Throwback Thursday Halloween style

 I already posted some previous years costumes, but here are a few more that I made (or partially made) DIY costumes from last year.

I have to say that my son absolutely loved his lifesize Creeper costume, and asked for it again this year...I told him to pick an easier character this time. Man! That one took FOREVER to make!!!!

 My daughter wanted to be an angel. I found her a dance letoard at a second hand store. Bought some white tool and made a super easy DIY skirt and then made the angel wings too. Very inexpensive and pretty quick and easy!

And then, the cabbage patch doll. I had the perfect 1 year old face to work with! lol I made the wig out of brown yarn and grabbed some of her regular clothes to dress her in that looked like you might see them on a cabbage patch doll. Then I just printed the Cabbage Patch logo and actually just taped it onto her shirt is all. :)

Like I said in a previous post, I love the themes. They are soooo fun together. But I also love how individualized these were too. Love Halloween!

Happy Halloween

What kind of fun things do you do at your house with your kids for Halloween? Do you make your costumes and where do you get your inspiration?

I actually do make most of our costumes and over the past 14 years, most years we have had a theme until last year. My oldest stopped dressing up and somehow all the kids wanted to do their own thing, which I was fine with. I honestly like it both ways, them and individualized. Glad we have done both. this year, my son is a Minecraft mummy, so it was back to cutting squares like I did last year for his Creeper costume. My girls all decided to make life easy on me this year and all wanted to be ballerinas, so I just went and bought them all actual ballet clothes! :)

Well, you've already seen my Halloween projects for this year, but here are a few fun projects and costumes from years past. My favorite costumes were the year we were the Claus family and the year my kids were the 3 Musketeers. I need to get more pics up of the years since then...jawas with one little R2D2, bugs, a beekeeper, and an Entomology club kid, and an angel, Minnie Mouse, a cabbage patch doll, and a Creeper.

Hope you have a fun night with your kiddos!

My "New" Wall

So, I haven't posted pics since the big move, but here is a start of one of my "new" walls. :) Nothing too fancy, but fun to personalize it some.

Artwork Abounds (at our house)

Do your kids want to keep every single thing that they ever drew?!! Mine do! So...I needed some more artwork display space for them. BUT no time to cut and paint boards, so I just threw up some vinyl right on the wall. Works great! Now it isn't all over my house! :)

 I even traced my 2 year old's hands for this one! :)

My Stache Jack-o-Lanterns

Super cute and fast and easy project this morning!

Been wanting to make some festive plates and thought adding a stache to them would be adorable. Also, wanted something a little different to add to the traditional Halloween Trick-or-Treat bucket, so why not combine the two ideas??!! I grabbed some vinyl and threw on a mustache on the bucket and made up a fun Jack-o-Lantern face for the treat plate! Love the splash of color and fun stache! AND great for little kids to have fun putting faces together on the plate too! Love!

 

Easy DIY Paper Tray

I don't know how it is at your house, but at mine, when I buy paper plates, they seem to get used overnight!!! And then when I really need one, I'm out. Well, the other day I found myself in this exact same position. I had just made some monster cookies (on of our fav!!!) and wanted to take some over to a friend and didn't have any paper plates, so I just grabbed a 12x12 piece of cardstock and some washi tape and made one in about 3 minutes! Worked great!!! Here's a little tutorial to help you out someday! :)

As for those monster cookies, I even subbed some ingredients to have them work for my allergy challenged husband. I'll share more about that recipe soon!

Thanksgiving Vinyl Give-Away!

So, Here it is folks! We hit 400 likes on the FB page and so it's a Thanksgiving vinyl giveaway!!!

Two options as the prize:

1) the Enough gratitude vinyl shown in pic OR

2) the So very Thankful and chalkboard vinyl.

Just share this giveaway on FB, and then comment that you shared and which one you want to enter!

If you want extra entries, there are more options!
1)pin to pinterest and let me know you did that as well and that will give you another entry
2) Tell people to let me know who referred them here and when they leave a comment entering the contest and giving your name, you will get an extra entry
Do any of the above and you will be entered multiple times into the giveaway! '
(Pics the prizes will be posted on here as well as on FB. And don't forget, we)'ll have another when we hit the next 100 likes!!!)

Past Halloween Pics

Is it just me or do you also LOVE looking at your kids all dressed up from past years for Halloween?!! Problem is...none of us want those pics up year round.

I saw this oober! cute FREE Spooky Banner from How Does She? and thought it was the perfect way to display pics from past years! You get to enjoy those cute little kids (when they were little and so fun to dress up!) and can put it away and use it again year after year! PLUS, you get free printables too!


Love! Thanks How Does She! Love this idea!

Say it with vinyl

Say it with vinyl...love being able to personalize things. Added this touch to some cups for my son's birthday (which he loved) and rolled up and stuffed an Aggie shirt in it to give to him.

I used regular vinyl (not cast vinyl like I have before on dishes) and I wasn't sure how it would do in the dishwasher and being washed over and over, but after almost two months, still looking great! 

(BTW I accept custom orders, but cannot sell team and school logos due to licensing laws, so this one is not for sale in my shop.) Personalizing and customizing things though make the possibilities endless!

Front door Sprucing Up!

Ever since we moved a month or two ago, I have to say that I miss owning our own house. In our last one, we knocked down a wall, gutted and redid the kitchen, added a bathroom...but I miss little things even like being able to paint the front door. Do you think they would even notice if I painted it? ;)

I did give it a little sprucing up the past couple days though and even without color, I like the look. :)

What color is your front door? Just curious...

AND...guess what else I finally found in my many boxes labeled "craft"?!!! hee hee Still love this!

Large Ruler Growth Chart VINYL

I bought the board to make this probably over a year ago and I finally got it made right before we moved. I had decided I wasn't moving the board unless it was finished. haha So, I decided to invite a couple friends over to make one too. Well, only one was able to come, but maybe it was just as well, bc it took me longer than I thought it would to figure out making the vinyl for the first one. After the first, it was a snap! SO...I took pics to help anyone else who wants to put one together using this vinyl. I'll have a tutorial up here soon.

I love love love this board. Something I will keep forever! I am lucky that my father-in-law has measured my kids for years, so I could ask him for previous years measurements. But where I was missing some, I just went into my kids' pediatricians office and asked for the growth measurements from years past and wala! I can add them all now!

This could be a great baby shower gift (and you can add the name to it too if it's just for one child), or a Christmas gift, whether its for a friend, you, or grandparents too! Love it!

Tutorial coming soon! Happy


Monday!

{Allergy Friendly} Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Guess what?! I did it! Made some muffins that actually taste normal and oh so yummy!!! that are free of:
dairy
wheat/gluten
soy
corn
peanut
sugar

Yes I did!!!!

Want the recipe? I took my Grandma's recipe for pumpkin bread and tweaked it and got great results!!!

Mix the following together:
1 1/2 cups organic coconut palm sugar (same amount of regular 1/4 tsp baking sugar too)
1/4 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
1 tsp baking soda
1 2/3 cup flour (I used 1 cup sorghum flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup white rice flour)
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
2 eggs (I use the Omega 3 eggs)
1/2 salad oil (I use sunflower or safflower oil, but this time I substituted the oil with the same amount of cinnamon applesauce instead.)
1 cup pumpkin
(Optional: add walnuts and/or cranberries)
Cook at 350! That's it. Super easy. Just dump all the ingredients in all together and mix!



ANDDDD if you don't have to worry about allergies (or calories haha) add some caramel apple frosting or cream cheese frosting on top! Oh so good too! :)

Hope you enjoy! These are my most favorite, moist mufffins!

My Personal Mini Pumpkin Patch!

I have ALWAYS wanted to grow my very own pumpkin patch...so I had this grandeous idea this year to create my own. We JUST moved though, so I obviously didn't plant one. So I thought, How fun would it be to create one with all different variations and textures and styles of pumpkins?! Some wood, some metal, some real...get the idea? Problem though was I had NO scrap wood like I normally did, nor did I have a shop set up (since we literally JUST moved in), so when I passed by this local pumpkin patch and saw soooooo many kinds of pumpkins, my husband was soooo nice to stop and help me pick some out with my girls. :) (Pics with them on FB). :) And let me tell you, we hit the jackpot!

I still used some I had that were out of various materials and want more of that kinds, so I don't have to buy so many each year, but this is a start and I have to say I LOVE IT! I love driving up our street and seeing it in our front yard as I come home! :) Turned out so fun and festive for the whole fall season!

OF COURSE, we needed a sign too!

 And who can have a pumpkin patch without a fun photo op?!!! LOVE!!!

 Sooooo...this is just a beginning...for next year! Hee Hee! Love fall decorations and the festivity they bring!!!

Pumpkin Topiary

Excited to share one more thing today! Just love this cute pumpkin topiary I made on this old cupboard door. Too cute! And the bird just topped it off perfect! What fun fall decor have you made lately? I can't get enough fall decor at my house! :)