Pumpkin Carving 2011

Our Annual tradition is to carve pumpkins 1 to 2 days before Halloween so they last for Trick-Or-Treat. This year Kaitlyn was loved the cleaning out the guts and of coarse she is able to do more every year. My Husband always carves the best pumpkin. I always pick something simple! Have a Happy Halloween! Here's a few pic's!

OK, that's not a knife in her hand but a large pumpkin carving spoon. Like the one on the table they make pumpkin carving easy!

This year she loved getting her hands gooey!

This pumpkin is about as big as she is!

Watching a Halloween show carving pumpkins!

Hubby alsways carves a nice creative pumpkin. This is the big bad wolf Kaitlyn is into Little Red Riding Hood!

My simple pumpkin but I like him!

Those new led lights for pumpkins are great and safe they change colors!

My pumkin is Happy Halloween is coming!! LOL

Halloween Hair Bow....No Sugar Added

Kaitlyn wanted to take a treat for the girls in her dance class but Halloween time is fun but for kids it involves way to much sugar.... you know in all that candy.  So a cute gift/ treat that makes them look sweet not taste sweet and hyper. So I do what I know and know what I do.....Well something like that! Curly hair bows will be perfect and in my craft arsenal I had everything I needed. Black & orange ribbon, Hair clips and a cute little card (homemade my scrapbooking talents) to make the gift complete. (to make see my past post Hair Accessories for girls curly ribbon barrettes) They turned out Boo-tiful!! Get it!!!!



Then on the back I placed a little note:

Trick-Or-Treat

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble,

 fire burn and cauldron bubble,

Abracadabra, Hocus Pocus, Alakazam.

Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns you'll look

Boo-tiful this Howl-O-Ween with this

frightfully delightful hair raising hair bow.

Have a be witching Halloween.

Bugs & Hisses

So no card would be complete with out some cute little saying. It's Halloween so I just took some cute Halloween related words and made them work. I love how very thing turn out. Besides the hair bow will last longer then chocolate. If you have any questions.....let me know.... I would be glad to share.

I always buy my ribbon for these hair bows on sale. Hobby Lobby is a craft store around me that every few weeks buts their ribbon on sale for 50% off you need 3/8 or 1/4 ribbon works well so the rolls are $1.99 for 15 ft. depending on how large or small your ribbon balls are determines how many curly hair bows you get out of each spool of ribbon. Barrettes run about 25 pieces in a pack $2.99 but they were on sale to 50% off so $3.50 is way less then if you bought a curly ribbon bow made I have seen them $5.00 to $6.00 bucks and you'll get more then one out of your ribbon so worth it. I love I can make them watching TV w/ the fam. and custom make them to match my daughter outfits.

Gross, Funny Halloween Menu Board

I had seen a picture frame all decorated for Halloween on another blog and the light bulb went off and I took it one step further. I took a 10 x 13 frame removed the glass (cheap frame) spray painted it all black. Then I let Kaitlyn paint over everything with a metallic black paint. It basically add sparkle to every because the paint has glitter in it. Made a menu, printed it out, cut the edge with my decorative scrapbook scissors to give a riped edge appearance and decoupaged it to the back panel of the frame. Add some pieces of that cheap spooky material (Deals $1.00) glued skeletons (Deals $1.00) and I had the spiders left over (Hobby Lobby $2.99 on sale last year .50 cents) Kaitlyn helped direct the placement of the skeletons and spiders since she is so good and careful placing items with hot glue on them these days. That's how my spooky, gross, funny Halloween Menu board came about. I'm going to hang this above my buffet table Monday 31st All Hallows Eve for my guest to enjoy at our annual HOWL-O-WEEN PARTY!

The Halloween Menu board reads as followed: (since it is hard to read)

P.S. I used a different haunted Font!

Halloween Menu

Appetizers:

Creepy Crispy Critters

Lizard Gizzards

Toads Tongue

Soup of the day:

Road Kill Stew

Main Dish of Killer Cuisine:

Barbed Porcupine with a Maggot Gravy

Worm Burger with a side of Baked Skeleton Bones

Rats Brains with a side of Witches Warts

Dessert to Die for:

Roasted Cockroaches a la mode

Fresh Blood Cake

Beverages:

Slug Slime

Witches Brew

Rotten Apple Punch

This menu is endorsed by:

I. B. Dead, Will U. Joinme, I.L. Beback, Otta B. Alive and Ima Rotten

So this is easy to do and cheap why don't you and your kids have fun and make your own Halloween Menu. Nice evening project for the family of have each kid make their on scary frame and put their Halloween picture in it. Run with the ideas. (Around me Dollar General has cheap frames or check out some thrift stores or garage sales) You can also get Halloween items for discount prices now. Remember if you have any questions ask, I'll be glad to help!

Witch Pins

It began with needing a small cute gift for the Dance Instructor, assistance's and preschool teachers. Seven gifts not a big price tag and super cute. So........ I know a small wood torso, black paint, glitter, a pin, and orange sparkle tulle, black ribbon and a button. I had everything I needed laying around in my craft bins. Cute 7 small torso's out of wood, paint & glitter, 6" x 22" piece of orange tulle, fold tulle in half long ways use a gathering stitch, glue pin to back of torso add tulle around bottom, ribbon for bow and glue your button. It turned out better then I had thought. Super cute price tag $0.00 had the supplies and better then a pair of plastic vampire fangs!! He! He! He!

I made a matching scrapbook card to attach the pin too!

Crazy Hat for Preschool

So my daughter's preschool does not have the kids wear costumes for Halloween but they get to make and create a crazy hat at home to wear to a fall party they have instead. So what to do??? We started throwing around ideas! Then out shopping with my Mom we stopped to check out the Halloween section at Wal-Mart when Kaitlyn found a purple wig ( purple is Kaitlyn's favorite color) So the idea was born buy the purple wig glue it to a ball cap. Then she thought it would be funny to add bugs to the hair. Then we made and added a small hat, glued bugs every where and Kaitlyn's crazy hat took life!! It's funny, different and cute! She likes her purple hair and that she has bug's!!!!! HE! HE! HE! My little bug lady!! LOL We had a blast doing her hat together and I have to admit she is craft like me! I helped her but she was a pro with the hot glue gun. Well she is off at preschool I hope she's having a blast at her Party!!!

My new love Party Planning!!

I love entertaining!! I love blogs where people create these perfect parties. You know the food table looks like art and to cute to eat and the decoration are out of this world and everything is perfect.


I got this picture from a party planning site. This is a awesome set up! I picked Halloween since it's right around the corner.

I recently attempted my first party with a cute theme (Vintage Tea Party) and used tips, set up ideas I got from party planning blogs. Well the weather ruined my complete vision but I think I did well pulling it off indoors in a small space. The hole project was making a total delicate, fancy, over the top, girly party and doing it for $150.00 dollars or less. Well my decor was great but the dessert table and decor was not so great.

This is my set up! I think their should have been a better background.

The nice thing is that I can have this party again in the future for my daughter and her friends because I have everything I need except my desserts. Now I'm working on my next party idea for my Daughter and her friends! I once again set my budget of $150.00 dollars for everything. I will reuse some thing from my Vintage Tea Party like all the fabric table covers. Love to craft and a big project just fills my need for crafting! I also like garage sales, thrift shops and finding thing cheap and recreating a purpose for them. Some day I'll have that picture perfect party but until then I'll keep planning and having parties!!!  We'll see how Halloween turns out! Keep you posted.

Count Down to Halloween Calendar

I'll admit over and over I love to craft and holidays. So to get the kids involved and excited I made these Halloween Calendar for Kaitlyn and cousin Garret last year. Each date can hold some kind of treat which gets removed each day until Halloween. I seen something like this at Pottery Barn Kids and I love their stuff not the price tag so I do what I do... copy. I made 2 of these Calendars for $5.00 dollars each. I used 2 24"x 3' pieces of black felt I bought on sale. Then a orange piece of fabric 19" x 30" with a hem then sewed it to my 1 piece of black felt. Cut 31- 3" x 2 inch squares out of black felt. I used my embroidery machine to add a date to each black square. I also used 2 different orange threads and white thread for 31st. Used the embroidery machine for the Happy Halloween and to add the kids names at the bottom. I bought these cute plastic pumpkins in the scrapbooking part of the craft store and glued them to a pin. Attached to the 31st. Ghost I found pre-cute for a buck at the craft store and a few stitches to attach. to hide all the stitching I sewed a 2nd piece of black felt to the back of the original leaving a gap at the top for my hanger. Hanger is a dowel rod and 2 wooden balls. Drilled a hole 1/2 way threw the wooden balls add some glue and dowel rod. Painted dowel rod black with spray paint and added 2 small eye hooks to attach ribbon for hanging.

Yearly Vacation to Lake Chautauqua, NY

We have a blast every year when we travel with family to Lake Chautauqua, NY for a week of swimming, fishing, boating, eating, relaxing and jet skiing etc. I did the same trip with my parent's and family growing up. I have fond memories of Lake Chautauqua and it has not changed much since I was a kid. Now to share this with my family. My Husband has been struck with the Chautauqua bug. He loves the trip as much as I do and we look forward to it every year! Now Kaitlyn has fallen in love! She talks about the trip all the time! Which reminds me so much of my childhood and the joy it brought me! 
So here are a few things when vacationing at Lake Chautauqua 1. Swim, swim & swim. easy to do when your cottage sits right on the lake. 2. Boating- fishing is great or the sites and views to see while traveling by boat around the lake. Everyone's favorite go to the local restaurant (Casino) on the lake bye boat or jet skies for either a bite or just drinks! 3. Jet skiing is great. 4. The Lake is Huge...I mean huge and never crowded.  5. Tubing 6. Fish from the dock. (the kids catch fish after fish) 7. kids have their own private beach and water front. 8. Midway Park 9. Guppy's restaurant 10. The Chautauqua Belle a great scenic tour and history guide on a steam boat with drinks served.  11. Fish Hatchery great learning 12. the relaxation 13. Family time. 14. Friendliness of the local sheriff's Department. 15. The great laughs. We went at the end of August this year and everyone is still talking about it especially the kids!! Vacations are do what you want and relax. This is one of those Vacations and until next year my friend!

More Fall Family Fun!!

It was a nice Saturday the weather was nice for the end of October in NE Ohio. So a perfect day for family time! So off we went for a day of fun! So we hit Detwiler Farms to pick pumpkins, corn maze, straw maze with slide and a petting zoo. The fun part is when they take you out on a tractor pulled hayride to the pumpkin fields and you get to roam the pumpkin patch and find your own perfect pumpkin! Kaitlyn had a blast it was her first time to the farm. My Hubby and I used to go and get pumpkins from this farm when we first started dating but they closed for a few years. So it was nice to see them open again and to enjoy the company of each other while have fun! My daughter did get a little tired of pictures!!!

Just got back from a Haunted Ghost walk at Craig Beach it was great the kids really liked it!! It was scary but not to scary!! Kaitlyn did not like the chain saws! Garret the master of Halloween had some suggestions.

"BANNERS"

Well it's true I have been bitten by the Banner bug! I love them they can be made from all sorts of materials and items. I have been making material ones but just seen one out of cookie cutters and it was cute! Their big to make to go with your party themes or for holidays. You can make them with paper & glue. A pair of pinking sheers and material along with some bias tape and some simple sewing can make a real nice banner. You can use double sided heat n bond iron-on adhesive to put shapes and lettering on your banners. I have seen some really nice banners out of paper with the use of a cricut. The material banners have a fancy delicate look!
 Here's a few of mine I made:

I made several of these banners for Kaitlyn's Vintage Tea party to decorate with.

I made this one after seeing the Trick -Or-Treat one from Pottery Barn Kids except I wanted something that I could  hang for Autumn and  leave until Thanksgiving.

I made this for a bare corner of Kaitlyn's room.

OK, paper banners from the party stores are nice but a personalized banner out of fabric is nicer and  it folds right up and packs away nicely and looks great when up.  This will be the 3rd year for Birthday banner.