Peggy and I were known as the Slob Sisters and appeared on hundreds of TV shows. On CBS Morning news we demonstrated the crazy ways we came up with last-minute Halloween costumes for kids and how fun they were to throw together.

As usual, our television talk show hosts were somewhat speechless (that happened a lot!) when we'd shove coat hangers into tights and smear our faces with Karol syrup and coffee grounds.

The important lesson here is when we become more organized we set the stage to play with our creativity. We become creatives! Clutter gets in the way of our creativity.

Decluttering and ending your "stuff management" days will pave the way to fun, creativity, new adventures and excitement on Halloween as well as all the days of the year!

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy our ideas for Halloween Crises Costumes!

Do you like getting a fortune cookie after a nice meal in a Chinese restaurant? Does it tickle you how we all love to open them to see what our fortune will be, even though we know it's not really true? Close your eyes and imagine holding both ends of one and snapping its little, carbohydrate back into two pieces, exposing the secret note written especially for you. 

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten with a group of friends in a Chinese restaurant when we didn’t read and share our fortunes with each other. And why is it, there’s always someone who brings up the rather off-color comment of reading their note and adding the words: between the sheets, to illicit a semi-porny edge to the innocent words? (It’s a tradition I hope our younger generation hasn’t been stuck with.)

An Old-Fashioned Sunday

“A Relaxing Afternoon that Seemed to Stretch Forever,” that was the title of a magazine article I didn’t have time to read, but wished I did. I was just too busy. Still the idea haunted me throughout my hectic day and on into the packed weekend.

“Don’t you just love this sentence,” I asked my friend as we put the lids on the last canning jars of applesauce, “An afternoon that seemed to stretch forever?”

“That all depends if it's a relaxing afternoon you’re having!” 

She’d just spent a nerve fraying, toxic weekend camping out in a leaky tent with a wild toddler and two cranky teenaged pubicydes belonging to her husband’s relative.)

If you are serious about reducing the amount of sugar you and your family eats, Halloween candy can present a big problem. We know that sugar isn't good for us and most of us eat too much of it, but the candy push is in full swing and dog dang gone it, trick-or-treating is FUN. 

In this DIY video clip, you’ll find a solution to that huge influx of candy that’ll be coming into your home on Halloween night. 

Our granddaughter Kaytee proudly demonstrates her abilities as a contractor. With the help of her staff (her two older brothers) she shows us how to create a magical gingerbread house using that stash of Halloween candy that'll be saved from going into your children’s tummies.

Watch this fun video.

I just had to share this email with you from one of the House Fairy's Snuggle Bunny graduates, twelve year old Brady Main.

It is so touching. 

Dear House Fairy:  

This was my clean room when I was four years old. I remember getting really excited when my mom first told me about the house fairy coming to visit. I started cleaning my room a lot more too!

When I grew older, I realized that my mom was the actual house fairy. When my parents had my little sister, I began telling her about it one day when I was describing how not to smack when eating! 

We all laughed and decided to see if we could find that video again.

We are getting ready tonight to introduce my little sister to you, so thanks for the good memories!

Brady Main

Thank you Brady.

I have the feeling you've learned lessons from the House Fairy that will last your entire life.  Maybe your little sister will learn those lessons as well.

To see the smacking video Brady mentioned click on the House Fairy.  

Love,

1. See the sights

October in our state of Washington and its neighbor Oregon is stunningly beautiful now. Take a drive through the countryside and remember, it’s not too late to get one more picnic in.

What are some famous sights in your area? Go check them out. If you have already been to them, try to discover something new about them. If there aren’t any famous sights in your area, then go discover ones that aren’t famous.

Living in the northwest, we learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. Just make sure you all have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring cats and dogs make the most of the wet weather  and play with your kids in the rain with these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

At this very moment, you are creating your tomorrow with your habitual thoughts and subsequent routines. You’ve been given the magical power of habit and if you love the consequences of these habits, you’re on a magnificent journey through this life you’ve been given as a SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive).

But if you don’t particularly like the way your life is going right now, you have the power to choose new thoughts that’ll create wonderful consequences for your tomorrow.

Do you know who Ordell Daily is? She’s a fictitious character I drummed up to explain what a BO (Born Organized) is. Here’s a letter from a reader who remembered Ordell Daily. 

 Dear Pam,

I read your books in the early 80s, did your 3x5 card organizing system at least five times with great success every time, but over the years, I’ve felt like a failure because I’ve never been able to be consistent with the system.

Then I read your new book because, once again I found myself in a humongous mess. While reading it, I realized why I’ll never be like my mother who was an Ordell Daily. I’m ME and there’s only one of me with all my creative inconsistencies! Thank you for shining a beautiful light on who I really am!

Dana

 (See the full size image of Ordell at the bottom of this blog)

Ordell is a powerhouse of habit. Here’s a poem I wrote about her. I’ll warn you ahead of time, it’s got a sad ending.

If you are a chocolate lover, you love the smell of chocolate! 

This DIY video shows you how to make your own, inexpensive cocoa scrub, that'll leave you refreshed as it makes your skin smooth as a baby's tushie. 

You can make it yourself with ingredients you have in your cupboard. What's fun is this healthy scrub is loaded with carbs, but they're for the outside of your body, not the inside and while you use it in the shower, you'll feel like you're at the bakery!

Watch Karen (my bonus daughter's neighbor) show me how to make this fabulous scrub. As they say in restaurants...."Enjoy!"

A healthy, low-carb diet will help you lose weight, but staying sugar-free this time of year is tricky.

It's that time of year when the candy companies are gearing up for one of their biggest campaigns of the year and if you are on a low-carb diet to lose weight, this is a hard time of the year for you to succeed because they are out to trick and treat you.

Just think, your mouth is the gateway to your stomach. Ultimately, if you don't put something in your mouth, it won't go into your stomach. It's so simple, and yet we gain weight just because we are able to go unconscious when we're tempted. Candy company executives have a secret credo and it's tattooed on every exec's chest: the mouth trap:the butt stops here! 

If you're a chocolate lover and you're not careful, you'll eat way too much chocolate this month. So I've come up with a solution to help you stay relatively sugar-free.

My husband and I went to a neighbor’s surprise birthday party last Saturday night. It’s always exciting to go to this home. The couple is exotic. The birthday man was a concert pianist and opera singer, turned executive of a large company. He has an adorable French accent and is movie star gorgeous. His wife, who is also stunningly beautiful with a tall, slim body crowned by a head of flaming, (not from a bottle) red hair, was an opera singer turned wife, homemaker and mom. The house is enchanting. It actually looks like an Italian villa perched high on the hill overlooking its own vineyard (all the neighbors are wondering when our resident herd of 36 elk will decide to frisk among the rows of pinot gris grapes). 

We arrived with our donation to the potluck, hot chili from my freezer. I always make double batches of stews, soups and chili and freeze half. For this party I mixed three different batches (no two are ever alike) spanning three different seasons from last year. The combination was an interesting melting pot of past chili feeds.

Michelle, one of our neighbors brought a homemade German Chocolate Cake for dessert. She’s the best baker in the neighborhood and the cake looked alluringly attractive. Nelly (my inner child) said,

“We can have some can’t we?”

“No, sugar is poison, remember what we read in Why We Get Fat?”

Wanting What Others Have Hurts You

“You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.”

That quote is by Vernon Howard and he was probably never dazzled by brochures for fancy vacations or a catalogue from William Sonoma. We are continually tempted to buy what we don’t need. 

There was a recent ad on the Internet hawking the latest autumn purses (referred to as bags). It said in the email subject line: 9 Bags You Must Own This Fall. With suggestions like this, it’s no wonder we can hardly move in our closets!

Really the only thing we need to buy regularly is food and gas. Vernon would not be happy with some of my purchases. Like this crab hat my granddaughter Sophia is wearing. What was I thinking? I know, ‘I’ve gotta have it!’

Vernon’s quote resonates with SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) because we’ve experienced the clutter and resulting chaos that comes with not learning when enough is enough and being tempted by advertising. Yeah, we have duplicates of many items but that’s only because we lose an item and have to buy another. And yeah, we have more babies than BOs (Born Organized) because we never pay much attention to a calendar.

I remember the day Marla Cilley called our Sidetracked Home Executives office and poured out purple puddles. She wanted to help other SLOBs like herself. 

If you’re a parent you have the most valuable job in the world.  

You are raising citizens of the United States of America (or put in the name of the country where you live).