Fabulous Option #2

You've seen 'em.

Those old ladies with a backside large enough to rest not only a bottle of beer on, but your picnic plate too.

I had to have one. 

Not interested in eating enough until I have one to keep, (plus I left it a wee bit too late for that fabulous option), I decided to make one.

First off:  Start with a vague, vague plan.

Oval-like shapes on some batting. 

Second:  Grab the only thing that will keep this insane plan going.

Sugar.  If this all goes south, I'll blame it on a sugar rush.

Third:  Pin those shapes together.

Fourth:  Stitch those babies together.

Looking like two large nappies.

Fifth:  Sacrifice several large stuffies for the fluff inside them because you have been purging your house of useless stuff and have thrown out your batting.     Okay.   Relax Mom.  Not really.  Although I did end up sacrificing an extremely old and flattened down pillow that has been around here for forever.   Stuff that stuff.

Sixth:  Stitch huge pillow-like arse padding into huge arse 3X granny panties.


Seventh:  Post incriminating and non-flattering pictures of yourself on your blog to amuse your friend in PR.

Just for you Jenni.

Liquid Donuts

You're going to need one of these:

Big slotted ladle/spoon optional but makes life easier!

Ingredients:

2 eggs                                      1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp. melted butter            ½ tsp. salt
1 cup milk                               2½ cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder            1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. nutmeg

Mix all together.  Pour into donut maker (if it seems too thick, add a little bit more milk).  Heat oil (or lard) in deep fryer or dutch oven on stove until about 200F.  Squeeze down plunger and hope they come out looking like this in the oil.

results vary!

Sometimes mine turn out in perfect circles, sometimes we have squid looking donuts!  Thankfully they all taste the same.  Flip them once when the bottoms are light to medium brown.  Place on a paper towl to drain.  Shake in a brown bag with sugar, or my favorite, cinnamon sugar.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Busy week of delaying

I have the kid's Halloween party coming up on Saturday.

Halloween and it's outside scariness on Sunday.

Lots of prep work to be done.

Why do I do this to myself??

And today, when, of course, I should be doing said prep work, I made donuts instead.

Then I sat down to share them with you....well I would if you were here, and if they actually last past the first 20 minutes of the kids getting home from school.

Anyhow, here's some picture and I'll put the recipe in another post so that I can link to it in my Recipe tab, since I have no clue how to do it otherwise and no ambition how to find out.  Ha!

Yum!

 I made these around noon.  Ryan walks in and smells the air.   "OOO Donuts.  Is that my lunch??!"

You can see how you wouldn't get any of these unless you were here, right now, today!

Sorry Mom! 



Bloody Mess

Although I haven't actually got around to decorating the inside of the house much, I have a few new ideas to make for this year.  I seen this and just knew I had to do something similar in our bathroom for the party.

I went to the Dollar Store and got a white shower liner and a bathmat.  Next, gathered a volunteer and some red paint.  This time it happened to be Clayton, who has extremely ticklish feet....

And this is what we ended up with:

Add to that a black light from last year, and I wonder how many kids will want to use this bathroom!

Actually I've already had to hide the bathroom mat and put our other white fabric shower curtain over this one, as Blade won't use this bathroom otherwise!!!


Also found my candles from last year.  Aren't they cute!

The kids made the little foam characters for Storm's birthday party.

Yard Detail

I have been browsing around the internet (while I should be cleaning, but that's beside the point) looking at all the cool Halloween ideas people have.   I found a huge spider web here that someone made out of rope, and decided I needed to add it to the front yard display this year.

The start of the web:

Definitely not one of the easier projects to do when it's freezing outside.  Ryan, as usual, got the hard parts, while I did the decisions and directing, as usual!

Here's the yard so far:

Huge spider web, Dr. Death and his poor, poor victim

The gallows on which hangs the gobbling turkey, and

 where Clayton will 'hang out' on Halloween night.

Made out of some old scaffolds we found at my dad's.

The graveyard with last year's project: the tombstones made out of left over packing styrofoam, as well as Clayton's coffin from last year made out of a huge box Ryan's mom  brought us from the store.

Mrrreeoooww!  Hiss, hiss! Spit, spit!

Needed:  Fog machine, purple spot lights, warm weather for Halloween!!

How to: Get distracted while making Halloween items.

So there I was, cutting and gluing my black velvet sleeve into the cauldron with Storm, when I got distracted.

I swore I wasn't making any more Webkinz clothes for them.  I was sure I wasn't going to.

But then, I was looking at the other sleeve of the shirt and said to Storm, "watch this", and proceeded to make this silly little dress that Hunter's bunny so willing modelled for you.

A simple little hot glued hem line and tada! A silly little cloak/dress for their pets.

Ahem, yes I am easily distracted!

Storm wanted more.  Of course she did.  I said, 'No, I'm not making clothes today'.   I've previously spent an entire day (or two!) making silly Webkinz clothes out of left over scraps of jean or cloth.  I even made a hand embroidered reversible dog collar for Storm to give to one of her friend's pets!  I need help. 

Anyways.

As I'm sure you guessed, I made something else.  See, there was this lovely satin and velvet collar on that shirt that smelled like someones Grandma that I got for only $2.99.   And wouldn't it make a cool vampire or bandit cloak?!  Complete with a mask made out of a hem.  (Ryan is now wondering, at this point, how long I could possibly delay finishing other projects.....)

I put a piece of black elastic at the back of the mask to make it fit any of the other pets who might want to dress up.  Glue. Scissors.  Ideas.  That's me.

I will have the candy! Hand it over and no one gets hurt!

Perhaps I should add "easily amused" to the list that describes me.

More than a handful

Usually, I dress up for Halloween Night in the same costume I wear for the party the night before and hand out candy.  Usually, Clayton dresses up and hides in a coffin, either on the ground or propped up by the front door and scares the kids while they are getting candy. 

This year my mom and I were discussing new ways for Clayton to scare our little trick or treaters and we hit upon the idea of modifying my Grandma's old plastic table and one of my cauldrons into a spot to sit under and freak out anyone who wanted to grab a candy from the self-serve bucket. 

So I started with a plan (and we all know how well my plans work.....)

Yeah...me and a knife..that outta turn out well......

After cursing and trying a few different ideas on how to get a nice hole in the bottom of my cauldron (the jigsaw wouldn't fit, and we really need to buy a sawsall or some other handy gadget), I settled for a jagged hole...(see how this plan is ALL coming together?!?!)

My plan was to then get a sleeve off of a cheap (read: Salvation Army or Value Village find) coat or shirt and glue it around the hole so that the candy couldn't fall out and I could leave the fake hand in there when I didn't feel like sitting outside freezing my arse off anymore.  I hit up SA and found a velvet shirt that smelled like Grandma for $2.99.  I cut off the sleeve at the very top and hot glued it to the cauldron.

Ryan also, upon request, drilled holes in the cauldron's legs and tied the bucket to the table so it can't move(or be carried away!)  Doesn't look like much but after I added a dollar store table cloth to hide the fact that you could see my arm through the cauldron's legs and to hide me under the table itself , I think it turned out pretty good.

Go on, grab a candy, I dare ya!

I can't wait to put it on the front step with a fog machine, with the torches and spot lights going, awaiting kids to scare.  And if I don't get 'em, Clayton will.  But that's another post all together!

The assistant:

Evil grin included.  Blue Powerade moustache, extra!



It's all his fault

Really, if he hadn't made the last drawer organizer look SO nice, I wouldn't have wanted him to make me another one!

We had some left over backboard to use up anyways!  I bought some more moulding and another couple pieces of the same paper from Michael's. 

We also started with yet another uber planning drawing by me:

Okay, so this time the 'plan' was really nothing more than a rough sketch.  I couldn't decide how big I wanted the dividers, plus some how I managed to convince myself there would be a long spot for the chopsticks...  Good thing Ryan just figured it out on his own instead!

Doesn't it look good!  I forgot to take a picture of our horribly cut, ill fitting plastic IKEA organizer.  So you'll just have to stare at my gorgeous silverware instead.....

Serious Business

Storm was amusing herself tonight by taking 'orders' for custom drawings by her from the family.

She set herself up a little drawing station on top of the old filing cabinet.

I just was about to shut off the lights and go to bed when I looked down and seen this:

I love it!

Birthday Crafts

Yup, that time again.  Another birthday in the house!  She had a great day and a really nice party with a couple of her friends.  She's a crafty child, so she was lucky enough to get a lot of new crafting items, including:

Tuesday, Blade and Storm decided to make the pets some new collars and a few bracelets.

(poor Chowie looks like he got taken down!)

Puppy (and Pig) Power!



Grandma's Brown Sugar Icing

1            cup brown sugar
1/2        cup margarine
1/4        cup milk
1/2        tsp. vanilla
2/3-3/4 cup of icing sugar

• Bring brown sugar, margarine and milk to a roiling boil in a medium sized pot on med-high.  Boil for 2 minutes (start timing after it gets to the point that you can't 'stir away' the boil).
• Take off heat and add in vanilla and icing sugar.  Mix well. 
• Stir until starting to thicken and then pour over cake while icing is still warm.
•  Scrape leftover icing out of pot with a spoon, while kids and husbands are not looking, and EAT! (don't burn your tongue though or you may be forced to explain) 

The daily question

Blade's daily question:  When are we putting up the halloween decorations!?!?!

Yes, I must tackle this:

(actually only a small part of it)

But I think I'll wait until they go back to school.

Although I may have promised Blade I would do it this Saturday.  I'm hoping that will buy me a few days break from the "daily" question!

Ha!

Saturday Crafts

The kids (little ones) have been on their two week break this last week and a half.  They are starting to drive me a little bonkers, as well as I can't seem to get anything done or feel like I can go anywhere,  however I'm loving sleeping in!! :)

They were a bit bored two Saturdays ago so we decided to make some magnet faces.  We had been to Michael's a few days before to look around for ideas for Storm's birthday and ended up buying some wiggly eyes.  Here's what they managed to create.

The master crafter herself

The 'big' eye fit just right on the glue stick!

It's an intense and precise art you see....

Awww aren't they cute?!



I told the kids we could take them one at a time with us when we walk to school and leave them as little surprises on the side of the railroad tracks, but they didn't seem to think that was such a good idea!

Fake Bonus points if you can figure out the two I made :P

Pace of a Snail

Geez.  These days I feel like I'm getting nothing done.  So many things on my mental to-do list!  I thought I better actually write one post, even if it's just a post about all the things I need to finish!

Things to get done:

• Write a post or two about what the kids have been up to the last few weeks. Birthdays and crafts.
• Finish started projects. 

Like this: 

The silverware drawer organizer.  Yes, Ryan said he never wanted to make one again.  But when did that ever stop me??  *ahem* (actually he said he wouldn't make another one the same way he did the last one, so in my world that means he will make me another one!)  I currently have the backboard Mod Podged.  AND no wrinkles!  Apparently I can learn after all.....
• Transform front yard into something even better than last year

I have plans for a gallows this year as well as table with a "serve yourself candy bowl".  The kids might just get more than a handful though....

• Get our costumes organized for this year.
• Plan our halloween party.
• Make a new desk.  The plan is to transform an old shitty door from my dad's into a new desk with the help of a left behind file cabinet of my grandma's.  Sounds simple enough doesn't it!?
• The missing buffet door has been repaired!

Now to get it stripped, painted and back on the buffet, AND get glass for the doors, frost glass with a monogram, sit back and toast to a project finally done!

Don't hold your breath.

Conversations with a 16 year old

Him: You have a blog?

Me: Yeah

Him:  What do you put on there?

Me: *shrug* things that I do

Him:  Huh.  That can't be very interesting.


....

Did you hear that?  That was the sound of his dreams of a sport bike sailing away on the wind.


Conversations with a 6 year old:

Him:  Mom, you are best cook-er ever!



If only they all were 6.