I Made it Through the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

Just like that, October is gone!

And I did it!  I made it through the Ultimate Blog Challenge with 31 posts in 31 days.  Yeah!

I thought I might quit for a second there.  With one late post and another just barely squeaked in on time on the 20th I stared to lose hope and ideas!  But then the juices started to flow and I was renewed.  I made it through these 31 days and I'm so pleased!

I didn't think I would use any of the prompts provided by Paul Taubman, but the question and answer idea was the perfect fog-lifter to set me back on track.  You all asked me such great questions.  Thank you for interacting.

Thank you for your feedback yesterday.  I'm going to try one tip that someone suggested.  Tell me in the comments below if you can figure it out!  

It was good to hear that my site is easy to navigate.  I try to make it that way, but I know sometimes what seems easy to one may be difficult to another.

Thank you also for the suggestion to join Wordpress.  I have another blogger friend who really enjoys using that platform.  I am not one who loves change but I will definitely think on it!  I will be starting a new blog this upcoming January, chronicling personal growth.  I will consider WordPress for this even though I've already started prepping in Blogger.

Lastly, I will try to add more content regularly and continue work on things to make this site as user-friendly as possible.

Happy Halloween!


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Any Feedback?
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Any Feedback?

Now that the Ultimate Blog Challenge is drawing to a close and I won't be sharing a new post quite as often, I am asking you for feedback.  I know there is still one more day to go, but I don't want to forget this important post.  It's been great interacting with you all and many of you have left me comments and questions.  I even wrote a whole post answering some of them.  Thanks for the inspiration!

Looking at the traffic on specific posts, I can guess what people want to see.  But today I am asking what you like most and what you like least. I am asking what you think I could improve and what you think works.

Is my site easy to navigate? On a computer? Tablet? Phone?

Are there any simple changes just staring you in the face?  Have you thought, "why doesn't she just...?"

Be honest.  I'm not asking for a bashing, but in high school I learned an important lesson while working with a friend in an independent study class.  Constructive criticism, while it can sting a little, really helps us to move beyond where we are.  It's one of the most important lessons I took away from school.  I feel like the Ultimate Blog Challenge has really helped me improve.  But your feedback will help even more.

What do you think?  Let me know in the comment section below and THANK YOU so much for contributing.  Blogging is so much more fun with an audience!

31 BLOGtober Post Ideas

Are you participating in a BLOGtober Challenge?  Perhaps you're taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge like me.  If so, you might be looking for ideas.  Here are 31 ideas you can use this fall or save for next year!

Are you ready?

31 BLOGtober Post Ideas

1.  A fall dessert recipe - Either create a recipe of your own or review one you've been wanting to try.

2.  A fall craft for kids - Create a tutorial for a children's craft.

3.  A fall craft for anyone - Show your readers something you made and tell them how they can make it too!

4.  A list of to-dos for the upcoming holiday season - Octobers is the perfect time to start getting ready for the holiday season.  Help your readers plan ahead

5.  Trick-or-Treat ideas - With Halloween at the end of the month, help your readers get ideas for trick-or-treaters.  Check out this post.

6.  Costume ideas - Give your readers an idea for a specific costume or generate a list of ideas.

7.  Pumpkin carving idea - Give your readers some ideas!

8.  Pumpkin Painting ideas - Give a tutorial or just display your work.  Check out this post or this one.

9.  Ways to save for Christmas with a savings timeline included - We all know the holidays can cost big time.  Help your readers with a way to save money for the upcoming season.

10.  Thanksgiving menu ideas - Give your readers ideas on delicious Thanksgiving fare so they can come up with a menu before the last minute.  I have a post like this.

11.  Your fall family traditions - Share your family's favorite fall traditions.

12.  A fall supper recipe

13.  A fall snack recipe

14.  Fall decor ideas - Give your readers some tips on decorating for fall

15.  Fall Pinterest ideas - Make a list of things you want to do that you've found on Pinterest.

16.  Fall Pinterest fails - This could be funny if you failed at one of your Pinterest attempts.

17.  Fall recipe magazine review - Get a fall edition of a recipe magazine such as Taste of Home and review it.

18.  Fall craft magazine review - Find the fall edition of your favorite craft magazine and let your readers know what you think.  It might even be fun to find an old version from the 80s and do a review on that!

19.  DIY fall-scented soap - I made some here, but you can make your own recipe and share it with your readers.

20.  Quiz - How Much Do You Know About Pumpkins? -  Generate a quiz for your readers.  This can be a lot of fun!

21.  Favorite Blog Resources - Give your readers ideas on where to get free pictures or anything else you might find useful.  Share the love!  Here's a post I did sharing free photo resources.

22.  Fall Menu - Create either a menu of things you've eaten weekly this fall or generate a menu with ideas for your readers using recipes from your site.  Here's an example.

23.  5 Ideas for Leftover Pumpkins - What are you readers going to do with their leftover pumpkins?  Give them some ideas.

24.  Review of your local apple orchard - I do this here.

25.  Review of your local pumpkin patch - I do this here.

26.  Quiz - How Much Do You Know About Halloween? - another great quiz idea.

27.  Fall Favorites - Make a list of all your fall favorites from pumpkin spice lattes to cozy sweaters.

28.  Reflection on the summer - Use this time to think about the great times you had.  You might even want to create a photo album like I did here.

29.  Recipe Roundup - take all your fall recipes and put them into one post.  Here's one I did with pumpkins and one I did with apples.

30.  Homemade Gift Calendar - Make a calendar so your readers can get ready for the upcoming holidays.  We all know that handmade gifts take time.  Give your readers a timeline they can fill in with a work schedule to help keep them on task with creating their homemade gifts.

31.  Reflect on the season of fall - Check out my post here.  I reflect on the blessing of autumn.

So there you have it!  Next BLOGtober you have no excuse!  And in the meantime, use some of these ideas as the fall season comes to a close.  Your readers will appreciate it I'm sure.

Painted Pumpkins 2017

We visited the pumpkin patch this past Saturday.  And every day, multiple times a day since then my daughter has been asking when we were going to paint our pumpkins.  You see, she just loves to have fun!  And, a week or so ago, I found the best idea on Pinterest for her.  She loves unicorns right now and I saw the cutest little unicorn pumpkin.  When I saw it she had already gone to bed, but I peeked in and saw she was awake and just had to show her.  That unicorn has been on her mind for over a week now and she finally got to make it!

We all had fun.  I went with a simple cartoonish character, my husband found an idea for a kooky vampire on Pinterest and I think my son was inspired by Larry from Veggie Tales because that pumpkin looks awfully familiar!  And lest we forget Teddy, the infamous bear in our house, he too participated in the festivities, painting a honey pot (apropos, right?) on his pumpkin.  LOL!  If you've been around us long enough, you'll know Teddy is a permanent fixture around here.  I'm not sure my son will ever grow tired of him.  I'm not sure I will either!

So now with our pumpkins all decorated we have to figure out costumes for this coming Tuesday.  My daughter's is squared away and I'm guessing you can figure out what she'll be.  Let me know if you can figure it out in the comment section below!  My son's costume is decided but he hasn't started working on it yet.  He wants to be another Minecraft character.  It's going to be Steve this time.  Check out his costume from last year.  If you have kids into Minecraft I know they'll love it.  I think I'll coax him into starting a little sooner this year.





One complication for Halloween around here is that we're trying to avoid or greatly reduce food dyes.  That can be tricky with candy pouring from the sky.  So I'm not going to be too neurotic.  I told the kids they can have whatever they like on Halloween, then I have a plan.  I bought some organic candy without food dye to switch out after the big day.  I bought good stuff too.  It's not healthy by any means, but I think some of us around here don't do so well with food dyes and we're trying again at an experiment we failed at in the past.

I hope you found some inspiration here and Happy Halloween!


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Free Fall Photos

When I first started my blog back in 2012, I tried to take my own photos for each of the posts.  Sometimes that just wasn't possible, though.  So I looked online to see what there was and realized that I couldn't just copy and paste photos from random sites.  You'd think I'd have known that, right?

After a little research I found out that there were sites with free usable pictures, free even without attribution.  The first site I got many pictures from was Pippalunacy.  They require no attribution, payment, or link back.  They do appreciate any of those things but do not require it.  Click here and you can see their licensing information.

Here is a picture I found from Pippalunacy of some lovely fall pear tree leaves.   All you do to get the picture is download, click and drag.  Of course you can modify it, and sometimes I do.  I have a MacBook Pro and use the download picture preview window to modify the image.  I don't have any special programs, just what my 5-year-old computer came with.  Below you'll see a modified image of the same picture.

I rarely visit Pippalunacy these days, but maybe I ought to.  If I'm not snapping my own pictures for a recipe or craft, I typically head over to Pixabay.  This site has pretty much the same rules as Pippalunacy but there are far more pictures to choose from.  Here is a picture of a nice fall image from Pixabay.

And here is a modified version of it with a link back to the original page.  It's really easy to make a few personal touches to make an image your own.  And with this free site, it's allowed!

Original here.

I would highly recommend these two sites if you need pictures for your blog.  Thank you Pippalunacy and Pixabay for this wonderful service!  When I started using pictures I thought it was too good to be true.  But it's not!  

Do you have a favorite site you use to help with blogging?  Let me know in the comment section below!

As a reminder I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Any Questions?

I've been participating the the Ultimate Blog Challenge this BLOGtober.  Can you believe it's been 23 days?  I know it's flown by for me!  Up until now I haven't used any of the prompts sent in the daily emails to all the challenge participants.  Mostly it's because I was trying to keep to the fall theme I set for myself.  But this one seemed too good to pass up.  Paul Taubman, one of the people who runs the challenge, suggested we ask our readers if they had any questions!  Great idea.  Thank you, Paul!

And thank you for stopping by and reading my blog!  It's been fun putting it together over the years and I appreciate readers, new and old.  So, do you have any questions?  Do you want to know more about me, my blog, crochet, cooking?  Do you have a fall themed question?  Do you want to ask something totally unrelated to the blog?  It's up to you!  Go ahead, ask anything!

Write your questions in the comment section below and I'll pick a few to answer tomorrow!

Oh, and here are some pumpkins to keep with the fall theme.  I couldn't resist!

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Fall Haul

This is a shopping haul from my recent trip to Michaels.  With skeins of yarn at $2 and a 20% everything including sale items, this was one major deal.  $16 for 10 skeins of yarn!!  And this isn't old yarn from a dusty thrift store.  This is brand new!

Now I have to think of what to make.  Any ideas?  I'm sure I could whip up a few more granny squares.  Those are fun.  And there are so many things to do with granny squares. I could make another scarf or a blanket or maybe I could try something new altogether.

I would like to make the Halloween Garland I mentioned in my 14 Awesome Autumn Pins post.  I would need to use some orange and green from my stash, but I could use the black and white for the ghosts and spiders.

The white, blue and pink would be perfect for the Owl Mug Cozies I pinned.  The original poster did not use those colors, but I think they would work out great.

What do you think I should make?  Comment below for ideas.  Also, do you have a favorite yarn?  Comment below with the yarn you love.

As a reminder, I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!


*UPDATE - I previously said $16 for 20 skeins of yarn.  I meant 10!  That would have been a crazy deal, though!

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5 Ideas For Leftover Pumpkins

What do you do when Halloween is over and you have a lonely pumpkin rotting on your doorstep?  Here are 5 ideas of what to do with your leftover pumpkins before they turn to mush.


5 Ideas For Leftover Pumpkins

1.  Toss your pumpkins in the compost pile.  Just be aware you might have another pumpkin growing next spring!  I've also read you can bury your pumpkin to fortify the soil.  Has anyone tried this?

2.  If the pumpkin still looks good and hasn't rotted yet, bring it in the house and cook it up.  You can bake it in the oven, cut side down, at 300 degrees for about an hour or until soft.  Some people add a little water on the bottom of the pan to keep things moist, but this is not required.  Once it's cooked, you can scoop out the insides to use in recipes like pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie!  And if I haven't said it enough before, these two recipes are to die for!  So, so good.

3.  Another thing to do if your pumpkin is in decent shape is scoop out the seeds and toast them up.  Click here for a recipe!  Pumpkin seeds are a great source of zinc and magnesium.

4.  Donate them to a local pig farm.  We have one near me that takes pumpkins for their pigs.  What a treat for them!

5.  I haven't tried this one yet, but I went to a wedding where the pumpkins stood in as vases.  The insides were scooped out and filled with beautiful fall blooms.  My favorites were the multicolred sunflowers.  I may have to try this one!

Do you have any other ideas for what to do with those leftover pumpkins?  Let me know in the comment section below.  And remember I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

Fun-to-make Turkey Treats!

Last year, not long before Thanksgiving, my kids got together with their good friends and created some delicious treats.  The turkey cupcakes we had made a version of in a previous year, but the turkey cookies were a new idea altogether.  I found the idea for the cookies in a magazine.




























We started with the cupcakes, as I knew those would be the easiest to construct.  The kids all got a previously baked cupcake, their choice of vanilla or chocolate frosting, candy corns and Wilton candy eyes.  We all shared a tube of red gel frosting.

The cupcakes needed little explanation.  I just showed them an example and they easily put the turkeys together.

Each cupcake came out a little different, but I'm sure the kids would tell you they were equally delicious!

Turkey Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix of choice plus ingredients called for on box
1 can chocolate frosting 
candy corn
Wilton candy eyes (found at Walmart or on Amazon)
1 tube red gel icing or homemade frosting colored with red food coloring

Bake cupcakes according to package directions.  Cool completely.  Frost with chocolate frosting.  Decorate according to picture above and enjoy!

If you have a kid who loves to bake, boxed cake mixes are a great place to start them off with following directions.  If you want to make it quick and easy, you can have the cupcakes prepared ahead of time.

After they had made their cupcakes, the cookies took more explanation and help.  Once I showed them how to make one, though, they caught on.  With a little frosting and some perseverance, the cookies turned out great.  Funny thing is, they lasted only a few minutes.  The kids ate up their work right after it was done!  At least I got pictures!


Turkey Cookies

Ingredients:

1 package store-bought chocolate chip cookies
1 can chocolate or vanilla frosting
1 bag Hershey's Kisses
1 bag Reese's peanut butter cup miniatures
1 bag candy corn
1 tube red gel frosting
1 tube orange gel frosting

For each turkey cookie you will need two store-bought chocolate chip cookies.  Cut a small piece off one so that it has a flat edge.  Place the uncut cookie on a plate.  Frost the cut edge of the cookie you just cut and affix it to the uncut cookie so that it looks like a chair.

Next take a miniature Reese's peanut butter cup.  Open it and cut off part of the side as shown in the picture.  Frost the front and cut edge of the peanut butter cup, turn it around and affix it to the cookies.  Then take a Hershey's Kiss and frost the back.  Stick it to the upright cookie.

Now, gather 14 candy corns.  With a knife spread some frosting on the tips of the candy corn and affix 12 in a semi-circle around the upright cookie.  These are your tail feathers.  Then take two and attach them, as shown, to the side of the peanut butter cup.  These are the wings.

Then you will stick on the eyes to the Hershey's Kiss with some frosting.  After you have done that, pipe on the red gobble, orange beak and turkey legs.

Now you have a cute and delicious treat!

*For either of these recipes you can substitute homemade ingredients.  You can use homemade cookies for the turkey cookies.  You can also use homemade cupcakes or frosting.  It's totally up to you!


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Cozy Fall Granny Scarf

What better time to whip up a nice warm and cozy scarf than BLOGtober??  I thought of this idea a little while back and figured I'd make it for a post this month.  I just finished it up the other day and I think it came out so cute that I am keeping it.  Sorry, friends, this one's staying with me!

This has been the year of granny squares for me.  There was my Vibrant Granny Square Afghan that I entered in the fair.  Click the link to see how I did!  That afghan took a while and a lot of grannies!  I also made a ton of other granny squares for other projects.  Pretty soon you'll see a pocketbook I made using granny squares.  They are so versatile.

Here you can see me wearing the scarf.  You like my dusty mirror?  Wow, I should have cleaned that first.  Oh well.  Anyway, I think, in hindsight, I would have made the scarf one square longer.  I thought with the extra stitching lining the squares it would have been a little longer.  This length is pretty good, though. 

Here's a closer look at the details.  You can see I used four colors for this scarf.  I arranged them randomly for a not-so-perfect look.  The granny squares were made using a size J hook.  I did two rounds and outlined each in the off white using a single crochet.  Then I stitched them all together with a single crochet in the same off white.  You can see the full pattern below.

It was a lot of sewing and tying loose ends to complete this project, but it was worth it.  I really like how it turned out.  The colors look perfect for fall and yet I know they'll work just fine for winter.

Materials:

size J crochet hook
scrap yarn in red, green brown, purple and off white

Instructions:

Make 28 small granny squares in four colors. You can divide the colors however you like.

Chain four.  Place hook in first chain and slip stitch to create a circle. Chain two.  Then double crochet two into circle.  Chain one.  Double crochet three.  Repeat two more times until you have four clusters.  Then join with slip stitch.

Slip stitch to corner.  Chain two.  Double crochet two.  Chain one.  In the same corner, double crochet three, chain one.  Double crochet three into next corner, chain one, double crochet three into the same spot.  Repeat until you have two clusters in each corner.  Slip stitch to finish.

Outline in off white using a single crochet stitch.  Sew in all loose ends.

Make 28 granny squares total using the four colors.

Join squares using single crochet.  This is a great video showing how to do this if you need a visual.  Make sure to sew in the rest of those loose ends!

Any questions?  Type them in the comment section below.


I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!  Are you?  It might be too late to join now, but you can always join the next one!

Monster Slime

Monster Slime.  Perfect for the ghoulish days to come!

My kids have been begging to make slime, particularly my son.  I was hesitant, however, because we still have slime on the ceiling from our last encounter with the ooey gooey mess-maker.  But, after a month-long (plus) ban, I decided to give it another try.  Besides, the homemade stuff isn't quite as goopy as its store-bought counterpart.

So I headed to Walmart for supplies while the kids were at school.  I came across a slime starter kit and it was on clearance.  My favorite!  It even had a recipe on the back.  This one was a little different than the slimes we have made in the past, but I figured it was worth a try.

The slime we made in the past called for glue, borax and water.  This one had glue, contact solution and baking soda.  When I looked at the contact solution ingredients, I saw that it contained boric acid, so I'm guessing that's a key component in slime-ification.

Did you know you can use a straw to blow bubbles in slime?  I hadn't thought of it, but apparently the kids are full of ideas. And it works quite well.  Go ahead, give it a try!

I will say that this one, made with the blue glitter glue (plus some extra blue glitter for good measure) worked the best.  The slimes made with clear glue and added food color and sprinkles seemed to seep water for some reason.

Below is the gold slime we made with clear glue, yellow food coloring and gold sparkles before it started to separate and get watery.

Slime Recipe

(from the back of the box)

Ingredients:

1 6-ounce bottle of glitter glue

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/4 tablespoons contact solution

Add baking soda to glue and mix thoroughly.  Add contact solution and stir until mixture gets firmer and slime begins to form.  

It's really easy, not to expensive and a lot of fun.  This is one of the easier and less messy slime recipes available, especially when you compare it to the cornstarch and water concoction my kids like to make.  That one I recommend for a warm summer day!

As a reminder, I'm taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!  

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Cinnamon Vacuum Powder?

I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Check it out!

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I was so excited to try this one.  Ah, fall, and the warm and delicious smell of cinnamon!

I saw a tip on Pinterest to sprinkle some ground cinnamon on the floor, vacuum it up and continue vacuuming the rest of your house.  This is just plain old cinnamon, the one I use for baking.  The idea is that as the vacuum heats up, the cinnamon smell will fill the air.

Did it work?

In a word, no.  I put about a tablespoon of cinnamon on the floor, vacuumed it up and hoped for a delicious cinnamon smell to fill the air.  But I was left flat.  This Pinterest tip is not a keeper.  I really wish it worked.  Maybe if I sprinkle my rugs?  No, even if they did smell nice that way, the cinnamon has potential to stain.  I don't want to do that.

It's too bad, I thought this idea had great potential.  Looks like this is one I'll be deleting off my DIY boards!

Do you have any Pinterest ideas that fell flat?  Leave them in the comment section below.  I'd love to hear of your Pinterest fail!

Update: Days later I smelled the faint scent of cinnamon while vacuuming.  It was so faint that I had to stick my nose to my vacuum to confirm it.  I still don't recommend this idea.


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Nice and Spicy Melt and Pour Soap

I've had some melt and pour glycerine soap ready to try since this summer.  I love glycerine soaps for my sensitive skin.  When I mentioned it to my mom when we were visiting this summer, she gave me a brand new package she had at her house.  I've been wanting to try it out, but until now I haven't had the motivation for a new project.  We moved this summer and other little things just kept creeping in.  Well, finally, soap made the list!

Nice and Spicy Melt and Pour Soap

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
pinch of turmeric
1 pound melt and pour glycerine soap
10 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
Soap molds*

According to the directions on the mold, I melted the soap in a glass dish in the microwave.  I started with 30 seconds microwaved at 10 second intervals until it was melted completely.  (I am wondering if I should have melted it a smidgen more because by the time I poured my last soap, it was already hardening.)  Once it is melted, stir in spices and essential oil.  Lastly, pour into molds and wait about 40 minutes until it hardens.

*I got my soap molds at Michaels and I'm a little disappointed.  The more shallow bar molds cause the whole thing to dip, causing uneven hardening.   My original goal was to make it in a silicone loaf, but apparently I got rid of it in our move!

So do I like my Nice and Spicy Soap?  Yes.  I do.  I definitely felt a warming sensation from this soap but it surprisingly gentle considering my sensitive skin. My hands smell lovely after using it and my bedroom, where I store the soap, has a nice pumpkin spice fragrance!

As for the recipe, this site was helpful for inspiration.  She uses a different base and a few other things, but it was a good place to start with ideas.  I also found this site helpful with general soap-making instructions.

The one roadblock that I encountered, which I mentioned already, was the soap starting to harden before I poured my last bar.  Does anyone have any tips for me?  Any experienced soap makers?

Here's a picture to show you what I mean.

You can see the bar on the lower right has the product prematurely solidifying as evidenced by the chunks.

As a reminder, I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It's been blast so far and I recommend it to any fellow bloggers.  It's easy and effective.  Check it out!


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A Summer Tribute

Ok, this BLOGtober series is supposed to be about fall, but bear with me just a minute.  Fall is the perfect time to look back on your summer adventures.  And what better way to do that than creating a wonderful memory book?  I'm not a scrapbooker, and I almost regretted starting this project after the first page.  But once I got started I was pleased that I did.

One of my goals this year was to scrapbook our photos instead of just let them float in nebulous Internet land.  This is my attempt at that.  I like to have pictures that the kids can look through, things we can leave out.  I don't like being so tied to technology anyway.  This helps with that.

We had a very eventful summer and I wanted to capture all of its (good) moments so that we could look back and see that, yes, even through the absolute chaos we had a good time!  It will remind my family and me how wonderful the summer was.  I swear it wasn't all horrible!

Don't my kids look so cool!  Funny, but I think they pull it off.  

I'm not sure if I'll do another book like this once this one is done, but it was a good challenge to my imagination and I think it's looking good so far.

So tell me, do you print pictures anymore?  I stopped for a while.  Then I made photo books using Walmart's online photo service.  Now, I'm trying it the old fashioned way.  What do you do?

I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

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Pumpkin Pie Spice Review

Recently I've been thinking about fall-themed recipes and projects that I could include in my BLOGtober series, Time for Fall.  In addition to being fall-themed, I wanted the posts to also be useful.  So, after some thought I thought you might like to see a review of a DIY pumpkin spice mix.  I found the recipe here, but to be honest, you can find similar ones all over the web.

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ingredients:

1/3 cup cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice

Click the link above to for complete instructions.

So my opinion?  4/5 stars.  I'm not sure what it was, because although this was good it was not quite perfect.  When I make pumpkin pie I skip the allspice and cloves.  Maybe that was it.  Either way, it was good, but I may look for another mix next time around.  And I will certainly use what I have.

Stay tuned for Nice and Spicy Soap and Pumpkin Spice Play Dough, both featuring this warm fall blend!

My very not pretty, not blog-friendly picture of the old cinnamon container I used to store my Pumpkin Pie Spice.  Sometimes you just have to use what you have on hand.  No fancy labels or jars, just an old plastic container and a sharpie!

Do you have any favorite homemade spice mixes?  This taco seasoning is my favorite of all time. I use it often.  It saves me money and I like it much better than store-bought mixes.

As a reminder, I'm taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!

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Pumpkin Bread

Apple Pie Egg Rolls

This month I'm participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge!  It's a way to connect with fellow bloggers and increase your traffic (and theirs!).  If you haven't signed up already there still could be time.

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For this recipe, I used my mother's apple pie filling and cut the ingredients in half.  I also decided that because I'm still trying to control my weight, I wouldn't fry the rolls.  I know typically egg rolls are fried, but I thought they still would turn out ok if I baked them.

Turns out I was right!  These are great.  I would definitely make them again.  I may use a sugar free sweetener in the future just to see if that would work out but these are good as is.

It's funny how sometimes I think I have this novel idea but then when I type it into google, at least a hundred entries pop up.  That's what happened with these.  I should have known!

Here are the egg rolls right before I put them in the oven.  I put around 2-3 tablespoons of apple pie filling in each one, wet the roll with my finger and then wrapped it up.  Then I dampened the egg roll with water and rolled it in cinnamon sugar.

Apple Pie Egg Rolls

Ingredients:

Egg roll wraps

Filling
3 cups peeled apples, diced
1 tablespoon flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
3/8 (half of 3/4) cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray.  Mix all filling ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.  Place 2-3 tablespoons into each egg roll wrap.  Moisten edges of wrap and roll.  Then roll finished egg rolls in cinnamon sugar mixture.  Place egg roll on cookie sheet and repeat until all filling is gone. Bake for 20 minutes or until egg rolls are slightly browned.  Makes about 12-14 rolls.

Here is a picture of the page in my mom's recipe collection where I got the apple pie filling recipe.  If you can zoom in, you'll see a recipe for a delicious pie crust.  It sure does have a lot of shortening, but it's so worth it for the occasional treat.

Thanks for reading and check out the links below!

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Ultimate Blog Challenge Facebook Group

14 Awesome Autumn Pins

This year I've tried to challenge myself and do some new things.  I did a 30 day challenge, I entered the fair and I moved!  I'm also currently participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  There's more, but suffice it to say it's been an eventful year.

Now that fall is here there are even more new things I want to try for this, my favorite season.  For me, Pinterest has been the perfect holding area for ideas, but my boards are chuck full of pins and I often wonder if I'll ever get around to even a quarter of them.  So, in the spirit of trying something new, I thought I'd make a list of 14 Autumn Pinterest Ideas right here to get myself moving.  Any more than that and I know I won't get to any of them!


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14 Awesome Autumn Pins

1.  Acorn wreath - This one doesn't come with instructions, but it sure looks cool.  I even have oak trees in my back yard.

2.  Pinecone wreath - Scroll down and you'll see this one.  No pine trees here, but I'm sure I could scavenge up some pine cones.

3.  Felt Owls - These are adorable!

4.  Harvest Gold Sunflower Hat - I love sunflowers.  I really should make this one.

5.  Halloween Garland - This one looks easy and cute.

6.  Halloween Hats - So cute.  Candy corn, spider webs and pumpkins, oh my!

7.  Pumpkin Coffee Mug Sleeve - With all the crocheting I've done, surprisingly I haven't made a mug sleeve.  I may have to remedy that!

8.  Pumpkin Doughnuts - I might try these this week.  I just found my donut pans so I'm ready to go.

9.  Owl Mug Cozy - another perfect little cozy

10.  Hat and Scarf Set in lovely fall colors.  So pretty.

11.  Thanksgiving Pretzel Turkeys - This is only a picture, but easy to follow I'm sure.

12.  Crochet Indian Corn - How have I not made this?

13.  No Bake Pumpkin Spice Pudding Pie - I don't have enough pumpkin recipes.  I have to try this.

14.  Homemade Pumpkin Spice Mix - I love making my own mixes.  Actually this taco seasoning I use ALL the time.



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Why a Another Cooking and Craft Blog?

Fall is a wonderful time to reflect.  Today I ask the question, "why another cooking and craft blog?"  Well, the answer is simple: I enjoy cooking and making crafts and find both topics very easy to write about.  Not only that, this blog provides both you and me with a record of all the things I've done.  It's all there and easy to access.  Sometimes I want to repeat a craft or recipe and, click, there it is.  Totally practical.  Besides, I can reminisce about all the fun things I did through the years.  Having a record in words and photos means more and more the older I get (and I'm not quite 40 yet!).  It's totally worth the effort!

There are other things I like as much or even more, but have a hard time opening myself up to everyone about.  For example, I am very interested in spiritual things and have spent years of my life researching the depths of Christianity and other spiritual heritages.  I learned a lot and have quite a few opinions.  But writing about those things feels so vulnerable and I tend to be a bit of a closed book.  It may be time to change that, but not today!  I have private journals where I have worked through some of my biggest struggles.  I have pages and pages of spiritual discussion with myself.  Because of my faith background, I feel unable to be vulnerable with everyone in those areas.  I'm honest when people ask me, but putting it out there permanently takes a bigger commitment.

I also really enjoy science.  I used to be a biology teacher, remember?  I recently came upon one of the best books I've found in a long time.  It is a collection of one year's best science writing.  It was older and I bought it at a thrift store, but I think I'm going to get the most recent version soon.  It's called Best American Science Writing.  I've found I like less of the get down and dirty science, but more reading about it and thinking through it.  In other words, I would never want to work in a lab.  So why not write about science?  Maybe I will, but it takes far more effort than writing about my latest craft, and with young children it was more effort than I was willing to expend.  Now, though, it's a real possibility.

Anyway, I write about cooking and crafts because it's fun, light-hearted and I think it's a great way to leave a record of my times as a stay-at-home mom.  I'm not sure how long this season will last, but it's fun while it does!

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I am participating in The Ultimate Blog Challenge, a way to connect with other bloggers and increase blog traffic.  Click the link above or go here to the Facebook group.  It's a great way to bring your blog to the next level!

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