The Pressure of Halloween

So many people call Halloween their favorite holiday. It is indeed mine as well. My husband and I share that sentiment and for five awesome years we hosted a fabulous Halloween party at our old house. The costumes were always impressive and the running for Best Dressed was always fierce. We even started setting up a photo booth in our side room that always promised wild and hilarious photos! My appreciation of this day is deep rooted in my Dad's love of dressing as Frankenstein almost every year! Here are some of my favorite costumes.

This is our second Halloween together as Bonnie and Clyde.

Our first ever party. I was a Devil with a Blue Dress on.

The year of the infamous Teen Wolf costume! My brother in law has gone down in history for that one. And Superheroes too!

This year we had two totally separate costumes, the first was Day of the Dead inspired and thrown together in about an hour. We had all of the tools on hand! The next day the entire crew from Masters of the Universe showed up to pose with the ever famous Andy Warhol.

These two never disappoint with incredibly elaborate and handmade costumes! Chinese Take Out and MacGruber.

And then last year, with the babe, we were karate champions from the Kobra Kai Dojo. What's my point exactly? That the pressure of having a good costume is serious business over here and I'm feeling it hardcore this year. What will we be?? What are you going to be? We are attending a party tomorrow so we'd better settle on something now! Hope you have a spooky weekend, friends!

Birthday Weekend

It's a birthday weekend photo dump! We had so much fun celebrating this weekend and I just had to share. I'm the luckiest duck in town because I have the best friends and family. You guys are all so very amazing and really know how to make a girl feel special. Here's what we did.

Friday night we got a surprise date night thanks to friends offering to stay with Oliver so we could enjoy a nice dinner out. We even caught a quick jazz show at The Bottlehouse!

Saturday morning we were up and at 'em and it started with me getting this awesome necklace that I've been wanting since forever. My boys are good to me. Then we hit up the farmer's market and got all the greens and squash that I wanted. This rainbow swiss chard was my celebration chard.

JJ was amazing and cooked all sorts of tasty foods for a little party in the new place. He made all of these black bean sliders with teriyaki sauce. Yum!

Grandpa was in heaven sitting with all the babies. He's the baby whisperer for sure.

 I had a balloon wall as a you entered the apartment that also served as very fun photo backdrop. That's me and my fabulous mama.

Sunday was relaxing day of naps and football. Oliver got to hang out with hid bud and I snapped this sweet moment while they gazed out of the front door. Then we took a moonlit walk home. Happy Monday friends!

364 Unbirthdays

Tomorrow is my birthday. Usually I am very excited about just about anyone's birthday. It's their special day and I like to celebrate. Mine included, I am that girl that counts down. But this year I let it slide and didn't even mention it until like 15 days out! That's ridiculous. So to counter my foolish oversight I've been busy making decorations for a fun little get together with kids tomorrow at the new place. I'm super excited about this bunting pattern that I found so I wanted to share it with you! Her's is so colorful and fun, and here is my humble rendition.

Materials

1/4 yd of fabric

Double binding edging, cut to desired length I used about 1 1/2 yds.

Trace a circle onto a thick stock piece of paper and cut out to use as a guide, iron fabric. Cut out circles (or whatever shape you'd like) and fold the fabric right sides facing and cut through the middle. Sew along the outside edge, leaving the top open.

Turn right side out and iron flat.

Tuck the raw edge of the circle into the double binding and secure with pins to sew.

Sew the bunting into place. I placed mine six inches apart. I wanted to use the accordion folded fans, inspired by this pin, too for the wall decorations so the spacing worked perfectly for me. Happy Friday! And have a good weekend too!

We Are Family

We had the pleasure of taking Oliver to his very first wedding last weekend and it was so much fun! My husband comes from a large family of very close-knit cousins so this wedding was filled with a lot of love. His cousin married an amazing woman and we are just so happy!

The wedding took place about two hours south of us on a beautiful and huge farm with an amazing greenhouse filled with hundreds of hanging baskets, a koi pond, and tropical plants galore! The ceremony was outside on picturesque land in some pretty sweltering heat. Luckily it was simple and lovely and we were able to escape indoors quickly to cold drinks and large fans.

 




Our little guy is pretty lucky to have so many adoring older cousins. They danced, played, and kept him giggling all night! And as the family photo above shows, Oliver discovered a new favorite food, pizzelles! His Great Grandma would be so happy.

Here he is with his Grandma and his Great Aunt, the mother of the groom. They all looked so beautiful!

Stylin' in his bow tie and suspenders. The bow ties will be available for purchase very soon! Not so subtle plug...

After an amazingly fun afternoon and evening, we took the long and winding road back to Cleveland. Congratulations cousins, we love you! Thanks for baring with me those of you that have already seen this photos.

You're Invited: Art in the Petit Parc

I mentioned earlier this month that I will be participating in a great event next month! Here is the official invite! If you are in town please come on by! I'm a plan ahead kind of gal, so I figured that the sooner I get the invite out the better. I'm sure it will get mentioned again later too.