Bits of Halloween Around the House

Have you heard me mourn the loss of my former mantle recently? 😂 Whenever I'm decorating for a holiday, I find myself missing my fireplace mantle so much! I've finally come to the realization that I can use my entryway table as I would a mantle. I WILL have a fireplace in my house again-- I have big plans for this, I'm just not quite there yet.

Anyway, here's a peek at some spooky things around our house! I'm getting to the point where I want to start decorating for every holiday, not just seasonally.

 
Do yourself a favor and buy some mini witch hats at your local craft store. You won't regret it! They are so cute on everything!

Do you decorate for Halloween? I didn't used to, but so many of my friends make their houses darling for Halloween and they've inspired me!

Leave me any links to fun Halloween decor in the comments! It can be your own home or just one you've seen around the internet! Happy Monday!

sources: Coraline doll 1, 2, 3, 4 // mini witch hats // glitter pumpkins // bison // silhouettes // entryway table (similar)

Happy Halloween 2017!

I hope you all had the best Halloween!  This year was my easiest Halloween that I can remember.  Most of the girls' costume pieces came from various stores, and there was little that I had to make.  Poesy wanted to be a glittery witch, and Hope scraped together a fox costume the night before.


Poesy REALLY wanted to put our black cat, Teddy, in a harness and take him trick-or-treating with her, so Johnny bought a cat mask and surprised her by being her black cat.  Teddy is an adventurous kitty and there is no way we could have taken him out of the house and into that chaos!  He would've bolted for sure.


We enjoyed the Rountree parade like we have in years past, scored way too much candy, and scarfed pizza when we were too cold to trick-or-treat anymore.  After we got home and finally wound down, Johnny and I binge-watch/finished the second half of Stranger Things 2.  Don't worry- you won't get any spoilers from me.  Honestly, I'm a little glad to be done with it so I might actually go to bed at a decent time tonight.  Those dang suspenseful shows!

I really hope you all had a wonderful night!  xo.

DIY Fruit Bouquet

Tick-tock, tick-tock... do you hear that?  Halloween is getting SO CLOSE!  I'm looking forward to the parties coming this weekend and the actual trick-or-treating next week.  I'm also excited to be teaming up with Edible Arrangements® today to turn my little Poesy into a fruit bouquet just in time for Halloween!  Making this costume was super easy and super fun, so let me take you through the steps!


First, I cut out felt shapes for the strawberries, honey dew, and chocolate covered strawberries, bats, and ghosts.  Since I wanted an extra pop of color for the cantaloupe, I used a printed fabric and glued it onto some poster board so it would stay upright.


I used some craft glue and yarn to give the chocolate strawberries a little more dimension and detail.  Once the glue dried I simply trimmed the edges.


When I finished cutting all of my shapes, I glued them together to make the arrangement.  Once the glue dried for this step, I safety pinned the fruit to one of Poesy's tee shirts and threw together some adorable accessories (including a little felt cut-out for her strawberry hat) to complete this simple and fun costume!


Who could ask for a better costume model, right?  Poesy had a blast dressing up and having her picture taken.

Edible Arrangements® is typically my favorite way to tell someone "thank you" or "I'm thinking of you" but their bouquets and arrangements are also great for parties... such as a Halloween get together!  Check out their site to see all of the delicious things they offer!

Halloween 2016

We had a wonderful Halloween this year.  The weather was unseasonably warm and all costumes were put together well before the parade.  It's been a while since either of those things have happened in the Shelton house.  Poesy decided months and MONTHS ago that she wanted to be Santa Claus.  I was certain she would change her mind after hitting up some of the Halloween stores, but she stuck with it!  I bought the outfit pieces from Amazon, but you know I had to throw a little DIY in there-- I hand stitched the beard and it was so much cuter on her than anything else we had found.


Hope decided to be a Hufflepuff student and was totally convincing, as always.  She couldn't decide what to be this year and, man... the Halloween stores had nothing to offer in the way of teenagers.  Four days before Halloween she decided to commit to this, so Johnny and I went frantically internet and department store searching for all the pieces.  The sweater vest was the only thing we couldn't find, so I found an athletic shirt on clearance for $3 and chopped it into a vest.  I'm so glad it worked out!

Here are some pictures from our evening.  Wouldn't you know it, my camera battery died as soon as we started to the parade.  Thank God for iPhones.


We ran into Rachel's crew and finished our night eating pizza and swapping candy.  Halloween 2016 was a success!  Oh, and I'm so happy Poesy didn't change her mind about being Santa Claus.  She was the cutest Santa ever.

The Most Beautiful Day for Carving Pumpkins

Johnny and I took Saturday and Sunday off last weekend because Hope had a gymnastics meet (1st place all-around!  Woohoo!) and we needed some good old fashioned Fall family time.  We kept ourselves so busy last year that we totally missed the apple orchard AND the pumpkin patch.  NEVER AGAIN!  Sunday we went and snagged pumpkins and carved them on the most gorgeous afternoon.  It was one of those times in your life where you step back, look around, and the gratefulness just pours out of you.


This perfect weather and these Fall feelings can stick around for as long as they'd like!  No complaints over here.  :)
 
Happy Tuesday, friends!