{Late} Halloween Recap

Yes I know it's been almost a week!  Yes, I know!  

On Friday, Elsa made her way into our home and down the street.  

She wasn't bothered by the [freezing] cold anyway.. 

I was fully prepared by reading this article from Blog Her as I assumed I'd see hundreds of Elsas...

Anyways, we let Ells wear her "new" Elsa dress during the day as sort of a dress rehearsal. 

That wig was a mess that I tried to tame... 

Then, Mr K and I finished the decorations around 5pm.
Trick or Treating strarted at 5:30pm.
Nothing like working up to the deadline!

He's my favorite new edition. 

And of course, the box.  Mr K had the fog and sounds on remote this year to scare the kiddos. 

Then Elsa was ready to go...

It was so windy and so cold that her wig that I had attached to a winter hat underneath fell off and we were freezing so we decided about 15 houses was enough!  

Then she had the best time handing out candy at the door! 

Small recap, but still wanted to share!  Off to plan next year.
Oh yea, and it was all cleaned up by 10:30pm as we were leaving for the weekend!  haha

DIY Halloween Cemetery Fence

This year we decided to change things up just a little bit at the Kellermeyer Haunted Halloween Abode.  That's a long name...  But we decided we were going to work on a few things ourselves to try to make the house look a little different from year to year. 


There were a ton of things I really wanted to do, but budget constraints and minimal storage puts the kibosh on a lot of things.  So we decided to enclose our cemetery this year.  In the past we've used lights, but this year we made a fence.  And it was pretty easy...





Mr K did it mostly since Halloween is his big gig, but I did my best to get pictures along the way.


You'll need 1x2 wood pieces that are cut to the desired length of your fence. 
A drill
PVC pipe
Some sort of tape (or glue)
Spray Paint


First, drill holes through your wood.  Be careful not to get to big that it splits the wood but the right size for your PVC.

We decided to cut our PVC in offset sizes.  It gave the fence a better "look" we thought.

Then you just stick the PVC through the holes. 

We used hockey tape around the bottoms of the wood to make sure the pipes didn't move too much. 

You could use dabs of glue I'm guessing or duct tape.

Then this is how my hubs decided to spray paint them. 

We used a brown Rustoluem primer as well as a black metallic. 

Hoping to give it some sort of aged patina.

And our little helper trying to hold it up... and failing.

And the final product. 

So the sides were a little different lengths because we had initially wanted to line our sidewalk with them, but then changed our minds to do it this way.  We made the gate doors using the same process.

Ells isn't too sure of the gatekeeper.  Rodger is his name.  He comes out every year and moves around the yard.

In the end around $30 and pretty easy to store since it's flat.  Now to clean up the garage {again}.

Only 2 days until Halloween!  Yay!

DIY Halloween Costume Ideas

Yesterday we attended a Pumpkin Party at our local Gymboree Play & Music and I spent most of the morning prepping the pretty much prepped Rapunzel costume that I somehow got my daughter to wear.  It turned out pretty cute.  We had everything but shoes so we had to stop and get those, but outside of that it was a pretty easy costume.  We even borrowed a frying pan from the play kitchen because we all know how many times that came in handy for Rapunzel & Flynn Rider. 

But with that it got me thinking about costumes of the old days...
Or how much fun it is to make costumes...
To spend a few nights scouring the local Goodwill or Thrift Shops for pieces you need...




I feel like my mom always used to make us costumes.  I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I remember my brother had this awesome werewolf costume one year that she made -- She ripped the jeans, killed a few stuffed animals for fur, and found some great glove hands for him.  That was a good one.  And I think I was a cheerleader one year... And my sister a hippie.  She always came through in the costume department and if I remember correctly we RARELY purchased premade costumes if ever.




Deep down I was kind of sad that Ella wanted to be a princess... While I was excited it was something we had on hand and wouldn't be costing me much of anything, I wanted to try to make something fun... And then this morning on my way into work I was reminded by Style Me Pretty that there are so many great DIY options out there!  Tear.




Here are a few of my favorites...


Anna Wintour

via

Hot Air Balloon Ride

via

Jellyfish

via

And a true favorite :: A bouquet of flowers

via

I mean, what's not to like about these different and easy (well seemingly) costumes!  I adore them.


And then what about family ideas?!  Do you and your entire family dress up for Halloween?  I haven't before, but I'm not opposed to it... and here are some good ideas...


A Rainbow.  

via

This one is so cheezy and so easy!  My husband would never wear that blue sweat suit! 

Mary Poppins Characters. 

via

Ells would love this.


A BLT. 

via

So cute.


And of course I would be this... 

via

This is awesome.  Anyone else have a crazy love for Beatlejuice?  I'd have to start making those heads now for next year! 




So anything you liked?  Anything you are trying?  Or do you dress up with your family? 
Maybe Mr K & I will go as Mother Gothel & Flynn Rider (with a beer gut of course)... I could make that happen.




Happy Monday!

Halloween Potion Bottles

If you haven't figured it out by now, we love to decorate for Halloween.  This year we are a little behind on the outdoor décor, but don't you worry, it'll come together. 

Anyways, I've always loved those little potion bottles you see everywhere. 

Like Home Goods...

And Michaels...

They are so cute and fun! 

But they are still kind of expensive! 

So you know me... I headed on over to Goodwill to see what I could come up with.

And lucky for me, I found all 6 of these on my first trip!  Thank goodness!

It's actually quite simple to make these. 

I think I might make a few more every year so that I can have a large collection some day! 

I'm definitely going to need a bigger garage or attic because of how we have decided to decorate for the holidays!

I took the above glass containers outside and gave them a light spray paint. 

I didn't want them to be perfect.  I felt like the lighter the spray, the older they might look in the end... Like they were worn and used.

Then I scoured the internet for some labels to use. 

You can find labels all over the place -- just google "free potion bottle printables."

I printed out these from Itsy Bitsy Fun but didn't use them this round.  They are cute though.

I ended up having a ton saved to my computer from last year and found a few more over at Dancing Barefoot in Sand & Snow that I used too!

Next I cut them out and figured out which label would go on which bottle. 

Then I cut them out as close to the edges as I could and stuck them on with Modge Podge. 

It's a little messy process because I just used my fingers to smooth over the labels.

I really do like how they turned out. 

Would you believe that Insectodeth one used to have a Christmas tree on it?!  Right?!

I felt they needed a little bit of love around them so I pulled out some cockroaches and worms.

In the end, I like them. 

They are dark and interesting. 

Here's a cost breakdown::

Bottles - 6 in total - $6

Labels - Free

Black Spray Paint - Already Had

Modge Podge - $8

______________________

Total $14 for 6 bottles

Not bad... $15 for some new Halloween décor that no one else has the exact same of!

DIY Spooky Halloween Wreath

I was feeling that I needed a Halloween wreath for the front door. 

But I needed something that would go with our outdoor Halloween décor which is usually very morbid. 

You might remember our Halloween Décor from past years...

So a burlap wreath in black and orange was not going to do it...

I wanted something spookier...

And what's spookier than Snakes on a Door?

 

Here's what you'll need.

Plastic Snakes -- Number is dependent upon size, but I used 6 from the Dollar Store.

Wicker Wreath

Floral Wire

Black Spray Paint

First you can place the snakes around the wreath to see how you like them.  I kept them all going the same direction because it was the only way that seemed to work with this amount of snakes. 

Then you'll use the floral wire to attach them with the floral wire. 

This doesn't have to be perfect because it will blend in once it's painted.

Then you take it outside and spray her down!

Don't you just love spray paint?  I swear I need to join an Spray Paint Anonymous group.

And I didn't want mine to be perfect because I felt like that would take away from the creepiness. 

So not all the wreath is perfectly black and neither are the snakes.

See... How easy is that?

You can see here some of the orange peeking through from the orange snakes I had to use.

The Dollar Store ran out of black ones.

 

I do love the look on the front door.  It's kinda creepy and really doesn't set well with my husband who hates snakes.  I do too, but it's Halloween! 

I'm thinking about even going back in and painting the eyes on the snakes red...

Hmmm...

So there you have it... one of the easiest Halloween wreaths ever!

I'm linking this up a few places today so be sure to visit the link parties too!