November 01, 2013

Mummy Costume

November 01, 2013/ Michelle S

Yesterday was a big day at work. My department (the pharmacy) won the Halloween costume contest!!!

I was the mummy. I dyed a white sheet in some coffee. (I smelled like toffee coffee all day.) I ripped the sheets and pinned them to some long underwear. I used a spray sock on my head. I added a little black eye makeup and mummy done.

I then realized that I needed gas in my car to get to work and I was dressed as a mummy. Nate went and got it for me after some mummy begging. Husbands.

I had trouble looking at co-workers without laughing. Patients either stared or wouldn't look me in the eye as I explained their medications to them. You know, just another day at work.

One of my co-workers had some cool embalming stuff and creepy Halloween decorations. Another co-workers brought in some dry ice and food coloring. Too much fun.

More importantly, Ike dressed up too. He decided that he wanted to be Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.

The resemblance is uncanny.

Did you have a good Halloween? What was your favorite costume (either worn or seen)?

October 31, 2013

Nutterbutter Ghosts

October 31, 2013/ Michelle S

Alternate title: Things I'm Good At. Things I'm Not

Because all holidays require a potluck at work, I whipped up my favorite Halloween treat. Nutter Butter Ghosts!!!

Nutter Butter ghosts fall firmly in the "Things I'm Good At" category. They are super simple and you can still whip some up today! And I can't ruin them so they are moron proof.

These cute little guys are made of 3 ingredients:

1 package Nutter Butter
1 package of some form of white chocolate. I really like this CandiQuik brand.
Mini Chocolate Chips

All you do is melt the CandiQuik for about 1 min 30 seconds. Dunk your Nutter Butter in the chocolate. Use a fork to shake off excess chocolate. Place them on wax paper. Stick on two eye balls (mini chocolate chips). Let cool. Done-zo.

That's my kind of treat.

Now onto the "Things I'm Not Good At"

1. Quickly adding a hover pin-it button to the blog. I did it in Blogger but I hadn't done since my host change. It really was ridiculously easy. I just failed to type my blog address in correctly for like 45 minutes. Oh my. But there's a pin-it button now!!!

2. Making Whoopie Pies. I bought a $3 whoopie pie pan a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't wait to try it. Man, did I fail the first two batches. The first batch I managed to turn off the oven in the middle of baking (WHAT? WHO DOES THAT?). The second I filled the pan too full. My 3rd batch turned out darling. I need some more whoopie pie practice.

Happy Halloween! Are you dressing up today? My place of employment dresses up every year. I always enjoy trying to get an upset patient to take me seriously in costume. The pharmacy always does a group costume. This year we are doing a mad scientist lab theme. (Check Instagram (decorandthedog) for pics!

Do you have a costume this year? Tell us all about it!

October 30, 2013

Dining Room Chairs

October 30, 2013/ Michelle S

It's blogger show and tell time. With yelling.

We have new dining chairs!

Crate and Barrel Willa Raven Dining Chair.jpg

Nate and I had been looking for dining room chairs for a couple of months now. We were looking for 8 chairs to go with our new farmhouse table that Nate is building. That will hopefully be finished next week. Or Christmas. Whatever.

We browsed Craigslist. We had one guy list the perfect set for $75. I was in love but I was trying not to get my hopes up. It is Craigslist after all. Turns out his son listed them at the wrong price. They should have been $475. YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!! I e-mailed on like 1000 others. We spent 100 Saturday mornings at thrift stores trying to find our precious chairs.

The only chairs we could find were the 1990's Windsor style (which I don't hate but Nate does). We were both iffy on having a mismatched set. I've seen it look good. Nate wasn't buying it. The mismatched didn't seem like a great fit for our style.

I showed Nate the Crate and Barrel's Willa Side Chair. He liked them and gave me permission (without nagging) to buy them. Weird. I'm still trying to figure out what the catch is.

I was headed to Naperville a few days later to pick them up. The website said I wouldn't be able to pick them up for a few weeks. Womp, womp. I ended up using the customer chat thingy on their website and their lovely employee got me a pick up for the day I was headed to Naperville. Thanks lovely employee whose name I don't remember. Because I'm horrible with names.

We loaded them up in my sister-in-law's van. I am no longer allowed to make fun of mini-vans again. But I will. I mean, I can't.

Anywho, long story short. Pretty chairs in my dining room. Ike approves. Well, sort of. He wasn't into modeling this day.

We only bought six chairs. We did find two chairs at our local Restore (WHY COULDN'T THERE BE SIX???) and we think they will go nicely on the ends of the table. Well, they will go nicely once they are cleaned and painted.