boo'd!

Have you been boo'd? It's a fun Halloween neighborhood activity where you leave treats anonymously at your neighbors door and ask that they "pay it forward" to another neighbor by leaving treats on their door. It's a unique way to spread Halloween fun (and get something yummy out of the deal). Plus, you get to ding dong ditch your neighbors, and that's always a blast. 

This is the first year that Ella and I have done the boo'ing. Three and a half years old is a really fun age. They totally "get it" and everything is still carefree and fun. There's no eye rolling, sighing, or complaining (though I'm sure its not far off). 

This year we grabbed some cute Halloween baskets and filled them with various treats for our friends. Glow sticks, ghost lollipops, homemade peanut butter cookies, and mini glass milk bottles filled with candy. It was fun baking the cookies with Ella and making the ghost lollipops. (Tissues wrapped around tootsie pops, tied with ribbon and eyes drawn on with sharpie).  

I filled and topped the mini milk bottles with Halloween fabric and twine. Then we printed Halloween labels from here onto sticker paper and wrapped them around the bottles. The "boo" instructions and sign were a free download that you can find here. Everything turned out super cute. It's a tradition I think we'll continue, as long as there's no eye rolling. 

halloween peg dolls

This was my first attempt at peg dolls after seeing a few around on the interwebs. Originally I wanted to use them to make Ella a kid friendly nativity for Christmas (which is only 2 months away, eek!). After doing some research on peg dolls, I decided I should try my hand at something less detailed then the three wise men and baby Jesus. It would be a shame to mess up baby Jesus on my first try, don't ya think?

I stumbled upon this great blogger and her awesome walkthrough on the basics of painting peg dolls while doing my research.  I knew nothing of how to get started with these little pegs, so a big thanks goes out to her lovely tutorial on how to get started with halloween peg dolls.

I ordered my wooden peg dolls from Hobby Lobby online. I used the 2 5/16 inch" Birch Man peg for these. They also sell a smaller 1 11/16" Birch Boy which I ordered to use for baby Jesus. 

As you can see Ella loves them. They're just the perfect size for her tiny hands.

This little guy is my favorite. His pointy little teeth and cape, so cute. Very Twilight-esque if you ask me. Hm, Twilight themed pegs....I could be onto something. 

The great thing about pegs are that you can decide how much detail you want to add to them. I added some stitches to Frankenstein and a drip of blood to Mr. Vampire. Feel free to go all out or keep them simple and plain. This being my first time, I kept them fairly simple.

I used regular old cheap Folk Art craft paints. After everything was good and dry (I let them dry overnight after they were all finished) I sealed them with 3 coats of Modge Podge Hardcoat. I wanted then to stand up to the heavy wear and tear of 2.5 year olds.

These have opened a door wide open! I've already had about 30 ideas for other peg dolls, and have started working on Ella's nativity. I will warn you, they can be a little time consuming depending on your level of perfectionism, but the end product is SO worth it!

pumpkin painting

I know Halloween is over but on Halloween Eve we decorated our pumpkins, I thought I'd share them with you guys anyways. Hmmm...I wonder who's is who's?

Mama's

Ella June's

Daddy's

And believe it or not they survived the holiday un-smashed! That means we'll get to enjoy them for another week or so before the rain comes to turn them into moldy pumpkin slush, yay!

wiww-halloween night

Hello! If you're visiting from The Pleated Poppy WIWW, Welcome! Feel free to say hi and follow, it'd mean the world to me, and I'd love to check out your profiles/blogs.

Halloween is sadly over, our bellies are full of candy, and we're onto thinking about turkey, pie, christmas trees, and presents. Halloween night was great fun though, Ella got the concept more this year and enjoyed trick or treating for candy. 

Here is Ella and her BFF Ali. Ali was Dorthy from The Wizard of Oz. Well, if you asked her what she was she'd say she was "Dorfy".

The night before Halloween we decorated pumpkins (I'll share those tomorrow) and I whipped up a quick costume for myself. A felt crown with feathers, vintage buttons, trims and beads, it was a quick last minute DIY but turned out really cute!

I'm linking up our Halloween outfits this week to WIWW.

feeling festive

It's midweek and I've been feeling festive around these parts. Only a few more days until Halloween and I still have plans to make cookies with my new cookie cutters and decorate our trio of pumpkins. 

We had plans for a mini vacation this weekend but we decided to skip it and stay home to enjoy any last minute plans that might pop up. Travis missed spending last Halloween (Ella's first) with us while he was working in LA and we were visiting friends in Northern California. This year we'll be together as a family, yay!

trick or treat bag

I've been going a little crazy with Halloween this year. Ok, who am I kidding? No I haven't, I just love any excuse to be crafty and make my little one fun things. Like this...a trick or treat bag.

When I was young my mother (who was a seamstress) made me a trick or treat bag. It had a witch on the front and her legs hung from the bottom of the bag. I used it every year for my trick or treating candy loot, and I loved carrying it. 

So, I thought Ella would want one of her own. Low and behold I dreamed up my version of a trick or treat bag for her. One side has ruffles and green ric rac (a halloween spin off my Ruffle Carryall Totes from the shop) and the other has her initial "E" appliqued along with yoyo flowers, fabric rosettes, a mini bow and some fun ribbon loops. 

I think it turned out darling and I hope she gets years and years of use out of it!

ruffle pumpkin shirt tutorial

Remember the shirt Ella wore to our outing at Apple Hill? Here's the tutorial so you can all make one for your little pumpkins. It's a pretty self explanatory tutorial so i'll let the pictures speak for themselves. If you have any questions leave them in the comments and  i'll try and answer them.

All Done!

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apple hill + halloween outfit

As soon as October hits and there is the slightest feeling of Fall in the air everyone in Northern California gears up to head out to Apple Hill. Never mind that it's still 85 degrees outside, if the apple pie, apple butter, apple donuts, apple-you-name-it is being made then then we consider Fall among us. 

Apple Hill is a tradition around these parts. Basically, its just a group of 20+ apple orchards that open up for the Fall for apple picking, craft vendors, yummy apple baked goods, pumpkin patches and an all around good time. Each farm is different and offers different things, some more kid/family friendly with attractions and tractor rides and some are just for apple picking. 

Yesterday I ignored that it was 77 degrees out and dressed Ella in her Halloween outfit for our trip up to Apple Hill, because c'mon now I spent all that time making it and it's almost Halloween and she hasn't worn the getup once. Sorry Ella if you were sweating through that black shirt. All in the name of fashion, right?

I'm going to share the ruffle pumpkin shirt tutorial next Monday, but it's such a quick project you'll have no time getting it done before the 31st. Plus, it's a pretty basic Fall design so you should be able to carry on the wearing of it until Thanksgiving rolls around.

The ruffle pants are my favorite part of the outfit. Those I made with some fabric I picked up in the remnants section at the fabric store (yay for cheap!). Travis calls them her halloween bell bottoms, I call them just plain adorable. 

 (In case you were wondering about her bow, it was leftover from last years halloween bows I had in the shop). 

halloween costumes + crochet

If you're looking for my giveaway at Keepin' It Thrifty, click HERE.

Here's the progression of Ella's owl Halloween costume. I started with the hat and finished with the body of the costume. Just a sneak peak at the finished product though, i'll share the final photos of her in it soon. 

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the finished product!