Black Friday FUN!!!

I couldn't help posting this picture. Bethany and I are pro's! We sooo know how to do this.

Tip #1 Bring your best friend/shopping buddy/sister - (they are few and far between! )

Tip #2 is be first in line. (Here we are a few years ago first of course!) 

Tip #3 Bring camp chairs and blankets, it will be a while.

Tip #4 Get a breakfast sandwich and very hot hot cocoa at the Maverick before you get to the store of choice (first of course =).

Tip #5 (MOST IMPORTANT) Have a blast! Really we do it just for the fun of it. We have laughed about our "Black Friday's" for years later!

Tasty Fall Treats

It is always tastier when the food is beautiful. I love to add little touches, like leaves to the pie, displaying food in a colorful way or serving on a beautiful serving dish. Little touches make it so much more fun to cook for everyone and it is amazing how it brings out the flavor :)

My sister in law made these fabulous candied apples! The kids loved them and they are beautiful!

Thanksgiving place cards

I love making everything festive on the holidays. I wish I had taken a close up of these they are so much more gorgeous in real life. I used a business card template in word and inserted a text box and then just used all different fonts for the names of the guests that were coming. We had used glitter modge podge on fall leaves and acorns that we had gathered earlier in the year an then glue gunned them on to the name tags. Simple but gorgeous! (When you modge podge the leaves do it on wax paper and let them dry. I did an entire 3' arrangement still on the branches. It was absolutley stunning especially in the evening light.)

Black Cats

These are the cutest black cats I have ever seen! They looked puuurfect for Halloween.

I love playing with face paints and these little faces turned out just gorgeous! I sewed the tails with black fabric and used some white so there would be a white tip on the end and put wire hangers in them so I could control the shape. The ears are made with head bands and I glue gunned a bow on one side for a feminine feline touch. They wore thier dance outfits with some black soft slippers and white mittens.

Pumpkins & Witches Brooms

We had the funnest time making pumpkin & Witches broom treats for our friends and neighbors. They turned out gorgeous and the treats were yummy too!

First for the filling:

We popped a bunch of popcorn and added small pretzels, a few cashews, and m&m's then layed it out on large cookie sheets. (You could also use wax paper) I drizzled orange melted chocolate on the mix. Waited about 10 in. for it to be cool and put it in a large bowl.

For the pumpkins:

I took orange party napkins, put about a cup to a cup and a half of the popcorn mixture in the center and pulled all of the corners together. I twisted the corners together and wrapped green floral tape around it so it would look like a stem. Then I hot glued a silk leaf it and if you look closley you can see that I took a piece of green craft wire and twisted it around the stem and curled the ends to look like the vine part.

For the brooms:

I took brown paper lunch sacks and put about 2 cups of the mixture in. It depends on the size of your bag. I had the regular size but if you could find smaller it would be better. Then I cut strips in the top of the bag about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way down the bag. I cut the strips about 1/2" wide all the way around the bag. I cut limbs from our apricot tree and stuck a limb in each bag and then tied purple rafia around the cut lines. Tada- a witches broom. Hope you have fun with this idea! We had a blast. It was fun to hear all the ooos and ahhs when we delivered.

Family is EVERYTHING!

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.     ---Marcel Proust