Getting a good photo makes me happy.

OK-- let me start by saying that I know I am a NO photographer, but... getting a good photo makes me REALLY happy and I'm trying to practice a lot to improve my photo taking skills.  I also know that a 'good photograph' is subjective, but I just wanted to share a few photos that I took today that make me happy.  (and yes-- most of them are of my son)  :)

Perfect Fall football day.

My stepson is the QB of his varsity football team-- #12!

Can Transformers play with Barbies? 

Independence.

Pure fun.

Colors of Fall:

 All boy.

And he's off...

Little sneaks

Halloween party

With Halloween just 10 days away I am TOTALLY unprepared this year.  We don't have a costume for Cole (although he knows what he wants to be).  We don't have a "plan" for Halloween night.  We haven't decided if we'll do a Halloween party or not this year...  So while I figure this all out, I'll leave you with images from last year's Halloween party lunch (turned out to not be so much of a party afterall).

Last year my step-son just happened to have a football game down the street from our house the day before Halloween so I got all psyched for a small Halloween party for our family.  Just the hubs, myself and the 4 kids.  Long story short, he ended up having to go back to his school on the bus (an hour away)  and the girls were freezing so they went home to their mom's house too so.... no party.  But since I had all the food ready I set it out anyway-- for the three of us.

So what does a small Halloween party lunch for 2 adults and a 3 year old (at the time) look like.   Well, in my world it looks like this:


Homemade soup, warm and toasty....

Hot out of the oven bone breadsticks with spooky dipping sauce

 

Cheese and Crackers (and a bowl with no soup)

Crunchy Veggies and Dip

And LOTS of desserts!


Ghost lollipops (devoid of ANY artistic ability)

Festive Marshmellow pops:

And the pièce de résistance...


These ADORABLE Owl Cupcakes

FYI:  separating oreos in an aesthetically pleasing manor is very hard. :)   I know they are a little wonky looking, but I think it gives them "character"... right?

 

 

 So... do I do a little Halloween "party" this year for the 3 of us or not... that is the question...  Stay tuned to find out.

It really IS that easy!

OK when I saw this this a.m. I thought... 'No WAY it's that easy! This must be some sort of blog conspiracy to make me think I can quickly and easily make homemade donuts.  But... I've got to try it to find out!'   Homemade donuts.

So imagine my joy when my 4 year old son said he wanted to do breakfast for dinner tonight!  (seriously-- I swear I hadn't told anyone about the homemade donuts-- he totally came up with this idea on his own)  So... I tried it-- and it IS that easy (and it took like 20 seconds to do).

Homemade donuts:  two ingredients-- refrigerated buttermilk biscuits and oil to fry them in.

I always just assumed making donuts was hard.  It's not.  Check out the real recipe here or here.

And I assumed making donuts this way wouldn't actually taste like donuts.  But they do!  And they are good.  Really good. (ps-- I rolled my donuts and donut holes in cinnamon sugar)

Now... who wants to come over for breakfast?

Office Makeover Breakdown: Flower Vase

Wanna know what my flower vase looked like before I put it in my cubicle?

actually it only looked like ONE of these (but I happened to buy and photograph 2)

I found these plastic vases at Big Lots during an end of summer clearance event.  They were $.50 each so I bought 2 because I loved their shape.

this angle-- looking down INTO the pot, gives me even MORE ideas

A little white glossy spray paint,  a couple of stems of Dollar Tree "flowers" and Voila!

Project costs breakdown:

Vase:  $.50

Spray Paint:  $4.47 (Krylon Fusion -- for plastics)

Flowers:  (3) stems at $1 each = $3.00

Total cost:  $7.97

The most expensive update to my desk, but I love the impact that it has!

Office Makeover Breakdown: Desk Calendar

OK-- here's a super quick and super easy (and FREE) update than anyone can make.  It doesn't make a BIG impact, but it makes me happy nonetheless so... 

Here's the before:  my plain ole' run-of-the-mill office desk calendar

And here it is after a little scrapbook paper and a glue stick-- that's all it took!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I guess you could say it doesn't take much to make me happy!