The Boys' Halloween Costumes

When I asked Levi what he wanted to be for Halloween this year, it was no big surprise when he said "Mater"!! I love homemade Halloween costumes, so I set out to make him a one-of-a-kind Mater costume. I'm good at coming up with ideas, but my husband is good at figuring out how to pull it off.  I knew I wanted to make it out of boxes, but I left the rest up to him.  I drew the eyes and made the teeth and headlights and VIOLA!! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a MATER!!

 Of course we had to dress little brother up as Lightning Mcqueen! 

This picture was taken at our church's "Trunk or Treat" I will post more after we go Trick or Treating Monday night!!

Spiderwebs made out of trashbags: the result

I absolutely LOVE this time of year! I think part of the reason is because my mom, my sister and I all have birthdays in October and November.  But I also love wearing sweaters and drinking hot chocolate by the fire and going to high school football games and everything else that goes along with fall!  I'm not crazy about all the creepy, scary halloween stuff, but I did think these trashbag spiderwebs by How About Orange were REALLY cute! 

The result: I give it a 10! The tutorial was really easy to follow and best of all, it didn't cost any money! If you try it, post pictures so I can see it! 

Friday Freebie! Recipe Card Template and recipe

Here's the link for the freebie! And here's a copy of one of my FAV fall recipes...Texas Chowder.  This recipe is from a place called The Dove's Nest in Waxahachie, Texas.  It is so good that I usually double the recipe and my family and I eat on it for a couple days...if it lasts that long!  YUMM!

Hudson's 1st Birthday Party Part 3...Rainbow Cake and tissue paper lanterns

 Rainbow Cake

For my boys' birthdays, I always do a rainbow cake! I first saw the idea on omnomicon.com. I remember thinking it was worth a shot, but I was pretty sure it would not come out like the picture. Well, guess what...it does!! It is so easy to make and it ALWAYS impresses the guests. It looks so much harder to make than it is. 

Aren't the colors so fun?

Supplies:

Directions:

Divide cake mix into 6 different bowls. Dump 2/3 of the cake batter into the first bowl, and then dump decreasingly smaller amounts into each bowl thereafter.  So the first bowl is going to have the most and the last bowl is going to have the least amount. Make sense?  Then, mix in the gel food colors into each bowl, one for each color.

Next, you're going to dump the cake mix (already mixed according to package directions) into the pan, starting with the bowl that has the MOST.  If you don't, the last color will overwhelm all of the rest. Pour directly into the center of the pan.  Pour the next bowl directly on top of the first circle, and so on. The cake mix will naturally spread out as you pour right on top of each other.

I also did cupcakes the same way.

The finished product. (Picture courtesy of Omnnomicon)

So cute, right? 

Tissue Paper Lanterns

I first saw the tutorial for the tissue paper lanterns here on Martha Stewart.com. (Good ol' Martha comes through again!"

Look at the napkin holders...LOVE!

Just stack 8 pieces of tissue paper together and make 1-1/2 inch accordian folds.  (Like a fan)

Tie in the middle with a twisty tie or wire. You can trim the ends into rounded or pointy shapes if desired (The red one is not cut, the blue one, I cut pointy ends)

Then separate the layers, pulling away from the center, one at a time until you have a nice round circle.

The finished product! Of course its even cuter with Hudson in the picture! :-)

Spiderwebs made out of trashbags!

I found this idea on one of my favorite blogs, How About Orange. It is spiderwebs made out of trashbags!  The tutorial can be found here.  I am going to attempt this and I will show you my finished result as soon as I get it done! I'm all about projects that use items you already have on hand!!

Hudson's 1st Birthday Party Part 2

Anybody that knows me knows that I am a HUGE DIYer.  It's probably because I've had to live on my hubby's Pastor's salary for the last 7 years plus my background in interior design :-) I got a TON of ideas for the party from Pinterest and just by browsing around on the internet.  Here's a list showing what I did...all for $50 bucks!!

Invitations: Free (I designed them and a friend, who owns a print shop, printed them for free)
Tablecloths: Free (I borrowed them from the church)
Lanterns: $2 (I already had the white and I bought 2 packages of tissue paper for the red and blue
Cake and cupcakes: $15
Onesie: Free (I used some printable iron-on sheets I had on hand and ironed them onto a white onesie that I
              already had)
Pillow: Free (same as above)
Party favors: $7 (treat sacks plus gummy worms)
Owl masks: free (I used scrapbook paper I already had)
Hot dogs: $20
Plates and napkins: $6
cake stands: free (made with candle holders and plates that I had on hand plus owls that I printed off my
                   computer)

Total: $50 

So the moral of the story is...Use what you have, borrow what you don't have, make what you can and buy the rest! :-)

Hudson's 1st Birthday Part 1

My friend, Krissy from Little Photography Shack does AMAZING work.  She just posted these pictures of Hudson's party on her blog. I am so glad I decided to have her come to the party to take pictures.  I am so bad about forgetting to take pictures, and this way, I could enjoy the party and not have to worry about capturing the memories!  

We made the table look like a bed by putting a white tablecloth over a red one and folding the white one back, like a sheet. My dad drew the headboard and I made the pillow with printable iron on sheets.  I made the cupcake stands with candle holders that I had on hand and duck-taped (shhh...) the plates to the top.  

We were so thankful to have great weather so we could have the party outside!  I already had the white lanterns and I made the red and blue paper lanterns out of tissue paper to add some color.

My 2 favorite boys in the whole world!

Levi takes after his daddy, he can't take a serious picture :D

Peekaboo...Hudson's favorite game!

I got the idea for the cupcakes off of Pinterest. Who knew M&M's and oreos could be so cute!

We checked out some owl books from the library. The plan was to have storytime for the kiddos, but we ran out of time. They made cute table decorations though!

Hudson and Grandpa

All the little hoot owls

I made these owl masks out of scraps of scrapbook paper that I had on hand that matched the colors of the party. 

Haha, I love this expression. He's thinking, "Are you going to make me get dirty again??!"

Happy 1st birthday, Hudson!