Happy Halloween friends! I hope your weekend was full of fun Halloween festivities. I know that some towns have trick-or-treating the weekend before Halloween, did anyone already celebrate and collect candy? Where I live, trick-or-treating will happen tonight. I am excited to hand out candy and see all the fun costumes the kids will be wearing.

I don’t have a costume this year because I just couldn’t’ decide what I should be. I didn’t want to do something that has been done a million times before. I wanted something slightly original, but never thought of an idea that I really liked enough to put the effort into creating. Now I’m stuck with no costume. I don’t know if it is better to have an unoriginal costume or none at all! While I don’t have a costume myself, but I have put a scary black cat and a plasma wand to add a festive, but not too scary, element to my place. I guess something is better than nothing.

What did you, your kids or grandkids dress up as this year?

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

With November rapidly approaching, I’ve started thinking about the upcoming holidays more and more. I’ve already seen a car wearing the silly reindeer costume that I saw everywhere last year.

If you missed out on the trend last year, now is the time to jump on board. Last year, driving around, I saw so many cars around the holiday time with reindeer antlers and a big red nose on the front grill. I know it’s still October, but for as popular as this holiday car costume was last year, I think this year it will be selling out even faster. It’s so simple, but so festive to dress up the car in a reindeer outfit.

I don’t know if any of you are superstitious, but I certainly am. You may call it plain bad luck, but I started my Friday by –with no other choice–walking under a ladder. Immediately, I said, “Something bad is going to happen.” Nothing really terrible happened, but several bad things occurred that make me think that it wasn’t all just coincidence.

Friday evening I on the way to dinner with a friend and my car was rear-ended by another driver. Luckily, we were fine, and the damage to the car is minimal but will have to be fixed. Later I realized that my phone would not send or receive text messages. On Sunday morning I stood up out of bed and realized I’d somehow thrown my back out. Nothing would help it, a massage, stretching, cracking it, nothing helped. I really wished I’d had Back2Life relieve the pain.

That is enough bad luck in one weekend for me to think that it is directly related to starting my Friday by walking under a ladder. What do you think? Should I avoid ladders, mirrors, and black cats?

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only because it’s when we celebrate Halloween, but because I love seeing all the vibrant colors and decorations people have out like pumpkins and scary door mats.

Another reason I love fall is because of all the scary movies on tv. I really enjoy watching older Halloween movies over and over, every year until they become more humorous than scary. All I need is to snuggle up in a cozy blanket and a bucket of popcorn. I can’t wait to watch my favorite zombie and ghost flicks this week!

What about you, do you like to watch scary movies?

Recently I have been reading more and more about people making lasagna. I have never made my own lasagna all by myself. I helped do the grocery shopping for the ingredients and assisted in the layering of ingredients, but never made one totally on my own.

Lasagna can easily be loaded with fat and calories. I’d like to find one that is healthy…or at least healthier with veggies in it. Everything in moderation. I think I have found the recipe for me: butternut squash spinach lasagna – exactly what I have been looking for!

I’m going to set aside some time on Sunday morning before football starts to gather the ingredients, prep, and assemble in my roasting pan. I can stash it in the refrigerator until I’m ready to bake and eat!

I hope it tastes good! If not, I guess I can order pizza…healthy, of course.

I have to say, I am always a little thrilled when someone loves what I cook/bake/make so much that they ask me for the recipe. It’s one of life’s little delights–and I have never thought twice to give them the recipe I used. Don’t you think it’s nice when someone asks for your recipe so they can enjoy your dish again? Well, to my astonishment, I learned some people aren’t as thrilled to share their delicious recipes.

The other week my family had people over for dinner. As a few of the ladies were in the kitchen cleaning up a little bit, and a friend asked “How do you feel about recipe sharing?” I didn’t know there was a feeling to have about it! I thought if I liked how something tasted, I could ask the cook if they would share the recipe so I could enjoy the dish at home. According to this friend, some people are hesitant to share their favorite recipes. Maybe if it was like a family secret, but otherwise, share away! Pretty soon we were all swapping recipes and having a great time sharing how we got them.

Now I need a recipe box to keep all of my recipes organized and ready to use or to share. What’s your take of recipe sharing?

Has anyone given thought to Halloween costumes for this year yet? Do you buy your costumes or do you make them? Do you get dressed up in costumes or do you just get costumes for your kids to wear? Do you get dressed up as a group all together or does everyone get dressed up separately?

I am not crafty by any stretch of the word. When it comes to Halloween costumes I find every way possible to get out of figuring out what to be for Halloween (I love it when Halloween lands on a weeknight and I can get out of the Halloween parties) because not only am I not crafty, I am not very creative. And because I am neither one of those things I am also unmotivated to get dressed up in costume. I am totally jealous of all of the people who are creative enough to come up with a costume idea and then find great ways to execute the costume. Some people even take out their sewing machine and actually make their costumes! I cannot do that.

What I need to know is where do you go to find pieces for a costume without going to a costume store? People tell me thrift shops, and to me this sounds great, but then again how will a thrift store have exactly what I am looking for in my size? This is my biggest problem: I spend so much time worry about how to get my costume together that I never really leave myself enough time to get it done.

I am all about shopping for the holidays early. I guess, since the weather has been so wacky, it doesn’t quite feel like time to be holiday shopping – but the truth is that it is October…just 2 months away from the holiday season. So watching these commercials made me realize that I really need to start considering what I am getting for everyone not only for the holidays but birthdays as well (mom and brother both have birthdays in December). I’m thinking if i plan early I might be able to do some saving with my shopping. I can think about what to get for everyone and I can be on the lookout for sales and also coupons for the items I need to purchase.

For me, I have no idea what anyone is getting this year. What I will say, is thank goodness for Gift Finders. The gift finder can help me look for gifts for people based on their likes, needs, wants, and personality. Like I mentioned before, I hate my year being rushed, but I really don’t think 2 months in advance is much of a rush to start thinking about holiday gifts for family and friends.

Have you ever turned off your phone for no reason? Two nights ago I did. I didn’t want to hear it ring, I didn’t want to have to answer my cell phone if it rang. I just wanted to have a night without the phone attached to my ear catching up with friends or family–which I love but I wanted a night where I wasn’t a slave to the phone.

Normally on nights that I have nothing to do I will call or send a text message to a friend or two to do dinner, dessert, or just come over to hang out. Generally if I am at home doing nothing, I watch bad reality TV and it’s always more fun with a friend. But instead, I turned off my phone. Well, I put it on silent in case there was an emergency, but I left it on the Charge Valet so I wouldn’t be tempted to check it every 5 minutes. It was nice to have a night of pure solitude, cooking, watching TV, and not having any phone distractions.

Now I am ready and charged up for the weekend – phone on and all! What’s your weekend plan?

In the interest of saving money, I have been thinking about ways to save just a dollar or two here and there. One of the easiest ways to spend (and waste) money is on all of those little purchases you make throughout the week. Those under five dollar, quick-grab items that you don’t really think twice about. I’ve heard it referred to as The Latte Factor.

Coffee in the morning is a MUST for me. I buy a cup of coffee every morning before work. Yes, yes, I know…I can save so much money every week if I just make coffee in the morning before I go to work. Honestly, I am just not a morning person. Sleep in the morning comes first. I prepare everything at night so I get a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning. I like being able to switch my coffee flavor on a whim. I love pumpkin coffee that you can find at almost any coffee shop in the fall. I want to find a way to make my favorite coffee concoction at home with as little effort as possible. I’ve heard that if you brew coffee with milk instead of water, you get more of a latte. I’m going to try that method with pumpkin spice creamer from the grocery store.

I’ll try out the new coffee and hopefully save some money. Now, all I need is a Personalized Travel Tumbler to put my homemade pumpkin spice latte in every morning. Are you a morning coffee person? What is your favorite?