I’ve discovered a new Fall decoration, these lovely little colorful wrappers. Magically, they’ve appeared all over my home this morning. Look how the sunlight sparkles off them and how the browns and golds work so well with the wood grains.

Oy.

Love Your Home,
Sue

1998    Morgan’s and Adam’s First Halloween   5 months old

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be in the midst of my Home Organization blog series, but I couldn’t help myself. I just felt like going off-topic to share photos of our Halloween costumes from years gone by. (My Home Page disclaimer: this blog is a hodge podge.)

In our house, my twins, now age 11, start talking about Halloween costumes as early as March or so.  The Halloween costumes talk comes up for discussion every few weeks until October when it then becomes an obsession. This year, it’s something about Japanese anime characters…or whatever…I don’t know.

Anywho, here ya go.  Here are some of our Halloween costumes since 1998. Some years are missing, especially the toddler years; I was just too sleep-deprived to drag out the camera I guess.

Hope you enjoy. Who knows, maybe they will give you some ideas for this year’s Halloween costumes.

2001  age 3

2002  age 4

2003  age 5

2004  age 6

2005  Along came Emily    4 months old
Apparently, I didn’t take pictures of Morgan & Adam that year
bad mommy

2006   ages 8 and 1

2007  age 9  (Morgan was going through a horror film phase)

2007   Emily age 2,
was too afraid of Freddie Kruger to be in the same photo

2008   ages 10 and 3
A Return to the classics:  The Chipmunks: Alvin, Simon & Theodore

Thanks so much for letting me share these photos.  As Halloween approaches, I hope your (and our) search for the perfect Halloween costumes is fun-filled and memorable.

Love Your Home and remember to take tons of pictures of your ghosts and gobblins,
Sue

A “gallery” in my home.

Do you have a wall space that’s crying out for character, warmth or whimsy?  I did.  The long walls of the stairway leading down to my gameroom so seemed closed in and drab. But who buys artwork for their basement stairway?  Solution: My daughter’s art camp projects and some off-the-shelf frames from Target. Not only is it a great way to brighten up a wall space, it’s the perfect way to display her best work.

A few hints for creating your own gallery with your kids’ or grandkids’ masterpieces:

• If you’re hanging a number of pieces, stick with the same or coordinating frames.  All white or all black frames work best.
• Make sure you include a white or light-colored matte; it will really show off the art.
• Or, try “floating frames.”  (Also available at Target.) These are two panes of glass held together by the wood frame.  They’re great because you simply press the artwork between the panes and the wall color serves as the matte.
• It’s okay to trim down the artwork to fit the frame.  The mommy-guilt of altering your child’s work will go away after you see it displayed so nicely.
• Do NOT clean the glass that touches the art with Windex or household glass cleaner.  It will eat away at the artwork over time. Use a clean, damp cloth to wipe away smudges.
• When hanging multiple pieces, lay them out on the floor first to create an appealing layout.
• I have absolutely NO hints for you on measuring and leveling artwork when hanging it on the wall: I simply use a combination of eye-balling it and re-hanging if it doesn’t look right.

Happy framing!  

Love Your Home,
Sue 

Yes, this Home-Aholic went away from home and from her computer, which explains the absence of recent blog entries.

Our family vacation this year was my favorite kind: an Exploration-cation. We start with a general sense of an area we want to explore, a few loose lodging reservations and a map. Yes, I said a “map” — a big, paper, hard-to-fold, AAA map. I’m a total techno-nerd who loves our car’s GPS and Googlemaps on the iPhone. But to me, there’s nothing better than spreading out the old map to see the big picture when you’re exploring.   

This year, we chose to explore northwestern PA, western NY’s Chautauqua region, and the Niagara area of Canada. So in just one week we saw two Great Lakes, two countries, two small lakes, two spectacular waterfalls, two universities, two historic monuments, two cheesy tourist traps (a Spongebob movie in 4-D and a wax Museum,) one national forest, one state park and a few terrific restaurants where we all ate way tooooo much! The photo above is of a sign that hangs outside a funky eatery we found in a college town less than an hour from our house: North Country Brewing Co. in Slippery Rock, PA. The little antique sign just struck me as funny and totally blog-a-licious. 

On our travels, we also drove by *sigh* numerous wineries. My husband and I vowed we’d visit them someday when traveling sans kids.  

The greatest thing about this trip was that all of these fun destinations were within 4 1/2 hours from our home in Pittsburgh so we were never in the car for very long between stops.  

In addition to the paper map suggestion, a few tips I’ve found helpful for our family when Exploration-cationing:  

• Pack lightly: one small bag per person plus a shoe bag, a swim bag and a jacket bag.  You’ll wear stuff more than once so one lodging with a laundry facility is not a bad idea.

• Bring bottled water, Capri Suns, Goldfish crackers, licorice and protein bars for the car. They travel well. 

• A DVD player in the car is the best invention of all time. Yeah-yeah, I know, the kids should be taking in the scenery along with you. But the fact is their minds can only take so much scenery. And since they’re strapped in and barely able to shift positions, you need to give them something to keep them occupied when they lose interest in their summer reading material. 

• Know that once you stop the car after driving a bit, the kids are going to need to run around and blow off steam before settling down.

• Take tons of photos that include both family and scenery/attractions.

• Have each kid bring his/her own pillow with a brightly colored pillow case (to distinquish it from white hotel pillows.) Hotel pillows I’ve found are generally too firm for kids.

• Bring a bottle(s) of wine (and a corkscrew) for the hotel/motel/cabin: nothing like being able to unwind once the kids have settled down.

Next time you’re thinking about that far-from-home beach/resort vacation, consider a close-to-home, Exploration-cation. Mind you, they are not without their rough spots including cranky kids, getting lost and nasty restrooms. But the experiences and memories are worth it all.

Love Your Home (but Go Away every so often,)
Sue

“My Pink Crocs” by Emily, my 4-year-old

Are you running out of ideas to keep the kids busy/happy at home this summer? Yeah, me too. But here’s my latest idea. One which I stumbled on by accident.

It seems to be good for about 20 minutes of peace and quiet (a virtual lifetime in mommy world.)

Idea: I give the kids my old digital camera (you’ll see why I italicized “digital” later) and tell them to have fun with it.

A few rules:

• make sure your little ones are past the I-like-to-flush-electronics-down-the-toilet stage (about age 4 or 5 and you should be in the clear)
• tell them to take pictures of their favorite things around the house, including pets and people
• put it on Auto mode so they don’t have to worry about focusing
• tell them they must take turns being the photographer (mine need practice at this)
• give them a 20-minute time limit

When they’re done, upload the pictures right away and see what you’ve got.

To be honest, you’ll end up with a bunch of unrecognizable images (but digital cameras allow you to delete), a few hilarious photos (good for a few laughs) and one or two really amazing shots. The photograph above was taken when our family had been at an all-day picnic at our friends’ house. My daughter was cranky and ready to leave but the rest of us were still having fun and wanted to stay. So I gave her my camera to keep her busy.

The resulting, My Pink Crocs, is one of my favorite photos of all time. 

Give it a try if you dare. Beware, kids are low to the ground and if you end up as one of their subjects, it may result in some unflattering thigh and butt shots. Been there — again, thank goodness for digital and the delete button.

Love Your Home and GO STEELERS!  The first pre-season game starts RIGHT NOW,
Sue

Adorable photo by kidtrip

We’ve had a particularly cool summer here in Pittsburgh.  Not many trips to the pool and it’s already almost the end of July.  However, the cooler evenings have given us a chance to enjoy two at-home summer activities for the kids: (1) lightning bugs catching contests (the chillier weather seems to have brought them out in droves;) and (2) backyard campfires.

A campfire in our own backyard is an all-evening affair. We start by having the kids collect kindling as well as a few prime marshmallow-roasting sticks from the woods.  Then my husband throws a few logs in the portable, metal fire pit, which we found at Home Depot, and gets a nice big fire a-blazin’. The kids are delighted and surprisingly quiet.  Something about sitting around that fire seems to mesmerize them, transforming them into content and peaceful creatures.  And finally, we complete the fun with some good old-fashioned S’mores.

If it’s been a while since you’ve made one, here’s the “recipe” for a S’more:

• marshmallows
• Hershey’s chocolate bars
• Graham crackers
• Damp paper towels (or a box of hand wipes)
• Bug spray

Directions:  Place a square of chocolate on a Graham cracker.  Roast the marshmallow to your “desired doneness.” (I like mine burnt to an unrecognizable crisp.) Then, with a second cracker, squeeze the roasted marshmallow between the crackers and chocolate. YUM!! You’ll figure out what to do with the damp paper towels and the bug spray.

S’mores in your own backyard.  Life doesn’t get much better than that.

For other fun ideas for enjoying and exploring the outdoors, check out this terrific website: Green Hour.

Love Your Home,
Sue