Melissa & Doug Terrific Twenty List and Giveaway *CLOSED*

Can you believe how close we are to Christmas? Have you started your shopping yet? I am happy to say, I have, and am closing in on being done! I do still have several items on my list though. And Melissa & Doug toys are one of them! We love their toys. Especially the wooden food items. They are pretty much all over my house!

 

The folks over at Melissa & Doug have put together a Terrific Twenty List of the hottest items for this Christmas. There are some awesome toys on this list! And what's even better is that starting today (11/6),  they are giving away one of these fantastic items each day for the next 20 days! Visit their Facebook page to enter!

 How fun is this Scratch Art Portable Light Box? Both of my girls would love this!

 This Trunki is so cute! And useful for play and travel. 

Morgie would love this Grocery Basket.

To make Christmas a little easier, and maybe cross an item off your list, how would you like to win one of the items featured on the Terrific Twenty List?

We're giving away a Trunki!

To Enter:
1. Visit the Terrific Twenty List and let me know which item you like best! (Mandatory). 
2. Become a public follower of my blog, or let me know that you are. (Optional). 

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Giveaway will remain open until Friday, November 16th. Thank you and good luck!!


Linked to: Market Your Biz & Giveaway at Homemaker on a Dime, Giveaway Directory at Someday Crafts

A Halloween Plea for Help!

I just finished Blake's Halloween costume in the nick of time, and I entered it into a contest at Create For Less. Now I need some help! If you would pretty please, vote for his photo on Facebook? All you have to do is click LIKE on his photo, that's it! Here is a direct link to the photo: Blake's costume.

If for some reason that doesn't work, you are looking for this photo:  

Thanks in advance!

Halloween Home Tour 2012

 Since Halloween is almost here, I thought I'd go ahead and share my decorations for this year. It's pretty much the same stuff as last year, but I like to try and arrange things differently. The wreath above I received in the Sweet & Sinister Swap a few years ago. It's hanging on the door we use.

 We don't use our front door, but that doesn't mean I'm going doing to decorate there. We have had that Monsters, Inc. sign for years.

 The white & orange pumpkins are fakes, but we grew the gourds.

 Our vintage bathtubs seemed like a great place for our scarecrows, and a few leftover signs & pumpkins.

 I took our usual items out of this box in the kitchen and added a few Halloween items. I made the blocks a few years ago, and the vintage looking trio in the center came from Michael's.

 I didn't do too much to the old window, just added some cheese cloth and letter balls spelling out boo.

 Layla asks me why I always have to hang this guy over her door!

 I made this banner a few years ago. It's just burlap & paint, super simple. That spider tends to freak me out. Just passing by, sometimes it looks real!

 The kids love these gel clings so I added a few to the other hallway mirror.

 This gigantic thing hangs over the front door we don't use. After I put it up, Morgan asked me what it was and if it was real. Right, like I'd be anywhere near this house with a real spider that big inside! I also made that yarn wreath hanging on the closet door.

 I picked up some striped tights last year on clearance & hung them with a witch's hat we already had. There are brooms hanging on the other side. The bunting is a printable from Dimple Prints.

 This banner is another project made by me. I love how it turned out, but it's so hard to hang. The tags like to flip around.

 I took the candles out of these candlesticks and added Halloween items. (WHAT color should I paint them now that they are basically the same as our wall?!).

 On our gallery wall, I added a few mice, rats, spiders & snakes.

 

 Black & orange bottle brush trees, a rat & a crow take care of this shelf.

 Sadly, we don't have a fireplace, which of course means no mantle. So this is my "mantle", the top of our tv. My husband hates that owl painting, but I love him. The yellow is pretty bright, so I only bring him out for Halloween. I wish the Wii, cable box & DVD player didn't have to live up here, but they do.

 My glitter pumpkins are in desperate need of being re-glittered. Maybe next year. There's also a dollar store crow and floating pumpkin candles (in the jar).

 I took away the brightly colored books that were there, and added my Edgar Allan Poe book. The croquet ball on top of the spool was replaced by a glass pumpkin. And yes, that is a McDonald's chicken nugget dressed as a jack o'lantern. That awesome skull is from Indigotwin.

 On my side table, I again changed out the books for more spooky ones, and added my favorite glass crow, a glittered Target pumpkin, a tree and a shadow box, again from a swap.

 This picture isn't great, but in the hall is the apothecary area.

 Ugh, I don't know why these uploaded down here. And I don't feel like moving them. This is the broom hanging opposite the witch hat & tights.

 I added some pumpkins to out kitchen table, too.

Are you all ready for Halloween? I still have to buy costumes! 

Linked to: Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths, Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage
 

Reese's Giveaway Winner

Sorry for the delay! The winner of the Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins giveaway is... 

comment # 11, SJ @ Homemaker on a Dime! Congratulations!!

Reese's Pumpkin Cupcakes... and a giveaway! *CLOSED*

 It's no secret around here that I love Halloween! I've already been baking lots of pumpkin flavored things, including pumpkin spice whoopie pies, pumpkin donuts & pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies. But this time, I went with peanut butter flavored, shaped like a pumpkin.

 Everyone in this house loves Reese's Peanut Butter cups, so we were all excited when I received two bags of these yummy Reese's Pumpkins! You only see one bag here because the first bag may or may not have been eaten before I could do anything with them...

 I figured I'd better get myself in gear before the other bag got eaten too! So I baked up some cupcakes and used some remaining frosting from Blake's Halloween birthday. I thought about doing a chocolate cupcake and peanut butter frosting, but honestly, I don't like peanut butter frosting!

Gather your unwrapped Reese's and fill a bag with your frosting. I used a Wilton round tip, size 2. 

 Then just add the face of your choice. I went with a classic jack o' lantern for this guy.

 Then just add it to your cupcake and you're done! I think they turned out cute. I should have added a green leaf though I guess.

If you are ready for more Halloween fun, head over to Hershey's Boo Blvd. There you will find crafts, recipes & more!

Now how about that giveaway? How would you like to win two bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins? One lucky reader will!

To enter: 

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite and least favorite Halloween candies are. (mandatory).

2. Become a public follower of my blog, or let me know you already are. (optional).

Please make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry. Giveaway will remain open until Saturday, October 20th. Good luck!!

Linked to: Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog, Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Talent Tuesday at Vintage Wanna Bee, Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style, Market Your Biz & Giveaway at Homemaker on a Dime, What We Wore, Read & Made at Rae Gun Ramblings, Look What I Made at Creations by Kara, Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths, Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage, Giveaway Directory at Someday Crafts, Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life, Happy Hour at Craftberry Bush, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Friday Favs at Naptime Crafters, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello

Blake's Halloween Birthday

 Blake's birthday is actually in September, but this year we decided to do the party a little late and have a Halloween theme.The invitations were tricky because he wasn't sure what he wanted. We started looking on Etsy and found these graphics, so I got busy trying to make invitations. We only have Paint & Picasa, so that's what I was forced to use. But I think they turned out ok.

 I've always wanted to have a Halloween party, so this was a lot of fun to plan! Thankfully I didn't need to buy much in terms of decorations.

For the backdrop, I hung plastic tablecloths from our curtain rod. Quick, easy and inexpensive! I made the larger wooden tombstone in the back. I'm sure I could have made it better, but it was done in less than 10 minutes. The 01-12 in the date represents the year Blake was born to now.

 Of course we had lots of gross yummy goodies. I'll show more on those in a second. 

For the drink, we wanted something that matched the color, but that tasted good. That excluded orange & lime Kool-Aid. And I didn't want to use soda. So I used clear watermelon-kiwi Kool-Aid and added a drop of food coloring to make it green.

Aren't the cups cute? I glued google eyes to each one. 

Later on I tried adding a glow stick underneath the dispenser, but you can see it didn't do much. Probably would have looked great in the dark though!

Since watered down drinks are gross, I froze the clear Kool-Aid in a latex glove to serve as ice. I also floated a few leftover eyeballs inside.

And for added fun, I froze some gummy worms in ice cubes.

And now for the treats. We had yellowed teeth (pineapple).

Clotted blood (salsa).

Sewage (Chili's style queso). I thought about using diarrhea as the name for this, but I thought that might be pushing it!

Shrunken skulls & cobwebs (chocolate covered Oreos).

Vampire fangs (tortilla chips).

No fancy name for the cupcakes.

Toenails of a giant (potato chips). This one was tricky.

Mummified monster toes (chocolate covered Twinkies).

Poison powder (Pixie Sticks). We got these from the loose candy bins at Party City. They were on sale 25 for $1.00.

Jelled blood (jello). I love how these turned out but they were so tricky to make!

Witches worms (gummy worms).

Finger bones (chocolate covered pretzels).

Bloody fondue! (red chocolate). I am not a pro at that machine.

For dipping into the chocolate we had tiny hearts (strawberries).

Sponge brains (angel food cake).

Bits of bones (pretzels).

Outside we had a large cooler of poison (soda).

I set this table up for presents and goody bags. The big pumpkin is an outside decoration we have.

I made the little banner above with twine & googly eyes. Idea found here. The sign was in the Target dollar spot.

This pumpkin was also from the dollar spot.

Eventually the chocolate started flowing right.

The goody bags were simple. The eye stickers came from the dollar bin at Joann's.

Inside we had glowsticks (Dollar Tree, 15 for $1), Halloween erasers, expanding foam bugs (Dollar Tree), several types of candy in matching colors (15 for $1 at Party City) and homemade slime. 

I finally used some of the baby food jars I've been hoarding saving since Morgan was a baby (she's 3 now).

The slime is a mixture of glue, water & Borax. I spray painted the lids and glued on google eyes. They are so cute!

The cake! I forgot to save white candy melts for the eyes, so they are google eyes, too.

Make a wish! This makes three birthdays that we have used those black & white candles.

I always pre-scoop the ice cream. It's so much quicker and less messy. The cups were leftover from Morgan's party.

This year I decided to try a black velvet cake. It was not a hit, however. I should have stuck with what works I guess.

Of course the boys played football, like they always do.

We also had a sleepover that night. I think we had 7 boys total. Here they were having a Minecraft session. Dorks. I wasn't sure what to expect having all those boys over night, but they weren't bad at all! But every time I got up to check them, someone was eating a cheeseburger.  Boys.

Linked to: Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Happy Hour at Craftberry Bush, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello, Sundae Scoop at I ♥ Naptime, Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at Homemaker on a Dime, Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table & Dreaming, Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog, Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe,Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style, What We Wore, Read & Made at Rae Gun Ramblings, Look What I Made at Creations by Kara, Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths, Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Friday Favs at Naptime Crafters, Fifth Annual Party Party at My Insanity