{ Halloween Humor }

Happy Halloween!

{ I Can't Follow a Recipe }

1 day until Halloween!

I made this really yummy Pumpkin Spice Cake for a special Sunday dessert a couple of weeks ago. My family loved it! I got the recipe from a favorite blog called whatever. She is a fun mom & has some great recipes & crafty ideas.

The following morning, after we completely consumed this cake, I opened my fridge & saw the unopened container of buttermilk that was supposed to go into the recipe! Oops! It was super good so I can't imagine how yummy it would be with the buttermilk. So, go on over to whatever & get the recipe & when you make it let me know how it tastes made the right way. :)

{ Pumpkin Carving & a Boo }

2 days until Halloween!

We carved our pumpkins last night!. We had such a good time. Ms. Sassypants wanted to carve a cat so she printed a stencil & carved away. She really took her time & was very careful & was so proud of her finished product.

Peanut drew a face on her pumpkin & I carved it out. It is the one with the off-center smile. I think it's cute. When Boo saw her sister's pumpkin all done, she held out her little pumpkin & said, "Mom, silly face." So I did one for her. It is the smallest one. My son was trying to carve the Star Wars logo into his but, messed up so used the other side to do a face. I love them all. The kids & their pumpkins!

Oh yah. I got to wear the Halloween apron that my mom made for me. She's knows that I'm a Halloween nut so she sent it with the pillowcases. I love it! I hate getting my picture taken though.

Also, I've been boo'ed by my blog friend, AJ, over at A Work in Progress. She has a fun blog.

Here are the rules: Go to as many friends as you want and tell them they've been "Boo-ED". Have them link back to your blog to pick up their Halloween Treat (picture) and tell them to Boo their friends. Then put the pic in your side bar so everyone knows that you've already been Boo-ed and to send the pic to someone else. Thanks, AJ!

{ Front Walkway }

3 days to Halloween.

This is the walkway to my front porch. I added a bit of fall color with the little plants up front. Since California has such mild seasons this is how we have to get our fall colors. We plant them ourselves.

I guess I do have a little bit of a front porch. I've been looking for some kind of a chair to put on it & haven't been able to find one that I like (that's cheap enough for me). I grabbed this one from our set in the backyard. It confirms to me that I want a chair there.

I'm hoping we will have time to carve the pumpkins tonight. My kids have been asking for weeks!

{ Laundry Miracle }

I washed, dried, folded & put away 9 loads of laundry today! I got a little bit behind, can ya' tell? Just wanted to share my laundry miracle with you. :)

Get this cute laundry bag here.

{ The Count Down Begins }

4 days until Halloween! My kids are so excited. Their cousins will be coming into town to spend it with us. We are planning a fun Halloween dinner. Here is a picture of Boo in her orange tutu & feathery, spider-looking hair clippy. I love this picture looking down at her. I wish my camera didn't make it so blurry. Okay, maybe that was me. And check out my patchy grass. We did that just for a Halloween spooky look. No, not really. It sure is hard to get that grass to grow back. It was killed when the office was built on the side yard.

I bought the tutu from Raechal's etsy shop RC Baby Designs. She will make them in any color you like. So cute! She also makes custom applique tees. I had to have a few of those too! Go to her shop & check it out.

{ Okay, Back to Halloween }

I love the banners that I've seen out there on a couple of my favorite blogs...Cherry's Jubilee and A Cottage Industry...and was inspired to make one.

It's actually been half made for a few months. I finally finished it because I wanted to give it to a friend of mine, Erika, that I knew I would see this morning. Deadlines are good for me.

I really like how it turned out. I have a birthday one that is half finished but the next birthday in my family isn't until January so it probably won't get done until then. :)

{ Non-Halloween Project }

Can you believe I've been working on some projects that don't relate to Halloween? I know, I know. But, this one is really good. Check out what I made out of a Target shirt I got on clearance for like $8, that has been sitting in my closet for a year, that I never wore. This is the shirt before...

And this is the shirt/skirt after...

I just cut the shirt underneath the armpits, roll-hemmed the waist & put the elastic in it. I didn't even have to touch the hem. It was already done for me. Sew easy! Now I'm looking all through my closet to see what other shirts would make cute skirts for my girls.

I also made a few other skirts with just plain old fabric. Nothing too tricky about these. Just a pattern & fabric.

Peanut was happy to model them for you.

And I was happy to use up some my fabric stash. {Does anyone else have a fabric stash? I'm sure that's something I inherited from my mom.}

Since I don't have a craft room my living room has turned into this...

and, yes, that is a pool table in our living room. But, that's a whole other story.

author's note: Please don't look too closely at those skirts. My sewing skills are lacking. Did I mention I absolutely hate sewing?

{ Pillowcase Fun }

Let me just start by saying, my mom is the best. She is always coming up with fun little things to do for her family, especially her grand kids. We got a package in the mail from her the other day with these fun Halloween pillowcases. One for each of my kids. They were soooo excited! And she was smart to label them with the kid's names so their was no fighting. She thinks of everything.

Aren't they so cute?!!! My favorite part is the rick rack details.

They were made to also be used as trick-or-treat bags on Halloween night. We love them! Thanks, Mom!

{ Sisterly Halloween }

After much begging & pleading, my sister, Canary, sent me pictures of her Halloween decorating. Everything is so fun, that I wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!

I want a front porch so, so, so much! I've got to figure out how I can get me one so I can make it cute like this.

I love to see how my family decorates for the holidays. {hint,hint...send pictures} Hope you all have a terrific weekend!

{ Halloween Wreath in a Jiffy }

I was at HomeGoods {I know, what a suprise} and saw some really fun orange feather wreaths. But wait! They were $30 each! I have 2 doors so that means two wreaths, which means $60! No way! I would just have to find something else to hang on my front doors. Then I was grocery shopping last week {at Albertsons} & they had some orange boas on sale for $4.79. Perfect! I grabbed some & headed to JoAnns for wreath forms. Of all the wreath forms there, the straw ones were the cheapest at $2.99 so that's what I got.

It took two feather boas to cover the wreath form.

I plugged in my hot glue gun & got started. I didn't even take the plastic off because I didn't want straw everywhere. I thought that the glue might melt the plastic but it did just fine. I started gluing on the inside of the wreath.

And kept going around & around. Moving from the inside to the front & finishing it off on the outer edge. {My model is my sister, TC, making one for herself}

Here is one all finished. Wow! It is not really that shocking orange in real life. Bad camera!

I might add this cute sign to it.

What do you think?

So for $26 & only half an hour of labor I got two really fun Halloween wreaths for my front door. That's two wreaths for under the price of the one at HomeGoods! Sorry, I get a little excited over a good deal.

{ Not Another One }

I'm sorry. It is another post on Halloween decorating. And can you believe I'm working on two more Halloween projects? I must stop the Halloween madness!

This is by far my kids' favorite Halloween decoration. They like to hang him over our banister & try to scare people.

I love hanging little signs on the doors, lamps, cupboard knobs, etc. I have about five of them. These are two of my favorites from Walmart last year. $1 each! I added the ribbon after seeing it over on Susie's blog. You should go visit her blog. It is fabulous. So many ideas & so creative!

I've had these guys for a while. From Home Goods, of course. I like their vintage look. I use them to hold spoons & forks for our Halloween dinner. It is a tradition to have our friends over for taco soup & cornbread on the night of Halloween before the dads take the kids out trick-or-treating. We've done this for about 5 years now. So fun!

I always have a hard time figuring out what to put on this sideboard thingy for the holidays. It changes every year. Not sure about this one.

The spider light was given to me from a friend from church. She thought maybe our time working together was about over but, a year later we're still going.

Look at these cute little witch shoes. They are candle holders from Target last year.

{ Fun Halloween Project Reveal }

Okay...here it is! This is the Halloween project that I've been working on, that I have told you about, that I have been so excited about.

Here's how it started. A pile of stuff...a bird house from Home Goods, small plastic pumpkins, spooky trees, mini hay barrels, little toy cats (borrowed from Boo) & a can of spray paint. This isn't all of the supplies. It's mostly for effect.

I spray painted the bird house black so it would look a little worn down & Halloweenish. My hubby couldn't believe I was spray painting right on the grass. Ahh, it needed to be mowed anyway.

See the cute little Barbie cat? He got a layer of black spray paint too. (Don't tell Boo)

And fast forward to the reveal...tah, dah!!! (click on pictures to enlarge)

Last year I bought the cutest little kids in Halloween costumes (artist: Lori Mitchell) & knew I had to make a special place for them to trick-or-treat.

There's a graveyard behind these two. They had these mini gravestones at Michaels for $1.99 each. Just the right size.

Pumpkins 4 sale! Our black cat is hiding in the pumpkin patch behind the skeleton boy.

See, I'm not all about the scary side of Halloween. I like the cute, fun side as well. I love, love how it turned out. And my kids love it too. I still want to add a couple of things. Like putting a light inside the house so it will glow & I would love to hang a big moon on the wall between the two trees on the right. Having a hard time finding one. Any suggestions on how I could make one?

Note: That is a player piano that you see. I realize it is not very cute but we enjoy it so much & it was a killer deal for $80 (which included about 20 reels of music). Someday it will be fixed up with paint or stain & new little windows. By the way, those windows have a little light inside of them & there's also a switch that will make it sound like an old honky-tonk piano. My kids love this piano.