VInyl~ Not JUST for decorating Part 2

Okay, not the best picture, it's kinda fuzzy. And I don't have the prettiest feet either. You remember I showed you here how I used vinyl to cut out decals for bikes?
Now I want to show you how you can look like you spend money on making your toes pretty, when in reality, it's sooooo cheap!
I cut shapes out of vinyl and then put them on my toes! SO cute, huh?

After I put the vinyl on, I add a layer of clear nail polish, to seal it. It looks like I go to the salon weekly to have my toes made up, but I don't! I just do it at home!
Yesterday I cut some bats out of black vinyl. I think I'll go buy some orange nail polish and make my toes a little more Halloweenish!

Outdoor Fall Decorating.

Okay, I am not the best nor the most creative decorator. But I tried my hand at turning the outside of my home into looking a little more fall/Halloween looking.
My flowers pots I have on either side of my garage have died. I thought about planting some fall mums in them, then decided to just fill them with pumpkins and squash. I stuffed some fallen leaves in between the pumpkins and such as well.{that bush in the background will turn a fiery red soon. I LOVE it!}

I have a bench next to my porch that I put a couple of pumpkins and squash on. I think we might stuff some of hubbie's old clothes and make a scarecrow to sit on the bench as well.

I took branches left over from when we trimmed our apples trees in the spring and sprayed painted them black. Then my pre-schooler and I put some spider webs on them and a couple of spiders.{we need to buy more of those spiders, I don't know where they all go!} We then stuffed the branches into our flower pots and added more pumpkins and squash!

I tied some Halloween ribbon I got from Wal-Mart last year when it went on clearance around my lights.

I moved my wood pumpkins I showed you here, onto my porch.{I still think I want to make a third one}.

And here's a picture of my porch. Not the best looking, but I feel like every year I get a little better! And I don't think I'm quite done with the porch yet, maybe add some corn stalks, and such.

VInyl~ Not JUST for crafts!

Before I show you how else you can use vinyl, let me tell you about a great place to buy your vinyl for WAAAAY cheap. SignWareHouse.com . I can get a roll of vinyl, which measure 24" x 10 yds for about $30*{that's including shipping!}. Now, my cricut is only 12" wide. So I use my father-in-laws chopsaw to cut the roll in half. It does it so neatly! Now I have TWO rolls of vinyl that are 12" x 10 yds. FANTASTIC! It is seriously sooo cheap! I have a friend who also has a Cricut and we buy a roll together, cut it in half so it fits our machines and we each get half a roll and pay only $15 each! Great!
*{The price can vary. But it is still so affordable! And no, SignWareHouse did not ask me to write a review on their products. I just wanted to share with you the place of where I get my vinyl from!}
Alright, do you still not have a Cricut, vinyl cutter, silhouette, etc? Can't seem to convince your hubbie to buy you one? Show him this post and he might change his mind!
Hubbies brother was in town a few months ago. I was making some crafts for my family reunion fundraiser. I was making a tile with vinyl on it. Brother-in-law became interested in the stuff. "What else can you put that stuff on?", he asked.
"Absolutely anything!!",was my answer.
That got him thinking.
So, a couple of weeks ago he's back in town. With his dirt bike.
"Can you cut me something to go on my bike?",he asks.
"Of course!", is my answer.
So I sat down at the computer with him and we browsed this site. A totally awesome site where you can download THOUSANDS or FAH~REE fonts, dingbats, anything!
We found a logo on there and decided to give it a try~

We added that Suzuki 'S' to the front fender.
Brother-in-law and hubbie were now excited and wanted to do more!
So we downloaded the Suzuki font and added it to....I think they called this the 'swing arm'? {I don't know much about bikes}.
Here's the before picture~

And the after picture~

And here's the bike after we finished with it~

So, yeah ladies, tell your hubbies that getting a vinyl cutter will not only benefit you or your home decor, but HE can benefit from it's uses as well!
Christmas is just around the corner. I'm just sayin'. A vinyl cutter would make a nice Christmas gift if he needs ideas...

*****UPDATE*****
I DO NOT make any money from this blog. Even though I was able to download the Suzuki font for free, I am assumning that they would prefer it be used for only personal purposes. And not used to make money of any kind from it!

2x6 wood pumpkins

I made these with some scrap 2x6's we had laying around. I had two different heights of wood. I sanded them down, then painted them a bright orange. I then sponged a darker orange over the top of that. The 'stems' were spare blocks of wood cut from a 2x2. I painted them a green then sponged a darker green over the top.
I just nailed the stems to the top of the pumpkins. But wood glue would work just as well!
I used some scrape pieces of fabric to tie around the stems.
I then painted some wooden hearts I had and glued them onto the pumpkins and added a little raffia to the hearts.
I think I might go buy another 2x6 to make a third pumpkin....

Cake Mix Cookies

These are some of the yummiest and easiest cookies to make!

I have a friend who calls them the BEST Chocolate Chip Coookies ever! Make them and decide for yourself!
What's great about this recipe is there are countless different cookies you can make. Play around with different combinations until you find your favorite! My hubbies favorite is Yellow cake mix with semi-sweet chips, or Chocolate Fudge cake mix with white baking chips.My favorite combo is a Chocolate cake mix with either Caramel baking pieces or Peanut Butter baking pieces! This also makes a very easy 'Cookies in a Jar' mix. Just layer the dry ingredients in a glass jar and attach the directions to complete them and, there you go!

~Cake Mix Cookies~

1 cake mix {any kind}Just the cake mix!
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut{I leave this out because I'm not a coconut fan!}
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

Stir together {if you've added coconut this can be a dry mixture, mix with a fork}.
Bake at 350* for about 9-11 minutes, depends on how fast your oven bakes them.Be careful not to over bake. You want them to firm up a little when pressed in the center, but they will still look and feel a little underdone. I'm not sure how to explain it to you. I just know when they are done by the look and feel of them. Just trial and error I guess!
Play around with different cake mixes and baking chips and make the recipe your own!!