Halloween Linky Parties!

Looking for some parties to link up your Halloween projects, recipes, decorations or party ideas to? Or do you just want to get some ideas for yourself?  Here are a few Halloween linky parties that I know of. If you know of any others, let me know and I'll add those buttons, too!

Quick Tip: Celery

I'm going to start a new series of posts called "Quick Tip".  They will give you quick tips about everyday things!  Things you'll probably want to know :)

So, today's Quick Tip is about celery.

Celery?

Yes, celery.

I can't tell you how many times I've purchased celery and totally forgotten about it.  Somehow it gets stuck in the dark corners of my produce drawers!

And when I forget about it, it tends to get a little rubbery.

I know this has happened to you!

What to do?

All you need to do is get a pitcher of cold water and place the celery (ends cut off of the stalk) in.  In a few hours, the celery will be good as new!  No more rubbery, bendy celery!  It will be crisp and delicious, just as celery should be.

So next time you find celery in the dark corner of your produce drawer, you'll know what to do!  And since it's soup season, you'll be able to make some delicious chicken noodle soup, WITH celery!

Black & White Pumpkin Topiary

Are you all SO excited for fall to be here?

Cuz I sure am!

I keep thinking of all the yummy soups and pumpkin recipes I'll be making soon.

It makes me a little giddy!

The project I'm sharing with you today was inspired by a black and white pumpkin project I saw last year over at Imperfectly Beautiful.  I LOVED the idea of painting the pumpkins black and white.  

And a topiary?  Yes, please!

I have a big urn planter sitting by my front door and I knew that was the perfect place for my Pumpkin Topiary!

I got the smaller pumpkins at The Dollar Tree but couldn't find one big enough for the bottom of my topiary there.  So I headed to Walmart and found the perfect one there.  I spent a total of $7 on my pumpkins.  Not too shabby!

I started spray painting when I got home!

 I forgot to take before pics of my pumpkins. Oopsy!

I broke the stem off of the pumpkin above . . . don't worry, it was on purpose!  I took the stems off of the bottom two pumpkins since they would be sitting on top of each other.

So here is my pumpkin topiary before I fancied it up:

I didn't want to spend much money on this project.

I had some sticker paper on hand and decided to use that rather than running to the craft store to buy some white vinyl.

So I used my Cricut to cut out my fancies :)

I decided to do polka dots for the small pumpkin and the fancier flower pattern for the bigger bottom pumpkin.  And since there was so much going on with the black pumpkins, I decided to keep the white one plain.

The sticker paper was definitely not as sticky as the vinyl would have been so I ended up using my glue gun to help keep the stickers on.  Great solution since I didn't want to spend much!

I love the way my Pumpkin Topiary turned out!!!

I haven't done anything yet to fasten the pumpkins together but I'll have to do it soon.  My kids keep taking the pumpkins apart to play with them :)  And I still need to add some leaves or something around the bottom pumpkin, but I was too excited to share this project to wait!

One of my favorite things about my Pumpkin Topiary is that it cost $7 - I only had to pay for the pumpkins.  I had everything else on hand!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

To see where I link up, check out my sidebar --->

Reading Corner

A couple of months ago, my four-year-old had a staph infection in her foot.

The poor girl couldn't even walk - she was hopping around the house.  It was so sad!

I thought it would be fun to set up a little reading corner in her room.

So I got out some white Christmas lights, a sheet, some pillows and got to work!

This is what I came up with:

Both of my girls were so excited!!!

They sat in the "Reading Corner" and read all afternoon.

Another angle:

And another:

It's so hard when our kids are sick.  It's hard for them AND hard for us.  Why not try and do a little something fun to take their minds off of their sickness?

It can help make everyone a little happier!

Wanna see where I link up?  Check out my sidebar --->

Happy Halloween Printable!

I decided to make a Halloween printable for my house.

And then I thought, why not share it with my readers?

Lucky you!

I just started decorating my house for fall, and what is a little fall decorating without some Halloween decorations?

If you like the printable, just right click and download the image below to your computer.  Easy as pie!  If you wanna follow my blog while you're at it, I wouldn't mind.  Wouldn't mind at all :)

I made it as an 8x10 and printed it out at Walmart's one-hour photo.

I love fall!  So excited for the air to get a little cooler {ahem, the air is already getting cooler!}.  Making pumpkin cookies and baking yummy treats.  Love it!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

You can see where I link up over this-a-way --->

Tinkerbell Cake

We've had three {yes, three!} Tinkerbell parties at our house since last November.  I blogged about the first one last year after my oldest daughter turned four.

Then, my husband threw me a surprise Tinkerbell party for my 30th birthday in April.  I thought it was really cute that he did Tinkerbell :)

 {I'm the one in the birthday tiara ;) }

And my youngest daughter turned two in June and she, of course, loves Tinkerbell, so we had another Tinkerbell party!

 {Blowing out the candles on her cake!}

I didn't go overboard at all on this party.  In fact the only Tinkerbell part of the party was the cake.  I mean, she turned two, she was just excited that there were cake and presents there!

I found these edible Tinkerbell frosting decals at Walmart.  I am not a cake decorator.  At all.  So when I saw these, I knew I could at least do something with them!

I also bought cake decorating gel so I could add a little more to the cake.  I used the Tinkerbell colors: purple, green and pink!

For me, this is as fancy as it gets with cake decorating!!!  And it beats buying a cake that I know wouldn't taste as good as homemade.
And this cake tasted GOOD!

Hope this inspires some of you . . . I'm sure there are people out there like me who can't really decorate cakes.  We can't be perfect at everything, right?  But we can at least try!  And I'm sure my two-year-old thought this was the perfect Tinkerbell cake!!!

New here?  Take a look around!  And if you like what you see, I would LOVE for you to become a follower :)

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up --->

Cheesecake Brownies

I have another delicious recipe to share with you today!

Don't worry all you crafters, I have some projects coming up.  I just didn't have a lot of time to devote to my craftiness over the summer.  I've been busy having fun and doing summery stuff with my kiddos.  But now that school is in session, I feel my crafty bug biting at me . . . 

But today we're talking brownies.  And not just any brownies.  Cheesecake brownies.  Holy moley, were these good!

Here's how you make them.

Cheesecake Brownies

Brownies:

Your favorite brownie recipe

Cheesecake Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla

3-4 cups powdered sugar

For the brownie part, I used my favorite {homemade} brownie recipe.  The recipe calls for butter, but I substituted half of the butter with cream cheese.  If you are using a boxed brownie mix, don't worry about this part.

While my brownies were cooling, I made the cheesecake frosting.  The frosting is what makes these brownies!!!  Mix the cream cheese and the butter together until smooth.  Add the vanilla and almond extract.  The almond extract is what sets this apart from regular cream cheese frosting and gives it more of a cheesecake flavor - yummy!  Mix well.  Add your powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing before you add the next cup.  Add until you have your desired consistency.  I made my frosting pretty gooey.

Now go ahead and smooth the frosting over your brownies.  After you've snuck a taste or two.

At this point, you, of course, will taste your cheesecake brownies.  But be careful - you may or may not be able to stop at just one.  Just sayin'.

If you like cheesecake treats, you'll love these Cheesecake Brownies!!!  They went fast at my house.  I really need to make another batch, pronto!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I'm still trying to recover from last weekend - we went to Sedona, AZ for Labor Day.  We had so much fun!  But getting back to real life is always hard after a fun vacation . . .

Wanna know where I link up?  Check out my sidebar --->