Quick & Easy Outdoor Halloween Decorations

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So we finally had some time to add some of the projects we had been hoping to for Halloween. Our front yard has such an expanse (corner lot) that it can be hard to capture the whole thing in one picture, so I tried to take closer shots so you could see some of the details. I especially love the shot where you can see my reflection in the glass on the front door…not. Oh well, I never claimed to be a professional photographer!! We put up garbage bag spider webs in one front window and on the side fence. We put up a huge rope spider web and a trash-bag-spider with glowing LED eyes crawling down off the roof. We also put up a milk jug skeleton, lots of white spiderwebs, a cheesecloth ghost, and a couple of bats. There’s also a window silhouette of a huge black ghost (four poster boards worth!) but he won’t show up until after dark. Lastly, the boys had a great time making their pumpkins — Ben got to learn to use a power drill for the first time and nobody bled!!! I call that a successful day at our house. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween!

We quickly made up some fabric ghosts today and put them up in the yard! The boys love it. We did this many years ago in Nebraska but they were up for ONE night and somebody stole them from the front yard — sticks and all! This time, we hope they stay for awhile. I think I’m going to insert some lights on the ground like they’re gathered around a fire. I love this because it’s cute, cheap ($1.50 / yard fabric — about $15 total in supplies!), and most of all…easy!

I love this pic from our entryway toward the ghosts. You can see the inexpensive spiderweb rug we made last year and I posted about it here. If that rugs lasts through this season (which I’m sure it will!), it will have paid for itself, it was such a cute, cheap project and I love a wide oval shaped rug on the porch.

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Lastly, this pic is of my FAVORITE ghost ever. I love his shape and his black felt eyes on white corduroy fabric. He has ragged edges and covers my vacuum. He was originally the smallest in a set of three that I sewed to cover upside-down tomato cages covered in lights. They blew away in a storm and this one was the only one I could save. I hope to resurrect the other two and put out the three lit-up ghosts this year, too. I’ll be sure to post pictures if I get that project done, too!

Door Ditchin’ Halloween Style

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So we got “poo-ed” by a couple of skittish ghosts running from our front porch. So cute! The bag included all sorts of poo: vampire poo (hot tamales), skeleton poo (skeleton bones: mini marshmallows on pretzel sticks dipped in white bark), bat poo (chocolate covered raisins), spider poo (cotton candy), and clown poo (skittles). Very clever! A fun idea to pass along a church group and/or neighborhood.

Trunk-or-Treat Decoration for Halloween

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We created a cute vampire-fang-monster-mouth car decoration for the open back of a car at our trunk or treat. This was in 2009 – weren’t those boys so cute? They look so small to me when looking back just two years later. We had just moved to Houston in this picture and it was HOT for Halloween. The fangs were easy to create – a quick tip to make it even easier: we used an old, giant sticky note presentation board so they just stuck and we didn’t even have to tape them on anywhere to the car! Easy! Cute!

Making a Halloween Spider Rug (Cheap & Easy Craft!)

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I saw this idea in a magazine and didn’t have access to the supplies they suggested so when I hit Lowe’s for some fence stain, I grabbed a 6′ x 8′ indoor/outdoor rug for $17 in black and cut it into two halves. One half I made into a round spider web and the other half I made into a very large oval spider web. We painted the lines on the round one with all-weather silicone caulking. I am afraid it isn’t going to stick very well or could be pulled off, so I’m going to get some white fabric paint and do the second rug (and re-do the white lines on the first one). It turned out really cute and it was cheap and easy! It’s a great way to fill a large porch with a custom sized rug and my Kindergartner enjoyed helping me draw the lines as we marked them out with a white crayon (we didn’t have any chalk on hand!) and it worked perfectly. He could easily help and follow the ruler — it was a fun, cheap, and quick family activity! Highly recommend!

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Here is one of Ben — at first he held the yardstick while I drew the lines with a white crayon. Then, he begged and begged so I held the yardstick and he drew the lines perfectly fine! He’s a kindergartner, so if he can do it — anyone can! It truly is a cheap, easy family project for Halloween.

UPDATE Halloween 2012: This rug is still in silicone only and has held up really, really well! I did NOT go back over it with paint or anything else. Yay!

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Just for fun, here is my all-time favorite Halloween decoration. At our house, the witch is ALWAYS in!!!

Halloween 2010

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I gave birth to an entire crew of stormtroopers. The kids know their own names but I have no idea who these costumes are supposed to be. I just shelled out the money.

Pumpkin Carving with The Boys

How’s that for enough pics? Ah, I can never get enough of my boys! The in-laws left this morning and I have laryngitis but feel pretty good – it’s awfully quiet around here. I’m looking forward to class parties at the elementary school this afternoon.

Pictures from Vala’s

Fun day. Lots of sunshine. Great new jumping pillows at Vala’s which we all enjoyed immensely.

Vala’s Pumpkin Patch & In-Laws

The in-laws are here and while Don and his dad were hunting pheasant and turkey, Grandma and the kids and I went to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch – surely one of the greatest pumpkin patches in history (and all right here in Gretna!). I will post enough pictures to make up for my lack of a post yesterday, however, I’m drop-dead tired and will have to post them tomorrow or the next day! Stay tuned…

Creepy White Pumpkins – Fall Porch Decor

These white pumpkins are creepy – and kinda pretty. I found the pic and ideas at homemadesimple.

My Mummy Halloween Ideas

Okay – I couldn’t find my mummy cupcakes (they were like Kara’s except the lines were mostly horizontal only having chocolate cupcake underneath and leaving a swath where the eyes would be so you could just peek at the cupcake and then having red dots for the eyes). They were cute but I have no witnesses – sorry!


I did find an old mummy cheese log surrounded by crackers that I had made for a church event. You can make any recipe cheese log you’d like. Pre-made and purchased worked great for me. Just make a savory cream cheese based dip, fill your piping tube and mummify the orange cheese. Olives for “eyes” and other veggie accoutrements work great, too. Use your imagination!


One of my favorite magazines for a Mom with and a home based business is Working Mother. I no longer subscribe but they have the best time-saving tips, recipes, etc. I think every Mom should read it – just to save time (isn’t every mother strapped for time?). I don’t think I got this costume idea from there, but…one of the easiest, cheapest and cutest costume ideas I’ve ever seen was this mummy – this was Jack in 2006. So very scary. Ah, the memories…they are growing too quickly for sure!

Kara’s Cupcakes – Halloween Ideas

I was out to lunch yesterday with a friend and we stopped by the bookstore to look at some quilting and knitting and design books and she said, “What is up with cupcakes? They are everywhere these days!” and I’m not sure what I replied but I wholeheartedly agree. They are everywhere – and for good reason. It’s the perfect little sugar package.

Fast forward to this morning, I open my email and another friend, Kara, has started a new blog. Kara is the sweetest (and one of the prettiest) girls you’ll ever know. It makes complete sense that everything she makes is ultra sweet and adorable. She had more talent in her pinky toe when we met (she was 10 and I was 20) and she still could teach me a few things. Anyway – her new blog is all about cupcakes and I wanted to share her beautiful creations with you! There’s some adorable Halloween ideas here. I made the mummy cupcakes a couple of years ago – I’ll see if I can’t dig out a picture of my own from way back when!

Another Beautiful Set of Cupcakes…

Another adorable blog that is one part sugar, one part presentation is Amy Atlas. I do not personally know her but wish I did!

Halloween Fun – Spiders & Ghosts!

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I love these ghosts. I love these spiders. The ghosts make me sad, though, because several years back we created a set even cuter than these (but same concept) and put them around a tree in my parents’ yard and they were stolen on the first night. So sad! Anyway, if you get these you might also want to get a dog to protect them – they are just that cute. I am a huge fan of the Frontgate catalog but mostly like it for ideas!