DIY

This year has been so hard on every one of us. My girls are both learning from home, missing out on so many fun things they usually look forward to for Halloween. I have been brainstorming ideas to make memories at home. This is one of them, the Halloween countdown calendar! It’s like an advent calendar but for the month of October to get a little festive each day of the month.  On October 1st they will open the one bag that has a rhyming clue inside. McKenzie will read the clue and they will try to figure out where their “prize” is for the day. Some days it will be as simple as a piece of candy other days we will do a fun Halloween craft or activity. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Kids love figuring out where to go and are excited just to be surprised. I hope this will be a fond memory for them and they will never think of 2020 as the year where there was no Halloween. Not in my house, nope not happening. See the link below for my list of rhyming clues. You are welcome to use them with your kiddos. If you do recreate this please tag me, I would love to see.

RHYMING CLUES – Once the link opens, Click the “Open” Dropdown and then “Open in Word” to save to your computer

Have you ever made your own doormat? Me either lol Well until now. I joined 17 of my Instagram mama friends to kick off the Fall season with a fun round up of our fall doormats! I bought my blank rug from Target linked here layered with this fun black and white buffalo plaid from Kirkland’s. I painted a few paper mache pumpkins from Hobby Lobby and added disco balls to give it a little flair. I followed Mr. Crafty Pants DIY doormat tutorial on Youtube. It was really great with detailed steps on how to make a rug with a Cricut. Every one of us did ours a little bit differently. So fun to look at all of the inspo. Click on any photo below to be directed to their individual Instagram pages!

I love decorating the playhouse for each Holiday. It brings me joy and my girls just love it. Easter was a little different this year celebrating at home quarantine style. I hope they always remember it as a happy time. This little playhouse is a small part of the happy childhood memories I hope they always have. For a full tutorial on exactly what I did to make this playhouse over go to this post: Cottage Playhouse Makeover

Things you’ll Need
Amazon:
White leotard – Size up on this. You can buy two and layer them putting polyfil in between the leotards to make it cozier and so the feathers don’t stick your child. I didn’t do this because we live in Florida and its 90 degrees.

Pilot Hat – Size down on this.

Yellow Tights – I ordered these but they got lost in transit so I used pink tights she had which was cute too.

Pink Felt – I had some at home but just in case you need it this is a good option.

White Boa’s – I bought three but I think you could get away with two.

Polyfil

Walgreens:
Yellow Rubber Gloves – I had these on hand. If you don’t have these pick up a pair at Walgreens. They do not have the yellow rubber gloves at Target or on Amazon.

From Home:
Old Shoes
Hot Glue Gun
Scissors

You can see videos all of my instructions on how I created Maven’s Chicken Costume on my Instagram Highlights under Halloween.

1. First I started with cutting out the comb shape for the chickens comb. I cut two pieces of pink felt hot glued them together on the edges and then filled it with polyfil. I then hot glued the felt comb to the top of the pilots hat.
2. Then I took the yellow rubber gloves filled the fingers with polyfil and stuck the shoe inside. I cut a slit down the middle of the glove and hot glued the glove to the inside of the shoe. Repeat for other shoe.
3. For the feathered leotard I filled the leotard with polyfil just to give it shape. I started at the top shoulder seam and hot glued three boa’s all the way around the leotard until I got to the bottom. I cut one piece of boa and glued it in between the legs to complete the feathered look. If you are worried about your child being cold or being bothered but the feathers you can double up the leotards and fill in between them with polyfil.

To make this costume it took about two hours start to finish. I love it so much and think Maven is the cutest little chicken around. For a family costume idea, the adults can dress up as farmers and siblings can be other farm animals too. I hope this helps and as always let me know if you have any questions! Happy Halloween!

This review is sponsored by Raddish but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s no secret that I don’t cook much and definitely need a little help in that department. My kids actually love to cook so when I found Raddish Kids I knew it was a perfect fit for us. Raddish is a cooking club, culinary lesson and mealtime solution that gets delivered to your door monthly. How cool is that? We were all so excited when the box came we tore into it and found the cutest silicone molds to make star and moon pancakes! The girls were jumping up and down! I think they would eat pancakes for breakfast lunch and dinner if I would let them.

Pinterest made me do it. I am in love with the new playhouse Rusty and I built for the girls and they are in love with it too. But let me be clear this is not a one day project! It took me several days to finish. I learned some things along the way and want to share them to make it a little easier for you. We bought ours from Costco but I found it online on Ebay too.

Our playhouse is going to be kept outside in our screened in porch. We live in South Florida where it is humid, hot and rains a lot so I made sure to prime and paint the cottage so it will last for years to come. I primed each piece prior to putting it together. I had a few friends tell me to do this and towards the end I could see why! Once it is all built it is hard to paint the interior and get in the cracks. I chose a white exterior latex paint from Home Depot. It did take one coat of primer and two coats of white paint to get it completely white.

If you are needing it to move along a little faster I thought it would be really cute with a white wash. If I had to do it all over again I would white wash it to save time and give it a “vintage” look.

I also chose to spray paint the door handles, mailbox and hinges for the door. Be sure to use a primer and a sealer or the spray paint will wear off over time. I love the Design Master Rose Gold spray paint sold at Michaels. It is by far the best rose gold color I have found. I also spray painted the plastic pieces for the windows. I used the Rustoleum Universal White Satin paint and primer in one.

The pink door is my favorite. I found the perfect blush pink. Behr Paint and Primer in One in the color Pink Quartz at Home Depot.

I didn’t use the sink, stove, phone or flag I wanted to keep it simple and chic. I felt that these just didn’t go with the aesthetic I was trying to pull off!

After I had it all primed, painted and put together it was time for the fun part – decorating!!!! The rainbow welcome sign on the front door is from @knoxandnavy She makes the cutest wood signs and she is the sweetest to work with! The gold basket is from @wearebroots I have several of their baskets and love them! Everything else I styled the front with is from Target, the cactus, home sweet home doormat, pink opalhouse rug and the burlap garland. I plan on styling each side of the house but wanted to get this post up for you since so many of you want to do this for a Christmas gift! Next up is making it Spooky for Halloween! Cant wait to transform it for every holiday!

As always I am here to help if you have any questions send me a direct message on Instagram or an email. I will do my best to get back to you asap! Happy Building!

When McKenzie was 2 she dressed up as Alice in Wonderland for Halloween. I’ve always been such a huge fan of the storybook and I knew she would make the cutest little Alice. I bought the dress from Lover Dover Clothing and it was picture perfect. I knew I had to plan a little photo shoot with her in this cuteness. I hired Daniela with Bella Rosa Photography to capture Kenzie having a tea party in the woods with her “buds.” I love incorporating special things that my child is into at that moment so we can always remember those little things. Her favorite stuffed animal then was Nunu the blue monkey and still is to this day, so he had a special seat at the table. I went early to set up the scene in the woods and Rusty brought McKenzie once everything was set up.  I had fun setting the table and seeing her face light up when she saw her own private tea party in the woods! I hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe it inspires you to have your own little tea party in the woods.