents when you find or make the perfect costume! Just wanted to share in today’s blog post the costumes of years past that Spencer and Steve Jr. had worn. Where did I find Spencer’s Dumbo and the Red Devil, well, a second-hand store of course. Around our parts we have Once Upon A Child were you can find gently used name-brand clothing, toys, furniture and other items for a discounted price. The Dumbo was a Disney original costume and let me tell you, it was just too cute to pass up! The tail on the devil outfit made it impossible for me to pass up too! Seemed appropriate for Steve Jr. to go as the Grim Reaper when his brother was the devil, lol. Although, I really doubt the Grim Reaper wears Under Armour football gloves (or maybe they are his baseball gloves?) lol!

The fireman outfit was created thanks in part to the Madison Township Fire Department. They had a booth that year at the Canal Winchester Ribs Festival and was giving out fireman hats or badges. Only one per child. Since our parents had a concession trailer at the event, we visited the booth two days in a row to get the hat one day and the badge the next. We bought a navy blue sweatshirt and navy blue sweatpants at Walmart for less than $4 each. Found the red suspenders on eBay for only $2.00 to complete the outfit. A little smeared black face paint on his forehead, cheeks and nose created the ashy look. Hmmm…it seems like I’ve cheated Spencer some with pre-made costumes. Watch out though, this year I am making him an Oompa Loompa outfit from scratch, lol. I don’t think I spelled Oompa Loompa correctly? Oh well! I’ll be sure to post a pic once I have it all done!

Our oldest son, Steve Jr., had some memorable costumes as well. He was a clown in preschool. His MawMaw Lockwood had sewn the costume and when we found the wild colored wig, it was a perfect mix!

My favorite though by far is the tin man from the Wizard of Oz! We took one inch foam and cut it to make a cylinder with arm holes. We used spray adhesive to glue metallic silver fabric to it. I then added a collar of sorts that had a pull tie. I made arms and legs by sewing the fabric into cylinders. I then hand basted them to gray sweats. I found the same metallic fabric in shoe covers that slid right over his tennis shoes. We bought a cheapo plastic funnel and punched holes in for the chin ties. We then spray painted primer followed by metallic silver paint onto the funnel. We used metallic silver face paint to add color to his chunky little cheeks and sweet little nose. I added sequins strands to his outfit for just a little more bling! Just like the tin man, Steve Jr., has always had a big heart! I also made his cousin’s Dorothy outfit. I had the dress in mind and just winged it! I made the skirt extra fluffy adding layers of tulle. She just wore a white sweatshirt for the shirt and we lucked into red glitter slippers. I did a double French braid and put pretty bows in her hair. Her costume turned out perfect! When Dorothy and the Tin Man went trick-or-treating, the folks in the neighborhood just loved their costumes!

He also went as a doctor one year. I ordered children’s size scrubs from a uniform catalog and even had “Dr. Pack” embroidered onto it. This was an especially awesome costume because ever since our son was five-years-old, he has wanted to be a doctor! He has not entertained any other life goal and continues his plans of becoming a physician. When he talks about his future, he always says, “when I am a doctor…”. There is no doubt in our minds he will become one and an amazing one at that. Another favorite costume we had made for Steve Jr. was the robot. For the robot, we took two boxes (one large enough for his torso to fit in and one that fit perfectly over his head). We cut out the sides and front of the head box and put screen mesh in there (so he was able to see in front of him and out the sides). We also cut a large round hole out of the bottom of the head box so that his head would slip in. We cut the bottom out of the torso box and armholes. We then cut a hole big enough for his head to fit through. The torso box was held up by his shoulders. We taped the boxes together and spray painted the whole thing metallic silver. We added a bunch of different knobs to the front (just used various items found around the house) and hand-painted little sayings above each. We added an antenna on top. To complete the outfit, Steve punched out tiny holes and we added a battery operated string of lights to his boxes! It was cute! Not sure why we didn’t get a picture of the robot and doctor?! Dang us! LOL! The robot was a huge hit and he wore his costume for a party at his elementary school. He came home missing some knobs because the kiddos couldn’t keep their hands off of his super cool costume, lol! We have saved every costume our children has worn. I just can’t let go of things that make my heart melt and things that make me smile. Hopefully some of these costumes inspired you to create something unique for your kiddos! They are only children for a short period of time, make everyday memorable!

Make this Halloween unforgettable!

Pumpkin Carving

Loving the crisp air and cool nights! I thought I’d share our pumpkin carvings from last Fall. It was a fabulous fall day and the whole family got into the Halloween spirit!

I thought I’d offer up some pumpkin carving tricks we have learned through the years. First off, invest in a good carving kit. The knives specially made for pumpkin carvings really cut through pumpkins like it is butter. Use a permanent marker to trace over your designs applying pressure so that the ink seeps through the paper onto the pumpkin. Make sure your pattern fits your pumpkin! You can increase or decrease the size of any pattern with your computer. Before tracing, tape the pattern to your pumpkin. Be sure to cut a hole large enough on top for your hand to fit in so that you can stand up a candle inside. Make sure that you cut your top out at an angle or the whole top will fall right through! Looking for patterns? Typing Pumpkin Carving Patterns in your search bar will give you many great websites where you can download patterns. Another great idea is to use coloring books made for preschoolers. The designs or simple and can easily be used as a pattern. I love using cheapo tea lights inside the pumpkin but for some funky fun, put a small glow stick into your pumpkin and you will have neon, bright lights shining through your carvings. I’ve read elsewhere that applying Vaseline or spraying the inside with a bleach/water mix can prolong the eventual molding that occurs once you cut a pumpkin. We will certainly give one of those a try this year. Afraid of knives like me? You can create fantastic designs without cutting all the way through. Our witch shoes pumpkin was made by just cutting away some of the pumpkin flesh in the stockings. I used push pins to attach the simple bow. I used glossy black acrylic paint to paint the stockings and shoes onto the pumpkin. Turned out really cute huh?! Have fun, pumpkin carving is a blast and no matter the pattern, a lit pumpkin always turns out perfect!

Looking for the Mickey Mouse pattern we used? Here it is!

Looking for the Elmo pattern we used? Here it is!

Looking for the Jack pattern (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)?

Here it is!

Happy Fall Y’all!