All Hallows Eve

It's the day before Halloween, so you have just enough time to squeeze in a couple more fun Halloween festivities before we switch over to Thanksgiving celebrations! Here's what we have planned for today:


1) The kids are dressed in their Halloween clothes and the girls nails got painted black & orange for the festivities. The girls skirts we made using this tutorial. Super quick & easy peasy lemon squeezy. You can whip up one for your own little witch in a couple hours
2) We're making sugar cookies! Try this recipe for crisp cookies and glaze frosting
3) I'm glittering & embellishing my big white pumpkin so it's ready to go for next year. I LOOOOOOOVE these ideas
4) We're carving our pumpkins today, which means I'm also toasting pumpkin seeds to snack on. Just sprinkle with some salt, & throw in a 350 oven until they turn brown. Mmmmmm
5) If I can squeeze this darling little project in, I'm going to make some for next year. I think I might just make a couple for Thanksgiving decorations too.

Another exciting thing going on today, I've put some Adorn necklaces on the Handmade Parade website for purchase! You can check out all the styles available right now at the Handmade Parade Blog!

Happy First Day of Fall!

I just couldn't contain myself any longer. The Halloween decorations are going up this week people, so of course the blog had a makeover. And, hey you can make this tasty carmel corn with your kiddos to celebrate!

If you don't feel like making this yourself, the debut of Confection Sweets at Handmade Parade's Backyard Boutique is going to have plenty of this stuff bagged up and ready to take home with you.

September is here!!!!!

Wohoo! Praise jesus, I'm so glad "fall" is only 21 days away! It's still scorching hot, but at least the cool weather is inching its way in. Last night there was a wicked thunderstorm to ring in the new season. Olivia started dance class today, and has little bunnies Saturday. Come by the Mesa High Football game on Friday the 11th to see her & Isabel shaking their booties with the cheerleaders.

College football starts this week and the NFL season starts next week, so I can be expecting nothing from my husband. It's been a long hard 7 months for him without football. So, in honor of being ignored, I'm going to start up my Halloween projects extra early this year!! There are so many Halloween goodies coming out, I don't know what to do.

House of 3 had the most awesome Halloween digital kits to spook up your house. Visit their blog to see some cool Halloween wall art & other fun projects. I already bought the haunted tree kit, and I can't wait to make some pillows for my couch!


Two Peas in a Bucket has some fab kits too, like these rhonna farrer kits from last halloween.


And check out these gorgeous velvet pumpkins that a local artist makes with real preserved pumpkin stems! You can buy some at Domestic Bliss in Mesa, but I think I'm going to try and make some of my own this year! Now I need to go scout out JoAnne's for some pretty velvet. I think I need black for my yellow room.

Got my Mojo back

After a hard earned win in Scrabble last night, I finally got over my bummed out phase and am back in the saddle. I redid my blog, as you can see, with these awesome brushes from House of 3. Wow, that was a little Dr. Suess-ish. Now on to a day of playing dress up at Kathie's and Thai food (I'm a little nervous) tonight. Tomorrow I'll share some design projects I've been working on, and some updates about Handmade Parade! Woot woot!

PS- Is everybody pretty much over summer? I CAN"T WAIT to decorate for Halloween!!! I have so many Halloween projects to share!!!! Everyone needs to stop what they are doing and sign up for Martha's Halloween workshop immediately. Look at this!