I stared at Matt in disbelief.

"Really?" I asked, gleefully. It was too good to be true.

Somehow, everything had come together. I managed to make homemade bread one week and used some of it to make Matt, my husband, a sandwich on his first day of work for a new client. Thus, the first lunch his new coworkers saw him eat was not only a homemade sandwich –it was on homemade bread.

"Yeah, I told them my wife made it, and they were really impressed," Matt said.

At last. I am domestic wonder. I am ideal wife. I am Martha Stewart, only younger and without a prison record. I am ...

"And then I told them how you burnt fast food." 

... the Helpless Housewife. 

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Dianne France, neighborsgo's florist extraordinaire, teaches readers how to make "boo"tiful floral arrangements in her latest column.

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I’m having an identity crisis. Don’t worry, I know who I am — I’m the Helpless Housewife, a newlywed with a disgraceful lack of domestic skills with a tendency to burn fast food, crease my husband’s shirts in all the wrong places and slay innocent houseplants. No, my identity crisis stems from a much deeper source: I don’t know what I want to be — for Halloween.

Thankfully, costume expert Ramona DuPre was willing to come to my rescue by sharing some of her inherent costume know-how.

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Super-creative mom Ramona DuPre's costumes are often sparked by a single item that captures her interest. I asked her to write down the first costume idea that came to mind from these common thrift store items. (more)