Horn o' Plenty

Both our boys had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off this past week for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

That means I heard a lot of, "I'm hungry!" "Can I have a snack?" "When's lunch?" The lunch question was posed at 9:38 on Wed. morning.

Luckily I saw this cute Cornucopia idea HERE!

And I threw some together for a surprising snack!

The recipe is basic:

Sugar Cone = cornucopia

Goldfish & Pretzels (or whatever your kids like to munch) = bounty for the inside

Fill up the cones with your snacks.

Feed them to your starving children.

I told the boys to look "Thankful" for the photos. This is what I get...Louie the actor in the shot above & John, Mr. Get out of my way, Mom, I'm watching Phineas & Ferb, in the shot below!

Either way...they both loved it!

Side note...John (our weird one) LOVES ice cream cones with out the ice cream! If we are at a restaurant that includes a cone as dessert, we have to order it for him minus the ice cream. So these snacks were right up his alley!

Gobble Gobble!

Last year I found this adorable Turkey made out of a 2 x 4, paint stick and craft sticks!

Source: u-createcrafts.com via Amy on Pinterest

I found it on Ucreate where Wendy from Craft Goodies was guest posting for the day. If you haven't checked out either blog...DO IT! They are both fantastic! And Wendy has a whole collection of awesomely cute 2 x 4 crafts!
So, anyway, I whipped up a bunch of them. They were fun to put together and I had my own little Turkey Assembly Line going. I must have counted wrong, though, because I gave them all away and didn't save one of our house!
This year I whipped up ONE. One for ME! Here he is:

HERE is the tutorial I followed. 

Then go on and click on the Craft Goodies link...you won't be sorry! So many great ideas!!!

Thanksgiving Sharing

I hope you all had a Wonderfully Warm & Blessing Filled Thanksgiving!

We sure did!

We spent the day with my parents and grandmother. My mom made the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes...and I was in charge of cranberry salad and pies!

Why can't we all just get along?!?! lol

I whipped up a cute little hair clippie for Kat. You can find the instructions with great photos HERE at Happy Hour Projects!

The little Gobbler was eyeing my Pecan Pie!

LOVE how the ribbon looks like a crown from the front! Kat was our Turkey Fairy Princess!

This was such a cute and easy project!

Then it was time to eat! John & Louie entertained us with a song John learned at pre-school. 

(sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping)

Mr. Turkey (Mr. Turkey)

Big and Fat (Big and Fat)

I am going to eat you (I am going to eat you)

Just like THAT! (Just like THAT!)

After we were all properly stuffed, James helped my dad set up their ginormous Christmas tree. Then we headed home.

Now. We live in Nebraska. And it was November 24th. In NEBRASKA. And our thermometer on our van was reading 70 degrees! In November. In Nebraska! That only means one thing...

LET'S GO OUTSIDE!!!

Louie was invited to spend the night with my parents and Kat zonked out on the ride home, but John whipped out the sidewalk chalk while we put up the outdoor lights. Here is his portrait of moi!

Kid made me look 50 pounds lighter!!!

These lines are his rendition of my plaid shoes! John is all about the details!

He's also all about Self Expression!

I'm in full Christmas Mode now! How about you?

I still have a few Fall-ish things to share that I'm going to try and squeeze on here.

But, Advent starts this Sunday and this year we're doing a Jesse Tree! I'm excited to share it with the kids and with you. I'm also in the process of putting together our Countdown to Christmas Activity Advent Calendar. Not to mention the presents I need to make. Hmmm...I'm getting tired...time for a nap!!!

And! Be watching...I'll be doing an Ornament a Day like last year!

Thanksgiving Display

All my fellow bloggers are so creative and wonderful at decorating their mantels for the different seasons and holidays. Since we don't have a fireplace or mantel, our piano in the living room is the go-to for decorating!

Here's what I threw together for Thanksgiving.

The pilgrim I received as a Bunco prize. The jars I made with Dollar Tree vases and candle holders. The gourds are from Dollar Tree. The tall grass and rocks are Dollar Tree. The jar on the right is filled with yarn pom poms I made for filler. And I want to focus on the turkey up front...

I made this little guy years ago! He's a pot (obviously) that I painted a pretty burnt orange color and then sponged with Turkey Colors. I hot glued a wooden ball to the top (er, bottom) that I had painted the same color as the pot. The beak & waddle are made from foam and I dotted on the eyes. Then I pulled apart a cheapy leaf bouquet and hot glued the leaves to the back to make feathers! He's so cute and colorful!!!

However. Now that I've shot his photo and I'm looking at it...his little eyebrows kind of make him look worried! Whoops!

It's like he's saying, "Eat BEEF!" lol

Another Fall decoration I cranked out years ago are popping up all over the place now!

Dryer Vent Pumpkins! We made a TON of these twelve years ago for my bridal shower centerpieces. Weird? My bridal shower was on Halloween!

Anyway, back in 1999 (so last century!) no one took shot by shot tutorials of their crafts. On a film camera. Ouch I'm getting old! But if you like this VINTAGE Dryer Vent Pumpkin...I'm sure you can just Google it and have a choosing of tutes at your fingertips!

Basically, we cut up the vent and then hot glued it into a tight circle. My dad rigged this wire in the garage that we hung them from to spray paint orange. We made pipe cleaner vines and hot glued it and leaves and raffia coming out of the hole on the top.

Here's a shot of the bottom:

Not too bad for a 12-year-old pumpkin!

Felt Leaf Garland

Oh Sweet Pinterest.

How do I love thee?

Too much! That's how!!!

So. I was on Pinterest. Again. Duh. 

And I found THIS amazing garland.

I love Fall colors, falling leaves, and garlands to string up around the house! Perfect Project!

Elsie at A Beautiful Mess Blog has a great tutorial post on how to make your own! Go check hers out...and then check out the one I made:

I used felt I had on hand and cut out a LOT of leaves. A lot.

Awesome Autumnal Colors!

Did I mention I cut out a lot? A lotta leaves.

I had a golden/yellow embroidery floss on hand, and that's what I used to hand stitch the leaves together.

Again. A. Lot. Of. Leaves.

Time to string them up!

I really do love this garland. The colors are just enough to pop without being TOO much. It's simple, but so pretty! And, since it's almost time to take down the Fall stuff and put up the Christmas stuff...you have a whole year to make one for yourself!

Crock Pot Applesauce!

Since I've been professing my undying love of Pumpkin...I feel the urge to say, 

"My name is Amy. And I think applesauce is yucky."

Phew! That's a load off my mind!

But. Seriously. It's kind of slimy and bland. Ugh.

My hubs & kiddos LOVE applesauce, though. And, being the terrific wife/mom I am...I've always bought it for them. I don't like buying the small plastic cups with the fear of chemical leaching hanging over my head. So I buy the jars. And my family binges on it. And then the jar gets shoved into the dark pit of the fridge. And then I find it...a dried mountain of apple stuff with an apple-ish lake in the center. ICK!

So. The last time my kids started whining asking politely for me to buy some applesauce I looked at our kitchen counter and saw a mountain of apples. CLICK when the light bulb in my head! We'll just make some. 

(Reading multiple blogs and Stalking Pinterest has given me Creative Superpowers...in my head)

I read a handful of recipes for crock potting applesauce and came up with my own version:

Peel and quarter 6 apples & put them in your crock pot.

Pour 1/2 a cup of water on top

Sprinkle on a Tablespoon of cinnamon

Sprinkle on 1/4 cup of sugar

Add a dash of vanilla (I didn't measure. Blame my Grandma. She didn't measure, either.)

Then I got my big wooden spoon and stirred it all up a bit.

See:

Cover it all up and cook it on low for 4 hours. Smells DELISH!

When times up, take your potato masher and mash them apples! It makes a beautiful squelchy noise while those yummy apple cinnamon smells hit your nose.

I plopped some into bowls while it was still warm...

...and fed it to the Masses!

Total Hit!

Thumbs Up!

And. Guess What??? I liked it, too! The flavor was awesome, and I liked how chunky and non-slimy it was!

Cars Birthday Party

A few months ago we celebrated Middle One's 4th Birthday.

He is a Pixar Cars nut, Cars 2 being the first movie he was able to go to the theater to see! So, of course, he wanted a Cars Party!

If you're doing Cars...you HAVE to include McQueen & his best bud Mater.

My first project was making fork & spoon holders after being inspired by Simply Crafty!

Here's what I did...

Mater & McQueen are empty tissue boxes. I cut out the tissue opening to look like their mouths were open. Then I spray painted Mater brown and McQueen red. Everything else is cut from construction paper! I used the tissue boxes as a guide for how wide to cut out their eyes. Mater has one working and one broken headlight. And McQueen has his racing number on his nose (?), and I cut out yellow lightening bolts for each side. These were a huge hit! Now they're on John's dresser and hold all his treasures!

Here's a shot of the cake table. I make the kid's cakes 90% of the time. John's birthday fell in the middle of the busiest and craziest month we've ever had! So I sucked it up and bought one! He already owned the character pillows (Disney Store on our trip to Branson in 2010). I bought the funnels from the auto section in Wal-Mart.

And here's what the tables looked like! I also got this idea from Simply Crafty and I used it on the guest tables and the cake table. It's as easy as putting down a black plastic table cloth and then running yellow duct tape down the center. Instant Road! And each table got a cone in the middle!

I was pretty pleased with how fun everything looked, with fairly little effort!!! John was thrilled...and his smile is the best decoration EVER!

Cozy Fuzzy Pumpkin Head

I've just got to share this adorable hat I whipped up for Kat last month!

What do you think? I'm pretty proud of it! I like how it has a ridgy knitted look, but it's all crochet!

I found & followed the pattern HERE at Nothing's Creative Anymore. I was able to crochet & finish it up in a couple of days! Sarah's pattern is sized for an average sized woman's noggin. Even though I made it for my little girl, I followed the pattern so she can wear it for many Fall seasons to come!

The sun was not cooperating with me, so I had to do some funky picnik editing!

Hmmm...watching the leaves fall!

Here she is, excited about the curly vine!

Ahhhh...finally a normally lit photo! 

I've gotten a zillion comments from people out and about! You can tell it's big on her, but I think it sort of adds to the cute-ness!

Pass the Pumpkin!

Here we are. In the middle of November!

It's pretty hard to believe in my little corner of the World, because our weather has been so mild!

Then our Middle One snapped me back to reality after preK this morning when he started quizzing me on Thanksgiving facts. "Well. Mom. You know it is a week from today."

Humph. I KNEW it was...I just kept not thinking about it!

That same Thanksgiving Encyclopedia I call John continued talking and talking and...talking...and said, "And. Mom. Thanksgiving means Pumpkin Pie. I'm gonna eat some. Without that white stuff. And I'm gonna make a pie sandwich. That's two pieces together. Only with out meat." And then he talked some more.

That being said, we are pretty big Pumpkin Fans. Yummmm-Me! (pronounced like yummy, just very enthusiastically)

So I about had a Pumpkin Fit when I saw this big of Sweetness over at The House of Hepworths a week ago.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing

Did I salivate? Did Pavlov ring a bell?

DING DONG!

Allison posted a fantastic tutorial / recipe for these babies!

 Check out how mine turned out:

They are so insanely moist and delightful.

And that cream cheese is literally the icing...on the cookie!

We ate these for breakfast (don't judge), snacks and dessert for two days straight. Then I forced my hubby to take the remainder to work so I don't grow as round as a pumpkin! So, be prepared, the recipe makes a LOTTA cookies!

HERE is the link again. Click it and grab your ingredients. You won't regret it.

But you just might lick your computer screen!