Halloween, Already? A Quick Craft and Recipe

This may or may not come as a surprise to you...

I am not one of those marvelous crafty bloggers

who decorate their house impeccably for the holidays...

any of the holidays.

I tend to let the kiddos loose for most decorating,

adding my touches here and there.

In fact, you could say I "Bah Humbug" all holidays.

Although my own personal pumpkin patch {see below}

did get me in the Halloween spirit for awhile today!

I thought this would be a quiet week...but I have bought and scooped the insides out of 45 pumpkins for Cub Scouts {I had some help}, been volunteered to make pumpkin pie for one kiddo, make pumpkin goodies and bring snack for the other, create a Bakugan {don't ask! UGH!} costume for a kid...I know it could be worse...but seriously the Bakugan costume has thrown me over the edge.

I will get in the mood {or at least out of this mood by Sunday} and here is how!

I've Got my Eye On You Candles 

This is surely not a craft that will get me into the Crafting Hall of Fame...BUT it was fun, the kids helped, and it looks spooky-fun! {And I have been loving all the eyeball decor I have seen!}

Supplies

• Old Jars - I used jelly jars, relish jars and some mason jars...all clean of course! And labels removed if necessary.
• DecoArt Gloss enamels in red, black and white
• Paint brush
• Votive candles
• PK Glitz, Silver
• Gorilla Glue Wood Glue
• Child-like Imagination

DIY IT!
Find the full tutorial at The DIY Club!

For display, I added some dried black beans in the bottom of each jar and settled the votive into it and placed all the candles on a platter.

It is silly...it is fun...my kids love it!

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Creepy Spider Treats

{These guys are cute and fun...my photo is awful!} 

I totally did not measure anything...these are guesses...adjust accordingly

• Stick pretzels (8 per spider plus 1 cup crumbled)
• Chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups)
• Red hots (2 per spider)
• 1/2 cup cried cranberries (optional)
• Wax paper
• Cookie sheet

Directions

1. Layout a layer of wax paper on the cookie sheet
2. Chop cranberries.
3. Crumbled about 1 cup of pretzels.
4. Melt chocolate chips in a glass bowl in the microwave. Heat at 40 second intervals, stirring in between cycles. I needed about 4 cycles for the chocolate to be melted.
5. Spoon out about 1/2 cup of smooth chocolate into a separate bowl.
6. In the larger bowl, add crumbled pretzels and chopped cranberries and mix well.
7. Place a spoonful of crumbled mixture on the was paper.
8. Place 4 stick pretzels on each side of the spoonful of chocolate
9. Drizzle smooth chocolate on top of the pretzels to cover the pretzels and hold them.
10. Place 2 red hots for eyes.
11. Let the spiders harden - I put mine in the frig for awhile.

These guys are cute, but their pretzel legs are fragile!