Ghostly Pretzel Rods & Cookie Headstones

I am in charge of dessert for Logi's kindergarten class Halloween party, and I decided I would create a graveyard of cupcakes and top them with frosting and Oreo cookies crumbled into dirt.  and then top the dirt with gummy worms, ghosts and headstones.  Very spooky and Very tasty!

 I buy bags of melting vanilla chips online.  I am certain you

can find at any baking supply store. 

Use a glass or stainless steel bowl, over a pot of water 

(only a few inches of water, as the water should never touch the 

base of the bowl) on medium heat.  Stir often.

Keeping the the double boiler on medium heat, I switched out bowls

and started melting some standard dark chocolate chips.

I used a spoon to coat the pretzel rods (broken in half, as I am going

to stick them in cupcakes and full size would be maj overkill). Then

set dipped (and dripped off, into bowl of coating) pretzels on a 

parchment lined tray to fully set up.

Melted dark chocolate.  Be responsible, don't like the bowl!

After melted turn the heat off, but leave over the warm water until

you are ready to transfer.  The best thing about working with melted 

chocolate, if it starts to harden, pop it on the heat for a minute and it

will quickly melt again!

I bought single layer cookies (this cookie is usually sandwich cookies,

so I was excited to find them as singles)  I placed them plain side up, on

a parchment paper lined tray.

Transfer the melted dark chocolate to a bottle. 

 They aren't perfect, but sure did turn out cute! 

 I used too many vanilla chips, so placed the excess melt on a piece

of parchment and spread out with a spatula to set.  I then broke

it up into bits and popped in a freezer safe bag and into the freezer for

a later date bake session. 

I will certainly post a picture, once these little goodies are plopped 

in the cupcake graveyard!!!

Final Product!
They were scrumptious and adorable!
Use my recipe for frosting, at the beginning of this
post, and use green gel to get the 'grass' then crush
Oreo cookies for the 'dirt'.

 So easy, cute and tasty = Halloween success!

Fire Fighter Princess & a Little Candy Corn too...it's tutu making time!

My sweet Logan (she is 3) is pretty funny.  I have enjoyed her Halloween costume ideas over the past month or so...here are a few:

Road

Wall

Road that turns into a Trunk

Ballerina

Princess

Couch

Fire Fighter

She finally settled on being a Fire Fighter.  So easy!  I was feeling lucky.  Then, she switched it up (after I had the hat, realized she had a yellow raincoat and cutie striped leggings that would be perfect for a little fire fighter) and decided it was back to Princess...quick thinking on my part and I excitedly said, 'ohhhh, you can be a Fire Fighter Princess, how cool is that!?!'.  She was on board. 

I decided the 'Princess' element would be a red tutu (since I had supplies on hand), which is the cutest and simplest craft EVER...

All you need is ribbon, tulle and a good pair of scissors.

I always buy spools of tulle after holiday sales (black & orange after Halloween, red, chartreuse & hot pink after Christmas) and keep it on hand, because who knows what occasion might be on the horizon that is screaming for a tutu.  I usually use a thicker ribbon, but I had this on hand.  My hands are overflowing with new house, new baby and toddler, so I was not about to make a trip for thick ribbon. 

 My point, any ribbon will do!

Cut a piece of ribbon long enough for the circumference of the intended waist, with ribbon tails hanging on each end, that will tie in a bow to secure the tutu on the person.  Cut strips of tulle (I cut 10 inch pieces) that will fold in half and attach to the ribbon (the 10 inch sections were not measured, just eyeballed.  No big deal if they are off a bit from piece to piece).

tie knots in the ribbon so you keep the tails that will tie up the tutu, tulle free.

Start at one knot and fold the tulle in half and feed the none folded ends of tulle through the loop. 

Keep repeating, until you reach the other knot!

A few ties in, many to go...

Done.  Easy Peasy!

 Logan had a Halloween parade and party at preschool

The fire fighter took a 10er at the party, but the tutu princess held down the fort and lollipop!

It warmed up for trick-or-treating on main street, so I put shorts under the tutu for the night. 

Sweet little candy corn Benny is such a trooper!  So in love my kids.

(oh and yes, his little candy corn bunter is simply 3 sections of fleece stitched together!)

I hope this tutu tutorial was easy to follow (I often confuse myself, so shout out if not!)

xoxo. 

Paper Mache Pumpkins

This is the first post of my brand new blog (yay, me!) and I am so excited to share a great little Halloween project (or heck, fall project) that you can enjoy year after year!

Here are the supplies you will need:

1. Fake pumpkins (now would be the time to go find them 1/2 off sales, and enjoy for the rest of fall!!!)
2. Glue
3. Tea Bags (4)
4. Computer, Printer & Paper (if you don't have a way to print, don't fret, just used a different paper application, such as scrapbook paper, grocery bags, newspaper)
5. Wax or parchment paper to cover your work surface
6. Plastic cups to set your pumpkins to dry
7. Clear acrylic spray paint (for a final dose of protection)

Here are some easy to follow steps:

1. I bought some cheapy 'fug-kins' (yes, they are often called funkins, but these were extra ugly and fake looking, so I will refer to them as 'fug-kins') at the grocery store. 
2. Googled 'lyrics to Monsters Mash'
3. Copy and Pasted the lyrics into a Word document (repeated the paste until I had a full page of lyrics). I changed the margins on the page so there was very little white paper around the edges.  Then I printed 10 pages of lyrics.
4. Tore the lyrics up into random sized pieces
5. Heated 4 cups of water, then removed from heat and added 4 tea bags.  Let tea steep (bags sit in heated water) for 10 minutes.  Then squeeze bags and remove from water.
6. Add the torn up lyrics to the tea, leave to stain in the tea for a couple of hours
7. Mix equal parts glue and water.  Run the strips of paper through the glue/water mixture and start placing on the pumpkin, starting at the bottom and working your way up.  Press into the groves of the pumpkins as you go.  Overlap, layer, you decide...can't mess this up.
8. I set  to dry with the stem sitting in a plasic cup.  I let them dry overnight.
9. The next morning, go check your cute, new creations (pinch yourself, it was that easy...), and have a few reserve strips of tea stained paper to 'patch' any areas you might have missed (just use a little glue/ water).
10. If you want (and I am thinking I will do this) spray with a coat of clear acrylic spray paint, just to preserve your holiday treasures for many years to come!!!
11. ENJOY!  I have received rave reviews already, and it is so gratifing to say, 'I MADE THEM!'

The pumpkins above were $4.95 each.  The little ones you will see paper mached were  $1...so great! 

  

Final Results!  What a fantastic centerpiece, right!  I am so excited to get a blogging, and hope you will find some inspiration from the things I do, and get aMUSEing today!