Halloween Mantel

The kids have been requesting scary decorations for the house, so I started with the mantel. I decorated it while they were sleeping. They were so excited when they woke up!

Let me start by saying that The Dollar Tree is a great place for inexpensive finds when decorating for Halloween!

To recreate this mantel you’ll need:

Glass jars, creepy crawlys, sticks, skulls and Spanish moss.

I had these glass cylindrical vases that I filled parfait style with moss and mini skulls I scored with a coupon at Michaels. Then, I strategically placed some spiders.

These great rats are from the dollar store. Oh, and they squeak!

Ricardo got some great whiskey in this bottle, I got the bottle! I used a candle and dripped some wax on the ledge and hot glued a spider to the outside.

Eerie sign and crows are both from the dollar store. Sticks are from my yard!

I got these bat adhesives from Joann’s on clearance last year.

This picture is from the dollar store…

…see how it changes, so cool!

I love how the spiders appear to be crawling out of the jar! It was just a leftover spaghetti sauce jar and I sprayed the lid black.

To attach the spiders to the mantel, I used a hot glue gun and a prayer. To try and prevent the glue from peeling off the paint, I placed a bead of hot glue on each spider and let it cool until it was almost dry. Then I stuck it on. Hopefully they come off cleanly!!

Larger containers with skulls and spiders.

Handmade Holidays 6

Here is number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4 and number 5.

Number 6 is Figure 8 scarves also known as infinity scarves.

What you’ll need:

2 yard of cotton knit fabric

Scraps of other cotton fabric

Coordinating thread

Cut fabric in thirds lengthwise. Sew ends together using a french seam.

Make rosettes out of scrap cotton knit similar to these. Hot glue a pin to back of rosette and pin to scarf.

Wear by wrapping around neck twice.

These will make great teacher gifts.

 

Christmas Card Display

What you’ll need:
Glitter
Glue
Clothespins
Pretty ribbon
tape

 

Start with some clothes pins, brush them with glue and glitter one side of them.

 

I took 3 strips of ribbon and taped the tops to the backside of a hall closet door, wrapped them around the front of the door and then taped them to the back.

Attach the clothespins sporadically and clip your cards to the ribbon.

As you can see we’ve only gotten 5 cards so far. Come on people Christmas cards are like crack to me! I want this door to be full!

Handmade Holiday Idea 5

For a little something for the neighbors who all have kids I gave the gift of hot Chocolate.

(These are bad pictures. My apologies)

I rounded up all the jars I could find and filled them with hot chocolate mix I made from this recipe. Then I baked some banana bread from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I also made some homemade marshmallows from this recipe. To finish it off I tied together a bundle of chocolate covered peppermint swizzle sticks.

I placed all the components on a festive green plate and delivered them.

I attached directions for mixing the hot chocolate.

Handmade Holiday Idea 4

I made these Barbie purses for two special girls that we know. They are similar to the Polly Pocket Purses I made, but on a larger scale.

I did some more reverse applique for the names. I found a font I liked on the computer, printed it and then traced it on the fabric. I just free handed around the letters with a satin stitch.

The back.

I made some smaller pockets to hold smaller dolls.

This one has two zippered compartments. One will hold shoes etc and the other will hold clothes.

This is the second one I made.

The front.

The back.

This one has more smaller compartments because I know this girl has a lot more smaller dolls.

Shoe compartment.

Clothes compartment.

Handmade Holiday Idea 3

I found these adorable towels when I was at IKEA last month for 50 cents. I appliqued a Christmas tree on them and added a couple of buttons for ornaments and a star.

I’ve been collecting jars to use for giftwrapping and spraypainting the lids red. Now that its too cold to spraypaint, I might just wrap them in fabric and tie with a bow.

I rolled up the towel, put it in the jar, and added some crinkled paper.

I’ll add a giftcard and use these as teacher’s gifts.

Handmade Holiday Idea 2

Do you have a Jedi in training in your house?

Luckily we have two and its wearing off on their sister too. When we walk into a store with automatic sliding doors they “use the force” to open them.

Anyway, I came across this tutorial for a jedi cape. Its super easy. To make it even easier I made the first ones out of plush felt, so I didn’t have to hem it! The next two I made out of fleece, because it was way on sale. I think I like the fleece ones better. I used a little bit of scraps to make a tie for the waist.

These should go well with the Ultimate Blasters that Santa is bringing for them.

Holiday Bingo

I’m always at a loss when it comes to classroom games at holiday parties.

I found this great free printable bingo game at BlackDog.net. I’ll probably have to change it from S A N T A to J E S U S for Piper Ann’s party, and then change it to S N O W Y for Nathan’s party.  Oh the political correctness of the holidays. Gotta love it!

Mother’s Day

I hope all of you moms out there had a great day and were spoiled by your families!
Mine treated me with sleeping in until 9am and then made me breakfast in bed.
I got this new door mat…its rubber!

The boys picked out this obelisk for me along with the clematis. They did well!

We headed to The City Diner for lunch, where we all had delicious milkshakes.
After lunch we worked of those milkshakes with a stroll through the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was packed, but we still had a good time.
Ricardo made my favorite meal,flank steak, for dinner.
We finished off the day bathing the kids and watching a really crappy finale of Celebrity Apprentice. Thank goodness its over.

Cascarones

Hope you all had a great Easter!

We ate our way through the day!

Ricardo’s cousin sent us 4 dozen cascarones for the kids. Aren’t they beautiful?

Here’s a little bit of the confetti on the back deck from one of the dozens. We took the other 3 dozen to a friends house!