We've been Booed!

It has been far too long since I've done something crafty! My craft room has been in shambles as it's been slowly but surely turning into a storage room for all of my extra odds and ends that I seem to accumulate. I needed a boost, no, I needed to basically be forced to get in there and start something and I had the perfect thing happen just the other day.

The other night when I came home from Ashley's birthday/Halloween party I let Bear out and I found something on my door. It was a Halloween bag!

Inside the bag I found a some fun Halloween window clings, two treat bags full of cookies and two notes. One was a note that explained what being "booed" means. Basically a kind neighbor (investigation still pending on who it was!) gave us this fun little surprise. Once you've been booed you have to make 2 bags with Halloween treats inside, two copies of the instructions and two notes. There is a note that goes on your door that tells others that you have been booed so you don't get double booed!

So I decided if I was going to boo my neighbors I was going to be as crafty as possible! Of course my motivation was instantly snuffed out by the onset of the flu 2 days later when I planned on crafting my boo bag. So instead of the "2 day" time frame it ended up being a week later and probably not as crafty as I initially intended.

Anyways, I started with a couple old birch boxes. I had been saving these because they were such a perfect size for saving things, and would be simple enough to craft into something else.

I didn't have any official halloween paper (wrapping paper was my first choice) so I decided to use some cute scrapbook paper with orange hearts on it. I mod podged the paper to the box lids and then added some alphabet stickers and spelled out "Boo" on each one.

Next up was deciding what to put inside the little boo boxes. I knew I wanted to put something other than just candy inside but being at home on a chilly Saturday, recovering from the flu and having now lost my voice was enough to make me stay home. I couldn't imagine the looks on peoples faces when I was checking out and the voice of the exorcist girl came out of me. No thanks.

So instead I decided I would craft something small and cute that people who may or may not celebrate Halloween would appreciate. Of course, my go to is always garland! I ended up making some pom pom garlands out of felt leaves and orange and yellow yarn. Bear even wanted to help with this part!

Yep. That's my pajamas and foot in the corner there. I could've totally cropped that out, but I wanted you to feel the creative process that I was in. That included sitting there in my pajamas and washing my hands of mod podge every 5 minutes.

So I decided to not do anything too crazy long or too flamboyant, just in case someone would want to string it across a door or window. This is what I ended up with:

The cute little felt leaves were something I picked up from the Dollar Tree a while back and planned on doing something creative with but of course never got around to. I'm glad I could finally put them to good use!

I initially wanted to put little pumpkins inside the boxes but they wouldn't fit. My flu crazed brain decided it was better to just leave them out because of this even though I totally could've just put them in the bag. duh.

Instead I chose the next best thing. Little pumpkin tea lights! I only had 2 left of these so I decided to put one in each box as well as a few pieces of Halloween candy for good measure.

My real "treat" in the bag would come in the form of my Strawberry Cream Cheese cupcakes! I had brought them to a work party yesterday and I decided to save some for just this purpose. I initially wanted to add two to each bag but then realized I only had 2 boxes left. No need to worry of course, I ordered more baking boxes and they should be on the way soon!

So here's the layout for my Boo bags. I apologize for the crappy picture quality. I finished these up towards the end of the day and had to use the dining room lights to ensure everything was visible!

For the bags I just hot glued a few more felt leaves on the front, nothing too fancy, but again this was not planned ahead very well by me!

So there you have it! My official first boo bags!

 Bear and I decided to take a little walk through the neighborhood and drop these off to our favorite neighbors. As it turns out, every person I know in the neighborhood has already been booed! We even walked all the way down to our dog walkers house only to find that she was also already booed! Instead we booed her neighbor and then on the way back booed our neighbor across the street, Dottie. I had heard so much about Dottie and her beautiful home and awesome repurposing of antiques from our neighbors and the wonderful Nicole but had never met her. Upon arriving at her house she opened the door just as we got there and invited us in! Much to my horror I should add as I was still un-showered, no makeup, and dressed like a bum for the day. She must have thought I was on drugs as I certainly looked it! Although as frightening as my appearance was she was still as sweet as can be and introduced us to her kiddos and her Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Even the quick glance at her home that I got standing in the foyer was stunning so everyone was right!

Even though the booing didn't go as planned, I am pretty happy with the results. Although slightly embarrassed that my seemingly half-hearted crafty attempt is now linked to me! I'll have to do something for Christmas and bring it over to Dottie after being showered, getting my voice back and dressed like an actual presentable adult.  I guess scaring people is what Halloween is all about after all, huh?

Pretty Things: Fall Favorites

The cold rain finally came and with it out went my motivation.  We leave tomorrow for a retreat in Charlottesville and I should be running around, doing laundry, packing and cleaning and preparing for our road trip. But here I am, snuggled up with a blanket on the couch waiting for the sun to come back. I also attribute the fact that I woke up this morning to make coffee and much to my horror, we were out of k-cups. Goodbye cruel world, kill me now. I'm not sure how I'll make it through the day let alone get anything done. Something I can do without coffee is make a list of all the pretty things I've been seeing for fall. I'm about ready to retire all my summer clothes and ready to stock up on blankets and boots to get me through this season as gracefully as possible.

1. Bandolino Calliope Riding boots 99.95

I love a good cognac colored boot. These have enough of a heel to feel fun and flirty but are short and solid enough to use every day.

1. Coeur Pullover-158

I love a good graphic print, but add the softness of cashmere and angora and I'm likely to never take off my new favorite sweater.

3. buttermilk biscuit cardigan-168

I'm channeling my inner 90s cable knit, grungy flower chid with this sweater. But it just looks so incredibly cozy, I can picture wearing this on the warmer days with a dress and boots and being perfectly fashionable and not completely freezing.

4. pumpkin stuffed with everything good

I have all sorts of sweet pumpkin recipes in my arsenal, the one thing I am missing is a savory pumpkin recipe that I would actually enjoy. Pumpkin is something I'd like to embrace for dinner but most of the recipes seem a little to exotic for my simple palate. This has bacon and cheese so there's really nothing more to talk about.

5. heirloom variety needle felt pumpkins-17.50

Needle felting is still one of those things I long to learn. With so many adorable, tiny little things to make, Fall is ever more the reason for me to learn how!