Happy Halloween everyone!

This year Abel really wanted to be Rufio, so here is the costume we designed/made for him!

 I'm pretty sure his favorite part was the sword he made. Haha. Such a guy thing. 

I made my indian costume a few years ago and re-wore it so we could be Rufio and Tiger Lily. 

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you have a fun and safe holiday!

Haley

Halloween Nail Art

Decorating for Halloween doesn't only apply to your house/apartment!! You can decorate your nails too!! Its a fun way to celebrate and isn't super hard. It does take patience though!

Surprisingly the candy corn nails are a little more difficult but still possible for anyone to do with a little practice. First I painted a stripe of yellow that only covered 1/3 of my nail and used a cotton swab dipped in nail polish remover to straighten out the line. (If its not perfectly straight that's okay, when you put your next stripe on it will cover the edge anyways.) Next you paint the orange stripe and follow the same guidelines,

paint the middle 1/3 section and straighten out the edge line with a q-tip. Now last you paint the white stripe. When painting the stripes I found it easiest to paint across the nail instead of up and down like you normally paint your nails because it produces a straighter line across. I found it was best to not paint all of the nail each color because there was just too much nail polish on the nail and it became too thick and took forever to dry. And it's as simple as that!

Now for the Frankenstein nails....First we start with a green nail polish on the whole nail. I used the bright green because that was what I already had but you could use something that isn't as bright. I would try to stay away from anything too dark though. After this step you can do any of the features of the face next. It doesn't really matter which comes first. As for me, I did the eyes next. First you do the white dots. I do these by cutting off the tip of a toothpick and using it to make the dots. After the white dries, do the black dot to make the pupil. Make sure that the black dot is a little smaller than the white otherwise it wont look too much like an eye. Next I did the mouth. For the mouth I used one of the nail polishes that has the skinny brushes. (I use the brand LA Colors Art Deco. Its only $1 and works pretty much as good as any other brand. You can find this nail polish at the Dollar Tree or if you live in Utah and you've heard of Honks they have a great selection of them there as well.) Alright back to the painting. The mouth is just one line across and then three lines down. It's best if they are all slightly slanted. And lastly for the hair, you paint the lines on each side and then just kind of dab the end of the brush on the top edge for the top hair. If its not perfect and kind of messy that's okay it will still look great! And that's it!

I recommend always putting a top coat on your nails. It helps keep your design on longer and helps prevent chipping! I also recommend doing multiple coats of colors generally because it tends to look a little better and not as see through. This does depend on the nail polish though. Some are thicker than others so just use your best judgement. Well now you know how to do your own festive nails! Good luck and let us know how yours turn out!! Keep following for more ideas for other holidays and just pure fun!

Halloween Costumes

For those of you who know me, you know I LIVE for Halloween. For those of you who are just getting to know us, you'll learn quick I'm totally obsessed! Tonight we had a church Halloween party, and so I thought I'd share with you our costumes! What do you think??

Halloween Crafts To Spookify Your House Part 2

Spooky Silhouettes; here is another great addition to any Haunted House. All you need is a window, black (or another dark color) butcher paper, scissors, scotch tape, and a pencil. As you can see we have a great front window for this project but really any size window will do and it doesn't really matter if it is in the front or side or even a bedroom window this still can add a fun dimension to your Halloween this year.

First you need to decide what you are going to have in your window. We did a witch stirring the cauldron, but if you are worried about limited artistic ability it can be as simple as moon with a ghost, or a cat, a jack-o-lantern; the possibilities are endless. (I am fortunate enough to have a husband who can draw well so he is my cop-out)

Once you have decided, take the butcher paper and cut out a piece the size of your window. Then take the pencil and draw your silhouette. Don't use a pen, trust me you will need to erase more than once. When you are happy with your picture, take the scissors and begin cutting out. Now this step may be a little more tricky than it seems. You need to think through your picture and decide which parts you want the light to come through, then cut accordingly. Let me give you two comparisons so you understand what I am saying. In the picture I have posted, the witch and her cauldron are black so the light shows around them, but in contrast you could have the whole window black with stars, a moon, and a ghost cut out so that the light shows through those cut outs. Hopefully I have been clear. Really there is no right or wrong way, it is merely a personal preference and a matter of what look you are going for.

With that said, after you have cut out your pieces, fasten the paper to your window with the scotch tape and voila, you have another simple, cheap way to spookify your house!

I hope you have fun with this, we really did! And if there are any questions or confusions, comment and Ill be happy to respond. Thanks for reading.

Sydney

Spicy Thai Noodles

I have a confession to make. I am a Pinterest addict. I love looking on it for anything and everything you can think of. The other day, I came across a recipe for Spicy Thai Noodles and decided I wanted to try it. The recipe originally comes from here. I made a few changes to it, and was really pleased with how it turned out.

Here's the recipe:

1-2 TBPS Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (depending on how hot you want it)

1/4 C Vegetable Oil

1/2 C Sesame Oil

6 TBPS Honey

6 TBSP Soy Sauce

1 package of linguine or angel hair

1/2 C green onions

2 Carrots, peeled and shredded

1/2 C Cilantro

3/4 C peanuts

Heat the oils and red pepper flakes over medium heat for 2 minutes. Strain the oil from the pepper and keep the oil. Whisk the honey and soy sauce into the oil. When the noodles are finished cooking, add them to the sauce. Top with green onions, carrots, cilantro, and peanuts. 

The original recipe says to serve it cold, but I prefer noodles to be hot so I served it warm. I also added shredded chicken and used rice noodles to make it a little more "authentic". I think it would be great no matter how you choose to eat it. It was delicious. Perfect amount of sweetness and heat!

Haley

Halloween Crafts to Spookify your House Part 1

Whats more fun that having a decked out house of spooky decorations, creepy treats and all the Halloween fun you can think of? Whats even better is if it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg, and you can have some fun with the family making it.

These Halloween character cans are versatile they can just sit on a bookshelf, hold treats for the kids, or can even be filled with party favors for guest if you are throwing a Monster Mash this year. As you see in the picture we have a jack-o-lantern, a mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein. But anything you can imagine can be done.

For this craft the supplies you will need are tin cans, acrylic paints, brushes and maybe some creativity. Save all the food cans you open for a few weeks, (depending on how many spooks you are planning on making). When we made them we let the kids paint too, so we went through a lot of cans!

Wash the cans well, dry them and begin painting. First paint the cans the base color, (orange for a pumpkin, white for a ghost, green for Frank) you get the picture. Let that dry and then go ahead with the rest of the features. A few coats will be necessary depending on how dark of a color you are going for. One tip you may want to try is using a clear coat to follow up with after everything is dry. We didn't use one and as you can see, in the picture, the cans are now a little chipped and worn. (This is due to children playing, stacking, and doing what kids do with things). I would suggest a gloss coat. We use something called Mod Podge gloss, its a water-based glue that looks kind of white when it goes on but dries clear. You know even a thin layer of Elmers glue may do the trick but since I haven't actually tested that, someone will have to let me know if they give it a try.

Another variation you can give it is a handle, poke some holes in the side and either use string, some wire or anything else that seems good to you.

Anyway this is a simple idea for a fun family craft that you can do. I hope you have some fun with these. Be on the look-out for more simple ways to spookify your house coming in later posts.

Sydney