The Munster House!

Looking for a fun way to bring back classic TV memories of the Munster this Halloween. You can do it in Waxahachie, Texas this weekend when you visit the exact replica of the Muster Mansion! Each admission ticket ($20 for adults and $12 for kids under 12) will benefit Meals on Wheels. It is fun for the whole family tonight and tomorrow night from 7 to midnight.

Tailgate Time!

Now that the NFL football season is in full swing, we want to make sure that you are prepared for the tailgating party! Football and tailgating go hand in hand . Tailgating is a great American pastime where cooking, eating, drinking and watching football take place in the stadium parking lot. It is the best way to celebrate and socialize with friends and beat traffic too! The key to successful tailgating is the plan ahead. Here is my list of tailgate party essentials:

Cooler - a well stocked cooler is a must! Be sure to keep food and drinks separate.

Drinks - pack a variety of drinks unless you know exactly what your "team" will want.

Grill - I love the Freedom Grill because it is so easy to transport

Food - the most important ingredient is the meat! Hot dogs, hamburgers and barbecue are staples at tailgate parties.

Music - be sure to bring something that you can play music from!

Bags for trash

Can opener

Bottle opener

Sharp knife

Matches

Ice

Wet Wipes

Folding Chairs

Canopy - Ez-Up makes a great tent for tailgating rain or shine!

A football - warm up for watching!

Clothing to show your team spirit

Decorations - If you want to be the best tailgate party in the lot, be sure to decorate with your team's paraphernalia, team colors and music!

New Design Blog

Check out designer Gretchen Leigh Clark's new design blog! It is fantastic! She styled our home for Traditional Home and she was a such a treat to work with. She is very talented and I know you will love her tips. She put up some photo's of our home that didn't make the magazine and they are so pretty thanks to her styling expertise. Stay tuned on the radio because I am going to share some of Gretchen's tips for holiday decorating soon!

JR's birthday outfit!

I have gotten so many inquiries into the birthday outfit that my son JR was wearing in the blog entry about his birthday so I wanted to share the link to website I ordered it from. It came from Darling Designs Boutique. Please send me photos of your tots in their Darling Designs!

Happy Birthday JR!

Today is my son, JR's, 2nd Birthday so I am going to share my favorite Children's birthday party tips!

1. Always keep in mind that the party is for the enjoyment of the kids! Your primary goal is the make the children feel special. Get the guest of honor involved in the planning and ask them what kind of party they would like. Do they want pink balloons or pony rides? Do they want hamburgers or hot dogs? Cupcakes or cookies?
2. Don't stress! Just remember that they are going to remember if they had fun, not whether or not your house was spotless!
3. Enlist the help of some big people! Don't try to host a children's birthday party alone. It takes a team to pull off an event like this because needs to keep an eye on the little ones at all times. Encourage parents to stay with their children but you must plan on feeding them too!
4. A Birthday party is a great place to re-enforce the manners that you are teaching your child at home. Include everyone in your child's class. This is not a time to risk hurting people's feelings as it is a celebration! When opening gifts, teach your child to make the appropriate "thank yous" whether they like the gift or not! Be sure that you child writes thank you notes to everyone who attends. This will be the start of a great life long habit!
5. Keep the kids busy! Activities are your best friend at a child's birthday party. Be sure that you keep them entertained to keep them out of trouble. One idea that I love is to copy a coloring page that fits your theme onto legal size paper and ask the kids to color one that they can later use as their place mat.

Haunted Houses

Visiting a Haunted House is a must on many people's list of things to do in October. Did you know that we have two of the nation's best right here in North Texas?

The Texas Scare Grounds is the largest haunted house in the country! It is located in Kennedale Texas. It has three haunted houses in one location as well as hay rides, food, music, walking grounds, and games. All four attractions cost $30 but you can buy individual tickets too.

The Travel Channel featured Thrillvania on their 'America's Scariest Haunted Attractions" show and it was selected as the nations number one top haunted house by both AOL and AmericasBestHaunts.com. It is located in Terrell, Texas and has 8 different attractions on 50 acres of land. There are also magic shows, Carnival Games and Fortune Tellers. Tickets for all attractions are $25 for adults and $13 for children.

If you are looking for something a little bit more family oriented, check in to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for their Family Spooktacular. From now until Halloween you can book a night's stay including passes for the water park starting at $189.95 per night. Children are encouraged to wear their costumes and stroll thru the Trick-Or-Treat Trail and sit by the fireplace in the Grand Lobby for Spooktacular Story Time. On October 24th and 31st there will be a Costume Parade and a Monster Bash Dance Party. Call (817) 488 6510 for more information.

DSO Halloween Family Concert

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra does an amazing job of treating the whole family. I love the Family Concert Series that they put together. The Halloween Family Concert is October 25th at 2.30 and I know your kids will love hearing the beloved Carnival of the Animals like never before. It will be accompanied with the poetry of Ogden Nash. Dallas composer, Simon Sargon's The Town Musicians of Bremen will also be featured. It is based on the classic Brother's Grimm fairy tale and follows the adventures of Desmond the Donkey, Clarence the Dog, Nick the Cat and Red the Rooster as they set out to make their way in the big world. Arrive early for pre-concert activities and a costume contest. Call 214-692-0203 for tickets.

Candle Care 101

• Whether it is a party with friends or a relaxing evening at home, nothing sets the mood better than candles. So here is what I call Candle Care 101:
• A little trick to extend the life of your candle: wrap the wick in saran wrap and place your candle in the refrigerator of a couple of hours before burning. A cool candle will burn more slowly. This is really helpful during a long dinner party!
• Long wicks create black smoke that can mark your ceiling. To avoid this, trim wicks to a 1/2 inch before you light them.
• To remove wax that has collected at the bottom of your glass votive, stick your votive in the freezer and after it freezes, the wax will crumble easily.
• If wax drips onto your fine linens, simply warm up the wax with a hair dryer then cover it with a cloth that you don't mind throwing away. Run a warm iron over the cloth and wax will adhere to the cloth! If that doesn't work, check craft or fabric stores for wax removing products.

Remember to keep candles away from foliage and drapes as well as children and pets.

Candy Apples the Easy Way!

Looking for a fun weekend activity? I love the idea of making candy apples for my son and his friends. It is the perfect way to start a new family tradition and to satisfy the sweet tooth that we all have this time of year! Here is a simple and sweet recipe that I know you will enjoy:

Combine 2 14 oz bags of caramels (the unwrapped kind of course!) and 1/4 cup of heavy cream in a sauce pan on the stove. Continue to stir for about ten minutes of until the caramels have melted. This can burn so you do need to keep an eye on it.

Let it cool for only a few minutes while you add popsicle sticks to 8 Granny Smith Apples. Granny Smith Apples are the perfect match for the sweet caramel because they are a bit tart. You need to be a bit tough with the sticks to get them in but just keep wiggling and they will work.

Cover the apples in the caramel right on the stove top and then dip them into a tray of sprinkles for little bit of extra pizazz. You could lay them on their side of stand them up straight depending on how you would like to present them.

Let them cool and then dig in!

Guiltless Gucci

The Ultimate Exchange is hosting it's Fall/Winter upscale shopping event this week, October 16th thru 18th, and you won't want to miss it! It is the perfect resource for the best designer deals a girl can find! Dallas entrepreneurs Michelle Fraser and Tonya Martin knew from speaking with friends and colleagues that many women don't want to give up shopping in a recession but also can't seem to pay full price for designer apparel. The Ultimate Exchange was born out of today's cost-cutting reality and is a three-day, semi-annual shopping event that is an eco-friendly and economically savvy fashion experience!

A three day shopping pass is $5 prepaid or $10 at the door and the event will take place at 5302 Beltline Road in Addison (behind Houston's restaurant). There are fantastic items available at wonderful prices from Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferragamo, and Calvin Klien.

Beauty on a Budget

One of our cities best kept secrets is the Cosmetology Career Center, A Paul Mitchell Partner School. This five star skin care and cosmetology training center offers a cariety of hair, skin and make up services for guests and a major discount. You can get a cut and style for only $15 or an up-do for only $30! Located just north of Midway and Keller Springs in Carrollton, it is worth a visit because each service, though performed by a trainee, is overseen by a Paul Mitchell Pro! For more information or to make a reservation call 972-669-0494.

AT&T Performing Arts Center Opening This Week!

The AT&T Performing Arts Center has been in the works for over ten years now and I can't believe that the opening is finally here! I am so proud to say that I served on the President's Advisory Committee and I can't wait for the opening activities. Below is a "survival guide" to the opening weeks activities. Click here to see a schedule for the free activities on Sunday the 18th of October. I will see you there!

Stimulate your Lashes and Your Bank Account!

Lash Allure MD is giving you a chance to make your lashes longer and fuller and giving you a chance to win $100,000 while doing it! All you need to do is check out Lash Allure MD's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages and submit a short video telling the world what you would do with $100,000. National public voting will be ongoing and the lucky winner will be decided by popular vote on the basis of who has the most compelling story and announce on January 1, 2010. I love that Lash Allure MD does not contain prostaglandins which have been shown to cause skin darkening and eye discoloration in some consumers. For more information you can visit www.lashalluremd.com.

Halloween Invitation Ideas

Can you believe that it is time to start planning for your Halloween party! Here are a few ideas that will scare the costumes off of your pals:

1. Evite has adorable options for Trick or Treating parties this year. Evite is a simple and quick alternative to a printed invitation. It is more festive than sending a regular email and but less exciting than an invitation sent by snail mail.

2. For the "digital-do-it-yourselfers" out there, check out Martha Stewart's Pumpkin-top invitations. I love how professional the invitations look but they do take a bit of time to print out and assemble.

Another elegant alternative it the Light up the Night invitation from Michaels.

3. For my crafty friends, I recommend putting together something a bit more daunting. A simple black or white gift box with black filler is the perfect container to deliver these gruesome fake fingers to your friends. I found these on Amazon.com and think that they are perfectly gross! Affix a label with all of the event details to the inside of the lid of the box and another label to the outside with the recipients name on it. This invitation will really work best if you can hand deliver it. I know it sounds like a lot of effort but it will certainly make an impact and set the tone for a bewitching evening.

Don't forget to spell out the invitation in a spooky style. Try to incorporate words like haunting, bewitching, goulish, spook-tacular, and harrowing. Here are few examples of verbiage ideas for your invitation:

Calling all Ghosts and Goblins and Witches

Please join the Whitmans for some Halloween mishief.

Are you looking forward to an evening of fright?

Then please come and join us on Halloween Night.

and instead of asking for a simple RSVP, you should write:

We are dying to hear from you....please reply.

Natural Beauty

There are a great many disaster stories out there about natural beauty remedies gone bad but most of the time, people learn their lesson and run out to the beauty counter. That wasn't good enough for my beautiful friend, Jamie O'Banion, who managed to cook eggs in her hair after sunbathing with a raw egg concoction she made to condition her long locks. Instead she went to work and started her own Organic Skin Care line, Organicare. My favorite product is Brighter Tomorrow which takes traditional microdermabrasion to the next level. It is an oxygenation treatment that provides a targeted burst of oxygen to the upper layer of the skin. It is a two step process that leaves your skin looking and feeling fresh and fantastic. Check out her line of USDA Certified Organic Skin care and you won't believe the results!

Brighter Beauty with a Brighter Smile

There is no feature more beautiful than a smile and the key to smiling more often is confidence! This explains why Americans have spent over $1.7 Billion dollars on teeth whitening products and services in the last year! I believe that a whiter smile can boost self esteem. Many people say that it can boost your image professionally as well. Whitening techniques vary from laser whitening, trays and gels, strips and even on the go pens.

The best results come from laser whitening which is performed by a cosmetic dentist. It can make your teeth 4 to 6 shades lighter within an hour after visiting your dentist! It is expensive though and typically runs over $1000! The only potential side effect is sensitivity.

The next most effective way to whiten your teeth is by using trays and gels. Your dentist can make a set of trays that fit your teeth with a mold. You then add a gel with a bleaching agent to the trays and leave them in for up to an hour. You will need to repeat this for a few weeks before you see the results. I do this every once in a while and sometimes my gums swell up!

Whitening strips can be found in drug stores everywhere now. They take a bit longer to produce results but they are so easy to find and are very inexpensive compared to the other treatments.

The Zoom Whitening Pen is a click pen than can be taken in your purse or pocket and applied after you eat or drink something that stains your teeth. I dries quickly but comes at a price. A set of two is $45 but each pen lasts for about 30 applications.

Of course, after you whiten your teeth you need to do your best to keep them that way! The obvious staining culprits are tobacco, coffee, tea, and colas but did you know that grape juice, red wine, blueberries, soy sauce, and curry can stain your teeth too! Basically, if it can stain your clothing or carpet, it can stain your teeth! The best way to avoid stains from these things is to drink them through a straw which reduces your teeth's exposure to them and brush your teeth right after you have them.