#Unprocessed October

Have I told you that we are in the Last 100 Days of the year? It’s totally my time of the year!  

My house is decorated for Halloween – and still safe from Zombies.

And it’s pumpkin time!  I love pumpkin time!

I have reevaluated my life, my balance and I have redefined my goals for the Last 100 Days, and if you like that kinda thing, you need to be following OrtsofSorts with me! You know how I love a good challenge, and well, I’m LOVING this one!

You know what else I’m doing? #Unprocessed October! Yes, you heard that right.  I am in a challenge to only eat unprocessed foods. During the month of October.  The best month of the year.  Halloween Candy.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

And I can’t eat any of it.

But hey, you should do this with me! If you want to join, there is a badge on the right side you can click through and sign the pledge! Come join, seriously, it’ll be fun!

I survived Day 1, as part of my Living in the Now, I’m taking that as a win; however, I did keep a food diary to share with you to help keep me on track.

#unprocessed

Day 1:

Breakfast: Coffee is unprocessed.  I should probably read the instructions for this, but I’m sure coffee is unprocessed.  I’m brewing a cup.

Coffee is NOT the same without my Pumpkin Spice Creamer.  Or my Peppermint Mocha Creamer.  Unsweeted almond milk is not the same.  I bet that is processed.  Probably should have read the ingredient list.

I may not survive until the end of the month.

I have four homemade Lara bars left.  All hope is not lost.

Why are there left over fried pickles still here? I told Mr. T they were here, and he knows the reps send the left overs home for him.  Why would today be the day he doesn’t eat them?!?  Technically I could make those at home… so that doesn’t count, right? Crap.  I’m sure it counts.

I want extra points for walking away.

There should be a point system for this.

I should read the instructions; there might be a point system.

Morning Snack:

Maybe I could live on smoothies.  Fruit, spinach, technically you can make yogurt at home – I have a friend that did it, and I know all of the ingredients – flax seed… it says “seed”, that counts.  Almond milk.  Man, I have got to read that ingredient list!!!

Read through the instructions.  There is not a point system.

Lunch:

This looks like a normal meal for me, I can do this.  Massive salad time.  Romaine, carrots, zucchini, almond slivers, capers.

Note to self:  Research how to make salad dressing.  Like now.

 

Afternoon snack:

I am seriously hungry.  Pear.  Grapes.  Homemade Lara bar.

I have to go run an errand.  I drive right by fast food row.

How processed can a Taco Bell burrito really be? It’s vegetarian.  There has to be points for that.

Maybe we need a sliding scale…

Dinner:

Maybe I should make my own points scale, I drove right past Taco Bell.  And I drove past every other restaurant along the way.

Hello smoothie, my old friend.

Hello left over fried pickles, how did you get in my tummy?

Will Halloween Ever Get Here?

Seriously!  I’m ready! Well, after today I am ready!  My Amy came and spent most of the weekend with me, which means that I didn’t get everything on my to-do list done; however, the flip side of that is that the house will always need to be cleaned, but it’s fun having one of my best friends her and forcing here to go shopping and do craft projects with me – neither of which is in her top 10 list of favorite things to do!

We did get some shopping done and we had plenty of time to hang out and then it was time to get some crafts done.  I had texted her on Friday that she had to help, but that it wouldn’t be as bad as she expected – and it wasn’t!

Let’s start with the bouquet of flowers I’m working on.

Oh yeah – spooky eyeball flowers!  These are $0.97 flowers from Wal-Mart with plastic novelty eyeballs hot glued into the center.  They turned out so well that when I was at Target I picked up three more flowers and glued the eye balls in… and I have enough eyeballs left to pick up another three flowers!  The eye balls were left over from previous years where I used them a decorations, so that didn’t cost me anything- all I’m spending money on is the flowers themselves.  Cheap!  Cute!  My kinda craft!  The orange vase is on loan from my grandmother who, when she heard what I was doing told me she had the perfect vase, and she sure did!  It is going to look great on my table!

My next project came from a pin on Pinterest that lead me to The Designer Co-op.  You can read her post about the zombie birthday party she threw for her husband here. I showed you the project inspiration not that long ago but I am so jazzed at how it turned out for me!

Zombies!!!  This one was more fun than I expected!  Please ignore the tape and hot glue gun still in the shot, but I was too excited once we were done to clean up before I started taking pictures!  I bought Mr. T a print from the store the other day and low and behold, the cardboard piece was the PERFECT size for my fireplace opening!  My grandmother came to my rescue again and provided several large pieces of cardboard for me.  My Amy and I sat down and traced our hands in fun shapes and then used an Exacto knife to cut them out.  I then cut two long pieces about 5″ wide to use as the “boards”.  Then we took everything outside and she spray painted the back board and hands black while I painted the cardboard boards brown and then drew on some nails, knot holes and grain with a sharpie marker.  Once everything was dry we brought everything back inside and did a dry fit of the hands, then put the back board and hands down and taped the hands in place.  Then she made tape circles and I used those to adhere the back board and hands to my fireplace.  Since the tape worked out so well, I had her make more circles (we were using thick packing tape) and attached the boards.  Now it looks like my fireplace has been boarded up to prevent the zombies from getting through!  I just love it!

On this up close shot you can see that the hands are coming out from behind the back board.  The Designer Co-op didn’t use a back board, but instead just had the black hands coming out; however, I have a beautiful candelabra currently inside my fireplace, and I didn’t want to have to remove that and store it somewhere, so the back board was just to block the view.  On another note – I love my bones in the firewood holder!

If you get the chance, I highly recommend both of these crafts – we had a blast putting them together and both were done in under an hour, from start to finish.

Is Halloween ever going to get here?

I Love Halloween

The look of my blog is a bit different – I can’t help it, I am so ready for Halloween.  The other day we spilled something on the tablecloth, and I took it off to wash – and I was so very tempted to go ahead and put up the Halloween tablescape! I haven’t yet, but I also haven’t ruled it out!

Every year I decorate for Halloween – and I mean decorate! I have actually paired down the decorations, but it’s still pretty darn awesome when you walk into my house!  I have a spooky monster that greats you in the living room.

Here he is posing with Joshua last year.  Yes, that is a witches cauldron bubbling in the background.  And if you look closely, an apparition has appeared in the mirror.

Mr. T and I live with the decorations all month long – and yes, there are times that spooky monster, or, as I like to call him, George, will scare us when we walk in the room and forget he is there!

I have a graveyard that I set up in front of the fire place, an old man hanging in a cage in the corner and T’s bathroom was apparently the site of a grizzly murder as there is blood spatter and bloody hand prints all over the place!

I think I could do this! It would look great as a backdrop to my graveyard!

The highlight of the season is the fact that I’m blessed to be able to throw the annual Halloween party for all my friends!  The day before I take off work and crank up the oven!  I like to make treats and eats!  I always have some type of main course and half a dozen sides, and all my friends bring something to toss on the table to share.

We have brains – in both red and blue – a bucket of poison and even some veggies for the non-zombies in the group!

Most importantly, we get to dress up!! I love costumes, always have! Every year, going way back to my teenage years, I’ve dressed up to hand out candy, so I get super excited when it’s time to pick a costume for Halloween!  I don’t mind spending time or money on them, as I reuse them over and over again – and having said that, I think that this year I have to buy a new tub to hold the costumes… or go hang them up in the spare room closet!

I love that I have friends who get into the spirit of things – they aren’t fuddy-duddy’s who won’t play along – they enjoy participating and it makes the night and the memories even more special!  (yes, there are a few that don’t play along and show up wearing a shirt that says “this is my costume”, but that’s okay – they just don’t get to take a whack at the pinata!)

Queen of Atlantis and Pippy Longstocking (2011)

Pinata Time! (PS, I put down a big patch of astro turf on the grass under the pinata, that way, once it is busted open, it is easier to gather the goodies and nothing gets lot that Shorty could choke on or get sick eating) (2011)

Even Shorty gets in the spirit! (2011)

George, Gypsy, nun and do you remember those Barbie heads? You could brush the hair and put make up on them? That had to be the most inspired costume of the bunch – there was even make up on her tray! (2012)

So, tell me – don’t you just love Halloween?