Fall Fun with the Hammels! a Followers Fest Post :)

Hey friends! Well, today (October 28th) is the Followers Fest, hosted by the lovely Jess Gatlyn of Boho Baby Bump, Casey Wiegand from Casey Leigh, Illy from Much Love Illy and Danielle from Changing Lanes.

Today we celebrate all things fall, Halloween, whatevs, together on this super neato blog hop that I just happen to be participating in!

If this is your first time ever visiting my blog, WELCOME! I am SO glad you're here! I hope you'll be inspired and stay awhile. We are on a super crazy journey at the moment (well, always), and would love to have you along. 

If you'd like to learn more about me, you can go here. Or if you want to meet my family, head over here. Make yourself comfortable and stay awhile!

Sooo.... on to this "Fall Fun" with the Hammels :)...

Right now, we are seriously limited on fundage, so when this Follower's Fest event snuck up on me, I began brainstorming as to what kind of craft I might be able to put together for the kids, along with some yummy snacks. I needed to keep it simple, because 1) we don't have the money for me to go to the craft store (and I should stay away as much as possible :)  and 2) the only "available" crafter for the afternoon was my three year old daughter... sooo... I stumbled across this fabulous and simple craft, for which I had all the required supplies...

Actually, I had to go digging through the recycle bins to find old spaghetti jars... but I reckon that's even better! Instead of recycling these jars, we repurposed them. And what's more, if we decide to we can always wash the paint off and use the jars for something else. Even better, right? I do love me some glass jars. :)

So, we made JAR O' LANTERNS! :) Here's how!

Supplies:
glass jars
orange paint
masking tape
scissors
tea lights or battery powered tea lights
newspaper
paint brushes

1) Get pretty much ANY glass jar together. We used old spaghetti jars destined for the recycle center.

2) Cut out shapes (eyes, nose, mouth) out of masking tape and apply to the jar. Be creative! And press down so paint doesn't seep underneath (learned the hard way).

3) Get your special helper and have them apply paint to each jar. My daughter LOVED this. I can't tell you how many times she thanked me for letting her do a craft. Made me realize I don't do this enough with her. She is so precious... could paint for hours. She mixed it up from plain old orange to blue and black too. :) It was lots of fun! She painted four of the five jars.

4) Allow the paint to dry. Once dry, peel back the masking tape to reveal the face you created!

5) Drop tea lights down into the jars and enjoy your beautiful creations! One thing I like about these is you can see the different thicknesses of the paint as it was applied, which I think makes it more interesting.

After our dinner, we set a fire in the chiminea and had s'mores outside on the back desk with the kids.

The kids stayed up a bit later than usual to do the s'mores, so they weren't told about the Nutella hot chocolate (inspired from a pic I saw on Pinterest) that I had planned to make. After they were tucked snuggly into their beds, I tried my hand at my first cup of this incredible and delicious (and RICH) delight. Can I just say, YUM!?

Here's how I made it...

I took a 10 oz mug of whole milk, warmed it to very hot on the stove, and dropped 3 rounded teaspoons of Nutella into it...

Whisk it all up until blended...

And voila!

I added some whipped cream and a shot of rum... and man, it was good. Drink slowly though. And I might add, this is NOT low calorie, so be advised!

Finally, I wanted to add a little picture of the simple and easy table centerpiece that I put together for our home. I picked up a $3 bundle of wheat, and a few gourds and mini pumpkins on sale at Publix. I put the wheat into a tall, square vase, and sat it on a large round plate, and arranged the pumpkins and gourds around  it. I kinda think it's pretty! Simple, easy, affordable, and pretty. :) I hope you think so, too.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you'll come back soon!

Much love,

Brooke