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I have never been a huge Halloween girl… Until this year! I am having so much fun coming up with some great projects to create for around the house!! With the move in full swing this project tested my crafting muscles and I have to say… I have fallen in LOVE with Mod Podge and their whole line of great products all over again!

With the process of moving, many of my favorite craft supplies have already been packed, but I learned a great lesson… you don’t need much to create some fun projects. Here’s my list of supplies…

• 2 plates
• 1 mason jar lid
• Basic printer paper
• Antique Matte Mod Podge
• Sparkle Mod Podge
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
• Halloween Chevron Mini Wooden Spoons from The TomKat Studio
• Insta Spooky Kit digital design kit from Rhonna Designs

For each of the three elements I printed the designs from the Insta Spooky Kit at Rhonna Designs on your plain old printer paper making sure they were sized just right for my plates and jar lid. What I love about he Antique Matte Mod Podge, is that it took the harsh white printer paper and created this lovely antique look.

I cut each image out and then spread a thin layer of the Antique Matte Mod Podge directly onto the plate or lid and then placed the paper onto the plate.  Making sure the image was placed correctly on the plate. Then I brushed another thin layer of the Mod Podge on top of the image and let dry. On the small white plate I added a layer of Sparkle Mod Podge to dress it up a bit.

Once the plate and lid were dry, I carefully added some Dimensional Magic to the Spooky image and the moon on the large plate.  This give the image a little pizzazz!!

 

Once everything was dry, I hot glued 5 of the spoon handles onto the back of the lid and then hot glued the lid to the small plate. That was it!! Super easy and it looks soooooo cute!! They are BEWITCHING, wouldn’t you say?

What’s your favorite Mod Podge product?  Are you planning on creating some fun Halloween décor this year? Come share, I would love to hear about what you’re working on!!

Find my post discloser here.

Here are some more great Halloween Projects with Mod Podge!

 

 

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Do you stop and smell the roses? Take time to savor the sweet little moments in life? I have to admit that was a challenging concept for me to grasp. In the past I was a “big picture” kind of girl and if every element in said picture didn't match my expectations, I got  frustrated! I forget that all of the other 99 elements in the picture look just great. Why is that? I guess it’s the curse of the perfectionist.

In the last several years, I’ve learned to slow down a bit and savor the sweet little moments, even if they aren’t perfect. I love Instagram for that very reason, it helps me remember and capture the little things that bring such joy into my life, it’s my…

What helps you to slow-down and have some of those enlightened enjoyment kind of moments? What are the little things that make you happy? I love to watch the silly things my kiddos do, I love to create, to travel, to read, to snuggle with my sweetheart. I love to cook and bake, I love spending time with friends, I love laughing!

Raisinets has a fabulous sweepstakes going on right now with $1000 in cash prizes available, that is helping us all slow down and remember that Enlightened Enjoyment!! It’s a fun Pin & Win Sweepstakes…

You and I both know, we ALL know how to Pin!! Well, come on over and pin to win some fabulous CASH!! Visit the Raisinets Sweepstakes site and follow the four easy steps to enter and win!

 

AND

 

Raisinets is letting ME giveaway a…

 

$50 VISA gift card + a fabulous Raisinet gift basket!!

 

To one of YOU my favorite friends!! Just leave a comment telling me what makes you happy, what’s your Enlightened Enjoyment.  One lucky WhipperBerry friend will receive a $50 Visa Gift Card along with a lovely gift basket from Raisinets!!!

Be sure to enter the Raisinets Enlightened Enjoyment Sweepstakes HERE.

This giveaway will run through October 3rd with the winner announced on October 4th. The Winner will be emailed on the 4th and will need to claim their prize within 48 hours before a new winner is chosen. I was compensated by Raisinets for this post, all opinions however are my own. No purchase necessary. US Residents Only. Must be over 18.

Good luck and happy Pinning!!!

With the 2012-2013 school year now in full swing we’ve all been thinking about how to give our kiddos healthy lunch options while at school.  I have a SUPER exciting program to tell you about that I think is FABULOUS! Whole Foods Market has partnered with the organization Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools  to help our kiddos get the nutrition they need during the school day. This is a real labor of love for both organizations and this weekend they are looking for some help…

I remember back when I transitioned from elementary school to middle school {just a few years ago, mind you.} My middle school in Colorado, just that year had received a new salad bar. For the first time in my school career I had some lovely veggie options and I was in heaven.  I’m naturally a veggie girl anyway, but for some reason eating a salad that I had the opportunity to create myself, at school, was in my 12 year old mind… pretty cool.  The salad bar was the pride and joy of the lunch ladies as well.  It sat prominently in the middle of the cafeteria and surprisingly enough I would say 75% of the 6th, 7th & 8th grade students ate from the salad bar.

As the years have gone by and I am a Mother rather than a student, it has saddened me to see the quality of food that is being served in the schools at times. I wish my girls had a good healthy salad bar that they could turn to at lunch help give them the healthy nutrition they need to power through the rest of the day.  Sometimes it’s hard to pack fresh foods from home, because they just don’t travel well. As a nation we can see that our kiddos are paying the price for this.

Whole Foods and Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools have stepped up to help remedy this situation with their Eat Your Greens to Give Some Green day at Whole Foods locations in Southern California, Hawaii, Arizona & Las Vegas. For every pound of food sold in the Whole Foods salad and hot bars on Sunday, September 9th they will donate $1 to the Whole Kids Foundation to fund salad bar grants for schools all over the area!

If you live here in Las Vegas, Southern California, Arizona or Hawaii head on over to Whole Foods this Sunday to help raise money so our kiddos to have some healthy, natural options during their school day. Together we can make this happen!

This is a sponsored post for Whole Foods Market

 

I have magical memories of my parents back porch from the home that I grew-up in. It's my favortie outdoor living space… It's a lovely over sized covered porch on the back of their home in Colorado. I can remember spending most of our summers out there eating dinner, sleeping out in the backyard, entertaining friends and family and just quietly sitting and enjoying the cool Colorado summer nights.

As I have gotten older I've enjoyed sharing my love of my parent's porch with my little family. We've had so many wonderful family gatherings there, sharing in many thrilling milestones. We've celebrated engagements, marriages, births, birthdays and special Sunday morning brunches before church.

This was the family lunch we had after spunky Em's baby blessing way back in 2004. My parent's porch is just the perfect place for gathering. I've spent hundreds of hours out there playing and now, watching my children play. My favorite is the winter time…

Watching the kiddos playing in the snow and building snowmen is one of my favorite things to do on my parent's porch…

The style on the porch isn't fancy. We have a large round table, big enough for everyone to gather around and a few comfy chairs to enjoy those special moments in.

One day… I want to have a large covered porch just like that, where I can enjoy precious moments with my family as well. Here in Vegas, the newer homes just aren't built with any yard to speak of, so I'm going to have to wait until we move somewhere greener someday. I can't wait to dress my porch up! The problem will be narrowing down my style… I just love so many things!

What is your backyard style? Do you have a magical porch to dress up or do you have a deck, patio, balcony or stoop? What activities you you like to do with your family in your outdoor space?

Answer the question below and one of my readers will win a $25 Sears gift card!

Need some help figuring out your style? Sears is making it easy with their interactive quiz that helps you select your perfect style.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sears. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.