invite this guy to your halloween party

I got the idea for the super yummy mummy from a Taste of Home Halloween fun food magazine, where they had used cheese logs covered in piped cream cheese. well cheese logs are expensive and never get eaten all the way. I had already planned on making brownies (got a new brownie pan & brownie mix for a wedding gift) and I had leftover home made cream cheese frosting from wedding cupcakes.

Wilton Bake It Better 12-Cavity Bar Pan

The brownie pan only made a little under 1 box of mix, so I used a regular small rectangle cake pan (also a wedding gift) for the rest of the batter. Using a regular knife I shaped the head/torso out of the full pan and added the individual squares as the appendages, and cut them in half for the shoulder/hips(cut on diagonal) and arms (cut lengthwise). The legs are 2 full bars. Some scrap from around the head became the eyes.

Then I cut a slit in a freezer Ziploc (usually I use cheaper storage Ziplocs, but the cream cheese was cold and i didn't want the bag to split) to pipe on the bandages.

total project cost

$FR.EE, (well whatever about a cup of oil and 4 eggs and an hour of electricity costs)

but if you weren't gifted the brownie mix and didn't have leftover frosting, it would cost about $3ish for the mix, cream cheese, powdered sugar, eggs, oil etc.

our door is patriotic.

so i found so many great wreaths after i found the one that inspired me to make my spring wreath when i found inspiration for this one in the July 2010 Good Housekeeping












i had to make it. but i didnt like how some of the flags were upside down. but to make it full enough without upside-down flags, i thought first of using curling ribbon like Embellished Bayou did last spring but at the dollar tree, i could get either $3 of curling ribbon, or about $6 of pre-curled ribbon, or $1 for a red white and blue tinsel garland. and well im on a budget, and i didnt want to copy my spring wreath too much. so garland it was.

i made 2, one for our home and one for my Aunt and Uncle's house, they always host a great fireworks show and bbq on the 4th.

each wreath cost $2.10 (i made 2 for $4.20)

the base is a styrofoam circle $1 dollar tree.
the garland was also from the dollar tree for $1 but only used half of the garland on each wreath
(you can raid christmas decor for the garland red, blue or silver would work)
the flag picks were from Joann Fabrics. was 40% off of $2 so $1.20 there were more than enough of them for both wreaths, extras can be used on food on the the 4th or can make it fuller.

i painted the styrofoam base with leftover paint from a previous project then wrapped the garland around the base candy-cane style. I used a regular office stapler to attatch it.
then, i just poked the picks in. i broke some of them to make them shorter to fill in better.

im linking to It’s A Blog Party 's 4th of July Party! and Centsational Girl's Stars and Stripes party

itchsulation

just about finished! poor Mikey was all itchy. he learned a lesson the hardway. wear long sleeves and gloves.
thanks to google, we learned also to run skin under very cold water to close the pores so the fiberglass cannot get in deeper. then use a lint-roller-esque sticky side out roll of good tape, we used packing tape, duck tape was also recommended

sheetrockmobile!

note to self: job i dont want, sheetrock delivery person. those guys worked really hard and earned their tip, a bottle of silver cuervo.

deck has stairs!

so i love the design of our new steps up to our deck and front door, here are some pics

before the railing was put on.

this is the south east corner of the deck and the top of the stairs.

and the north east corner of the deck

going down the stairs

under the deck

holey dumpmobile batman!

and this one is for Catwoman.

we put gravel under the deck and in front of the deck, he is pretty good at handling that little cat, could probably pick up a sleeping baby with that.

the earth's coolest fan.

we are so excited about this fan for the office/hobby/future kids room.

the blades are reversable, the other side is solid black. we figure until we have kiddos, we can have the black side down. thanks for finding it for me honey!