Favorite Things About Fall

Anyone else love fall. I literally have a countdown beginning the first day of September, and I always resist the urge to wear fall attire on the first day of fall. It may be 70 degrees outside, but I’m sure I can make those boots and flannel work.

Pumpkin Patch 2015

Our October is filled with events: hayrides, festivals, and family traditions fill our fall up to the brim. We go to the pumpkin patch; we carve the pumpkin… and I dream about making those cute pumpkin topiaries out of dollar tree plastic pumpkins but never do.  I do buy a number of glittery pumpkins from there every year.  Even if I don’t get that topiary made, they look darling just sitting around.  The sheer number of fall-themed decorations makes me reconsider yet another project… though I do love my burlap garland I made.

I’m often teased because I buy more Starbucks in October than I do in the whole year – not because I’m in love with their coffee, but those Pumpkin Lattes make me feel like fall.  And apple cider.  Oh my!

Progresso Soup

We also eat soup – a lot. Tomato bisque, chili, and potato soup are our favorites. What about you all? Do you have a favorite soup?  I love homemade but Progresso is convenient and delicious!   When I’m feeling especially healthy, acorn squash soup is divine, but I’m not quite sure what to pair with it. Do you eat grilled cheese sandwiches with acorn squash soup too? I love to cuddle up and watch movies with my husband while under a cozy blanket and warm soup.

When it comes down to it, I think I love fall the most because it isn’t hot. Seriously though, fall is my favorite because of the memories shared with people. My family always too advantage of the beautiful weather and local activities to create memories together when I was a youngster, so now I do that very same thing with my family.  Trips to the zoo, walks around the neighborhood, playing together at a park…they’re all special because of the people I’m spending time with.  Traditions are important, though not necessary or not always budget-minded, they do make our memories.

Knitted Baby Dress Pattern

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Knitted Baby Dress Pattern

Today is the second day of our 31 Days of Knitted Gifts!  Our previous two projects can be found here.  This sweet knitted dress is perfect for fall.  Just picture it paired with leggings and baby boots.  Absolutely adorable!  Oooh, and if you added stocking and gold shoes with a gold hair bow it would be perfect for Christmas!

Needle and yarn
Needle:

US 7 – 4.5 mm

Pattern: This free pattern can be found on Ravelry.com.

Notes:

Followed the listed pattern through row 27, doing seed stitch instead of ribbing between the leaves. On row 28 did 25 stitches in seed stitch, bound off 31, 50 seed stitch, bound of 31, 25 seed stitch (last stitch knit 2 together). Couple more rounds of seed stitch…then I knit 3 rounds in st st, one round of purl, and started Flora dress with 9 repeats of chart A.  I knit one round then 3 rounds of seed stitch to finish.

13 DIY Kids Halloween Costumes

13 DIY Kids Halloween Costumes

Halloween will be here before we know it! Some of my best memories as a child are dressing up and going trick or treating, and now it is my turn to share those memories with my kiddos! I have been on the hunt for some great DIY kids costumes and I came up with a great list, so I had to share! This list has it all, from Disney princesses to super heroes. What do your little ones want to be this year? Tell me below! I am always on the look out for more great ideas! Be sure to pin, tweet, and share! Happy costume making!

  1. Disney’s Brave (PICTURED)
  2. Baby Lion Tutu (PICTURED)
  3. Magic Man (PICTURED)
  4. Where the Wild Things Are (PICTURED)
  5. Minnie Mouse (PICTURED)
  6. Mister Rogers & the gang
  7. A-Team
  8. Minions
  9. Mermaid
  10. Mega Blocks
  11. TMNT Tutu
  12. Scuba Diver
  13. Super Hero

Patriotic Clothespin Wreath

Clothes pin patriotic wreath

This Independence Day, Jill Bauer, QVC’s Home-Savvy Hostess, has the perfect patriotic décor tips to help celebrate America in style and she’s allowed me to share her easy peasy tutorial with you all.  I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to make this craft!  I think it will be one that my little girl will like to help me out with!

To make this Red, White and Blue Patriotic Clothespin Wreath, you’ll need:

  • – 12” wire wreath
  • – Red, white, and blue spray paint
  • – Clothespins
  • – Cardstock
  • – Starpunch (I might use foam stars with my daughter)
  • – Hot glue gun

To assemble:

  1. Spray paint the wire wreath white to hide the metal frame.
  2. On old newspapers or a drop cloth, line up all of the clothespins. Spray paint them red, white, and blue. (I did an equal amount in each color.) Let them dry for 1 hour.
  3. Meanwhile, punch several stars out of the card stock. If you didn’t use white card stock, just spray paint the stars white and let them dry.
  4. Clip the clothespins onto the wire wreath, alternating them between the second and third rings. (I started with the red clothes pins, then did the white, and finished with the blue.)
  5. Hot glue the stars over the blue clothespins.

Patriotic Mason Jar

To see more crafty goodness visit Jill on QVC.

Here’s another easy patriotic wreath:

Patriotic WreathPatriotic Wreath

Shamrock Bead Craft for Kids

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Shamrock Bead Craft for Kids

My daughter loves pony beads, I mean loves them!  Whether it’s stringing them on pipe cleaners or gluing them on paper.  She can’t get enough.  Maybe it’s because it’s one craft that she doesn’t need much help from me on.  I don’t mind because it’s a great exercise for her fine motor skills.

Yesterday, she asked to do a craft with beads.  After I scratched my brain for a moment I came up with this idea!  She loaded the pipe cleaner with beads and then I bent it into the shape of a shamrock.  We were originally going to hang it up as a sun catcher (with these suction cups) but she’s had too much fun carrying it around for that.

If you have a pony bead craft to share I’d love to hear about it!

Check out our other St. Patrick’s Day crafts:

Shamrock Craft for Kids

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Shamrock Craft for Kids

This shamrock craft took only moments to make and my daughter had so much fun making it.  She “painted” on the front of a card that we’ll be mailing to her grandparents for St. Patrick’s Day.

Clover Crafts for Kids

We used a shamrock cut out that we got from the dollar store.  You could always find a clover online, print it, and then cut it out too!  We taped it to our card (folded cardstock).  I found an unused pencil and let her loose stamping away.  Notice how she even made a design on the paper plate as she dotted the excess paint.  What an arteest! : )

We used our favorite Crayola washable paint so it was okay if we accidentally got a little paint on her clothes.

Check out our other St. Patrick’s Day crafts:

St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Craft

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St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Craft

 

This lovely piece of art has been hanging on my refrigerator for almost a year now.  I just love it!  I can’t take credit for it though.  My daughter made this craft with the help of her Sunday School teacher.  The idea is simple enough though that I wanted to share it with you in case you have a little one that might enjoy a rainbow craft.  Paper, glue, crayons, Fruit Loops, and cotton balls are all you need for rainbow magic.

Check out our other St. Patrick’s Day crafts:

St. Patrick’s Day Treats For Kids

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St.Patrick's Day Treats for Kids

Irish or not — here’s a sweet treat you can give your kids this St. Patrick’s Day.

Grab a mini wooden flower pot at any craft store for about a quarter a piece.  Add a little black paint and gold glitter.  Once it dries all you have to do is add your multicolored mini Twizzlers (or cut regular size Rainbow Twizzlers and add them) and you’re finished.  Rainbow and pot of gold in one.

Easy, tasty, and oh so cute!

Check out our other St. Patrick’s Day crafts:

Frozen Olaf Pumpkin

Frozen Olaf Pumpkin

By now, you’ve already been bombarded with 5 dozen sweet Elsa’s knocking on your door to say trick-or-treat, you’ve already handed out all of your candy, and you may have even put away all of your Halloween decor.  I know, I know, it’s a little late to be posting about a pumpkin but this Olaf inspired pumpkin was too cute not to show you.  Isn’t it darling?  A friend of mine made this Olaf pumpkin with her sweet daughter and gave me permission to share it.  I just love it!

Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Cake

This is a story about a pumpkin cake.  A cake that was born in the mind of a busy mama months ago.  This week she finally sat down and made the cake.  All went as planned until she decided to leave it overnight instead of taking pictures right away.  Later she would find out that that was a bad idea because the cake would fall overnight.

She, well, I tried to salvage the best pictures I could the next day but it wasn’t quite as cute as the day of.  Above is a crummy picture I took from my iPad that evening when I finished the cake.  I sent it to a few blogging friends to get their feedback on it before I left it alone for the night.  I had no idea it would be the best picture I would get of it.  *sigh*  The next morning I wanted to cry.

You see, the cake I made wasn’t any old cake, it was a cake with a mound of whipped cream icing on top of it.  The directions say to serve right away or up to eight hours later.  I knew better than to leave it for 12 hours.  I knew better!  I guess baking and decorating a cake with a three year old didn’t leave me in the best state of mind for logical thinking.

Despite the sad outcome of the cake I put enough effort into it that I wanted to show it to you anyway.  Plus, it’s a great reminder that bloggers aren’t perfect!  Sometimes it’s okay to reveal that, right? :)

Miette Cookbook

My idea for the cake cake from the Miette cookbook, which I have to stop and say is absolutely adorable and full of useful tips for creating gorgeous cakes!

Fall Pumpkin Cake

Here’s a picture of it after it slumped a bit.  It’s the best picture I could get considering the circumstances.

Here’s the whole process of the cake in case you’d like to make one yourself.  Don’t forget to serve right away or within 8 hours! :)

Pumpkin Cake Tutorial

You can see here how the icing slumped along the sides.  All in all, it was still a really delicious cake that made my daughter and I made together.  I guess that’s not too bad.

Are there any baking projects that you would like to complete this fall?