Shiver me timbers!

IT'S FREEZING IN MONTANA! Laugh all you want sitting in your outdoor pools in Arizona/California, because YOU don't have ME there!!! :) as you can see I was a pirate for Halloween. I originally bought the costume when the plan was to be in Arizona for a costume party, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it, but I'm glad I did anyways. I did face painting at a carnival that was open to the public so I got to dress up twice!

This is the full costume. Minus the eye patch because I had to wear the long eyelashes!

Not the original hat it came with but this one is much cooler! AND I got a sword.
I cant wink but I can do a might fine AAAARRRG!!!!!

On Halloween I had to wait around too long for trick or treaters so I came up with a more comfortable solution to my pirate costume. Not as cool. but not as hot and uncomfortable!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Waxed leaves

Another idea mom and I found on a blog, waxed leaves. Gather pretty oak and maple leaves from the yard and dry them off. Have a bowl full of cold water and some wax paper on the counter ready to go. All you do it dip the leaves in the wax and then lay then in the cold water. The wax hardens instantly and you have a perfectly preserved and shiny wax leaf to do whatever with.

We laid then out on the table like so...

And strung then on clear thread to make a garland like this...

Pumpkins

While searching for crafty things to do with pumpkins I found this picture on a blog.

she made them so pretty! so we tried to do the same! we bought an apple corer to make all of the holes. it was really hard :(

My wrist is so sore but it was fun and they turned out cute.

The Pumpkin Patch

There is a book that I am in love, some may say obsessed with, called, "What's new cupcake?" It is a book all about cute cupcakes and how to make them. I spotted it while at work one day and since then I have always wanted to make their apple cupcakes. They were red and shimmery and in a cute little basket.

Since I have had no occasion to make them, such as: teacher appreciation week or a dentist's birthday party, I have been waiting for the opportune time to tackle the task. I decided instead of apples I would do the exact same thing in orange to create little cupcake pumpkins.

The search for solid orange cupcake liners 2 weeks before Halloween is apparently impossible so I settled with white ones with pumpkins printed on them. We shopped for all of the appropriate candies for the pumpkin stems and tendrils, also nearly impossible and a box of mini doughnuts. I started with white cake batter and made it orange and baked my cupcakes. I took regular white sugar and turned that orange as well, followed by orange flavored butter frosting also turned orange.
Orange sugar
Orange Batter
Orange flavored orange frosting
Laffy taffy tendrils

Once cupcakes have cooled, you take a mini doughnut and cut it in half horizontally and place it on a little dollop of icing on top of the cupcake. The doughnut is solely to create the height for the pumpkin and the small dimple on the top. Cover sides with frosting and place in freezer for 10 minutes to keep the doughnut from slipping around.

Once out of the freezer cover everything in the orange frosting and then roll in orange sugar. After it is covered in sugar you can touch it and mold it easily to create the shape of pumpkin you like. I took green, yellow and blue laffy taffy to create different shades of green stems and tendrils. You could also use a tootsie roll or green twizzler type candies which, would be easiest if you can find them! Place stem in the dimple on the top and the tendrils all around to create a cute pumpkin patch, and then you too could be surrounded by 24 pumpkin cupcakes taking up room in your refrigerator that no one will eat :)

Cute eh? Here are some other fun ones

"The 1st year is the hardest"

Today was our first wedding anniversary. It kinda snuck up on me. I didn't realize how we were flying through September until it was over. With lack of preparation and money we decided to just have a nice candle lit dinner at home (plus it was Sunday) I had no input on what I should make for our dinner so I made mini meatloaves last minute. I at least had time on Friday to do some shopping for the table settings. It turned to be very classy and we enjoyed it. I enjoyed putting it all together and i cant wait to have my own house and some friends to invite over for a fancy dinner someday.

Dinner was tasty and for desert I made a Lemon Mousse topped with huckleberries.Yum Yum.

We chatted until the candlesticks were little nubs. It's nice to take some time away from work and the TV to just sit and talk with each other about our lives and our future. We never get to do that very often.
This is a picture of the top of our wedding cake, kinda smashed and minus the flowers. It is tradition to eat it on your one year anniversary. But its old and tastes like freezer so we passed on the cake.

Wednesday is brads birthday and he pretty much guessed all of the presents I was going to get him, but I got them anyway and wrapped them up all pretty like. He is on a diet right now so he crushed my hopes and dreams of making him a fabulous birthday cake. (he is not as into holidays as I am so he doesn't really understand my disappointment) I still got a thrill from wrapping the presents tho.

October is going to go by in a flash and hopefully beginning of November I will be in Arizona visiting all of my family and my new baby boy Jacob! can't wait to hold him and give him kisses. I am also excited to be warm, and hang out with my sister! Just a mini vacation will be nice to have, I haven't been anywhere in years! Hopefully a honeymoon is in the near future for us. Brad has never been out of the states and I am dying to go to Hawaii, or ANYWHERE for that matter. We are moving back to Montana in a week and plan to start the temple prep classes so we can go to the temple soon :) and then a honeymoon, I hope.