No-Carve Pumpkins

I'm so glad you all can't see my house right now. We're in the middle of packing because we're moving on Friday. Now before the ones that know me start Facebooking and calling and texting, we are just moving about 5 miles north of our current location...so it should be easy, right? WRONG!!!

How much stuff can one family collect in 3.5 years? I mean, our house is tiny but we seemed to have filled every nook and cranny with STUFF!! When we moved here from another state, it was easy to say, let's just get rid of that or let's sell that, I'm not dragging that across 3 states. But when you're moving 5 miles away, it seems silly to get rid of things that I will "need."  It's funny to see me in the garage trying to get rid of my husbands "necessities" but it's not so funny fighting with him about my craft stuff.

Like I said, my house is tiny (yeah for the bigger new house...with a pool...and a guest room) so as we're pulling all this stuff out of cupboards and shelves, our home has been taken over by boxes. Give-away boxes, book boxes, file boxes, fragile boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes....ahhhhh.

Needless to say, I barely have any extra time. Enter Halloween. Halloween parties, costumes and the ever complicated carving of the pumpkins.

Uh...this year, it doesn't look like I have time to carve pumpkins. Don't get me wrong, I love to carve pumpkins. I usually spend a couple of hours after the kids go to bed carving and scraping. Here's a little sampling of my pumpkins from years past. I'm not amazing, but I love to do it.

Cute Frankenstein

Vampire Kitty

 

Darth

So, see...I love to carve pumpkins. But this year, with the move...no can do. Insert carve-less pumpkin ideas here :)

The first method is just cutting jack-o-lantern parts out of black vinyl or contact paper.

Here, I cut a face out on my vinyl cutter. But I also gave my kids black vinyl and they cut out their own eyes, nose and mouth...and other parts. They are still working on them at press time, so maybe pictures next time.

The other method is what I call the sexy-pumpkin. Using a fishnet stocking, you wrap your pumpkins to give them a stylish, yet festive look.

First you place the pumpkin in the leg. Then you tie the stocking at the stem and you cut off the stocking. Easy, huh?

I think it would look pretty cool with different fishnet type patterns on the pumpkins, but yours truly was too cheap to buy more stockings. I even bought the cheapest stockings in the walmart costume section. If you want to wrap more that one pumpkin, tie a knot in the stocking where you cut if off and wrap another pumpkin.

sorry about the blurry picture

I wrapped all four of these pumpkins in one leg of a stocking. I also tried to do different tension on the wraps to make the holes smaller or larger just to give variety (mainly because I didn't buy more patterned stockings). One thing I really like about this method is that I'll be able to cut the pumpkins open and eat them when Halloween is over. Hubby makes YUMMY Pumpkin squares.

Next week I'll show you how I further decorated these cute pumpkins. Until then, I have a house to move.

'Tis Near Halloween

Caution: Witch's Parking

Violator's Will Be Toad!

I Heart Halloween!

I personally am one who doesn't enjoy dressing up. However, I love seeing everyone else dressed up. I love dressing my kids up. I love opening the door on Halloween and seeing all the kids dressed up.

I love all the good fun that comes with Halloween. I'm not one who loves the gore. But the pumpkins and witches and skeletons and spiders are a good enough scare for me.

I also love pictures books. I was a Reading Specialist for 4 years before I decided to do this mommy thing exclusively. So I have a special place in my heart for children's literature.

Recently, I came across this article in the New York Times that made me sad. What a shame to give up on picture books so quickly. Picture books are filled with rich high-level vocabulary. Plus the pictures help teach comprehension and meaning. But most importantly is the time spent together reading and enjoying a story. It can help build strong memories.

So when Halloween comes around, it's time to pull out all the Halloween decorations. And with Halloween decor comes the Halloween stories. I keep all our Halloween books packed away with our decorations. That way when the holiday rolls around, the books are fun and new. I put them in a basket in the family room and the kids spend all month reading the stories. I have a friend who is especially good at using the holiday story books as part of her decor around the house. I love it!

So my Idea I want to share today is to collect and keep holiday books. Store them with your decorations. And when the holiday comes around, reading is exciting.

You should see the kiddos when the Christmas boxes come out. They sit and look at all the books while I decorate. For my OCD decorating self, this is perfect for me!

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

‘tis near Halloween.

(Thanks to My Auntie My)

Candy Corn Wreath

Not long ago, instead of skimming the celebrity gossip magazines while I waited in line at the grocery store (like I usually do), I grabbed the Woman's Day magazine. It had this on the cover:

I was intrigued. I had to try it! I followed the tutorial and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Plus it was super easy!

Some tips if you're gonna try this too:

The straw wreath is about $3 cheaper than a Styrofoam one and you're just going to wrap it in duct tape anyway. I left the plastic on as well so I didn't have to deal with all the little straw bits making a mess.



I used a large dinner plate and a white sewing pencil to trace a circle onto my taped wreath so I'd have a guide for my first row of candy. And that row served as a guide for the other rows. Worked pretty well!





Make sure you give it lots of coats of protective spray since humidity can do bad things to candy corn!!



I used two bags of candy and it only took me a little over an hour to complete this. Which was good because I was prepared for an all-nighter of gluing candy. But I still had plenty of time for some Lifetime and hot chocolate!



Now I just have to deal with a 4 year old that 's going to want to eat the wreath when he sees it!



Happy Halloween!

Kids Packing Checklist

So, my kids have fall break this week and we're planning a small trip to D-Land. It's only two hours away and we're only going overnight, but you would think we were packing to stay for a year.  The Little 4 year old kept asking me if she could bring all her toys. "Why do you need to bring toys...we're going to Disneyland, " I said. "Oh yeah," she said. "I remember...I can buy toys there!" I think I actually lost that argument. Score: Kids - 1, Mommy - 0

Fashionable 8 year old is bringing a huge purse which in my mind I know I'm going to end up carrying. "You don't need that big purse. Please put that away," I demand. "But mom, how can I sneak in good snacks like you do? You always say the food is so expensive." Score: Kids - 2, Mommy - 0

Knee-concious 9 year old tells me he's only packing jeans. "Why," I ask, thinking about how it was 112 degrees last week. "Because I checked weather.com and it's supposed to be chilly with a chance of showers." "Oh," I respond as I pack a sweatshirt. Score: Kids - 3, Mommy - 0


I'm usually more organized when it comes to packing for trips. Actually a few years ago I developed a packing list for my kids (and for my husband). I'm a list person and I make lists for everything. So this was a natural step in trying to get my family to be list people.

When the kids got old enough to pack themselves, I created this list.

 
With each trip, I just change the number of items they need. I also make sure they list any toys or books they bring. Then I slip the list into a plastic sheet protector and pack it in their bag. That way when we are getting ready to pack their things to come home, we can make sure we bring everything home that we packed. It works really well because it's just going down a checklist.

It works so well that my 8 year old packs for my 4 year old because it's so easy. I think it goes without saying that this little self-pack method does not work for you mom's who like their kids to be all color coordinated and matchy but it works for me.

My sister-in-law is probably reading this saying, if this works so well, then why do you always leave stuff at my house?

Why? I'll tell you why. Because the items were NOT on the list. And for the most part, it's my son leaving things. This is the child who is ready to go to school, packs his lunch and heads out the door....and 5 minutes later I see his lunch...left right where he packed it.

Anyway, I better get packing. We have a date with a mouse. On a side note: Raise your hand if you bring a stroller to Disneyland (even though your youngest child really doesn't need it) just to pack all your stuff into it....my hand is raised...water bottles, snacks and sweatshirts get really heavy!

Petal Pillow

So...

That little sewing project that I mentioned..

I took this:

Some brown fabric and felt circles, cut in half...

And made this:

And then I turned it into this:

I think I've found my next go-to present. How darling is this pillow?

I followed this tutorial for every step.

All together, I was able to make this in about an hour.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

If you watch Oprah enough you may have noticed that a question she always asks during celebrity interviews is, "What do you know for sure?" I've often thought about what I'd say if I sat face with Ms. Winfrey and she asked me that revealing, soul searching question. Well folks today I have an answer. What I know for sure is that when it's cold outside, people like to eat soup! Simple but true! So I've decided to kick off Autumn with one of my favorite, most requested soup recipes.

I am a big fan of the Chicken Tortilla Soup at The California Pizza Kitchen. Love that stuff! One day I attempted to make it at home. And like most attempts to copy restaurant recipes, it wasn't quite right. So I decided to leave it to CPK to make that soup and began a search for my own simple, hearty, tasty Tortilla Soup recipe. And so, my friends, after many trials and many combinations of recipes. I finally created....

Melissa's Not-Famous-Yet Chicken Tortilla Soup

Here are some of the highlights of the preparation (the full recipe is at the bottom of this post.)



Another thing I know for sure is that you will need a can opener!



The tool that you're going to need if you want a creamy soup is a hand blender. I absolutely LOVE the one I have because it chops as well! I used it to chop the garlic and onions.



My three most favorite things: Olive oil, onions and garlic! Don't you wish you had a
scratch-n-sniff screen?!
Now if you're thinking, "My kids/husband/significant other won't eat onions" Don't worry! You're going to puree this and they won't even know!



The pureeing part is fun! I'm pouring the flour/water mixture out of the tomato sauce can. Saves me from having another dirty dish and it gets the bits of tomato that are stuck to the bottom. Clever...I know!



Ahhh...smooth and creamy!



The recipe says "2 cups" of chicken but I boiled four small breasts and ended up having about 3 cups of shredded chicken. No biggy!



And after the last step of adding sour cream, the only chunks in your soup should be the chicken, corn and beans (You certainly can omit the beans if you are a non bean eating family!)



Oh la la! So good!

Melissa's Not-Famous-Yet Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Chopped Onion
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Olive (or Vegetable) Oil
• 1 can (4 Oz. Can) Chopped Green Chilies
• 1 can (15 Oz. Can) Italian-style Diced Tomatoes And Juice
• 1 can (8 Oz. Can) Tomato Sauce
• 4 cups Chicken Broth
• 1 teaspoon Lemon Pepper
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• ½ teaspoons Hot Sauce (optional)
  
• 4 Tablespoons Flour
• ½ cups Water
• 2 cups Cooked Chicken, Shredded or Cubed
• 1 can (11 Oz. Can) Shoepeg Corn (aka White Sweet Corn), Drained
• 1 can (15.25 Oz Can) Navy Beans, Drained And Rinsed
• ½ cups Sour Cream
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Instructions:

In a large saucepan, saute onion and garlic in the oil over low heat for 5 minutes or until onion is softened.

Add green chilies, tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, lemon pepper, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, cumin and hot sauce.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the flour with the water and incorporate into the soup using a hand blender for approximately 2 minutes.

Bring the soup back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add chicken, corn and beans.

Simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in sour cream, salt, and pepper to taste.

Top with some shredded Jack, garnish with tortilla chips and enjoy!