Hippie Halloween: DIY Floral Crown

I don't know about you, but I am a little lazy when it comes to Halloween. Okay, really lazy. As a child, I was a ladybug for 3-4 years until I grew out of the costume my grandma made for me, and then I was a "sleepy person" for several years. A "sleepy person" costume consisted of me wearing my pajamas to go Trick-or-Treating. Somehow, people still gave me candy.

This year wasn't any different, and when it came time for me to choose a costume, I wanted to find a way to accessorize my normal clothes into something Halloween-appropriate. Enter the floral crown.

There are lots of different ways to make floral crowns, and I learned to make mine from this post. They're super easy to make, which is good if you're in a rush to get a costume together quickly! First, you need some pretty faux flowers.

Supplies Needed: Wire flowers, Scissors, Floral wire.
Time It'll Take: About half an episode of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

Cut the wire flowers off of their stems.

Bend the floral stems into a crown shape, sizing it to fit your head. Attach each stem to the next by coiling the wire around where the two pieces meet. The wire is pretty unnoticeable, but it helps if you can hide the it behind a flower or leaf. And there you have it! Easy as pie. I wore a vintage maxi skirt, a lace top, and a denim shirt, but lots of clothes would work well to give off the hippie vibe. 

 Hippie Halloween! Peace, y'all. 

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Healthy(ish) Halloween

Trick or Treat? Halloween will be here soon, and the whole country will be hyped up on sugar. It sounds great, doesn't it? When I was a kid, there was a man on my street who handed out apples for Halloween. He also made you do a trick before he gave you a treat, so all the kids did a little song-and-dance to then be tricked into getting an apple. No kid wants an apple for Halloween. Kids want Reese's, and Hershey's, and Twix. Thinking about this, I was curious to know which Halloween treats are really bad for you vs. the ones that are just kinda bad. Here's what I found out: 

Smarties and Starburst are the healthiest options for Halloween candy. One roll of Smarties contains about 25 calories and 0g fat. Starburst contain a little more calories, but they taste better, so it's a fair trade.

The main reason Pixie Stix are bad for kids is because they contain less than 2% artificial and natural flavors. Also, kids tend to want to snort Pixie Stix, which is never a good idea. Something interesting I learned about Pixie Stix is that they are the same basic recipe as SweeTarts. Parents didn't like the powdery mess that came with Pixie Stix, so they requested a hard candy-version of the same sweet. 

3 Musketeers, Snickers, Twix. Basically, if the wrapper is brown and/or shiny, it's code for "this is bad for you." A fun-sized Twix bar contains 10% of an average person's daily value in saturated fat. Wowzers. So, if you eat 10 fun-sized Twix (and let's face it, that's totally possible), you've eaten your full day's allowance of saturated fat. 

Your dentist probably hates candy corn. Besides the simple fact that it tastes gross (yes, that is a fact), 19 pieces of candy corn contain 28g of sugar (cavities!) and 140 calories. 

So, Smarties are the best-for-you treat and Twix are the worst-for-you chocolate. Interestingly enough, Twix taste the best. Given the choice between Smarties and Twix, I would choose Twix every time. I just won't eat 10 of them… In one sitting.

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Keep Calm and Yarn Bomb

So, the Springfield Art Museum got bombed… By yarn!

Yarn bombing is apparently a thing, who knew? I didn't, so I learned about it. Here's some fun facts about yarn bombing: 

It is also referred to as guerrilla knitting or graffiti knitting, and in some jurisdictions, it is illegal. The sculpture in front of the art museum was yarn bombed by the IdeaXFactory in Springfield. They were invited to do this installation, so no need to scan the mugshots for these knitters.

Trees are commonly bombed. Often, yarn bombers will create materials in a studio or home and then transport them to the location of the installation. 

Yarn bombing is thought to have been originated in Texas in 2005. 

However, Americans aren't the only ones who enjoy guerrilla knitting. On June 11, 2011, a Canadian woman founded International Yarn Bombing Day. 

The installation had lots of fun little sections, and it would make for a good game of "I Spy." This bacon and eggs part was my favorite. 

My friend Lindsay came with me to check out the sculpture post-yarn-explosion. She's inspecting the installation in this photo.

While I was viewing the installation, I ran into a woman who worked on it, and she said that over 20 people had helped put it together. They put a lot of hard work into creating something to make people smile, and I think they did a good job! Go ahead and Google Image search yarn bombing. You'll be glad you did.

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