Good morning Ghouls & Ghosts!

It’s that time of year again. One of my favourite holidays. A time when eating mass amounts of candy and dressing up isn’t frowned upon. Living in a rental during this time is really messing with my ability to go full out, but I did a few DIY’s with Nora this weekend with items picked up from Homesense & the Dollarstore. All of our previous decorations are sitting in a 10′ x 20′ storage container somewhere in the city.

Halloween Decor

I also picked up a few other pieces to help decorate for a Halloween tabletop. We painted two small pumpkins white and black, found a great lace runner and some spooky spiders and skull pieces. With everything purchased at the Dollarstore (Even the succulent in the mini concrete bowl) you can decorate for each holiday guilt free.

Monochromatic Tabletop Decor

DIY Sugar Skull

Here is a run down of our DIY Sugar Skull I made. We picked up a gold skull from Homesense for $19.99 and a few artificial succulents. These succulents were a tad expensive at $7.99 a bundle, but I wanted to create a concrete succulent bowl for our new island and since I didn’t use any glue I can re-purpose these for year round decor. The remaining flowers and black skulls twigs were from the Dollarstore. If you haven’t been there lately you need to go now. They have the best supplies for crafts, even the paint & brushes are great that we used for our pumpkins. The first few images show more of a minimalist style, it’s a great option to keep your decor a neutral pallet.

Modern Black & Gold Sugar Skull

Traditional Sugar Skull

I loveeee the way these sugar skulls turned out. I knew what I wanted and I was so happy I could find everything to help execute my vision.

I know my love for Halloween definitely came from my mom. She would dress up like a witch every year without fail. She still does and recently my dad joined her as a scarecrow. Together they’re scaring the skittles out of anyone who walks by their path. (Take a close look at the photo below hint look in the background) Also shout out to my sweet niece Maddi.

One of our favourite traditions we always do on Halloween is playing Halloween movies throughout the week before and while handing out candy. We try and stick to friendlier movies since I am a huge baby. Our favourites include; Hocus Pocus (which still scares me, is that normal?) The nightmare before Christmas, and of course one of my all time favourites…Double Double Toil & Trouble which I just found on VHS while moving. Do you think the Olsen twins watch it on Halloween? Do they make VHS players still? Lots of unanswered questions…

My Top Halloween Movie Picks

Another Family tradition is my mom’s Caramel Popcorn balls…Every year without fail my mom makes of the caramel goodness. She just had total knee surgery this week so I think I may surprise her with the ingredients and head over to her house to make them for her. She would love it if I brought my toddler, dog and a grocery bag full of messy ingredients to her house right?? Now I would share the recipe with you, but you know what they say “If I tell you then ill have to kill you deal with the wrath of Grammy Jan”. Grammy is Nora’s new nickname for my mom.

Crafts with Little Miss…I found a few crafts that I wanted to try out with Nora now that she is a bit older. All material was purchased at the dollar store. Ghost feet, and the cotton ghosts were a hit. Nora loved getting her feet painted. See below for how are spooky Halloween crafts turned out.

I have attached some of the costumes we’ve had over the last few years and some throw backs to my childhood that I could find….

Throwback to 1990? 1991?

First Family Costume.

Sipping on some yummy cider

Nora & Frank with her first set of pumpkins

Nora the kangaroo

Frank the Lion

Owl Frank

Spider Frank

Halloween 1988?

Throwback to 1990? 1991?

Nora the kangaroo

Nora & Frank with her first set of pumpkins

First Family Costume.

Sipping on some yummy cider

Halloween 1988?

Frank the Lion

Spider Frank

Owl Frank

Fireman Frank

Fireman Frank

I can’t wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves this year. We’re doing a group costume at work which will be one for the books!

XO JL