Homemade Croutons

This morning I made the kids bacon, egg, & toast cups.  They are really delicious and I discovered them via Pinterest.  I like making these when we want something different.  I didn’t get any pictures of mine but here’s a good example:

Image: Flip Flops and Polka Dots

When you make them, you cut the crusts off the bread.  I hate to waste anything!  So, instead of tossing them, I just made croutons.  It was so easy to do and I don’t think I will ever buy croutons again! 

I just took the little crusts and cut them into cubes.  I melted about 3 tablespoons of butter.  Then I added a pinch of salt, 1 tsp of garlic powder, and 1 tsp of italian seasoning.  I mixed the seasonings into the butter then tossed the bread into the bowl and tried to get them all evenly covered. 

 

I spread them out onto a cookie sheet and baked in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  They smelled so yummy baking.  I allowed them about 15 minutes to cool and then stored them in an air-tight container.  Later, when I make my salad, I can pull out my fresh croutons.  They are so tasty!

You could also do this with bread that is going stale.  If you are not using the crusts, bake a little longer (20-25 minutes) so they can get crispy. 

My Halloween Decor

The built in shelves in my office are my new favorite place to decorate (since I no longer have a mantel).  It is basically the heart of the house and from my desk, I can see outside into the backyard, into the kitchen, the living room, and into the hall.  I feel like I am in command central.   My boyfriend and I both have our desks facing each other and my desk is closes to the built-ins.  The shelves go up nearly to the ceiling and are the perfect spot to decorate and change with the seasons.  I have touches of fall all over the house but these shelves are really the only place I decorated this year for Halloween.  Come explore…

Check out the orbs!  It really is haunted!  Ha, ha!

Don’t let those scare you, come take a closer look…

I brought out several things from last year like the Spooky pennant banner, wooden pumpkins, candy corn, and Happy Halloween blocks.





Across the top is a fall leaf garland that I am keeping up basically from September to November.  I found some orange styrofoam  pumpkins from the dollar store and I spray painted them to make them look ceramic. 

One row of shelves has lots of little baskets that I use to hold various craft supplies and I added some little pumpkins to these. 

I filled a galvanized planter with colorful fabric and lots of wooden candy corn. 

On the shelf above, I wrapped a piece of orange crepe paper around a simple white candle.

I have these three amber colored bottles that I decorated with various graphics.  The biggest one is an image that I played around with of a girl and a cat.  I embellished with strips of crepe paper and burlap and inside I placed a flameless tealight to flicker. The next is a bat and then a skull that I attached with a little twine.

  

I found a really nice vintage owl illustration from the Graphics Fairy and added a background with a big harvest moon and framed it.

 I printed out some cute vintage jack-o-lanterns from Matthew Mead and strung them up with orange ribbon and a little white rick rack. Also from Matthew Mead is the cute vintage cat face.  Love these!

Here and there are black glittery spiders creeping and crawling along the shelves.

The bottles with the witch hazel & life renewal potion labels are from last year.  I have a flameless tealight candle behind just to flicker a little (hard to see in the pictures). 

Then there is a dead bouquet.  I painted some artificial flowers black and added gold glitter and put them on skewers.  I filled a jar with them and added a little black tulle.

A giant rat scurries along some old books…

A chalk spider web on black paper is home to another big black spider.

  In a frame on the shelf below is another image of a cute girl on a pumpkin with a black cat from the Graphics Fairy that I added a little glitter to and glued to some vintage sheet music.

Another black blossom adorns the stand for the creepy skull.  There is a flameless candle underneath. 

The whole thing just wouldn’t be complete without a  spooky dollar store bird.

Hope you have a spooktacular Halloween!

Einstein – Last Minute Costume Idea

I just couldn't resist posting this!  At my son’s school, they had a “nerd day” for spirit week (last week).  He has been recently reading about Albert Einstein and decided to dress as him.  It was really simple to do.  I sprinkled baby powder in his dark hair to give it that grey look and added some gel & hair spray to make it stick up.  For the mustache, we took a small piece of polyfill and painted it grey and he taped it on.  Grey felt would work great too. Clothing wise:  just simple dark shirt (sweater if you have it), pants, and old leather shoes.  I think a white lab jacket would be great too.  That’s it. 

 

To Improve my Quality of Life

I know these things would make such a huge difference in my quality of life.  Click on photos for links to sources.

Carrying in all those bags of groceries would go much quicker with these.

 The cord would always reach with a built in wall extenstion cord.

I need a cute little charger pocket like this.

Sharpie Pencil. Writes like a pencil ( & eraseable) but becomes permanent when dry.

 

Who doesn’t need this in their kitchen? 

I would always have a comfy place to stretch out and watch tv.

I could transform any paint I had into spray paint with this spray gun.

 

Sometimes a porch swing isn’t laid back enough.  Sometimes, you need a porch bed swing.

For all those times, my PMDD symptoms flare up, I could just escape to my secret hideout.

  If I couldn’t have a secret hideout, I would settle for a secret compartment.

When I want to be seen as who I really am.

 

Cleaning electronics would be a breeze with this special putty that get all the dirt, germs out of the little nooks & crannies.

Cotton Candy Martini for when I want to feel like a kid at a carnival and maintain my adult sophistication at the same time.

For when taking the stairs just isn’t fast enough.

 

Something else to make my grocery shopping trips just a little easier.

Just in case.