Printable: Owl favor boxes

So I fell in love with these owl favor boxes last year from Paper Crave, but I couldn't think of a reason to use them. But aren't they such a fun, tactile favor box? I just think they are brilliant and I LOVE THEM. I used them at the buddy's Preschool Halloween party this year.

I won't lie. They weren't fast. A lot of hand cutting-but I did have a couple large hole punches that sped up the process a bit. I went looking for a large scallop cutter-but the only ones I could find had additional holes/embellishments in them. weirdoooos. Why can't there just be simple scallop cutter that's not little? Why?

 Anyway. . . aren't they cute? I almost named them they were so cute. Now they are gone, alas. I may go make some more.

enjoy!

 We had a family reunion down in  St George this past weekend. My dad and I spent one of the days painting at Zion National Park. It was gorgeous, and surprisingly FREEZING in the morning ( FYI: the wind is nasty before the sun gets down in the canyon).

So we had time to do two paintings alla prima. It was fun, hard, and worth every minute!!
The biggest challenge of painting alla prima is the light-the sun is constantly changing and so the colors, the shadows, everything you are painting basically, is constantly changing. It means you have to paint fast!! But it makes it pretty exhilarating, and frustrating all wrapped up in one. I'm looking forward to going back!

Simple Halloween Favors

Our first Halloween party was Saturday, so I was sewing and hot gluing like a crazy woman last week finishing our costumes. The day of the party came around and I hadn't even gotten to party favors.  So I needed something fast. I pulled out the extra fabric from our costumes (didn't haven enough of my shiny green darn it). This is what I did: (sorry no pictures, remember that need it fast part)

*cut out some 6 by 8 inch squares.
*I folded them in half-right sides together (fat way not skinny)
*sewed up two of the edges leaving one side open
*Filled them with candy
*changed the colors on some toppers I had hanging around from last year
*printed them out and hole punched them (a 2 inch to cut them out -and a bitty one for a little hole at the top)
*strung them on a string and tied the tops shut.

Should I admit I did all the assembling in the car on the way to the party? Good thing it was a little ways :)

Anyway, if you need some party favors fast, here are the toppers I used. I know it's not Freebie Friday, but looking at the rest of the week, I'd say there's a pretty slim chance I'll get to it Friday-so enjoy today!!


Get the Free Halloween Toppers Printable here.

enjoy! Yeah, I should wait to post our costumes .. . .but I'm just so excited they're done, I couldn't resist ;)

Freebie Friday: Happy HOOlloween Cards

About 2 days before Halloween last year I needed some Halloween cards and designed these in an hour or so. I thought they were fun and simple, but it was so close to Halloween I didn't have a chance to share them. I don't think the owls are "in" as much as they were last year. But they are still festive and cute, right? Anyway, print on letter size white cardstock and cut in half to make two cards-then fold them in half.

Get the free printable cards here.

Enjoy!

monster making

Saturday is our first Halloween party. We have a few this year, and I'm so excited because I have been planning our costumes for months now. Yup, I'm still sewing them. Yesterday I was working on the neon green velour pants for the hunny (yes, my mother tells me he's amazing because he's willing to go along with my hairbrained costumes). I didn't really have enough fabric left to make them, but thought, heck, I'll just make them a little skinnier than I planned and they'll fit, right? WRONG. Rather, they fit me great. But I'm 5'1" and the hunny is 6'1" and I could barely get them around my thighs . . . . well, we had a really good belly laugh when he got home from work and he tried them on (after I ripped out the seam through the thighs). Oh man, if only he would have let me take a picture! So, we tried them on his arms and other than being a little baggy around his wrists, they fit perfectly! Good thing we need sleeves too huh! So the adventures continue . . . I'm making all our costumes except the Buddy's. His I just didn't think I could find the right fabric for it . . . But other than a few minor details the sweeties purple costume is done. Hopefully I'll be done with mine and the hunny's by Saturday!

Peaches

Okay, so canning peaches takes a lot longer than I thought. My first time ever, by myself that is. Here's what I learned:

plan on 20 quarts taking several hours (read: 6-8 hours)
a half bushel (one of those boxes without lids) makes about 12 bottles
when blanching the peaches, it doesn't work very well with unripe peaches. . .  make sure they're ripe, but not over ripe.
don't need an $80 pressure cooker to can peaches, just a $20 water bath canner
put the same temperature of water in the canner that the peaches are (I cold packed them)
even though it only takes 35 minutes (at 4000 feet) to water bathe them, it takes another 25 minutes to get them boiling
only 7 cans fit in the water bath canner, not 12 :)

All in all a great experience and I can't stop staring at those pretty peaches!!

on a side note, I had a lot of peaches so I also froze a bunch. Cut them up, and freeze them on trays before putting them in freezer bags. . . yummy smoothies later :)

Inspiring Weekend

 

Full weekend. Completely inspiring. If you read any mormon mommy blogs you already probably know it was General Conference for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. But wow was it was inspiring! It filled me up with renewed determination to live and love the best I can! We drove up the canyon between sessions for lunch. (Two 2 hour sessions on both Friday and Saturday with a 2 hour break in between). That was also inspiring!!  My favorite talks? President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and Sister Elaine S. Dalton. . . Favorite part about the canyon? The amazing contrast of yellow aspens with tall dark pine trees. Completely inspiring!!