Winner Winner!

Thanks to everyone who followed my October series and entered our big giveaway! If you missed any posts in the series, you can check them all out here.

We had 568 entries (so if you used all your entries your odds were pretty good!). But before we get to the winners, one more shout out to Compassion International! It's never to late to change the life of a sweet little girl or boy! Sponsor a child here.

For anyone who followed our giveaway, you know that two lucky readers are about to get a free $100 Lowe's gift card in the mail - perfect for tackling your favorite 2x4 project!

So, ready to see who won? Click "read more" to find out!

Free Printable Alphabet Banners

Have you seen the printable alphabet banners by Shanty 2 Chic? They are really cool (I'm using them to print some Christmas banners!) but apart from making fancy Christmassy things the font is a bit to formal for me. So I made my own version with a more fun, everyday font!

And not just any font, it's one of my very favorite fonts - Skinny Jeans! (you can download the Skinny Jeans font for free here) I've even made banners for both versions of the font so you can print either solid letters (like I did) or print the original style hollow letters. You can use my banner downloads to print whatever letters you need to make any banner for any occasion!

Just open the letters you need, print them out (I like to print on cardstock), and cut them out. After that I put mine together Shanty2Chic style - I matted them with another color of cardstock and used clothespins to hang the pennants on a string.

Want to print your own? Just follow these links to get the letters you need:

Mini Book Bunting

Remember when I made a fun garland for Baby B's birthday party? You know, back in April? Well, I took it down yesterday. It was time. Mostly because it was time to start thinking about Christmas decorations! Don't panic, they aren't up yet, but I'm clearing space to just get ready and make a plan. That's half the fun after all! As soon as I took the birthday garland down I knew I wanted to make another one - something a little simpler and more neutral that would work with my home during the holidays and even after. And so the Mini Book Bunting was born!

I used pages from an old book (Reader's Digests are at almost every yard sale and thrift store!) that I cut into strips just like with my birthday bunting. The only difference was that instead of cutting the two-point flag shape I used before, I cut each flag into a pennant shape with a single point.

Then I used a little hot glue to put them on a string. All done! The book pages are great because they are nice a neutral, but the text gives them more interest and texture than a plain paper. Plus there's just something comfortable and cozy about about printed words. It's like being curled up with a good book all the time. I'm thinking this will look great on my entertainment center alongside my finger knitting garland year round! It would also be cool to make this with sheet music or handwritten notes or pages from a copy of your favorite book. Have fun with it!

You can see all the details on making a mini bunting garland here.

It's Fall. Eat Pumpkin Bread.

Hello November! While I had fun with my 31 day series last month, I'm glad to be back to our regularly scheduled sporadic-at-best posting. :) If you haven't entered our $100 Lowe's gift card giveaway, it's not too late - the drawing closes November 7th! Anyway, now that the crazy is over we're chillaxin' and enjoy some fall goodness. One of our favorite ways to ring in the season is with one of N's favorite family recipes - pumpkin bread!

Pumpkin Bread
4 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup oil
6 eggs
1 can pumkin
1 cup water
5 1/4 cup flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups nuts, raisins or chocolate chips (chocolate chips are our fave!)

1. Beat together sugar, oil, and eggs.
2. Stir in pumpkin and water.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Turn into a greased loaf pan. (I used four bread pans, but my MIL uses lots of small pans. Great for gifting!)
5. Bake at 350 degrees 1 hour or longer until it tests done.

I'm testing out some changes to make it a little more health-friendly. Just because, you know, healthier bread = I can eat more without feeling guilty. :) I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, anybody want trick-or-treat pictures of Baby B???

"Hurry mother you must! Trick-or-treating time it is!"

Pondering the force... and how to use it to get more candy!

But first, his robes!

Doing the "hurry daddy hurry!" dance.

"Longer I cannot wait! Run I must!"

He didn't forget his trick-or-treat bag from Grandma.

Going, going,....

...aaaaaand gone.

He has to hold his hands up because he sleeves are to long. It is NOT cool to have sleeves over your hands. Now you know. Once he found out we were actually going up to the houses he was SUPER excited... until strangers opened the doors. Then he tried to back down the stairs unseen. 

About 10 minutes in this was the only face he was giving. I think he was cold. And trying to figure out exactly what was going on. ;)

To the victor go the spoils. He gave his first candy 3 good licks. Then he gave up and moved on to the goldfish crackers.

What is your favorite fall recipe? Did you have any sweet costumes this year?