Chic Black and White Halloween Mantel + Traditional Fall Hutch Decor

I think I've proven in the past that I'm not always the most enthusiastic decorator for holidays. But it's a lot more fun when your kids act excited about decorating, which was a big motivator for my Halloween decor this year.

Since I already had quite a bit of black and white happening on my mantel between the clock and vases (not to mention the fireplace box itself and the white mantel), I decided to go with a monochromatic black and white scheme. I wanted to keep it looking chic and sophisticated, but still fun for the kids, and this is what I came up with.

I started by gathering up books from my collection that have black spines/covers, and stacking them up. I always like using my books as decor, since I already have lots of them and it's fun for me to put them on display.

These two lanterns usually have blue and green candles inside. I didn't want to buy black and white candles just for this display, especially since I knew I wouldn't be burning them. So I just took a sheet each of black and white paper, wrapped them around the candles I already owned, and taped them into place. Easy, free fix to keep my black and white look going.

I made the 'spook' banner and the bats using my Silhouette Portrait. Super easy and quick to pump out, and I love the swarm of bats escaping from the fireplace. I think I'll leave them up all year, and just accessorize them for every other holiday. They can each wear a Santa hat for Christmas, bunny ears for Easter, etc. It'll totally work, right?

We have a cute hutch in our kitchen that I used to display our more traditional fall decor.

The little 'apple cider' sign was another quick Silhouette project from last year, made from a piece of scrap wood I found in the garage. I used those removable photo hanging strips to attach it to the back of the hutch. Hopefully it'll come down okay!

And I was happy to rediscover this little painting in a box in my garage. I bought it at a thrift store years and years ago, but never found a good spot for it in our last house. I think it looks perfect tucked into this display.

Do you like decorating for fall, or Halloween, or both?

Peter Pan Family Halloween Costumes

Before too many of you climb aboard the ‘Jeff’s such a good sport!!’ train, I’d like to state right up front here that he is fully invested in Halloween and general costumery. Like, to the point that when he first tried on his Captain Hook costume, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Do you think patients would like it if I wore this to work on Halloween?!”

Um, yes. Yes, I think they would like that very much indeed.

Last year, these two made a pretty adorable Monsters’ Inc. duo. And this year’s Peter Pan / Captain Hook duo is pretty dang adorable, too, if I may say so myself.

We started casually brainstorming family costume ideas in early September (I plan to take advantage of the opportunity to do a family costume for as long as possible—I know our days are numbered here, Forrest isn’t going to think it’s cool to do a family costume theme forever, so I’m enjoying it while I can). We tossed around quite a few different ideas, and ended up realizing that it didn’t matter much what Jeff and I wanted: it all hinged on Forrest and his willingness to participate. The rest of us will go with whatever, but if he wasn’t into a costume idea, there was no way we could force him to do it. He almost backed out of last year’s costume when he saw Jeff in full head-to-toe monster garb and freaked at the oh-so-frightening sight. So I pulled up some pictures of different costumes (some of which included superheroes and a full Star Wars gang), and let Forrest decide which one he liked best.

Who would have guessed he’d pick Peter Pan? He had never even seen Peter Pan.

While we waited for the costumes to arrive in the mail, I made sure he watched the movie. I’ll never know what possessed him to choose Peter Pan, a character and movie he wasn’t even familiar with (actually: sword. it was almost definitely the realization that being Peter Pan meant he’d get a sword), but I wanted him to see the movie so he knew what the heck he was dressing up as (although, I mean, he has a sword. he probably doesn’t care about anything else). And who’d have guessed it—he’s been requesting to watch the movie almost every day. Good thing he didn’t hate it, or we’d have been back at square one for costumes.

Just like last year, these costumes were sent to us by HalloweenCostumes.Com. After two years of DIYing Halloween costumes for this kid, I’m totally on board with store bought costumes. Sewing them myself is just too much work for this lazy seamstress. Kudos to those of you who design and sew amazing costumes! My sewing talent just doesn’t extend that for. For Forrest’s first Halloween at 2 months old, he was a very adorable corn cob (we lived in Iowa at the time, and a corn cob costumed baby was just too perfect to pass up); for his 2nd Halloween he was a very pathetic last-minute Batman—I literally cut the Batman logo from felt at about 2PM on Halloween and hot glued it to a t-shirt. It was extremely lame. For his 3rd Halloween, I dyed a shirt maroon so he could be Malcolm Reynolds (now that was an awesome family costume). The impressiveness level of my DIY costumes was declining steadily by the year—clearly time to hand over the reins to someone else. And Halloween Costumes does it swimmingly.

Our costumes are pretty rad. Jeff’s is the clear winner—that thing is amazing. The jacket and vest are velvet, and look so awesome in person. It’s one of those situations where we keep thinking, ‘this thing is gorgeous; think of a way you can keep wearing it past Halloween.’ We grabbed the wig and hook from Savers, but everything else was included, from the lacy neck ruffle to the boot tops, and it looks so cool. Forrest’s Peter Pan is adorable (I’ve had to talk him out of wearing the costume to preschool a few times) and Darcy makes the sweetest little Tinkerbell I’ve ever seen (when I first showed Forrest the family costume idea, he thought the plan was for him to be Tinkerbell, and weirdly enough, he seemed pretty cool with that idea).

And I’d like to blame Jeff for my costume. He insisted—absolutely insisted, with 100% confidence—that no one would know who I was if I dressed up as Wendy, which was my original plan. I don’t even know what to say about that, except that it’s ridiculous because—I mean, really. Wendy. He was totally baffled when I showed him the Wendy costume I planned to get—“who is that? Is she even in the movie? I’ve never seen her before. No one will understand that. And you can’t dress up as a character who’s younger than Tinkerbell when our baby is being Tinkerbell.” So I let him talk me into being “one of Captain Hook’s pirates,” except that Captain Hook did not have any lady pirates on his ship, and if he did they probably would have been less swashbuckle-y and more prostitute-y, and now here I am in a pirate costume, just hoping no one thinks I’m dressed up as a pirate prostitute. Whatever. Jeff’s fault. At least the kids look scrumptious.

I sort of want her to wear this everyday. Can she just always have wings on, all the time? That would be okay, right? Because it’s so cute I can’t stand it.

Big thanks to HalloweenCostumes.com for setting us up this year! We love our costumes and are so dang excited to get some Halloween festivities going.

Do you do family costumes?

Monsters Inc. Amigurumi

If you read my last  post, you saw that my little monster decided after a ridiculously long inner struggle between roughly 40,000 tempting options (running the gamut from food items to animals to people he knows) that he and his dad should be Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. for Halloween. I thought that sounded about as cute as it could possibly get, so I wanted to keep him excited about it somehow . . . and I remembered a little project I had seen a while ago and wanted to try myself. Adorable little Mike and Sully amigurumi!

Do you know A Morning Cup of Jo? She creates the cutest little amigurumi patterns (some have been featured in books, some are for sale online, and many she shares for free!), and she came up with the sweetest little Monsters Inc. pattern to celebrate the release of Monsters University a few months ago. I had seen cute little monsters made using her pattern (which you can find HERE) on Instagram and various blogs, and thought they might be fun to try, so I was glad Forrest’s excitement over his costume idea gave me the perfect excuse to try them out.

You can get a sense of scale here for these little buddies . . . they are pretty darn small, which makes them even cuter. They really were fun to make, and came together SO quickly (which is awesome—seems like amigurumi take longer to come together than I feel like they should, so it was such a treat to make some tiny stuffies that truly worked up FAST). I made Sully first, and when he was completed, Forrest was desperate for me to finish Mike up, too, so they could play. And he’s finally figured out that his naptime = my prime crochet time, because he spent his whole morning asking, “Mama cwochet Mike duwing nap? Fowwest sweep and Mama make Mike?” Needless to say, he was thrilled to see the two of them together post naptime.

 

Can’t see much of the smile there, but trust me, it’s there. To be totally honest, he doesn’t play with them a ton (definitely not a stuffed animal lover, this one) . . . but every now and then he’ll get them out and make them dance, or roar, or take naps . . . whatever it is he thinks monsters do, I guess. And they’ve helped keep him excited about Halloween and his fun daddy-son costume combo, so that’s a win in my book.

(Because I can’t resist posting one of these again . . . )

Monsters Inc. Halloween Costumes

I’ve spent weeks and weeks trying to get Forrest to commit to a Halloween costume idea. This has been kind of a difficult endeavor, due in part to his total ignorance about what Halloween is. He doesn’t seem to remember Halloween last year (which is a shame because our costumes were AMAZING) or understand what Halloween is or how it works or anything, and my explanation that he gets to dress up as anything he wants seemed to just overwhelm him . . . for instance, here’s a typical costume planning conversation:

Me: You get to wear a fun costume on Halloween! What would you like to dress up as?

Forrest: Fowwest be Superman!

Me: Okay! That’s great!

(2 minutes later)

Forrest: Fowwest be doggie!

Me: Are you sure? Did you change your mind?

Forrest: Yes, I sure. I be doggie.

Me: Well, okay.

(30 seconds later)

Forrest: Fowwest be apple! Dwess up wike apple!

Me: . . . really?

Forrest: Be daddy! Fowwest be daddy!

I’m not sure what made him finally settle on an idea after weeks spent in a state of crippling indecision with a new costume idea every 7 seconds, but a few weeks ago he decided he MUST be Mike from Monsters Inc. for Halloween, and Daddy HAD to be Sully. And that combo sounded so dang adorable that I encouraged it as hard and as obnoxiously often as possible, even going so far as to crochet for him a special Monsters Inc. project to keep him psyched about it (pictures to come soon!). And after a few days of him talking about ‘Fowwest be monster Mike!’ without changing his mind, I figured it was safe to assume this idea was going to stick around. Their costumes arrived in the mail yesterday, and I need you to prepare yourself for what may be the most adorable costume duo you’ll ever experience in your life.

Now, Forrest is not the world’s most courageous child. And his cowardly lion heart is perfectly exemplified by his reaction to the Sully costume. He is terrified of it. Absolutely scared silly. When he woke up from his nap and saw it from the top of the stairs, draped over a chair in the living room (it had arrived in the mail while he was sleeping and I couldn’t resist opening it up to admire that glorious fuzzy fluffiness!), he refused to even come downstairs because there was a “vewwy so scawy monstoh down there!” My brave little guy.

And even after Jeff got home from work and put the costume on and Forrest could see that it was just a suit with his not-vewwy-scawy father inside, and it was not in fact an actual monster corpse, he backed himself into a corner and just stood there laughing nervously for like 10 minutes while we tried to coax him closer for pictures. I think he was having some sort of panic attack. It was a little bit hilarious to watch, actually.

And you know what finally convinced him to come out and fully accept Monster Daddy? Do you recall his weird love of Gangnam Style? We had the brilliant idea that maybe if Sully started dancing to it, Forrest would realize he was safe and come out to join him. We were totally right. Watching those two dance in their monster costumes will forever remain one of the most hilarious sights I’ve ever seen. And of course, I can’t get the video to upload anywhere (I’m a genius, I keep saying it over and over), so I’ll put a clip on my Instagram. If you’re not already following, I do believe a Monsters Inc. Gangnam Style should be enough to convince you. My username is maybematilda.

Both monster costumes were provided by HalloweenCostumes.com, and they are awesome. I love that Forrest’s costume has a super-simple full-body jumpsuit and that the round ‘Mike’ part is separate—it’s so easy to get him dressed in it, and he thinks it’s fun to wear even just the little jumpsuit by itself (for activities where the full Mikey is too bulky to play in). And the Sully costume is kind of a jaw-dropper. It is so huge, so fuzzy, so detailed—I love it. From the spiky back and tail to the paws that cover your shoes and can be pulled down over your hands, it is just so elaborate and fun and amazing. And apparently, according to Jeff, it is also about a zillion degrees inside. So if there is ever some sort of end-of-the-world disaster than leaves us stranded in a post-apocalyptic wintry wasteland (um, I may have watched World War Z last night, which may or may not be influencing my thinking here), forget the sleeping bags and tents. I’m just packing the Sully costume and we’ll be good to go.

Needless to say, this kid is super excited about being Mike and showing off his costume on Halloween. There’s a separate costume duo in the works for me and baby girl (who should be arriving just in time for Halloween), so I’ll share that one after she gets here and can help model it in pictures. What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?

Thanks to HalloweenCostumes.com for providing the costumes! I was not compensated for this post except to receive the costumes free; all opinions are my own.

Halloweiners

I fulfilled a long-time dream this year of proudly dressing myself and my family as the big nerds (slash big damn heroes) that we are for Halloween.

If you don’t know who we are dressed as, shame on you. A pox on your home and your herds! I’ve mentioned my love of Firefly plenty—if you haven’t watched it and the movie Serenity yet, you are missing out. It is my favorite show of all time.

I dressed as Kaylee, the mechanic and all-around sweetheart:

It was a super easy costume to pull together—I found the coveralls on ebay a month or so ago (they came to about $20, including shipping), and picked up a pink and purple top at the thrift store. Toss in some boots, natural-looking makeup, and loose wavy hair, and you’re set.

Forrest was the star of the show (literally and figuratively) as a teeny Malcolm Reynolds:

His costume would have been cooler if he would have worn the holster and gun I bought for him, but you know how 2-year olds are (in case you don’t know: uncooperative). The hardest part of his costume was finding suspenders—not many stores sell them. I finally ran into some in an adorable little children’s boutique called Sunday’s Child in Cottonwood Heights (UT). I used RIT dye (color: Wine) on a plain white button-up from the thrift store since I couldn’t imagine finding a toddler-size maroon shirt. Knee-high boots would have been amazing, too, but it turns out they don’t make those for boys. Weird.

Jeff dressed as Jayne, but wasn’t home in time for pictures. Rest assured, he is the proud owner of a pretty cunning new hat, crocheted in haste during Forrest’s nap yesterday, completed just in time for trick-or-treating.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the day was tweeting a picture of our costumes and tagging Nathan Fillion (one of my many celebrity crushes, he played Mal on the show) and Jewel Staite (Kaylee!), both of whom were 110% awesome in replying to my tweet. JUST IMAGINE THE GEEK OUT WHEN I SAW THIS:

But when I called Jeff at work in a tizzy to tell him that Nathan Fillion and I are besties now, he didn’t answer . . . so I of course kept calling, over and over in rapid succession, until he finally picked up in a panic since he thought someone must be seriously injured or seriously dead for me to call 10 times in a row.

I maintain that the subject of my call really was that urgent.

A whopping 2 people knew who we were dressed as when we went trick-or-treating through our neighborhood, and I think the rest didn’t realize we were dressed up at all. It didn’t help that Forrest’s costume was nearly identical to his standard weekly church outfit, but let me tell you something: when the very actors that you are dressed as approve of your costumes on twitter, you stop caring what your neighbors think of your ensemble.

Also, Forrest’s understanding of trick-or-treating seems to be a simple one: some exchange of candy happens when a door is opened. He never figured out who was supposed to hand over or receive the candy, and generally tried to empty his treat bucket into our neighbors’ candy bowls when they opened their doors, and even offered licks of the lollipop he was already sucking to quite a few other kids, and also dogs.

General rundown of how our trick-or-treating went:

Forrest: (knocks super softly, usually with just one finger, so it's more of a gentle tapping)

Person opens door.

Forrest: Chi-o-cheeeeee! (while trying to get past the neighbor and enter their home)

Person: Aren’t you cute! Here you go. (holds out candy bowl)

Forrest: (reaches into his own candy bucket, pulls something out, places it in their bowl.) Dank you!

Person: You can keep that one.

Forrest: Dank you?

Person: Here, you can take a candy.

Forrest: Chi-o-cheee? (Holds out lollipop for neighbor to lick.)

Me: Okay, let's go . . . thanks . . .

We’ll work on clearing up the details for next year.

Halloween Witch Hat Cookies

I've never really gotten into seasonal/holiday crafts. I definitely appreciate them, I enjoy seeing other people's ideas, and I love seeing a house decked out for different holidays, but I just haven't really done much myself yet. Maybe it's because I always equate holiday decorating with having elementary-school-age kids . . . I figure you do it for them, so they'll get excited about each holiday (I have so many happy memories of putting up Christmas decorations with my mom), and since my one-year old's interest in holiday decor would be limited to the items he could stuff in his mouth, I haven't really bothered to do much holiday decorating yet.

But! I have a humble Halloween offering for you! (Something that would actually be perfect for my one-year old to stuff in his mouth!)

It's not very exciting. It's not even very original. I'm sure you've seen these before, but humor me. This is my only Halloween tradition, okay? (Well, my only Halloween tradition besides my yearly tradition of running out of candy after the first 8 trick-or-treaters, then pretending no one's home until I go to bed at 10:00 and quiver in fear that hungry, angry, costumed children will egg my house.)

 Witch Hat Cookies! I believe I first saw these in American Girl Magazine when I was little, (Did you read that magazine? I'm sure my sister and I must have skewed their subscriber statistics . . . we were still faithfully reading it well into our teen years.) and we've made them many Halloweens since then.

I've mentioned before that I'm not great at decorating desserts--for goodness' sakes, everybody always make things look so easy, with perfectly frosted cakes and piped flowers and little fondant characters--so these minimally-decorated cookies are just the ticket for a frosting failure like me.

You'll need:

fudge stripe cookies

Hershey's Kisses

buttercream frosting (dyed orange, or green, or purple)

Just plunk your cookie upside down (chocolate side up) and glob some frosting onto the bottom of an unwrapped kiss.

Smoosh the kiss down onto the center of the cookie so the frosting oozes out the sides a bit (it kind of helps if you block the hole on the other side of the cookie with your finger so it all doesn't squelch out the opposite end).

Spoon some frosting into a sandwich baggie and cut off a bit of one corner, then pipe some onto the kiss and cookie in a bow shape.

(See? I told you I was a frosting failure. That one was my best work.)

And there you go! Cute little witch hat cookies, perfect for Halloween. Very low effort, but still really cute. Just my style.

I'm linking my cookies up to Midwestern Sewing Girl's Everything Halloween link party!