I always imagined that if I had a little girl someday, we would dress up as The Flintstones for Halloween. I enjoyed the show tremendously as a kiddo, and aren’t nostalgic Halloween costumes always the best? Whipping up the costumes was actually easier than I thought it would be. Sure, you can find Fred and Wilma Fintstone costumes online and in stores, but I wanted to save some money by putting them together myself. You can check out my Flintstones Family DIY Costumes post I did at Babble for more instructions. But the trickiest part is probably creating Wilma’s cartoon hair.

This Wilma Flintstone hairstyle took around 15 minutes to put together, and used two cans of extremely toxic orange hairspray. Yuck! But it wasn’t as difficult as I thought! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already gotten a peek at my Wilma-do. But here’s the full tutorial for how you can do it yourself.

First I pulled aside a section of hair at the top front of my head and pinned it to keep it out of the way. Then I teased the rest of my hair with some hairspray and a bristle brush, focusing on the area on the top of the sides, where Wilma’s hair protrudes in the cartoon. Next I pulled my hair up in a ponytail holder at the top of my head. At this point I pulled some of the hair on the sides of my head out a little to accentuate the pointy cartoon look.

To create the bun, I used hairspray and a bristle brush and teased the hair that was in the ponytail. This created the body of the bun, so all I had to do was wrap the extra hair around the bun and pin it into place. All that was left was the front portion.

I pulled down the reserved hair at the front of my head and really went to town with teasing it into a big mass. This took a lot of hairspray and a bit of work with a bristle brush. Next, I smoothed it a little bit with the brush and began twisting it upward for the pompadour twist. I kept this hair loose, so I wouldn’t loose the body, and spiraled the twist inside of itself, pinning it into place with lots of bobby pins. Then I sprayed it with a coat of hairspray and smoothed it with the hairbrush.

The last step is covering the style with orange hairspray, which can be found in a costume shop or online here. Beware, guys, because this stuff is really toxic! I may have photographed myself in the bathroom, but in actuality I sprayed this outside and I probably should’ve used a breathing mask even still. You will want to cover yourself with a drop cloth of sorts, also, to avoid overspray getting on your clothing. While spraying, keep your sprays even and light. Then when you’ve finished, the overspray on your skin easily wipes off with a slightly damp cloth.

Check out the rest of our family’s costumes here at Babble! Lucy makes a pretty cute Pebbles, eh?

Just when we were all getting into the swing of a healthy new year, Valentine’s Day sneaks in, tempting us with cream filled chocolates and decadent desserts. I wanted to treat Phil and I to something special for our sweet tooth(s), but not with anything that would totally undo our recent healthy decisions. It didn’t take me long to figure out a solution! Dark chocolate combines perfectly with unsweetened coconut and naturally sweet fruit for a perfect Valentine’s Day treat we can enjoy guilt free!

For our chocolate covered fruit box, I selected some of our favorite sweet fruits: strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and clementines. Not all of these are in season, so it  was a bit of a splurge for us! Before covering the fruit with melted Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips, I soaked the berries and cherries for ten minutes in a large bowl filled with one part vinegar and 9 parts water. After my clementines were peeled and the other fruit was dry, I laid out wax paper, slowly melted the dark chocolate chips in the microwave (a double boiler would work too), and began dipping my fruit in the chocolate and laying them on wax paper to dry. I added unsweetened shredded coconut to the clementines and raspberries, sprinkling coconut on the wax paper before laying down the chocolate-dipped fruit, and then sprinkling again overtop of the freshly dipped fruit.

This would be a sweet gift give to coworkers, friends, and lovers too! I found a cute heart-shaped box that, when refrigerated, will keep the chocolate covered fruit fresh for a week or so. But knowing us, we won’t let it last that long!

On December 5, 2011, our tree stand broke in half, sending our Christmas tree crashing to the ground. The next two days we drove around town trying to find a replacement stand, but each one didn’t quite work. The frustrating search didn’t seem to matter much anymore though when on December 7th, my friend Lauren took her life, and two days later my two month old unborn baby died. Our Christmas tree laid in the middle of our living room floor, pathetically lit and undecoratd until New Years, when we finally packed it away. What a sad holiday season it was for us.

But remember when I talked about patience and weathering through the bad stuff until good things come along? Well, this year is it! We will be celebrating with my whole family in our new house with our new precious baby. This Christmas is sort of a makeup holiday for last year. Lauren is still gone, and nobody here on earth can give me back the child I lost. But this season is about hope, and we’ll be celebrating hope in Christ with refreshed hearts this year! And how exciting this season of life is!