i halloween so hard

i survived october and so can you! such a glorious month of festivites and spookiness! 

here's my dining room tablescape:

i think even if you are hesitant about thrifting and don't feel confident in tablescapes, a something i would suggest is to find some old brass candlesticks of various sizes and shapes at goodwill. if you go even just a few times, chances are you will find some. they don't have to match, they just have to be a similar tone of brass. stack them on various heights of interesting looking books and you have a great foundation for a simple or elaborate tablescape. i also like to have multiples of things when i decorate so various pumpkins from hobby lobby or the dollar spot at target really fits the bill. a really great place for unusual decor gems is dollar tree. they had these spider web table cloths. i wish i had snagged several more for some spooky window draping. i do love my tablescape result. a imperfect yet artful disarray display seems about right for halloween.

using the same goodwill brass candlestick set that i got for a few bucks and a nativity on a simple tray really makes and great impact for a christmas vignette. our Savior's glorious birth is the focal point.

i'm clearly not a professional or even a semi-pro youtube "star" but decorating is actually a soothing thoughtful process for me. ashamedly, i didn't get a picture of my thanksgiving tablescape which used many of the same elements as halloween but i replaced the books stacks with green glass vases and pillar candles and a cornucopia. 

athena blythe had a special non-halloween but using all halloween elements school project. she had to create a craft pumpkin book character. she had a lot of ideas and i told her she had to do rotten ralph because it looked easiest. we had never read rotten ralph, but at my sister's suggestion we read a few a got started. EASY. 

my mom came and visited for halloween. it was a delight. she took these pre-church pictures. i look fantastic, thank you very much!

let's all be like grandma sandy. kind and loving. 

herschel had his preschool "book character" parade. it's actually a halloween parade! surprise! you can call it "book character" all you want but i know what it realllllly is. especially since we had orange and purple "book character" cupcakes and "book character" candies. "book character" pumpkin shaped reese's cups are the best. i just want to read and read and read.

scarlett is on board with going all out for halloween too so we dyed her hair! it's short term wash out color but we are definitely doing it again!!! we may do all the colors.

i'll wear plastic gloves next time too. planning for every eventuality is still on my short this of skills to improve upon.

scarlett, that homely troll, got her first round of braces off. 

we had our ward's "fall festival". it's similar to "book character" day. reallllly a halloween festival. we were the ONLY family to dress up. so we won all of the costume awards. 

i did another phenomenal job speed carving the pumpkins again on halloween afternoon. i got them all done and cleaned up in less than an hour. 

a monster truck, a cat, something scary, frankenstein and the bride of frankenstein and a vampire. all by request.

i really loved this one and i will probably duplicate it for the rest of my halloweeny years. 

my very simple halloween dinner snack. i didn't do my whole halloween meal, but this was super fun. i can't even remember what we ate that night besides this and handfuls of teeth-rotting high fructose corn sugar products. the best!

another one of my unfortunate looking kids:

i used sparkly green loose eye shadow and a giant round makeup brush to cover her face and neck in a layer of green. it was a lot of effort but she looked better than the real deal. it was so fun to brainstorm and put this together. 

better yet for scarlett, she went trick or treating BY HERSELF with a friend. she was so excited to not be trick or treating with these slowpokes. they covered miles and miles of neighborhood and got enough candy to see us through till christmas. who am i kidding? the good stuff last a couple of days and after a week i threw away the garbage candy no one likes.  

the crew sans scarlett did the same few streets we did last year and took our sweet and safe time, looking out for vicious, darth vader murdering dogs. luckily, darth vader(reagan) was spared. they all decided at the same time they were done and we went home after a pit stop at the neighbors to use the bathroom. we were so close yet so far from home. trick or treat and a potty, i always say. 

a firefighter, darth vader, gamora from guardians of the galaxy and fancy nancy(ooh la la!)