Baby Elephant

Hudson's first Halloween was a success. We had the cutest baby elephant on our hands, this was the only picture I was able to snap without his hand in his mouth (darn teething).

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, I will be back tomorrow with another great giveaway and later this week with my latest organizing project!

Halloween Outside

You may keep you're skeletons in the closet but we keep ours outside ;). haha It probably won't grace the covers of Better Homes and Gardens, but we had the best time decorating for halloween this year!! We went with a skeleton theme!

We finally finished the outside of our house, and we'll hope we'll have lots of customers for our "DEAD and Breakfast"

We have some seriously eager customers who can't wait for the grand opening, they're trying to break in through the windows!

Some are hanging out on our front porch . . . and some are coming out of the ground!

We are so excited for Halloween Night, if last year is any indication of this year we're expecting just over 400 trick or treaters (I'm seriously last year we ran out of candy after 400 kids). Our block will have a DJ, a very spooky haunted house, a Tim Hortons truck giving out free hot chocolate and coffee, a smoke canon, and a BIG PARTY!!! To see all of our photos from Saturdays Party, check out our facebook page for all of the gruesome details.

A Princess and a Witch walk into a bar . . .

A Princess and a Witch walk into a bar . . . .
They weren't watching where they were going, walked into eachother and their outfits got all tangled and mixed up and My halloween costume is the result of their collision!
That sentence made more sense in my head. What I'm trying to say is . . . my costume looks like I couldn't decide between a witch and a princess so I made a "Witch-cess" errrr . . . a "Prin-tch" . . . errrrr. . . and evil princess! Yeah!

I know I promised a sneak peek at our Outside Decorations for Halloween, but they're not finished yet! Looks like we'll be sending a rare weekend post your way. Make sure to check back this Saturday or Sunday! :)

I thought, instead, I would share my Costume for this weekends party . . . I made it myself!

It's kind of like a Princess and a Witch hybrid (and we all know hybrids are all the rage these days, well at least hybrid cars ;).

The skirt was really easy to make, I just bought a TON of fabric. About 10 yards of tulle, and about 4 yards of organza. Luckily our local fabric store (Fabricland) had a discount on tulle, 50% off for members, so I was able to get all the tulle for $2 a yard, and the organza was $3 a yard. I assembled the skirt kind of like a Long, Puffy, Apron, open at the back, but when it's cinched closed it looks like a real skirt.  Total Cost: $35!
For the sash I just picked up some satin quilt binding! It's already folded in half and all I had to do was:
1. Cut the tulle into long strips (long enough to hit the floor) the stripes were about 5" wide.
2. Open the satin binding, bunch the fabric, pin it and sew a straight-ish line!
3. Bunch more pieces of tulle and sew on top of the other bunches.
4. Once you've finished sewing in bunches of tulle and organza, fold the other half of the quilt binding over, sew it together and you have a skirt! 

It was so easy, and I LOVE IT!!!! For the top I just used a sequin tank top I had kicking around in the back of my closet!
I feel like an evil princess . . . with cute shoes ;).

 I'm ready to kick up my heels and party this weekend:

If you're dressing up this weekend I'd LOVE to know what you're going as . . . and if you're wearing cute shoes too! ;)

The Worst Dinner Party Ever.

So we invited a couple over for dinner . . . and let me tell you, it was the worst dinner party ever.
It was awful! They didn't talk at all, I totally had to carry the conversation all night.

They barely ate anything . . . and at one point they called us fat! Seriously . . . the nerve! ;) 

The last straw was when he started to smoke a cigar at the dinner table!! Geez! 

All joking aside we are having a dinner party THIS weekend so I set the table in a spooky fashion, our current dinner guests will soon be outside on our front lawn for Halloween night!

I picked up some black fabric for $2 a yard, I needed a yard and a half to do the two black runners. If you can sew a straight line (or even a moderately straight line) you can sew a table runner.
The patterned black fabric on top was part of Lee's Halloween costume last year (it was a cape), he didn't need it this year so I cut it up and sewed two more table runners to layer on top.

We didn't have any napkins with a Halloween vibe so I knew I would have to make a set (and I knew our local fabric store had a sale on Halloween themed fabric). I thought about doing orange but it seemed too . . . expected. So I went with a spooky, kind of yellowy-neon green color with some spooky spiders and spider webs.

Some white plates to pop against the black runners, and some creepy crawly bugs (big pack from Walmart $3).

A bouquet inspired by All Hallows Eve. I chose some dark purple alstroemeria. mixed them with some orange Gerbers, and some bright green button mums. I love the combinations of dark purple, orange, and green, I find it really fresh, but still very "fall". :)

A little skull statue, a la Lee!

And lastly a feather wreath (Walmart $14.99). I bought this wreath for the front door, but we get such gusty winds our here, it kept blowing off and rolling down the street. So we brought it in, used a command hook and hung it on the barn door. I think it's my favorite part!

So, in conclusion,  I don't want to discriminate but if you're having a dinner party I would leave Skeletons off the guest list . . . they are no fun at all! ;)

It's getting Spooky in the Living Room

It's getting darn right spooky around here! As per usual, Lee has taken over outside Halloween duties and I've been taking care of inside Halloween duties! Honestly I'm usually the one in charge of decorating, but Halloween is where Lee really shines! Lee's like the 'rain man' of Halloween. He can turn spray foam window insulation into bloody limbs, and tissue paper into creepy veins. It's a creepy talent, but a talent none the less. We'll have a creepy crawly outside post on Friday for you, but today it's the kinder, more PG version of Halloween, aka. Ashli's Version 2.0 (I don't know why I wrote 2.0, but I think it makes it sound cooler).

I started in the living room, a few skulls in a cloche  some scary books . . . okay they're not scary they're just black! But if you squint at the titles and they go all blurry they would look scary . . . because the books are black. . . my logic is flawless, you can't deny it.  ;)

I love skulls under glass . . . it's my favorite Halloween decoration . . . it's like the Christmas tree of Halloween!

As I described earlier . . .  scary books and some teeny tiny mice ($2 for a bag of 12 from Walmart).

And this is a new Halloween MUST DO . . . we bought a bag of creepy crawlies from Walmart for $3 it was full of everything from your worst nightmares. I taped up a creepy crawly spider inside the lamp shade and when it's turned on it's truly spooky.

Next a little mantle decor, Randy sits beside the Candles (Randy the Raven, FYI).

A little bit of fabric trim from Jo Ann fabrics wrapped around some simple white candles makes them spooky-ish.

Beside the TV I popped a couple of "real" scary books. I found them at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. I've never read them, they live in the Halloween decoration box, but honestly they are one of my favorite Halloween decorations!

Lee's contribution to the living room scheme . . . a Styrofoam skull.
And lastly,  an understated coffee table . . . a white warped bowl (from Urban Barn) some black candle sticks and a stack of Fall Decorating Magazines (petrifying I know!). 

Come back tomorrow so I can tell you all about the WORST DINNER PARTY EVER, I threw it last week! 

Mmmmmm . . . Brains!

*Warning . . . if this post makes you hungry . . . you might be a Zombie!

This weekend we started a new tradition . . . Zombie Paintball! By we I mean Lee! We hosted a zombie themed birthday party for a friend of ours. It involved Zombie Paintball. The boys and a couple girls who are braver than myself, trek into the woods with paintball guns to be attacked by padded zombies. I wanted no part of the real zombie action but I did make a cake that satisfied not only the friends who made it back human, but also the friends who came back as zombies! 

It wasn't too difficult at all. We used red velvet cake for inside. I baked two 6" round cakes, popped one on top of the other with some vanilla icing in between. Lee shaped it into a brain shape. He just used a serrated knife and shaped the cake (tip: if you chill the cake in the fridge for a few hours it's easier to shape). Lastly, I slathered vanilla icing all over the top and covered it in strands of pink fondant.

I rolled small pieces of fondant (pink Wilton fondant from Michaels) into long strands and then coiled them all over the cake. I had no rhyme or reason I just made sure to make keep the left side and the right side of the brain separate.

My recipe for BLOOD! 
1 cup Corn Syrup
1-2 tbsp coco powder
red food coloring (as much as you'd like).
If it's too bright try adding a tiny bit of blue food coloring.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Baking!

A Halloween classic around our house would be Witch Finger Cookies, they're super easy to make and a holiday favorite of Lee's.

Here's the Recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla cubububdkdjfgoe
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1tube (19 g) tube (19 g)red decorator gel, (blood for fingers)

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla; beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (I'm not going to lie I totally didn't refrigerate the dough :)

Press almond firmly into end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape; using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Apply nail blood with  red decorator gel. Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

And it wouldn't be a holiday around here without cupcakes!
Devils food cupcakes with vanilla icing, and chocolate sprinkles!!

Have a great weekend!!!! We'll be working on the Barn Door, around here, hopefully it will get completed and we can move on to the hardware part of the project, with any luck . . . and no more illness . . . we could have a new door this November!!!

PUMPKINS

It seems like everyone in my family has artistic talent except for me, my sister is an amazing oil painter, my mom is a great water color artist, and my husband is a fabulous pumpkin carver. If it were up to me the pumpkin would have two triangle eyes and a triangle nose :)

Here's this years pumpkin during the day:

and at NIGHT!!!

and here's his MAX pumpkin:

Halloween Part 3 of 3 Outside

Thanks to a terrible cold Lee caught this weekend, our front yard might escape the addition of fake blood and guts. Lee was suppose to add his "special" touches to the Halloween decor but came down with a HUGE fever this weekend. He's still feeling under the weather, so the cut up bodies might have to wait until next year (Darn :) But before he got sick he did manage to add a bunch of skeletons:
There's skeletons on the posts:

There are skeletons in the grass

Is it just me or does this one look like it's having a baby??

A couple of severed appendages,

and a random sprinkling of skulls (yup . . . I just said "a random sprinkling of skulls!" and they say T.V. is getting too gruesome ? ? ? pfffff . . . )

Lee added Green lights at night. Along with a smog machine for Halloween night. It's turning out to be quite the party on our street there's going to be a DJ and two haunted houses, Tim Horton's in coming to hand out hot chocolate and we've been told to expect around 1000 kids (seriously . . . . 1000) So if you come by the house and our lights are out, it means we've run out of Candy :).

Make sure to check back this afternoon for our pumpkin photos! I thought this post had enough pictures in it!! :)

Halloween Part 2 of 3

We're almost done with the Outside Decorations for Halloween, but I thought Max would like to get in on the Halloween Action too.
I'm far too nice of a puppy mommy to dress him up as a hot dog or giant pumpkin, so I pulled out his little Halloween sweater. And maybe it's a case of my kid's the cutest but I think he's adorable!!

I also grabbed a shot of Max out front by the mums.

And maybe just one more for the road!

Halloween: Indoor Edition

Halloween around this Manor is a two part affair, indoors and outdoors. Since this is the first year we have both an inside and an outside to decorate we're a little bit overwhelmed! I've taken over inside decorating tasks and Lee is the boss outside.
Lee's still working on his outside decorating so you'll have to wait until next week to see that (apparently there aren't enough disemboweled bodies out there yet ;).
I decided to keep the Halloween decor to the library and front hall, I've been in a bit of a minimalist mood lately so I wanted to keep the clutter to a minimum in the living room and kitchen.
In the library I added skulls, skulls and more skulls :)

We bought an angry black cat years ago! (Max hates the black cat poor little guy won't go into the library anymore . . . the angry black cat might have to head outside).

A crow and a huge chrome skull found their place on the coffee table. Along with some black bound books, I picked those books because they're black not because they're particularly scary . . . unless you consider Martha Stewart scary then one of them is scary. hehe

I bought a package of small mice from Walmart for $2.00 and that's the only money I spent on the library decorations.

For the Front Door Console I added the table runner from our thanksgiving table, it's a little less spooky then I was hoping to go, but I liked the little hint of orange it gave. I added a couple of candles and wrapped them in black patterned scrapbook paper.   We still needed a lamp there and since our white ceramic lamp wasn't very Halloween-y I added a burlap ribbon and some tiny little skeletons. And I thought the bloody hand prints added a murderous feel haha.

I put out our candy cube, just a box for Candy that I picked up at Homesense a couple of years ago, I like that it has a lid on it, it makes it just that much harder for us to grab candy out of (heaven knows if it was an open bowl of candy there wouldn't be anything left come Oct.31st).

A couple of black books I found at the Dollar Tree, labeled THE DARK SACRAMENT  oooooooo . . . spooky!

And of course skulls, skulls and more skulls. I LOVE putting them under glass, I think there's something very classy about a skull under glass . . . kind of like a specimen.

Total Cost for Console:
$1 for Mice
$1 for two sheets of scrapbook paper
$4 for bloody hand prints
+
$1 for library mice
___________________________
$7 spent on indoor decor, we had everything else we needed (thanks to Lee and his creepy love of skulls).

We must have done a good job because I peeked in at the library and found this guy, relax'in reading a book!! haha