wallpaper borders

halloween always seems to sneak up on me. one minute, school starts, and the next...it's halloween! if you are a mom, then you know how busy this time of year can be--costumes, treats, parties...it all adds up to a lot!

here is my simple halloween door this year:
 i have had the witches brooms forever---i bought them at big lots for $4 about 10 years ago, and it is a miracle that they have lasted through our many moves. they are one of those bulky items that i *almost donate every time we move, but i love them SO much, and i always manage to talk myself into keeping them.
(yep. our exterior door has still not been painted. it's on the short list of things to get done!)


and, in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" category, i am still using this  this easy and very affordable wreath that i made 5 years ago. i love it because it only looks better the more battered and worn it gets!
you can get the low down of how i made the wreath here.



i love halloween!
i try to make the treat we give away at least a little special.

 this year, i made some cute, simple labels to wrap around Hershey's bars.
(i bought the full size bars at costco---they come in a pack of 24)



if you like these wrappers, feel free to grab them and use them!


these would also be great to bring to a halloween party or to give away to your childs classmates!
here is a peek at some gift bags i gave away a few years ago:
seeing these always makes me happy!


you can also get these wrappers that i made two years ago for an assortment of candy bars:




oh, and take a look at the buddy the elf costume that i whipped up from some thrift store finds and a little fake fur and fabric paint!
we started with a sleeveless green mock turtleneck, a black t-shirt, and a black belt, all from the thrift store.





i cut the collar and cuffs from some fake fur (made templates from paper first) and hot glued them in place, and then embellished the green tunic with some gold fabric paint. the leggings were found on ebay.






i never actually sew my kids halloween costumes from scratch, but i am pretty darn good at taking a dress or shirt or whatever from the thrift store and transforming it into a costume!  (it always seems like my kids want to be something that is impossible to BUY...!)
here is a look at some of my kids costumes from the past few years:


vicious gladiator + two goddesses.


medusa, a pirate + cleopatra.



teen wolf.


teen wolf (close-up) talking on the phone and WAAAAAAY too busy to take a picture....
(wish you could get the full effect of the creepy red contact lenses! they were expensive, but made all the difference!)

be sure to check out my HALLOWEEN pinterest board--i have all of the goodies from years past, including some scanned images that are some of the most pinned images from my blog!


PS---i have been having some HUGE issues with my pinterest account. about 5 months ago, there was some glitch that stopped the counter going up on my followers, and would not allow certain people to follow me. i kept waiting for them to resolve the issue, and they finally did! so---if you *thought you were following me, and then for some reason you weren't, that is why! try again--all is finally well!
CLICK HERE to follow me. (again.)

i hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
the fourth of july is my second favorite holiday (right behind thanksgiving and christmas---a tie)
our week was filled with good food, swimming, friends, lacrosse games, plenty of sunshine and fireworks. it was pretty darn amazing.

anyway, last week, my husband was nestled into the couch, on his iphone and announced-- "hey---did you know that your butter beer recipe won the "best simple butterbeer recipe" according to the the orlando informer blog?"



uh. no...
i did NOT know that.
but YAY for me!


two summers ago, i wrote a post for design dazzle on a fun summer activity for kids. i chose the theme of "wizard for a day"--inspired, of course, by harry potter.
we had recently returned from a trip to universal studios, and had tasted the butterbeer there, and i tried my best to recreate an easy recipe for it. most of the recipes that i came across required cooking, and since i wanted this to be an easy summer activity that my 3 kids could easily help me with.

you can see the recipe, as posted on my blog here, and grab the images to make your own t-shirts here.

my oldest daughter olivia just turned 12.
AND, she is almost as tall as me...where in the WORLD does the time go?
*sigh...
in our family, we alternate "friend" birthday parties and "family" birthday parties.
since we only have a "big" party every other year, i like to make it really special.
when olivia turned 10, we had a "safari pool party" and invited over 20 girls. it
was a fun party, but making 20+ party favors and 20+ invitations was a little
overwhelming. this year, she opted to invite only her 6 best friends.
olivia is an animal lover through and through, and wanted the "theme" to
have something to do with animals...i searched and searched for inspiration...
i wanted something with an interesting color theme, and that was just
a little grown up and suitable for tweens. i was shopping at michaels when i spotted
the perfect inspiration in the wedding section! for those of you that don't know, most
craft stores carry a beautiful assortment of printable wedding invitations.
i knew with a few minor additions, these invites would be perfect for her party.

the inside of the envelope was pretty plain, so i lined them with metallic patterned paper.