day 135: creepy peepers jello/jelly

creepy peepers jelly/jello

day 135 and we have a house FULL of wonderful people this weekend for the world cup final :)  i love it when the house is full of the friends and family having a good time, especially when it's my sister mo's family who arrived late last night!  two weeks ago mo decided she couldn't stay away from the world cup excitement and packed her family on a flight to nz for 4 days to take in the festivities and attend the final!

given our children didn't think they would see each other until next year the excitement of seeing one another again so soon is totally overwhelming for them and they are permanently in party mode!  poor sam thought he would also be here for the halloween party but sadly they won't be :(  i decided to do something about this and create something halloweeny for the kids today so sam and isla could partake with their cousins in this holiday season!  as i planned to serve creepy peepers jello/jelly at our halloween party, i figured it was a good idea to test it out with the peeps ;)

i remember from singapore that sam loved jelly and thought this would go down well with my little nephew. this wonderful idea comes from in katrina's kitchen and is pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

i waited until the kids were tucked up tight in bed and then made up some green jelly/jello.  once the jelly had semi set i transferred it into plastic cups and poked in some eyes!

i used just eyeballs and lime jelly for this creation

individual creepy peepers jelly/jello!

outcome: the peeps are having this as a surprise for dessert tomorrow night before the big game so i am hoping they will love it as much as i do.  it looks creepy and very halloweeny so what's not to love. when i make these for the party on sunday i will let them almost set until i insert the eyes so i can manipulate the placement even more :)

my sincere thanks to katrina from in katrina's kitchen for this simple and easy to achieve idea ... it is totally awesome for a halloween bash and easy to do lots of individual serves when you have friends and family over.

day 134: punked out vase for halloween

definitely starting to look like halloween around here :)

day 134 and i am loving the bats that are flying around my bedroom and on my clock i did a couple of days ago and it got me to thinking ... yes beware, when i say to my husband "honey, i've been thinking" he usually runs a mile with good reason!  the idea from sadie olive to punk out an everyday something for halloween was so totally awesome, i began thinking about what else i could halloweenise ... yip, add this word to your dictionary, if you are american feel free to replace the s with a z ;)

i settled upon the vase that sits on one of our tables ... its white and tall and began wondering "what would sadie olive do with this vase".  well, as you know, i have no idea what she would do but her inspiration lead me into making it a ghost!

i used a small piece of sticky back fabric to the bottom of it and tried that neat trick with the hair dryer to see if it would come of ... sure enough the heat of the hair dryer made the felt peel off without blemishing it so i decided to deck the vase out with sticky back felt for halloween :)

the beginning

the middle

the end :) happy days

outcome: GOOD TIMES WERE HAD BY ALL! yes indeedy, this was exciting because i would never have tried something like this before finding pinterest and all the wonderful inspiration that goes with that site.  i am 134 days into this making and creating and i have changed ... i am more confident to try home decor and not worry about the perfect result and for me and my personality that is AWESOME :)

enjoy your weekends everyone ... mine will involve a little bit of pinterest, a big scoop of rugby, and an abundance of family ... ahhhh sounds like bliss!  and to sadie olive i say thank you ... thank you for giving me the confidence to have a go at my own decorating and not just standing back and being in awe of everyone else's abilities.

day 133: EYE appreciate you :)

gory eye goody bags!

day 133 and i am making yet more treats for the halloween party :)  today's inspiration comes from michelle paige's blog.  she made eye filled goody bags that made me laugh and i thought they would be lots of fun for the kids at the party!

i went to the store and found some eye candy, chocolates, and some bouncy balls.  then it was home to fill some cellophane bags, close them with a ribbon and print out some cute tags that are completed with googly eyes :)

the eyes

the googly eye tag

the completed treat bags!

outcome: really cute and i love the details on the tags with the googly eyes.  these little treat bags epitomise halloween to me, a bit of fun with something you use everyday but for one day you can have gory fun with it and nobody is insulted!

my sincere thanks to michelle and the wonderful 'eye' post she did!  i did stay a while at her blog and there is so much to see from crafts to gorgeous photography, she is one lucky lady to live only 40 minutes away from a hobby lobby :)

day 132: halloween punked clock :)

much more halloweeny :)

day 132 and i saw this clock on pinterest and knew i had to punk out one of my own clocks!  the clock is part of sadie's halloween decor from 2009 on her blog sadie olive.  it's such a great idea and something i never would have dreamed of decorating at any festive season let alone halloween!~

i decided to use dark brown bats on mine as it would fit into the colour scheme in our bedroom.  i printed out the silhouette bats from no biggie, cut them out and used them as templates for the brown felt.  these templates are the same ones i used for the pillows on day 117.

before bats

the very plain clock

templates ready for action

the bats ready to be applied!

the clock after bats 

outcome: this is such a cool idea to update your clock with embellishments for the season :) it totally makes me smile every time i walk past it ... again one of those ideas that is so simple but one i never would have thought to do.  the other nice thing about this creation was it didn't take a lot of time to cut the bats out and they looked so good on their own i didn't want to add anything else.

my thanks to sadie at sadie olive for this wonderful inspiraton, her blog is full of amazing home decor ideas and photos (incredibly inspiring) and is well worth a visit.  and also thanks to no biggie AGAIN for those handy dandy FREE halloween silhouettes :)

day 131: halloween garland

halloween garland :)

day 131 and i am making a halloween banner today thanks to a free printable template from paper crave and also thanks to the free printable party pack from krysten at clickable party.   both are pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

i am using the sheet of patterned paper that comes in krysten's printable party pack to print off and then reprint the templates off on the freshly patterned paper.

printed out the patterned paper then feed it back through
the printer to print the templates out on it :)

once ALL that cutting was finished i threaded the four characters together with embroidery floss.

ready to connect together with embroidery floss

the finished garland

you can see why it took so long to cut
them out aye!

outcome:  this took HEAPS of cutting but it is really cute and it had to be for that amount of knife work! yikes, my hand is still sore but when i threaded it together i saw why it was worth it because they will look so cute along the window for the party ... hopefully they will last and i will be able to use them again in the future as i don't think i will do them again :)  love the finished product though, maybe i could give this job to the kids in the future!~

my thanks once again to krysten at clickable party for the well used  free printable party pack and also to paper crave for their wonderful free halloween templates ... totally love them just not the cutting!

day 130: count the jelly beans if you dare!

count the jelly beans

day 130 and it's another quicky ;)  my brother-in-law arrived for a surprise visit today and the day got away on me!  today's creative idea comes from bhg and their halloween game ideas.  i pinned their halloween party games to my holiday goodness board.  bhg have kids counting candy corn which we don't have in nz so i went with black jelly beans :)

i counted out two packets of black jelly beans filled an empty jam jar.  i then dressed the jar with the same free party printables design i used for the banner on day 125.

fill a jar of jelly beans :)

add some decoration and wait for the
guessing to begin :)

outcome: this is one of those cool passive games that can go on during the party and have a winner at the end.  i am really excited for this party idea as the kids can go and make a 'guess' when they are not involved in other games and its an extra special little something that doesn't need to be managed but EVERYONE can participate in!

day 129: spider straws

halloween straws :)

day 129 and it's a BIG day for new zealander's today ... the all blacks play in the semi finals of the rugby world cup against australia!  as such, my focus was not so much on pinterest but more focused on rugby and getting ready for tonights game :)  so today's creation is a really simple one, but one i never would have thought to do.

i loved the idea of these spider straws as soon as i saw them on pinterest and immediately pinned them to my holiday goodness board.  the inspiration comes from no biggie and her guest post by amy from a little of this and a little of that for her annual witch party. the photos of the witches are amazing and i absolutely loved all the things she did to make her party so special.  again, it was one of those really simple ideas but its the little things that make you go aww and people know you care and have put thought and love into things for them to enjoy.

all you need are some straws and plastic spiders. i have chosen to adhere the spiders with hot glue.  and that's it, that is all you need to know!

all you need

the lovely hand of my helpful 7 year old assistant!

the finished product!

outcome: can't vouch for the peeps but i definitely want my halloween drinks using one of these spooky looking straws ;)  fun things like these straws are why i LOVE the festive seasons so much ... yip total kid at heart me :)

my thanks to kami at no biggie and amy from a little of this and a little of that for this super cute idea.  i am a total believer in effort going a long way and these girls clearly put in a lot of effort into their crafts, family, and friends ... and i adore that :)