Homemade with Love

Haunting Decor

 
Since all the Halloween decor is coming down on Monday to make way for our Harry Potter preparations, I thought I would post some pictures of our home. I tried to divide the different color schemes and themes into different parts of our house. This is our dining room and it is cream and black. The tree is a project I had for Wayne and me. I saw something like this in the Pottery Barn catalog and so badly wanted to re-create it for inside our home. I was lucky to find an urn that was the right size. Those branches are from our neighbor's yard. They were on our side of the fence though. ;) I added black birds and homemade ornaments using pages from a Harry Potter book. Don't worry. Neither of our two complete sets of HP books were harmed in the making of those ornaments. I picked up a couple extra books at yard sales.

Here is the tree a little closer:

 
Here is a closer look at our buffet table:

 

Here is a pic of the fireplace. Still going with the black and cream theme.

 
This is a close-up pic of my apothecary jars. The big one is filled with bubblegum eyeballs. Not sure what I am going to do with the leftovers. I don't think I can save those for our Christmas gingerbread house.

 
Next to the tv armoire is Brad, our mummy. If he had a jersey on, it would be #52.

 
The porch is decorated for fall, so I can leave those things up for awhile longer.

 
The entryway houses a small display of our vintage-looking Halloween items.

 
Off to Abby's room. She decorated for Halloween with colors from her room. Too cute. She and I made and hung yarn spiders from her ceiling and her grandma gave her a sparkly lime green jack o'lantern that complemented the room nicely. Hailee added some Halloween pillows to her room, but didn't decorate as extensively as Abby. Therefore, no pics of Hailee's room.

 
 
 
The next couple of pics are of the kitchen, which was more the traditional orange and black/cheerful Halloween decor that flowed out to the patio. Of course, Molly had to get in the picture.

 
 

This is the back patio. This is what we see from the dining room and living room, so it went along with the black/cream and bird theme.

 
And last but not least, this is what is on my coffee table. The ever-shrinking bowl of hershey's kisses. This is what I see when I am kicking up my feet in the morning with my iced coffee, while playing on the iPad. Life is good.

 

Zombie Walk 2010

 
I don't know what possessed us to go. So, I can't possibly begin to explain why we dressed up and participated in our local Zombie Walk. We were Diet Zombies. Maybe Zombies Light? We were nice zombies with a minimal amount of blood. In the sea of blood, gore, and guts, we were the kind of zombies little kids weren't afraid to take their pictures with. We were the nice family of zombies: the dad, the mom, the two daughters, and the grandma. We were more Plants vs. Zombies video game zombies in the barrage of Zombieland/Night of the Living Dead zombies. Wayne and I kept asking each other if we could recall participating in anything weirder than this. The answer was no.

Oddly enough, getting ready was easy. Hailee was a dead bride last year for Halloween, so we reused the costume. Abigail was a zomBEE. Apparently, no one else got the connection but us. Whatever. Wayne was definitely a character from Plants vs. Zombies. He had a dirty white shirt, tie, tattered khaki pants, greener make-up, and "open-toed shoes". My mom came over in a camo jacket. We just applied some make-up and added a couple of bones we had for her new arms. Since I am not a dress-up kind of gal, I went the conservative zombie route. Jeans, black shirt, cute black mules, zombie make-up, and a stylish, blood-stained scarf. We added a couple of leaves to Hailee's, Wayne's, and my mom's hair to achieve that fresh from the grave look.

I took some pics before and during the Walk. Hailee received a LOT of attention. The photographer from the Merced Sun-Star took her aside to take lots of pictures of her. I think at least five made it on the website gallery, as did a photo of Wayne's foot. A group shot of us was also included in the gallery. We were also very briefly on KSEE 24 too. Funny, huh?

I have to tell you about the blood capsules I purchased at Hot Topic. Ewwwwww. They were so gross. They were vanilla-flavored and when they popped, this warm, red liquid oozed out. The girls and I totally had to spit them out or else we would have.....you get the idea. Totally NOT zombie-like behavior, I know.

 
Our family portrait. I'm thinking Christmas card.

 
The not-so-blushing bride. A vision in grey.

 
My sweet little zomBEE. Does anyone else think that if Edward Scissorhands and Bellatrix Lestrange had a baby, this would be the product?

 
Wayne was all about the details. I think he may need a pedi now.

 
I'm pretty sure my mom would do anything we'd ask her to do. :) 
Nice, huh?

 
She's so cute, it's frightening.

Hoping this week to get some pics up of our Halloween decor and our trips (yes, more than one) to the pumpkin patch.

Halloween Cupcake Kits

 

I am offering Halloween Cupcake Kits to my local friends and family during the last week of October. Everyone loves cupcakes, right?

Each $5 kit includes:

One unfrosted cupcake-choose chocolate or vanilla. I forgot to leave the cupcake unfrosted before taking the picture!

Tinted homemade buttercream-Choose in a piping bag or in a plastic cup. If you will be sending this with your child to school or giving to a co-worker with no access to scissors, the plastic cup will be more user-friendly.

A plastic knife and napkin

LOADS of sprinkles and candies (Way more than needed for one cupcake, but kids WILL try to use them all!)

One plastic, inedible cupcake topper

Everything will be packaged up in a brown paper bag with some sort of handmade Halloween paper embellishment clipped to the front. So, if you are so inclined to take a photo of your child decorating the cupcake, you may also want to use the acid-free paper piecing for your scrapbook too. :)

I am offering these on the following days: Thursday, October 28-Sunday, October 31. Please email me, leave me a comment here, or send me a Facebook message if you would like to order or have a question.