Lunch Sack Envelopes

Invitations to special events don't need to be expensive or ordered online. There are ways you can make a homemade invite look special without spending tons of cash. One of those ways to to be creative with how you package the invite. I have used a lot of fun mediums. This Lunch Sack Envelope is one of my favorite envelopes.

They are so easy to make. SO easy.

Most of us have lunch sacks just laying around. You can get traditional brown or white. Heck, they make similar bags that are "gift bags" and you can get those in practically any color. I also grabbed a sharpie pen and some washi tape.

The invites themselves were also affordable. I simply made them myself on PicMonkey. Then I printed them out on white card stock.

To make the Lunch Sack Envelopes, I measured the size of the invite and then sewed across the bottom of the sack with a 3.5 stitch just above the bottom of the bag fold.

Next I cut off all the bottoms.

Right there I had an envelope. To fancy it up a bit, I simple tore off a piece of washi tape and smacked it right on the bag. Then using a sharpie I wrote the recipients name above the tape.

Now all I had to do was slip in the invitation. 

I delivered them just like this to our lives-by-us friends and family. I slipped the whole thing in a larger envelope for those friends and family who we mailed one to.

See, invites don't have to break the bank. I am pretty sure I only spent money on the postage to mail some of them out. Huzzah! That is what I like.

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Left Over Halloween Candy Cookies

Halloween has been over one week. Have your kids eaten all their candy yet? Have you eaten all their candy yet? Do you need a creative way to use all that candy?

Well, I have a smart and not healthy way to get rid of it. Why not put it into some cookies! You know because cookies need candy in them.

So go ahead and gather up some of that excess Halloween candy. I recommend all the chocolate candy. While very delightful on their own, I am thinking Starbursts and Swedish Fish would not taste spectacular in these cookies. So I guess you should go ahead and just eat those.

Once you have gathered up some of the chocolate bars, chop them all up.

I use my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie as the base for this cookie. However, instead of the milk chocolate chips you add in the chopped up Halloween.

Follow all the same directions.

Then when you are done you have these delightfully yummy Halloween Candy Cookies. These are great cookies to hand out to friends and neighbors. I baked up a batch for our school's teachers. I knew they were a hit when one of them posted on my Facebook page how much they loved them.

These cookies are the perfect way to use up that Halloween candy. Trust me!

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Baptism Blanket

This last weekend Middle chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a very special event, and our family came together to celebrate. Our family has a couple of traditions on the day of a baptism. We of course have friends and family come. We hold a little luncheon. We give him his own set of scriptures.

I also make them a blanket to help remind them of the Holy Ghost. One of the roles of the Holy Ghost in our lives is to provide comfort. So when Oldest was baptized years ago, I decided that I would make them a "comforter" to remind them of the comfort they receive from the Holy Ghost.

I made a very simple blanket, I loosely call it a quilt.

I found a micro fleece in a print of his favorite football team. I got two coordinating colors of cotton for the front. I cut the cotton into 12" strips the width of the the fleece. I sewed them together and then I bound the striped cotton front to the fleece back with premade biased tape.

Since I made a very simple blanket, I added some hand embroidery to the front. First I added a "hand-written" note. I traced on the note, and then I embroidered over it.

I also added in some coordinating hand stitching on each blue stripe.

While it was a pretty simple blanket, hence why I really can't call it a quilt, it conveyed the message we hoped, made a memory for our baptized boy, and has been wrapped around him almost none stop since.

I love family traditions. I love making memories. This Baptism Blanket will definitely be a memory  for Middle of his special day.

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Family Favorite Chicken Recipes

We eat a lot of chicken around our house. Therefore, we use a lot of different chicken recipes. The family favorites are ones that are easy and quick to throw together (that would be for the benefit of the mom) and full of yummy flavor (that would be for the kiddos).

On this Recipe Thursday, I decided to share a few of our Family Favorite Chicken Recipes with you all. Half of these recipes are also SLOW COOKER recipes. S'rsly people. These recipes are keepers. If your family eats chicken like our family eats chicken then I would suggest you pin some of these recipes.

In no particular order, here are some of our family favorite chicken recipes.

Slow Cooker Philly Cheese Chicken Sandwiches

Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken Sliders

Thai Chicken Pizza

Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Chicken Sandwiches

Mango BBQ Chicken Salad

Chicken Carbonara with Spinach

Slow Cooker Mango Chicken 

Oh man. Now I am hungry. We really do love chicken over here. I am always looking for new recipes to try in hopes of adding to our favorites list. If you have a favorite family chicken recipe, share the link in the comment section. I will love you forever.

Also, if you guys go through chicken like we do, then I have a secret for you.

We buy our chicken through Zaycon Foods. They sell amazing food in bulk at great prices. I have done a post about it HERE. Zaycon Food's top seller is their chicken. This chicken is the best. THE best. I buy it and freeze it and sometimes can it. 

Well guys, right now their chicken event is happening. You seriously need to go and order yourself some chicken. It is $1.89 a pound. Say what!?!?

That is right, $1.89. The most reasonable price for such a high quality chicken. If you have ordered from them in the past, you know what I am talking about. If you haven't, well what are you waiting for?

Head over to Zaycon Foods and order some chicken.

Order some chicken and then give one, two, or all of these recipes a go.

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Hiccup Halloween Costume

Introducing Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, otherwise known as Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon. Also known as the last installment of our Halloween O' Book Characters of 2014.

This Hiccup costume was the last one that we came up with. Mr. Middle and I had a really hard time coming up with a book character for him to be for Halloween. He is kind of in between little kid books and bigger kid books. My sister suggested I dress him up as Mr. Darcy. While he would make just the most handsome Mr. Darcy, I was pretty sure he would not appreciate it. So back to the drawing board.

We went back and forth with different ideas, all of them a little less than stellar. Then one day while driving in the car I suddenly remembered that How To Train Your Dragon was originally a book series.

I presented the idea to Middle and he was immediately on board. He would be Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon.

Full disclosure, he actually wanted to be Hiccup from the second movie. In a moment of insanity I agreed. Then as I mentally sketched out a possible costume I realized that craziness was never gonna happen.

Hiccup from the second movie is completely clad in leather armor. He also has leather gliding wings. Then there is the whole metal fake leg thing. So I very cleverly talked Middle into being Hiccup from the first movie.

Here is how I talked him into it. I told him there would be fake fur. That did it.

The fake fur makes this costume. Middle did let me know that if he we lived where Hiccup really lived then his vest would probably be made of real fur.

Since we don't live in Berk, I figured fake fur would do just fine. 

The majority of this costume was made of fleece. I self drafted every part of this costume. I used existing clothes for patterns. The belt is fake leather. The hardest part of the costume to recreate were Hiccups really big fur boots. I made over sized shoe covers out of felt. Then I made the boot wrappers out of fur. Bam. Boots.

All of that gets one pretty fabulous Hiccup Halloween Costume. There was also one really happy kid.

That is really why I do all this costume hoopla after all. They won't always be young enough to trick or treat. They won't always need/want a costume. So while they are young enough and while they do want a costume, I can happily provide one for them.

This was a really fun Halloween theme. Halloween O' Book Characters two big old thumbs up. I got my theme, but they got all different costumes. Perfect.

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