MY EBAY STORE

Please stop and shop at my Ebay store. You may find just the thing you been waiting for.
Kim Cox Homes and Treasures

just click on my store link and it will take you to my inventory


Have a blessed day

Kim

Paint Colors That Make a Room Look Bigger

I just wanted to share an article that I ran across....

Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, September 13, 2016

A room’s size is sometimes a matter of perception, and the paint color on the walls has a lot to with that perception. Some colors can actually make a room appear smaller, while other colors can make the walls expand and feel larger. Realtor.com® recently highlighted some of the paint colors to create the illusion of more space, including:

 

White: White reflects light, thereby making a space look brighter and feel more open. “White will make any room appear bigger and complement the natural lighting,” Than Merrill, a real estate investor and host of A&E’s “Flip This House” told realtor.com®.
Yellow: A creamy and soft yellow can also reflect light, and can create a softer alternative to white (as long as it’s not too bold of a yellow). Add white accents, such as on the trim, to add further dimension to the room.
Gray: A calming, light shade can help expand a room and, unlike white, doesn’t cast off a glare.
Monochromatic color schemes: Use a monochromatic color scheme for the entire space to open it up (in other words, stick with the white, gray or soft yellow and don’t introduce then a bolder color). “Choose rugs, furniture, and accents in similar shades – like a patterned rug in white and light gray,” realtor.com®’s article suggests. “This creates a minimalist, clean look that makes the entire space feel larger.”


Source: “What Colors Make a Room Look Bigger?” realtor.com® (Sept. 9, 2016)

September a great month in Real Estate

This is a great article on why September is a great month to buy a home...........click here to read this great article and call me to start your home buying process!

A SELLERS CHECKLIST

If you are thinking about selling your home here is a great checklist to get you started. This post is from RealSimple.com.

GREAT WEBSITE FOR GIFTS

Check out the deals at SAVEMORE.COM! Great gift ideas.

Halloween Craft: Witch Hat Applique

I was snooping around over at Ucreate
for some Halloween crafts and I ran across the cutest T-shirt applique. It is from Izzy & Ivy designs and it is a free downloadable template.

Go check them out. Both sites have loads of cute crafty ideas.



Happy Blogging.

Kim

Organizing Tip

Here is a great tip that I ran across that I thought I would share with you.

If you are thinking of having a garage sale make sure that you wash or clean up the item and before storing it go ahead and decide on a price and put a price sticker on it. That way when you start to take stuff out for the garage sale you will have it priced and all you will need to do is figure out how to set everything up.

Do you have any great garage sale tips? If you do please leave a comment and tell us about them.

Christmas Craft: Pom Pom Ornament

My youngest daughter is always wanting to craft something. So I try to find cute crafts that include stuff we have laying around here. I ran across this cute ornament and I just had to share it with ya'll. You can check out the directions here.

I am not sure if I will use the pins or hot glue them.



Thanks Zakka Life.

Thanksgiving Ideas: Indian Corn craft

I found this cute craft using M&M's. The directions can be found here.

Thanks U Create!

Christmas Craft: Silhouette Ornaments

Well I was looking around the web today and I ran across these ornaments. The directions can be found at Roots and WingsCo.

These are so cute!!

I was thinking that this is something that could be done for other holidays also like Mothers Day, Fathers Day or even Grandparents Day.

Thanks to Kari from Ucreate for pointing out this great project.

Tip to Remove Temporary Tattoo

I was just in need of a way to remove a temporary child's tattoo and I tried Vaseline and then baby oil like I usually use, but to no avail the tattoo would not come off. This one was different then most we get it had a plastic type background.

So I googled and found a post that said to use scotch tape.

So I did and it worked!!

The girls also got their faces painted today and we used Vaseline to remove it with no irritation.

So how have you removed those things in the past?

Halloween Recipe: Jack-o'-Lantern Sloppy Joe Pie

Everyone needs a good hot meal before going trick or treating and I just love this idea.

Ingredients:
o 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
o 1/2 cup chopped onion
o 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
o 1 cup salsa
o 1/2 cup chili sauce
o 1 cup frozen corn
o 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
o 2 tablespoons brown sugar
o 1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
o 1 egg
o Orange paste food coloring

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salsa and chili sauce until blended; stir into skillet. Add the corn, chilies and brown sugar.
Transfer to a deep-dish 9-in. pie plate. Unroll pastry; place over filling. With a sharp knife, cut out a face to resemble a jack-o'-lantern; flute edges. Beat egg and food coloring; brush over pastry.
Bake at 450° for 9-11 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Yield: 6 servings.

Halloween Recipe: Eyeball Cookies

Here is another recipe that I have found that looks quick and easy.

Ingredients:
5 squares (1 ounce each) white baking chocolate, divided
20 to 25 vanilla wafers
Blue paste food coloring
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Red paste food coloring

Directions:
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 4 squares white chocolate; stir until smooth. Dip vanilla wafers in melted chocolate. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Chill until set.
Melt remaining white chocolate; tint blue. Spread a small amount onto the center of each cookie; place a chocolate chip in the center. For bloodshot eyes, use a toothpick dipped in red food coloring to draw lines from blue circles to outer edges of wafers. Chill until set. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 20-25 servings.

Halloween Recipe: No Bake Green Cookie Toes

With all of the commitments on Halloween I thought that I would include a quick and easy recipe that still has the wow effect.

Ingredients:
12 ounces white candy coating, coarsely chopped
Green paste food coloring
22 peanut butter cream-filled sandwich cookies
11 Crows candies, halved lengthwise

Directions:
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy coating; stir until smooth. Tint green.
Dip one cookie into candy coating. Let excess drip off and place on waxed paper. Immediately place a candy half, cut side down, on the cookie. Repeat. Let stand for 15 minutes or until set. Yield: 22 cookies.

Halloween Recipe: Cat Cookies

Ingredients:
1 tube (18 ounces) refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
54 pieces candy corn
1 can (16 ounces) chocolate frosting
Red shoestring licorice, cut into 1-3/8-inch pieces
9 thin chocolate wafer (2-1/4 inch diameter), quartered

Directions:
Bake cookies according to package directions. Cool on a wire racks. Cut off yellow tips from 18 pieces of candy corn (discard orange and white portion or save for another use). Frost cookies with chocolate frosting. Immediately decorate with two whole candy corns for eyes, a yellow candy corn tip for nose, six licorice pieces for whiskers and two wafer quarters for ears. Yield: 1-1/2 dozen.

Halloween Recipe: Kitty Litter Cake

I had a Halloween party a few years ago and this was probley the biggest hit of all!! Everyone was so intrigued by the look of how real it seemed but most of the women could not bring themselves to even try it. It was fairly easy to make and defiantly the talk of the party.

What a gross Halloween dessert! It doesn’t get more disgusting than this cake as it just looks beyond awful, but if you can get your guests to give it a try I bet they’ll be surprised!

This is not the cheapest of Halloween dessert recipes, but it is sure to startle your guests for sure! You’ll need a NEW kitty litter box (PLEASE do not even attempt to use an old one that you cleaned up!!!) You may also wish to use a clear box liner and a litter scoop to accessorize the cake!

Ingredients:
· 1 package German chocolate cake mix
* 1 package white cake mix
* 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
* 1 package vanilla sandwich cookies
* 6 drops green food coloring
* 1 package tootsie rolls


Directions:
1. Prepare cake mixes and bake according to package directions. Pan size does not matter. *Don’t use the litter box to bake in.
2. Prepare pudding according to package directions and chill until ready to assemble.
3. Crumble sandwich cookies in small batches in a food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup add a few drops of green food coloring and mix.
4. When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs, and the chilled pudding.
5. You probably won’t need all of the pudding, you want the cake to be just moist, not soggy.
6. Line kitty litter box with the clear liner (plastic wrap work fine too) and put cake mixture into box.
7. Put half of the unwrapped tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Shape and curve the tootsie rolls slightly to resemble cat poop. **Trust me kids love doing this disgusting deed!
8. Bury tootsie rolls randomly in the cake and sprinkle with half of the remaining cookie crumbs. 9. Sprinkle a small amount of the green colored cookie crumbs lightly over the top.
10. Heat 3 or 4 of the tootsie rolls in the microwave until almost melted and lay them gently on the side of the kitty box and sprinkle lightly with some of the green cookie crumbs.
11. Sprinkle with any remaining cookie crumbs and place final tootsie roll poop on top on the cat to resemble a very full littler box.
12. Serve using the pooper scooper for a really gross Halloween dessert!

Halloween Recipe: Cheesy Ghosts

I found these cute easy snacks on the Pillsbury website.

INGREDIENTS
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese or Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend (4 oz)
Assorted sliced olives and chiles, as desired

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray, or cover with cooking parchment paper.

2. On cutting board, unroll dough; separate into 8 triangles. From center of longest side to opposite point, cut each triangle in half, making 16 triangles. Shape each as needed to look like ghost shape. Arrange triangles on cookie sheet, folding narrow point under about 1/ 2 inch, to form head of ghost.

3. Bake about 7 minutes or until slightly puffed and just beginning to brown. Sprinkle each ghost with 1 tablespoon cheese; top with sliced olives to form mouth and eyes. Bake 2 to 3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Halloween Game: Find the Pumpkins

I have been trying to keep yall updated with good Halloween ideas. Today I was over at one of my favorite blogs Everyday Mom Ideas and she had the cutest game that costs basically nothing to do, but looks like hours of fun for the kids. Here it is:

Find the Pumpkins Game.

Need:

· Ten pieces of white paper

· Five pieces of yellow paper
· Five pieces of orange paper

· A crayon

· Scissors


How to play:

1. Draw ten white pumpkins, five yellow pumpkins, and five orange pumpkins.
2. Cut out all the pumpkins.
3. Decorate each pumpkin with a funny face.
4. Write the number 1 on the backs of the white pumpkins.
5. Write the number 5 on the backs of the yellow pumpkins.
6. Write the number 10 on the backs of the orange pumpkins.
7. Have a grownup hide all of the pumpkins.
8. You and your friends will try to find as many pumpkins as you can until they are all found or before the time runs out. (You could play a fun Halloween song and have them search until the song is over)
9. Players will add up the numbers on the pumpkins each of them found.
10. The player with the most points wins!

So do you have any great games with a Halloween tone that keep the kids entertained? If you do please share your ideas.

Halloween Treat Ideas

For all of the people that has been following me and the free and cheap stuff that can be gotten at different stores here are some great ideas on Halloween goodies to give out from your stash that you have been wondering what to do with..

Since we are coming close to the bewitching night, I thought I’d highlight these ideas so you can raid the stockpile and not spend any money giving away treats on Halloween.
Use a tray allowing a child to choose what they want is a great idea. You’ll be surprised at how many will choose the toothbrushes (without prompting from mom & dad) over candy
!
Ideas For Halloween Pass-Outs
• Bic Highlighters
• Bic Pens
• Crayons
• CVS Protractors, Rulers, Sharpeners, Erasers, etc
• Full Size Candy Bars (hey they were free and you can’t get snack size free)
• Hostess Outlet Items
• Juice Boxes or Pouches
• Mentos Gum
• Pencils
• Quaker Granola Bars
• Snack Size Cookies
• SoyJoy Bars (what else are you going to do with them?)
• Toothbrushes
• Trial Size Toothpaste
What do you pass out for Halloween!?

Halloween Recipe: Popcorn Witches

Make a Popcorn Witch

Popcorn witches are a clever food craft for the Halloween holidays and they are also a delicious way to get your entire family involved in the baking process. Holiday foods don't always have to be traditional and popcorn witches are a great treat for Halloween parties or can be given out in lieu of candy to neighborhood trick or treaters. In order to make a popcorn witch, you will be following a basic popcorn ball recipe and adding some creativity with candy, icing and other food items.


Make Popcorn Witches

1.Once the balls have cooled for about 15 minutes, you can press them into the pre-fabricated silicone baking cups . If you do not have special baking cups, you can use traditional baking cups that have been pre-decorated with one-dimensional paper clown feet. Gently flatten the top of popcorn ball so that you can add the witch hat.
2. Decorate the face. According to your preference, use candy pieces and licorice to create a silly or scary witch faces. Licorice is good for eyebrows, mouths and hair, while Red Hots work well for creating teeth and eyes. If the balls have cooled too much, you can use tube icing as glue.
3. Make the witch's hat. Place a small amount of icing on the top of the ball and add a chocolate sandwich cookie. Break or cut the bottom 3 inches of the pointed part of a sugar cone. Add more icing to the top of the cookie and assemble the cone, point up, onto the cookie.