Hosting a Halloween Party!

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021 Natalie Larson

I have a confession. I do not like Halloween. Never have. When I was a kid, I occasionally liked planning out my costume, but I absolutely dreaded going door to door and telling a joke in exchange for candy. I don’t like decorating with witches, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, monsters, and spiders. For the life of me, I have never understood why some people put more time and energy into decorating their house all spooky and scary for Halloween than they do making it all cheery and joyful for Christmas. Call me a stick in the mud, but it’s just not my thing.

Needless to say, because of my feelings toward this upcoming holiday, I am definitely no expert in hosting a Halloween party. Until last week I have never done it. In fact, I probably haven’t done anything to celebrate Halloween in over 10 years. But for some reason, this year, I just thought it *might* be a little bit fun to have a little party. I really don’t know what got into me. I decided to host a costume party for some of our married friends. (For some reason it seemed much more appealing to me to host/attend a party in costume when everyone has a spouse that you could have a coordinating costume with. When I was single there was no way I would have shown up at a costume party by myself!)

Anywho, I just thought it would be fun to show you what we did for our little get-together! It was very low-key and super easy to host! (My kind of party.) There’s still almost two weeks until Halloween, so if you decide you’d like to host a little party, you could easily throw together something like this!

First off, I had to plan our costumes. This was the first time we’ve ever dressed up for Halloween together. I wanted something that went together and I wanted to include Wilma. The very first thing I thought of was a Scooby-Doo theme, and it seemed so easy to do, so that’s what we went with! I made a collar for Wilma using a blue collar and some blue and yellow foam sheets. You can’t see it in the photo, but I also put “S D” stickers on the dog tag. Alex went as Shaggy. He already owned a green t-shirt and tan pants, plus he hasn’t had a haircut in quite a while, so his costume was easy. I went as Velma. I already owned the red skirt, so I just snagged this orange sweater from Goodwill and threw on some glasses. I couldn’t find any knee-high orange socks, but I had these tall burgundy boots and I think it got the point across.

I decided to do a taco bar for the food. This was so simple and made it very hands-off during the party. We had pre-cooked the ground beef and put it in the crockpot to keep it warm. So when it was time to eat, I just set out some topping and let everyone go at it!

For dessert, Alex requested his favorite peanut butter cookies. I decided to have a bit of fun and placed the chocolate Kisses in upside down and then drew little legs with melted chocolate to make them look like spiders. It was a super easy way to add some Halloween vibes to the party.

I also made caramel apples because that just seemed like Halloween food to me. However, my caramel apple making skills need some definite improvement! We shared many laughs over how incredibly impossible they were to eat because my caramel was so sticky and hard. In hindsight, I would have kept some caramel warm in a crockpot or fondue pot and had sliced apples to dip. It would have worked much better I think, but these caramel apples definitely added to the entertainment for the night!

For drinks, I was inspired by these mocktails I originally saw on Tanner Mann’s Instagram. I based my drinks off of this, but I used this recipe. I left the vodka out, and let guests just add some vodka into their drink if they wished. They ended up so cute! I found the vampire teeth at the Dollar Tree. I also used Haribo Sour Streamers instead of the Air Heads. They were tasty and super cute and fun!

I only did a few decorations, like the “Happy Halloween” banner over the taco bar, but what I did do, I got from the Dollar Tree, including the plates, and napkins. I had also bought these cute little Halloween bags for a costume contest. I got one to put the votes in and the other I filled with stuff for a scary movie night at home. A scary movie, popcorn, candy, and a candle. We didn’t end up actually doing a costume contest at our party, but I thought it was a cute idea.

We ended our night by watching “Halloween Kills” which we were able to stream through Peacock TV, which was super convenient and a great way to end the night!

It ended up being a really fun night and I’m ultimately glad that I decided to celebrate Halloween this year. Are you hosting a Halloween party this year? I would love to hear what you’re doing to celebrate and what your costume is!

Life, Self-Improvement, Tips and Tricks

Getting That “Back to School” Feeling (Even when you’re not in school!)

August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 Natalie Larson

How was your summer? I trust it went well for you. Mine was great. And busy. (Hence why I haven’t published a blog post in months.) Anyway, by the time mid to late August gets here, I start craving routine.

Summer is so fun and carefree. Trips and vacations, longer daylight hours, warm weather. With all the busyness, I tend to let a lot of my regular habits slide and by the time summer starts to come to a close, I’m ready to get back to it. Remember that feeling when you were in school? You’d get your new school supplies and school clothes and almost be excited to start school back up again. Or maybe you’re still in school! Either way, I think this time of year is a perfect time to reset, make some goals, change some habits, and work on improving ourselves!

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to is the Organize 365 podcast. If you listen to Lisa and are familiar with what she teaches, you know that she considers this time of year one of her “New Year’s.” She breaks up her year into three “new years” and I must say that I completely relate to that! I often feel more motivated this time of year than I do in January to start a new routine, or goal, or habit. I thought you might feel the same, so I thought I’d do a quick post about how to really get that “back to school” feeling even if you (or your kiddos) aren’t even headed back to school.

Get a new planner. When I’m feeling refreshed and ready to restart I always love getting a new planner. There is something so satisfying about filling out a brand new planner. While you’re at it, revamp your schedule! I went through my regular schedule and I’m rearranging things that I think will work better for me. (Like working out in the afternoon instead of morning, etc.)
Meal Plan. There is nothing that makes me feel more organized and like I’ve got it all together than meal planning. It makes it easier to make a grocery list, easier to shop, and I always end up making healthier choices!
Deep Clean. This time of year always makes me want to deep clean and really get ready for a fresh start. This week so far I have deep cleaned my fridge and my pantry. (This also helps significantly when starting a meal plan too!)
Set Goals and/or Make To-Do Lists. I always usually start working on goals around this time of year. Whether it’s eating healthy, working out, losing weight, finishing projects, or planning for the upcoming holidays.

I’m so excited to get into my new routine, accomplish some of my goals, and totally take advantage of that refreshing “back to school” energetic feeling I have. Do you get that “back to school” feeling? What things are you doing because of that? Or what things are you going to do to try and cultivate that feeling? I would love to read your comments about what you’re doing!

Homesteading

My First Herb Planter

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 Natalie Larson

Last year was my first time growing any type of herb. I found the saddest little half-dead pot of Lemon Balm at a home improvement store on clearance for $0.50. I took it home and planted it and boy did that little thing thrive. It flourished all summer and I was so proud. It really gave me an itch to plant more herbs, especially ones I cook with a lot. I imagine how lovely it would be to step right outside my front door and cut some fresh herbs for dinner.

Well, I decided to transform this planter, which was a flower box last year, into my little herb garden. I spent a lot of time researching what herbs to plant based on what I knew I would use in my cooking, as well as what would be okay to plant together. I ordered all of my herbs from Iowa Backyard Farmer. It was easy to order and pickup my herbs and they all looked so beautiful and healthy. Here’s what I planted in my herb planter:

Lemon Thyme

I’ve never used lemon thyme before, but I did get quite used to working with lemon balm last year, so I think this will be a fun herb to have. I planted to of these in each front corner of my herb planter.

Sweet Basil

Basil is obviously one of the most frequently used culinary herbs, but it can be so expensive at the store. I usually never purchase fresh basil because of that and the fact that it will wilt so quickly. I’m super excited to have my own basil plant to have an unlimited supply of fresh basil for pizzas, pastas, etc. I left a lot of space around my sweet basil since I know that it can become quite large.

Chives

I planted two chive starts in the back of my herb planter, since they can become quite tall. I am especially excited to put fresh chives over mashed potatoes. I’m sure I will use them a lot.

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley

Of course, I needed parsley. So versatile, flavorful, and tasty. I planted two of these in the front of my herb planter. I will use this a lot in soups, sauces, roast chicken, and well, probaby most anything I cook.

Calypso Cilantro

I use cilantro so much. I usually pick up a package every time I go to the store, so I’m so excited to start using my own. I find that a little fresh cilantro sprinkled over tacos, enchiladas, or a burrito bowl really elevates the flavor so much.

I am really hoping that I will be as successful at growing all of these herbs as I was with my lemon balm last year. They have already grown so much since I planted them in the herb planter last week. Do you have a herb garden or herb planter? What are you growing this year?

Homesteading

Making Homemade Maple Syrup

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 Natalie Larson

In the fall of 2019 we took a trip to Vermont and absolutely loved our time up there. If you’ve been to Vermont, you know that maple syrup is everything up there. We enjoyed visiting a maple farm, looking at all the maple trees with their taps, and eating all the maple flavored everything. This trip inspired my husband to research how we could tap our own backyard maple tree. Alex hates our maple trees because it has been so hard to grow anything in our yard because of them, so he was determined to get something useful out of them.

I originally kind of brushed off all of his talk about tapping our trees as a momentary obsession that would probably never come to fruition, but he proved me wrong. And let me tell you, I’m so glad he did. This was our very first experience making maple syrup, so we are nowhere near experts, in fact, we learned a lot in the process. But it was such a fun experience and we can’t wait to apply our knowledge next year to hopefully become more efficient and skilled at making maple syrup.

Alex purchased a tap online and we got some flat-back buckets. One thing that made this year hard was that you have to tap the maple trees when it is above freezing temperatures during the day and below freezing temperatures at night. Here in Iowa, we very quickly moved from freezing temps to above freezing temps, so we only had about a week of prime tapping conditions.

Alex just cut out some scrap wood to make tops for the buckets. These buckets would fill so fast during the days we had prime tapping weather. Sometimes we would have to empty them twice a day to keep them from overflowing.

We ended up collecting around 14 gallons of sap. We stored it in our fridge and freezers until we were ready to boil it. Let me tell you, it took up so much space. I had maple sap everywhere.

We picked a nice warm Saturday to do our boil. You have to boil the maple sap outside because of all the steam it produces. I didn’t want to scorch my good cooking pots, so we went to Goodwill and found the perfect big stock pot to use for only $7. We have an outdoor fireplace with a grate over the fire, so we used that for our heat source.

We started boiling around 8:00 AM and we were boiling until sunset. It was such a fun day. Alex was pretty much constantly chopping wood to keep the fire roaring, but I was able to do a lot of yard work in between tending to the sap. Once the sap would evaporate enough, I would just keep adding sap to the pot. Again and again and again. This is a very slow process and it took a long time to boil it all down.

Once we had it all boiled down, it had become a light golden color. We strained it and put it back into the fridge until we could do the final boil. It still took up so much room in my fridge. The final boil is done inside so you can monitor the temperature and get to the perfect syrup consistency. I just poured all of the boiled down sap into my regular soup pot and brought it to a boil. I used a thermometer to monitor the temperature. I read that 219 degrees Fahrenheit should be the perfect temperature for syrup. It took a long time to reach this temperature. My sap hung out at 215 degrees for a very long time, but we finally reached 219 and it was perfect!

When it reached temp, I began straining it through coffee filters. As this was our first time trying this, I didn’t feel like purchasing actual maple syrup strainers, so I just used what I had. It worked just fine, however, it took so much time. Next year, now that I know we enjoy making our own maple syrup, I will definitely invest in some proper supplies.

After all that work we got this single jar of maple syrup. It doesn’t look like much, but we definitely think it was worth it. This syrup is by far, the tastiest maple syrup we have ever had. Knowing that we made it completely by ourselves from our own maple tree gives us such a sense of accomplishment. It was very time consuming, but we had a blast.

This year, we only tapped one of our trees, but next year I would really love to tap both of our trees and try to get a bigger batch. I also want to purchase some actual maple syrup supplies, like filters. Hopefully next year we will also have a longer tapping season. Have you ever tapped your maple tree? Would you ever go to this much work to make your own maple syrup? I would love to hear about your maple syrup making experience!

Travel

Southwest Montana and Yellowstone – Our 2021 Spring Vacation

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021 Natalie Larson

We were originally planning to go on an international trip this spring, but with recent events and travel restrictions, we opted for a cabin in Montana. It was an amazing trip and I’m so excited to tell you all about it!

We decided to fly into Bozeman, Montana since we found a great deal on flights from Des Moines. The Bozeman airport was very attractive, efficient, and not crowded!

We arrived in Bozeman around lunch time, so we drove to downtown Bozeman and found a place for lunch. We settled on Ted’s Montana Grill. I had the bison meatloaf sandwich and it was delicious! After lunch, we decided to do some shopping around downtown. We went to Schnee’s where I purchased a perfect pair of hiking boots with the help of their friendly staff. After visiting a few more stores, we decided to start making our way to Ennis, MT, where our cabin was located. Along the way, we stopped at this beautiful area of the lower Madison River.

We arrived at our little cabin and realized how tired we were after a long day of travel, so we just rested and made an early night of it. Our Vrbo hosts were wonderful! They were so communicative, and even made us homemade cookies and muffins.

The next morning we were up before the sun to make our way to Yellowstone.

On our way, we stopped at Night of Terror on Earthquake Lake. It was fascinating to read about the trajedy that happened here and it was so gloomy, you could almost feel the sadness in this place.

We spent the rest of the day in Yellowstone, entering through the west entrance, after we picked up some sandwiches in West Yellowstone to bring with us for lunch.

This was one of the first bison that we saw. We thought it was hilarious and so cool, but we later learned that this is so common and can often cause a traffic headache.

After seeing so many geysers and buffalo, gorgeous mountains, springs, and the famous Old Faithful, we headed back to West Yellowstone to grab some dinner. We went to The Buffalo Bar, where I had a Huckleberry Lemonade. Montana is famous for huckleberries and you can find huckleberry flavored everything everywhere you go. On our drive back to Ennis, we saw more wildlife.

It snowed overnight so we had some beautiful Montana views from our cabin. We decided to stay close to our cabin and have a slower day today.

We drove to Virginia City and Nevada City. Most all of the shops and attractions were closed since it was still off season, but it was still fun to drive around and look.

We then headed back to Ennis to explore town. First stop was Willie’s Distillery where I had the tastiest drink of all time! A Huckleberry White Hot Chocolate. I am still dreaming of this drink!

The next morning we headed out super early again to head back to Yellowstone.

After finishing our day in the park, we headed back to West Yellowstone to grab some dinner. We found Canyon Street Grill. It was such a cute 50’s style diner with delicious burgers and milkshakes. Huckleberry flavored of course!

The next morning it was time to head home!

Have you visited southwest Montana? I would love to hear about your trip! We had so much fun and I would highly recommend visiting!

Crafts, Gift Ideas, Holidays

May Day Baskets

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 Natalie Larson

Did you give out May Day baskets when you were a kid? I loved the tradition. On the first day of May we would make some sort of little basket with treats in it and bring them to our friend’s houses. Leave them on the step, ring the doorbell, and then RUN! Even as an adult I love to make something and give them to our neighbors. It is such a fun tradition to do and with May Day being on Saturday this year, I think it will be even easier for more people to participate!

I usually end up forgetting that May Day is coming and then I make something last minute on May 1st. These May Day baskets are perfect for that! I got everything at the dollar store. They came out super cute and really affordable!

Here’s my shopping list:

2 packages of favor boxes (found in the wedding section)
2 packages of stickers
1 box of popcorn
1 bag of suckers
2 bags of Laffy Taffy
1 bag of Smarties
1 bag of Tootsie Fruit Chews
16 packets of marigold seeds
2 stems of silk flowers

This came to a grand total of $17.12. I made up 16 May day baskets, making each one cost $1.07. Pretty good if you ask me.

I started by making all of the favor boxes up and then putting a sticker on each one. I found these adorable spring themed stickers that were perfect for May Day.

Then I just placed a packet of flower seeds in the back of each basket. I filled the basket with popcorn ( I used two bags for 16 baskets, leaving one bag of popcorn leftover) and then placed the pieces of candy on top. I started doing one of each kind of candy, but I had a lot leftover, so each of my baskets ended up with two suckers and at least four pieces of candy. I had enough candy and popcorn leftover that I could have made quite a few more May Day baskets if I wanted to. I then snipped individual branches off of the floral stems and placed one branch in each basket.

I love how these turned out! So fun for spring, easy to do, affordable, and anyone will enjoy receiving one of these! Do you do May Day Baskets? I would love to hear about your May Day traditions!

Travel

Our Honeymoon

February 25, 2021February 25, 2021 Natalie Larson

We were SO excited for our honeymoon. We had fun planning the wedding, and of course, we were looking forward to that, but I think we were even more excited for our honeymoon. We had our trip all planned out several months before the wedding. Flights booked, resort reservations made. We were so excited to be going to the Dominican Republic and spend a week just relaxing with each other on the beach. Then, shortly before our wedding, the news stories started appearing.

Every time we watched the news we heard about people dying or getting sick at resorts in the Dominican. We waived off the first few stories as flukes, but when there was a death at the very resort we were supposed to be staying in, we decided we had better cancel our trip. We just wouldn’t have been able to have peace of mind and relax while we were there.

This added just a bit of stress just one month out from our wedding and planned honeymoon. We turned to a travel agent to help us figure out where to go. Jamaica was in the running, but we finally decided on St. Maarten in the Virgin Islands, and boy are we glad we did! One of our best decisions ever!

We stayed at the Sonesta Ocean Point Resort and we absolutely loved it! They had complimentary drinks for us when we arrived and an adorable personalized plate of goodies in our room! They had also decorated our room since they knew it was our honeymoon.

We were on the third floor and had the most amazing view of the pool and the ocean! We loved our balcony and spent a lot of time out there. The great thing about the resort was that it was adults only, which we really wanted for our honeymoon, but it is also connected to a family resort that we had full access to as well. This allowed us to go to many different restaurants, even though our favorite restaurant was on the adults only side.

Azul restaurant was so beautiful with such delicious food! The views were absolutely incredible! You were literally eating right above the sea, with the breeze blowing through the restaurant and the waves crashing underneath you.

Throughout the resort we were so amazed by everyone’s kindness. We are from Iowa, which is known for it’s “Iowa nice”, but let me tell you, St. Maarten nice has us beat! The staff was all amazing! So sweet, fun, and personable! We enjoyed many evenings on the rooftop bar with our favorite bartender Ramon.

Most of our time there we just relaxed and enjoyed the activities on the resort, like yoga above the ocean and pool aerobics, or just laying by the pool getting endless strawberry daiquiris and reading countless books.

However, one of our favorite days was the day we took an all day boat tour of the island. We did this through Billy Bones and we highly recommend it! Our guides were so much fun and we had a blast snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, and just speeding around the island with an endless supply of rum punch!

I have always said that I don’t think I would ever take the same vacation twice since there are so many places in the world I’d like to go, but Alex and I loved St. Maarten so much that we both said we would definitely love to go back! If you have gone or are going to St. Maarten, I would love to hear about your experience! It is definitely one of our favorite places on earth!