It was a bash...it was a monster bash!

Do you know Natalie "The Busy Budgeting Mama"?

No?

Well then let me introduce you :)

Girl can throw a party let me tell ya.  She creates all sorts of wonderful party decorations and details all while mere weeks away from having her third baby!  Makes me tired just thinking about it.  

My rowdy boys and I had the pleasure of attending her Monster Bash last weekend so I wanted to share some of the goodness with you.  Don't be fooled, these are all Natalie's beautiful photos not mine,
I only took a few on my iphone....lame-o!

I adored the "birch" risers she made.  I'm going to be making some of these for myself too, 

they can be used for so many occasions!  I'm re-vamping my Christmas decor.  

I'm in love with the idea of a "woodland" Christmas so these will be perfect! 

 Girlfriend made some seriously cute felt monster puppets for the kiddos.  So soft and cute. Oh and some adorable little adoption certificates to go with 'em.
You can buy some of her other adorable felt creations at her Charming Felt Etsy Shop.

There was a lot of pink that night.  

I think L & E were a little out of their element at first but after a while they warmed up 

and showed off their plastic weapons to impress the girls.  

Ever the valiant gentlemen ready to defend a pretty lady :)

Check out Natalie's full party post here.
She also creates some amazing printable party details for you enjoyment in her Esty Shop Pretty Paperie!

We finally get to do Trick-or-Treating this weekend since it was delayed from hurricane Sandy.
The boys are so excited to add to their already huge supply of candy.

Happy weekend all!

Beautiful Home: Halloween Decor...a little Pinterest inspiration

Since becoming addicted to Pinterest (follow me here), I have been collecting all sorts of holiday decorating ideas.  I mean, one could get lost on that subject alone on Pinterest am I right?  Lucky for me I have my trusty hutch which is the perfect place for me to display all of my decor.  If your new to the blog you may not know that my Hubsy is a very talented handyman.  He built this hutch for me as well as several other pieces in our home, including our fireplace/bookcase which is next on my list to dress up.

First I decided to give the hutch itself a little makeover.  The yellow-toned oak just wasn't jiving with our new gray-brown living room furniture from IKEA so I decided to paint it off-white to match our kitchen cupboards and be less offensive with the gray furniture.

before

after

Improvement?  I think yes.

Now to share my Pinterest inspirations....

{1} First up "along came a spider".  I just adored this idea so I created a little spidey of my own.  Mine is a bit more kid-friendly rounded version though. Either that....or he's just well fed.

{2} Secondly I printed out me free printable but did not have color ink...gasp!  To give it a little pop I added some colored scrapbook paper as a matte.

{3} Next I created my little "boo" print where the text was the focal point. I just used scrapbook paper for the background and then printed and cut out the letters to glue on.  Simple. 
{4} Lastly I raised up my twig pumpkin on a candle holder pedestal to give it a little more presence.  I think I'll be heading to the dollar store to pick up some more pedestals of varying heights because I just love the way these look and will incorporate them for several different holidays. 
I'm thinking ornaments on pedestals for Christmas ;)

the finished product

That's it for now though I'm sure I'll be adding to it and tweaking it over the years. 

Like adding a swag or garland to make it TRULY Pinterest inspired huh!

Three days of goodness

We just had 3 days of much needed goodness....especially after my last post (thanks again for all your supportive comments).  And I'm feeling a bit more like my positive and upbeat self.  Being over my illnesses may have something to do with it.  I was essentially sick with various things for almost all of October...yuck.

It started Saturday morning when we woke up to snow.  And while I would normally think it's too early, it was just the thing for a comfy day at home.  I woke up to the sight of my boys' heads bobbing in the window trying to get a look at the snow.  They kept at it all day.

Me Hubsy was happy not to feel guilty about all the yardwork he wasn't getting done.  I cleaned, did TONS of laundry, listened to music, made sure L got his homework done, and baked.  I felt like Martha Stewart y'all.  Or some less stuffy domestic diva at least.  Nothing like a sense of accomplishment.  I should have taken pictures of my clean house cause it only lasted for about 45 minutes.  We baked sugar cookie cutouts for Halloween, too bad the icing looked more peach than orange after we colored it...L said it looked like skin...next time I'll just buy the darn can of bright orange icing at the store.  The poor pumpkins looked anemic!...I'm sparing you the pics :)  But they had candy corn eyes and were absolutely delish!  

Needless to say they did not survive long in our house of sweet eaters.

 Me Hubsy also came home from Lowes with this awesome canning kit - that he got on clearance of course. 

I've always said he should be a professional shopper.  If there is a deal out there, he's gonna find it.  Anyway we ended up tossing a lot of the produce from our garden this year because we just couldn't eat it fast enough.  We intend to expand out garden a bit next year so we're really excited at the prospect of canning some of it.  Hopefully it won't be too difficult.  Have you ever canned before?

Sunday my sweet Mother-in-law took us out to breakfast.  Such a treat.  Then we went to visit some friends while Me Hubsy helped put heaters on their roof.  The kids had a ball playing together.  Later L said he was going to marry Baby Lila....they do indeed each have a thing for these two girls....time will tell ;)  Once we got home it was time for naps and I was going to begin my Herb and Butter Turkey breast with mashed potatoes.  This was going to be the crown jewel of my domestic weekend.  I have NEVER cooked a turkey before.  It all started out exactly as planned.  I set the timer and basted that baby every 20 minutes.  It was smelling seriously heavenly in my house.  I had visions of actually serving the food on platters and such instead of just serving from the stove like I normally do.  I think I may have even had on an apron in my little fantasy :)  And of course I dreamed of the whole family loving every delicious bite.  But instead we ended up having just mashed potatoes and sans gravy to boot (don't worry I did make the kids a hot dog too), and nobody was dishing out compliments to the chef.  I bought my turkey breast from Aldi's and there was "something" on the outside of it that was curling down into creases and looked like it was raw inside when it wasn't.  Of course I didn't realize this at first and ended up cooking it an extra 30 mins before I realized.  By then we were not in the mood to eat it.  I did pour the butter herb juices over it and had one bite to make sure it was as good as I expected.  All the flavor was there thankfully....next time I will purchase a higher quality turkey breast without any mysterious "stuff" on it.  And I will take pics and post the recipe because....the flavor is indeed worth it!

It was time to fit in the pumpkin carving before bed.  Me Hubsy loves to do fancy faces.  They turned out pretty good I think.

Halloween night was great...all except for the rain.  My two little spooky ghosts had such a good time.  I thought for sure E would not keep his costume on long but he wore is the whole time.  I really lucked out that they wanted such easy costumes.  I like to consider them "throwback"....hehehe. They actually got a ton of compliments.  There's just not too many ghosts these days.

I love that the boys love handing out candy to all of our "customers" just as much as getting it.  It was a great night watching my little spooks enjoy themselves so much.  

That is the best part of parenthood I think.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween too!