Make Some Crazy Quilt Caramel Apples for Halloween Fun

Get creative and let your imagination run wild! The kids will have such a good time decorating these little beauties and you will have a camera filled with memories to share with friends and family!

Ingredients

1/4 cup gummy worms
1/4 cup Halloween sprinkles
1 (1.4 oz.) chocolate and toffee bar, crushed
1 (1.5 oz.) bag Reese's pieces
1/4 cup candy corn
1/4 cup small cinnamon candies
8 small apples
1 (14 oz.) bag soft caramel candies, each unwrapped
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preparation

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place candy (except caramels) in separate small bowls. Insert a craft stick into stem end of each apple.

Place caramels and cream in a heavy saucepan and heat on medium-low, stirring, until caramels have melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

Hold an apple by its stick over pot and spoon caramel over apple to coat, allowing excess to drip back into pot (if caramel gets too stiff, reheat for a minute or 2 to loosen). Press candy into caramel on apple and place apple, stick side up, on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining apples and candy. Let apples stand until caramel has cooled, about 10 minutes.

♥EZ Homemade Bath-time Spa Cookies in the flavor/scent of your choice♥

Fast, fun, easy and a great item for gift-giving this holiday season. All of us are watching our pennies but still would like to make those around us feel special. This recipe provides a fun afternoon for you and friends and a kitchen filled with remarkable and heavenly scent. These are adorable popped into a cellophane bag tied with curly ribbons. Attach the recipe or include as an insert with the cookies.

2 cups finely ground sea salt
3 tablespoons dried lavender (crushed rose petals, mint, lemon rind, orange rind)*
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons light oil
1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup powdered milk
6-8 drops essential oil of your choice (I like to use lavender)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the ingredients and mix into a dough ball. Using a teaspoon or so of dough at a time, roll gently in the palm of your hand until dough forms a tiny ball. Repeat -  rolling all remaining dough into one teaspoon balls and gently place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Consider sprinkling the bath balls with herbs, flower petals, cloves, citrus zest and similar aromatic ingredients and gently press into surface. Bake your bath cookies for ten minutes, until they are lightly browned. Do not over bake. Allow the bath cookies to cool completely. To use, add one or two cookies into a warm bath and allow to dissolve. Yield: Two dozen cookies, enough for twelve bath time get-aways.

*If you do add the lavender, crushed rose petals, etc. to your cookies, just place a small piece of regular home screening over the tub drain when your bath is completed. The screen will catch your scented and lovely additions to your homemade bath treatment.

If you would like to get a little more creative, I have used teeny, tiny muffin tins for baking instead of making the cookies and used a teeny cookie press to embellish the tops of my little gems.

Pink bloggers and pink goodies, I ♥ Pink Saturday!

This week for PINK SATURDAY I am featuring a blog that is not only filled with some of the most engaging photos, the "lady of the blog" is so welcoming and gracious, TREASURES from the HEART.

 

Her dream of having her own brick and mortar shop finally became a reality - not all that long ago, either. If you are ever in the Eugene, Oregon area look up the Treasures from the Heart gift shop for a little eye-candy (see her blog for photos of the shop from packed boxes to completed displays) and warm conversation.

Now, what do I have for you this week? I thought and thought and then - there it was, right before my eyes. Our sweet blogging friend over at CONTENTED in WEST LAFAYETTE notified me a few weeks ago that I had won her wonderful giveaway! I must enter a zillion of those things a day and never win a thing, winning was a HUGE surprise and a special event for little ol' moi.

However, each and every Pink Saturday since I received my giveaway box, I kept forgetting to "show and tell". In fact, I took so long that I ate the candy (YUM) that she included and have already placed the festive fall table runner under my punkin' in the family room (I've been bad, I know). I think the runner will be the subject of another blog entry closer to the end of the month.

You can just imagine how thrilled I was when I found this lovely bowl in my gift box. My little pinkie heart nearly burst with happiness when I saw all of those roses and my twinkling eyes danced from blossom to blossom - they still are!

In the same box was the original object of the giveaway - what could be better than mixing PINK and CHOCOLATE! Another over-the-top score for me mixed with unabashed thankfulness. In addition, there were some PINK Breast Cancer Awareness candies that I've tucked into my purse to keep me all minty fresh when out and about☺But the enclosed chocolates are gone - all gone, because they were calling to me and I just couldn't ignore them. I am SO weak!

You MUST go visit CONTENTED in WEST LAYFAYETTE. Not only does this whirlwind gal blog, she has a daycare, quilts and has just opened an ETSY shop. Oh, and did I mention that she's having another giveaway this week? Yes, she sure is!

And, speaking of giveaways, you should see the one at A CHARMING HOME. Exquisite is the first word that comes to mind for me.

Pulling up the rear again is the lovely, soft as whipped cream and cute -as-a-button, Miss Camille Suzanne who wanted to share with you her favorite snoozing pose and a PURRfectly pink ear!

Have fun this week. The sun has been shining in upper Michigan for the past few days, although it is so cold my nose is blue - but I'm not going to complain because the sun is the sun and I ♥ the sun!

Don't forget to travel through cyberspace visiting all of the wonderful people who participate in Beverly's Pink Saturday over at HOW SWEET the SOUND. I promise, you will not be disappointed!

Before you leave, I hope you have time to check out my family favorites recipe blog, STANDING AT THE KITCHEN DOOR. You'll find some of the best home cooking with ingredients that are right in your pantry so you won't have to go out to buy some exotic spice you'll never use again! Sign up to follow my blog now because over the coming weeks I'll be posting some of the best and easy holiday recipes that have ever passed lips! ALL recipes can be quickly printed right from your computer.

Glam punkin's for that non-traditional entryway or interior decor

Some of us just can't use three or four pumpkins full of seeds during the holidays. We don't want the mess of carving or of disposing of the carcass' once the holidays have come and gone. This is the perfect solution. Buy ones that you can carve - but aren't real - and decorate to suit your decor! If you want to place these outside, I suggest that you weigh down the insides with a brick or some small rocks so the wind won't blow all of your hard work down the street☺

Photo courtesy of BH&G

Supplies

* Artificial carvable pumpkins
* Spray paint in your choice of colors. Paint to your decor or your imagination or your sense of whimsey
* Black acrylic paint
* Paintbrush
* Craft tape in circle shapes
* Black glitter
* Matte finish spray 

Instructions

1. Spray-paint each of the pumpkins the desired color, following the manufacturer's instructions. Paint the stem black; let dry.

2. To add dots, remove the craft-tape circle shapes one at a time from the backing sheet and press onto the pumpkins in a random fashion.

3. Peel off the red liner from each shape and sprinkle glitter onto the circle, pressing the glitter down with your fingertip if desired.

4. Spray all surfaces of the pumpkins with matte finish.

♥Let's do the mouth - the monster mouth!♥

Nothing is more fun or more sweet or produces more giggles than these darling treats for after school or on the weekend after raking leaves and walking the dog. This one is a keeper for sure. The grandkids have a blast making and eating them and I love to make them, too! These are easy enough for even the tiniest of fingers to give them a try. Who cares what they look like - fun is the name of the game!

Ingredients

* 2 medium green or red apples (I like to use Granny Smith because they help to cut the sweetness)
* 1/3 cup peanut butter
* 1/3 cup candy corn

Directions

1. Core apples; cut each into 8 thick slices. Make each moth by spreading about 1 teaspoon of the peanut butter on an apple slice. Add about 5 pieces candy corn for teeth.
2. Spread another apple slice with about 1 teaspoon peanut butter; press on top of first apple slice. Makes 4 servings.

More Halloween and fall recipes can be found at Standing at the Kitchen Door. Try it, you might like it☺

A little bag of goodies for Pink Saturday!

This week I am featuring a blog that I consider to be a "two-fer". This lady's cornerstone blog, Loveleigh Treasures, is a feast for the eyes. Around every corner and on every page there is something pretty or sweet or interesting.

Of course, she features oodles of pink - I adore - and has a kind, loving relationship with her furry companions - a trait I admire. This week she is bringing us a little pink Christmas, another of my passions, so please be sure to stop by her place and tell her that Mimi sent you☺

But, if that wasn't enough for her to do and adequate room for her to spread her charm and creativity, there is another blog of this sweet lady's to check out and to explore - Autumn's Loveleigh Occasions.

Go there now and take a peek, but be sure to bookmark this blog. It is loaded with fall/autumn ideas and goodies and treats for the eye. You can get lost in her links to fun blog trinkets and the creative and inspiring links and "loveleighs".

 

If you don't have the time to explore today (who does on a Saturday, especially if the sun is out), take not of their whereabouts because you are going to want to go back to visit...often.

Now, if that wasn't enough fun for you, I'd like to share a stool that my grandsons used to stand on to be tall enough to brush their little toofies at the bathroom sink when here at Mimi's for a sleepover. I ♥ this little goodie of mine like the dickens and although it isn't used much any longer because boys do tend to grow taller, it holds many sweet moments in time for me. Happily, my little men still don't consider themselves to be too old for a sleepover (last one was yesterday), so we will still build on the memories but they no longer need the extra boost just before bedtime.

Before the weekend is gone, be sure to drop by Beverly's HOW SWEET THE SOUND for oodles of links to some of the most beautiful blogs on the web that are featuring some of the most luscious pink goodies in celebration of Pink Saturday this week. It will be time well spent!