I'm Back!

 “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.” - Albus Dumbledore

Right.  Now that I have my Harry Potter Nerd-ness out of the way, I can get on to my post! ha!

Been busy. With? Work. Crafts. Knitting...

Wha???
Yes. Knitting.

But not any of that 'silly' needle knitting...Im talking LOOM Knitting!
I'm addicted, folks.
Its hardcore knitting time around my house.

Infact, I've opened up an etsy shop to sell some of my awesome creations!
I even do Made-to-Order hats.
Oooo, Fancy.

So here is my official Etsy shop...
Are you ready for this awesomeness?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/brandiewhy

So, look, shop, buy, order.

Christmas is right around the corner! 

Homemade Laundry Soap

So my awesome friend Marlana, is a freaking Susie Homemaker! (And I say this in the nicest way, no negativity here!)

She makes homemade, EVERYTHING.

She is the person (and recipe) behind my awesome Bread that I make!

So it shouldn't come as a surprise to you, that she also makes her own Laundry soap.

Yes, her own LAUNDRY SOAP!
(Click the link...it'll take you right to her recipe and method!)

I have yet to try this out.
Why?

I'm Lazy.

But I intend to do it, soon...I even have all the ingredients to do it....just no motivation :)

Hold onto your Shorts!

Fall/Autumn Projects!

Shaving Cream leaves
Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Thanksgiving Placemat


Winter/Christmas Projects!

Beaded Ornament
Glitter Ornament

Holiday Treats

And MUCH more!
I have a lot of things all planned out for Chrismtas/Holiday Projects, its not even funny!
And I'm excited about all of them!

Happy Halloween, Folks!

I hope everyone has a Happy, and SAFE, Halloween!  Enjoy your time out with your kidlets, or at home handing out candy to all the spooky goblins that knock on your door, begging for candy.  

Going Apple Crisp Batty over here!

I haven't done a whole lot of Halloween Crafts here latley, besides the carving of the pumpkins.

Why?

Good Questions.
Lack of desire to do them?

Maybe I'm just Halloween-d out.

But I did manage to do this fun project

Its a bat!
See it?   The hands are the wings?
We had fun doing it...but I didnt get step by step pictures...sorry lol

I will leave you with my apple crisp recipe though :)

Freaking DELICIOUS.

5-6 large green apples

1 tsp lemon juice

3/4 cup regular sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon

2 tbsp of melted butter

... mix that in with the apples

Spread the apples in a pie dish, or a baking dish of some sort

then mix, 2 cups rolled or quick oats, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, a stick of butter (or 4 tbsp)

to drizzle on top

if you want, you can also sprinkle a small handful of brown sugar on top for that extra crunch and

 sweetness!

bake on 350 for 25-30 mins until the oatmeal is crispy and the apples can be poked with a fork 

easily.

Carve Em Up, Sam!

Well, the pumpkins are picked.

The designs are drawn.
Now its time to CARVE!

But first, we have to dig the guts out!
Now let me tell ya...this is the ONLY time I could get Aiden's hand inside that pumpkin.
He just thought it was gross and wouldn't do it...chicken. haha!

But we eventually got it all cleaned out.
Him and Papa got the face all drawn on earlier, so that part was done.

Now it was time to get out the fun little knives, and get started

I have NEVER let Aiden do this part...but he actually asked to do some of it this year.
Was I scared to hand a 4 year old a sharp cutting utensil and let him go at a pumpkin?

Oh HELLS YES.

I did closely supervise.

And it only lasted all of about 30 seconds when he told me it was 'too hard' for him.

Thats cool, I'll do it.

I love how his turned out...him and my Dad always make the coolest faces!

Then we had the tiny little pumpkin that I made into a baby pumpkin..literally..with one tiny little tooth :)

Oh, and my Owl pumpkin...I'm loving me some owls these days!

Earlier in the week I gave Aiden a plate full of paints, and a mini pumpkin, and let him go at it.

This is the result.

What have you done for Halloween crafts? Carved pumpkins? Lets see!

Pumpkin Pickin Time, Ya'll!

I love to make the 45 minute trip to go pick pumpkins!
I love the excitement of going and finding the PERFECT pumpkins.
I love the cooler weather (Ok, so it got into the Mid to upper 80's that day...not so 'cool')
I love all the orange little balls you see just waiting for you out in the field as you ride up on the hay ride.

I DON'T Love...Riding on the hay ride then standing up and still having those sharp little sticks of hay stuck in your pants and jabbing your butt the whole time you're trying to find a pumpkin...and trying not to make a big scene as you try and pat your own butt down to get it out of your pants! HA!

Anyway,
Back to the subject...

PUMPKINS!

 J'adore.

Check it out, I did remember something from French Class! WOOT!

RUN! We got our pumpkins guys!

This might be one of my favorite parts of the whole trip...seeing the kids throw the pumpkins up on the trailer.  (Not because they are young, and strong...nope...its because its FUN to watch! lol)

The mountain and crops are awesome too :)

I didnt get many picture of the other things, but I did manage to get a picture of my Sweet Roasted Corn with butter and Parmesan cheese...Oh, My, Word.  Delicious.

I cant wait to get these bad boys all carved up!
(Uh, I should say I cant wait to SHOW you all how these were carved up...since we've already done the carving!....whoops.


And just to leave you with a little Halloween Treat..

 BOO!

The smell of Fall (and Fair) is in the air!

 I love this time of the year!
The weather starts cooling off (In AZ that means it gets below 70 at night!)
And the County Fair comes to town!
Us country folk just LIVE for the County Fair!
...I just wish Carnies weren't so scary...sheesh.

Anyway, I didnt get a lot of pictures from the fair...I was more interested in watching my son have fun on the rides.
But I did capture this one of my son and my husband riding the Bear ride.
You can see my husband hand...sexy right? ;)

haha.

After our exciting time at the Fair, I came home and was bored.
My son and I took a trip to the Dollar Tree to see if I could find anything to inspire a craft.
6 dollars later, we were homebound with a craft, some halloween decorations, and a balloon.
(Sorry, no pic of the Balloon...But we HAVE to get one everytime we go...a certain 4 year old thinks its a rule or something!)

I got started by taking a foam floral wreath, and spray painting it black.

While I was waiting for it to dry, my puppy decided to visit me and just stare at me with those creepy yellow eyes of his.

But he's cute, so I took a picture :)

After I threatened the dog and told him "You touch my crafts, you die" (ok, he wont die, but I wouldnt be Happy, thats for sure)

My son convinced me it was time to put those decorations up in my front yard.

So we did.

Cute, right?
(The 'dummy' in the red shirt isnt a permanent decoration ;) )

Ahhh, now we get to the fun part!
Opening up the Candy Corn! YUM!
I had to separate the 'bad' ones from the 'good' ones.
I had a helper.  

He 'disposed' of the 'bad' ones for me!

I might have helped, a little.

Now to get to work, and quit eating candy.

I got out my trusty hot glue gun, and go to gluing down the candy corn.
I would lay down a long line of glue, then hurry and put all the candies on.
I found that it really DID help to have them all ready and sorted out before you did this...you have to move kind of fast!

I alternated the direction of the candies.

Then I added the rows around the outside.
I love how that turned out!

I didnt like that there was a black hole in the middle...so I did something about that.

Then I sprayed a few coats of clear coat on it.

and
VOILA!
DONE!

I LOVE how it turned out!  Very festive!!

Leaf Painting

It's that time of the year again folks.

Sick Season.

Blech.
We had a sick day recently in the HB household...It wasnt fun.
Fevers and Belly Aches all around!

So I thought we should do a fun little project that didnt take TOO Much effort, and it would get our minds off of being sick.

So, we put on our flip flops, and headed to the front yard.
We have 2 massive Mullberry trees out there...that have massive (and not so massive) leaves!

So we picked 1 or 2....or....5 or 6...haha

I got out my fall colored paints, and we got to putting some paint on those leaves..

I think my son liked this part the most.....
It went from nice and uniform colors....

to all out madness, and mixed colors! ha! 

As long as he was having fun, I didnt care!

After we got the leaf painted, it was time to turn it over onto the paper.

Then press alllllllll around the leaf, but dont rub, just press.

 Thats ImPRESSive :)

He decided on 4 leaves that day, and this was his finished work!

Doesn't look much different once its all dry!
So fall-ish!

Oh, and I had to totally get in on the action too!

Only I printed mine on canvas...Now to find a frame!

Remember my decorated pumpkin yesterday? And I said I had another one to do?
Yeah, we did that too.

Only, my 4 year old decided that some of the puff paints needed to smudge....Oh well :)

Are you doing any fun fall projects?

Decorated Pumpkins!

My Father In Law grew some really neat white pumpkins this year.

I loved them!
And he gave me 2 of them!
I didn't turn it down when he offered!

They are almost perfect! They have some boo boos, but nothing horrible!

I saw a fun idea on....

Where else? 

Pintrest :)

Naturally!

So I took a pencil and VERY lightly traced some swirls on the pumpkin.

I then used some black puff paints and 'dotted' along the traced lines.

 I got a little creative, and put a "Y" for my lastname :)

I cant wait for it to all dry so I can put it back on my table.

I have another one I'm going to do the same thing with! LOVE IT!!

Pumpkin Muffins

I found a recipe on Pintrest.

Does that surprise anyone? Nah, didnt think so.

So I was a skeptic the first time I made it...2 ingredients?
Thats it?
Impossible.

But its true....

So here's the process....

Yellow Cake Mix, and a can of 100% Pure Pumpkin.
Put into a bowl together.

Mix.

And Mix.

And Mix.

....and freaking MIX.

Ahhh there we go, all together.

Use a hand mixer..just some advice.

The batter is super thick.
So it'll be a little hard to put into the cups, and they wont look pretty!

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven...

For 20-25 mins!

Ahhhh all done!
Mmmm makes the house smell AMAZING!

While they taste great on their own...I decided to put a little glaze on the muffins.

1 cup powdered sugar
1tsp milk
tiny splash of vanilla extract.
Mix, mix mix mix.
Drizzle.

While these ARE great the day you make them...but if you let them sit overnight...they are even better!! YUM! Great for breakfast!

Busy Busy!

I swear I didnt forget about my blog...really! I didnt!

Busy time are here, and I havent had time to craft, or think...but I do have some crafts on que...so stay tuned!

Here's a story...

My, Oh My...I've been a bad blogger!
Its been 3 days since my last confession...I mean post ;)

I've been busy...
Not with crafting though, unfortunately...with LIFE.

My Brother-in-Law got us ticked to the Monster Truck show that came to my town.

LameSauce.

Seriously, it sucked.

They had advertised all these big named trucks...and yeah...none of them were there.

Sure, they were cool looking, but Eh, too loud.

Its sad that I went to a Monster Truck show, and the highlight of my weekend was getting a Brita Water Filter Pitcher....

Sad right?

Aside from the exciting times mentioned above, we had some not-so exciting times....

Fixing Cars.

My husband car quit working, and at first we thought it was the starter (EEK!)
But it ended up just being a dead battery..THANK GOODNESS!

So naturally, my son had to go out and help :)

While they were doing their 'Manly bonding' over the engine of the Mustang...
I went inside and taught myself how to Knit.

Yes, Knit.

I can't claim it was pretty...Infact...it was down right AWFUL!

BUT! I did get better! See?

Now that I have the basic stitch down, its time to learn some other ones...Oy Vey! 

And now to the highlight of my Son's weekend/week...
He finally got the courage up to hold my sisters' bird, Jazzy.

Him and Jazzy were like peas and carrots by the end of the night.

The End.

Another Salsa post? Yes? No?

Too Bad, You're getting one.

Why?
Because I had about 10 emails after the last salsa post, asking to elaborate on my process, and recipe.

So here we go. Ready?

Ok, so here are my Ingredients: 

 28oz can crushed tomatoes

3 cloves of fresh garlic
(dont go using the canned stuff)

1/2 of a Yellow Onion
4 Jalapenos 

1/2 tsp black pepper

1tsp salt.
hand full of fresh cilantro

Cut the tops and tips off of the Jalapenos, and take out the seeds and as much as the veins as you can (Thats where the heat is...if you like it hotter, keep them in)
 Then cut them into big pieces, as well as the onion, and put them in the food processor.

I also put in some of the crushed tomatos, just to give it some liquid to work with, but I didnt take a picture of that, sorry. BAD BLOGGER!

Blend it all up, then dump it into a bowl, then onto doing the same thing with the Garlic and Cilantro and the rest of the crushed tomatoes.
(I had to do this in 2 steps because I have the worlds smallest Food processor...if you have a big one, feel free to do it all at once!

So when you get it all finely chopped up, put in the salt and pepper.

Then stir it really well.
You can eat it right away, but I like to let it sit in the fridge for atleast a few hours to let all the flavors combine.  Overnight if you can resist!

So there, there is my Salsa making progress....so quit reading, go make it!