My Halloween Decor

Each year I try to snap a few pictures of how I decorated for the Holidays so I can look back and remember all the fun we had and the spirit the decorations brought.

I hurried and snapped these pictures on Halloween Night before I brought out the Thanksgiving decor:

These are my specimen jars. I LOVED making them and they were SUPER easy.

Pumpkins I made last year as our table centerpiece.

Cobwebs and Haunted Houses.

I got this sign as a wedding present. I had to spookify it by adding some spider webs.

The witch with her brew.

I made the seasonal blocks **pictured above** at a craft class held by Lanier Creations and I got the cute family rules sign from 41 West Designs.

Another sign I made with Lanier Creations.

My spooktacular bookshelves.

Our haunted grave yard.

This creepy guy wouldn't leave our house the whole month of October!

Each year I like to add more and more decor! I can't wait for the years to come and to see the changes we make! :]

The Last of the Halloween Fun

The Friday after I last posted I had Meagan and Brittney over to make some fun Halloween treats. We worked on caramel apples, pumpkin shaped brownies, and pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats. It was a fun afternoon with the girls!

I made the caramel by myself but I guess we didn't wait long enough to dip the apples because it pretty much all fell off. Whether or not the caramel stayed on....the good news is the caramel tasted delightful. 

The recipe I used can be found here:

Do you have any caramel apple making tips?

These brownies aren't as cute as my Frankenstein Brownies, but they were fun to make. We decorated them last minute before Meagan had to leave.

Meagan focused on these cute pumpkin rice krispie treats! Aren't they cute?!

Overall treat day was a huge success and it was a fun day spent with the girls. Also, to top it all off, the Halloween fun wasn't over! The next night we had people over for our Second Annual Halloween Party. There wasn't a huge turnout but it was definitely fun! Here are some pictures from the night:

We were originally going to be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but after we couldn't find any yellow sweatshirts, we decided on a Rockstar and his Number 1 Fan! You can see my costume above. Did I mention that I made my own tutu?! It was a lot of work but I think it turned out super cute!

Meagan and Justin came dressed up as characters from the game "Guess Who?!" Aren't their costumes adorable?! 

Here I am with the most famous Rockstar ever, AKA my hubby! :]

Above you can see Brittney and Dustin dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2!

I think everyone's costumes turned out so cute! At the party we ate good food, talked with good friends, and watched some scary movies. We didn't play all the games I had in store, however, before everyone left I had everyone guess how many candy corn were in the jar. JUSTIN WON! :]

Here is Walter...I mean Justin...with his prize and the candy corn! GREAT GUESSING JUSTIN!

I also had everyone vote on the cutest costume and Brittney and Dustin WON! :] Here they are with their prizes.

The party was super fun and I'm glad everyone came. On Halloween day we ended up spending time with family and watching my niece and nephew Trick or Treat. It was a great night spent with the ones we love.

Overall my Halloween festivities were a HUGE success. Thank you for all who came to celebrate and I'm looking forward to a spooktacular time NEXT YEAR! 

More Halloween Fun

Sorry there was another huge gap in my posts... A few days after I posted I ventured to Nashville, TN with my Momma to visit my sister and her hubs. We spent a little over a week in the Dirty South and we even got to go to Charleston, SC. It was a fun trip and I'm glad I got to see my sister!

I'll post more about the trip later though, because this post is designated to more HALLOWEEN FUN!

When it comes to all the fun events I planned:

The day I got home from my vacation we had the "Scary Movie Night!" It was a lot of fun and I'm grateful that Brittney was able to host it. We just didn't watch any movies, haha! It was total girl time and boy time and it was so much fun!

The next event after that was supposed to be TREAT NIGHT but it got postponed. We'll be doing that on FRIDAY at my house and I'm super excited. :]

The next event on the list, which happened to be yesterday, was our PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST!

A bunch of our friends came over to eat yummy food and carve pumpkins. I had a ton of fun and I'm so glad people were able to come.

Here are the pumpkins:

My dorky pumpkin.

Andrew's Elvis pumpkin! He drew this himself. LOVE my talented hubby.

The Patchett's pumpkin!

The Fisher's pumpkin!

The Barrow's pumpkins. :]

Mine and my honey's pumpkins together. :]

I really had a ton of fun carving and who doesn't love a GOOD competition. Andrew's and The Patchett's pumpkins tied for first place! Since we were hosting, the Patchett's went home with the prize which was a pumpkin scented candle and some pumpkin shaped Reese's! :]

Like a lot of my events, I felt it was necessary for a favor to be handed out.

This is what I came up with:

All I needed was some clear bags, black ribbon, Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins, and a sweet note.

The note says: "You're one of the best pumpkins in the patch. Thank you for carving pumpkins with us! -The Lawrences"

They were really simple but I think they did the trick.

Now I'm looking forward to TREAT NIGHT on FRIDAY and our HALLOWEEN PARTY on SATURDAY!

Most of all I'm eager for CHRISTMAS and for all the fun events to be had!

Have you planned any fun events lately?! 

THIS is HALLOWEEN!

I've been MIA for almost a month and I'm sorry.

There have been a lot of family events and Halloween planning around here and I just got distracted from the blog. I'll try to do better from now on...ESPECIALLY with so many fun things to show you this month.

This month will include posts about:

Decorations

Parties

Food

and EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN!

For now I'll share with you the "Save the Dates" I made for all of the fun Halloween activities I have in store:

I saw the template on Pinterest and altered it to fit my needs. Here's the original:

You can find an empty template by following the link...just another reason why I LOVE PINTEREST.

And speaking of the events I planned...tonight was the HAUNTED HOUSE DECORATING CONTEST.
My good friend Meagan was willing to host tonight's event and I was so thankful!

Each couple was in charge of bringing their own house and we decided to do an Italian themed potluck.

I decided to bring Fettuccine Alfredo and really cute Frankenstein Brownies.

I can't take credit for thinking these up all on my own. I saw them online a few years ago (Maybe on Betty Crocker?!) and made them for a Linger Longer but decided to make them again tonight! They were quite tasty if I do say so myself.

**On a side note, it was really rainy tonight and I had to put a tray on top of these to make sure they didn't get all wet and gross. On the way home there were left overs and I put them on my lap, but without thinking I started to get out of the car and DOWN the brownies went into the gutter. This may be a blessing in disguise though since I won't be tempted to eat these tasty (high calorie) treats, haha.**

Anyways, we ate good food and then decided to decorate our houses.

It was a lot of fun seeing what people decided to do to their houses. I don't have any pictures yet because Meagan took some on her camera, so I'll update this post when I get them.

I do have a picture of our finished house though:

We didn't win 1st place but I think it turned out pretty dang cute! Much better than last years:

Needless to say it was a lot of fun!

To top the night off I made cute favors for people to take home:

I saw an adorable favor idea on Pinterest awhile ago and knew I wanted to incorporate it into the holiday season. Here is the original pin:

CUTE HUH?! While out shopping I made sure I picked up Ghost Peeps, Graham Crackers, Hershey's Chocolate Bars, Ribbon, and clear bags.

I took a clear bag and put 1 graham cracker (broken in half along the line...so two pieces) in the bag, topped it with two Hershey's bars, and topped it with one Ghost Peep.

I tied the bag with black ribbon and knew it was missing a cute tag...

See what I mean? Cute...but missing something.

So I thought up a saying and went to creating. This is what I came up with:

Thank you for HAUNTING by! We can't wait to see you s'more this month at all of our spooktacular events."

Then I just added them to the bags for a very cute result:

I love having favors at events and think these turned out so cute.

I can't wait for the rest of the Halloween events and can't wait to have a great Halloween season. :]

Have you done anything Spooktacular lately?!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween this year. To celebrate Andrew and I had a costume party and just hung out with friends the day before Halloween. We were going to carve pumpkins but that didn't end up happening. We ate yummy fiesta food and talked.

Here are a few pictures from the bash:

I wish we would have taken more pictures and gotten everyone included in the pictures. There's always next year.

Then on Halloween we just got back in our costumes and gave candy to the trick or treaters.

It was a fun first Halloween as a married couple and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

:]

Halloween Decor...FINALLY

This Halloween was my first Halloween as a married woman. This meant that I was responsible for ALL of the decorations...and if you know me...you know I LOVE decorating. Sure I was able to decorate when I spent a year at USU but this year it was different being able to decorate my OWN house. I was mesmerized by all of the amazing crafts people have posted about and of course made a wish list much too large for this Halloween. Luckily, I WAS able to get a few crafts in with working 5 hours shy of full time AND going to school full time. I have quite a few more crafts I look forward to making but those will either have to wait or will be be posted about later if I find the time to do them. :]

When I did find the time, I made some really cute decorations that I had been eying on different sites. The first Halloween craft I made was the spooky Halloween candy display seen HERE on one of my FAVORITE blogs.

After I saw her original post I KNEW I had to make a similar display. At the time I was on a thrift store spree so I made a trip to DI and found cute glass vases that I thought would work. I don't think I spent more than $2 or $3 on any one vase...some were even $.50. PERFECT for a newly married couple's budget. I found the tray at Goodwill for a couple of dollars and had the hubby spray paint it black and had the filler already from a previous craft. After finding different candies, I thought of "creepy" names, typed them up, and burned the edges. Then with some black construction paper, adhesive tape, and some jute I was able to finish up the labels. I couldn't be happier with the display and am so grateful that Shelley shared her original idea.

Another craft I was able to do came from THIS BLOG. I thought the idea was SO cute and had to make some luminaries myself. I found some different sized mason jars at DI and used paint I already had. I painted the color and let it dry, painted the face and let it dry, then finally painted it with glossy spray to finish them off.  And WALAH:

I didn't think these would look good in my front yard so they are located on top of my microwave. They look SUPER cute lit up and I am SO glad I found Amanda's blog.

After seeing painted mason jars and tons of pumpkin crafts I got the idea to make my own pumpkins out of glass. I found three interesting "vases" I guess you would call them (even though I believe one is a pasta holder) at the DI (can you see a trend?). I painted them the same day I made the luminaries, then thought it would be cute to tie some jute around the top. They STILL didn't look finished though so I went outside and found some sticks for stems. After putting them all together I fell in LOVE with my pumpkins:

Cute huh? I love that I can keep them out until Thanksgiving!

These next few pictures are just other decorations around my house. My front room is currently in the process of being painted so I'll have to take a picture of that room later. However, that doesn't mean I can't show you the rest of my house! :]

Andrew and I had friends over for Family Home Evening and we decorated Haunted Houses. Cute huh? Also notice the spider web infested picture frames ;]

More spider web. Painted tree branches placed in free vases I got from my friends wedding. I found those cute tree ornaments at Joann's, and the crows were at the Dollar Tree. These combined make for a cute display in my opinion.

The next few projects I made at a craft night which was SUPER fun.

I LOVE both these crafts and look forward to future craft nights offered by Melinda. You can find out more about her work HERE. She sells TONS of cute vinyl. I also made another sign, but that goes in the front room I mentioned previously.

Here's my knick knack shelf with a few Halloween trinkets.

This is the door to our bedroom. :]

This is one of my front windows. Sorry about the poor quality but I drew some ghosts and hung them by string. 

Here's a close up of one of the ghosts. :] 

 And here is my front door. :] With some spider web, caution tape, and pumpkin stands from CURRENT I pulled this off. Oh and the mat was from Goodwill.

I absolutely love decorating and hope you enjoyed looking at some of my Halloween decor. Maybe you'll be inspired by some of my decor like other blogs inspired me.

Do you have any favorite Halloween decorations or traditions?