Disney Halloween Dreams

My favorite thing about decorating for the holidays is seeing how everyone else interprets the holidays with their own style. My house looks completely different than my mom's house, but both are very festive and fun. Our friend Kathie decorates differently, and if I had to describe it I would say it's Disneyland-ish. I've never been to Disneyland for Halloween, but I wish wish wish I could go, it looks so amazing. I was on Sweets Indeed Blog today and was delighted to see she posted about Halloween-time at Disneyland (and I almost melted with jealousy). I mean, LOOK at those Minnie Mouse Witch Caramel Apples!


Kathie's house is all Nightmare before Christmas and New Orleans Square style, I can't wait for her Halloween Party on Sunday! My Pumpkin Carving Party is tomorrow and spent the last couple days preparing all the treats for it. Can I just say, I HATE making cupcake pops? I really just hate using my hands to roll things into balls. It's not that I mind getting dirty, I hate washing my hands 10 million times because one kid needs a diaper change, then I start again and another kid needs a bottle, then I start again and I need to pull something out of the oven then I start again and Braden needs me to help him with something. Jeepers Creepers, if I could do it all in one go it wouldn't take me 4 hours to finish the damn things, but I've been at it all day and I'm about to lose my marbles. Anywhoo, come back tomorrow to see me prep for the party and see me unveil all the home improvement projects we've been working on for the party! You will DIE!

More Halloween Eye Candy

Don't have much time to talk, just wanted to share some of this amazing Halloween inspiration I found while blog stalking last night. I have to go finish some Halloween necklaces for my girls Party Outfits-I'll share more tomorrow!


Love At First Bite Treat Buffet by Sweets Indeed


Halloween Prints & Paper Dolls By Sarah Jane Studios, as seen on Nie

Candy Kabobs by Sweets Indeed. Brilliant!

Fun Fall Recipes

Arizona stresses me out. Everywhere else it's chilly and leaves are falling, and here it's now outdoor season with sunshine and temperatures finally in the 70-80s range. It's lovely, don't get me wrong, but the weather still begs for all those summer recipes of lemonade, fresh tomatoes, and watermelon. Sadly, those foods are no longer in season, but the transition into autumn friendly foods is a hard one with days still being too hot. But, since this week is Halloween week-it's officially time to start with the soups, chili, and other inside-warming meals. Thank goodness, it might actually get into the 60's this week. Brrrrrr.


Apple & Cheddar scones via Smitten Kitchen


Pumpkin Turkey Chili via Serious Eats. This sounds weird, I know-but it doesn't taste pumpkin-y. This is what I will be serving at our Pumpkin Party on Thursday


Apple Cake via Anne Strawberry. This girl is a doll, and her recipes are delicious. This apple cake would be a great little fall neighbor gift. Hmmmm, I might have to get on that for Thanksgiving.....


And I've never tried squash soup, but it seems to be a fall staple, so we're going to try Martha's recipe. It has to be good, if it looks as cute as this.

Let's all try these out and report back to me! I'm doing the soup tonight, I'll let you know how it goes.

Halloween Treats with Bakerella

Bakerella is the go-to-girl for cute themed treats, and her cake pops will definitely be making a debut at my Pumpkin Party. You all know how I feel about boxed cake mix, can frosting, and candy melts though, so I'll be using this recipe for vanilla cake and this recipe for frosting and adding orange food color to white chocolate. They may not look as cute as Bakerella's, but they will probably taste amazing. But, feel free to use the store-bought stuff to save time!

Witches Hat Headbands

I've made these super cute mini witches hat fascinators for my girls, and I have had a lot of requests for them, so I'm selling only TWO here. If you want one, click on the Buy it Now button in the right hand corner of my blog and you can buy one for $25. I only have 2 so grab one while you can!


****UPDATE: The witches hats are SOLD OUT! Thanks Chelsey & Cynthia!

Pumpkin Party Inspiration

I've been scouring my favorite blogs to find fun party ideas to share with everyone, and boy do I have some doozies.

First up, from the treat buffet Goddess, Amy Atlas' blog a fun new take on Halloween colors- a Pink-O-Ween Party by Pizzarie




Then I found these super sweet Spooky Halloween Lollies from last year's House of 3 goodies. Directions are here on their blog


Also on the House Blog are these cute treat jar labels printables that you can download from House of 3 and stick on the candies.



I'm going to stick with a traditional black and orange theme this year, but if you wanted to snag the funky Halloween color idea, here's a great tutorial how to change up the colors on the treat labels to match the Pink-O-Ween stuff. Love.

Plan a Party with Me-Pumpkin Party!

We decided that we are going to throw our 1st annual Pumpkin Party at our house the Thursday before Halloween. I think it would be fun if I shared all my party planning ideas, inspirations, recipes, and decor so we can all party it up together! Then at the end we can all post our pictures of our fun parties-what could be more fun than a massive blog party?

To kick it off, I made up these invitations using my sillouette I made last year, this House of 3 phantom background kit, and these fonts from 2peas & House of 3. Olivia helped with the glittering!


You can use these for your own invitations, I will be using them as treat labels.

My party will include a pumpkin carving contest, a treat buffet, BYO pumpkins & carving tools, and some pumpkin turkey chili & pumpkin rolls. More party details to come!

Fun with Shuggilippo

Thursday Jess & Dylan came over. There was much fun to be had, all documented and compiled in this sweet video for Shugglippo's "Do Fun Stuff" Series benefitting SMS. Chickety-check it yo.

Do Fun Stuff: Episode Two from Shuggilippo on Vimeo.

All in all, a pretty sweet play date. Get the deets at Jess's Shuggilippo blog

House of 3 Inspired Halloween Decor

Did you guys watch the first Halloween Webshow last month? Heidi showcased some darling witches hats and I knew I had to make some for my new bookcases in my living room. A little black paper, modge podge, glitter and feathers later- I came up with these beauties!

I did mine freehand, but you can use this tutorial here for a witches hat pattern. I used Martha Stewart Onyx glitter (of course) because it is hands down the best glitter ever made. The best thing about about these is you can use anything to decorate them so you can customize them to match your decor. I used guinea feathers, rhinestone buttons from Joannes, paper doiles from Wilton, and some book paper lollies. I also used some House of 3 Phantom backgrounds to cut out some little paper flags for one of my hats.

Make some. They are super super cute as decor, but I think I'm going to make a couple more and glue them to some headbands for my girls. And little mini ones would be darling on some cupcakes. Oooooh, the possibilities.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's Monday! Here's a new pumpkiny recipe to brighten your day (from Food Network!) Try not to eat these for breakfast all week like I did.

Fun New Halloween Tradition

So we all know Rhonna Farrer is a genius and a doll and I basically want to move in next door to her so I can stalk her even more than I do now. She posted this brilliant idea to spread some Halloween cheer to your neighbors, and I am totally copying and Boo-ing my neighbors! We made up 3 bags of festive halloween candy, printed off some We've been Booed signs & a cute Booed poem I found here (which I snagged from Rhonna and used this Halloween font from House of 3 and this Halloween font from 2peas-both designed by Rhonna). We're going out tonight once it gets dark and leaving them at our neighbor's doors! I can't wait, it's such a fun new tradition to start!

Jaimee Rose is on my list.

Because WHO could resist a Mac & Cheese Throwdown Fest! Sunday dinner is going to feature this fantastic spread



If you haven't gone to her blog, you're a freakin lunatic because there is nothing but pretty pretty inspiration all around. Like this hostess gift from last year which I am copying and turning into a centerpiece!

Halloween Craft Goodness

Good golly Miss Molly, this homemade apothecary craft is freakin amazing, from Everything I Love And More. I am going to straight to Hobby Lobby and making these lovelies.

Spook-a-palooza

People, it's been Halloween Madness here at my house this week. My cousin Minday sent me a link to Tater Tots and Jello, which features a ton of super cute printables to craft into Halloween treats. But my favorite is this:

I'm printing this out TODAY, framing it, and sticking it in my new black bookcases in my living room! Once I get all my decorations up I am going to snap some pictures and do some tutorials, so stay tuned!

PS. Tonights another House of 3 Wednesday Webshow, I can't wait!