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

     Two fun things for Fun Friday, and for a fun weekend!  This is the weekend before Halloween.  When Alicia shared pictures of my grandson designing his own jack-o-lantern, I had to include the picture in this post! He is such a sweet, good, handsome boy! And I can't forget smart and talented!  I am not biased at all!  She carved the pumpkin for him after this.  I love his happy smile.  Here in Phoenix, we have to wait until the last minute to carve pumpkins or the heat will make them get moldy too fast.  (Then they look really spooky!)  For those of you who live in cooler climates, like Alicia and her family do,  have you carved your pumpkins yet?  How detailed do you get?  If you haven't carved one yet, this would be a great weekend for it and that would take some of the pressure off getting all of the Halloween  things done this week. 

     Thing #2 was inspired by a gift from my friend, Rhonda.  She loves to shop yard sales and last week she found this candy mold and thought of me.

      She didn't think of me because I have a mustache. I don't.  But, I teach the children aged 3-11 music in our church.  Sometimes I use mustaches as a gimmick as I get them to sing.  Knowing that, Rhonda thought of me when she saw these mustaches. I was so excited to think of something to do with the mold. 
      First, I thought of doing some kind of mints or fondant chocolates.  Then, out of the blue a nickname for a mustache came to my mind.  Have you ever heard of a mustache being called a cookie duster?  That made me think of cookies, which led to the thought of cookie dough and I thought, "How about Cookie Dough Cookie Dusters?"  And that is how this treat was born! 
      If you don't have a friend to find you a mold like this at a yard sale, here and here are a couple of similar molds that I found on Amazon. 

Cookie Dough Cookie Dusters

    To make the egg-less cookie dough, I used this recipe from Simply Bakings.  All I did differently was to leave out the chocolate chips.  I felt like for the mustache mold, they would add too much bulk, so I decided to put a layer of chocolate on them instead.  So, I melted chocolate chips to do that.   Click the photos to get better directions: 

    Now, pop the tray into the freezer to harden the chocolate.  When it is hard, take the tray out of the freezer and pop the mustaches out of the tray! 

    I wasn't patient enough to wait for the tray to be ready for another batch, so with the rest of the dough, I formed balls and dipped the top of them in chocolate.  They are pretty sweet, too! Just not as cute as the Cookie Dough Cookie Dusters! 

    You can also find gluten free versions of cookie dough recipes as well, I just didn't use one of those this time.  

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

This week for What to Read Wednesday I’m recommending another author who has great mysteries and thrillers: Agatha Christie. 

It’s hard to say what her most well known work was because her accomplishments include Hercule Poirot stories, Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, and my personal favorite And Then There Were None. 

And Then There Were None

nd Then There Were None is a perfect story to read around Halloween. It takes place in a big mansion, brings together strangers with questionable pasts, and a murderer no one can see picking off the 10 guests one by one. 

And Then There Were None has many adaptations and parodies. You may feel like you’ve seen this done 1000 times in  movies or books but Christie is the originator of this story and the original is worth a read. 


It’s a story that will send shivers down your spine and leave you guessing until the end to figure out who the murderer is. 

And if you like And Then There Were None, check out Christie’s other novels and short stories. You won’t be disappointed!

The old movie, Ten Little Indians, was based on And Then There Were None.  
(And watch Clue. It was definitely inspired by Christie’s story but is more hilarious than scary).

More Movies Based on Agatha Christie Stories:

   I've mentioned before that I haven't really ever been totally into Halloween in years past, but this year, for some reason, I am getting into it a little more.  It is weird, because I don't have any kids home anymore to dress up, but,  Maddy and I have been thinking that at our Church's Trunk or Treat party this year, it might be fun to set up a table outside of our car's trunk and have spooky treats to hand out.  I think that making the kids happy with something extra is what has me excited.  Today we practiced setting up our idea of what we might like to do, along with the labels that I made.  
    These labels would work well for any Halloween event that you might be hosting, so I thought I would share them with you today for Fun Friday!  It isn't too early to start planning for the Halloween party you might be hosting.  Some people make Halloween night a block party where neighbors get together with fire pits in the front yard and hand out their treats from tables in the front yard.  These free printables will work in any situation to add just a little more fun to the event. 

Here are some of the ways we used the labels:

• Eye or newt on mini M & M packages.  Any round candy would be perfect. 
• Shrunken Pumpkin Heads;  Obviously mini pumpkin candies
• Witch's Fingers; I found this candy at Target! You will have to find these in the store, but they also have a tone of other varieties that you can buy online. If you want to make Witch Fingers, you could make dipped pretzels and call them that. 
• Spider Eyeballs;  I gave you the directions for the spider candy dish on this post.  I used Hershey Kisses that are special only at Target that are perfect for this label.  
• Vampire Fangs; I found gummy fangs at Target.  They are also in store. 
• Owl Pellets; I filled my owl jar with Candy Corn, or Autumn Mix.  
• Bat Wings; We didn't have enough to put this together today, but we are going to use Air Heads for this label! 
• Witch's Brew;  We had a bowl of assorted mini candy bars for this label.  But, this would also work well with punch or on juice boxes or bottles. 
• Zombie Brains;  We used candies peanuts, but you need to beware of food allergies.  Chocolate covered raisins could be a good alternative. 

     Printing the labels is easy.  Just print it on 8.5 x 11 inch paper or card stock. Do not click fit to page, or unclick it if necessary. Be sure you set the paper to print landscape and then print! 

    If you think of other ideas for treats to fit these labels, please share them and help to get everyone's imaginations flowing!  

    We used containers we had around the house, including mason jars and other candy dishes.  The spider bowl and the colored jar came from Dollar Tree, where there are a myriad of choices for inexpensive treat holders!  We used jute and burlap, (also from Dollar Tree), to tie everything together and to give an old, conjurers feel to the display. Some black roses and a giant spider help with the nuance.  When we set up the real table we will have spooky lights as well, because of course, this won't be on our kitchen table, but out in a dark, spooky parking lot instead!   

Whelp!  Now we have to keep from eating all of this candy until Halloween! Wish us luck! 

​   Have a great weekend! 

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

​With Halloween quickly approaching I am in the mood to be spooked. I’ve never been a fan of gore but thrillers and good old fashioned ghost stories are fun for me! (It’s why I enjoy The X-Files so much). 

So today we thought we should share some classics written by the Master of Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe. 

​A widely known story, and often parodied, The Tell Tale Heart is a story that of murder and guilt. It’s considered a classic Gothic story. 

I love this story because it has you wondering what is real and what isn’t. The narrator (also the murderer) isn’t the most reliable and can’t give us a good reason for the crime he’s committed.  The tension built through the story makes it a fun read for a fall night. 

​In high school we had a competition in our English class to write a new ending for this Poe story, and I won. I don’t remember what I wrote at all but I do remember this story and the fear I felt while reading it. 

The Pit and the Pendulum is more of a thriller than a horror story to me. It tells of a man Sentenced to death by the Inquisition, Who wakes in a completely dark room. Through his explorations in the dark and good luck he finds a deep pit in the center of his cell. This is just the first of his many encounters with death in his cell. 

I love this story not only for the suspense that builds or because I won a contest associated with it, but because, despite the scary aspects of it, hope is at the center of the story. It makes it different than other Poe stories. And adds another layer to the story. 

​Arguably one of the most famous poems in existence, The Raven tells the story of a man tormented by a talking raven. The raven only repeats “Nevermore” to the man as he laments his lost love Lenore. 

The Raven has a lyrical quality that keeps you intrigued by where the story’s headed. It has elements of the supernatural without being an outright ghost story. Like The Tell Tale Heart it leaves you with an uneasy feeling of trying to figure out what was reality and what wasn’t. 

Poe had a masterful way with words and if you love these three works you’ll probably enjoy more of his stories and poems. 

So are you going to read Poe this Halloween season? What other scary or suspenseful books do you love? Let us know in the comments below!