Tricks and Treats

Happy Halloween!!

We carved a very tricky witch pumpkin last night.  Here she is all spooky and glowing by candlelight.

Here is my treat of a chandelier my mom and dad found for me in Texas.  I took all the electrical out of it and hung it out in my gazebo.  Dollar store emergency candles make it glow.

Here is my outdoor "room" lit up (with the help of the flash).  It's nice to sit out here now that the nights have finally cooled down.


Those are my tricks and treats for Halloween.  I'm attempting to make bread bowls with potato soup for dinner.  Something to balance out all the candy!

Sweet girl to Evil Villain

How to transform a sweet girl into an evil villain:

1.  Find a sweet girl.

2. buy a black punk rock wig and spray paint half of it white.

3. buy a child's royal king robe, feather boa and long black gloves.

4. have her wear her black and red skirt, black shirt and your jewelry.

5. apply lots and lots of makeup.

6. watch her inner evil villain emerge.

 

Before

After

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Cruella DeVil.

I could tell you how to transform a Mom and Dad into a crazy Gypsy and Indiana Jones but we'll save that for another day.

And the two shall become one

This is our new headboard.

  It began as a twin head and foot board.

  They were sitting in the garage collecting dust.

My handy hubby took the two and made it into one.
It's fitting for a marriage bed.


He built it.
And I painted it.
I love it.

Happy Haunting

There are some halloween mantle parties going on.  This is my haunted mantle.

Some haunted houses I found at the dollar store, displayed on my old window with a silver tray.

I found this "Happy Haunting" bunting template somewhere in blogland and printed it out.  I love how old and creepy it looks.

some candlesticks with spanish moss, crows, old books and a lantern.

I like how it turned out.  Not your typical orange pumpkin display.

A Mysterious Birthday

There's been another birthday at our house.  Isabelle had a Mystery Mansion birthday party today on her actual 11th birthday.  After her guests arrived, they had to guess their new identity.  Then they changed into their costumes.  I actually can't believe we had all the stuff for these and didn't have to buy anything!  While they were changing, the gifts were stolen!  So they all became suspects and had to be fingerprinted and have their picture taken one by one.

 

 Isabelle Rock Star!

  Blushing Bride

Wicked (but really nice) Witch

Geisha Girl

Gypsy

Cheerleader

Then they went on a treasure hunt and followed the clues to find the presents and goody bags.  I think they had fun.  I know Isabelle did.

Later she opened presents from the family.  Here she is realizing that her present was ringing.  Yes, she got a phone.  I think eleven is too young for a phone, but with our church callings and her siblings being gone alot, sometimes she is at home by herself for a little while and we don't have a house phone.  Spoiled girl.

But she's sweet and good.

Kind of like this ice cream cake I made.  I'm getting better at making them.  They rival any ice cream cake I could buy.  Yum!

Happy happy birthday Isabelle!

Thrifty Thursday

I love thrifting.  I have been doing it for a long time.  For some reason, I can go into a clothes store and have the hardest time finding anything!  But I have no trouble finding cute things in a thrift store (usually).  I used to be kind of embarassed about it.  But thrifting is in now.  Even Nate Berkus did an entire show on thrifting and putting together outfits for around $20.  So I thought it would be fun to show you some outfits I put together for around $20 (usually). 

This blouse was $7.  I haven't even worn it yet but I love it.  Paired with a gray skirt for $6 and some cute heels for $9.

The neclace was new for about $4 I think.

Here's another outfit.  The jacket is charcoal gray with mid sleeves and ties in front and it was $6.  I paired it with a floral ruffled underblouse (is that a word?) for $4.  It would be really cute with long jeans but I don't have any thrift jeans yet so here's some capri's I got for $5.

I love these flats.  Dressy enough for church or for casual wear.  $4.

The neclace and earrings were new.  About $6 for both.

So there you have it.  Thrifting isn't for everyone.  But it's fun for me.

yard sale find

The girls and I went to a community yard sale on Saturday.  That's what I'm talking about, two or three sales on every street!!  I spotted this little beauty just sitting on the sidewalk.  There was nothing wrong with is except it's oak color (you know how I feel about oak) and a thin layer of cat hair.

A little cleaning and painting fixed her up like new.  I don't know the first thing about reupholstering so the coral velvet fabric stays.  It gives my room a pop of color that I like.

You can't really tell from the photos, but I painted it a light gray.  No distressing yet.  We'll see.
  It was a good find:)

Her perfectly perfect party

Emily had herself a birthday party.  She handmade the invtitations and called it a Mad Hatter Party.

We used things we had to decorate the tables, and made some yummy food.

She made these paper lanterns to string up and we already had the big round paper lanterns.

All dressed up and ready for her guests

 

She asked Isabelle to dress up like the red queen.  Isabelle never misses a chance to dress up!

Everyone liked the food

They played games on the grass

She did a great job of party planning and there was a lot of laughing and eating.  A success!