Thankful Garland

So some of us around here still have to carve pumpkins, finish costumes, and come up with an activity to do at the class party (anyone else a procrastinator?).  But for those of you all ready for Halloween, here's a great Thanksgiving craft to start... a Thankful Garland.  Such a great idea - a super cute decoration and a daily reminder to count your blessings!  Thanks to Tiffany Bird of Simply Modern Mom for posting this over at Marta Writes.

Spider Cookies

Last weekend we were having a Halloween Party.  The boys and I decided to make these YUMMY spider cookies to take to it.  Really easy to make, fun to put together, and delicious to eat.  They're homemade Oreo cookies with cream cheese frosting and licorice legs.  Here's how to make the cookies:

Homemade Oreo
1 box Devils food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening

Mix all ingredients together.  Roll into balls- if you have a cookie scoop, it's quick and easy- and place on cookie sheet.  Bake for about 8 minutes.  Let cool and then frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar until well blended. 

Typically this is the point where you frost the underside of one cookie and sandwich with another cookie.  For these Spider cookies, however, put some orange food coloring in your frosting.  Frost the underside of a cookie and use some licorice strings to make some legs- I used Twizzler Pull-and-Peels.  Frost the underside of another cookie and sandwich together.

It might be helpful at this point to find a couple of kids to help you peel that licorice and put on the legs. 

You can also use this as a great teaching moment to talk about number of legs on spiders, making pairs, counting by 2s, (not licking fingers when we're making food for other people), etc...

 

Obviously the 3 year old didn't quite catch on to my 'teaching moment', but aren't those chubby hands the cutest things you've ever seen?
If I would have had the energy to load up the kids and head to the store, I would have picked up a bag of redhots for eyes for the Spiders- how cute would that be? 

Maple Leaf Cookies

Mmmm... don't these look delicious?  Can't wait to try these Maple Leaf Cookies.  Thanks to Dawn at The Girl Creative for this nummy recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Well I figure it's high time I share this favorite go-to dessert of mine.  It's quick to make and oh-so-good (good enough to eat a whole row before you've realized it).  Think Paradise Bakery cookies... think tastes-as-good-as-the-dough.  Yum.  This is my most-used recipe... honestly.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 c flour
1 (11-oz) bag chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients and add gradually.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Spread into greased 9x13 pan (I use glass, but metal works too).  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden brown.  Cool and cut into squares.  Or if you're like me and can't wait for it to cool completely, just give it a few minutes so the chocolate doesn't scorch your tastebuds.

Maybe you've noticed we've posted several recipes for bars -

probably because I'm lazy they're quicker to make...

like these

Sugar Cookie Bars

or these uber-delicious

Oatmeal Caramel Bars

BTW, did you know you can type "bars" in our search box? (see left side bar) No, you won't get a listing of the local bars in Salt Lake (I'm sure there are a few), you'll get a bunch of delicious recipes! (you should really try it - we've got some great ones here, folks... just sayin')

Spooky Halloween Pancakes

Totally made these for dinner tonight- amazing!!  I went ahead and put all of the cinnamon in the pancakes and I did not think that it was too much with the cinnamon syrup.  I must admit, however, that my spider drawings were not nearly that impressive- but my boys thought they were pretty cool.

I've been in kind of a bad mood today.  I've already screamed at my kids (think poster paint and new carpet), I have a head cold, and I'm a little bit of a stress case.  To wind down I came to the computer to see what cute things are out there in blogland.  Because of my rotten mood, I kept looking at things and thinking "lame," "ugly," "too hard," etc.... until I came across this post for Spooky Halloween Pancakes at eighteen25 (guest post by TidyMom).  If you know my kids you know that I am totally serious when I say that I squealed with delight when I saw these...totally has changed my mood. 
I've mentioned before that pancakes are seriously the most popular food around this house- but don't know if I've ever mentioned the LOVE of Halloween around here (yes, I'm the annoying neighbor with the Halloween wreath and broomstick on her front porch the weekend after Labor Day).  Our two favorite things combined into one... my boys just might forgive me for the wailing and gnashing of teeth that happened about an hour ago.

Dishtowel Cafe Aprons

In case you missed our guest post on Sugar Bee-Craft Edition, we're reposting it here for you!

We spent a fun afternoon with our sister, SIL, mom, and aunt making these cute Dishtowel Cafe Aprons... so cute and very beginner (truth be told Missy did cry the first time we made these- she's WAY too much of a perfectionist).

I love making these for gifts. Pair it with a cake box, kitchen utensil, or favorite cookbook (depending on how much $ you want to spend) and you have a perfect gift for a teacher, neighbor, or friend. Now, on to the tutorial for the Dishtowel Cafe Aprons.

Dishtowel Cafe Apron

ITEMS NEEDED:

1. Dishtowel (we found most of these cute dishtowels for way cheap at Walmart)

2. Trim (ruffle, ric rac, pom-poms, etc...) same as the width of the towel + 2 inches

3. 1.5 yards of coordinating fabric for the waistband (you will have enough leftover to make another apron)
4.  Matching thread

Cut your dishtowel so that it is 18"

Pin the trim on the bottom of the towel, wrapping it around to the back about 1" on both sides and sew

(did you notice I switched towels on you?)

Cut out two 6" strips of fabric.  Each strip is 6" wide and 54" long

Pin the two strips right sides together, end to end, and sew (you have one LONG strip)

Iron the seam open flat

Fold the fabric in half (so your strip is now 3" wide) and iron

Open the fabric back up and iron in all raw edges about 1/2" (if you want to be fancy you can angle in your ends)

Here's just a square corner

Here's one I did with a fancy corner

Fold the strip back in half and press it one last time

Open the fabric strip and place the towel inside, lining the top of the towel with the fold of the fabric.  Make sure the seam of the fabric strip is centered on the towel.

Pin the entire strip and sew (using a 1/4" seam allowance- which means you use your presser foot as a guide) around the edge of the strip (bottom, side, top, side)

Ta-Da! All done!

(This would be Missy's son modeling... what a sport)

Linking up:

Recovering a Lampshade

I had this very blah lamp from when I was in highschool and EVERYTHING in my room was cream- the walls, the bedspread, the lampshade... very neutral.  Anyway, held onto the lamp- I don't really know why but I always have.  Well, I had purchased some cute fabric because it was on sale and I had no idea what I was going to do with it (I'm sure you've never done that...).  I remembered this lamp that I had in storage and decided to do a recover on the shade for my baby's room.  Here's how I did it- it will work for any shape of shade:

boring lamp shade

Place the lamp shade on a large sheet of paper.  Starting at the seam of the lampshade, trace the top and bottom of the shade, rolling the shade until you've come all the way back to the seam.

Add about an inch to the "pattern".  I just added an inch to the bottom- if I were to do it again I would add .5" to the top and .5 to the bottom.  Be sure to get that inch added on the side too.

Cut out the pattern, pin to the fabric, and cut out your fabric.

The next thing you want to do is glue your fabric over your shade.  I read on-line that spray adhesive is really good to use, but I didn't have any in my house.  I just used Tacky Glue and spread it with a sponge brush.

Start where the existing seam is, overlapping just slightly around the corner.  Glue the new fabric all around. 

When you get back to your starting point, measure where the fabric needs to go, cut off any excess amounts of fabric, fold over a nice seam and glue that, then glue the fabric in place.  Your new seam should be exactly where the old one is  (make sense?? hope the picture helps).

Fold over your tops and bottoms, glueing into place.

Ta-Da!!  All done!!

And look how cute it looks in his room!!

Alphabet Cards

Don't you love when other people share hard work that they've done?  These Alphabet Cards from Homemade by Jill are not only darling, but she gives you the download so you can print your own set.  So cute!  Mine are printing on white cardstock as I type :)  I'm going to make mine into a cute little book for my 3 year old.  These would be really cute decor for a children's reading/learning/playing area as well!