Halloween 2018!

If you saw my recent post you'll know that I'm catching up on some of the festive moments of 2018. Since we were moving into our home and getting settled, blogging took a backseat, so here we go, my very favorite holiday... Halloween!

Last Halloween we had our annual costume party game night which was super fun! It was especially fun to have it for the first time in our new home!

The Decor:

We used our black and white decorations that we made a few years ago and have been using ever since. We also added in some postcards that we picked up while we visited Salem earlier that month. We only added decorations in a few places, but it felt very festive!

The Playlist:

We're still listening to my Halloween playlist from 2014! I have added to it over time and it is nice and long, which is perfect for a games evening!

The Food: 

We decided to make Halleweeños again and friends filled in the gaps since we were still getting settled in our home! One thing of note were the GBBO themed pumpkin macarons that our friends Will and Cara brought. They dressed up as Paul and Mary Berry so it was a funny touch that they decorated their macarons to say things like "scrumy"!

The Costumes:

We dressed up like garden gnomes and had such a blast with it! We were able to wear our ordinary clothes in a much more colorful way. All we had to do was pick up red felt to make our hats and a fake hair material for a beard and eyebrows for KC.

I love how they turned out, and I was super excited that ModCloth shared my costume with all of their followers since my green dress is one I bought from their store. How flattering! Overall we had a great time being gnomes, but it is always nice to be noticed! :) I will definitely share a tutorial sometime closer to Halloween to add to my costume tutorial collection!

How cute is Duchess with one of the hats?!? We couldn't believe that she sat there for so long. It was adorable.

We had a great night playing board games with everyone, and showing off our house a little. At this point we had only been there for two months, so we weren't at all settled, but it was nice to show everyone what we'd been working on!

Does anyone else love Halloween?!

Is anyone else already thinking about this year's costumes?!

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Halloween // 2017

Happy Wednesday, Friends! I hope that you had a lovely Halloween/Halloween weekend! Today is the very first day of LYB(Holiday)L! I hope that you will join us! Check out the first week's prompts & details, here. We'll be using #LYBHolidayL on Instagram all month long. :)

We had our fourth annual Halloween party on Sunday. This year we decided to copy Audrey and choose a theme ahead of the party. We put a poll on Facebook and the theme "magic" was chosen. You know, anything magical.

KC and I went back and forth on several costume ideas. Many of which would have cost quite a bit to make... and I don't have the sewing skills just yet... so those will stay on the back burner. We decided to be Professor Snape and Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. What's more magical than that?!

he cracks me up! :P

Snape was super easy. KC just had to wear black on black on black, put his hair down, and get out his DIYd wand. Those were super fun and easy to make! He used his dad's Masters robe as his Snape robe. He kept a grumpy look on his face, and he was good to go!

For Trelawney, I just have two words. Sage. Green. LOL, but seriously, Trelawney is all about the thick layers, hippie fabrics, and frumpiness. I already had this green cardigan, the scarf was in my closet, and I just layered on some of the funkier jewelry that I own. We got these glasses at the Cursed Child release party, and I let my hair be wild. All I needed to purchase was this dress. Which I found at Goodwill for $7! Score! :)

7 "slayer" dip - KC's idea, not mine!

For the food, KC suggested we reign it in a bit... as I definitely have a tendency to over-achieve and over-commit. LOL. So we decided to make just 3 things. We made "shrunken head punch", 7 "slayer" dip (KC's idea!), ghost pretzels, and "snitches". The snitches don't "count" as you didn't have to cook anything. :P

the saddest Thor. :P 

We had a great time celebrating with our friends. We had the fullest house yet with 16 people and a baby! :P I didn't get a photo of everyone, but I was so glad to see them. We hadn't had very many times when we have had people over this year. It was nice. And almost everyone dressed up. :) :)

Olivia was the Cheshire Cat!

it was verrry cold

How cool is that that my mom made OE's string backpack a treat bag + a belly for her costume?! #clever

On actual Halloween it snowed here, and was SO COLD. My sister Olivia wanted to trunk or treat at their church, so KC and I joined them. So did Jess and Darrick. We met up for about 20-30 minutes and then left the Cheshire Cat and mom to their mission to find candy! :P We finished the night off by watching Hocus Pocus. :)

What did you guys do for Halloween?

Did you dress up?!

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Halloween // 2016

Happy Halloween!

It's strange to have Halloween on a Monday, but I guess that means I can re-cap on my normal posting day. :)

We had our third annual Black & White Hallow's Night party last night, and it was so much fun! Each year a slightly different group of people has been able to come which is kind of fun!

Let's start with costumes, you may have seen these on Instagram, but KC and I dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf this year. It was tons of fun!

KC found this awesome mask at Target, it has a strap in the jaw that moves the mask's mouth when you talk! It absolutely freaks our cats out!

It took me forever to find a good cape... but I finally did, and it was $20, so I was glad not to shell out tons of money! :)

Overall a long cape and a long dress (with no shoes and a teeny apartment...) was not the greatest choice. I had to hold up my skirt and cape, and try not to snag on any furntiure while weaving in between chairs... Needless to say, today I am dressed up as little red werewolf hunter... because I can wear jeans. HA.

We made Hallowenos, mummy calzones, blackberry sangria with apple peels that look like worms..., and a salted caramel cake. It's also our friend Michael's bday weekend, so we have to double celebrate!

How cute are these?!?! I die. -Thank you Pinterest!

It's a bit messy... lol.

A big thank you to everyone who came over and dressed up! You made our Halloween fun! :) How cute is my sister and her baby as a Magic 8 Ball?! Everyone had really fun costumes, but I'm a little enamored by my sister's bump... :P

Even though my OE Jo is in Arizona... I have to include her kick-butt costume. It was her idea to be poison ivy (*sisters!*), and she even told my mom what type of outfit she wanted (cat woman's modified to be green and have ivy, obvs.).... She's so fierce! :)

What did you guys do for Halloween?

Did you dress up?!

XO,

Alexandra

P.S. Our cats were DEMONS all night. *cringe smile*

Velma & Shaggy Costume Tutorial // DIY

*I LOVE HALLOWEEN!! For more costume ideas and my DIY (and money saving) tips and tricks check out this post! It includes links to all my other DIY costumes as well! Happy Haunting! XO - Alexandra*

HAPPY OCTOBER FRIENDS! :) - get ready for nothing but festive fall and Halloween posts coming your way! #sorrynotsorry

Last Halloween KC and I dressed up like Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. It followed pretty much all of my criteria in coming up with a clever and inexpensive costume... read those 5 tips here.

Anyhow, these costumes were so fun and easy, I wanted to share a quick DIY and few costume-specific tips for you. :)

We pulled off each costume under $35!

Items needed:

Orange Turtleneck Sweater - might I suggest the thrift store?
Red Skirt - preferably pleated, or something with a little bit of a flare at the hem
Orange knee socks
Red Shoes
Square black framed glasses
Short brown wig with bangs

Extras:

A black magnifying glass
A map
A notebook and pencil - for clues, obvs.

Variations and Notes:

Don't worry too much about the hues of orange and red... just try to make them match throughout your outfit. My orange was more of a deep hue, and my red was kind of a rusty color. But that's not a problem so long as you make it consistent from head to toe.

Downside:

Holy cow, turtlenecks and bulky sweaters are NOT very flattering when you're busty. :( But you could definitely do a light weight sweater or long sleeved tee.

Items Needed:

Brown pants (these sweet sweet pants were in the Target Junior section, but they were stretchy so I knew they would fit KC and not be uncomfortable. What a trooper that guy... )
Bright Green Shirt - preferably baggy. Another good thrift store item!
Brown Shoes
Shaggy Hair

Extras:

A sandwich or a jar of pickles :P

Variations and Notes:

Because we needed a baggy shirt, we found this one at goodwill... but it was HUGE and hella long! So we did the good ol' duct tape him trick that I did on my Poison Ivy costume years ago. Classic. Works every time. :)

So there you have it, a quick and easy costume pair for your Halloween inspiration! 

What are you hoping to be for Halloween this year?

What has been your favorite Halloween costume over the years?

More Halloween Costume Tutorials: Cruella de Vil, Natasha & Boris from Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Poison Ivy. 

Happy Haunting!

XO,

Alexandra

Snapshots of Halloween // 2015

Gosh, it's November already!! I feel like I'm getting behind on my October posts (what I read, Halloween...) so.... here we go...

I hope that you all had a great Halloween weekend!

Here near Kansas City, we had the added bonus that the Royals won The World Series Monday night!! I'm not a huge sports person, but it is very cool to see my local (ish) team win! Something that has not happened in a long time (30 years!)!  :)

This is the first Halloween that we haven't spent with my family... so that was a little bit rough for me... but luckily we were still able to celebrate with good friends, games, baseball, and of course costumes.

For my board game friends, I think some of you play, we played Avalon (fun!) and 7 Wonders. It's always exciting to teach our favorite games to more people. They're addicting though! :)

This year KC and I were Velma & Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

Check out his pants you guys. On. Point. I wanted him to hold a sandwich or jar of pickles or something... but that's ok... ;)

Jinkies, it was an easy and fun set of costumes! (see what I did there?) I'll make sure to pre-write a tutorial for next year, but I'm guessing it's a pretty obvious one.

Here are some more photos from the evening, thank you to the friends who came out and celebrated with us, and made me feel a little less homesick? (family sick?) this year. :) The guys even tried on my wig... which is something my dad always ends up doing. So that was a funny coincidence.

Scalawag slept, and Duchess hid the whole evening. So, not many pictures of them, but we did put Scali's bowtie on his collar. We've only had it since February.... This was the best picture that we could get of the sleepy guy. His pictures in profile always make me think of portrait of a captain or commander or something. You can't even tell that he's a one-eyed pirate either. :)

What did you guys do?! - I loved seeing some of your costumes via IG. We should follow each other! Find me, here.

See the full Shaggy & Velma Costume Tutorial! :) 

How's November treating you so far?

XO,

Alexandra