Halloween and fall link party

We are at it again this year!

We think everyone could use a few new recipes and crafts for Halloween and Fall this year so we are having our second annual Halloween/Fall Link Party.

It will run from Tuesday October 28th for two weeks until Tuesday November 11th and be linked on all three blogs so please make sure to stop by again and again to share and see what is new.

Crafts, Cakes, and Cats        Michelle's Tasty Creations     MorningNooNight

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Here's what your hostesses have been up to lately.....

Cutest Doc Around ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Baked Apple Cider Donuts ~ MorningNooNight

Pumpkindoodles ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

Maple Pumpkin Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

Crock Pot Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Caramel Stuffed Gingerbread Cookies ~ MorningNooNight

Frankenstein Cupcakes ~ Crafts, Cakes, and Cats

Monster Eye Cookies ~ MorningNooNight

Pumpkin Maple Coffee Cake ~ Michelle's Tasty Creations

~ Now let's see what you've been up to ~

~A few things to remember~

Please only link up Halloween/Fall recipes, crafts, DIY, tutorials, printables, etc that YOU have created.

Please don't link up any Etsy shops, giveaways, or other link parties.

By linking to this party you give us permission to share your post on our blogs and other social media.

Please share this party by linking back to us in your post or by adding this party to your party page.

Be sure to stop by and visit a few of the other blogs that have posted; we all love to see sweet comments.

An InLinkz Link-up

Frankenstein Cupcakes

I feel like it has been forever since I got to make some fun cute cupcakes!! So when a halloween party got scheduled for our Mom's group here I signed right up to make a sweet treat knowing all along it would be cupcakes!! Then I found out the theme was mad scientist lab and I knew I had to try and stick with the theme! So of course I went to pinterest for ideas, there was eye ball cupcaks, cupcakes with bugs both good fits but I kept coming across these cute Frankesteins from Your cup of cake.

I am not gonna lie they were a little more difficult then I expected. I think she used more frosting per cake then I did but I remembered a little tip from another cupcake I did. A wet finger tip!! Yep that was my trick to these a cup of water and a wet finger.

 What you need
24 chocolate cupcakes baked in brown or black wrappers
Butter cream frosting
    1 1/2 cups softened butter
     4-5 cups powdered sugar
     1 teaspoon vanilla
Green food coloring
Red food coloring
chocolate sprinkles
chocolate chips
1 package of edible eyes


First step is to make your frosting, beat your butter and vanilla until creamy slowly add your sugar until you are at the consistency you like mine took probably 4.5 cups. Now take a small amount out (maybe 1/2 cup) and color the small amount red, and the rest will be green.

To start you need to pipe a large swirl on to each cupcake with the larges tip you have or a large cut hole in the bag you are using. I found that I used less which was for the best because I did not need to be responsible for giving a sugar high to 20 kids on one cupcake haha.

Step 1 swirl of green.

Step 2 & 3 (I failed in taking a picture of these steps)
          In a bowl pour out your chocolate sprinkles, take your cupcake with a mound of green frosting and dip the top of the frosting into the sprinkles and flatten the frosting.

step 3 dampen your finger with some water and smooth the sides around the frosting. Sprinkles will be sitting on top and the sides will be smooth.

Step 4 Add edible eyes and on each side of the "head" a chocolate chip that is now bolt in his head.

Step 5 with the smallest pipe tip you have or tiny hole cut into a bag pipe with the red frosting a stitch to each monster.

   
   

Cutest doc around

Happy Halloween!! Yep its that time of year and that means that soon we will be saying "Happy Holiday's"...lets not talk about that yet though....

This year for Halloween we are taking my daughter trick or treating for the first time!! So when it came to a costume it had to be something she knew and her favorite character is Doc Mcstuffins from Disney Jr. So that'ts what she is! Now Doc wears a cute little pink skirt with leggings but we decided to make this a little more costume like by adding a tutu of course!! For the most part I followed this super easy tutorial at the Pinning Momma blog. A few things I did differently was that instead of buying rolls of tulle I purchased by the yard. I picked 3 colors and bought 2 yards of each color, 6 yards in all.

I started this project during nap time which meant I couldn't measure little ones waist for the elastic so I used a pair of leggings for the measurements. Then cut the elastic just a little larger so I could overlap and sew up the elastic

I cut my strips and actually made a very puffy long tutu by folding my tulle length wise and so it was about 28' wide. After that I made my strips the same as in the tutorial by using a couple of pieces of cardboard the width I wanted each strip. Wrapped it around and cut down both sides. 

Leaving the tulle strips folded in half  I folded it in half again and then tied it on to the elastic, that I had stretched over the back of a child's chair. A book would also work well for this.

Crock pot Italian wedding soup with turkey meatballs

We have finally made our way into a house in seattle. Never in our dreams did we think that finding a house for our family to rent would be so difficult, the rental market here is insane!! But now that we are in a house I can work hard to get back into blogging.

My sweet little Zoey is gonna be 2 just after Christmas so not only am I not ready for the holidays I am not ready for my baby to really no longer be a baby but full on toddler. She is sweet but I am not gonna lie the girl has a set of lungs on her and isn't afraid to use them, usually just when she is letting you know she isn't ok with what you just did for her. One of her favorite lunches is Italian wedding soup..yes my daughter gets soup from a can sometimes. So I decided to make her some and of course her favorite part in the meatballs.

This is a simple crock pot meal and you can change it up as you like. For mine I used turkey for the meat balls and seasoned them how I usually do for meatballs but beef pork or combinations would be yummy or and chicken don't forget you could always use ground chicken.


WHAT YOU NEED
~Meat balls~
1/2 lb Ground turkey
Bread crumbs
Seasonings of your choosing (i chose garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, salt, pepper.
~Soup base~
64oz chicken broth
1 cup water


1/4 of an onion chopped
1-2 carrots chopped in bite size pieces (the smaller the the pieces the softer they will cook)
1/2 cup chopped kale
1/2cup chopped spinach
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup orzo

WHAT TO DO
Mix your meat ball ingredients ad create small bit size meat balls (at this point if you want your meatballs to hold up better then mine did i suggest baking in an oven for about 15 min) set aside.

Place the rest of the ingredients except for the orzo into the crock pot. slowly place your raw or cooked meatballs into the soup. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. During the last hour add your orzo.

Serve with crusty bread and some Parmesan cheese.