When food and crafts collide, you can always count me in! Two of my greatest loves, really. I also enjoy any excuse to create a fun meal that gets the kiddos excited about trying foods they’d otherwise leave to Mama, like avocado toast. I meeeaaan… monster toast!

I teamed up with Horizon Organic to share a couple of fun and pleasantly creepy toast ideas for a simple lunch idea you can enjoy with your kiddos, or heck, you don’t even need kiddos to get a little weird with your food! Mummy toast in the break room at work? Sure, why not?

MUMMY TOAST

To make the mummy toast, I started with a base of sliced ham. Then I cut strips of Horizon Organic provolone cheese slices with a pizza slicer and layered the strips over the ham, using black olives for eyeballs. You can broil these to melt the cheese a bit too!

I think the mummy toast would be really yummy with tomato sauce instead of ham to make pizza toast too!

GREEN MONSTER TOAST

What started out as a plan to make Frankenstein toast turned into Lucy and I having a bit of fun making happy and mad faces on our toast! I used a spread of mashed avocado (mixed with lime to slow down browning) and let Lucy create faces with cut pieces of tomatoes, Horizon Organic American cheese, black olives, and alfalfa sprouts.

The green monster toasts were my personal favorite (I love avocado toast), but I was really surprised that for the first time ever, Lucy was interested in tasting “the green stuff.”

These toasts were super quick to put together, but Lucy ended up taking lots of time creating more faces out of leftover supplies, like cheese scraps, black olives, and tomatoes. She probably sat at the kitchen for an hour being creative with her food! It was a lot of fun, and I liked that I didn’t need to go out and buy any special ingredients.

I love having the opportunity to work with Horizon Organic, because we really do love their snacks and dairy products in our family. If you’re interested in getting special coupons and savings, sign up for their mailing list here, and be sure to follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to get even more meal and snacking ideas!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Horizon. The opinions and text are all mine. 

I’m always a little sad when daylight begins to dwindle every Fall, but then I remember how much I love the cozy, comforting glow of candlelight in the evenings! Lucy and I got a jump start on cozy-lit evenings with our jack-o-lantern project we did last week.

Lucy was relatively patient as I took pictures along the way, and surprisingly she was grossed out by the pumpkin guts, so I did all the scooping and scavenging for seeds. (This is the girl who loves digging for bugs and playing in the mud. Make it productive, and it’s not as fun, though!)

According to Lucy, pumpkins smell like watermelon. And her favorite was the medium-size tan pumpkin. I loved that one too, and it’s deep orange insides were a surprise.

Check out how we created these jack-o-lanterns over at A Beautiful Mess. I didn’t want to get too crazy this early in the season by making a whole batch of these cuties, only to have them rot before Halloween. So I think I’ll wait a bit and make a few more for our front stoop. Gotta up the trick-or-treat game this year— make a good impression in the new neighborhood and all that! :)

Much like enamel pins for your denim jacket, I believe coffee table books can be a great way to inject some of your specific personality to a basic, functional piece of furniture. Lately I’ve stocked up our new coffee table with some stacks of books and favorite magazine issues, making sure there’s still room for coffee, tv remotes, and other doodads that need a resting place during movie nights. The key to accessorizing the coffee table find that perfect balance— adding interest, but not creating clutter. Of course, everyone has his or her own opinion on what is clutter and what is not, so that’s up to you! For me, I’ve tried to be the kind of person who enjoys a minimal home, but recently I’ve come to the conclusion that I just like to be surrounded by stuff I love! Not lots of stuff, mind you, and the stuff that’s on display should be organized nicely and presented in a balanced way. But gosh I just love decorating little piles or arrangements of things that enrich our home and infuse it with our personality.

For coffee tables, I think it’s perfectly find to fill about half of the space with items such as books, vases, candles, and my personal favorite— a decorative box for hiding away TV remotes. I like to keep the items in a nice grid, to keep the clutter effect at bay. A tray is helpful for this, even if it’s a clear lucite one like this guy I found at HomeGoods. (I didn’t want to hide the beautiful veining of our stone coffee table!)

I’m always cycling books and magazines through from our bookshelves (or in our current case, moving boxes) to the coffee table, to other areas of the home. Gotta keep things feeling fresh for each season! I recently added a few new books to my collection, and wanted to share them with you, plus some old favorites.

If a book gets to chill on my coffee table, it needs to be something that I actually want to leaf through when I’m lounging by myself or with friends. When I’m entertaining or hosting, it’s nice to have a variety of subjects on the coffee table so guests can find something to enjoy as well. Here are my current favorite art and design books that serve as great decoration, conversation starters, and little clues as to what reigns supreme in the mind of Mandi.

1. Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
2. Scandinavian Design
3. Hitchcock Style
4. Bauhaus
5. David Hockney
6. Film Noir

These days, it’s easy to hop on Pinterest at any time and be bombarded with loads of home decor inspiration. But there’s something so special about being able to hold a beautiful book in your hands, especially one as wonderfully styled and curated as these! I know you’ll love them as much as I do, and they’ll also give you a glimpse into the styles that have influenced our new home.

1. Living with Pattern
2. Modern Living, New Country
3. Northern Delights, Scandinavian Homes
4. Monochrome Home, Elegant Interiors in Black and White
5. The New Chic, French Style from Today’s Leading Interior Designers
6. Modern Rustic