Happy Halloween!!

Have a frightful, delightful Halloween night!

~ BOO! ~

Our trick-or-treating is over.  Our neighborhood is quiet again.  

Today was my son's Halloween party at school and guess who won first prize for Best Costume?!?!  (go ahead...take a guess!)   

YES!! 

My little 'Wild Thing' took Best Costume prize for the 2nd year in a row!!!  

 

(he's dying to eat it: it's filled with candy, of course!)

So with all of the Halloween hoopla out of the way, we're free this weekend to kick back and relax.  I plan to bake more cookies tomorrow in spooky shapes, and then we'll do some Halloween-ish activity and have a spooktacular family movie night.

Be safe out there, have fun and savor every minute of the fun before it's over for another year! (and don't eat too much candy!!)

My favorite goblins

I snapped this photo just a couple of hours before trick-or-treating :)

Halloween Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating tonight. 

I just set out our pumpkin (above).

Hope everyone has a safe and fun night filled with candy!!

Wild thing!

I told you we're big fans of the book, Where the Wild Things Are...

My son is going as Max this Halloween!

Let the wild rumpus start!

What are your little people going as?

Vintage Bicycle

I have a fondness for old things...and I adore old-fashioned ladies bicycles...the kind that were meant for carrying flowers to a picnic or dressed up with flags for a parade. So when my husband and I found one at a few years ago at and old car swap meet for $40, I wanted it.  Even though it looked nothing like the romantic vision I had in my head...

Yeah it was in rough shape, and not-so-very-cute looking with the scratches and rust, but it had potential!  A diamond in the rough! 

Actually I think it was the old-fashioned bell on the left handlebar that redeemed it for me. So cute! Anyway, I knew my husband could restore it for me and make it the romantic ride of my dreams :)

So my husband took it apart, piece by piece - sandblasting (down to the bare metal) what he could, fixing what was fixable, and replacing what was obviously too worn. He repainted it with automotive paint for durability and I chose a Ferrari red paint that glistens in the sunlight with fleck in it.

I asked him to paint something cute on it to personalize it, so we came up with "Judy's Floral Delivery"  (since I carry flowers in the basket) followed by the year of the bike.

We bought new white wall tires, a new white leather seat with embossed flowers in the leather (my hubby found it at the bike shop on clearance for a steal!), new handbars, new handlebar grips, and a darling New England woven basket :)

I absolutely love it!  It turned out beautifully!

This past summer, my husband found ANOTHER bike - this time with the metal basket.  He plans to begin restoration on it this winter.  I'm thinking of painting this next one either pink or lavendar...

which would you chose??

Final Halloween Prep

Well this is it - the final week leading up to Halloween.  I bought all of the candy.  The decorations are done. I have to do some baking - and then finally, it'll be pumpkin carving time! 

We did a test run yesterday afternoon with my son's costume to make sure it fits and take some photos (you can never depend on the weather this time of year, so I thought it would be best to take some while the weather was cooperating!) 

I think we're all set! 

Are you ready?

Halloween Tidbits

Everyone enjoying the weekend thus far?

I've got a bunch of last minute Halloween things to do: I have a few more decorations to put out, have to finish decorating indoors...

we're making a haunted (gingerbread) house today, and I have to come up with something awesome to bake for my son's Halloween party at school. Right now it's a toss up between cupcakes and cookies (leaning towards the cookies because everyone and their uncle does cupcakes these days).

I'm also thinking about doing lollipops. I did the Martha Stewart white chocolate ghost lollipops a couple of years ago and they were a HUGE hit (and so simple to make)!

I just hope the day goes by slowly; I've got a lot to get done and no time to waste!

Halloween is nearly here!

It's good to be home

A dark and rainy Friday night.  The end of another long work week.  A good game of hockey on TV, and a big pot of homemade beef vegetable soup for my guys.  There's nothing like comfort food for the soul, and what's better in the fall and winter than a hearty bowl of tummy-warming soup? My guys like mine chock full of stuff...

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. sirloin tips or beef cubes
1 small bag frozen mixed veggies
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup parsley flakes (I use parsley dried from my garden)
1 can beef broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
salt & pepper to taste
2 green onions, finely chopped (fresh from my garden)
1/4 cup chopped onion
Mrs. Grass vegetable soup packet
1-2 tablespoons oil to coat pan
1/2 cup mini bow tie pasta

Instructions:

1. Brown meat & onions in oil in large pot.

2. Add soup starter mix & 8 cups of water.

3. Boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Add frozen veggies, potatoes, parsley flakes, broth, tomato paste, bow tie pasta, and salt & pepper. 

5. Let simmer for approximately 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy!

Incredible Doggie Cookies

Aren't these so adorable? 

I bought these super cute gourmet doggie cookies at a recent craft festival from an awesome doggie bakery called Just Dogs! Gourmet in Cranberry, PA (they have locations all over the country).  Among their usual varities, they have an incredible assortment of seasonal and holiday treats that are as tasty as they are adorable (taste-tested by my Westie Ollie)! They're made from whole grains and dog-safe carob, and look every bit as cute as my made-for-human cookies!  Why shouldn't our furkids get a special little treat, too?

Halloween Inspiration!

Inspired by a Halloween decorating post on Hope Studios, my son and I made an afternoon trip to Joann's and Michaels for some last-minute Halloween decor (all 40 - 60% off!) for his playhouse.  We used fallen maple branches that my husband piled up in the corner of the yard (luckily he hadn't gotten around to burning them) to create a spooky, bare-branched tree in the front of the playhouse and then decorated it with spider webs, vultures and crows.

The birds give it that Alfred Hitchcock eerie feel.  The haunted house sign ($2.99 at Michaels), some crows (the last ones I could find in the store), and three creepy rats complete the spooky effect. I used other things from around the yard to embellish it.

I wired some of the crows onto the roof...

I love how it turned out...it gives the house a just-spooky-enough look without being too frightening for a toddler.