HALLOWEEN ON NETFLIX

TGIF! Hope you've had a great week. Ready for Halloween? We decorated the house last week and the kids are PUMPED. We have a vampire, golden Power Ranger and a fairy princess. Too much cuteness.

Tonight, is family-movie-night and so, obviously...Netflix. Is there any other choice ;)

I've rounded up Netflix shows and movies for your haunted viewing.

And when the kids go down, can you handle the scary stuff? Okay, Hatchet..looks, well terrifying. Not sure this will be my pick!

Stranger Things is the latest fav for a lot of people. Mr. Fix-It and I have it on our list to start this weekend.

The kids have already said that Hotel Transylvania is the first movie they want to watch tonight, while eating McDonald's and carving their pumpkins. Sounds good to me but I'll definitely add a glass of wine to my hand.

I hope you have a fabulous halloween weekend. While I would prefer if Halloween night fell on a weekend every year, it's kind of fun to enjoy it through the whole weekend to lead up to Monday night. Enjoy your trick-or-treaters and scary movies.

Keep it Beautiful.

Halloween Decorating

Hey everyone!

I'm back from my trip, Thanksgiving is over and holy cow...how is it almost Halloween!? Mr. Fix-It and I had an incredible time in California. I'm hoping to do a post on some of our favourite spots we would recommend to anyone who is heading to San Francisco and Napa Valley. We had an incredible time. Just the two of us. 

From our basement reno to being away in San Fan and then celebrating Thanksgiving at the cottage with our family, I feel like my fall home décor has skipped over "fall" and this weekend we got out all the Halloween bins and everything went ghost, pumpkins and spooky. As an aside, I definitely do want to share with you tips on fall décor because once Halloween is over, it's over. You don't want to be looking at ghosts and pumpkins until December. It's a little early to get out your Christmas tree so don't put your fall wreaths away just yet (just back in the cupboard for the next couple weeks). I was on Daytime Ottawa last week talking about this very thing.

This is the first year that all the kids agreed, they wanted scary decorations. So, this weekend we hit Giant Tiger for all things spooky. Scary glowing ghosts (I think they look like the "Death Eaters" in Harry Potter), skeletons, & hanging pumpkins later our spooky Halloween mantle came to life.

Scary eh? The creepy ghost in netting on the left, flashes and yells really loudly at a push of a button and the right ghost's face, flashes all different colours. Halloween is a really fun time to go all out with your décor. Our mantle has gone through a few different Halloweens here, & here . I have to say I was a little creeped out walking up the stairs to bed with these dudes hanging on the mantle.

Of course, I can't go into GT Boutique for just one thing. We also left with stretchy gloves for the kids, gummies, a princess costume & cheese. Thank you one-stop shop.

This is what the ghosts look like when they are on and angry. It's hard to tell what the guy on the left is doing in the photo.

We bought a couple of extra ghosts for the outside to hang from the trees and the front porch.  Kids love helping decorate for holidays. We spent Sunday afternoon outside getting everything up. Yup, there are ghosts hanging crooked off the mailbox and a bunch of things hanging off one random hook but the kids love it and proud of their work. Halloween is perfect for all things scary and random.

This year we have a robot, the Incredible Hulk & a purple princess who will be out there knocking on doors looking for all things sweet.

It's good to be back my friends. Today is Election Day in Canada. I hope my Canadian friends all vote. Please, please...vote. This is your Canada.

This week I'm planning on sharing our basement bathroom with you and talking all things lighting in the bathroom.

Keep It Beautiful.

Halloween Mantle

Hi everyone!
My camera is back from getting a little TLC and has given up the goods. Honestly, I love working with electronics/gadgets but the moment they stop working, I’m up the creek without a paddle.

Since I was a little girl, Halloween has always been one of my favourite events of the year. From planning our costumes, decorating the house, making spooky cookies and trick-or-treating, I have always loved it. My kiddies are very excited for the big night…what kid doesn’t love to go door-to-door asking for candy and then stay up late, eating everything we ask them not to eat?!

This is a photo of our minis last weekend at a Halloween party. Ninja Turtles unite!

BTW, if you need to make a tutu and don’t want to have to sew it, I used this tutorial online that involved zero sewing and cost only $9 to make! Easy peasy! God bless talented crafters that produce easy tutorial versions of the real deal for wannabe crafters like myself!

The kids helped me decorate our mantle. Our big guy wanted something scary and our middle guy was hesitant. So…this is what we came up with.

 

We filled a glass vase with rice and stuck decorative branches (I use these all the time in urns) in the rice to hold them in place. We picked up a handful of bats at the dollar store and gave them a place to hang.

 

Last year I used lots of crows and birds. Up went a couple of those guys and some smiley pumpkin lanterns for the not-so-scary feel.

Halloween is one of those holidays where your mantle décor can be limitless. You can go scary, traditional (i.e. line up a bunch of pumpkins straight across), gory (hanging hands, legs and spider webs etc), or silly.

If you are looking for some last minute Halloween décor, I've created a Halloween Pinterest board for some inspiration.

Next stop…Christmas! Dare I say it?! Wait for it…November 1^st, Christmas will have fully exploded in the stores. Prepare yourself.

The Mason Jar Series will officially begin tomorrow J

 

Keep it Beautiful.

No-Carve Pumpkins!

Hi everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend! It was cool and rainy here in Ottawa so it was really nice to hang out with the kiddies inside. Mr. Fix-It and I actually had a NAP! Yup, a NAP! Amazing.

It's Halloween week...are you ready? Do you have your pumpkins? Don't have time to carve them or dig out the pumpkin goup? Here are some "no carve" ideas that caught my eye...

Have leftover paint in the basement? Get creative...

 Got ribbon?

 Have some leftover spray paint hangin' in the basement? Wrap some string around your pumpkin, spray and remove. Instant fab!

 How cute is this little guy? Just raid your first aid kit and add some googlies.



Can't get much easier than this...

What kid doesn't have a Mr. Potato Head? Raid their toy box...



 cool...

 Get your drill out! Drill some holes and your pumpkin will glow!

 Okay so this one you'll have to carve, but what a cute idea!!

Or maybe you love carving pumpkins and yours look like these.....creepy, yet amazing?!

Happy Halloween week!

Keep it Beautiful.

Halloween Mantle

Hi everyone!

Did you have a great weekend? Our big guy is really excited for Halloween so we spent Saturday afternoon decorating the outside of the house for the big night. 

We also "spooked" up the mantle. I love Halloween!

Have you been to the Dollarstore lately? Halloween has exploded in the store and you can find tons of stuff for $3 max! They had these big creepy crows that we decided to bring home...

We got these pumpkins at Michael's....



 Combine them and VOILA! A fresh.fabulous.sophisticated Halloween mantle that doesn't scare the kiddies but, I have to say, those crows are pretty creepy at night!!
9 more days till Halloween!!

 No, that contraption reflecting in the mirror isn't some creepy Halloween torture thing!? It's our baby girl's Jolly Jumper!

You should definitely check out the dollarstore for Halloween décor inspiration. There's lots creepy inspiration for next to nothing that will look fab on your mantle.

Here are a few little extras...

Keep it Beautiful.

Wednesday Yummies: Halloween Night!

Happy Halloween!!

I.LOVE.HALLOWEEN! The smell of the lit pumpkins, the chill in the air, the costume fun and of course, the candy!

It seems like every year, trick-or-treaters start earlier and earlier which makes getting dinner on the table and getting your kids or yourself all costumed up total crazyness. Here is an easy recipes that's fun, will keep your kids fueled for trick-or-treating and relatively healthy.

"Mummy Pizzas"

Ingredients:
1 pkg. English muffins (6 count = 12 halves)
3/4 c. pizza sauce or tomato sauce
12 slices mozzarella cheese
24 black olive slices
Green bell pepper, chopped into 1/4" pieces

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven's broiler
2. Split each English muffin and broil (tops only) until crisp and golden
3. Remove muffins from oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Cut your mozzarella cheese slices into muffin-sized mummy bandages
5. Spread about a tablespoon of pizza sauce on each muffin half.
6. Top with cheese "bandages."
7. Place two black olive slices on each pizza for eyes. Give each eye a piece of green pepper for a pupil.
8. Bake about 10 minutes, until muffin is crisp and cheese is melted.

A mixture of ideas...I really like the bananas and cheese strings. Easy and cute.

Dessert:
Not sure you really need dessert with all the candy the kids will be eating, but my big guy and I made these last weekend for fun. It was your basic sugar cookie recipe, a ghost cookie cutter and I picked up a few cookie decorating thingys at Homesense. A great way to spend an afternoon together and let them decorate how they want.

You can always add a few things here and there to your family's dinner to make it special and fun. Drop plastic spiders in an ice cube tray, fill with water and freeze. I got mine at the Dollar Store and I've been adding them to my 4 year old's water! Great for a Halloween party too :) (note: this pic is from Pinterest, my battery died just as I was going to take a photo)

Tonight our big guy is going out as an orange monster and our babe is a monkey :)

Enjoy your night! Happy Halloween!!

Keep it Beautiful.