Trick Or Treat

I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. Ours was great. Mia dressed up as Minnie Mouse and caught on to Trick or Treating pretty quick. She made sure to go to every single house, ring the doorbell and say "Happy Halloween, Trick or Treat." The person at the door would then proceed to let her pick "one" piece of candy out of the candy bowl. Mia just started grabbing handfuls. I had to stop her each time. Good thing she is so darn cute! We went up to Great Grandma Jones' where she dresses up as a witch and is famous for her witch cackle. We had taco soup for dinner and enjoyed hanging out with family. The hubby and I were lame this year and didn't dress up. Oh well, as long as Mia had the time of her life, right?

Mia as Minnie Mouse- I think the Make-up totally makes the costume that much better!

 

Her face was priceless. What a great holiday!!!



Super Bass

To be honest with you in Junior High and High school I was way too cool to dress up for Halloween, aka I was lame and self conscious. This year and last year though I have learned to embrace my Halloween side and dress up! Now I'm sure you are all ready to hear my great costume ideas, because if you are like me you never know what to be so you've put off finding a costume until the day of Halloween. So here it goes my three costumes that will hopefully give you an idea for this Monday.

  First up we have my costume from last year at my grandmothers annual Halloween get together. I dressed up as my mom and my mom dressed up as me. classsyyyy.

Next up.. after my grandmas party I went to a party with my friends and dressed up as the tooth fairy. Very cuuuttee. yes i know.



Did anyone else see this on Ellen the other week? Well if you didn't you missed out, because those two little girls are what me and my friend are dressing up as. Clever, most definitely. Will people have to ask what we are because they've mistaken us for ballerinas, most definitely. I'm fine with it.

And finally we have the tutu I made today to be one of the little Super Bass girls.

There you have it folks, a few of my genius ideas. Hopefully I've inspired you to think outside the box this Halloween and have an amazing costume!

Much Love,

nicole



Halloween - ish No Bake Cookies

I think I started making no bake cookies when I was a toddler. Seriously, they are that easy- hence the "No Bake". These cookies made almost a weekly appearance on Family Night. It is a fun, quick and super easy treat and you almost always have everything you need for them in your pantry. For some reason when I was  in elementary and junior high and I would get together with my friends we liked to make things. Sometimes that would include nasty potions (don't ask), brownies and yes - these no bake cookies. I was craving them and so I decided to try and make them look a little more holiday friendly - Black & Orange.

Quick Oats, Peanut Butter, Sugar, Milk, Butter, Vanilla, Cocoa Powder and Orange Food Coloring if you are feeling a little festive

 Have I ever told you how I have a secret love for DARK chocolate? Well, it isn't really a secret because I proclaim my love for it to anyone whenever the subject of chocolate comes up. I love the slight bitterness and 'depth' (as my hubby would say) that it has. Well, a few months ago I was making dark chocolate cupcakes and found this.... and now of course I prefer it over regular cocoa powder.

 First, color your oats.

 Look how pretty... kind of reminds me of the fall leaves that need to be raked outside.

 Add your peanut butter to the oats. No need to stir it in just yet. If you are like me you might secretly add an extra spoonful of peanut butter when no one is looking.

 Put your butter in a saucepan and begin melting.

 Add everything else and cook on medium heat. Bring to a boil and let it boil for only 1 minute.

 After it has boiled pour it onto your oats, add your vanilla and HURRY- get to stirring!! You don't want it to harden on ya.

 Then, scoop tablespoon size portions onto your tinfoil/parchment paper (Whatever you have)

 Makes about 15 little cookies. Let them cool down completely and set up.

 I was pleasantly surprised that you can actually see the orange even when they are covered in chocoloate sauce.

 If you get a wild hair you might even feel like decorating them with some melted chocolate and trying to make them look like a spider.

 

THEN.... gobble them up before everyone else does. These bad boys go fast!

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 C Oats

1/4 C Peanut Butter

1 C Sugar

1 1/2 T Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 C butter

1/4 C milk

Combine oats and peanut butter. ( If you are going to color your oats do this before adding the PB)

In a saucepan over medium heat begin to melt your butter. Add Sugar, cocoa powder, milk and whisk together. Bring to a boil and only let the mixture boil for one minute. Remove from heat and immediately pour onto oats. Add vanilla and STIR it all together. Drop onto parchment paper or tinfoil and cool completely. This will allow cookies to set up. ENJOY.

This is it MJ

As you all know Monday night me and mother carved pumpkins, and I was struggling to come up with something original. That only lasted until about eight o'clock at night, when I suddenly decided that carving Michael Jackson into my pumpkin would be thrilling. haha. There I was searching online for MJ stuff and low and behold I found a spray paint stencil that I thought would work well. So I was off to carving that guy into my pumpkin.

I began by taping the picture to my pumpkin. I decided to carve out all the black which means the first step was to poke little tiny holes around the black to outline where I would carve.

A closer look at the poking step.

Next I removed the picture to see how well I poked MJ's face

Then I connected all the dots together with that little carving saw. Ya I know you all know what I'm talking about......

After that I scraped out where all the black was on the picture to get this lovely image.... hahahaha oh wait is that MJ? Naaahhhh.







And voila there you have it... Michael Jackson's face.

Okay fine... I'll be the first one to admit, this doesn't even look like MJ, at all. I know. But once you start carving ya can't go back. Then I realized that my friend had commented and told me to carve her face into my pumpkin.... and by the looks of that pumpkin really it could be anyone. Which means Jackee, babe. That's you, right there on my pumpkin. Looking so fine. You can thank me later for the great job I did at portraying your inner beauty.

On the upside though... I still have three pumpkins left to carve this Saturday, so I'm hoping they turn out more successful.

And on another upside, I guess... I'm going on another date tonight to Thriller, with that boy that took me to the haunted house. Yes it really wasn't even half bad, obviously because I'm going out again and I know you all are thinking I told you so, or that is why you always go into the date with an open mind. Ya, ya I got it ok, but still... wish my luck. I don't need/want another "come here" story.

Much Love,

nicole

pumpkin night

Me and Mother are carving pumpkins tonight for family night. It's going to be a real good time, everyone be jealous. I'm still trying to decide what to carve but I've been considering these options, the air jordan logo, Audrey Hepburn, tangled, E.T., or obama just kidding mom. As you can tell my ideas this year are lacking, and there is only a few hours left till the carving begins. What am I going to do, I don't even know? I feel pressure considering the last two years of pumpkin carving have been above par, seriously. So whatever I decide on I'll definitely let you know what, when I blog on Wednesday. Until then I'll just let you marvel over my past beauties.

Went with a Stars Wars theme in 2009, way cool.

Pumpkin theme for 2010 was.... Originality. No I didn't just make that up?

Another favorite thing that comes along with pumpkin carving, is toasting the pumpkin seeds to then later eat. If you have never done this... seriously you are crazy, go and try it right now! But now I'm off to come up with some genius pumpkin carving idea. Wish Me Luck!

Much Love,

nicole