Halloween 2013

Besides Christmas, my other favorite holiday to decorate for is HALLOWEEN! My Halloween decor is starting to come together in my house. Here are just a few of my favorites!

The Mantel is always fun to change up for the seasons. I have found all of my Halloween decorations at Gordman's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's for the most part. They are a compilation resulted from many years of 50 percent off shopping sprees the day after Halloween. (I can't wait to share all my new stuff from my big shopping day next year!) Isn't that the best looking Iron Man EVER?

This Iron Man and Storm Shaddow are showing off their best poses on the tulle decorated stairway. Michael's has these really "pretty" jeweled spiders that I can't get enough of!!

I made the wreath last year using a foam round wreath, and yarn. All I did was wrap the yarn around it over and over until it was all covered. I added one of my favorite jeweled spiders from Michael's Craft store. I bought fake pumpkins from Hobby Lobby, and glued them together with that E6000 glue. I then placed them on top of a set of planters I use for every season.

This is the full view of our porch. I used cheese cloth to make a spider web, and then added that cotton web stuff to it. I found the giant sparkly spider at Wal-Mart. I painted our house number and our Last name on the fake white pumpkins on the porch table. I have so many more Halloween decorations to share, but did not take any pics this year. I will post all of the nitty gritty details next year!

Lego Birthday Party

My son is TEN years old, and we decided to have a big bash to celebrate his entrance into the double digits.

The Invitations were a pain-staking process. I had to hole punch each individual circle for the Legos, and cut out all of the little rectangles. It took several days to complete them. I used real Legos as a guide, which made the process a bit easier.

The main table was fun, cheap, and easy to put together. I used the Legos we already had (my sons have thousands of them). I created a cake stand myself from the Legos in our color theme. (I later discovered it wasn't quite sturdy enough for our cake, so I just added it as a centerpiece to the table). I used glass centerpiece votive holders that I already had and filled them with Legos. I then used some party straws and scrap paper to make the centerpieces complete. I got the paper dinner plates and dessert plates from Wal-Mart. I always like to do plastic ware bundles and tie them with ribbon for a nice little detailed touch.

I added streamers to the wall above the fireplace, and Love how that turned out. The Lego "Marshall" banner was made from card stock. I got a large hole punch and used 3D scrap stickers to make them look like legos. I punched holes in the top of each one and threaded the ribbon. I got the party paper balls (i don't know what you call them) from Hobby Lobby. I wrapped some empty boxes I had around the house with wrapping paper, and cut out circles (used a plastic cup as a stencil), and voila, you have giant Legos.

More gift boxes wrapped in paper for a coffee table centerpiece.

The wreath hung on the front door (I didn't take the pic outside because it was cold and snowy that day!). I bought a foam wreath from Hobby Lobby and wrapped it with yarn. I also got the wooden number "10" from Hobby Lobby, and wrapped them with Yarn as well Some foam scrapbook letters to spell out the birthday boy's name, and some party fans finished off the birthday wreath quite nicely.

The gift table was a big hit with the kids. We played Lego Bingo, pin the head on the Lego guy, and guess how many legos are in the jar. (I don't currently have pics of these activities, but I'm sure some will surface). I made the party favor bags with card stock, and white craft bags purchased from Hobby Lobby. I ended up tying a balloon to each one later on.

No birthday party is complete without an awesome birthday cake!!

Presents....

And AWESOME friends!!

Christmas has approached again, and this year, we hosted for the very first time. We combined both families, and had such a great time! We kept it simple serving up our favorite Italian menu. The decor is coming together nicely year after year. I get most items 50 percent off after Christmas, as I never like to pay full price!

This was the main table. I got the linens from EFavormart. They have them pretty reasonable. I found that it was far less expensive to buy them already made than it was to buy the fabric and make them myself. (not to mention the time I saved!) The glassware is vintage American Fostoria that was handed down to me from my Gran and my Mom. I have oodles of it,a and it fits my winter wonderland theme just perfectly.

Each place was complete with little place markers I made myself with some left over scrap paper, a white marker, and some snowflake stickers. I got the chargers on clearance at at Micheal's craft store. The plates were plastic, YES, I said plastic, from the Dollar Tree. You can't beat cheap and easy clean up all in one! I also got the "silver" ware (actually plastic as well) from the Dollar Tree. The snowflake votive holder was a yard sale find by no other than my mom. It was a party light item.

This was the other dining room table I put together. The centerpiece was a cake stand I got from Target last season (2012). I added various sized pillar candles with some votives as well, and completed the look with strands of silver garland beads.

This is the chandelier above our dining table. I gave it the winter wonderland look by adding the really cool 3-dimensional mirrored snowflake that I found at Wal-Mart. I also added chandelier Crystals that I got in bulk from EBAY. I liked the way it looked so much I didn't want to take it down...alas...until next year..

For above the kitchen cabinets, with some help from the kiddos below, I added our snow village. Some of the village i got from my mom, but most I bought in a Lot from EBAY. The garland I got from Target and Wal-Mart during the after Christmas sales.

This is the window above my kitchen sink. I added a tension rod and hung some pretty ornaments with crystals that I found at our Meijer grocery store. The garland was a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law.

I like to call this my winter forest mantle. I added quite a few more trees to my collection this year. I love the way it turned out. The old window is yet another "from my mother" item. See last year's Christmas post for more details on how I hang the stockings by the chimney with care.

I displayed the various cookies I had made on these tiered servers. I unfortunately did not take any pictures of the final result. And, my ginormous American Fostoria punch bowl was so beautiful.

This pretty girl sure did enjoy Christmas this year!!

And a few extra pics I gathered from the fam. The party was a blast, and I can't wait to do it again next year!!