Its been an adventuresome couple of months here, but hopefully the changes will be dying down. I went back to work for a spell, and then the hubs got a job, so I left said job to go back to staying at home and so far its been awesome. Except  for, ya know, the hurricane conditions.

Luckily, I had Halloween set up before Sandy decided to visit, and even more lucky is that we did not lose power. It flickered and what not, but never went out, so I'm just going to thank my lucky stars for that.

So here's our Halloween decor! Pay no mind to the mess......I had to rearrange the rooms on Sunday.


 I reused stuff that I've had in years past, with the addition of my red apple. I had grand illusions of doing an Evil Queen themed mantle, and well that was my addition. :)

 Oh for the table I did add a new purple owl. Love the $1 section at Target!


 So there's the buffet in the dining room. I'll be showing more of  the dining room later, but as you can see - its been painted again. :)

And that was Hurricane Sandy at about 3 or 4 on Monday. It got much worse later through the night, but thankfully we got through unscathed.

I'll be posting more often because I have actually gotten projects done while I was working I just didn't have time to post them!

When Dev was Harrison's age, he was humongous. He was wearing 4T clothes, but he did have some super cute ones.  Especially when it came to the holidays, but because Dev was so much bigger than H at this age, I don't have a lot of cute ones. When Dev was a year old (and wearing 2T) I didn't want to put him in bones and bats, etc for Halloween, so I don't have anything for H to wear this Halloween.

So my poor little small fry is lacking in the funny Halloween shirt department, but no longer!

Hopefully I'll snap a picture of him actually wearing it, but here's the creation as it lies on my coffee table. :)


Last year this was a free shape from Silhouette, and I never did anything with it, so when it came time for Halloween this year - I knew just what I was going to do with it. I cut it out on freezer paper and then painted away.

The bones are painted from white velveteen paint, and the heart is done in metallic red.

I cannot wait to see H in this shirt. I might have him wear it on Saturday, when we visit my grandmother and do our pumpkins. I need to make Dev a Halloween shirt now....I was going through his drawers this morning and realized he too is missing a Halloween shirt. A Momma's work is never done. :)

See you guys later!

So the wreath I have front and center above the mantle seriously took like 5 minutes to make. Its quick and easy and super versatile. You could have a fun Christmas wreath out of the marabou or a proper feather boa.

You will need some supplies, and luckily they're not to expensive.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 feather or marabou boa
• MDF wreath form
• Hot glue and gun
• Halloween decorations

I hit up Michael's for the wreath form and some of the Halloween decorations, Hancock Fabrics for the boas (sale!) and the Dollar Store for some more of the decorations.

What you're gonna do:

1. I glued my spiderweb to the center of the wreath form. Then glued one end of the boa to the back of the wreath form. 
2. Now just wrap away. You can pick how tight you wrap, but I did two wraps per spiderweb section. If you want it tighter or fuller, you'll need more boas. Glue the other end of the boa to the backside of the form when you get there. Then repeat for the next boa. 
3. Tuck your other decorations in and glue them down. Then enjoy!

I've had some fun these last few days with a few simple Halloween projects.

I then decided to put most of them on my mantle. One did get moved to the sofa table. :) So without any ado, lets get this motor started.
 So here's the mantle and I'm loving all of the different elements to it. I had most of the ingredients on hand, but what I did buy was the creepy fabric (Dollar Store find!) and the black beans and the great northern beans (just over a $1 at Walmart!).  The chrome skulls I painted up last year, along with the monster vases.  I had the spanish moss from other decor projects, and oh did you see the wreath that I  layered over the paper wreath? I'm so in love with that wreath, but more on that later. ;)

Here's the sofa table, that is in the direct line of sight from the hallway to the mantle - so it always gets included in the decorating. This year I bought another paper mache' skull from Michael's and took the glittery black glitter glue and covered the skull in it. Dana gave me the ginger jar a few years back so I stuffed it full of moss and then placed the skull in it. Love that effect! On the other side, is my glitterfied pumpkin from a few years ago, and just some left over glitter black leaves from the wreath project.

So now onto the ins and outs of  the mantle and table. Just some close ups, and maybe some more commentary.
 I love this little ghost vase. I should really get some pictures with the lights on. Why do all the good ideas come to me as I'm typing up the posts?
 A quick visit  to the Graphics Fairy got me some appropriate Halloween pictures. I love her site. She's got such great graphic finds.
 I layered in some more moss and then placed a  skull on a candlestick a la Shakespeare. Some more Dollar Store decorations litter the moss and the mantle. I love their creepy little touch.
 Here's a closer view of the wreath. I'm going to share how I made this wreath tomorrow, but first I'm going to give you a closer close-up. :)
Love me some marabou! Oh and glitter. I mean its really no secret that I have a glitter fascination - so the glittered leaves and spider are the perfect touch, especially since I fear spiders in a way big way. The only time I'm not afraid? When I'm holding a hammer.

So  tomorrow I'm going to share the super simple steps for the wreath, but I hope you enjoyed the quick tour today!

Well I went down to the Christmas closet and pulled out the one lone Halloween/Thanksgiving/Autumn bin. I'm getting ready to decorate.

I won't be going full bore until after my birthday, its tomorrow by the way. ;-)

But I figured I'd bring back a post from last Halloween, because these vases are just too cute to not share.

Blast from the Past! 
Well, the modge podge has attacked again. :) A few weeks ago I saw this post over at Crazy Domestic.

Cute, right? Oh yea, I'm not going to show you. You'll have to visit. :) I'm such a pill, aren't I?

I love those little guys, but I have no jars. Sadness. I do, however; have lots and lots of vases.

Useless vases. Vases that sit in my cabinet above the refrigerator. You know the cabinets that things are sent to be forgotten about. Now my cabinet above the fridge is a little more empty. Ready for something to be stored for later use, but truly to just be forgotten about.

So here's a pictorial of what I did.

I ended up ripping the tissue paper up into strips. It was faster, but the random pieces look nicer, IMO.

The sharpie was easier, but it looks kind of half-assed. Don't you think?

Whelp....I'm ok with being invaded by monster vases. They're pretty cute, and Dev had a blast discovering them. He is now showing off tons of things to everyone who comes to the house. Be warned if you visit my house. You will be forced coerced into a quick house tour given by an almost 5 year-old. :) He's got so much to show off. Oh to be that young and easily amused. :)

Have a great day and enjoy yourselves!

I hope that everyone had a terrific Halloween. We sure did! Stephen and I are now enjoying candy. Not Dev's candy as I think he's probably taken a tally of his take, but Harrison's. He doesn't mind. :)

Here's all of us in our costumes.

This little guy is from PB. He's cute.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but this little blog of mine has reached 250 followers! Yay! I can't believe that back at the end of February the only followers I had were family and friends, and now....well just wow. So I think I will need to think of something to celebrate. Maybe you guys can help. What would you like in order to celebrate reaching 250 followers? Another giveaway? A theme week? A monkey jumping up and down on my head? Sorry, the last was just to see if you were paying attention. :) So anyways, while you guys mull over that...Here's what the front porch, dining room and mantle look like now. They're not over the top crazy for Halloween. I only go over the top for Christmas {which I can't wait for!!!!}, but this is what I've done. :)

Ok, I'm actually more like more than halfway done because my costume is cut out. I guess I'll have to start sewing on it, because Dev has become the ultimate manager.

Two days ago, I'm finishing up Harrison's booties (which we are not going to be wearing because they are humongous) and Dev was examining the first one. He says - Oooooh that looks so pretty, Mommy. Now do the other one.

I'm telling you....future manager/slave driver. He comes by it honest though. He gets it from me. I can't complain. I shouldn't complain, but it rankles a bit when your 4 year old is bossing you around.

Well the first of three costumes is done! Hallelujah!

Dev is very excited about the fact that his costume is done, except that we have not made it by the shoe store to pick up light brown boots. Don't worry we're not buying the shoes for the costume...we buy him boots every year. Aren't I lucky that Yoshi wears boots? :)

Oh and I have decided that I am never sewing another costume that has a tail or anything resembling a stuffed item that is attached between two seams. For Dev's 2nd Halloween I made a dragon costume I ended up putting the sewing needle through my thumb, multiple times. I did this while trying to attach that dragon's tail to the body suit. My thumb healed faster then my machine though, because I ended up moving the shaft that extends the needle down into the dog feed a 1/4" to the right. So into the shop it went. I ended up having to borrow my sister's machine so I could finish Devlin's costume in time. While this time was better, and I did not have the needle meet my thumb, attaching the spikes and the tail was still a PITA.

So here is the last tailed costume I'm ever making.