Half-baked Halloween?

Hello all and TGIF! Happy almost-Halloween weekend!

I lurv Halloween - always have - I mean, what's not to love about dressing up in a fun costume and getting free candy? Sounds pretty ideal to me. I am kind of sad we're too old to go trick-or-treating these days (well, I could probably still pass for a high schooler, but old man weird beard [ahem, that's you, love] might stand out), but we can still do some little stuff around the house. I hate to say it, but we actually haven't carved pumpkins this year (maybe sometime before Sunday??) and I haven't gone too overboard with decorating or the like.

Here is my one little Halloween vignette:

Spooky, eh? Yeah yeah, I know it's kind of a half-a$sed Halloween set-up, but what can you do? Gourd + plastic pumpkin (he makes an appearance every year) + spooky glitter skull (which was an awesome find, here) on an upside-down bowl = I tried. It is what it is. I kind of like it though... And don't our silhouettes look kind of creepy/dead relative-ish? :)


The one effort I have made was in the kitchen. Yesterday I got the baking bug and decided to whip up some homemade "boo pies" (I have no idea what to call them - they're sort of halfway between whoopie pies [but not as cake-y] and Oreos [but not as crunchy]) - whatever you call 'em, they are were gooood (just ask Sara).

Here's proof that I made these mammers from scratch:

Cooling.


Patiently waiting while I mixed up the cream cheese filling by hand.


Assembled. (A tad sloppy, but it was my first attempt at this!)


Halloween-ed up.

The only trouble is that I have this left over:

A decent portion of handmade cream cheese filling. There's about a million pounds of cream cheese, butter and confectioner's sugar just waiting to go straight to my a$s. It's all I can do not to dig in with a spoon. Oy.

Have you all gotten into the Halloween mood yet? Without kids, I feel slightly strange getting too amped up over it, but I am looking forward to this weekend... In the meantime, see you all back here in a bit!

Instead of rain...

...what if your windshield wipers swept over this instead today?

I know it's pouring cats and dogs out here, but wouldn't this cheery rainbow be a welcome sight?

Dutch artist Helmut Smits created this windshield rainbow using acrylic paints like this:


Concept and execution by Helmut Smits, photo by Lotte Stekelenburg. Originally spotted via DesignLoveFest.

Polka dotty

I'll take one roll in each pattern of this very happy polka-dotted tape, please. ;)

I'm picturing it adorning/sealing up packages simply wrapped in kraft paper, using it to hold up pics on my inspiration bulletin board (the tape is removable), as a fun flourish on cards and other paper crafts, or even just to tape things together as needed (I'm looking at you, cover on the back of the universal remote where the batteries go!). Too cute.

Spotted on Armelle blog.

Leafy wreath-y

Truth: I've been having some extreme motivation problems. Maybe it's that it's getting darker earlier, or just that my body is preparing itself to enter hibernation mode (it happens every winter: the daily routine becomes a cycle of: drag myself out of the warm bed into the cold house, shower, work, eat, watch movies in, eat more, cuddle, sleep, repeat, not much else - I don't like the collld!), but I've lost my gusto for all things non-mandatory. Whereas I used to relish DIY projects, I've been dragging my feet lately in getting them done or not taking them on at all. (I'm keeping it real here, peeps.)

But if I can squeeze out even one ounce of extra energy, it might just be for this incredible DIY wreath from Kathleen of Twig & Thistle. Isn't it beautiful for fall?


She took these ugly typical (trying to be slightly nicer) fall fake-leaves...

...spray-painted them purple and collected some coordinating ribbon, pins, and a foam ring...

...tacked the leaves onto the ribbon-covered ring...

...et voila! The most beautiful (and weather resistant!) wreath for your table, windows or door:


Isn't it so cute? I love the silvery-gray fabric flower things paired with the ombre purple leaves.

Want the full instructions? Kathleen was kind enough to lay it all out, step-by-step, on her blog here. Also, she made this fall leaf creation as part of a contest for Better Homes & Gardens - won't you be kind enough to vote for her wreath here? I mean, if I can't muster the energy to make this myself, the least I can do is take the two seconds to vote for the lady who created this, right?... ;)

Chic & easy: DIY Halloween costume

Seriously? Who knew a DIY Halloween costume could be so fashionable? Of course it helps that this woman looks like a model, but dare I say that this adorable is mushroom costume is...chic? It seriously couldn't get easier either - cover a wide-brimmed hat (grab one from Tar-jay - my favorite chic & cheap spot!) and adhere some felt spots to make it look like a mushroom top. Pair with an all-brown (or earth tone) outfit et voila! Mushroom.

If being a fun-guy (heh, fungi - get it? oy. sorry.) doesn't do it for you, here are a few other easy DIY options:


I'm loving this cute gnome costume. I highly doubt B would ever let me even suggest something like this for him/us, but maybe someday I'll be able to put a munchkin of my own in it. The whole thing could be accomplished with some basic clothes and felt pretty easily too.


Maybe B would rather be in a Polaroid. Paint box, adhere background, done. (Don't forget your "picture smile" to top it off!) Love it.


I've always toyed with donning a giant fruit-laden headdress and polka-dotted garb a la Carmen Miranda to be the Chiquita banana lady for Halloween, but this all-yellow banana costume seems much easier. Mind officially changed - peace out headdress (maybe one day when I'm a crazy old lady...), hellooo head-to-toe yellow! Now where to score yellow pants on the cheap?

All these brills ideas came directly from Kendra Smoot for Holidash - check out the link for even more DIY ideas. In the meantime, I'm off to shop for a floppy hat and some felt... can you guess what I'm going to be?

A gnome. Duh. (Kidding)

Photos by Seth Smoot. Mushroom costume originally spotted on {frolic!}.

Apple for teacher

I don't have kids and I've been out of school for quite some time now, but I do have a mom who is a teacher, so I've seen a bad teacher gift or two (or 20) in my day. With schools ending for the summer in a few weeks here, I know a lot of ladies in town have been looking for good and unique (not another smelly candle!) teacher gifts (this is what you get when you hang out at Paper Source a lot).

I will tell you that my mom always loves Starbucks or Barnes & Noble gift cards, but if you're looking to make something handmade, here are two amazing ideas made by some creative chicks (not me) that will put you safely in the good-gift category.

Numero uno - the cutest customized hand soaps ever:

With all the random strains of cold/flues/diseases floating around kids and classrooms, teachers are always washing their hands (at least I hope they are!), so Jill Means of Legacy Digital Design capitalized on a practical idea and made something super-pretty out of it.

Basically, she took boring (and not cute) Softsoap - which she actually got on sale at Target for 1 dollar a bottle - took off the label, and added in a custom one with her kids' silhouettes (mwaahahaha, I snuck them in again!) and a thank you. Click here for the full instructions and a free downloadable template if you want to do this yourself.

Originally spotted on Design Mom.

Numero dos - a fun soda and snack pack:

Simply Seleta took on a similar idea - finding something a teacher will actually use and making it really pretty - and came up with these great "goody packs" (as she called them) in varying colors based on the kids and/or teacher.

These packs included color-coordinated vintage-y soda, straws, sugar-free gum, chocolates, microwave popcorn (great quick teacher snack), and of course the pretty label. If you're interested in doing this yourself, here's the full how-to and downloadable template for the label.

Originally spotted on Party Perfect.

I hope these two great ideas by two cool ladies sparked your inspiration and hopefully spared you from giving another picture frame/smelly candle teacher-gift combo. :)

The addiction continues: more silhouettes

I just can't stop myself. I know I said I would stop talking about them - I've tried to quit and failed over and over in fact (gulp - one, two, three, four, five times over) - evidently I just can't stop yapping about how much I love silhouettes.

Enter Rachel from Benign Objects, the latest artist/crafty lady to fuel my obsession. Her newest offering is taking your portraits and turning them into amazing custom pattern silhouettes. You choose the custom colors, patterns, details, etc. for your silhouette and Rachel makes the most beautiful creation. See?:



That gallery wall of silhouettes, including one of the family dog, is so stinkin' cute. I especially love the combination of colors and patterns. I have silhouettes in my house and I have a gallery wall, but I so want to combine them now! Le sigh, the obsession continues...

Originally spotted on Paper Crave.

Want more silhouette madness? Parts une, deux, trois and quatre for ya (and a bonus!).

Pretty, pretty paper & stamps: Unruly Things invites

I can only see the outer portion of these invites by Unruly Things, but I can already tell the whole wedding invitation suite must be drool-worthy. The slightly rustic kraft-paper color of the envelopes is perfectly offset by the more formal, yet totally gorgeous calligraphy and the amazing collection of colorful, vintage stamps. I wish I were getting one of these in my mailbox!

Invites by Unruly Things, calligraphy by Kathryn Murray, stamps from various eBay sellers. So cool.

Word.

People. Are you in need of a last-minute Mother's Day gift, preferably one that is free? Well, lucky for you I am a genius. Oh boo, I can't lie, it's really my un-sister-in-law (B's sister) who is the genius.

I hope she doesn't mind that I am sharing this. I give her full credit. She is crafty and smart and has excellent taste - and she always gives thoughtful gifts. And luckily for me, she's a very busy lady (mother of an almost two-year-old and preggers plus working), so hopefully she isn't reading this to know that I totally jacked her idea... ;) Also, no one she's giving this gift to reads this blog (her mother and MIL are slightly technologically challenged, unlike my iPhone toting mom, so I think she's safe).

So get to the point, huh? Here is Kel's great idea:

DIY Word Clouds - otherwise known as Wordle. Behold:

"Art"


"Sound Poem"


"Month of March"

Still confused? These are totally customizable word clouds - you enter the text (deeming which words to make bigger or smaller by how many times you enter it); pick the font, the colors, the alignment; and re-arrange or randomize however you see fit until you find an arrangement you like. You can make these for all sorts of things: poems, thoughts, inspiration words, family members, etc.

Kelly is making one a custom one of these - including all the family members' names - for her mother and MIL, then printing it out and framing it for each one. Nice gift for a mom, right? And, except for the frame, totally freeeee!

Very cool, Wordle. Genius, Kel.

Enjoy! (And if you make your own, share it with me here!)

Hello. on paper.

The cuteness! If I am ever fancy-pants-y enough to have personal calling cards, I want these ones that Erin Jang created, which were printed by the awesome Studio on Fire.

I'll take 250 with my info on them, please.

Spotted on Black Eiffel.

Lemon leaf garland of goodness

Buckle your desk seats, folks; this one almost knocked me out of my chair. I want Jordan Ferney's brain. This chick is brills. Look what she's done now:

What you see running down the middle of that gorgeous table is a handmade lemon leaf garland with oranges and lemons. Who needs crummy carnations that will probably die shortly after you buy them from the grocery when you can have this gorgeous garland? It's colorful, seasonal, and can you imagine how good it must smell? Probably so fresh and bright.

No need for cut flowers when you can use these easily attainable "ingredients":

Oh and did I mention that Jordan's instructions make a 14 foot garland for only $16? Yep, told you she was brilliant.

Here's the post about it on Jordan's site (Oh Happy Day!) and full instructions are here.

Now, GO. Get the instructions for thyself. I want to throw a party post-haste and do this, like, yesterday.

Mutlicolor modern mobiles

Oh, holy moley, Jordan Ferney has done it again. These DIY mobiles are amazing:

Can you believe she made them herself? They're simply sewn-together strips of vellum, hung from the ceiling on their own string and weighed down by a fishing weight. I love that you can make these mobiles in any combination of colors you want so that they match your party!

Also, she made all of these for less than 25 bucks, so that's a huge amount of impact (it basically transforms the space) for not a lot of dough. I'm a little intimidated by the sewing aspect, but it seems pretty simple overall.

Thankfully, Jordan was kind enough to provide instructions and photos for how to do this yourself, here.


Wouldn't these be perfect for a wedding shower or modern grown-up birthday party? Just tweak the color scheme accordingly and you're seriously set on decor. Love, love, love.

Ruffles and zebras and flowers, oh my!

Are pinatas the new mustache? (As in, are they the trendy new design-world obsession turned party schtick?)

I wouldn't mind having a disco-chic, sparkly zebra pinata like this at some party:

Photo via coco+kelley

Though it'd be hard to bring myself to whack the heck out of it.

This flower pinata is equally as gorgeous, but much less Elton John and more demure rosebud:

Photo via Inchmark

And while we're on the subject of demure and pretty, how sweet are these skivvies from
Frieda Maria?


Well that was quite a mish-mash of things, wasn't it? Welcome to my world... And happy Wednesday morning!

Passover treat?

Typical. Pretty much universally, all kids out there who celebrate Christmas get beautiful gingerbread houses laden with candy and other delicious, commercial goodies; oppositely, only the luckiest of lucky Jewish kids - those with uber-ambitious and overreaching moms - get this:

Thanks for throwing the Jews a bone, Martha Stewart and co. Nice try, but matzo dressed up with dates and macaroons still sucks. The Jews' plight continues... (Ha ha - kidding, of course.)

At least we get to drink a lot of wine at the seder. Four glasses required to be consumed before the meal even begins - woohoo! ;)

Photo from The Crafts Dept. of Martha Stewart.

DIY mini-greenhouse

Terrariums are so hot right now, and this craft project from the April 2010 issue of Country Living fits right in. Their mini-greenhouse/terrarium is DIY and so stinking cute. Best part: the only materials you need are pre-fab wood picture frames.

Admittedly, it'll take a bit of work on your part (some how-to photos below), but the finished product (above - so pretty) more than makes up for the time and elbow grease.

Isn't that an awesome craft? I'm thinking this is right up B's alley... Full instructions and step-by-step instructions here.

Spotted on Love Obsess Inspire.

Beware your ovaries now: Evan's 1st birthday party

Now that we've discussed pulling your own baby out of yourself (ouch & weird), we can move on to the much cuter side of having a baby: baby parties! Or in this case, a first birthday party. Sara, your biological clock is going to start ticking so loudly after this (sorry, Dan).

First off, the setting:
(click on photos for larger image)

I loooove that poster and the balloon arrangements are adorable too.

The plush stuffed animals on wheat grass in fun giraffe-print boxes are brilliant centerpieces - cheap, easy to put together and super-cute!

I honestly think my favorite thing about this party is the party hat design. Aren't they lovely? I love the mix of papers - but of course all kept within the color scheme - plus the piece de resistance: the pom-pom toppers! Custom "E" (for Evan) tote bags for favors aren't too shabby either.

Aunt Sandy's cake pops look delicious, as does that tower of mini-cuppies. But the best food offerings at the event (in my opinion) were probably this amazing combo:

1. Kogi BBQ (I'm dying to try this LA landmark. It's a traveling truck that serves up Korean Mexican tacos and BBQ, day and night, and tweets its location out to its 50,000 followers. And it's supposed to be amazing. Yum!)
AND
2. The Fry Girl's mini donuts - hot mini donuts, made on the spot for guests while they watched. Mmm.

And let's not forget the cutest guest in attendance, the birthday boy:

I'm not usually one for putting kids in suits, but this little guy is rockin' it (that and the mini Chuck high-tops are pretty amazing too).

All photos by Youkeun Oh Photography, found via The City Sage.