Happy Halloween!

Duck Tape Halloween Costume

I'm posting near the Happiest Place on Earth tonight!  We are all totally worn out from 2 days of rides, characters, churros and lots of walking.  Continuing with duck-tape crafting, I made my boys race car driver costumes out of $4 Walmart clothes and blue, silver and white duck tape!  I need some help, if you have a quick second click HERE and rate our entry!  (yes I like contests) It's not solely how they choose the winners but it does help.  While you're there browse the other entries and get some great inspiration for quick, cheap Halloween costumes! Thanks so much!

Halloween Monster Finger Cookies

I wanted to make witch finger cookies, but my sugar cookie dough puffs up too much and they looked more like monster fingers to me after baking!  They were a huge hit though, and very easy! 

Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe and mix in some green food coloring.  Scoop dough and roll into "fingers" and press an almond into the tip before baking.  Gross and yummy :)

Halloween Countdown block calendar

A couple weeks ago I got together with my sister-in-laws and we made these block calendars to countdown to Halloween and mine's finally finished!  You can find the instructions HERE.  My sister-in-law Jackie did hers a little different and I love them too:

I've started one for Christmas, and I can't wait to make a birthday one too!  Though that one might need 3 blocks because kids start counting down to their birthdays months in advance...

Duck Tape Pumpkin Pop Yard Stakes

That title was a mouthful!  I was trying to think of an idea to enter this contest, and I came up with these giant pumpkin pops! They were really easy, and using black and white Duck Tape, it was pretty much instant crafty gratification.  I started by wrapping each of the wooden dowels with white tape.  Then I put a glob of glue onto the end of the stick and poked it into the bottom of a fake pumpkin. (I punched holes in the bottom with scissors.)  Once the glue dried, I used black tape to create the stripes on the pumpkins, and then wrapped the whole top with clear cellophane and tied it with a ribbon- done!  They look almost good enough to eat!

Keep Calm-o-matic Poster Generator

This website is fun, create your own "KEEP CALM" poster spoof. I say this too much, I think I need to put the poster in my kitchen and just point to it!

Halloween is coming!

So if I haven't posted anything in a month, can I still be called a blogger? I can't believe it's been so long, and if you're still with me you are awesome!  I used to wonder why people always seemed so busy, and why I wasn't, and I'm trying to figure out what changed that, and when, but time is flying!
Things are good though- we brought out the Halloween decorations and that always puts me in a good mood!  I tried my hand at canning pears over the weekend, and also canned some hot pickled green beans that I'm really excited about.  I got together with my sister-in-laws for a craft night and made some of those countdown block calendar things that you've seen all over, mine aren't quite finished but that's up next on the agenda- I'll post pictures soon!  I have snuck some time for reading blogs of course, and here's a couple links for you to check out:  Urban Comfort has some really great decorating ideas- including this awesome (dog) bone garland!

and after you go see all her great Halloween ideas, make sure you stop by Better Homes and Gardens to vote for the mask she created for them!  (click here) Besides being totally amazingly talented, she is also one of the sweetest people I've "met" through blogging!

I'm totally in LOVE with these fabric pumpkins from the Cottage Home . She MADE these and you can see her simple tutorial HERE.
Tip Junkie has compiled a list of 32 Creative Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin and there are some really pretty and unique ones.
Tatertots and Jello rounded up 20 free Halloween printables- and you know how I love free printables!
It's well past my bedtime, so that's all for now but I have a lot of things I'm exicted to share soon so I will be much better this month than last!