There are a lot of great articles out there with cool ideas for fun and easy do-it-yourself kids’ Halloween costumes. We’ve collected some of the best links below. Enjoy!
The MSNBC Today show page has ideas for six cute Halloween costumes, including cat burglar, cheerleader, cotton candy, football player, conductor, and zookeeper!
Quick and Simple highlights 16 different easy to make Halloween costumes, including Clark Kent, Kandy Korn, a bag of Jelly Beans, Poodle, and many more!
The Kansas.com website has some money-saving tips for making costumes. No actual costumes here, but some great tips!
Kids’ Turn Central has the biggest list of kids’ Halloween costume ideas I’ve ever seen! Check these out.
The FunTimesGuide.com has dozens of Halloween costume ideas, and nearly a dozen links to easy-to-make kids’ costumes!
Maureen Carter on DIY Life has some of the coolest, no-sew Halloween costumes around. Check out the crocodile head!
On Suite 101, Elizabeth Bastos covers some of the traditional DIY Halloween costumes for the wee little ones.
You can make chocolate at home using traditional methods, although it’s can be a time consuming process. If you want to try making homemade chocolate as a hobby and you want the satisfaction of making your own chocolate you can do it. You will need to buy some specialized equipment but not a lot. Traditional chocolate makingat home is a great hobby, so you should give it a try to see if it’s the right hobby for you.
Steps for making homemade chocolate:
1.Choosing the beans. Chocolate comes from cacao beans so when you first start making chocolate the traditional way you should start with some good quality cacao beans. The better the beans, the better the chocolate! There are many suppliers on the internet that sell different varieties of cacao beans in many different price ranges. If you are looking for whole cacao beans, it isn’t too hard to find them.
2. Roasting the beans. Cacao beans need to be roasted just like coffee beans. You can roast them on a cookie sheet in your oven if you are careful not to let them burn. You can also purchase a specialized cacao bean roaster for at home use if you decide to try traditional candy making as a hobby. The beans will need to be roasted for as few as five minutes or as many as 35 minutes depending on the type of bean and the flavor that you want to achieve.
3. Getting the chocolate out. After roasting the beans, crack open the outer shell of the bean to get the chocolate out. There are several ways to do this at home. One way is to lay the beans in a single layer on a counter or on a baking sheet and use a hammer to crack the shells open. Then use a blow dryer on a low setting to blow the hulls away from the chocolate. You can also use a juicer to accomplish the same goal. Removing the chocolate can be very messy, so make sure that you have a mop and bucket and other cleaning supplies standing by.
4. Grinding and refining the chocolate. Now, you should grind the chocolate as fine as possible. Many expert chocolate makers recommend using a high quality juicer for this step. When the chocolate has been ground as finely as possible, you will add milk, sugar, preservatives, and the other ingredients that you’re planning on adding to the chocolate to enhance the flavor. Once everything is mixed together, agitate the chocolate slowly but constantly. This process could take up to 12 hours to get the chocolate to exactly the right consistency. Some experts recommend using a stand mixer on a low setting for this stage of the process.
5. Tempering the chocolate. Once the chocolate has been fully refined it needs to be tempered before you can use it. Tempering chocolate at home can be time consuming, but if you want to speed up the procedure you can use a microwave to temper your homemade chocolate. Once the chocolate is tempered and is smooth, hard, and shiny. Now, it’s ready to be eaten or used in your favorite chocolate recipes!
Whether it’s a Mars a day, a block of milk chocolate or a Boost that’s your favourite treat, milk chocolate is one of the most common treats on the plant. On Britain alone, the yearly spend on chocolate is £3 billion, thats 3 thousand million pounds! The bulk of this is spent with the big 3 manufacturers, Cadbury Schweppes, Roundtree and Nestle.
The most successful chocolate bars are Dairy Milk (Milk Chocolate), Snickers, Kit Kat, Dairy Milk (Fruit), Boost, Mars, Dairy Milk (Caramel), Double Decker, Twix, Flake, Crunchie and Yorkie. Additionally, there are specific extras such as Caramac and Mini eggs which are available at different times of year or made for promotional times.
In recent times, the demand for mini treats has risen hugely, especially approaching the festive season. A great example, Mars Celebrations can be bought in massive boxes around the Xmas period, in fact fly off the shelves in the run up to Christmas as supply struggles to meet demand. Many families will have tins of chocolate in preparation for visiors and family occasions at this holiday and celebration time.
Worries about the population’s health come to the forefront of public attention from time to time, and as a result, chocolate manufacturers have introduced schemes such as Treatwise to raise people’s awareness of the nutritional content of their products.
Ad breaks on the Television might be keen to imply that chocolate is full of calcium, which we all remember is great for bones and teeth, however a simple look at the packaging identifies the downside of sugar and fat to mention a couple. In reality, everything in proportion is widely considered as sound advice, and chocolate bars are no different. Awareness is the key, and the chocolate makers cannot be accused of trying to mask the facts, even if their advertising agencies are excelling in their jobs of highlighting product benefits al the expense of faults.
Trying to decide what cookware to use in your kitchen can be difficult. Buying good cookware is the goal for most people, but they don’t want to spend huge amounts of money to get it. Those that are really into cooking, will be looking for more expensive, chef-quality cookware. It all depends on what works for you and what your budget will allow.
Prices on Cookware
There is a wide range of prices for cookware. Deciding how much you can spend is the first step in deciding what cookware to buy. What price fits your budget? Or more accurately, how much can you afford to spend? Cookware is necessary, and a good set is a great investment, but it still isn’t a good idea to spend so much you put yourself in debt!
Choosing quality bakeware is critical to baking success
Look for deals after you decide on a price. Cookware goes on sale just like most other items. Manufacturers sometmes have special deals on cookware, and many stores have sales on it.
According to Hugh Rushing, Executive Vice President at Cookware Manufacturers Association, “There are two big seasons for cookware and cookware promotions. One is in the spring, in April and May, coinciding with the graduation and wedding season. The other is in October and November, with promotions in regard to the holidays.”
If you can, wait until those months, and look for cookware on sale.
How Many Pieces Per Set?
When choosing a set of cookware, you need to check how many pieces are in the set. Cookware is available in small sets with only a few pots and pans, or can come in huge sets with a wide variety of cookware. Figure out how much each piece of cookware in the set would cost to compare the relative value of different sets of cookware. Lids are each counted as one piece of the set, so keep that in mind when you buy a set of cookware. For instance, an 8-piece set of cookware is likely to have 4 pots and pans, and 4 lids.
Cleaning is a Breeze
One other important consideration when buying cookware is the ease of cleaning. Everyone is so busy these days that most people would rather not be spending a lot of time cleaning up the kitchen. If washing pots and pans by hand doesn’t appeal to you, be sure to buy a set that is safe to put in the dishwasher.
Although non-stick pots and pans are popular, be aware that sometmes the coatings will flake off with continued use, especially in cheaper sets. You obviously don’t want to eat the coating, so get as high quality cookware as you can afford to try and avoid this problem. Coated cookware isn’t the only type that is easy to clean.
Merging of Standards
Once you’ve decided on a budget for cookware, how many pieces you need for the bare essentials in your kitchen, and how important ease of cleaning is to you, it’s time to look for the best match of cookware sets.It’s hard to choose when there are so many different types available, but that also makes it easier to find just the right set for your needs.
Get rid of the old chocolate rabbit, and use one of those amazing chocolate molds.
It’s important to choose the best chocolate molds to suit your party, failure to do this means your guests may give a negative feedback on it. Coming across a cool chocolate mold that is both fun and interesting will make your chocolate candy look fantastic. You can either make an assortment or work with a theme, either way, using molds can add fun and excitement to the party table.
Chocolates can come in different shapes and sizes
If that special person in your life is a music lover, then creating a plate of molded chocolates with musical instruments and notes will be a good idea, you could also use this type of theme for a school concert or play to.
If you are the fan of a particular film star, then you can fill a basket with their pictures and maybe heart-shaped chocolates, plus other shapes like roses and diamonds. You can easily find a heart shaped mold as any popular kitchen supply store, this will help you to make professional looking chocolates. You can also find a great assortment of chocolate molds online at http://www.bakedeco.com/chocolate_molds.html. The rates are very reasonable, and there are pages of choices, included a clever chess set (which of course, one would make with dark and white chocolate).
Holidays are the best times to use a chocolate mold
The only time of the year you are expected to eat lots of chocolate and sweets are the holidays, the rest of the year most people are watching their weight. Halloween is one time of the year for sweets, so using a chocolate mold, you can create Halloween theme chocolates for the party. Its probably a good idea not to make the usual ghosts and witches themes, this is because Halloween in the fall, so why not get some molds that are shaped like cats and leaves, and try using different types of chocolate like white, milk and dark.
Christmas time is another time of the year when you’re almost forced to eat chocolate. You could purchase some traditional chocolate molds of Santa Claus, reindeer, and snowflakes (these would look gorgeous made from white chocolate), you could begin by making some chocolate candy canes complete with red stripes made from food coloring, also try using ring-shaped molds and diamond shaped molds, you’re only limited by what type of chocolate molds you can obtain and your creativity.
Chocolate molds can challenge your creative ability. However, it’s well worth the effort when guests tell you what a great party it was and that the chocolates will fantastic.
Although Halloween is a time of simple pleasure, fun, games and trick and treats, there is a whole history of Halloween symbols that have been unexplained for many years. In this articles we take a closer look at bats, black cats, pumpkins and owls and why we use them as common Halloween symbols.
Pumpkins To Serve and Protect
Why do we carve pumpkins on Halloween? Have you ever wondered about that? Jack o’ Lanterns where used to keep away evil spirits and ghosts that came out on Halloween, they originated in Ireland where most people hollowed-out turnips and placed candles in them. We use pumpkins and they are also available in the colors white, green and blue. This way you can use them for scary monster carvings!
Paranormal Animals
Do you have any idea why there are so many Halloween symbols that are animal related? Are there reasons these animals became scary Halloween symbols or are they just the bringers of bad luck? Although a lot of people think that for black cats represent bad luck there are in fact much older reasons. Witches in disguise, that is what people in the middle ages people thought black cats where. And even before the middle ages, black cats where seen as reincarnated spirits that could see into the future. So black cats where animals to avoid under all circumstances and not just with Halloween but during the whole year.
Bats and owls are also Halloween symbols that stand for other animal related myths, they come up in numerous Halloween movies and stories and they are always placed as the representatives of bad luck. In fact bats and owls were often thought to be able to communicate with the dead. That is the most important reason why people feared them.
Costumes and masks have a history on their own
On October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar it is Halloween. This was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. The ancient Celts thought that ghosts and spirits roamed the countryside on Halloween night. Halloween was in earlier days referred to as All Hallows Eve and some say it dates back to over 2000 years ago. The Celts began wearing masks and costumes to avoid being recognized as human by the ghost and that is why we still where costumes today.
Halloween Symbols Revealed
There are so many Halloween symbols, we can’t avoid them and when October 31 comes around they are everywhere in stores and as icons on TV. But what are the stories behind these Halloween symbols and myths? Do they all have meanings or are some just socially constructed more than anything else. The stories and images of ghosts, zombies, witches, goblins and monsters are associated with the Halloween holiday but many are in fact just development in horror movies.
The colors black and orange have been used for years and are associated with Halloween but these colors are more about advertisement than anything else. And that goes for more Halloween symbols, they where fabricated by modern society. But that does not mean we can’t enjoy Halloween and make a great party of it.
Most people have been in a real scary haunted Halloween house at least once in their lives. But why is one better than the other? We all know those creative people who try their absolute best, but it’s just never really frightening. And the actual scary haunted Halloween houses are created with nothing special. So, for an extremely scary haunted Halloween mansion what are the ingredients you need?
Darkness Helps
During the light of day nothing seems to be very scary, so to create a frightening atmosphere the darkness is your friend. To keep your house covered in a deep, deep darkness you should eliminate all normal lightning during the Halloween days. Although it will often not create the haunted Halloween feeling you are looking for, you can use strange colored and flashing lights. In fact, you need to give your house a slightly desolated feeling.
Trick-or-treaters should be wondering if anybody actually lives in that dark and dusty house. You can use some subtle small lights to make sure they see the spiderwebs and other stuff that enhances the scary atmosphere.
Stimulate All Senses
You feel frightened because of everything you pick up with your senses. Smells, sound, sight, taste and touch create that scary feeling. And let’s not forget your imagination, because your imagination is what makes a bowl of spaghetti into a bowl of worms, and a skull with cookie dough into a brain. It is your imagination that makes an artificial spider web into a real one. And you will be scared to death if you are already slightly scared and something pops out of the darkness of your desolate house.
When you add sound and smell, even grown adults will shiver. But you need to trigger the imagination with the element of surprise or it will not work.
Good Haunted Houses Do Not Need to Be Expensive
A lot of people think you need to spend a lot of money to create a real scary haunted Halloween house, but this is not the case at all. In fact, less is more in this case. When you buy a lot of fancy stuff, sure it will look nice decorating your house for Halloween, but will it be scary? You can scare the whole neighborhood with limited funds but you need to spend your money wisely to create some scary special effects.
Sound is very important and it needs to be used carefully. If you use too much, it is not frightening at all. It is better just to use the sound of a deep heartbeat that people feel rather than hear than those eerie music CDs you can buy at most stores or download online. You just need one carefully placed and awfully good scream right at the moment that something pops out of the dark that will have a greater effect than all the commercial Halloween sounds put together. But you do need that one perfect scream sound!
Light is the next important thing. Strategically placing the light to spotlight a simple but unexpected scary item does more than all the colored lights put together in one place. Illuminating some dripping blood in the darkness will scare most people and can be very cheap. As you can see you do not need a lot of money to create a haunted Halloween. Just start at the entrance of the yard and work the scary effects up to the door for the big scary fright.
