Halloween Ain't What it Used to Be

In case you can't tell from the excellent disguise, Zoe Bug is going as a Gunslinger for Halloween this year.

Big surprise.

And no, it was not my idea.

I used to pick out the Halloween costumes for my kids, but Peanut Head shut me down a couple years ago. I'm still pretty bitter about it too.

Back when all was right in my world and I had control over every stitch of clothing that my girls wore, they would beg me to be crazy things like Hannah Montana and I would be all "NO!"

It's not that I don't want my girls to have a say in what they get to be for Halloween, it's more that I'm only okay with it if their idea of a cool costume lines up with my idea for a cool costume. Oh whatever, who am I kidding? I want control of everything. 

I really am capable of compromise. Really. I just like my kids to look cute in their costumes. I try to accommodate their wishes too. Stinkerbell has been asking to be a lobster for at least three years now, since she was three, and I would be okay with that, except who sells lobster costumes? I'm not that girl who can whip up her own costume after designing and creating the pattern, so if it's not in the store, it's not going on the girl. Hence no lobster. Yet. Maybe by the time she's 25 we'll find that special costume. Won't that be cute?

Finding a costume to satisfy Stinkerbell is a traumatic event for me. We went to look for costumes at Target, and in the costume aisle, I am not kidding you, she would only pick up ugly, creepy, scary costumes. Not cute. At all. It was so sad. And I don't mind telling you that I was so desperate that I was begging her to pick the vampire costume because at least I had the smallest shred of hope that I could find a way to cutify it. I could get out the make-up kit and accessorize a costume like that.

The swamp monster though? I've got nothin' that can make this cute. 

Am I right? I just want to schedule her a pedicure and some sedation dentistry. Girlfriend needs some heeeeeeeelp.

I keep asking myself, "Why do I have girls if they're going to dress like this?" I'm no fashion diva or anything like that, but come on.

Does anyone feel my pain here?

Well shoot, there's always next year.

Monsters in My House

I got this spooky treat idea from Kara's Kitchen Creations. She has lots o' spooky recipes on her blog right now. I should mention than I cheated though, because I made brownies from a box instead of Kara's cookie bar recipe. I was impatient and I wanted a canvas for my Frankenhead chop, chop! I even used canned frosting. I feel so dirty.

Nah, not really. I always make brownies from the box. They're best that way.

The best part about these Frankenheads, is that they were simple and fast to make. I cut the brownies into squares and then I frosted them with green frosting. How fun would it be to drop a little mint flavoring in the frosting?

You're supposed to use miniature marshmallows, cut in half, for the whites of the eyes. I really think they would be cuter that way, but I was too lazy to go looking for marshmallows so I just used more frosting. As a result, my Frankenheads look a little hopped up on drugs of some sort, don't you think? Or maybe it's just a sugar high. The eyes look pretty dang crazy.

The hair, mouth and pupils are just chocolate frosting, piped on haphazardly. You could totally whip up a batch of these for a Halloween party and still have time to do your nails. Are you game?

Harvest Punch

This is my all-time favorite drink to make for guests, and I was recently surprised to find that I had never posted it before. I aim to fix that today. Please, please, please try this. It is so yummy, you won't even believe it.

This is all you need: water, Sprite (or any lemon-lime soda), 1 can of frozen orange juice, 1 can of frozen lemonade, vanilla, almond extract (the secret ingredient), and sugar (the magical ingredient).

Surely you must be thirsty now?

Breakfast Recipe Card Divider

Some anonymous person posted a comment on my blog recently, requesting that I make a recipe card divider for their Breakfast recipes. Well, I don't want to put you on the spot or anything, Anonymous, since you appear to be shy and all, but I sure hope this makes you happy.

Smooches!

Halloween Treats--CHEEEEEEEEAAP!

So the girls and I got their treat bags put together for their school Halloween parties. The parties which I will not be able to attend this year since I'll be working.  Sniff, sniff.

Anyway, I made these little tags for their treat bags, but I really wanted to post something that might help you make your Halloween a little more special. Last year I posted these treat toppers, that you can still use if you want.

But, I've been racking my brain, trying to come up with something new and cute for you, and it finally came to me tonight.

This is what I came up with.

Do you want to know what they are?

They're BOO!k marks. Ha, ha, ha

I kill myself.

Seriously though. I designed these things to be printed out as 4x6 prints (hello photo center of the cheap prints), and then you can just cut them vertically into 2" x 6" bookmarks.

You can leave them like this . . . the old fashioned way, functional, old school.

Whatever.

Or you can fold them in half so they are short and cute like this.

I just looooooooove the spider.

I actually detest spiders in real life. All spiders must DIE. But this one I could hug.

I like the cute little ghostie guy too.

Eeek! They're killing me.

So, as I was saying. The cute little short bookmarks actually are not done. They need to be magnetized.

Do you have any of these freebie magnets still lying around? Or is it laying around? Cripes, I'm supposed to know this stuff.

So, as I was saying . . . . Geez, do I keep saying that? I'm sorry. As I was saying, go find your freebie magnets and cut them up. You need two pieces for the bottoms of each bookmark.

Adhere the magnets to the inside of the bookmarks with double sided adhesive. By the way, that is a roll of magnet tape that you see there, and I didn't use any of it. It was there just in case I ran out of the free stuff.

Once you get your magnets on . . .

SHA-ZAM! You have a bookmark.

Does anyone else remember that 70s dude, Shazam, or am I crazy?

I mean, besides me being crazy, am I alone here?

Never mind. Forget I said anything.

Here are some bookmarks for you to give it a go yourself. Don't forget to click on the picture before you save it to your computer, so that you get the highest resolution. If you forget that step, you might get blurry bookmarks.

Have fun! I'm going to bed.

Controlling My Domain Name

For awhile now I've been wanting to purchase my domain name, but I had no idea how to go about doing it. Now, thanks to this post over at Mama's Losin It, I think I did it. Now the only thing I'm wondering is if my posts are showing up for those that have subscribed to me in a feed reader. If you subscribe, could you please just give me a quick "I got it" in the comments if you still see me? Thanks!

Oh, by the way, my SITS day yesterday was A-Mazing. Wow! What a wild ride. It's going to take me months to follow up on all the comments. Thanks for reading my yackity yack.

My SITS Day is Here!

Welcome to my little corner of the Blogosphere! I'm so excited to have my turn as the featured blogger for a day on SITS. Thanks for stopping by and helping me celebrate.

If you're new here, I should warn you that I'm a teensy little bit crazy. Having a blog enables me to keep that part of myself hidden from people in my everyday encounters. A sort of a secret life where I don't hold anything back. Well, some things I hold back, but just the stuff nobody wants to hear about anyway. TMI and all that.

I'm a huge control freak and therefore a wee bit anal. I like all things organizing, I love to get my craft on, I love to cook and bake, and I'm into making digi recipe cards. Oh, and I like to give people pet names. For example, I call my husband Peanut Head. It's gotten so bad that my friends have forgotten his real name. I even had someone tell me that they tried to look my phone number up in the phone book and they couldn't understand why I wasn't listed under Peanut Head Scott. 

With all that being said, here are my three favorite posts, since I had to narrow it down to three. So many decisions . . .

Happy Moms Don't Scream

Street Fighting Skillz for Girlz

The Toothfairy is a Bonehead

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them. Thanks again for stopping by!

Too Cute for Her Boots

I was in the mood for a little digiscrapping on a cold and dreary Monday evening, and since I'm short on time, I got my fix by using some quickie templates. These layouts are from the Creative Memories Cottage Garden collection and they came free on my StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software.

If you have the StoryBook Creator Plus 2.0 software, you should seriously consider upgrading to 3.0 because it's just $9.95 through October 31st. After that it goes up to $19.95. The full StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software is $64.95. I just started playing around with 3.0 a couple days ago and it's a lot different, but in a good way. It can do a lot more than 2.0 and I'm excited to learn more about it.

Also, for those of you that are already up and running with the software, I found a great blog with tips for both the Memory Manager and the StoryBook Creator Plus software. It's StoryBook Creator Plus & Memory Manager Helps and Hints. It's worth checking out.

I have just one more thing to share with you, I have digi freebie links listed on my left sidebar and I've been getting a lot of really cute digi freebies from the Creative Memories freebie site. They just put up some waaaaaay cute Halloween freebies. My favorite is a super cute little owl. That's all I'm going to say about that. If you want to know more, you're just going to have to go and check it out. Have fun!

Getting Closer to the Birds and the Bees

I'm still laughing over the conversation I had with the girls at dinner this evening. Get a load of this.

Stinkerbell: Mom, do you have to dance to get married?

Zoe: No, you have to have someone stand in front of you and ask you lots of questions. Then they tell you that you can kiss.

Stinkerbell: Eeeew. I don't want the kiss. Mom, can I wipe the kiss off?

Me: No sweetie, that wouldn't be polite.

Stinkerbell: Well then, can I wipe it off when I get home?

Me: Only if no one sees you do it.

And I can't help but wonder, should I tell them about the horrid kiss from my wedding day?

All kidding aside, it's moments like these that I just want to bottle and preserve for the day when my kids are grown and gone, so I can relive them again and again. Kids don't have any idea how happy they make their parents, do they?

Give Me Cake!

Peanut Head  had a birthday a little over a week ago, and in this house that always means cake. There is never any mixing it up with different desserts for birthdays around here. Birthday equals cake and the cake must be chocolate.

We're very rigid like that.

So anyway, Peanut Head was traveling "for work" on his birthday so we didn't have cake exactly on his birthday.

Why the snooty quotation marks you might be asking? Well, because I was at home. With the dirty house, and the dirty laundry, and the dirty, noisy girlies, doing all the work while Peanut Head had his little mental vacation.

Yes, I'm bitter and I don't mind saying so.

So, since Peanut Head had his birthday while he was away, we made his cake when he got back. You should know that I seriously considered making his cake on his birthday and eating it before he got home, but I was too busy with all the dirty and the work to even think about cake.

So he lucked out.

I decided to let the girls help me make the cake. Because the house was already a disaster and all, and it was way worse when we were done. 

But we had cake to look forward to.

And this cake? This cake is the best chocolate cake on the planet. No lie. There was only ever one cake that could even compete with this cake, and that was here.

And I'm feeling magnanimous after all that delicious, moist, chocolate decadence, so I'm going to share the recipe with you.

Except that, oopsie, I should probably mention that this recipe is a super secret family recipe, passed down from the Barefoot Contessa and cradled lovingly in my possession for many, many years. I'm real old, you know.

So all I'm asking of you, is that you please, pretty please, don't tell on me. Pinky swear on it.

You looked, so now you are sworn to secrecy. And that means you too, Alison. Don't tell. Nobody likes a tattletale.

Wimpy Mania

On a recent trip to Barnes & Noble, the one where I was rendered obsolete, Stinkerbell begged and groveled for me to get her the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I had heard that these cartoony-journal books were popular with the tween set, but I didn't really know anything about them until I was forced to preview one for Stinkerbell.

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the series. Why, you ask? Well, because the books are full of tween humor. Um, yeah. Humor for the immature and terribly awkward.

I don't know why I'm so surprised.

You're just going to have to pick one up for yourself to understand what I'm talking about. But whatever you do, watch out for the Cheese Touch.

Oops, did I say too much?