Halloween- Hallo-what tips and tricks!!

As a lover of fancy things, dressing up tops my list. That may be one of the reasons I like Halloween (aside from the candy!) Both of my girls love dressing up and I like helping them make their ideas come to life, so we tend to start the Halloween costume planning early. I have 3 rules for their costumes:
1. Most importantly they must be weather appropriate i.e. it's no fun to have a super cute costume, with a coat over it!
2. Can not take mommy over an hour to make. (for sanity's sake)
3. Will probably be made out of things I find around the house, read *cheap*

Once they decide what they want to be I do a little research on the internet to get a visual, I'm not the only one with super great ideas!! This year they want to be gypsies.

Some tips for making costumes easy
*sweats make a great canvas, use hot glue, felt, ribbons, ect..... to decorate*
*second hand shops sell TONS of costumes, you can probably buy 3 for what you would pay for one new. That way your kid can be a fairy-cat-princess, if she wants!*
*if you opt to sew (or hot glue) a costume yourself, felt and fleece rock*
*Most kids have some article of clothing that they are always asking to wear....use it!!*
*hot glue wire (clothes hangers) to fabric to shape it.*
*remember it only has to last a few hours at the most, so perfection would be a waste of time*

There you have it... a few ideas for your own *imperfectly beautiful* Hallo-what costumes.

p.s. if all else fails, wrap them in tin-foil and call them a leftover!!

Rainbow cake

To make this rainbow cake I used four boxed cake mixes, I like to make it easy on myself. You can do it however you want, but we chose strawberry and chocolate.

The next step is to find your pans, being a fan of using what you already have I dug through my cabinets and came up with these.... I had all circular pans but it would have looked *imperfectly beautiful* if I had used various shapes, in fact it might have looked even better!

before you pour batter into your pans make sure you trace the shapes onto pieces of cardboard, this will help with stacking.


Bake the cakes according to the directions. (one *tip* I have learned for making a box cake a little more moist is to let it set for 10-15 min before you pour it into the pans, not sure why but it always turns out better)


After you have removed cakes from pans and let them cool you have two choices, 1. refrigerate for two hrs or so or 2. Just go for it like I do and fix any mistakes with more frosting!!

next is stacking, first you have to cut off the tops of the cakes to make them flat putting them in the fridge makes this step a bit easier, but not necessary.

I had to cut the cardboard a little smaller than the cakes but it wasn't a big deal. Put a piece of cardboard under each cake layer, not only will it stabilize the cake but it will also make cutting super easy.

Use your favorite frosting, if you want to use the same one I did you can find the recipe here at cooking light Italian Meringue (one of my favorite magazines!!) I like to use Wilton's concentrated paste food coloring, it won't make your frosting runny and you only have to use a tiny bit to get awesome color. You can get them practically anywhere, Walmart, Michaels, ect... anyplace with a cake decorating section.


I frosted each layer separately and then stacked them... they are probably a bit crooked, but who cares! they'll eat it anyway!! There you go!! Another *imperfectly beautiful* masterpiece!!

An Imperfectly Beautiful Tea Party

My youngest daughter wanted to have a tea party for her 4th birthday. I wanted to make it special, but also keep it simple. I found lots of teacups and teapots at second hand stores and yard sales as well, (I also have family that collects teapots so I borrowed a few). I think the mismatched place settings was perfect for a little girl tea party. No saucers, no big deal!! I found some place-mats at Cost plus world market and cut them in half (money saver!!!)

If you're like me you want to keep it inexpensive while looking great. I found that lace curtains are in abundance at second-hand shops and yard sales and work great as tablecloths across banquet tables.

A two for one punch; napkin rings made out of plastic jewel rings not only make the table look cute but they also serve as little party favors. I scattered the extra's around the table along with a few rose petals from Grandma's house.

A few last tips,

-It makes for easy cleanup if you use paper plates.

-Don't neglect you local dollar store for birthday decorations!! They always have cute things!



If you are interested here is a link to the directions for the Rainbow cake

I hope you will get some ideas for your own *imperfectly beautiful* tea party!!