2 Dollar Apothacary Jar

I have been looking for cheap ways to make an apothacary jar for holiday candies. I found the glass bases at the dollar store for 1$ a piece and the top parts for 1$ a piece at a thrift store.

I went to my local Hobby Lobby and found some glass glue.

Take the top part of your jar and turn in upside down on your table. Using a washable marker mark where you want the base to sit. Then take your glue, and following the directions, make a continuous circle of glue inside your mark.

My glue told me to wait 60-120 seconds before pressing the two pieces of glass together. This allows the glue to set a little bit and create a better seal.

I placed a book on the top of the jar to keep the seal in place and allowed it to dry for a full 24 hours.

I love it and can't wait to fill it with colorful candies year round.



Amazing Turkey Dinner

For most of you, Thanksgiving Dinner is quickly approaching and the who, what, where when and how is all needing to be planned. Since my husband will be working on Turkey Day we decided we would have our enormous dinner yesterday. I have to say, it turned out amazing.

For the turkey I used the recipe from Best Bites blog here. I think the main ideas were that you need to first brine the turkey for atleast 24 hours, then inject the turkey with your key flavors and, finally, cook your turkey in a an oven safe bag. I followed the recipe for the turkey quite closely with only a few minor changes. I used a lot of garlic and parsley instead of the sage but it was still amazing.

Another plus, was that when you use the bag to cook the turkey it only takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to be finished. I remember my mom getting up well past sunrise the morning of Thanksgiving Day to get the turkey in the oven so it would be finished by 2 pm. In a way, because of that I dreaded the day when I would have to cook my own turkey. However, this ended up being very easy to pull off.

With the turkey we had potato rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, key lime pie and chocolate pudding pie. What's that? What about the pumpkin pie and the berry pies? Well, neither my husband or I like pumpkin pie very much and there are no berries on the southern border I could have used. This was a bit of a dissapointment for me since I love my homemade fruit pies.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and enjoy your turkey!!

Paper Mache Pumpkin

Although these might be kind of time consuming this is a fun craft you can do with your kids. Might end up kinda messy at times but messy is fun, right?

Supplies you will need:

Balloons
Newspaper Strips
School Glue
Scissors or sharp knife
Orange Paint
Tin Foil
Green or Brown Paint

Make sure you have a place where you don't mind things getting messy. I use an old plastic table cover for all my messy crafts.

Make a mix of your glue with water. Usually you use a 2:1 ratio glue to water but I don't ever measure it.

Blow up your balloon to the size you want your pumpkin to be. Dib a strip of newspaper into your glue mixture and place flat on your balloon. Do this until the entire balloon is covered, leaving the "stem" of the balloon uncovered. You can either allow each layer to dry before you add more or you can keep adding the wet layers like I did. Then I allowed it to dry for about 24 hours before I painted it.

For the stems take a piece of tin foil and twist it into the shape of a pumkin stem. After it is the shape you want it to be you can pain it however you like. I did a couple layers of different greens and browns to give it more of a realistic look and I love the way they turned out :)

Cardboard Coffin

Unfortunately, I don't really haved the pictures for a tutorial for this but it is super simple. As long as you have the general shape of the top and bottom and the sides are all the same you can have on great looking cardboard coffin :)

DIY Pumpkin Lantern

Super cute, right? These only took me a couple hours outside of dry time. Basically all you need to do is follow the general idea of paper mache
Supplies you will need:

Balloons
Orange Crepe Paper or Orange Steamers
School Glue
Scissors or sharp knife

Make sure you have a place where you don't mind things getting messy. I use an old plastic table cover for all my messy crafts.

Make a mix of your glue with water. Usually you use a 2:1 ratio glue to water but I don't ever measure it.

Blow up your balloon to the size you want your pumpkin to be. Dib a strip of crepe paper into your glue mixture and place flat on your balloon. Do this until the entire balloon is covered, leaving the "stem" and top of the balloon uncovered. You won't need too many layers since you want to be able to illuminate the pumpkin from the inside with your candle (I would recommend flame-less).

After your crepe paper is dry you can pop the balloon and take it out. Now all they need are faces and a pretty illuminary on the inside.

Ghost in a Jar

Please welcome Bartholemeu the Ghost. This was SO simple to put together and I'm sure would be fun to do with a child for halloween. 

All you need:

Scrap white paper or tissue paper
Needle and Thread
Black Permanent Marker
Glass Bottle
Paper for a Label

All I did to make a ghost is took a piece of fabric and rolled it into a ball to give the head its form. Take your needle and thread after you put a knot in the end and string it through the rolled fabric.

Now take your scraps and pull the needle through the middle of the scrap fabric pieces to add the body of the ghost.

Add your eyes with the permanent marker and place your ghost in your jar or bottle. By leaving the thread attached to your ghost, you can use the lid of the jar or bottle to secure your ghost mid air.

Now you can make a label for your ghost.

Quick and Easy Apple Tarts

These are so super easy. All you do is follow your favorite apple pie recipe.  All you need to do is take your pie crust and after rolling it out like you would for a pie cut out some circles using a knife. I used the rim of a bowl for a template. After that all I did was hold the pie crust circle in my hand and spoon your apple mix into the pie crust. Using your hands press your crust into a ball with the apples in the middle. It's ok if they look kind of messy... gives them some character.

Backe at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes and enjoy!