This year has been an incredible challenge with trying to achieve some sort of normalcy in our lives as I’m sure it has been for so many. My son’s school Halloween celebration is coming up and there’s a lot of rules about the what type of costume he can wear. As an avid DIYer I’m not only working on his Audrey 2 Halloween costume but a costume that will fit all the rules his school as requested. They must obviously be wearing their non-medical masks so he requested Jack Skellington which is a perfect way to tie in his mask into his costume. In this post I will show you how to make your own Jack Skellington Face Mask!

You can make this recipe a few different ways. You can use fresh ripe tomatoes for a wonderful summertime quick pasta sauce. This way is quicker and more vibrant than using canned and I highly suggest trying it when your garden is at it’s peak! Another way is to use your quick and easy canned tomatoes you’ve got stored in the cabinet, or sometimes you may run out or you just don’t have a garden but still want a great easy recipe. In this case you can use store bought tomatoes or sauce. If you buy whole canned tomatoes in sauce you can just put them in a blender and add in place of diced tomatoes. I recommend finding a brand that does not have added salt. It’s better if you can control how much salt is used. Either way works and all make for great options at dinner time!

If you have a garden and you grow tomatoes, there comes a time when you’ve got more than you can handle! You’ve probably got it in your mind to can them but you know it’s an all day event and you just don’t have the time between work and the kids! Each day that goes by you toss another moldy tomato in the trash and think “Ughh all that work gardening and here I am throwing them away!”  Canning tomatoes (a.k.a. jarring tomatoes, or some people call it water bath canning tomatoes) can be easy, even for beginners.

I will show you the quickest easiest way to can or jar your tomatoes that will take you about an hour or two tops!

Hi! I’ve had some time to blog with my 5 year old back in school and my 2 year old still taking naps, so I’m starting this post as a preview for my 5 year old’s Halloween costume this year. It wasn’t easy trying to figure out how to get my son to make up his mind, but as soon as he heard “meat eating plant” he was all in on the idea!  Keep reading to learn how to make your own DIY audrey 2 halloween costume!

This time we took a family trip to go get supplies at JoAnn Fabric. I used to have to drag my husband and both boys there, but since this pandemic has had us all cooped up, they’ve been much more enthusiastic about leaving the house!

The firs thing I took a look at was fabric. I selected some cotton. It’s relatively inexpensive and very easy to work with. Two shades of Green for the leaves and body. Some accent foliage looking print and some pink which will be the base for my mouth, and I’ll probably embellish the  mouth with some purple acrylic paint to resemble the REAL Audrey 2!

Typically when people think oatmeal you think of those pre packaged Quaker oatmeal packages with some freeze dried fruit in it that you just add water. They aren’t very appealing and are usually high in sodium. Breakfast can be a challenge trying to coming up with quick ideas for the morning, especially when trying to feed the kids before school. This is my favorite simple quick oats recipe that really gives a break from eggs and boxed cereal and tastes absolutely delicious!

Summer is one of my favorite seasons because of the many delicious pick your own fruits and vegetables that are available. Every year we go peach picking in late August and there’s nothing better than ripe Pennsylvania Peaches. My favorite peach variety that I have picked is called “flamin’ fury” This particular variety is about the size of a softball, is yellow with beautiful blushy red spots when ripe, and free stone which is huge for baking and eating. For this bourbon peach recipe any peach will do, but it’s the most delicious when your peaches are at peak ripeness.

Hi! So it’s been a while! My oldest is 5 and my youngest is 2 now!!!! Now I have twice the challenge for making super awesome DIY kids Halloween costumes! YAY! Before I move on to double trouble, I have to share one of my of oldest son’s amazing Halloween costumes! For those of you that have seen the movie Gremlins, I decided to make a Gizmo costume that was to die for! I always go into each project not knowing how the heck I’m going to pull it off and it always seems to come together.

As always I headed to my favorite store JoAnn Fabric to look for what I needed. I feel like they have a great selection of various types of fabric and I know I’d seen some furry looking fabric before. I chose a few that had the longest looking faux fur I could find. Be aware you need to know your child’s measurements before you go and grab your fabric.

For this post, I do not have a lot of step by step pictures as I am a doer and have a super hard time documenting when I’m in the swing of things, but I can demonstrate by adding drawings a descriptions that will help.

In this post I will show you how to make your very own Oogie Boogie Halloween Costume! Like most first time mom’s whose adorable little baby has now learned to walk, I got super excited for Halloween! While pondering about what I wanted my son’s first Halloween costume to be I had a couple guidelines in place I felt were crucial.

1.  His costume had to be scary but also cute! Although I love adorable costumes, I still felt strongly that I wanted this costume to embody the true essence of Halloween!
2. It had to be recognizable. I wanted to make something people would notice instantly.
3. I didn’t want it to be generic (ex: witch, ghost, zombie)

With these rules I set in place for myself I thought “wow, I really love a challenge!” The internet was a great place to start for inspiration. I started googling classic Halloween movies for kids and one of the first to pop up was “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” This was perfect! I absolutely love all Tim Burton movies and this was definitely one of my favorites! Now that I had my movie, picked out I instantly thought “Oogie Boogie!”

When you’re a new home owner, you learn a bunch of new things you didn’t know. You also learn a ton of other things you didn’t know you needed to know. How to clean dryer vents fell into the second category for me and my husband.  I didn’t really know much about it until my parents came for a visit. My dad noticed a lot of lint hanging out of exhaust vent on the side of the house.  Driving around town, I started to notice companies advertising their services of “Dryer Vent Cleaning” with images of houses engulfed in flames due to dirty dryer vents. As a DIY evangelist, I decided I would take on the job so that you too can learn how to clean dryer ducts and vents yourself.