fall

Fall is Coming! {Caramel Popcorn Ball Recipe} {Recipes from Us}

September 10, 2014 by Dana

Falls coming. I can smell it in the air. The plants are changing and the pond is showing the early signs of the season’s change.

This is my favorite time of year!

Fall brings us out of the house and into the world again. Summer in the South gets awfully hot, y’all. We tend to hibernate behind closed doors with the air conditioner keeping things cool. So when that weather starts changing, we head out the door and spend as much time in the coolness as possible.

In the Fall, we do field trips to places that we greatly enjoy. The beach for walks, the state parks to see what we can learn and the Zoo when we are able. Anywhere that brings learning and fun, combined into one!

Fall is also the beginning of our favorite Holiday season: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We love these holidays and love to share them as a family. The holidays lead us back to the kids birthdays, which is a season all in itself when you have 8 kids to love.

One of our favorite things for Fall are Caramel Popcorn Balls. This was a childhood favorite of everyone who knew my Momma. Every year she’d make up a big ole batch of Popcorn Balls to take to our school events and everyone loved them. Momma doesn’t make them much anymore but it’s still something we enjoy when we are able to.

The recipe is really simple and easy to make but it does make a sticky mess and can be HOT, so be forewarned before you attempt to make these gooey goodies for your own family and friends.

Caramel Popcorn Balls

4 T. butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup (Momma prefers Karo)
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

6 qts popped corn

Combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir well. Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat. Add in the condensed milk, continuing to stir constantly. The mixture will become a soft ball when it reaches around 236*. Stir in the vanilla at that point.

Pour this mixture over the top of the popped corn, stirring to coat all of the popcorn. Lightly butter up your hands to prevent the sticky, gooey mixture from sticking to you. Shape the caramel popcorn into balls that are about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

You can wrap these up in cellophane or saran wrap to keep them from sticking to one another or to anything else for that matter. Tie them with a cute ribbon and add a label for the Holiday to make them a gift!

One thing Momma always did was add in food coloring to make these festive colors for the Holiday. Halloween the popcorn balls were always orange, while at Christmas she used red and green. She’d add the food coloring before pouring the mixture onto the popcorn balls and after adding the vanilla. If you are using two colors, then half the mixture and the popcorn so that you can make half the batch one color and half another color.

I don’t have a picture of these since we haven’t made them in a while but I promise they will be hit around your home for the Holidays just as they are around ours!

Enjoy!

A Bit of Fall Pin-spiration! {Pin-Spiration}

October 18, 2013 by Dana

Those who know me know that I am a Pinterest addict! I have so many links pinned there: things to do, make and enjoy, from seasonal things to homeschooling. It’s one of my favorite places to visit for inspiration.
So for this blog post, I am going to share some Fall Pin-spiration! We are just finishing up the Halloween decorations and at the beginning of November we will be switching it all over to Fall. We turn our Jack-A-Lanterns around to become pumpkins and use other cute things for our decor but we enjoy using other ideas to create fun decor as well – we being me, my Mom and the kids!First thing I love is this wonderful tablescape created from clear Dollar Store glasses from Naptime Decorator!

(image copyrighted to Naptime Decorator)

These glasses were simple with clean lines and Naptime Decorator simply painted on the letters using a stencil with acrylic. Hand-painting is one of my FAVORITE past-times so this craft fits in perfectly for me! So adorable too! Visit her post A Time for Thanks to learn more!

I have one of these glass pumpkins and see tons every Fall but I’m not thrilled with that clear glass look, so I’ve been looking for ideas to make them work better for me! This Fall Decor, Craft Paper Decoupage Glass Pumpkin Tutorial post from Dream A Little Bigger shares how to spruce it up.

(image copyrighted to Dream a Little Bigger)

In this tutorial, Allison shares how to decoupage the pumpkin and uses Craft paper in her pumpkin but you could use those thin Fall leaves from the Dollar Store to decoupage inside as well or even tissue paper. I also thought simply using craft paint to paint inside or white glue mixed with paint to coat the inside for extra staying power.

I think this Easy No-Sew Pumpkin Craft from Better In Bulk is the cutest thing! It’s simple to make too. The perfect project for me!

(image copyrighted by Better in Bulk)

You simply take some fabric and wrap it around a toilet paper roll with paper still on and put a stick in the middle! You can add a bow or not. But isn’t it the cutest thing, y’all! So fun to store that extra toilet paper creatively for the Holidays!

Some other adorable craft ideas, I love for Fall are laminating leaves to use as placemats, painting pumpkins, and using glass jars to hold nuts or pinecones for decoration. There are many ways to bring Fall into your home. Simply doing a search on Pinterest can bring forth so many wonderful, easy ideas to use for decorating your home and is one of my favorite things to do for inspiration.

What do you enjoy looking up on Pinterest?

Mid – November Update {Thoughts From Me}

November 15, 2012 by Dana

It’s November and Winter has arrived in South Carolina. The leaves are changing colors and falling from all the trees. It’s nice to see since it’s been a while since we’ve had a real Winter here.

Laycie tells me Fall is her favorite time of year. I guess she gets that from me, or Barney – not really sure there. Either way, we both love Fall. The change from hot summer air to cool, crisp breezes always makes me feel renewed. Fall for me is a season of peace. And it makes me happy to know she shares that seasonal love with me.

Unfortunately, the weather change also often brings about bad things. Like the flu, which has hit our house full force in just 24 hours. Winston is down for the count. Jackson and I have escaped from the sickies and ran to Grandma’s house to hole up for the next few days.

Tonight I’m thankful my Mom lives next door and can care for my babies while I protect and care for my tiniest baby. I’m also thankful for breastfeeding because hopefully the antibodies in my breast milk will help keep Jackson from getting sick too. Since I chose not to vaccinate him, I’m doing my best to keep him well.

I’m hoping to wake in the morning to find everyone if feeling much better and this was just a 24 hour bug. -Hey, a Mom can hope right?! – If not, Jackson and I will enjoy a longer vacation at Grandma’s. I must admit, it’s kind of nice having the little man all to myself for a little while, but I desperately miss his older brother and sisters so I’m hoping they get well soon!

While I’m out of my house, I am working on blog posts and homekeeping plans. With seasonal change comes my need for a fall cleaning, home organizational overhaul and boy am I in full force with overhauling my house. The kids are learning lots of new things and didn’t realize Momma could clean so much, so well or fast as I have been lately with them. They are unsure if they like Mommy’s new ways but they are quickly learning to enjoy the clean and clutter-free life. Let’s face it: Clean and organized is better.

So that’s the update for now. It’s almost one here and I really need to shut down and get some sleep before the littlest man to steal my heart wakes up wanting to eat. I hope everyone who reads this is doing well. Much love to each of you.

Goodnight.