Gratitude Tree 2009

We've been a little slow getting our Gratitude Tree going this year. But it is never too late to remember to be grateful, right?

So this is what we have this year. It is a little different than last year, as many of you will recall...

I loved how our tree turned out last year, but that wall has since been wallpapered, and I didn't want to damage that in anyway. I meant to move it to the other room and make a new tree, but it kept getting pushed off. One day, I realized I had two dilemmas, that just might be solved with one solution. 1-I needed a gratitude tree. 2-I needed to get my Halloween tree off of the front porch and find something to do with it. So, I am attempting to turn my spooky tree, into a warm and happy gratitude tree. I think by the end of the month, it won't look spooky at all, with all of the happy, thankful leaves on it! Here is a sampling of what we have, so far:

My 5 year old is grateful for each family member, and is figuring out how to spell our names.

My 2-year-old is grateful for markers, and loves to scribble with them, whenever she gets the chance.

It must have been Sunday when my husband added this leaf, since naps aren't normal occurrences around here on other days. But that is what he was thankful for that day! The goal is to add to the tree each day, and not repeat what others have said, or what we have said in days past. Then we can really think about all of the different things we are thankful for--each day.

I added some ribbon to the urn, to help it look a little happier. What do you think? Do you like the paper version from last year, or our 3D version, this year? One night in her prayer, my daughter said she was grateful for our gratitude tree. Aww! So I think the form matters a little less than the function, as far what really counts.

I meant to tell you, I found a great template for the Autumn leaves, here. She posted them as a pattern for a felt garland (which would be adorable). So if you can't get up the gumption up to make a tree, you might consider a Gratitude garland.

Btw, I'm grateful for people who read my blog and help fuel "My Insanity!"

Christmas Crafting--Gifts you can make

I did this last year, posted about Christmas, right after posting about Halloween. I haven't forgotten about Thanksgiving, I promise! But we'll blame this slight on Chris at Just a Girl. She is having her 2nd annual "I Can Make That Party" today. I participated last year, and got tons of great ideas for Christmas gifts, so I thought I would share some of what I've done, and other ideas I've collected for homemade Christmas gifts this year.

Last year, Chris shared a fantastic tutorial on how to make Scrabble Tile necklaces, so I stole that idea and made them for all of my sisters, friends, etc. But I put my own spin on the necklaces I made for my childrens' teachers. I blogged about it here. I think they were a big hit!

This one is so easy, I'm not sure it counts as a craft. I just added vinyl lettering to these boxes from IKEA for my sister's laundry room. More details here. Sometimes a little personalizing goes a long way to making a meaningful gift.

Maybe you are ahead of the game, and have all of your presents bought/made. You might want to check out this post. I found this vintage present wrapping pamphlet from Hallmark, at my mom's house. I don't know if I'll attempt any of these, but they make me smile!

A few years ago, when I was being really good about not eating sugar, I made these simple floral arrangements to give to friends (in lieu of baking). We are going to bake (gingerbread people), this year (because I got the cool Martha Stewart gingerbread house boxes on after-christmas clearance last year), but I do think non-food gifts are often remembered and appreciated in the middle of the holiday gluttony. More info on this project, here.

As for this year, pregnancy is diminishing some of my ambition for homemade gifts, but if I do make some, I will take inspiration from this brilliant personalized Yahtzee game, created by Stacey @ The Thrifty Chick. This makes me sad, every time I think about it, though, because it wasn't very long after she shared this great idea, that Stacey passed away unexpectedly. Fortunately for us, her blog is still up and sharing her great ideas with the world. Look for other fun game and gift ideas on her blog.

There are lots of different games and puzzles that could be personalized. Once upon a time, my family made our own Clue game. It was very personalized to our home, living situation at the time, personalities, etc. We had a great time coming up with that. I wonder who has it now! Have you ever made a personalized game? I'd love to see it or any other homemade game ideas you have!

So let's go get busy! And don't forget to visit Just a Girl, for tons more inspiration!

(Adding to Kimba's DIY day, as well)

Halloween 2009—the big reveal…

TOY STORY:

Yes! You were all right about our Toy Story theme! Which either means that you read and pay attention to my blog, or else you are just really smart (both?). These photos were taken by Peter Thatcher at our church Halloween party. I’m so glad he does this! I can’t ever get the best shots at night! Woody looks a little Indiana Jones in this photo, but here you can get a better look at his costume…

I don’t remember this part of the movie, but we were prodded, and hey, Woody is pretty handsome! Buzz actually lost his purple helmet right before the party, so we had to borrow his knight’s helmet from last year (worked fine…we found the purple one for trick or treating the following night). I think I will forbid him from playing with his costumes before Halloween in the future. The same kind of thing happened last year! *sigh*

Big shout-out to my mom, for whipping up the chaps for Jessie, and the vest for Woody when she was in town last month. I made Jessie some stiff cuffs to wear (which she hated), and had more plans to fancy up her shirt but ran out of time/stamina. The hat was from the dollar store. I punched holes in it, and my daughter laced them with yarn herself. She did a good job and was excited to be involved. She just wished her red hair was a little longer for the braid. And you saw my ham before. She loved being a piggy! I guess if I were trying to be more movie authentic, I would have included the slots for the bank. I also had some big rings that never made it on the backs of Woody or Jessie, as their pull-strings. But hey, I’m pregnant! We do the best we can, right?

PAINTED PUMPKINS:

Last year, our carved pumpkins were moldy within just one or two days in the Phoenix heat, so I thought we would try painting them this year (even though the weather turned out to be much cooler this Halloween). Big thanks to Grandpa for growing the kids’ pumpkins and saving me the 5 or 6 bucks a pop at the grocery store! The only disappointment, was that I tried glow-in-the-dark paint, with minimal results. I’m not sure if I mixed it well enough, or what. But if any of you have experience with glow-in-the-dark paint, I’d love to know your secrets (I’m planning on trying some in the space room).

From L to R: My two-year old’s pumpkin, a pumpkin my oldest decorated at a church activity (her fake eyelashes are falling off), my 5-year-old’s Frankenstein, and my 8-year-old’s moon and stars (that were supposed to glow in the dark.)

I already knew my 8-year-old was a perfectionist, but I had no idea how badly my 5-year-old son suffers from this condition, until now. He must have wiped the paint off of his pumpkin a dozen times, before he came-up with his great green Frankenstein, after I threatened to set a timer. Heaven help me! I’m not sure I can handle a family full of perfectionists. At least Tessa, my 2-year-old, was content with a few random strokes on her pumpkin—for this year, any way!

BRAIN FOOD:

I had volunteered to bring a dessert to the big family party we attended on Saturday night. I decided to go with the Martha Stewart brain cupcakes, but couldn’t keep it too simple. And had to gore it up, just a little.

While my children were arguing about which flavor of cake mix to use (oh, yes, I used a mix!), I remembered the Jello poke cakes, my mom had made once upon a time. Basically, what you do is poke holes in the top of the cupcake after it has cooled a little, and drizzle a jello mixture (1 3oz. pkg. jello dissolved in 1 cup boiling water)into the holes. It makes red drips through out the cupcake (blood). I didn’t get a good picture of the inside, but you can see Woody enjoying one here:

After I piped on the brain design, I took the left over jello liquid and drizzled a little in the crevices, to make the brains look a little bloody. Eeeww!

I ran out of time to make the fun labels that Martha had, so I turned that job over to my 8-year-old. Most of the labels got lost on the way to the party, but she was excited to try and think up the funny names.

There you have it! And now it is mostly put away, to make room for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now just to decide what we will be next year….

The Loveseat--from plaid to rad!

I realize I owe you all a Halloween round-up with costume pics and all, but there are a couple of great blog parties going on right now, that I didn't want to miss, so I am going to reveal the big loveseat reupholstery job my mom (I helped a bit) did when she was in town a couple of weeks ago, now. Look for Halloween in the next day or two, and an important announcement, hopefully by the end of the week...

BEFORE:

Well, mostly before--we had already begun demolition. This Broyhill loveseat was quite the nice piece of furniture in 1994, when it was made. I got it from my friend when she was moving for $15. The plaid (besides being a little dated, and worn/torn in places) just wasn't working in my home. Last time my mom came to town, we got the materials for this project, but were busy slipcovering my hide-a-bed couch, so she had to come back to do this one.

The hardest part is taking the thing apart. (Even with all of these fantastic helpers!) The staples were smaller than Mom was used to seeing, and broke easily when we tried to pull them out. There must have been a million of them. We all worked for a couple of days, getting staples out. As we got the various pieces off, Mom would write down the order in which they came off and label the fabric pieces, with a sharpie, as to their location on the couch. Those pieces became the pattern for sewing the new pieces.

Of course, I let her do all that sewing and stuff, and she had the couch put back together in about a day, magically! (Well, between her sewing skills, and the air compressor they used with the staple gun, it felt like magic). I did do the painting of the legs by myself after she had gone home. I used the reddish brown paint from our front door, and then darkened it with a coat of that tinted polyurethane I have been so excited about. Here are the afters:

AFTER:

I've had a hard time getting decent lighting to take these pictures and had to take these at night, so the first is without a flash and the second is with a flash. I think reality is somewhere between the two. I think the fabric is called "tobacco," and that is probably the best way to describe the color. It has a nice subtle textured pattern throughout.

And it really makes me want to finish the rest of the unfinished projects in my family room that are now sticking out like the sore thumb the couch used to be.

In the meantime, check out more great makeovers and projects here:

Halloween Food Fun & a Guessing Game

My husband is a good sport...

I try to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible these days (yes, I'm still pretty pukey, but hopefully will feel better, soon!). So at my request, he made these cute "mummy dogs" for dinner last night. I have seen this kind of thing featured around the internet at a few different sites lately, and it looked simple enough. And what was even better, we had the hot dogs, and a can of Pillsbury-type breadstick dough that needed to be used. It was a fun, quick, kid-friendly, way to get into the holiday mood (even better, since I didn't have to do it. :-)!

I also thought I would share a couple of pictures of my daughter enjoying storytime and "trick or treating" at the library this week as a piggy. Here's a front and back view:

I'm going to experiment with the tail a bit, but for a last minute fix, I thought this worked pretty well. Mainly, I'm just excited that she is excited about being a pig.

I can't remember if I have told you my plans for our family costumes this year. We are ALL dressing up (even hubby), and you know that my youngest is a pig of some sort. Any guesses? I'll send the winner some of the Halloween cookies my kids painted! :-) No, I really won't because they kept licking their paintbrushes in between strokes, so I don't think you want them. Maybe I'll just give you a little bloggy love when we reveal our final costumes. Speaking of which, I have a little spray painting, and maybe a little sewing to do, to get them finished. I'd better get it in gear.

Happy Halloween preparations to you!

p.s. I just checked my archives, and I did mention my plans for this year, so I guess we will just see who was paying attention! :-)

Halloween Inspiration

Busy day! Story time and a costume parade for my baby at the library this morning. My Halloween episode of Mom Time TV airs in just a few minutes (you can catch the uncut version at momtimetv.com, later, if you miss it). And tonight I am teaching a class on Thanksgiving Tips and Tricks for the ladies at my church tonight. If you want a preview of what I will be showing them and talking about, you can click here to see my past Thanksgiving posts.

But before we get to Thanksgiving, there is Halloween to celebrate this weekend! I have to get a few things to finish up our family costumes for this year. But considering my current state of health and everything else going on, I am glad it is my friend that is hosting a Halloween party (not me) and all I really need to worry about are costumes (mostly done), and a dessert to bring to her party.

There have been lots of fun ideas on the web for Halloween this year, but only a couple have really caught my attention and almost made me want to host so that I could use these ideas:

These amazing candy apples found here, are breathtaking. I don't know if it is just how they are photographed, but they are so creepy and stylish at the same time. If I can find small enough apples, I am considering taking these to the party on Sat., but I'm afraid that may be a little too ambitious for this year. My other front runner is the brain cupcakes from Martha Stewart. What would you do?

The other project I thought was amazing is this spider web placemat from Eddie Ross (Edit: Oops! I was crediting Matthew Mead for this placemat. It is actually from Eddie Ross. They both have brilliant ideas). It looks expensive and fancy, but he makes them out of paper and glitter. Very doable, and again, that elegant kind of creepy that I am drawn to. I can almost imagine a dinner party with these and my walls lined with Halloween trees, like the one I put out front...

...each tree filled with dollar store birds (that I can't find at my dollar store any more), and bats dangling at different heights from the ceilings. Almost, is the operative word, here, this year. Maybe next year!

For more party inspiration you might want to look at these posts:

A Batiful Invitation

Which Witch are You?

Tessa Turns Two—Insanity Simplified

Miracle Worker Week ended with a celebration of my daughter’s second birthday. If you have read my blog at all, you know that I dream up elaborate birthday schemes for my kids’ birthdays, often a year or more in advance. Tessa’s birthday was no exception, except that as the birthday got closer, everything changed. And that was OK…

My daughter loves puppies, so I was planning a puppy party, along the lines of this one at Whimsy love, with dog bowls for the kids to eat out of, a cardboard doghouse, bone-shaped breadsticks, and these cute “pup-cakes” my sister made for her daughter one year.

Instead, my daughter ended up having both sets of grandparents in town (and some uncles and aunts), so we had a family dinner for all of them (not sure they wanted to eat out of dog bowls). I thought about doing two separate parties, but keep in mind, we were working on projects for the house all week, and my stamina is really limited right now, so things had to be simplified. I kept asking Tessa about her birthday, and without fail, each time I would say the word “birthday,” she would respond, “I have a birthday cake!” So I knew where her priorities lay.

A while back my Mother-in-law gave me these vintage paper plates and napkins, she had purchased in the 80’s (?) and never used. I thought about selling them, or giving them away, since I had envisioned Dalmatian print with purple accents, but for our different direction, these were perfect (and the girl looks a bit like Tessa). I should mention, lots of things didn’t go as planned, but things end up working out. I had a long white tablecloth from IKEA, that we couldn’t find anywhere. After trying a couple of options, I remembered, we had a bunch of yellow plastic tablecloths hanging out in the garage left over from something related to my husband’s work. Perfect match. Plastic utensils and cups were left over from previous parties.

It took a couple of tries, but I was able to locate Tessa’s birthday banner from last year, which was almost the same color scheme, and I had picked up a package of pink balloons from Walmart the night before, so we were able to have a festive room.

Remember how I said the cake was the most important part of the party? Well, this was almost a disaster, because of my poor planning.

I had made the cake the night before and had only a short time between church and when everyone was coming in which to decorate it. Imagine my dismay when I went to the pantry and found no powdered sugar! I always have powdered sugar! How could their be no powdered sugar?

My mom saved the day by remembering that she had a frosting recipe that didn’t call for powdered sugar, and that it was in the cookbook of her recipes that she had given me several years back. (So glad she was here! She did lots of the cooking, too!)

It actually made a really yummy, not-too-sweet, fluffy frosting, that when tinted pink gave the perfect traditional “birthday cake” appearance I thought would please my daughter.

For the decorations on the cake, I quickly melted some chocolate in the microwave (I used almond bark, but chocolate chips work, too), put it in a ziploc bag, cut off the tip, and piped the paw prints and her name on parchment paper. I put them in the freezer to set-up quickly, and stuck them on the cake. Easy, thematic, done!

Now, doesn’t this look like a girl who is excited about her cake?

If nothing else, these finger marks in the icing should be an indication of how she felt about it.

And after dinner, and cake, she got lots of pink presents. It is amazing how exciting socks can be for a two-year-old! So I think she had a pretty great birthday…even if it wasn’t the production I had originally envisioned, and that’s what really matters, right?

And just in case, you are ever a victim of poor planning, like I was, or just want to try something different on your next cake, I am posting my mom’s save-the-day frosting for all of you (she called it “Not-Too-Rich Frosting,” but I think I’m changing the title)! Enjoy!

MOM’S SAVE-THE-DAY FROSTING

In a sauce pan, combine and cook until thick, stirring constantly:

1 C milk

3 T flour

Cool completely.

In a mixing bowl, cream until very fluffy.

1 C sugar

1 C butter

ADD:

1 t vanilla

Slowly add to creamed mixture:

1 T milk mixture at a time, until all has been added.

Beat until smooth and fluffy.

Making Memories--Mom Time TV

My episode of Mom Time TV aired today. I was at the United Nations Day celebration at my sons' school (he was a knight from England and I brought British scones), so I missed the edited version on TV. I would love to know what got cut and what they said about me in the intro. But here is the uncut version from the website. As I remembered, I did have a lot to say (I think I cut people off a few times...sorry!) Anyway, if you've got 22 mins., and want some ideas about making and preserving your memories, press play!

Making Memories Uncut from Mom Time TV on Vimeo.

Out of This World Bedding

The miracle workers have gone back home. The kids are all back in school, and I have much to blog about, and a lot of upcoming insanity.

I was so excited when I got a comment on my "Sneak Peek" post asking for more details about the solar system quilts. First, I was just excited to get a comment! (Comments make me happy!) And secondly, I was excited that she could tell what we were making:

(The quilt on the bed--this dark navy is really hard to photograph! Looks cuter in real life!)

So of course, I have to oblige and give you the scoop on the bedding. This was the inspiration:

I fell in love with this bedding from "The Land of Nod" some time back, but didn't have the $160 to pay for each quilt (not to mention sheets, pillows, accessories, etc.). We have a bunkbed in there, so I need two quilts. So I kept looking. One day, while red-tag hunting at Target (I know I'm not the only one who does that), I found some basic navy comforters from their college line on clearance for $10/each. Now that is more like my budget! I grabbed them, hoping to be able to spruce them up, but realizing that even if I couldn't, they would work in the space room, and I could just get some fun pillows.

So as my mom was busy reupholstering my couch and mending our clothes (I know, slave labor!), I pulled out my comforters to see if she thought we could do what I wanted to do. She said she could sew through the comforters and "quilt" them the way I wanted if I could get it all laid out the way I wanted.

I will admit this process was a little more time consuming than I had imagined. But everything is time consuming and difficult for me now, because I am pregnant! I had a bunch of small pieces of fabric on hand (inherited for free from a moving friend). I looked through all of the fabric and found anything that looked "planet-like." To get the circles, I just found different bowls and lids to trace and looked at a diagram to get an idea of the scale. Any astronomers out there will tell me that my sun is way too small in relation to the planets, Saturn has dozens of moons, etc. But whatever, he's 5! We used a product on the back of the fabrics (before cutting out the shapes) called "wonder-under." It is great for applique stuff because it turns your pieces into iron-on shapes. They usually still need to be sewn around to have a nice finished edge, but I have sealed the edges with puffy paint before, for a no-sew option.

Before putting the planets on the quilt, Mom sewed the orbit lines. I used a piece of sharpened chalk, tied to string, and attached to the center of the quilt with a straight pin, to draw my circles (yes, I know a lot of the planets have elliptical orbits! I invited my husband to come and draw the ellipses, when he started giving me a bad time). Mom sewed along the chalk lines. I think the Land of Nod version uses a thicker stitch, but I wanted them to be fairly subtle. My son vetoed the words and numbers that are on the Land of Nod version, and I'm sure his grandma was thrilled with that choice, although she has done a lot of machine embroidery (with out the fancy computer sewing machine) and could have pulled it off beautifully.

Trenton also wanted Pluto included. That was a tough call, but I obliged him. The other option is what they did at Land of Nod. They sell this Pluto pillow with the date of discover and the date it was "retired" as a planet.

I still intend to do some fun pillows, whether they look like rocket ships, or planets or what. I will leave you with a glimpse of the insanity that has been worked in "The Space Room" (my son's bedroom) this week. I wish I was showing you a finished room, since I'm sure work will proceed much more slowly, now that the miracle workers have gone, but you can get an idea of where we are headed here:

Adding this to Kimba's DIY day! And The Inspired Room's Procrastinator Party. I have been planning this room/bedding, etc. for more than a year. About time I get moving on it!

Insanity on the Small Screen

So, on the off chance that any of you have been dying to see and hear me discuss my insanity, (and not just blog about it), Wednesday is your lucky day! I have started contributing to the Mom Time TV show, and my first episode is airing this week. Here is the preview of the weeks' shows. I am the one you see first in the promo for the "Making Memories" show, saying something about making memories out of any day. I'm also showing off some digital scrapbooking I did:

This week on Mom Time TV 16 from Mom Time TV on Vimeo.

So here are the deets: Mom Time TV currently airs in Phoenix (AZTV channel 7/cable 13), and in Seattle (KHCV-TV, Seattle shows air a couple of weeks later). Contact your local stations, if you'd like to see them pick up the show. My show will be on at 11:00 on Wednesday, and afterwards, the uncut version of the show will be available on Momtimetv.com. This one is about making and keeping memories. I talk about celebrations and scrapbooking, etc.

I'm slated for a Halloween show, where we talk about our crazy family Halloween costumes and will be on several shows about Christmas preparations, etc. Most of the shows I am on will relate to the topics I blog about here. If you are interested, I will try and post a schedule on the sidebar of when to watch. Of course, you can watch all the shows I'm not on, too! :-)

A Peek at "Miracle Worker Week"

I wanted to share a few shots to illustrate all of the insanity and industry going on around here this week. For those of you who don't know, I call the weeks my parents come to town "miracle worker weeks," because they come to work on my projects and they are good at what they do, and things that have been on my list forever, miraculously begin to get done.

They do get a lot of help, though!

I'm excited to show you lots of fun "afters" soon!

Mending Makeovers

Miracle Worker Week (the week my parents come to stay and help me work on projects) is in full swing! There is all kinds of insanity going on here! I'm getting excited to be able to show you some "after's" soon, especially since it feels like I can't get much of anything done lately, between the child in my womb making me sick, and the child running around the room making messes (not to mention the older two who keep me busy, too). I will admit, though, that I was a little miffed, when on my parents' first day here, my 8-year-old, off on Fall Break, commandeered her grandma for a whole bunch of her own projects.

First, she brought down this pair of pants that had a big hole in the knee, and wanted them to be patched. I told her since she could wear them during a flood, she had better see if my mom could let down the hem at all, before they would be worth patching. Together, this is what they came up with. To reinforce the fold that had previously been the bottom of the pants, my mom did this fun decorative stitch.

She let Kira choose the fabric and cut out the patch in what ever shape she wanted. Neither my mom or I were thrilled about the turquoise against the denim, until they decided to outline it with the red thread. Then she sewed the cute ruffle on the bottom.

To say Kira was thrilled with the result is an understatement. (Behind her you can see the clutter of my destructive children, and the main project of this visit. Can you see what it will be?)

They also put this cute patch on another pair of jeans. Again, Kira picked the fabric and cut the shape.

And if that wasn't enough, my mom gave her a sewing lesson as they made (and Kira did most all of the sewing) a cape for a fancy angel doll, Mom had just brought for her. I must say, I was very impressed with Kira's straight seams, and lack of intimidation of the machine. Maybe she will become a brilliant seamstress, and can do all this stuff for me when my mom no longer can.

So, all in all, I was really glad they did their projects and they turned out great. But now, Kira, it's my turn!

Halloween Present--Decorations

Here’s where I am at with Halloween decorations, right now. It may get spookier before Halloween arrives, but I wouldn’t bank on it, since someone is turning 2, and the Miracle Workers are returning for a visit before then. It will be a busy October. Here is the outside. I have been waiting to put together my Halloween tree ever since we took it out of our garden spot last January. At the time it was totally white and ghostly. It lost some of that in the mean time, so I helped it out with a little spray paint. I might go back to the dollar store and see if I can get more of the birds.

I have a little graveyard in the front yard. You might recognize the smaller tombstones from Trenton’s birthday party.

This pretty garland lights up, if we get an extension cord and plug it in.

Grandpa grew the orange pumpkins in his garden this year, and let the kids each pick one! (Saved me $5/each!) Yea!

Inside, we have my mantle that is the first thing you see. I didn’t change it up too much, but I’m kind of on a bird kick this year. I think that might make a fun party theme. Show Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and have creepy crows everywhere…

These bird decorations, as well as all the new stuff I have this year, were purchased at Hobby Lobby, last year after Halloween, at 90% off clearance! So was this fun, vintage looking pumpkin pail:

I like how he looks next to last years’ project. And here is the whole scene, with the Halloween tree, and the lit-up haunted mansion.

Another Hobby Lobby purchase…

…and a quick project anyone can do. I spray painted a frame black, and printed off this image from the Graphics Fairy for FREE!

How go the hauntings at your home?

Joining in Tip Junkie’s Virtual Tour of Homes—Fall.

Ghosts of Halloween Past - Part II - Costume Parade

Well, the short version, anyway. I have a thing about family themed costumes. I don't know how much longer the kids will play along, but I usually base the idea on something at least one of them is excited about. The parents are usually an accessory. I suppose I won't be ruining any huge surprises if I tell you that we are working on a "Toy Story" theme this year. This was inspired by the fact that my son inherited a really cool Buzz Lightyear costume from a friend. And the rest of the characters seem doable using a lot of things we already have ("Seem" being the operative word, here...I'll let you know when the costumes are all done!)

Last year we did Narnia. Can you tell what we all are? (Except my husband, who tried to claim he was C.S. Lewis. Yeah. I didn't buy it either.) Go here for all of the details about the costumes and our festivities last year.


And if you want lots more of our crazy costume ideas, go to this post where I parade most of the memorable costumes from the past several years. Like my prized peony above, only 1 week old!

I have had a few emails about how I put together some of the costumes, and I definitely have to give credit to my amazing mother for sewing lots of them, but when we are doing a family theme, I really try to think of things we already have that can be utilized. A formal gown from years gone by that just needs a cape to look like the wicked stepmother. My gardeners outfit came straight from my closet (yes, I own overalls). See what you can work with as a base and the buy or make the accessories to make it clear what you are. My lamppost, last year, was thrown together hours before our party. Then I just had to wear black clothes. It helps to have a seamstress for a mother, but even if not, costumes don't have to be terribly expensive or complicated...I'll let you know how complicated this year turns out to be.

Ghosts of Halloween Past--Part 1 Decorations

This morning, my daughter wore a sweater to school. I'm sure it was shed for good, by 9:00am, but there was an actual chill in the air, to welcome the month of October. And suddenly, I have an irresistible longing to cover my front porch in pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. Since that won't be happening today, I thought I would revisit a few of my Halloween Decorations from Halloweens past, in case they inspire you in your decorating/crafting urges. Over the next week or so, I plan to revisit costumes, food, parties, and more from the past. If you aren't patient, you can always click on this link that will take you to all of my posts tagged, "Halloween."

Last year, I made this fun set of blocks. I explain more in this post, but since my friend did all the prep work, it was a quick and fun project.

Ok. This was just from a month or so, ago, but incase you missed it, these jack-o-lantern jars, are my contribution to nearly free decorating ideas this year. You can read my detailed instructions here. I keep thinking these would be fun to try on a large scale outdoors, but I also keep visualizing my children shattering the glass jars. *sigh* I'd love to see your favorite Halloween decorating ideas, now that it actually is starting to feel like Halloween might come this year. I have a project or two in the works that I will blog about once all of the decorations go up.

When do you decorate for Halloween?