Halloween Decorations

Halloween is a big deal around our house. We decorate, we dress up, we enjoy a fun movie, and of course, we hand out candy on Halloween night. Here are a few photos of our Halloween decorations.

And yes, we are those kind of people. We do indeed dress up our dog. Here she is wearing her Princess Leia costume (found here). She wasn't fond of the wig, she much preferred to play with the buns than have them on her head. Still, she is pretty cute!

What is Halloween like at your house?

Rocking it old school!

What is my iPod doing connected to a cassette tape? Why, playing music of course!

Yes friends, that cassette tape is no ordinary cassette tape! It's actually a speaker. Isn't it a riot?! It's called a chicboom, and it even comes with a cassette case to carry it in when you aren't listening to your tunes. Groovy things about it:

• Connect to any listening device with a standard 3.5mm stereo jack
• Built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery and battery life indicator
• Up to 2 hours of awesome, distortion-free sound
• Stereo cable and USB cable included

I love it! So many times I have been someplace talking about a song and didn't have a way to easily share it with those I was talking with. It's also nice for those times when you really don't need or want headphones, but would still like to listen to music.

Come back on November 1st because I have a chicboom to giveaway to one lucky reader! Can't wait for November 1st? For more free products and giveaways, go to http://www.facebook.com/chicbuds!

Beautiful Chicken Coop

This has to be the most beautiful chicken coop I have ever seen. Those are some mighty lucky chickens!

Source: inspire-me-heather.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

Getting Spooky!

Halloween is just around the corner, and the house is almost completely decked out for the holiday.

If Baby looks worried, it's because she is confused by the leg behind her. It's part of a Halloween decoration in the works, as you can see, it's a witch's leg. She is also a bit concerned because a lot of the time and attention she usually gets has been diverted away from her onto my other project. Handmade Halloween ornaments.

After 8 years of being relatively ornament-less, I decided it was time for our Halloween tree to get an upgrade. Making these ornaments from felt, embossing thread, and cute Trick-Or-Treat ribbon has been a lot of fun. Even if they do take quiet a bit of time. I'll be sure to post the finished tree soon.

Is it getting spooky in your house?

Getting Organized

There is nothing quiet like a change in the seasons to get me in the mood to clear out and organize! Fall is especially great for turning inward and making changes in the house. Do you find yourself doing more clutter clearing in the fall? Or do you do yours in the spring? I find myself doing it both times of the year. Here are some inspiring spaces to get you in the mood to get organized!

Don't you love the idea of using the back of a door, a little used space, to create a great storage area? Another genius use of space! Add cork to the inside of a cabinet door to make a space to keep little reminders like recipes or lists. I have dreamed of something like this for years! People are so clever to find ways to use space under the stairs, which usually goes unused. This would be an amazing way to store things like holiday decorations which don't get used often. Or, a great place to store bulk items. Lovely baskets are always a great way to store small items, especially the kind that need to be moved from space to space. My one and only tip for getting organized? Clear the clutter!! The less you have that you don't love and use, the less you have to organize it. Make sure everything in you home is something you really love, or use, and your home will become a space you love to spend time in.

Halloween Themed Terrarium

While I was out shopping the other day I found Venus Fly Traps for sale. They have always been a source of fascination for me, and not only did I know that I just had to have one, I had also been trying to think of something fun to do with my empty terrarium.

The plant is smaller than I would have wished for, but maybe with some love and feeding it will grow to be quiet large! Hopefully not "Little Shop of Horrors" kind of large, but big enough to really fill out the terrarium.

Using moss and some eyeballs to finish the look, the overall feel of the terrarium is nice and spooky. It looks great on our dinning room table, which is also quiet handy, because if your Venus Fly Trap doesn't get food from bugs (which hopefully our home doesn't have many of), you need to give it a little meat from time to time.

Our Halloween decorating is almost complete. Do you decorate for Halloween?

Halloween Inspiration

Don't you love how this Halloween room looks? I adore the use of more vintage looking Halloween items, complete with fun Halloween themed artwork on the walls. This space gets high marks for really taking the theme and running with it!

Do you love it too?

Source: None via Aimee on Pinterest

DIY Costume Designs for Children

Today we have a fun guest post from Blake about DIY costume ideas for children. Enjoy!

It's that time again! The air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and pumpkin patches are happenin'. Yep, that's right…Halloween is just around the corner! Personally, I love the challenge of creating something from scratch, and have made it our family's tradition to make all of our costumes, and my children's creativity has shown through every year. While it can be expensive to buy all of the components for costumes, dollar bins, and second-hand stores can make it easy, affordable, and downright fun!

1. Last year, my son was inspired to be a Bumblebee from Transformers. I visited my local grocery store and begged some empty boxes off of them. I returned home and painted all of them a vibrant yellow, then had my husband paint details on them. My son wanted a costume that actually transformed, but I'm just not that creative. Instead, he wore black thermal underwear, and we fastened the boxes to his limbs, until he looked like a transformed Bumblebee.
2. My daughter recently announced that she wanted to be Smurfette for Halloween this year. At first, I was stymied as to how to make this a possibility, but after a little brainstorming, I went online and found white tights, a white leotard, and white gloves. I also lucked out and found a Smurf hat. I then bought blue dye and dyed the leotard, tights and gloves. When you add a white sundress and her Easter shoes, voilà!, you have the beloved blue babe.
3. Tron came out when I was young, and I was happily surprised to see it in theaters recently. My son temporarily pondered being a character from this movie; had he settled on this idea, it would have been easy to make it a reality. Buy white thermal underwear, glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark paint, an inexpensive bike helmet, and white shoe polish. Decorate the thermals with the glow sticks and paint, and cover the helmet with white shoe polish. Simple, right?
4. After nixing the Tron costume, my son decided he wanted to be Two-Face from Batman. I almost talked him out of this idea, because it seemed impossible, but while visiting a second-hand store, I found a white suit in his size, and it was a cinch after that. I cut the entire suit in half, dyed one half solid black, and sewed the parts back together with a whipstitch; I did the same with a white shirt, only in reverse. I found a black wig at the same store, and with a lot of hair gel and hairspray, I teased half of it to stand on end, and colored that half white with shoe polish. The shoe polish was also applied to an old pair of black sneakers, and Two-Face was recreated.
5. When I was a kid, my mom loved to make homemade costumes for us. Her most memorable one was when she transformed my brother into Cookie Monster. This is how she did it:
   Cut a 2'x2' piece of cardboard into a circle, fold in half, cut a circle out of center (big enough for your child's face to show through), and paint black.
   Secure blue fabric to this (Mom found blue flannel, but any fabric will do, as long as it is the right shade of blue, or can be dyed appropriately).
   Take two ping pong balls and paint black spots on them, and fasten these securely to the top of the blue fabric.
   Drape this entire contraption over your child, allowing their face to peep through the mouth, and behold the emergence of Cookie Monster!
   For added stability, you can fasten a string to the cardboard mouth/face and tie it behind your youngster's head to keep everything in place.

As you can see, making a DIY costume is easy and fun. This will show your children the importance of creativity and imagination, and will begin a family tradition that can be passed on from one generation to the next.

Amazing Treehouses

I don't know about you, but I have always dreamed of having a treehouse! These images make me want a treehouse even more than I did before. Aren't they just amazing? And last but not least, how about a treehouse inside an actual tree? I wish I knew what this looked like on the inside. I bet it's amazing!

Halloween Decorating Underway!

Now that it is officially October, I feel justified in bringing out the Halloween decorations. We are huge fans of Halloween in our house, and we even have a Halloween tree (like a Christmas tree, only black and orange). I can't wait to share all of our fun decorations with you when I am finished putting them up. What about in your home? Do you enjoy decorating for the holidays? Which holiday is your favorite to decorate for?