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Adorable, Easy to Make Ornaments Using Dollar Tree Toys!

10/30/2017

I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

One of our favorite affiliate partners is Dollar Tree! Who doesn't love to go to Dollar Tree and find cute little things for decorating, baby showers and weddings, all for just a dollar?

Well, now that the holidays are upon us,Dollar Tree has you everything you need to make special, personalized Christmas ornaments. I was looking at their online site and in the toy section and I was inspired to make some ornaments and/or package tie-ons for my family's Christmas packages this year! We decided it would be great to make a video showing just how I made them. They are easy and super cute. Here are a few photos of what I started with. Clicking the pictures will take you to the link. Remember, if you want to buy in bulk, you can have your order shipped for free to the store nearest you.

They have some really cool, largish arctic animals. I chose the reindeer, polar bear and penguin. You can buy them one at a time in the store or a case of 36 online.

Dollar Tree also has these fun Disney figurines! You can get these individually in the store or a case of 24 online.

Now, here is the video showing you what I did with them. I hope you enjoy it and please like our YouTube Channel when you get the chance!

Here is a list of other products, besides the figurines, that I purchased from Dollar Tree to make these ornaments:

Baker's Twine! This is so great for so many projects and you can't beat getting it for $1!
I used this sparkly, beaded ribbon that I had left over from this post this summer. Or, if you can't find that, There is thisglittery Christmas ribbon.
Sparkly tinsel pipe cleaners, or chenille stems. I love these! They remind me of my childhood. Plus, I remember giving my kids packages of chenille stems to play with when they were little, they kept the kids entertained for hours.
On the little tree, I put these cute little LED lights! I bought the stockings and the snowflakes.

Of course, I also used a glue gun, a little paint, and other supplies I have in my stash. For example, I had little wooden snowflakes already, but if you don't have any, Dollar Tree does have some little cute, stick on snowflakes or Christmas stickers that you could substitute that would work great! Just look around the store or online site and you are bound to find just what you need to personalize your ornaments.

Here is kind of a funny personal story. I told my son that I was teaming up with Dollar Tree and making Ornaments out of toys. He looked at me with skepticism, but when I pulled out the Polar Bear ornament and showed it to him, his eyes got wide and he said, "Oh wow! I want that one!" Then I pulled out the reindeer and he said, "Wait, I want that one, or Spencer does (my grandson)." Soon, he had decided which ornaments should be for himself, his wife and son. I call that a stamp of approval! I have to say that the polar bear is my personal favorite! I'll end with a few more photos of the finished products. I hope that you enjoy them and head over to Dollar Tree and give them a try yourself. Or, if you have a lot of ornaments to make, order online! These would be great at a Christmas Craft sale! Have Fun!

You will notice that I used paint to help decorate some of these ornaments. On the reindeer, I painted holly on the rump!

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Friday Faves #38-What Was Your Favorite Costume?

10/27/2017

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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

I was never one to spend a lot of money on some store bought costumes for my kids. If there were clearance items or sales, I would occasionally purchase those, but usually we just tried to be creative with my fabric stash and by re-purposing past costumes. Every year we would pull out our Halloween box and think about what we could do with what we had and I would make a few new items to please the kids and their big ideas. We came up with some fun ones over the years, so today we are going to give you a few more costume ideas as we talk about past faves on our 38th Friday Faves!

What Was Your Favorite Halloween Costume?

If you look at the photo above, you are looking at my 3 youngest children. That is Maddy being a fairy, Little Jake in the pumpkin costume and 4th grader Alicia dressed as a gypsy! None of those costumes were picked as favorites, but Maddy said that she loved all of her costumes and could hardly choose. She did look pretty cute, didn't she?

Alicia says that her favorite costume was when I made her up to be Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. She was in the 2nd grade. I had sewn a bunch of little coin-like bangles on her skirt and she loved those jingly things. She said that there were a couple of other girls in Esmeralda Costumes, but they were purchased from the store and their coins were printed on. She liked her's better.
You can still purchase that movie on DVD, here.

One year, when Lindsey was very small, I made here a Tinkerbell costume! She looked adorable in it and I think she wore it 2 years in a row, she loved it that much.

Yes, that is me, many years ago, dressed as Amelia Bedelia. I was reading to classes at my kid's school. I also dressed up as Viola Swamp one year, but I don't have any pictures of that that I can find.

The fun thing is that now my granddaughter just told me that she loves Amelia Bedelia books, so I will have to show her this picture of me acting the part.

Here are a few other costumes our family has done:

We used a box when one of our sons was 3 and covered it in shiny paper and used stickers to put on lights and buttons and made him into a robot!
I made another son a padded shell with a belt around his waist and a piece of blue cloth around his forehead and he became a Ninja Turtle.
Our oldest son came home with a bunch of black cloth and I made him a huge shroud with a hood. It looked so awesome on him.
His family (I think there were 3 kids at the time) all dressed up as pirates, except the baby who was dressed as a parrot and sat on my son's shoulder!
Alicia made her son into a spider last year, using black painted pool noodles as the 4 extra legs. She used black sweat shirt and pants and put glow sticks on his arms and legs to help him be see. He was so cute! Mommy and Daddy were the spider web with white web painted on black t-shirts!

You will see a lot of posts about last minute costume ideas. I feel like ours were always last minute, but they were pretty fun! What do you remember about costumes you loved? Share them with us in the comments!
Have a Happy Halloween!

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Renny's Recipes: Pumpkin Chili

10/26/2017

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It's time for another pumpkin recipe, and this one is one of my favorites!!! It seems to be a fall tradition to make chili around Halloween, I don't know if it's the same for you, but I highly recommend it. Our church does a trunk or treat every year, and no matter what ward (like a congregation) that we are in, there is always a chili cook off, and I always like to bring my pumpkin chili, because it is ridiculously delicious.

It is also ridiculously easy. You grill the turkey meat beforehand and saute the onions. Then you dump everything in the crock pot and let it cook for a few hours and you get a delicious chili that you will feel like you can't eat enough of! Someday soon I will also share with you my favorite cornbread recipe, but for now, enjoy the chili.

Also! Don't forget to check out our Etsy shop! We have a few items for sale, and it will continue to grow. We love doing this blog, but really, to be successful we count on all of you to be part of it with us. Thank you for shopping and being a part of this with us! With this post I'd suggest our Bloggelicious Baking sheets! Buy them and download them to put into a binder where you can have your own cook book of all the recipes you find here and anywhere else!

Pumpkin Chili Recipe

Renny's Pumpkin Chili

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