Going away party cake! Vanilla cake with Italian buttercream

Our friends going away party at our house 

The cake chilling...

The finished product!  yum!

Good food, Great company!

Thanksgiving feast ideas... 2014 Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Feast at the TenoriosPumpkin shaped and decorated sugar cookies

I love this cheeseball made with cream cheese, onion chives, pineapple, rolled in pecans. YUM! Pretzels sticking out the back for the cute turkey idea. For the Turkey face I used half a beef jerky, icing to stick candy eyes to the jerky, fruit roll up for the Turkey gobbler thing, and the whopper is the turkey face!

We hosted 14 family members in our new home for Thanksgiving. A lot of work but we had a great night! 

Our Big Birdy

How to make a Gorgeous Glinda The Good Witch Costume or Glinda Dress

Our Wizard of Oz theme

 

Wow. What a blast we had for Halloween 2015 at Willow Creek Community Church Trunk or Treat. We won 2nd place for the entire event, and didn't even know there was going to be a contest! Two hours in, the pastor came up to us and said hey can one of you come with us you're in the top 3 for best trunks! We're like whaaaa??? We were very blessed with a gift card!  We did a Wizard of Oz Theme for Trunk or Treat. I was Glinda the good witch, Steve was the scarecrow, Stella was Dorthy and Rocco was the Lion! I am going to explain how I did the entire theme and made my dress step by step. This whole Trunk or Treat Wizard of Oz theme was very in expensive and my dress was under $25 dollars believe it or not. 

Glinda The Good Witch Costume Dress.

1. Make a hoop skirt. I followed this exact blog on how to make a hoop skirt here http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2014/10/how-to-make-a-hoop-skirt-a-sturdy-non-wobbly-version.html  I used an old bed sheet (who uses the flat sheets anyway) and elastic I had laying around. I also used my hot glue gun and random ribbon I had laying around.I bought the Pex pipe and no head screws.

2. Purchase pretty sheer fabric for skirt and top, enough pink satin for the skirt only, and and one roll of sparkly tulle for the big fabulous sleeves. You'll need as wide as your skirt will be from left to right (measure like the blog teaches above by multiplying by pi) I got two extra yards in the sheer for the shirt/sleeves. The Joanns by my house was going out of business so the fabric was 50% off and then an extra 75% off at the register. Let's just say .dirt.cheap. The roll of tulle came to 75 cents. 

3. For the skirt I measured my waist above where the hoop skirt would sit and mark on the top of the skirt where that is. Pin and pleat until all of the fabric fits the waist measurement. I made sure to sew the seams on the bottom of the skirt. Then sew the circle skirt together to make a round skirt. I then sewed the pleats with the sheer fabric on the outside and the light pink satin underneath. Easy and simplest way I've found to make a skirt. I did add a zipper, don't let that intimidate you, it's very easy and there are tons of tutorials. I did an invisible zipper for the skirt because I had it in my drawer randomly..

4. For the shirt, I cut out and sewed together the shoulders of a basic front and back bodice, two shoulder sleeves and attached the tulle around them in a circle so they can stand up and be poofy. Then, I connected the long skinny sleeves to them. It may sound confusing but I basically followed random princess dress tutorials and made my own easy simple version to connect everything. I left the sides of the bodice unsewn so I could just throw then sheer dress top over a long sleeved cotton pink top. Voila. 

5. Last but not least, a pink crown made from light pink poster board from the dollar store. I glued random jewels I had in the house onto it to make it fancy and taped it together. With the left over paper, I cut a star that I taped onto the longest wooden dolle rod I could find in Joanns (came to about 20 cents with that sale, score!). I had spray paint in my garage that was light gray, perfect for the wand. 

Steves scarecrow costume was very SIMPLE. I got him a long sleeved top and sweat pants from the local thrift store. I also bought an ugly plaid scarf from the thrift store for 1 dollar. I used left over stitch witchery I had in the house to iron on the patches. On his chest pocket, elbows, and knees. I used hot glue and glued hay (I had from my fall outside decorations :) ) and glued it around the bottom of his pant legs, wrists, and some patches. I found a hat of Steves that I wrapped in some burlap (I have from fall decor around the house) and stuck some straw in that too. Total costume price $6 dollars and it looks SO much better then the lame AND expensive scarecrow outfits from the Halloween stores. 

Stella's Dorthy costume was also purchased at the thrift store for $4.50 It was huge, so I had to basically re sew the entire thing to fit her. I also bought her a red basket for $0.75 and a stuffed dog and red scarf from the thrift store for TOTO :) those all went back to the donation center after our event because used stuffed animals are pretty nasty. But 1 dollar for a costume prop, U CANT BEAT IT! Instead of spending $16-20 bucks on ruby slippers, I spend $1.50 on ReD glitter and covered a pair of her shoes that we're getting snug. I would have tossed them anyways! We don't pass down used shoes so when she out grows her shoes we throw them out. Her total costume was under $10 and she was the real Dorothy :) ruby slippers and all! Stella kept saying, "There's no place like home"! She got into character, even at 2 years old.. 

Rocco a.k.a my buster boo boo boy, was the sweetest lion ever. Steve found it at his work clothing store for under $10 bucks too. It was cozy and warm, perfect for the cold, rainy weather we had! 

For the set up. I got a huge piece of green fabric for 2 dollars from the thrift store. I bought everything else from the dollar store. Poster boards that were white, green, and yellow. For the yellow brick road, I layed the paper out and cut it into a windy road. I taped it together and used black marker to make the "bricks". I drew emerald city and cut the top of the the green paper. I used one poster board each to make the word "OZ". Last but not least I made the rainbow. I forgot the clouds at home, but either way it worked. It ended up being freezing so Stella say in the back of the van and stayed warm while Rocco stayed in his stroller by us outside the van and was super warm in his lion costume.