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Party Planner and DIY Projects

- Popsicle Stick Haunted House Craft
  October 20, 2020... Read more...
- Tissue Box Monsters
  October 9, 2020... Read more...
- Mason Jar Jack-o-lanterns
  October 8, 2020... Read more...
- Spider Kids Craft
  October 5, 2020... Read more...
- You’ve Been Booed – A Neighborhood Halloween Game
  October 4, 2020This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase we get a small commission. This helps us keep the blog going! Thanks! Halloween has always been one of our favorite holidays. There’s candy, parties, costumes, decorations and lots of thrills; what’s not to love? For us it also marks the start of the holiday season. So when October comes around we drag out the Halloween decorations, of which we own many, and decorate. Then of course there are costumes to be decided on and to make; this process usually starts before summer ends giving us plenty of time to make them. Of course the best part of Halloween is trick or treating on Halloween night. The kids, even the teens, look forward to that! But the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on this beloved tradition; a tradition even hurricanes can’t seem to cancel (here in Hawaii when a hurricane or storm threatens to cancel trick or treating the Governor has been known to postpone it until the next day or as soon as the weather clears up. I’m not so sure anyone can postpone Halloween long enough until the pandemic is over. Nor am I sure how many parents are willing to venture out to take the kids trick or treating; or for that matter how many folks are comfortable enough to open their doors to a bunch of trick or treaters. I’m pretty sure we’ll be keeping the kids home this year. Bummer! But that doesn’t mean we won’t be celebrating Halloween, we’ll just have to do it differently! In past years we’ve played a neighborhood game called “You’ve Been Booed”. It’s a great way to share some treats with neighbors, friends, and family. It’s fun too because the object of the game is to deliver the treats anonymously without being seen! Sounds perfect for the current situation! It’s probably a good idea to get together with neighbors and agree to play this game so that it’s not quite as anonymous and everyone will be prepared to receive a basket at their door. You can’t be too careful these days! Also be sure to get the kids involved! Let them help make treat baskets and deliver them. Our kids really get in to the spirit as they plot out how best to deliver the treat baskets without getting caught! And when they make their deliveries there’s usually so much giggling and whispering it’s amazing they don’t get caught! To help you and your neighbors play this fun Halloween game our team has created some free printable pages for you to use. Just click on the links at the bottom of this post to download and print the ones you like. These are the Boo Baskets we made to share. I used my Cricut Maker to make the Layered Boo Letters which I taped together and mounted on a stick. It’s a super cute topper! The Layered Boo I used is a free cut file from Special Hearts Studio! Just download the file, save it to your computer then upload it to any Cricut or cutting machine the uses SVG files! The letters are cut in layers and you’ll have to glue them together. It’s best to keep a picture of the finished design to help guide you with the layers. BTW you can customize the colors to what ever you want! Click here for the free SVG file from Special Hearts Studio! I tucked into each basked one of my super cute Halloween Treat Boxes I also made with my Cricut Maker! Another fun Halloween Project. I used the free cut files from Crafting Cheerfully. These cute little boxes are simple to make and if you want to you can also cut out clear plastic squares to place under the box lid for a very professional look! Click here for the free SVG file from Crafting Cheerfully! But before you start printing here’s how you play the game! Print out 2 sets of the You’ve Been Booed sheets – 1 sheet says You’ve Been Booed and has instructions on how to keep the game going; the other sheet says We’ve Been Booed, a sign which those who’ve already received a treat can place on their front door or window to let others know they’ve received a treat. Of course you can still give them a treat if you want to! Prepare 2 (or more if you want to) baskets or boxes of treats to be enjoyed by the whole family. Include one set of You’ve Been Booed sheets in the basket. Drop off the baskets to your neighbors who haven’t been “Booed” yet, unless of course you want to drop off a basket to more than 2 neighbors regardless if they’ve been booed or not. That’s it! Easy peasy! So scroll down for our free printable sheets! Cute Witch Printable click here! Graveyard Printable click here! Graveyard Scene Printable click here! Jack-O-Lanterns Printable click here! Haunted House Printable click here! Mummy Printable click here! Trick or Treaters Printable click here! Fun Haunted House Printable click here! Witchy Haunted House printable click here! Haunted Witch Village printable click here! Scarecrow printable click here! Happy Halloween! ... Read more...
- Halloween Mantel … Er, Fantel
  October 2, 2020... Read more...
- Sunflower Granny Square Blanket – Free Pattern
  September 14, 2020Lately I’ve been pretty much staying home as much as possible, I’m sure many of you are too. I’m not complaining, but finding things to do is getting more difficult as the days and weeks go by. After all I’ve been home since March! I’ve been cooking, baking, canning, sewing, painting, drawing, and doing just about everything I can think of just to stay busy and productive; after I get all my “real” work done because I have also been working from home. Anyway in the spring when the lock down began I made some crocheted turtles for my grandsons in Italy using some of the yarn in my “stash”. Since then I’ve been looking for other crochet projects. Recently I came across this free pattern from Crochet 365 Knit too. The pattern is call Sunburst Granny Square, then she changed up the colors and made this cute Sunflower Granny Square, it’s amazing what a difference the color changes made! The sunflower part of the pattern uses puff and bobble stitches worked in rounds. Once the flower is complete it’s framed in a square making it a granny square. The squares in the pattern were stitched together to make a really cute bag. But I though how cute it would to join squares to make a small lap blanket or throw. I made 36 Sunflower Granny Squares which I joined together using the Zipper method. I joined 6 squares across and 6 down to use all 36 squares. Then I crocheted 5 rounds of boarder using a combination of single and double crochet rounds. I used Red Heart Medium weight yarn in Coffee, Chamois, Goldrod, and White. The first 3 colors were from my scrap yarn stash (which was a good thing because yarn seems to be hard to find recently, at least in my state of Hawaii). The white used the most yarn, but I always have multiple skeins of white yarn. If you don’t have these colors or simple can’t find any at the store, no worries, use whatever yarn colors you have on hand. Keep in mind that sunflowers come in different shades of yellow! The pattern I used for the Sunflower Granny Squares is by Crochet 365 Knit Too! It’s free! Click hear for the pattern. The Zipper method of joining squares is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Here’s a step-by-step on how to do it from Look What I Made. As for the border I wanted to keep it simple so I used a dc in every stitch after joining the squares. In the corners I did 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc. The last DC was joined the to beginning DC. Then I made 4 rounds of SC using 3 sc, ch 2, 3 sc in the corners. If you prefer a different border you can use any style you want. This cute lap blanket is perfect for those chilly autumn evenings! ... Read more...
- DIY Party Hats & Giant Blowers
  August 8, 2020Last month as I was planning on a simple birthday dinner for my son and one of my grandsons I was told that my twin 5 year old grandkids were expecting a major birthday party. They were insisting on games, a pinata, and all the accoutrements of a “real” birthday party. This was all good except we were in the middle of a global pandemic and under a statewide hurricane warning. No one wanted to venture into the stores where tons of people were preparing for a hurricane in busy crowded stores. (If you’ve never been thru a hurricane warning and preparation well, think back to the toilet paper/hand sanitizer hoarding and shortages of last March. Ya, I’m sure you get the idea. Lots of people grabbing for toilet paper, bottled water, and canned goods!) So what to do, what to do? Face a pair of very irate 5 year olds demanding a real party or risk life and limb trying to get to a party supply store? Well we opted for the middle route. My son had to venture in to Walmart for something or other so he popped in just before closing and luckily found a pinata and grabbed a couple of bags of fillers too. My husband and I had gone grocery shopping a few days earlier in anticipation of both the birthday dinner and the hurricane so we had purchased an ice cream cake, we did forget the candles, but you do your best given the circumstances. The morning of the birthday dinner this Nana got to work, using materials I had in my craft room, templates, and instructions from the net I was able to whip up some cute party hats, blowers, and even come up with a pin the tail on the donkey game! It’s really not too hard and you don’t need a lot of fancy materials, whatever you have on hand will do. It just takes a bit of time and a bit of imagination. You can make them as simple or as fancy as you want depending on materials you have on hand. Trust me however you make them the kids will love them! I used this free template from First Pallet to make the hats. Click here for the template! I cut each hat out of different colored cardstock. It worked perfectly, I used each child’s favorite color! Using my computer I made these Llama stickers – I uploaded the design I created and printed them out on blank sticker sheets. (If you don’t have sticker sheets you can print them on paper and glue them on to the hats.) The cardstock had to be cut from the template and then shaped into a cone, then stapled to make the hat. I then placed the Llama sticker on the front of the hat, trimmed the bottom edge with washi tape, and stapled curled ribbons on the top of the cones. I made holes on either side of the hat and threaded lengths of ribbon thru them to use as ties. You can use elastic if you have some. If you don’t have curled ribbon you can use pompoms and other things to embellish the hats, or you can just leave them undecorated. You can also wrap the hat in colorful wrapping paper, use rick rack or whatever you have on hand. As an added bonus I made extra stickers for blank craft bags which I used as favor bags and tied with ribbons. I found instructions for Giant Party Blowers from Oh Happy Day I modified them to make regular sized blowers as I didn’t have enough empty TP or Paper towel rolls and had to use straws. It worked out. But next time I’m going to try to make the giant ones, they look like fun! Click here for instructions from Oh Happy Day! As for games, well we played limbo, all you need is a stick and music, super easy! We also had the Pinata, so that kept them happy. Then to top it off we played pin the tail on the donkey with this adorable free printable from the Crafting Chicks! Click here for that printable game! These simple DIY party gear didn’t take a lot of time, but they sure made a couple of kids very happy! ... Read more...
- Finger Foods and Other Food Ideas Kids Will Love
  July 31, 2020Summer’s in full swing and like me you’re probably racking your brain for new breakfast, lunch and snack ideas for the kids. My grandkids have been home since March and each day finding something they want to eat is becoming more and more challenging. “I’m hungry” and “grilled cheese, spaghetti, etc. are all boring” has become the standard refrain at our house. My grandson who insisted he ‘NEEDED” cases of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti “O”s back in the spring now say’s they’re “boring”. Of course when asked what he’d like instead the reply is almost always “I don’t know”. This leaves me searching for something new and different for lunch and snack times. One thing I do know is that just about all kids love finger foods; and sometimes taking a “boring” sandwich and re-packaging it into something fun is all it takes to make meal times go smoothly. This can be as simple as taking a PB&J or any type of sandwich and cutting them in to 4 small triangles! Or you can change it up and call lunch or snack time “Tea Time” and serve a small selection of finger foods. I love tea time and my grandkids do too! But life isn’t all that easy, so here are a few food ideas that your kids might enjoy! They might just save a bit of your sanity! Eggs in Frame I have been making these for years, started when my kids were small. This is a great breakfast idea and kids almost always think it’s pretty cool. Just cut a hole (any shape) in the middle of a slice of bread and fry an egg in the hole. You’ll end up with a fried egg on a toasted piece of bread. I usually use a bit of butter to fry these in. Silver Dollar Sprinkle Pancakes Add some sprinkles or chocolate chips into your pancake batter and instead of making large Turpancakes make smaller ones about the size of a silver dollar. If the chain restaurants can do it so can you! Turkey & Cheese Pinwheels These are a family favorite! You can pick some up ready made from Costco or you can make them at home. It’s super easy! Click here for this recipe! Ham & Cheese Sliders Sliders of any kind are great finger foods both kids and adults love. These Ham & Cheese Sliders are another family favorite. I usually make a tray of them and the kids just grab as they want. A tray lasts thru lunch and snacks all day! Click here for this recipe! Taquitos Not everything needs to be homemade. Sometimes you just don’t feel like making lunch from scratch. No worries, there’s always frozen alternatives. We always keep a box of frozen Taquitos in the freezer. They’re great for lunch or snacks, just heat them up in the oven and you’re good to go. I like to serve them with salsa, melted nacho cheese, and sour cream for dipping. You do know kids love to dip! My year old grandson Jaxon is all about dipping these days! Pigs in Blankets Pigs in Blankets is another favorite and a staple at many of our kids’ parties. But to truly make it a finger food you need small ones. I cut the hot dogs and crescent dough in half. Roll each hot dog section in one of the dough sections, place on parchment paper and bake. Serve with whatever hot dog condiments you prefer. Fruit Kabobs I’m sure you know kids love food on sticks. So dress up fruit by cutting them into balls and other interesting shapes, then string them up on skewers. Older kids will love them. For younger kids skip the sticks and just serve them the fruit cut in to different shapes, you should also cut melon balls and grapes in halves to keep toddlers from choking on them. ... Read more...
- 4th of July Brie
  July 3, 20204th of July Brie Print Recipe CourseCakes & Pies, Dessert, Snacks Keyworddessert, Salad, side dishes Servings 8 SERVINGS Servings 8 SERVINGS 4th of July Brie Print Recipe CourseCakes & Pies, Dessert, Snacks Keyworddessert, Salad, side dishes Servings 8 SERVINGS Servings 8 SERVINGS Ingredients 1 (35-oz.) wheel brie 6 strawberries, tops removed and sliced 1/2 c. blueberries 1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice 2 tsp. honey Graham crackers, for dipping Servings: SERVINGS Share this Recipe Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe... Read more...

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- Haunted Gingerbread HouseOctober 12, 2020Cookies, Cakes & Pies / Corner / Desserts / Halloween / RecipesHaunted Gingerbread House Print Recipe CourseCakes & Pies, Dessert Keyworddessert Haunted Gingerbread House Print Recipe CourseCakes & Pies, Dessert Keyworddessert Share this Recipe Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe... Read more...
- Financial Planning For Retirement: What You Need To KnowOctober 12, 2020Health & Fitness]When it comes to your retirement, the more plans you have in place, the better. Although retiring should be a long-term financial goal, with measures put in place throughout life to support it, the period around five years before you aim to stop work is critical. This is the moment to put your financial affairs in order and start getting some informed advice about your options and what decisions you will need to make. These choices will very much shape the remainder of your life, so seeking support from a qualified financial advisor and pensions specialist is a must. However, there are some steps you can take independently that will help you go into an appointment prepared. Understand Your Income and Outgoings Having a very clear picture of the state of your personal finances is the first key step in your retirement planning, Use online retirement calculators to work out what you might need in order to support the quality of life you expect to have. It’s a good idea to collect together or request up to date copies of all of your pensions statements to understand what the reality is when it comes to what you will be receiving in a few years time. Take into account the savings and investments that you have hopefully built up over time that may be able to provide an additional stream of income when you formally retire from work. De Risk Your Portfolio Where you have savings in stocks and shares or other commodities, now is the time to look at transferring to low-risk options. Higher risk profiles often bring much greater returns, but they are only suitable for savings you don’t require access to for a long time. That way, if things should suffer a downturn, there is time for them to even out and for the portfolio as a whole to correct itself eventually. If you will need to access returns in a short time period of five years or less, you need to go for options which are relatively low-risk but which may provide lesser gains. This will give you a bit more financial security and a clearer idea of what income you may be able to count on in retirement. Boost Your Pension Pot If you discover that the projected amount you’ll have to live on is a little less than you’re comfortable with, you’ll be able to refocus your efforts on boosting the amount you can save. Plan to up your pension contributions to as much as you can afford, or if you are fit and well, think about deferring your retirement or just continuing to work part time for a while longer to help you build up your savings. This has the double benefit of helping you to increase the amount in your pension pot, while also decreasing the length of time you’ll be relying on it. Build a realistic budget that you will be living on after retirement, and try it out for a few months – any savings you make can go back into the pot.... Read more...

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