Trick or Treat!

From my sassy Alice....

And my tough Boxer!  (Seriously, he fell into something at the Halloween party we were at last night and had a real life scrape across his face.  Awesome.)  ;)

Hope y'all had a happy Halloween!  We started out with Mummy Dogs.....

then on to TOTing!  Love this time of year!  :)

Put 'Em Up or Tee Up?

So, I'll tell you this..... I haven't run any of these ideas by G-man yet.... But.  Here is MY Top 5 list for G-man's Halloween Costumes.  I plan on getting his opinion tomorrow.  But, of course, I want to hear what you think, too!

1.  A boxer - lately it is NOT unusual for me to get a call at work from the kiddos' school.  And it's almost always an 'incident report' about G.  That kid is all boy, a total bruiser.  Depending on the day, we might not even have to add the fake shiner.  Love this one!

2.  A Golfer - it's almost the anti-costume of #1 and I love it equally.  ;)  Mr. Fix-It lit up when I showed him this costume, complete with the set of golf clubs and bag.

3.  Lil Frankenstein - I don't know what it is about this one, but I can totally see G-man as a Lil Frank.  (Mr. Fix-It brought up a good point.... G prob will NOT wear anything on his head.  Which seriously takes out 92% of all boy costumes.  Geez.)

4.  Woody (or Buzz Lightyear) - this boy is OBSESSED with the Toy Story movies.  He'll stay glued for the.entire.movie.  (Moms of 2 yr old boys know how amazing that is!)  He's got Woody and Buzz toys, cars, movies, even a hooded towel!

5.  A Lil Devil - I couldn't resist this one!  For all those days he's being insanely onery.  ;)

Now... to figure out what I'm going to be! :)  Last year, I was a semi-homemade witch.  I bought a witch hat, spiced it up with some purple and green tulle, and wore my black dress.  This year?  Maybe... the Queen of Hearts.  Same black dress with some heart accessories?  I heart Halloween!

What are YOU gonna be?

I LOVE OCTOBER!  Those of you who know me well, know that it's probably my fav month!  What's not to love about the pumpkin patch, homecoming (with its parade, walkaround, sea of orange, and the big game!), and Halloween!  I have never outgrown my obsession with dressing up!  When else do I get to abandon my real life persona (thirty-something, full-time working, momma of 2) and be WHATEVER I want? 

Sis and I have been brainstorming our costumes for a few weeks now..... and over the holiday weekend, she put together HER Top 5:

1.  Batgirl (but not just any Batgirl... the PINK one!)

And G-man would just have to be her Batman (I like the one with the muscles, lol!)

2.  Cat - she's never mentioned wanting to be a cat before, but after seeing this cute costume, I can't really blame her for picking it!

3.  Southern Belle - I have to say, a part of me (the same part that loves her Southern drawl!) is just lovin' that she picked this in her top 5!  I don't really love the mermaid-like color combo, but I could def see her in a hoop skirt!

4.  Hannah Montana - the choice she mentions the most often, but that I often don't quite hear.  ;)

5.  Alice in Wonderland - there's the sassy version and the sweet version.  And while I usually go for tradition and know that Sissy would make a sweet, traditional Alice... I'm liking the sass!

Now that Sis has narrowed it down, I've gotta spend some time with G-man and see what he likes!  And I have a few ideas for myself.... but since we can't throw a Halloween party at our house this year, I've gotta find somewhere to go and dress up!

xoxo

The Semi-Homemade Halloween Party - aka the Best of the 70s, 80s,90s and today

Last weekend we threw a totally Semi-Homemade Haunted Halloween Party! The invite list was for families only (so we left out our kidless friends this time!) The evite went out (real invites would have been so much cuter, but...) with an invitation to our 'Haunted Mansion' and to come in costume! And wow, they did.....

I just love Mr. Everything's sense of humor! He would get the award for hardest working! He decided in advance to come as Richard Simmons (wouldn't that be the 80s?) and he grew his hair out! Dedication, right? And it paid off... Here's his 'sorority pose' with Mr. Fix-It, a hard core gansta rapper....

I felt cheated because you couldn't quite get the whole essense of his costume... so Mrs. Everything graciously sent me this shot of him on Halloween. Check those shorts! And the legwarmers!

I always say this, but I wish I would have taken more pics! Here are some snapshots of the costumes, but there were even more! There was an OctoMom... a FaceBook (I didn't see The Office, so I had to ask... he had BO on one side of his face, OK on the other!) Both definitely a product of the 2000s. There was a pretty Ladybug (I loved cute bugs in the 90s - my friends all got tattos!), a sexy 70s girl (70s, duh), another farmer.... and that was just the adults!

Some of the kiddos! This was before Spiderman, Chewbaca and some princesses showed up!

Everyone was in costume except Miss Priss - she wasn't feeling it and that was fine! So here's a pic of her (with daddy Mr. Everything!) in her full Nemo gear...

We tried to spookify the house - as much as we could in this damn recession! I already shared my repurposed Halloween decor.... I had leftover helium from G-man's Pirate Birthday bash, so we blew up leftover black balloons and tied them with purple ribbons! We dangled that shrieking witch (the one that scared the hell outta Big Sis!) from the chandelier in our entry... And the rest? Cheapo cobwebs, held on to the staircases by twisty ties.



Oh, how I love paper lanterns... esp when they cost $1/ea! So we had them everywhere! At the bar.... on the "spooky staircase" (the kids nicknamed it that! I put cobwebs and lanterns on the front staircase, to discourage the kids from using it. I wanted them on the back staircase, where we could supervise all that running up and down!)



I didn't get to ALL my semi-homemade ideas, so I decided to stick to one big thing - a spooky dessert bar!

Remember how much I loved purple & green as a new Halloween trend? I went with that for 1/2 of the table and traditional orange & black for the other side!

Here's the orange & black... I had leftover skull lollipops from G-man's birthday, so I used them as a centerpiece (again!) They were untouched at his party... but the kids tore thru them, they were gone before I knew it!

And the funky side! I'm known for making brownies, but I wanted low maintenance! AND I had leftover skull cupcake wrappers, so.... I made individual brownies, stuck in purple & green cupcake toppers... and displayed! The center pics is a skull decal from my friend Marilyn and Decal Mongrams - love, love her stuff! Then coordinating candy rounded it out....

This dip is AWESOME! Mrs. Everything served it at Miss Priss's 2nd birthday party and immediately I thought I could recreate it in the shape of a witch's hat (if you squint and close one eye and look at it sideways... does it kinda look like a witch's hat?) Just know that this has peanut butter and cream cheese. And you serve with apple slices. See the rest here.

A couple of $1 table cloths and creepy cloths and scary green and black spiders.... and that was it!

The party was so fun! Kids colored, ran up and down the stairs, ate pizza... The adults chatted, made new friends (we invited a HUGE mix of friends and lots of them didn't know the others - I loved all the mingling!)

Parties on Fri nights are hard. Esp when kids are involved. And everyone is in costume. The party ended before 10pm. And I totally get that. But we were still ready to par-tay! (Obviously, just look at us!) ;)

So.... we put G-man to bed and Mr. Fix-It, Big Sis and I had a rockin' dance party! I LOVE this one - you can totally imagine the fun we were having!

This slightly reminds me of party pics in college.... Big Sis loved being silly with us! (And we love partying in the safety of our own home!)

That's about all I have the time to round up - in my mind, I've moved on to the other holidays and I'm working on a Semi-Homemade Christmas Trends to follow up the one I did for Halloween!

But before I leave, just a couple other Halloween events:

Me and Pirate G-man on Halloween, after trick-or-treating

And Big Sis with all her loot! She was a modern Dorothy because she had been to a prissy girl birthday party (complete with hair, makeup, nails, dress up - and a runway fashion show for us mommas!), and still had the updo going on!

See that decal on the pumpkin to the left? Another Decal Monograms greatness! It says:

The Witch Is In

Love it!

And the parade at school, the traditional Dorothy.... Her teacher was a Pink Lady!

I walked G-man thru a little of the parade. (Ignore that silly look on my face!) But isn't G-man the most adorable pirate ever?


I love Halloween! Okay, moving on..... ;) Happy weekend, y'all!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun party! (Too bad it was over before 10pm!!) Seriously, Mr. Fix-It and I were ready to part-ty tonight.... and we did. But it's hard... on a Friday.... with the kiddos....

Pics and details to come! So much fun, such creative costumes... Mr. Fix-It and I just danced a few dances with Big Sis and G-man after our guests left and now they're in bed..... Mr. Fix-It and I are listening to the 90s, ignoring the mess, and enjoying adult beverages and partying - we're not ready for the night to end!

Hope you and your lil goblins are having a great weekend! Love, The Semi-Homemades

My 5 favorite Semi-Homemade Halloween Trends!

It was hard to narrow it down to only my top 5 favorite halloween trends, when there are so many great ones out there! But here is my semi-homemade take on the ones that showed up at our house this year!

1. Black & white - go modern

It's hard to believe that I'd be willing to take orange out of the equation.... since I bleed orange and all (Go, Pokes! Great win over Baylor this weekend!) But there's an element of spooky sophistication when you limit yourself to black and white. And given more time and money (damn recession!), I'd have let black and white scary stuff take over my whole house!

Another spray paint project.... I attacked this craft pumpkin with white spray paint... There's actually now a real pumpkin, sitting next to this one.... I spray painted it black and added a black & white polka dot bow!

2. Purple & green - go fresh, go new, go Wicked!

For this semi-homemade idea, I had a tube of green, glittery skulls I found (cheap!) at Home Goods.... I tied one to a witch's broom from Michael's, knotted some purple & black tulle (y'all know how much I love, love tulle!) and done! Cheap, fast, semi-homemade!

I needed to switch out my dough bowl centerpiece.... so 5 more of the skulls + purple shredded paper. Even easier!

I still had a few more skulls.... and I'd found this hat in a closet, left over from when Big Sis was a witch for Halloween 2 years ago. I added it all to the copper bowl in my nook.... and I think the end result is a little Wicked inspired....

One weekend I was feeling crafty.... loving the purple & green for Halloween concept.... and totally procrastinating on some work I had brought home. The result? My guest bathroom got Boo'ed!

I bought those letters at Hobby Lobby (mecca for the semi-homemade!) - they're cardboard, or something... I painted the edges black (I knew the leftover paint from G-man's helmet would come in handy someday!)..... modgepodged some purple & green scrapbook paper onto the letters.... and then cut them out with an exacto knife!

The result is a cheerful green & purple Boo!

3. Personalize it- the semi-homemade way... with decals!

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Okay.... hi, my name is Elaine and I'm addicted to spray paint. I seriously am... it's on our 'grocery' list more often than I'd like to admit. I spray painted this cute punkin to the left white....added a bow and a decal from Decal Monogram, an Etsy seller I adore and have worked with on numerous occasions (she did the monogram in Big Sis's room!) Please, please check out her blog and Etsy store - you'll love her, too!

Another great decal from Decal Monograms... after I spray painted the craft pumpkin, I added our family monogram! (Now I just need some great black leaves to glue to the top!)

I've got one more pumpkin, with fresh white (spray) paint drying... and I've got THE cutest decal to put on it - I'll try to finish it and add here during the wk!

We even customized our front porch! If you look really, really, really close.....


You can see the names of the kiddos on the pumpkins! (Okay, okay, they don't really have their blog names on them.... but trust me, their real names are there!)

4. Go spooky - for recession-proof decorating, do spoooooky!

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A few bucks gets you severl spooky cobwebs.... then you can turn your normal living room... into a Semi-Homemade Haunted Mansion!

As much as I like to clean, it's amazing my house doesn't REALLY look like this! ;)

These candles sit on this pedestal by my sink all year. But I added a $1 tombstone, a couple spiders, and some black and purple tulle..... and now you're in my Semi-Homemade Scary Diner!

5. Recession means repurpose! - at least in this house!

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So much of my decorating this year was from things I already had at home... but used in different ways!

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My glass jar got some candy corns and a festive new bow!

I have this candelabra out 24/7..... But I wrapped a black boa (with tiny shots of metallic green!) around it and now it's spookified!

Everything on my mantel is from Halloweens past.... years and years ago.... except the tiny pumpkins, from my dad's garden in OK!

Okay, time to work on our Halloween party - it's this Friday and we can't wait! I'm sure we'll have several fun pictures to share of friends, costumes and fun!

6 days to Halloween!