2015 Ornament Exchange - Favorite Things Decoupage Ornament

Messy Messy Fail - I have labeled containers in the basement that house all of my decorations for the different holidays.  Sometimes I am good about changing my decorations out, sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I am so bad about putting them away that my poor house cleaner gets fed up with my slackerness and ends up doing it herself.  And then they sit in boxes that she happened to find in our basement (surprise, surprise!) on the floor because I keep forgetting to put them away in their proper container.  At least I don't have to search too hard for my Christmas decorations this year.

Tidy Victory - I've gotten a boat load of Christmas shopping done for the boys with lots of good deals, including a HUGE discount from Toys R' Us on some Thomas the Train items.  I used a coupon that expired on Halloween night for $20 off of any wooden Thomas train set, and found the Railway Snowy Mountain Figure 8 Adventure on clearance for $42.85, which means I snagged it for $22.85 - SCORE!  It's listed now for $122.99, I wonder if that was a listing mistake on their part?  Either way, works for me!  Speaking of Christmas, without further ado.........

Happiness is Homemade Linky Party #97

Messy Messy Fail - Quick trip to my hometown with the boys to chaperone a music festival and I forgot to bring the second most vital item - the Thomas the Train whistle.  Every night before the UPKer goes to bed, we watch a quick 10-minute Thomas episode while he drinks his milk.  He sings along with the jingle at the end of the show and blows on a little plastic train whistle that Santa brought a few years ago.  Not having the Thomas the Train whistle rather ruins the whole bedtime process.

Tidy Victory - I finished my awesome ornament for the 2015 Ornament Exchange being hosted by Erlene at My Pinterventures.  I will be revealing the ornament I made with a tutorial on Tuesday, coming up real soon.  In the meantime, click here to see the beautiful ornament bought by my partner Rhiannon from Insolence and Wine for me along with the other bloggers who posted in her group.  Mine is the adorable snowman wineglass!

Welcome back to another great week with us ladies! We had a great turn out last week and it is so fun to watch, how our link parties go with holidays and the weather..I feel inspired and now hungry!!!

Don't forget since its a new month we have new co-host's so make sure you take the time to visit and say hello!

Holiday Fun with Our Bloggy Friends - Fall and Thanksgiving

Messy Messy Fail - Successful 4th birthday party with the UPKer today.  For sharing with his friends at school tomorrow, I ordered 30 blue and yellow (minion!) cupcakes from Sam's Club that I ALMOST forgot to have my husband pick up before 6 PM today.  Remembered in just the nick of time only to have the toddler pull the box off of the table and face down onto the floor.  I managed to save them, minions aren't neat creatures anyways.

Tidy Victory - The minion cake I made for our family party actually turned out okay!  Totally ended up winging this one and ran out of blue food coloring, but all in all I was quite pleased.  Nothing more fun than making a cool cake!

And now we interrupt our regularly scheduled program for ANOTHER awesome round up with some awesome bloggy friends.  Check out our collaboration for fall and Thanksgiving themed posts!

Happiness Is Homemade Linky Party #96

Messy Messy Fail - Tomorrow is the UPKer's 4th birthday and I was planning on making my cheesy artichoke and spinach dip (super tasty!) for his minion party.  Unfortunately in my hasty purchasing I bought creamed spinach instead of just regular frozen spinach.  This was certainly a near fail, thank goodness my husband was going to the store for beverages and picked up the right spinach for me.  I wonder if the creamed spinach would have worked....

Tidy Victory - I won again!  Co-hosting the Happiness is Homemade Linky party that is.  Such sweet ladies and fabulous co-hosts, just scroll down to see what's going on.....

Hot Apple Cider and Pomegranate Punch

Messy Messy Fail - I have these adorable bat Jamberries from last year that I was so excited to put on for Halloween this year.  I finally realize tonight that I forgot to put them on.  But I gotta remember the glass is half full - at least I put them on the day before Halloween and not the day after.  Semi-fail, but still a fail.

Tidy Victory - The boys were looking kind of shaggy and with school pictures and the UPKer's birthday party coming up, it was time for our bi-monthly visit to the salon for a trim.  Must have been my lucky day - I got appointments for both kids with our lady Miss Faith within two days of calling - woo hoo!  That's a great big check off of my to-do list!

Grandma's Apple Crunch

Messy Messy Fail - I knew it was starting to get colder out.  I documented our first snow fall last Thursday on my Instagram account.  It needs to be in the lower 30's for it to be snowing.  That's cold.  Did I bring my summer outdoor plants in to keep them from being murdered?  Of course not.  Farewell yellow begonia, coleus, potato vine and canna lilies.  It's been real.

Tidy Victory - I'm getting ready to participate in this really cool blogger Ornament Exchange hosted by the magnificent Erlene - go to her blog and click on the different postings for every day of the ornament exchange!  I submitted my name and contact information along with some ornament preferences (which I have none, the more random the better!) and was paired up with Rae from Wine and Insolence to exchange homemade or purchased Christmas ornaments.  We have exchanged a few emails and some of our similarities are uncanny.  I've been plotting a few ornaments to make, but I don't want to give away any details just yet (she likes surprises, like me!).  Stay tuned for a post about our exchange and how I made her ornament - can't wait to share!

DIY Children's Ghost Costume

Messy Messy Fail - I hadn't tried the Keratherapy Daily Smoothing Cream that came in my June Ipsy glam bag yet.  I'm silly.  Sometimes I'm in too much of a hurry to thoroughly read things, like, oh say, directions.  So there I am trying my new daily smoothing cream for my DRY, ROUGH HANDS.  It smells REALLY nice and does seem to be moisturizing, but it's awful sticky.  Why would a daily smoothing cream for the hands be so sticky?  Hmmmm....check directions.  Ah, that would be because it's for HAIR.  Not HANDS.  Way to go, Katie.

Oh Hey, Friday - Lately

Messy Messy Fail - Truly nothing worse than having a dishwasher full of FILTHY dishes when you discover you have no more dishwashing detergent left.  Luckily after frantically digging in the cupboard below my sink I found a sample tablet that I had gotten at Sam's Club.  Not quite as clean as the usual BUT better than nothing.

Tidy Victory - I finished the UPKer's ghost costume last night at 11 PM.  I plan on publishing a tutorial on my quick diy children's ghost costume shortly.  Never thought I'd be making my own costumes for my kids, but I managed to put this one together.  Go me!

Aunt Sarah's Balsamic Corn and Bean Salsa

Messy Messy Fail - My little pot of Tu'El de-puffing eye lotion finally ran out.  I cried.  Worse yet, a new one is $28.  I loved it so much, but is it worth it?  Anyone else have a drugstore brand to recommend?  Help!

Tidy Victory - We've had a few really nice days in between cold/rainy days here.  To take advantage of the sunshine, the boys and I went outside to plant some small pots of mums that I purchased for a steal at Walmart hoping DESPERATELY that they will root and return next year.  I have planted mums 20398723031240879 times and NEVER had success with them taking.  The toddler looked on while contained in his excer-saucer and helped the UPKer and I keep good spacing between the plants.  We also put in some gorgeous sedum that was given to me by a dear friend (I am looking to add some late summer color to the garden).  We'll see next year if it worked!

Caramel Apple Mummies

Messy Messy Fail - I never even think to look at tags for washing directions on clothes anymore.  I figure that clothes from the stores I buy at do not require dry cleaning, unless it is a dress or dress slacks.  So imagine my surprise when I pull one of the new tops my sister purchased for my birthday out of the washer to see that it had shrunk.  100% rayon, dry-clean only.  I did iron and get it almost back to its original shape, but not quite the same.

Tidy Victory - I was able to go through all of the UPKer's and the toddler's clothing drawers and remove everything that was too small.  In one day.  I shocked myself.  

Holiday Fun With Our Bloggy Friends Roundup + Giveaway

Messy Messy Fail - I've been watching Big Love season 2 for a few weeks now, borrowed from the library.  DVD's are only rented out one week at a time, even if it is 4 disks of 3 episodes, 1 hour each.  That's 12 hours of episodes - who can watch all that in one week?  Well, on my third week of renewing online, I was rejected.  With my tail between my legs, I returned the DVD's to the library.  Luckily, the librarian on duty was one of my former students and allowed me borrow it for another week.  I'm furiously trying to watch an episode every night so I can have it finished by Wednesday.   

Tidy Victory - I've got 1 1/2 bushels of freshly picked apples to use up so I made Ina Garten's applesauce which I posted about here last year.  This is the most delicious homemade applesauce recipe EVER!  I like to make two batches of it to store in mason jars and freeze or use throughout the winter.  Minimal sugar (1/2 cup of brown sugar) and it is SPECTACULAR!

And now for a special treat........

Glowing Safety Pouches for Halloween

Messy Messy Fail - The toddler seems to be in a throwing stage - he throws toys, food, anything that he can get into his chubby little hands gets thrown.  I found enough food for a picnic underneath the radiators in the dining room where we eat.  Gross-a-ross-a.

Tidy Victory - I'm making the UPKer's Halloween costume from scratch (you'll see what he requested below) and it seems to be working out quite well.  I hope to post the directions for this easy and quick costume shortly to help any parents out there who can't sew (like myself) and need to come up with something good!