Gnome Problem = Candy Corn Problem

Lars, our garden gnome, was feeling a little left out with all the hullabaloo we were making over our costumes this year.  We decided to make him a costume too.

This is Lars, if you've never met him.

Isn't his face so cute?!?

Anyway, as you'll notice, he's got a pointy hat on.  We got to thinking...what is something that we can make him that requires a pointy top?  Think think think.

Candy corn!

Of course!  Brilliant!  We are so smart!  S-M-R-T! (name that TV show!)

This is our guide on how to make a candy corn costume for your garden gnome.  (Side note:  Lee did everything, hence the hairy arms.  I just took pictures!)

Supplies needed:

• 3 pieces of felt (white, yellow, orange)
• Scissors
• Marker
• Stapler
• Hot glue gun
• Garden gnome

1) Cut the white piece of felt in a triangular shape.

2) Hot-dog cut the yellow and orange pieces of felt.

3) Glue your pieces together (white, yellow, then orange), so that the seams are on one side.

4) Using the stapler, fit the two pieces to the gnome to get the general shape you need.

5) With the marker, mark the general shape of your gnome and cut out.

This is what you should have in the end.

6)  Hot glue the edges of the candy corn, one side at a time, with seams out.

7)  Once glued, flip the costume inside out, so that the seams are on the inside.  Put the costume on your gnome to make sure it fits.

It's a perfect fit!

8) Find your gnome's face and draw around the general area.  Cut out the area.

Perfect!

And you're done!  Doesn't Lars look so cute in his costume?  He's come out of the garden for Halloween and is hanging out on our porch next to the pumpkin.

I think his costume was a home run this year!  What do you think?

Need a costume? Let our Halloween past help you!

Halloween is just around the corner--like tonight.  We hope you have your costumes ready.  If not, we bring you a friendly guide (from our past Halloweens/parties) of possible costumes and tips if you're scrambling for something easy.

1)  Our first suggestion is anything bejeweled and velour.  In this picture you can see that because Lee is wearing a navy blue bejeweled velour track suit, he can jump higher. 

(If you're not into that, you can always dress up like an Asian in Hawaii and throw a feather boa with it.)


2)  Our next suggestion is super easy.  All you need is a bed sheet.  Sometimes, the more colorful, the better.  If you happen to be wearing the cute pink toga in the crowd, the boys just flock to your sides!

3) Hair is an easy way to get into character.  For those of you who can sculpt your facial hair, chops are an easy way to look like a British chap.  Girls, a simple curl and a flower will go far!

4)  One of my most reliable costumes involves channeling who I really am at my roots:  a Chinese tourist at Disneyland.  We all know you have a Micky Mouse sweatshirt in your closet--you can be a Chinese tourist too.

5)  The last suggestion we have is to simply to borrow someone's old costumes (thanks, Nicole!).  Raid your family's or friend's closets!  You never know what you're going to find!

So get out there and make us proud!  We know you've got it in you!  Dress up and happy trick-or-treating!  Happy Halloween!


This post is an entry to a Halloween giveaway through theSITSgirls, where you can find sweet blogging tips and awesome support.  Oh and Tiffany is pretty!

Games We Play: Game #2 - Spot the Bumpit!

UPDATED:

In honor of Halloween next week and all those of you who are planning to dress up as Snooki, we'd like to introduce you to our next post in the series Games We Play--Spot the Bumpit (TM). 

You heard us right--that's bumpit (TM).

(Pronunciation Guide: It's pronounced more like BUMP IT, rather than BUM PIT. Hmm...bum pit. I had no idea that bums had pits!)

You may ask yourself, "Self, what is a bumpit (TM)?"  Well, I'll tell you--it's a way to get big happie hair! 

It's these plastic hair comb accessory insert thingees that help give your hair the appearance of more volume.  You can go to the Bumpit (TM) website to watch their information video and see a demonstration of how to insert a bumpit into your hair.

Our rules of the Spot the Bumpit (TM) game are as follows:

1. The game is always on--the store, the movies, at school, at work--anywhere.
2. When there is bumpit in the vicinity, the first person to spot it and call out "bumpit" wins.
3. If you can manage it, you subtlely take a picture of the bumpit for future storytelling of the "bumpit that was THIS big."

This game amuses us for hours and pretty much anywhere--we're always amazed at how BIG hair can get! There are certain places that we see plenty of Bumpits (TM), such as Friday night at the movies and most grocery stores in B-Town. 

CONTEST

This is where are contest for the week comes in:  The Spot the Bumpit (TM) photo contest.  Here are the details:

• When you spot a bumpit (TM), take a picture of it using your camera, camera phone, etc. 
• Send us your picture (via email at reddparty at gmail dot com).

Lee and I will judge which bumpit is the awesomest and we'll post your entries.  The winner gets an awesome prize that we won't reveal till we announce the winner.  Just know it's an AWESOME prize and it's hair-related, of course!  The deadline entry is 11:59 PM of Thursday, October 28, 2010 Monday, November 1, 2010, so get your entries in now! You've only got a week for bumpit (TM) hunting!


Bumpits (TM) are everywhere!  Happy bumpit (TM) hunting!

Dear Lemi-Shine, we've got our dishes back!

We have hard water where we live.

No, no really.  We have REALLY hard water. 

Lee and I have been married for a little over a year and a half and our new glasses, stoneware, and utensils were starting to look pretty not-clean.  Cloudy and milky looking.  And that chalkiness in our water pictcher--we had white floatees! Okay, it's expected on water glasses, but on our utensils too??

Blech!

Mom K recommended dumping a scoopful of Tang into the dishwasher once a week.  It worked for a little bit. Our glasses were still cloudy though.

Some of our good friends/neighbors, we'll call them The Rabbits, suggested Lemi-Shine.  It works, they said.  You can get it at Walmart, they said.  There is something about phosphorus levels that makes it work, they said.

We didn't run out to get it.  Mostly because we think Walmart is too far away.  And we're lazy. 

We finally found it at Smith's (cause that wasn't too far away) and we used it.  We ran it a couple times in our empty dishwasher and we could see the calcium deposits starting to flake away on the heat coil in the dishwasher.  We then washed our dishes with the Lemi-Shine--(cue choruses of angels here) it works!!  Our dishes are B-A-U-tiful again!

We couldn't be more excited about this development.  We tell everyone now!  Thanks so much to the Rabbits for the recommendation and thanks to Envirocon Technologies who makes Lemi-Shine!  It's fun to set our table again!  We are no longer ashamed!

Lee even showered in Lemi-Shine and he's so clean and shiny now!!  (just kidding!)

Lee is clean and happy!

If you're losing the fight to hard water, go pick up some Lemi-Shine.  Promise, it works!

Shhh! It's a secret!! And a surprise!!

Hello reddparty readers,

It's me, Winter.  I need your help--I need your thinking caps and bright ideas!

This summer, Lee went on a river rafting trip with his family on the middle fork of the Salmon River while I was at Girl's Camp.  He was happily rowing along for a couple days and lost his wedding ring on the third day--he looked down that night and it was gone.  The Salmon is a pretty cold river and he thinks that his finger shrunk and the ring fell off.  Somewhere in the Salmon.

 
I was super sad when I found out.  But I stepped back--I had my husband home safe and sound.  It's just a ring.  But Lee was crushed.  He was upset.  He loves that ring.  I have to admit, it's a cool ring.

When originally deciding on rings, we knew we didn't want anything typical.  We're weird--I hope you've noticed that by now.

One of engagement pictures we sent to a few people

Lee had a custom-ring made at Martin Jewelers for me--a green sapphire tension-set in black zirconium metal.  I love love my ring.

When I was figuring out what I was getting him, I also went to Martin Jewelers and asked them to make his wedding band--a thick black zirconium metal with 3 grooves with lime-green epoxy inlay.  Very Lee.  They did an awesome job--thanks, Aaron!

So, when he lost it, we talked about ordering another one--we just never got around to it.  Till now...
I secretly called the jeweler and asked him to re-do the ring a couple weeks ago and it will be done early next week.   Lee doesn't know.  Tee hee!

Here's where your help comes in--I want to "propose" to Lee.  He proposed to me two times...the first time to propose with a temporary ring and the second time to give me my real ring...so I want to find a fun, cool, funny way to give Lee his new ring.  I need ideas, people!

Please post your brilliant ideas in the comments section--I want to give it to him sometime next week.  Of course, I'll post the "proposal" later!

---

P.S.  Don't worry, Lee doesn't usually read the reddparty blog unless I ask him to look it over before I post.  Just don't tell him!

Cooking + General Conference = Awesome

This weekend was General Conference weekend.  I love General Conference.  My parents always made it a priority to watch conference on Saturday and Sunday together as a family.  As much of a drag it was in my teenage years, I am grateful that my parents instilled in me the importance of listening to the counsel of the prophets.  And of course, there is always plenty of food and get-togethers!

Here's my top 10 favorite things about this General Conference weekend:

1.  Hootenanny pancakes (aka German pancakes). Yum!  Puffy and crusty and golden and super easy to make for a later weekend morning.  

2.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's "thank you" talk.  It's nice being told thank you!

3.  Pie at Grandma Malad's after the Priesthood session

4.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk about living a consecrated life

5.  Lee making bread.  He makes it the best.  Especially with our homemade applesauce!

6.  President Uchtdorf ALWAYS bringing flying airplanes into his talks...and telling us to slow down a little.

7.  Dr. Amy's Black Forest Cake for family dinner.  Dr. Amy is a friend who served her LDS mission in Germany and makes pretty awesome German food.  She made us this Black Forest Cake for us once and it's been on the brain ever since.  Chocolate, raspberry filling, whipped cream frosting--yeah, it is decadent!

8.  Elder Gerrit Gong talked about his grandmother blessing all his future generations.  He's Asian.  Go Asians!  And little Asian grandmas!

9.  While we were billy-goating, I noticed how pretty the leaves look and how the light is different looking this time of year--warmer, more golden.

10. President Monson's attitude of gratitude talk

Wasn't it just a great weekend?  So, what was your favorite thing about General Conference weekend? Or just this weekend in general?  Did you have a fave talk?  Did you make something super yummy?  Did you get together with friends or family?  What did you do?