{Bat Garland}

Oh my goodness!  I have been MIA!  So sorry!
I've been SO busy with church responsibilities, planning and getting ready a Halloween party this weekend {I'll post pics of all the fun food and decorations my friend, Brooke, and I have been working on} and I started working part-time {on top of the voice lessons that I teach}.  So, yeah, I've been busy!

Remember that I did a Blog Swap last week with Beth @ Through the Eyes of the Mrs?

I thought I'd re-post my thrifty Halloween project that I shared, just in case you missed it.  'Cuz I'm cool like that.

Now, you all know that I am all about thrifty decorating.  My husband is in school so I have to be thrifty.  But it helps me to be creative!

I was at Joanne's the other day and saw some glittery foam bats.  They were really cute and I knew I could do something with them.  And with a 40% off coupon, they were around $1.50.  Score!

I wanted a fun garland and decided the foam bats would be perfect!

I started out by punching holes in the ends of the wings with a paper hole punch:

I got some twine and strung it through the holes:

And then hung up my bat garland!

Isn't it cute?

You could even glue some red rhinestones on for the eyes to add some extra spookiness :)

I don't have a mantle since we live in an apartment so I usually hang my garlands on this mirror I have above my piano.

So simple, easy and thrifty!!!  That is my kind of project.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Decorating Solution!

A couple of months ago, I thought it would be SO cute to put some Candy Corn in a hurricane w/ a candle!  And I thought I was SO smart coming up with that idea . . . and about a week after I "came up" with the idea, I started seeing these Candy Corn/hurricanes pop up all over blogland and Pinterest.

Guess I wasn't as original as I thought!!!  Great minds think alike, right?  And there are lots of ladies out there with great minds :)

Anyways, so I made my little Candy Cane/Hurricane display, put a plain white candle in it and decided it needed a little more "oomph".

 {See?  So plain}

So here's what I did.

I took some twine.  I LOVE twine.

And I put a little dab of hot glue on the back of the candle and stuck the end of the twine to it:

Then I wrapped to my little hearts content!

And here's what I ended up with:

SO easy!!!  I put another little dab of glue to stick the other end of the twine to the candle.

I love it when that "oomph" that you need is so easy!

And I love the color that this super easy, super cheap Fall/Halloween decoration adds to my home.

This is the "before my Halloween decorations are out" photo:

And the "after my Halloween decorations are out" photo:

PS - like the Halloween printable?  You can get yours HERE!

PPS - new here?  I'd love it if you followed along!  Don't forget to say hi, though :)

Wanna see where I link up?

Check my sidebar! --->

Cookie Cutter French Toast

French Toast is a favorite at our house for breakfast.

Seriously, why is French Toast so good?

And my kids love helping with anything in the kitchen.  Usually it's stirring the egg mixture for the French Toast {yes, I'm capitalizing the first letters in those words.  Because French Toast deserves it.  Because it's that good}.

So I thought it would be fun to let my kids cut shapes out of the bread first {who likes the crust anyways?  My kids don't!}.  And since it's fall and Halloween is right around the corner, we used our Halloween cookie cutters!

First make your egg mixture.  Here's how I make mine - it's super yummy:

Michelle's Perfect French Toast

2 eggs

Splash of milk (probably 2 Tablespoons-ish)

1/4 tsp cinnamon (I'm totally guesstimating that.  Just sprinkle it in until it looks like the amount you'd like)

Dash of nutmeg (around 1/8 tsp.  Again, guesstimating here)

1 tsp vanilla

4-6 slices of bread

Whisk all ingredients together in a shallow dish {I usually use a pie dish}.  Like I said, my kids love helping on this part.  Any kind of stirring is so exciting to them :)  Sometimes I'll add an extra egg and a little more milk if I run out of my egg mixture before I'm out of bread.  Just depends on the day and how many pieces of French Toast we want to eat.

Dip your bread in the mixture and turn so each side is submerged.  Then your bread is ready for the griddle!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  You need to cut out your shapes first!  We had a cat, pumpkin, witch and bat.  All perfect for Halloween!  And, of course, the kids love this part, too!

Time to grill to perfection on your griddle {or fry pan, whatever you use}.

And this is the result you will get:

You can't beat that - a smiling face on a Saturday morning!

What things do you do to incorporate the holidays into your everyday routine?

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

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 --->

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 --->

DIY Flag Shirts

  

Aren't these shirts so cute?

I totally stole this idea from Jen @ Tatertots & Jello!

I am not a seamstress.  Like, at all.

I like to pretend I can sew, but really I suck at it.  So when I find easy sewing projects like this, it makes me happy because I feel like I CAN sew!  Yahoo!

I decided to sew a few buttons on, just cuz I thought they would be cute :)

{On the 4th @ the local parade}

I know the 4th of July has already come and gone, but if you live in Utah, the 24th of July celebrations are next week - you have time to make them!  Or you can bookmark Jen's tutorial for next year.

I got the tank tops at Walmart for $2.50/each.  I also got the fabric at Walmart in the cheap fabric bins.  The buttons I had on hand.  So these shirts probably cost me right around $3.00 to make.  Not too shabby.

{I take what I can get as far as pics go with my 2-yr-old - she's always on the move!}

Head on over to TT&J to see how you can make your own!

Better late than never . . .

I wanted to share what I gave my hubby for Father's Day!

I know, I know, Father's Day was last week.

But, like the title of this post says, better late than never, right?

I'd seen this done before on other people's blogs (sorry, I don't have any specific blogs to give credit for this!  I've seen it done on a bunch of them) and thought it was SO CUTE!  I wanted to do it last year but ran out of time.  So this year, I was all over it, baby!

I was originally going to buy a wooden "D" and a wooden "A" but decided I was too cheap :)  So instead, I cut them out on my Cricut and hoped the girls wouldn't rip them during our photoshoot.  Luckily for me, no paper letters were harmed during the photoshoot.

These are the photos I picked of the girls:

Aren't my girls beautiful?

I might be a little biased . . . but they really are :)

And some shots of the finished product in my house:

I got the frame for $10 at Target and I printed the photos out at Walmart.  So this wonderful Father's Day gift cost less than $15! 

The most important thing was that my husband LoVeD it!  I might try to coordinate one for my dad next year with all the grand kids.

My girls love their daddy - and let me tell you, he is a GREAT dad.  I'm not just saying it.  It's really true.  My girls are lucky to have such a loving and devoted father.  We love you!!!

Hope you all have a happy 4th!  Bring on the BBQ!

Easter Printable {Part 2}

I know, I know, Easter is tomorrow . . .

BUT, I have another wonderful printable that I wanted to share.  

I will actually have this up in my house even after Easter, but it was inspired by the Easter holiday, so I am calling it an Easter printable :)

Feel free to download it {would love it if you became a follower, too!} and use it, even after Easter, like me!


I also made it in Yellow:

Purple:

and Green:

Enjoy and have a GREAT weekend!!!

Easter Printable!

I decided it was time to do another printable!

Since it is Easter, I wanted to do a religious printable.

After all, the whole reason we celebrate Easter is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And I don't have any religious decorations for Easter.

So here is the printable!

I made it as an 8x10.  Just right-click to save it to your computer.

I usually download mine to Walmart.com and pick it up at my local Walmart, but for some reason my Walmart was having problems and wasn't letting me order it for the 1-hour photo printing :(

So I don't have any pictures of it framed.

I made it in three other colors:

{Gray}

{Green}

{Purple}

Oh, and if you're not yet a follower, I'd love for you to be one!

I have another printable coming up soon.

One at a time, peeps!  One at a time . . .

Here's where I link up: