Halloween Witch Sign for the Door

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

This is the first Halloween that my little girl will be able to walk up to people's doors. I still get to eat most of her candy, but she will be more excited about Trick-or-Treating than she was last year.

So the hubby and I both want to take her Trick-or-Treating.

But who will guard the door and hand out candy?

The witch.

Yes, I know we will likely have some hooligans come and take all of the candy and/or homemade Halloween-colored playdough that I leave out in a shallow bowl. (What's that? I already scarfed down 1/2 of the bag of Snickers?)

I'm excited to be able to walk my little chocolate chip cookie door to door to get her (me) some candy...so hopefully the witch can handle any shenanigans at home.

Halloween Cutting/Gluing Craft with Paint Chips

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

My house is severely lacking this year when it comes to Halloween decorations. I blame it on the craft fair that I signed up for at the last minute (with 2 weeks to get all of the supplies and make enough stuff to have a legitimate booth), but really, it's because we have limited decorations (until they're on clearance November 1st - so look out next year).

However, I saw some ideas floating around the internet on how to use paint chips for art projects. I stopped in the paint section of our local Home Depot (while the hubby was ogling power tools and such), and picked out some Halloween-ish colors. As I was making them, I thought that this would be a fun project for preschool or elementary school students to work on their cutting and gluing. Just pre-draw the outlines for the kids to cut out.

I made Frankensteins, ghosts, and candy corn. These can be used as Halloween cards, decorations, or just a fun craft project. Here's how you can do it, too.

1. Pick out the paint chip colors you like. I went with shades of green for my monsters, gray for the ghosts, and orange/yellow for the candy corn.

2. Pencil in the outline of your designs. I cut the monsters into rectangles, the ghosts into, well, ghosts, and the candy corn into triangles with rounded edges. Then cut out your shapes.

3. Cut small triangles off of the tops of the Frankenstein monsters. When glued onto black paper, it will look like they have black hair.

4. Cut out backgrounds for the characters. I used card stock because it is sturdier. Use black for the monsters (because it will double as their "hair").

5. Cut out circles for eyes (I used the scraps from the paint chips for the colored parts). Cut out mouth shapes. Get creative. I'm not a great drawer, so I went very simple.

6. Glue the cut out characters onto the backgrounds. (I used a glue stick.) Then glue on the eyes and mouths and decorate with finishing touches.

Avocado Mac and Cheese

**UPDATE**
 I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

Are you looking for a way to sneak healthy food in with the foods your kid already loves? Well, this probably isn't it because the avocado turns the macaroni green. And I mean green. However, if you're looking for a tasty way to mix up your typical mac and cheese, keep reading...

I went through a long phase of being obsessed with avocado. If I saw an avocado recipe on Pinterest, I pinned it. I loved it mixed in foods, cooked in foods, and in plain slices. And best of all, baby Cady loves avocado, too. It's so much easier to prepare meals for a kid when they like what you like.

One day, I found this recipe for Stovetop Avocado Mac and Cheese that made my taste buds heave with desire.

So, I gave it a try...twice. Here is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
* 10 oz elbow macaroni (almost a whole box)
* 3 avocados, cut into chunks and divided
* 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice (to keep avocados from browning)
* garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 cup milk
* 2 cups shredded cheese (I liked Mexican Blend, or a 4 cheese blend)

1. Cook the macaroni al dente. Then drain.

2. Meanwhile, put 2 avocados, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cilantro, and lemon/lime juice in a blender and blend until it is smooth and creamy.

3. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Then whisk in the flour and milk. Stir it with a wooden spoon until the sauce begins to thicken. Then stir in the cheese until it melts.

4. Combine cooked macaroni, avocado sauce, and cheese sauce in a large bowl.

5. Garnish with the remaining avocado chunks and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6 people (or Cady and I for dinner and lunch the next day)

It's thick and creamy...and very filling. If you like avocado and cilantro, this is a good recipe to try.
A word of caution: The sauce hardens quickly so don't leave your dishes sitting out for very long. Lesson learned the hard way...twice.

Here is what it's supposed to look like.

Here's what mine looked like (when I first made it with different noodles).

Oh well. At least it tasted heavenly.

Purse Organization on a Budget

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***
I don't know about you, but my purses were toppling off of the top shelf of my bedroom closet. There was no rhyme or reason to their positioning, and for the most part, they were just thrown in there as I quickly changed purses out.

I didn't even know what my collection looked like anymore.

Then I cleaned out my closet and donated a few old purses (and kept a few others for when Cady wants to do "pretend play" - can I get a holla for cheap toys, people?!).

I tried to reorganize the remaining purses, but it looked exactly the same as the mess I started with.

Solution: Hang them in the coat closet.

Inexpensive Solution: Hang them in the coat closet with shower curtain rings. You don't need to pay for fancy, expensive organizational tools...just be creative (or copy other creative people). I found this package of brand new shower curtain rings at the Goodwill store.

After 10% off and adding tax, my simple purse organization system only cost me $.96! Less than a dollar...and now I can find every single one of my purses.

If only I found money in each of those purses.

Hair Dryer and Curling Iron Storage

 **UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***
We recently renovated our master bathroom, but don't let the word "master" fool you because it's a rather small bathroom. If my hubby wants to stand at the sink with me while we brush our teeth, he has to wedge my robe (that's hanging behind the door) into the corner of the wall so that he can open the door all the way. I have to hang my cosmetics behind the door as well or else our stuff just wouldn't fit in there. It has everything we need, but when it comes to storage, we have to be creative.

In order to have more space to move around, we went with a smaller vanity. We love it and it's beautiful, but storage space in minimal. I needed a place to put my hair styling tools and miscellaneous items, and it ended up looking like this...

Disaster in progress, I know. It could be worse...but if I didn't do something soon with the little that I had in there, it was going to get much worse very quickly.

So, I was at the Goodwill store and I found these two desk organizers. Hmm. They looked big enough to hold my stuff, and after tax, I only paid a total of $1.92!

I cleaned them up, put my hair dryer in one and curling irons in the other and voila! They fit!

For less than $2, my bathroom vanity is neater and now I have even more space for anything else I need to store in there.

from mess to magnificent

Jack-O-Lantern Felt Activity

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

Hello, fall. This is the time of pumpkin everything...including easy early childhood activities.

What is my little Cadybug up to? She is happily playing with the pumpkin felt activity I made for her. With this one simple activity, she is learning so much:
* Fine Motor Skills - she is using her pincer grasp to place the pieces on the pumpkin
* Cognitive Skills - she is placing the pieces in a face pattern
* Social-Emotional Skills - as she creates a face for the jack-o-lantern, I talk to her about their expressions (silly, scared, etc.)
* Science - she is learning light vs. dark with the yellow face pieces vs. the black face pieces
* Body Parts - she is learning parts of the face
* Colors - as she picks up a piece, I say its color
* Shapes - as she picks up a piece, I say its shape

It took me about 10 minutes to make, but it has kept my toddler busy for at least 20 minutes at a time!

What You Need:
* 1 piece of orange felt
* < 1 piece of black felt
* < 1 piece of yellow felt
* scrap of green felt
* a dab of hot glue

Cut the orange felt to resemble a pumpkin.

Cut the green felt to look like a stem and glue it onto the pumpkin.

Cut the black felt to make different face pieces. These are the ones I did, but you can be really creative with this part. Cut the yellow felt to make face pieces so that the jack-o-lantern can "light up".

Store all of the pieces in a bag when your toddler isn't busy playing and creating faces.

Kitchen Scrubber and Soap Plate

**UPDATE**
I've moved to ladybugsandlattes.com
You can find this post and more here
***

My kitchen scrubber is always left on the counter, near the edge of the sink. It gets nasty and leaves the counter a slimy, wet mess. Who knows what kind of grossness is sliding around my counter top, but what I do know is that I want a place to put it so that it doesn't saturate everything near it. (Yep, first world problems...)

I saw this cute Kitchen Dish Soap Cake Stand on Pinterest, and I was inspired to try to make one of my own and quarantine my wet scrubber.

What a coincidence! Today was scratch-off day at the Goodwill store and I received an extra 10% off of my purchases...so Cady and I spent about 45 minutes rummaging through the shelves to find craft-inspiring treasures.

Success! I found this medium-sized ceramic plate and this short (but sturdy) glass. I immediately loved the plate because it has dividers on it. Not only will my scrubber stop sliding around the counter top, but it won't even slide around this cake stand!

Glass: $.49 + 10% off + tax = $.47
Plate: $.99 + 50% off yellow tag items + 10% off + tax = $.48
Total Price: $.95

Less than a dollar to make my life a little simpler. I can handle that.

Here's what I did:

1. Peel off all stickers and residue and then wash thoroughly with warm water and soap (it was sitting on the shelves of a Goodwill, afterall). Then thoroughly dry the glass and plate.

2. Spread hot glue on the bottom of the plate and the bottom of the glass. Then quickly place the glass in the center of the plate.

3. Let dry and then display your frugally classy scrubber and soap plate!

You might be thinking, "Rachel, why don't you save yourself the trouble and just leave the plate flat on the counter?" Well, I've been wanting to do a test run of making a cake plate, so I thought this would be a nice start. Plus, yes, the plate keeps those scrubber juices from sliding around the counter, but I just feel better about it being a few inches above any accidental brushing with other items.

I really like how it turned out, but I think I will eventually try to paint it to match my kitchen decor better. Other than that, I am super happy with my new kitchen scrubber and soap plate...and the lack of scrubber slosh left on my counter top.