Halloween bottles and a pasta problem!

Today I finished up working on my Halloween decor, by putting the final touches on these bottles that we painted. I really liked how they turned out!

I still have to give them a final spray of sealer, so the paint doesn't chip off, but other than that, they are ready to display! The smaller one is a pasta jar that was painted orange on the inside, and other two are green bottles (one olive oil, one wine) that my 5 and 3 yr olds helped to paint on the outside.  

I much prefer the clean, inside painted look, but since I'm also about letting the kids help with the crafts, I'll take whatever I can get! 

The other thing I have going on today is my never-ending battle with pasta. Awhile ago I brought some pasta home from the grocery store that had pasta bugs in it. 

They.are.so.gross!!

And I didn't realize at first what it was, so I did nothing about it. Then they were everywhere. All over my pantry closet. Trying to climb out and on my counter. Ick. 

I took drastic steps. Cleaned out and sprayed down the entire pantry closet. Threw a ton of stuff away. It was probably about time. Ever since I started the Konmari Method  I've had an easier time just throwing things away.  I'm never going to make those strawberry lemonade flavored cupcakes, never. Why did I buy those? I ended up doing some research about the pasta bugs, and the best way to kill them is to put the boxes in the freezer when you get home from the store so the cold can kill the bugs and their eggs. 

Again, ick.

So that's what I've been doing, and I'm happy to say, NO MORE BUGS!!

What a relief!

Except for tonight, when I took a box of pasta from the freezer, emptied it into the pot of boiling water, and a ton of gross little bugs started floating on the surface of the water. I panicked and threw the entire pot down the drain, which lead to my (temporarily) clogging my garbage disposal. But, thankfully, I got rid of all of it! Shudder.

Which lead me to this photo. I had a half a box of clean rotini left, but the other pasta was down the drain, literally. So I found a box of tri-color pasta and picked out all of the white pastas (red bowl) to go with the half box. My 3 kids were none the wiser. Then I made the red and green pasta for myself (and extra for lunch tomorrow).

Dinner was saved, a mess was made but our bellies are full. For that, we are thankful!

Until next time, come and hang with me on Instagram!  It's the perfect platform for a visual person like me; I love looking at all the photos!

-Patricia

Easy DIY: Trash Bag Spiderwebs!

Do you ever poke around on Pinterest, hoping to find that perfect craft to do? One that's not too hard, not too cheap-looking; one that will be done in the course of one afternoon without having to go to five stores to find exactly the right shade of pink or three different kinds of glitter?

Let me present to you: (drum roll please)......

Trash Bag Spiderwebs! 

They are perfect, perfect, perfect for Halloween: not to hard to make, easy to find materials (you probably have a giant box of black trash bags from Costco sitting under your sink right now), and definite decorating punch for the holiday season.

Sold? Me too.

Let's get started!

For full directions and for more info, see the source of this project: Howaboutorange.blogspot.com

Materials Needed:Large Black trash bag

Scissors

Tape

Black Sharpie

Start by cutting off the four sides of the trash bag, so that you have 2 giant squares of black plastic-y material.  I found it easiest to not unfold the trash bag the whole way, but rather cut off the sides while it's still folded up (soooo much easier!).

Then you'll want to fold up the one of the squares into a giant triangle, and tape the open side together, so it doesn't slide all around.  Each bag will make 2 spiderwebs.

Using your black sharpie, make the spider web lines that you want on the triangle (like those in the picture) and then cut those pieces out, leaving something that looks like the image below.

When you unfold it, you'll have a cool giant black spiderweb that you can hang anywhere in your house to give the kids (and Grandma!) a good scare! 

Spooky!!

Want to see the rest of our Halloween decorations take shape? Follow along on the blog via email or follow me on Instagram! 

Happy Decorating!
-Patricia

Halloween Wreath

Have I mentioned I love Halloween?

Problably not enough yet, huh?  Well, you're in luck because I have two more awesome Halloween ideas to share with you!

Remember that super cool Valentine's Day heart wreath that I did? Check it out here if you need to jog your memory. It was/is awesome. I actually left it up for a long time because I liked it so much!

I now have a new favorite wreath that I saw on this Etsy website. Whoever makes the wreaths in that shop is amazing. I seriously could order so many of them, I love them so much!  But, this got me thinking.....these wreaths are so similar to the style of the Valentine's Day wreath....why don't I just make another one in the style of my new favorites? And guess what (drumroll please...) it was sooo much cheaper!

I think I spent less than $5 total on this project. A nicely-made felt wreath that you'd buy on Etsy could easily cost upwards of $30, 40, 50 dollars, not including shipping!  However, I truly believe that what you are paying for is the maker's time. Because let's be honest, these wreaths take time. And if you don't have time to spend listening to your favorite radio programs on Stitcher Smart Radio, doing so much cutting that your hand starts to cramp, and almost burning yourself many times on hot glue....then you'd better just buy a wreath from Etsy.

Here's the How-to:
My materials:
6" strip of black felt (bought off the bolt at Joann's)
1/2 yard of purple felt (again off the bolt at Joann's)
6 googly eyes (just had these around the house, but they sell them at the dollar store)
cardboard box to use as a "form" (you could use a styrofoam wreath form, but then you'll need more felt to cover the whole area)
Hot glue sticks
Hot glue gun
Ribbon for hanging / bow

Basic instructions:
I cut out the "form" from a cardboard box, using a colander as my template.  I didn't want something too big, personally. I made another circle 2 or 3" inside of the colander one and cut it all out.

I wrapped the form with 2" strips of purple felt, securing with hot glue.

I used an old cd to trace circles on the felt and cut them out.  Then I cut a spiral out of each cd-sized circle. Starting from the inside of the circle, I rolled them up and secured with hot glue, making a sort of "flower".

Then I glued each "flower" onto the felt covered form. I added little pieces of felt to the inside layer to support it.

Add your googly eyes to the black flowers.

Tie a ribbon around the wreath to hang or add a decorative bow.

Hang and enjoy!


Stay tuned for my second awesome Halloween idea...it is seriously adorable!

~Patricia

Note: 
My new favorite app on my Nook is Stitcher Smart Radio. It basically holds a bunch of radio podcasts in one place and plays them to you for free.  No need to go to a bunch of websites and try to download them, oh no. They are all right here.

My current favorites:
This American Life
Radio Lab
Freakonomics Radio
Fresh Air

Easy Halloween crafts with the kids!

When my kids get in the crafting mood, we run with it! This time we ran straight to our stack of construction paper and made a ton of Halloween decorations to.....well, decorate our house!  The kids really had a fun time and were super creative and well-behaved.  So definitely worth all the cutting I had to do! 

Scroll down to see some cool ideas...

Mixed-up pumpkin

Love the arms! (because I made them, lol!)

I just wanted to add that you could use the crinkly arms to make some spooky spiders....I personally get freaked out, even by fake spiders, so they were a no-go.  Seriously, even if they are giant, pretend, construction paper spiders-they freak me out.  Let's be honest, when I wake up early in the morning and turn on the lights, I don't want to look at a spider.  Spiders in Florida are HUGE, so a pretend construction paper one made by a 6 year old might be mistaken for the real thing.  I'm not taking any chances here.  

Note: Remember those crinkly arms from Elementary school?  I sure did!  I felt pretty proud of myself pulling out all the stops for the pumpkins here.  "They need arms, Mommy!" Of course they do kids. Of course they do. 

Not sure why there is a Halloween "maze" on the pink paper, but they were insistent that our decorations would be incomplete without it.

Bats, lots and lots of bats.  They loved them!

And bonus question......can you guess who made the pumpkin in the picture above? (here's a hint...she did pretty much all of the cutting too!)

So there you have it!  Something easy and fun to keep the kids (and let's be honest, you) busy.  I think we made these when it was raining out, so it definitely added some cheer to our day. Create some yourself and see what you come up with!

~Patricia

Ha for the Kids!

Halloween Felt No-Sew Banner

It's October!

October is one of my favorite months of the year, mostly because I love, love, love Halloween.  I know it's kinda silly, but I love getting dressed up in some ridiculous costume and parading around.  In previous years, I've tried to make the girls' Halloween costumes (I've done R2D2 and Fawn, one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends, for example) and even my own (I have a giant pink felt poodle skirt just waiting for me in my closet); but this year I really wanted to make something that I can reuse every year. I love the idea of getting out the Halloween box of decorations and finding all the cool stuff that the kids and I have made each year and putting them up. :)

Two years ago, I made a paper banner for Halloween. Click here to check it out. It's nice to see that it only took me two years to finally make a new banner out of felt! 

Here's the finished banner:

Didn't it turn out awesome?!  I really like it!  The last triangle is a spiderweb, made with glow-in-the-dark fabric paint--spooky! 

Close-up!

I bought some felt on sale at Jo-Ann's and made a few triangles, then I embellished them with some cute felt cut-outs that I free-handed.  I attached all the cut-outs with tacky glue (no-sewing!). 

If you didn't want to get out your sewing machine, you could then just attach all the finished triangles to a festive ribbon with glue as well, but I just got a new shipment of bobbins in, so I sewed mine on. I found the glitter/orange ribbon at Michael's. 

Don't forget to sign up and follow my blog! I'm working on a spooky Halloween wreath and have a bunch of easy Halloween decorations that you can make with the kids to share soon.  Stay tuned!

~Patricia

Halloween is on it's way!

Today I was feeling in a holiday mood and wanted to make a Halloween banner. After doing some internet surfing, this is what I came up with, a pretty good first attempt. And since we don't have a mantle, I had to settle for the downstairs bathroom door. :)

I'd love to make another banner, maybe out of felt, and have it reversible for different holidays..maybe Halloween / Thanksgiving, Christmas / Valentine's Day..it would be so easy just to flip it around for the next holiday. Genius!  Quick! To the craft table!