DIY Skeleton Costume

Last night we made a very last minute costume for Miss E to wear to her office on Halloween. 

Her idea was to paint a skeleton on one side of a black t-shirt with a trendy cutout at the top. She found the perfect shirt in the boys section at Walmart for only $3.50. 

After looking at some skeleton pictures I finally had an idea of what to draw so I cut a piece of freezer paper to fit one side of the shirt and then drew some rib bones, back bone and a small collar bone. Once I thought the drawing was OK and got her stamp of approval I cut it out. To protect the shirt while painting I slipped a heavy brown paper bag inside after I had ironed the wax paper cutout on the t-shirt. We also put piece of blue painters tape down the middle to keep the line clean and straight and then it was ready for her to paint.

When it was finished we left it to dry over night.

She was happy with how the t-shirt turned out so it was just a matter of waiting until morning to try it on.  

Miss E and I had a fun, creative evening. Unfortunately I was gone before she was up so I haven't seen her dressed in her Skeleton Costume yet but I am hoping she had someone take pictures!

Happy Halloween!

Spooky Jello

For as long as I can remember I have served a theme meal, usually dinner but sometimes breakfast too, on Halloween. It is not hard to do or terribly time consuming to prepare festive food and what could be easier than Jello?

It is pretty simple to make Jello look spooky when it is served in black bowls with bones on top so I thought these would be a perfect addition to our fun dinner menu on Wednesday. For the sake of time, I made the edible bones myself using chocolate. It was so much quicker than running to the store. With my luck, and the fact that everything fall related is already on the back shelves marked as clearance,  I wouldn't be able to find them anyway so making my own bones was a much better use of time. 

The tapioca on top makes it even more

sLimY and SpOoKy!

I think these will be perfect for our easy peasy Halloween dinner. So the tradition continues.

For more Halloween ideas go here.

Have a great Monday!

Saturday Morning Coffee & Treats

 Today was our October Coffee Klatch. My sister and her husband have always hosted our  Saturday morning get togethers which are scheduled randomly throughout the year. They make their famous percolated coffee, which is the best, and we all make treats to share. 

My contribution consisted of apple bars, pumpkin scones, Mr. Wonderful's beef jerky, cuties and the cute little ghost eggs. The serving platter and bowl were the perfect size and color and were my grandparents which made it extra special. 

My Mom and sister made these yummy treats. The triangles are Apple Cinnamon Cheesecake Bars and the Muffins are Pumpkin and cream cheese. Both were delicious!

We had our coffee in these cute mugs.

My sister also gave each of the girls a beautiful potted Rose which are shown in the pictures above. 

We always look forward to the family Coffee Klatch because it is

so much fun!

Happy Saturday!

Beef Jerky ~ teriyaki

The hubs marinated some beef yesterday for beef jerky and had it on the smoker early this morning.  

This was his first attempt and it turned out pretty well. Teriyaki is not his top pick for flavor but we had the ingredients on hand which made it easy. However, he is already talking about doing another batch with an idea he has for a different marinade. But until then....

...it will be a great snack for game day!

Happy Saturday!!

Apple Roses ~ fall dessert

After picking a bucket of apples on Saturday I figured there was no better time than the present for making Apple Roses.

So I set out on my first attempt at these fancy individual desserts.

They were a bit fussy and by the time I got them in the oven to bake I had quite a mess however it was well worth it.

They taste a lot like apple pie so we all loved them. 

A small scoop of vanilla ice cream would have been really good with each serving but we were out so I made whipped cream instead. Always a good substitute in my book.

These Apple Roses made a perfect dessert for Sunday Supper.

And, I will definitely be making them again soon.

Have a wonderful day!

P, B & J go apple picking

On Saturday I was invited to go apple picking with P & B. They have gone picking before so they are what one might call "experienced apple pickers". At least they were familiar with the orchard and the routine there so they could show me to ropes. 

There were literally hundreds of trees and a wide variety of apples, most of which I had not heard of before. None the less, we grabbed a couple buckets provided at the barn and headed down the rows.

All the apples looked perfect which made it hard to know which ones we would like the best so....

...we sampled them. Yes, we chose a tree, picked an apple and took a bite! The taste test was just the ticket. Can you guess what type this is??

If you guessed an Arkansas Black you would be correct! It was the first tree we stopped at and when I read the sign I immediately thought of Dad.  He planted one years ago on the back forty so I had to have a photo and of course a few for the bucket. We also found Gravenstein's which our parents have at their place too and also happens to be the preferred apple for our grandma's famous apple dumplings. Since that is what Grandma always used it is what I like to use when I make them. 

The easy part of picking was filling up the bucket, the hard part was which apples to choose because there were just so many. 

The view was amazing up at the top of the hill overlooking the orchard and Mt. Hood in the distance.

What a fun thing to do on a sunny October afternoon! Every apple we have tried has been delicious and I even used some in our dessert for Sunday Supper which I will share soon. 

Happy Monday!

Apple Season

from my list of one thousand gifts

:: apple picking with P & B :: apple orchards :: majestic mountain tops :: fall weekends :: family time :: dinner with friends 

:: weekly catch up calls :: 

Blessings, 

There is a Place...

.... full of fun, adventure, traditions and a life time of great memories. It is a special place and one of our favorites and it is here we love to gather for our annual family vacation.

Our activity list is plentiful so there is never a dull moment.

There is always some golfing.

More often than not we share the course with the animals. 

Half the time we don't even notice them. Actually there are a few of us that can't help but notice and might even snap a picture or two. 

We also love to ride our bikes through the meadow. No cattle or horses in this picture but rest assured, they are all around.

There is always a hike or two.

This year our map took us off the main road.

It became pretty rough and at one point we even had to ditch one of the cars and pile in the SUV. Eventually we couldn't go any further. The views were spectacular though and worth the bumpy ride.

We searched around a bit but it became apparent that we were lost. The trail head was nowhere to be found so we decided to turn around and head back to town. About half way back we happened to see a sign to the trail we were looking for all along. The hike was back on.

The forest fires made the area fairly smoky however on this particular day it was off in the distance.

Our hike would take us down to the creek below.

It was beautiful.

It was certainly worth the little detour and off~road driving conditions.

Back at the ranch we couldn't help but spot more animals.

One morning we found this cute little bunny next to the car.

And we even saw turkeys along the bike trail! That was a first.

Of course we had to try some dessert at the lodge.

Grand Marnier Almond Cake

Orange brandy almond sponge cake, candied orange peel, Chantilly cream, cardamom Marcona almonds 

Not only were they delicious but pretty too!

New York Style Cheesecake

Classic vanilla cheesecake with a hint of citrus, graham cracker crust, Bordeaux cherry compote, vanilla tuile 

Iced tea by the fire is a favorite on cool autumn mornings.

And, the view of the mountains is amazing, even with a few clouds.

Yes, There is a Place....

...where the tradition continues...

...and memories were made!

Happy Saturday!