Dealing With Halloween Candy

Halloween has come and gone. That means we've got a ton of this around the house:And at our house that means that my kids will either be talking about candy, thinking about candy, gorging on candy or whining for candy ALL. DAY. LONG. It drives me nuts. Every year I dread the thought of all that begging.

So I finally got smart. I tried a new system last year and it worked great. I made a chart for each kid that looks like this:

Really fancy, I know.

But this little baby saves me so much trouble. Here's how it works: each child gets three candies per day and when they eat a candy, they move a magnet onto their chart. When their chart is full, they don't get any more candy for the day. If they want to eat them all for breakfast, that's fine with me. If they want to space it throughout the day, that's fine with me. If they want to eat them right before dinner, that's fine with me too. I don't care when they eat their candy. The only rule is that they each get three pieces and they are not allowed to ask for more or beg or whine. They keep track of their candy consumption and that's that.

This system worked like a dream for my daughter last year when she was five. It saved my sanity! We'll see how it goes with the three year old this year.

Oh yeah. And the other rule is that if I have to clean up a candy wrapper, I get to trade it in for one of their candies. I don't find too many wrappers around since I started this rule.... unfortunately. :)

Halloween Dinner 2011

Stuffed Pizza Snake

Filling:
1 pkg. pepperoni
1 tsp. parsley
2 cups mozzerella cheese, shredded
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 egg
1 teaspoon italian dressing powder

Use frozen bread dough or your favorite bread dough recipe. Roll into a large rectangle and add filling down center. Roll up, pinching ends to seal filling in. Shape like a snake. Mix food coloring with egg white and brush stripes on snake. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Monster Mouths

Ingredients:
3 apples
lemon juice
slivered almonds

Slice apples into quarters. Remove core. Slit a mouth into the outside of apple and dip in lemon juice to prevent browning. Poke slivered almonds into the apple to look like monster teeth.

Jello Worms

I followed the recipe found HERE exactly, except I used strawberry jello and added about 10 drops of green food coloring. They turned out to be the hit of the night. They were definitely worth the effort.

A few helpful things I learned while making them:
1. Straighten out the bend in the straws. It's easier to get them out and makes the worms look better.
2. My fingers got so tired from squeezing the worms out of the straws, so I switched to using needle-nosed pliers to hold the end of the straw while I squeezed down with my other hand. So much easier!
3. I enlisted hubby's help. One of us ran hot water over the straws while the other squeezed them out onto the plastic wrap.

Graveyard Pudding

It's just chocolate pudding, whipped cream and crushed up Oreos with a gummy worm poking out of it. But it's easy and delicious. Orignially, we were going to add little graham cracker tombstones with the kids' names on them, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year.

And here's the whole dinner together, including Witches Finger breadsticks and Monster Booger Dip (spaghetti sauce with green food coloring mixed in). Yum yum, so fun!

Fall Decor from The Dollar Store

My local Dollar Tree had some really versatile things for Fall this year.

I bought a package of six natural colored twig balls and a package of fake fall leaves from Dollar Tree to fill my apothecary jar. Then I just added anything else I had lying around that fit with the colors and textures. See the twine ball on the bottom? It's a golf ball painted brown and wrapped in twine. I think I might scavenge the neighborhood for acorns...wouldn't they be cute mixed in there?

But my favorite project was making candle wrappers out of the fake leaves:

And it was so simple too. I just cut a strip of scrap paper smaller than the leaves and long enough to fit around the candles and hot glued leaves overlapping all the way around the paper, like this: Then I taped the wrap around the candles, using a leaf to camouflage the tape. Easy! These leaf packages would be great to scatter down the center of a Thanksgiving table too. And the best part is they were only $1!

School Lunch On A Budget

This is the first year I’ve had to worry about school lunch. At first I was thinking, "Great, now I have to spend a ton of money on those little chip packages and pudding cups." Then my frugal side rebelled. I have never wasted money on prepackaged junk food before and I'm not about so start now! So for all you moms out there with a similar stubborn thrifty streak, here are some ideas on how to pack a lunchbox without breaking the bank... and the ideas apply when packing grown-up lunches too!

Lunch Box Equipment:

--Lunch box. Think big with thick insulation. You may even find a nice one at a yard sale or thrift store if you keep your eyes out.
-- Ice pack. I use the free ones I got from the formula companies when I had a baby.
-- Reusable containers in different sizes. I like the itty bitty ones for dips and the flat square ones for sandwiches. Cheap containers are okay for dry stuff, but test out containers to make sure they are liquid-proof before you send them to school with your child. Reusable containers reduce the need to buy disposable plastic bags, which saves money over the course of the school year.
-- Plastic spoons. If they make it home, I wash and reuse them. If they don’t make it home, I thank myself for not sending a real spoon.

Lunch Box Main Dishes:

-- Peanut butter and jelly. The good old stand-by. To change things up, try using a cookie cutter to cut a shape into the middle of the sandwich. Or cut it into a puzzle that your child has to put back together before eating.
-- Peanut butter and jelly rolled in a tortilla.
-- Peanut butter banana sandwich. Delicious! Just add thin slices of banana instead of jelly.
-- Meat sandwiches (although I have found that deli meat is hard to get for a good price, so I rarely make these)
-- Tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad sandwiches
-- Shake-shake salad. Squirt dressing into the bottom of a reusable container. Layer vegetables next, then lettuce on top. When your child gets to school, they just shake the container to coat the lettuce with the dressing. Then it’s not soggy!
-- Cold pizza. Homemade is even better.
-- Homemade hot pockets. Meat, cheese, sauce wrapped in dough and cooked, then frozen individually.
-- Layered bean dip and chips
-- Fruit Muffins: zucchini, banana, apple
-- Tortilla pizza: spaghetti sauce, pepperoni and cheese rolled in a tortilla.
-- Cheese swirls. Melt cheese in a tortilla. Roll up and cut into ½ inch pieces.
-- Granola and Milk. Pack them separately, freezing the milk if necessary, and let your child mix them together at school before eating. Make sure the milk container doesn’t leak. Maybe put it in a plastic bag just to be sure. Or have your child buy a container of milk at school.
-- Pasta salad
-- Homemade “Lunchables” with pepperoni or ham, cheese and crackers
-- Wraps
-- Peanut butter pancakes. Spread leftover pancakes with peanut butter and put two together like a sandwich.
-- Smoothie. Just make sure it’s in a non-spill container and right next to an ice pack.
-- Waffles cut into sticks with a small container of maple syrup for dipping. Or dip in applesauce for a lower sugar option. A batch of waffles can be made ahead and frozen individually.

Lunch Box Sides:

-- Ants On A Log (celery, PB, and raisins)
-- Pre-cut fruit in a small reusable container: grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, peeled orange slices, mandarin oranges, canned fruit. A great way to use up leftovers
-- Cheese sticks. A 1 oz. string cheese at the store costs around $0.25 on sale. 1 oz. of cheese cut from a block of cheese (on sale for 2.50/lb.) is around $0.06.
-- Carrots. I find 1 lb. bags of carrots frequently on sale for $0.33. I just peel and cut them into smaller sizes instead of buying baby carrots which are usually $1.00 a bag on sale.
-- Peeled, salted and halved hard-boiled eggs
-- Applesauce. Homemade or bought in large containers, just divide it into a small portion cup. Don’t forget a plastic spoon!
-- Bananas. If a whole banana is too much, cut the banana in half through skin and all. Then only the tiny bit on the end will turn brown and rest of the banana is perfectly fresh.

Lunch Box Treats:

-- Mix up a full box of pudding or jello, portion it out into small reusable containers and you have a homemade pudding cup. I figure this method is about half price depending on the deal you get on the pudding and the milk to go in it.
-- Make a batch of cookies, brownies, or bars. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, then place in a gallon bag in the freezer. Tah-dah! Homemade individual treats ready for lunch boxes. And they are homemade, so that means no preservatives or added junk and you can control how much sugar/fat is in them.
-- Halloween is coming up…let them put one or two pieces of candy in with their lunch! My kids think this is the best thing ever.

Ruffled Gloves Tutorial

...because sometimes a girl just needs something a little fancy when she's up to her elbows in dirty dishes.

These gloves would make a great gift. You could easily do the same thing to a pair of gardening gloves for that gardening enthusiast in your life or a pair of regular winter gloves. How cute would that be?!

Materials needed are shown in the picture below. For reference, the grid is one inch squares.

Step 1: Fold strips in half. Press. Unfold them and press each outside egde with a little fold, as shown here:Then fold the whole thing together and press one more time, just to make sure all the folds are crisp.

Step 2: Sew the strip ends together to form a circle. Press again.

Step 3: Gather the strips by sewing a gathering stitch around the edge of the fabric (on the side that opens, not the folded side). This will also be what sews the strip openings closed.

Step 4: Sew the gathered strips around the top of the glove. I had trouble with the rubber glove ripping when I did a straight stitch. So I switched to a zig zag stitch and did it just around the lip at the edge of the glove. This worked much better.
That's all it takes. Aren't they so cheerful? It's almost enough to make me want to wash dishes. Well, almost.

Hexagon Rag Quilt Thanksgiving Table Runner Tutorial

As I got all my Fall decor out a few weeks ago, I realized I didn't have a table runner yet. I've made several machine free quilted ones for other holidays (here and here), but this time around I wanted to try something new...something different...something easy. This is what I came up with:

A hexagon rag quilt-style table runner using scraps of fall-ish fabric. I even threw in a little corduroy just because it screams Fall to me.

Here's how to make it

Step 1: I made a 6 inch hexagon shape in Word, printed it out and used it to trace the shape onto the backs of the fabric using a ball-point pen. Such a sophisticated system, I know. :) I cut out a total of 32 hexagons.

Step 2: I sewed two hexagons together with right sides out, wrong sides touching. On a hexagon the stitches go from one point to the opposite point and then one center of the flat side to the other center flat side. That makes an X in the middle

See how both sides of the sewn piece have right sides out?

Step 3: I laid out the double-thickness hexagons out into the pattern I wanted. The grid overlay on this picture shows how I lined up the stitches. All the stitches that went through the point go the same direction and all the stitches that went through the flat side go the other direction.

Step 4: Start sewing the hexagons together! The tricky part about this step is making sure all the seams end up on the same side of the finished table runner. To avoid mistakes, I laid out the whole project next to my sewing machine, pinched the seams together in the way they were supposed to be sewn, brought them to my machine, sewed them, then took them back to the laid out pieces and pinched the next seam in the way it should be sewn. This method worked great...I didn't have to unpick a single stitch!

When sewing the hexagons together, don't sew off the edge of the fabric... see how this picture shows the stitches meeting in the corner, not extending past each other?

Step 5: Snip all the exposed seams with a pair of sharp scissors, making sure not to snip past the stitch lines.

Step 6: Wash the runner. All those little snips you made will help the fabric to fray. After you remove it from the dryer, you'll have to do some tidying up...cutting loose threads, etc. but then you are done!

This same method can be used to make regular square rag quilts or table runners. It's best to use cotton or flannel for these projects (although apparently corduroy works well, too).

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Accordion Flower Halloween Banner

I just went to a fun Ladie's Night sponsored by a local craft shop and they showed us how to make these fun accordion folded paper flowers: Aren't they cute?! And guess what? They are easy to make, too! Here's how:

Materials to make one circle flower:

* two 2x12 strips of identical scrapbook paper
* two 2 inch circles of coordinating paper
* hot glue

* clear tape

1. Start by scoring lines into the 2x12 strips. (Scoring is basically using a tool to make really sharp creases or folds in paper instead of just folding it by hand.) I spaced my scoring lines (creases) every 1/2 inch using a scoring blade that came with my paper cutter.

2. Tape the strips together into a big circle, like this:

3. Now comes the magic part...squeeze one edge of the paper together in the middle and it will pop the other edge out so that the whole thing lays flat:
Step 4: Hot glue a circle onto both the front and back to hold the pleats flat and in place.

Step 5: Embellish! I punched holes into two sides of mine and strung them onto a ribbon to make a banner. The possibilities are endless with this project. They would be adorable hung on a Christmas tree or in Fall colors or hanging in a baby's nursery or to spell out a child's name or as a Happy Birthday banner.

You can make them bigger or smaller too. If you make them bigger, just cut the strips to the width you want (ex: 4x12), but remember you will need three or four strips taped into the circle in order for it to fold right.

Happy Crafting!

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Halloween Ideas: Monster Cupcake Cones

Today's idea is an oldie but a goodie. Look how cute these guys are!

Wouldn't they be so fun to take to school for a class party? Or to serve at your own Halloween party? Yay! You could even make "hair" frosting in crazy colors!

More info...

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Halloween Ideas: Spooky Dinner

Having a crazy Halloween dinner is a tradition in my family. We make all kinds of special food to celebrate the spookiness that is Halloween.

My mom's specialty are the witches fingers: They are shaped breadsticks with pumpkin seed fingernails. And they are delicious dipped in blood (marinara sauce).

Or if fingers aren't your thing, how about a nice, juicy slice of brain?! Bwah ha ha!
For more details, click here.