Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

Happy Saturday!!  With Halloween being tomorrow, I figured that I'd better get my butt in gear and make a Halloween wreath (actually, that's what I thought last Sunday).  But, I didn't want to get ready and go out to buy supplies.  Sooooo, I looked around my stash o craftiness and found a wreath, a few stems of sad clearance flowers, a bit of black tulle and roll of purple halloween ribbon and a few glittered spiders.  After a few hours, I had this pretty 'weeny wreath:

While hubbers and the little guy played in the backyard, I set up in the driveway spray painting the wreath and (clearance summer) flowers.  (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of this because I was in get-it-done mode)  I used a whole can of black spray paint, but that might've had something to do with the flowers being white...  Then I got to work with my hot glue gun - gluing the flowers and leaves evenly around the wreath, then going back to add strips of tulle to both the back and front of the wreath:

It needed a little color, so I grabbed a roll of purple Halloween ribbon that I bought from the Dollar Store.  I just cut 3-4 inch lengths of the ribbon, folded it in half and glued the loops in here and there around the flowers.  And since I can't have a Halloween wreath without a little orange, I took a few glittered spiders and hot glued them on.  Here's the finished product hanging on my front door:

Have a Happy Halloween!

Haunted Village

Happy Wednesday!!  The past few week's I've been busy making a few Halloween decorations.  My absolute FAVORITE is this haunted village:

I saw this village at Crafty Sisters and LOVED it - So I set out to create my own.  The cost of this project was less than $10!  These little houses are just unfinished birdhouses from JoAnns - each one was $1.  I bought a few packs of halloween stickers (from Target and JoAnns), some glitter glue, a dowel and a doll-house sized fence.  The black craft paint, and witch hat supplies (felt & netting), scrapbook paper and 1x3 I already had on hand.

My first step was to cut a few different lengths of the dowel rod and a base from the 1x3 for each of houses that I intend to elevate.  Step two was paint everything black using craft paint.  Here's everything painted black:

Then came the fun part - embelishments!  I used LOTS of glitter glue (especially on the roofs) and everything else are Halloween stickers and scrapbook paper.  To add a more village feel, I also made a few little doors out of cardstock and included a bit of fence.  And to add the spooky, I found great bat and ghost stickers at JoAnns that I just hot-glued to wire and then hot-glued the wire to the house/base.  It turned out so great that I think a Christmas version is going on my to-do list :)

20 Pound Tuesday Update

Happy Tuesday!!  I am sans 4 pounds - woot woot!  That's really all I have to say :)

A Haunting We Will Go

Happy Monday!!  Today (at 9:14 am) is Munchkin's official birthday.  After two days of labor and 5 hours of pushing, my stubborn little Stinkerpotamus made his dramatic entry into the world - and indeed, the world has never been the same {tear}  We celebrated alllll weekend long and had big family bash on Saturday - I'll post some of the birthday decorations later this week...  But onto the next holiday - Halloween!  This week's theme can only be spooktacular (oh how I crack myself up)

Letter of the Week: H
Crafty, Creative, Sensory Fun:

• H is for Haunted House
• Ghostly shaving cream painting
• Halloween sensory tub
• Rock o Lanterns
• Panning for Halloween 'gold' (candy corn)
• Marshmallow ghost picture
• Halloween sticker bonanza

Books:

• Inside a House That Is Haunted by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
• Peek-a-Boooo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti
• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro
• H Is for Haunted House : A Halloween Alphabet Book by Tanya Stone
• Halloween by Harry Behn
• Pumpkin Patch Party by Stephanie St. Pierre
• Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
• A Handy Manny Halloween by Marcy Kelman
• The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing
• AlphaOops! H is for Halloween by Alethea Kontis

Little Halloween Subway Art

Happy Wednesday!!  So I love all the subway art going on, but I haven't been quite patient enough to start a big one (no Cricut = hand painting).  But then I saw a tiny version using rub-ons (I'm sorry, I have no idea where I saw it - I thought that I had marked it in Evernote, but sadly it isn't there.)  I had picked up a bunch of Halloween stickers, stamps and rub-ons from Target's dollar spot months ago AND I already had the perfect little frame from the Dollar Store.  I love when a craft project doesn't require a trip to the store!  After about a half hour of cutting and rearranging, I had this tiny little Halloween subway art:

Oh how I love it! 

20 Pound Tuesday Update

Happy Tuesday!  I swear I haven't lost a single pound.  I run everyday.  I eat salads.  Ok, so I might have made a cake for hubber's birthday (which was last week btw).  And there is that darn Halloween candy.  Ugh - clearly I am going to have to redouble my efforts...and lay off my beloved Starbucks...and lock up the Halloween candy... oh poo!

Birthday Fun!

Happy Monday!  Next Monday is Munchkin's 3rd Birthday!  Soooo, this week's Munchkin theme is all things birthday :)  I want to start some fun birthday traditions like a birthday countdown (with little gifties every day), a fun birthday breakfast on the day of and picking out toys to donate.  I know, I know, he's going to be spoiled rotten - but he's an only child and I love a fuss!  Ok, on to our Birthday-tivites!

Letter of the Week: B
Creative, Crafty, Sensory Projects:

• B is for Birthday Cake letter craft
• Cupcake match memory game
• Birthday sensory construction site (rice, sprinkles, pompon boulders, candles, cars & trucks)
• Balloon counting game

Books:

• Happy birthday, Thomas! by Rev. W. Awdry
• Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton
• Mr. Birthday by Roger Hargreaves
• The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli
• Elmo's Birthday Party by Random House

I {heart} Garlands

Happy Thursday!!  Ever since I made a spring rag garland, I've been in love with garlands hanging on our mantle - they're just so festive!  So of course I had to make a Halloween one.  I started out making a felt candy corn banner but it felt a little sparse:

So I added some 'weeny rag treatment in between each of the candy corn:

Soooo much better :)

As for a tutorial, I don't really have much of one :( 

• I free hand cut a rounded triangle out of a file folder then cut it into thirds (for each color).
• Then lots of felt cutting (I used one sheet of each orange, yellow and white) to get fronts and backs for 8 candy corn.
• Using a 8 ft length of ribbon, I pinned all the felt pieces together, sandwiching the ribbon between the front and back of each lil corn.
• Using my sewing machine, I used a zig zag stitch to connect the pieces then straight sewed around the perimiter - you could also zig zag the front and back seperately then join them together (I was just going with the fastest, not neatest method).
• As for the rag part - The pieces cut were approximately 4 inches long and 3/4 inch wide.  I didn't want them to be completely uniform, so some pieces are a little longer/shorter/wider/thinner (I cut everything with scissors)  The fabrics used were mostly cotton with a sheet of sparkly felt, orange netting and a few spools of halloween ribbon.

Along Came a Spider...

Happy Wednesday!  Here's a ridiculously simple and tiny addition to my Halloween decor:

I've seen them all over bloggyland and I love them!  Here's what I used:

• a tiny Dollar Store frame
• some black scrapbook paper
• one spider ring (ah ah ah ah)
• Modge Podge
• gorgeous aqua glitter - I bought a sampler pack of superfine glitter from JoAnn's for about $4

I'm sure this is completely intuitive, but here's the steps anyway:

• snip off the ring part with scissors
• lightly coat the top of the spider with Modge Podge
• cover liberally in glitter
• lightly coat the bottom of the spider with Modge Podge
• cover liberally in glitter
• go back and touch up any spots not fully coated in glitter
• let your glittery spider dry
• glue the spider onto the scrapbook paper (I used hot glue for instant gratification)
• frame you little 'weener decoration

Sure, I know aqua isn't a traditional Halloween color but it just pops off the black paper, especially in the evening!  I might make a few more to 'ween-o-fy a few more spots in the house :)

Tuesday 20 Pound Update

Happy Tuesday! So I have one thing to say about this challenge - Halloween candy.  Darn, darn Halloween candy.  I give myself some latitude on the weekends - I don't count calories, but I do work out.  We bought some Halloween candy this weekend.  I have eaten lots... 

On a more positive note...I've been increasing my treadmill intensity and I'm really excited with my progress :)  I'm jogging at 4.4 mph which is crazy fast for me.  If you are super fit and reading this, please try not to choke on your laughter.  And, I didn't mention it in the first post, but part of this challenge is also to increase my overall health.

Years and years ago I bought 8 Weeks to Optimal Health by Dr. Weil.  And every year (sometimes multiple times) I try to do the program.  I have never made it past week 4.  I'm giving it another attempt since I'm sure having Optimal Health will undoubtedly include losing these pesky 20 pounds!  *Totally book related stuff here*  I've been good about eating the broccoli a few times a week and I'm taking my daily vitamins (If you knew me, you'd know this is a big thing).  I haven't gotten rid of all the 'bad' food yet - there are still crackers and pretzels and granola bars in my pantry.  In the words of Bob: Baby steps...

Oh, and as for that Halloween candy (I'm totally eating a piece right now, doh!).  I figured crafting with it means that less will find it's way into my mouth:

Yep, it's a candy corn tree.  Well, where do you think candy corn comes from?!?

Growlie Monsters!

Happy Monday!  Only a few more weeks until Halloween!  Lately, Stinkerpotamus has been into playing monster.  He chases me around and growls and I scream...then we switch.  So this week's theme is (you guessed it), Monsters!  Oh, and I should mention that actual monsters seriously scare Munchkin, so these monsters are going to be of the friendly variety :)

Letter of the week: M
Creative, Crafty, Sensory Fun:

• M is for Monster Letter Craft
• Stuffed Paper-Bag Monsters
• Felt Monster Faces
• Grow a Monster Capsuls (I found these at Jo Ann's dollar bins)
• Monster Cardboard Rolls

 
Books:

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott
• Little Monsters Cookbook by Zac Williams
• Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Edward R Emberley
• The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone
• Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett
• My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck