Halloween Costumes to die for...

My sister, Melissa and her husband went to a costume party last night. She just wanted to tease-up her blond hair and wear a black dress. But I would not allow that. I mean, if you're gonna dress up, do it right!

• Wig 8 bucks
• Glasses 2 bucks
• The reaction of her kids when they saw her all dressed up— Priceless

Oh yeah, and here's her other half, Brad. I glued his screw nubby things to his neck the first time with Household Goop and he claimed his neck was burning. Wimp. So we took them off and he ended up Super-glueing them to his neck. Go figure. He'll be wearing those for the next few days, at least!

They make quite the creepy couple, don't you think?

Happy Halloween!

The Neighborhood Boo— think outside the pumpkin!

These are a few Boo ideas I've made over the last couple of years. 

Details and contents are below as well as where you can get/make the goods.

My kids are really into Harry Potter and making potions, so I made this package full of creepy potion ingredients. I found some great labels online here and I changed them up a little adding my own potion names and descriptions. For some of the labels I used the name "C.W. Van Kowenhoven and Sons" as a homage to my husband's ancestors. That was their name back in the 1600's. It got shortened over the years to "Crownover". [Interesting tid-bit: Wolphert G. Van Kouwenhoven was one of the founders of New Amsterdam (New York)]. The Eyes of Newt box is a Martha Stewart craft. Love Potion #9 and Medusa's Sovereign Female Wisdom were my own creations. I could use some a dat Medusa stuff!

I made an economy size version of the Scare Package as well. 

For a FREE download of the Economy Size Boo Kit test tube potion labels and "Scare Package" tag CLICK HERE!

I used Martha Stewart's "Witch's Broom Favors" idea and super-sized it to make this Witch's Broom Boo. It was super easy. I used paper bags and a stick from the yard. I downloaded the Broom Parking sign here from The Diary of Dave's Wife blog. Thanks Dave's Wife!

  And finally, the Eyeballs Boo is just a plastic paint can (from the craft store), a light-up skull, eyeball bouncy balls (from Target) and eyeball chocolate candies. These are pictures from the 3rd Grade classroom door. The kids loved it!

Would love to hear some of your Boo ideas!

Meet the Moorgue Family

My best friend Kelley Moore decided to put her own twist on the Haunted Family photo idea. She emailed some shots to me last night and I doctored it up a bit. Aren't they just the picture of spookiness? 

Monday in my "ewe"niverse— My First GIVEAWAY!

I designed the Haunted Halloween Party Collection for my own soiree this year and thought I'd share it to with you. The BOO Banner—my very first giveaway! If you would like the FREE printable PDF file for this cool, spooky Haunted Halloween BOO Banner, DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Don't forget to leave some ewehooo! love!  Let me know that you did by leaving me a comment.

Thanks for following my blog!!

The full Haunted Halloween Printable Collection is on SALE now!

GET YOUR'S HERE!

Happy Halloween week!

A Bloody Good Party.

I hosted Bunco on Friday night and continued with the Haunted Holiday theme. Here's the run down of what I did and where you can get the goods.

I used cheese cloth as the back drop and made the BOO banner. The skeleton nutracker  is from Target. I designed the paper wine tags and candy jar labels. The wine bottles have custom labels. I downloaded a set from Two Peas in a Bucket and designed a few of my own as well. The yummy marshmallow ghost cake was a h it and surprisingly easy to make from Martha Stewart. Same goes for the Ladie's Fingers. 

I knew I'd be gone all day Friday (the day of the party) at the Green Meadows Petting Farm Chaperoning Jackson's Kindergarten class, so (for once) I had to plan ahead for the menu. I made everything the day before and turned the crock-pot on before I left for the day. It worked out great! Thanks Mom for the Minestrone soup recipe. It was delish! And kudos to my talented friend Jennifer McCully for sharing her delicious Fluffy Apple Dip and Spinach & Cheese Swirls recipes with me. Everyone loved them. Thought I'd share the recipes with you too!

Be sure to check back on Monday in my "ewe"niverse for a special GIVEAWAY!

The House of Spirits

I love decorating for Halloween! The kids get so excited when I pull the bins out of the attic. Decided to take it easy on the outside this year and instead go all out on the inside. I made some new things this year, namely the "Come in and Sit a Spell" signs for the front steps. And of course, I incorporated our Adams Family-esque portraits as well.

The kids were so excited when they came home from school and saw the decked out house. Jackson ran up to his room and came down with this skeleton eraser he had gotten from the Kindergarten Treasure Box at school. He taped it on the wall himself and then proudly showed me his Halloween decorating contribution. 

The Paper Pumpkin

After you've curled up to enjoy a good book, might want to consider turning it into a pumpkin when you're done with it. This was so easy to make! I was just getting ready to call it a day and put my Mac to sleep when I came across the instructions to make this adorable paper pumpkin and I decided to stay up and make it. Here are the easy-peasy instructions The Craftberry Bush. My paper pumpkin features the pages from The Nanny Diaries.

Fall Trees

Behold— The only "color" we'll see in Florida this Fall. I wish I take the kids up north to see the leaves turn, but this'll have to do. Jackson is learning about Fall colors in Kindergarten and he's decided to collect "Fall leaves" as he calls them. I don't have the heart to tell him he's actually just collecting a bunch of dead leaves. My purse is full of his lovely collection.

This forest is suspended from the ceiling in the hallway of the kids' school. I made this forest from boxes I've been collecting for about a month now. When I spotted a Samsung flat screen TV box hanging out of a dumpster I thought I hit the mother load. I painted newspaper to make the leaves.

Happy Fall!

Monday in my "ewe"niverse— a Freaky Family Portrait

I was having another bad hair day, so I said to myself, "Self, why don't you turn your bad-hair day into a positive for once and have some fun with it?" So I did.

Happy Halloween! It's embarrassing to admit this, but we have not gotten a family portrait taken since before Jackson was born (he's 5). My poor second child. Well, thanks to my bad-hair day and my trusty assistant (and niece) Jessica, we finally got our act together for this Adams Family-esque home-spun photo shoot. Jessica assisted with wardrobe, herding the cats and a little photoshop action. Thank you Jessica!! Jackson was surprisingly cooperative wearing the coke bottle glasses and Wesley didn't have to smile for this picture anyway, so no problems there. These lovely portraits are now hung on the walls in our living room, which I've decorated for the occasion. I'll post that later this week! 

Just what "ewe" wanted to see— more of upstairs

Just thought I'd add to my post from June on the Boys' Bedroom. This is a view of the upstairs landing from the boys' bedroom. People say the upstairs looks like the hull of a (small) ship. I have to agree that it's pretty tight quarters, but we've tried to make it feel as roomy as possible.

• The Wooden Arch— As I noted before, my brother-in-law carved the arch out from a tree branch that was in his yard. You can see the arched front door downstairs. There are several arched doorways in our house, so we carried the arches upstairs as well. This arch has double pocket doors.
•Interior Colors Reflect the Home's Brown and White Tudor Style— We painted the tongue-and-groove walls white with dark stained trim to family with the traditional brown and white tudor exterior.
• The Star Light— If I had to pick a favorite thing, that star light would be it.
•The Other Rooms— The door to the left of the stairwell opens to the boys' bathroom. And behind the door on the right is my husband's office.
•Making Space for Storage— Wanting to make use of every available inch of space, we built shelves on either side of the upstairs landing that are actually "secret" doors to valuable attic space.

1. Shower—The bathroom turned out to be pretty big and with all the fantangled shower heads we put in, I kind of wish it was OUR master bathroom rather than the kids'!
2. Cabinets— Four foot high custom cabinets flank one entire wall of the bathroom bumping up to the slanted ceiling.
3. Secret Opening— The slanted wall to the left of the hanging red pirate hoodie towels actually leads to more storage space behind the shower. That's where I keep my holiday decorations!
4. Pirate— That's a pirate skeleton hanging on that towel hook. See "Ship's Hull" reference. Hence, the pirate theme for the bathroom.
5. Mirror— In an effort to try and make the bathroom feel as roomy as possible, we had mirrors cut to fit counter to ceiling surrounding the sink.

That's about it! Thanks for taking a peek! Have a great week!