Tag Archives: fall

Fun Halloween Books

Books, Fall, Halloween, , , , , ,

I love children’s books and I have two that we get out to read every year for Halloween.  My grandchildren love these two; the boys love,

“Frank was a Monster who wanted to Dance.”

Written and Illustrated by Keith Graves

It is a monstrously funny, deliciously disgusting, horrifyingly hilarious story of a monster who follows his dream.

The illustrations in this book are delightfully wacky!

The girls love this darling book by Mary Engelbreit,

“Queen of Halloween”

It tells about how Ann Estelle is ready for a Halloween night on the town, but Halloween can also be a little bit scary.  Will Ann Estelle be brave enough to ring the bell of the spookiest house in  town?

Of course the illustrations in the book are darling.

This book also includes a paper doll of Ann Estelle, so that is a fun little bonus!

I hope that you can spend some time this weekend reading to a child and enjoy their wonderful responses, it is so fun to see the delight in their faces as you read the story.  What are some of your favorite children’s books?

Roasted Pumkin Seeds

Fall, Recipes, , ,

When I made the “mumkin” the other day, I took the seeds out and decided to roast them.  I found a recipe on allrecipes and tweaked it a bit.  But boy are they yummy.  I have never made these before and I think that I may have just discovered a new tradition for our fall treats from now on!

Here is my version of the recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw whole pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon butter-melted

Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

Clean the pulp off the pumpkin seeds. Rinse well and pat dry. Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter.  Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet, sprinkle witih kosher salt and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. stir occasionally.

Let cool and enjoy.  I think that these would also be good with garlic salt, seasoned salt or any other seasoning that you love!

I ‘m “nutty” about these Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!

Pumpkin planter aka “Mumkin”

Crafts, Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I saw this darling idea on Pinterest and just had to make it. I think they called it a “Mumkin!”All you do is hollow out a pumpkin.  Make the hole in the top big enough to put your pot of flowers in.  After I cleaned out all the guts, (which, by the way, you will want to clean and save all of those seeds, because I have a yummy recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds coming tomorrow!) I filled up my pumpkin with water and added a litle bit of bleach to it.  I let the water run over the edges and down the outside of the pumpkin.  This helps the pumpkin not rot as fast.  Empty the bleach water and let the pumpkin dry out for awhile.  Add your potted plant and a cute bow and waala, you’ve got a darling “Mumkin!”Make sure that you take the pot out of the pumpkin to water it and let it drain good before putting it back in.  I am also going to spray bleach/water to the inside of the pumpkin when I take the pot out to water.  I have heard that your pumpin should last about 2 weeks by doing this.  Then when my pumpkin has finally wilted too much, I will just hollow out a new pumpkin to put my pot in!Add some pretty gourds around it and you have a fun fall arrangement!

Pinterest is a virtual board where you can pin any of your favorite finds on the internet.  If any of you would like to view my boards, you can do it by clicking on the link on the right side of this blog.  If you would like an invite to Pinterest, let me know, but be warned, it is very addictive! :)

Happy fall y’all!

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Fall, Recipes, , ,

Fall is here and with it comes the wonderful smell of pumpkin cooking.  We love pumpkin pies, and therefore we also love this Pumpkin Pie Cake!  It has this wonderful crumb topping and I usually heat it up before putting the whipped cream on top. Yummm!

Recipe:

Pumpkin Pie Cake

4 eggs     

1 c. sugar

¼ tsp. cloves

1 can evaporated milk

1 large can pumpkin

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Mix eggs and sugar together, add rest of ingredients.

Pour into greased 9 x13 pan.

 

Topping:

1 cube butter or marg. Melted

1 yellow or white cake mix

Mix together and sprinkle over pumpkin mixture.

Sprinkle ½ c. chopped nuts on top if desired.

 

Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Serve with whipped cream.

Fall Flowers

Fall, Flowers and Garden, , , , ,

I worked all morning in my yard, I was weeding and pruning some of the perennials. The flowers this fall have been absolutely beautiful!  I do not have the heart to pull some of them out!

These marigolds were planted from seeds that I gathered last summer, I could not believe how well they grew.  I just kind of threw the seed into the soil and started watering them and I think that they are some of my prettiest ones yet.

This is one of my planters on the front porch.  I need to pull them out so that I can put all my Halloween decor out.  I told myself that I had to wait until Oct, so next week my  planters will be history!These are some of the perennials in my yard.  I love the fall blooms.Beautiful!While I was out weeding and pruning, I came across this one lone Shasta Daisy.  I could not cut it down so I took a picture instead!My pink bush by the waterfall.Trumpet plantThese are actually in my neighbor’s yard, but they are on the fence line.  These morning glory are so big and beautiful.  I took this picture in the middle of the day and I was going to go back this evening to retake the picture and the blooms had closed up.  I did not know that the blooms only last for one day.  They are like the moon roses that my daughter in law has at her house.  They are very beautiful but only for  one day.  Thank goodness there are lots of new buds!These are Concord grapes that I have in my garden and even though they are not flowers, I think that they look beautiful.  However, I feel like the birds are going to win the battle with these beauties because I have to wait for the first frost before I can pick them and it has been so warm here with no frost in sight in the near future that I fear the birds are going to have a feast!  Oh well I guess it will have to be my contribution to nature!

I have been working on several printables for Oct including the new VT message and a couple of games.  So check back soon for these!

The Little Bat Screamed Out in Fright

Fall, For the Home, Halloween, Printables, Quotes, , , , ,

I got my fireplace mantle decorated, with the help of my super little helper!  When I picked up my granddaughter from school, I asked her what we should do today, and she said “Put out all the Halloween decorations!”  I decided that perhaps it was time and so that is what we did.  Here is the result!This is the printable that I have for you today!

 I did it in an 8×10 format and I sent mine to Costco to print.  It cost $1.49! And it is a nice printing job!This is my little Halloween witch that I got at a little shop in Midway, Utah a couple of years ago and I just love her face and pumpkin dress!Here is the printable for you to enjoy!  As I said it is 8×10 so you can frame it if you choose.

Girl’s Night Out

Crafts, Fall, For the Home, Halloween, Sewing, , , , , , , ,

We had a fun girl’s night out last week.  My husband was gone, so when the cat’s away the mice will play, and play we did!  We hired a baby sitter for all the kids and they had a great time playing downstairs while we were upstairs.  We let them come up for the food after we were all done.  (Nice, I know!)  What a fun group!   And most of  the time the cousins are all great friends.

We made these pillow and I totally copied the idea from a pinterest blog.  I even made the pillows in the back like on their display. She has done a great tutorial on how to make them here so I am not going to do another one.  I will tell you what we did different, as you can see, some of them did the “or” in black paint and just used fine glitter which worked ok, but the glitter had to be sprayed with varnish to help keep the glitter from coming off.  She suggests that you go to Walmart and buy the painter canvas, which I did, but it is not a very high quality and it frays really bad, even after using pinking shears.  So I would suggest that you buy a regular piece of canvas from a fabric store.  The next thing we did different was that we found out the glitter paint did not go very far, so we painted the orange with regular spray paint and then added a glitter finish to the top.  It worked great that way!  But all in all it was fun to see how everyone’s turned out and we had a fun evening together without kids (kind of!) Here’s what mine look like!I don’t know if I can leave them outside or not, I will have to spray scotch gaurd on them if I do so the weather won’t ruin them.!I think they turned out pretty darn cute.

Halloween Bunting!

Crafts, Fall, Halloween, Printables, , , , , ,

Here is a fun trick or treat bunting printable just in time to get you ready for Halloween!  Excuse my empty fireplace mantle, I took down what was on it, because it did not match and I have not yet put up my Halloween decorations. (I have been given strict orders by one of my granddaughters that I have to wait until she can help me… and she is only 5 years old!)  :)

You will need to print the next 6 pages. (just double click on the image and it will show you a larger version,  then right click and go to copy, then go to your favorite program and paste and print.  The image should fill up a full 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper. Two letters per page.)

Cut out each candy corn and then laminate for durability.  Punch a hole in each corner.  I punched the first one, then used it as a pattern  for all of the others.  Lay out and tie together with ribbon.  I put streamers on the two ends!  Hang up and enjoy!

Happy Haunting!

Fall Table Arrangement

Crafts, Fall, , , , ,

 I have this glass  jar that I change for every holiday.

I added this lovely box of potpourri that I bought at the World Market in Park City.  If you have never been there it is a great little place to visit.  They have unique and authentic home decor, dishes, kitchens utensils, outdoor/patio, clothes, jewelry, rugs, bath things and fun foods from many places around the world!I plopped a bunch of flowers from Hobby Lobby into my yellow pitcher, literally, set it on a red charger plate with a doily and sprinkled a few pieces of the potpourri on the plate. Then I put some candy corn into a mason jar and tied it with some ribbons and added my  jar filled with the potpourri and I can feel and smell fall in the air!