15 No-carve Decorated Halloween Pumpkins

Today I had the privilege of having lunch with little grand at her school and viewing the 100+ pumpkins students put on display for a decorating contest.  It amazes me how many creative ideas they came up with.  Of course I saw a lot of "off Pinterest" designs too.  I took a hand full of photos of some of the ones that grabbed my attention the most to share with you on my blog today.  Enjoy.

DIY Natural Photo Stand



When my son announced he was getting married in a log cabin church a few years ago and wanted a rustic Tex-Mex wedding rehearsal dinner I was excited.  We found a restaurant off the square with a nice outdoor porch and wrought iron tables and chairs.  We were lucky the late fall weather was perfect.

Cinnamon Orange Sugar Cookies

Great Grand helped me make cookies this week.  He especially enjoys cut outs, so we made mummy cookies to take to a family party this weekend.  That is, if we have any left!  I use my standard tried and true sugar cookie recipe with a twist.

How to add color, overlays and text to your photo post with PicMonkey

How’d you make that?  On PicMonkey, a free editing program.  Here are the step by step directions.  

A boy with a box, and his imagination.

This 3 1/2 year old may be thinking while inside the box, but he creates while there…and sometimes steps out too.  Great grand walked in my front door today and immediately spied “the box”.  The first words he spoke were, “What’s the box for?”  I said, “What ever you want it for.”

Hearty Beef Stew

One of our favorite fall and winter meals on a windy cold day is soup.  There is something very comforting about a house with smells of a hearty beef stew cooking in the kitchen.  I am expecting the man grand and great grand to be here for supper tonight and because I know how much man grand loves soup, I’m making the heartiest of stews I know how to make.  My dad made it a lot and I get a little nostalgic making it.  In a good way.  We’ll start with the beef…

Sunset Silhouettes

I grew up in the corner of Texas where the Red River meets the panhandle.  The skies are immense and the sunsets are spectacular.  A few days into visiting at my mom’s farm the little grands and I took in these breathtaking views.  As the sun went down, the colors changed, the air chilled and I began to see the real beauty of the night in the silhouettes under a crescent moon. 

Sweet Potato, bacon and onion soup.

There is a lovely gentle rain falling today and it’s a little cool.  Sitting here listening to the weather man promising even cooler temps tomorrow evokes visions of steaming soups in my mind.  As usual I had one thing in mind and must adjust because a key ingredient is not in the pantry.  I really wanted a loaded baked potato soup, but only have sweet potatoes.  Thus, a new sweet potato soup that will satisfy any hungry soul. Here is the recipe, try it, you'll like it. 

DIY Halloween lights kids can make.

I found out just hours before time that great grand was coming over for two days of daytime babysitting.  I had to quickly come up with some entertaining crafts for a 3 1/2 year old to keep him entertained.  We did our usual cookie baking, hide and seek games, object counting, color identification, book reading, playground time, McDonald’s lunch and this fun DIY Halloween light decoration.

Tea tips and Raspberry Flavoring Recipe

Sometimes I think my hubs is simply brilliant.   Southerners drink a lot of tea "ya'll know".  We make full pitchers of tea all the time but it gets frustrating when the tea bag falls into the boiling water and has to be fished out after those 3 precious minutes of steeping.  I walked into the kitchen recently and saw that my cleaver hubs had come up with a super simple solution to that problem.  He simply clipped a clothes pin to the paper tag!  Geesh, why haven't I thought of that before?

While I'm talking about tea, which I usually prefer iced and unsweet, here's a little raspberry flavoring that is also nice to have occasionally.  Especially hot.

Raspberry tea flavoring:
To 1 1/2 cups water brought to boil in the microwave,
Add 1 cup defrosted frozen (or fresh is you have them) raspberries and allow to rest 2-3 minutes.  Pour liquid through a strainer to remove pulp.  Add a little to your cup of hot tea (and sweeten if you like) keep remainder in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

P.S. Hot tea is best when you pour the hot water over the tea bag in your cup or tea pot and allow it to steep for 2-3 minutes.  Take the tea bag out after that to keep the tannin taste down.

Pumpkin Pie Spice and Allspice recipes

Don't have pumpkin pie spice?  No problem, here is the not so secret recipe:
3 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground ginger


BTW, here's the secret to Allspice too:
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teapoon ground nutmeg
    (makes 1 teaspoon allspice)
Allspice would be an acceptable substitue for the pumpkin spice in my Pumpkin Cranberry Cookie recipe since the only difference is no ginger.

Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies + pumpkin pie spice and allspice recipes

I started out with Ranger cookies in mind but was missing some key ingredients so plan B…check the fridge for what I DO have.  There sits a half can of pumpkin puree.  So, here goes… basic cookie recipe substituting pumpkin for the liquid, changing up the spices and using some dried cranberries.  Dang, that worked pretty well I will have to make some for the Thanksgiving dessert table.  So, now I can share. ♥

Fall crafts with kids

Activities and projects with the grands is one of my favorite things.  It is always inspiring to watch the kids imaginations grow and their creativity take over with only a few supplies and a little supervision.  They know when I come there will be "projects" and are always anxious to get started. These are some projects you can easily do with your young people this afternoon with craft paint, markers and any hard surface scraps. 

We found some salvaged brown tiles in the garage from the bathroom remodel to make a wonderful background for a night scene of spooky creatures! Girl grand made fingerprints and set them loose like a flock of bats.  Do bats fly in flocks?  Hm.  

 

On some larger tiles and tile pieces we used a paint brush to add Craft paint on their palms and fingers to make hand prints.  Some added details and they became spooky but friendly spiders.  The grands presented them to their mom who is thrilled to have them.

To do this easy craft, gather some craft paint, paint brushes,  permanent marker and a hard surface to paint on such as tile or plates or wood.

Spread out some protective covering like garbage bags and put old shirts on the kids.  I first drew a picture to show the kids what we were going to do then started by painting black craft paint onto one hand.  Have them spread their fingers a little and warn them to keep the hand still as you press it firmly onto the surface.  Remind them not to move their fingers.... then lift the little hand straight up and onto paper towels.  Sit it aside to dry before using a dab of white paint for eyes and smiles.  Then draw on a permanent marker spider web.  In between drying times give them extra tiles or hard surfaces to make finger print animals.  BTW, a pencil eraser makes a nice little white circle for the eyes...  If they don't like the way it looks, it's easy to wipe away the wet paint and start again.

DIY Wire Basket

The salt and pepper shakers I keep on my stove sit precariously close to a space leading to the back of the stove. I had this small piece of wire left from a project hubs made that could be turned into an easy, do it yourself, wire storage basket.  It took about 30 minutes, a wire cutter and some pliers to provide a secure spot for my 1970 vintage shakers. 

Texas fall color

In this part of Texas fall color doesn't eminate from golden aspen trees or bright red maple trees, but it does come alive in purple thistles

and plum cactus tunas

and breathtaking sunsets.