A Christmas Pixie House

I had hinted on my last blog post that I found a dollhouse for $5 at an estate sale.

No.  I certainly don't need any more mini houses.

But, Josie and I needed a craft project and at $5 I couldn't leave it behind! 

It needed to be rescued.

It needed to be loved.

And I have several pixies that needed a cute Christmas dwelling.

It was a fun project and nearly all the materials, were items I already had in my never-ending supply of estate sale miniatures.

Merry "mini" Christmas!
   

Christmas decorating at the Aframe

Right before Thanksgiving, I stopped at Trader Joe’s and found this gingerbread Aframe kit. 

I just knew it was meant to come to the lake with us.

I know I’ve said this before, but I love our Aframe even more in the off-season. 

It's cozy.
It’s quiet.
. And it’s really fun to decorate at Christmas.  I also love being able to spread out my Christmas collections between two places.  

I know these next few weeks are going to zoom by and December 25th will be here before we know it.  I have a few Christmas projects to share. Josie and I have been busy in my craft room.

We even managed to find a $5 dollhouse that we turned into a Christmas house.

I'll be back!  Pinky swear!

How did it get to be mid November?

It took me so long to pack up Halloween, that I'm kinda enjoying a cleaner minimal house right now.  As much as I LOVE decorating for our party, the process of packing everything back up completely stresses me out.

 That being said, I can’t NOT decorate for Thanksgiving so I have a few things out.

Compared to the 25+ bins of Halloween, I only have 1 bin of Thanksgiving. 

When I was packing up my Halloween tree, I decided to keep up a few of my autumn garlands and it's now become my "Thanksgiving tree".

 I also decided to protect my pilgrim and turkey blowmolds from the elements and they are now stationed in front of the Thanksgiving tree.

I'm feeling blessed that my family tolerates my holiday goofiness. Gobble Gobble!
  

The day after Halloween

Twas the day after Halloween

There was so much to do

The thought of packing everything up again

Made this family feel very blue.

Potions had been made

Decorations had been bought

Pumpkins had been all the rage

Now, the ghouls have to be caught.

Paper lanterns and streamers have been flying

There is sweeping to do

Stressed out Dracula is crying

For the day after Halloween he is very blue.

As the witches spring to their brooms and gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the smoke of a missile.

But I heard them exclaim, as they flew out of sight,

"Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!"

It’s safe to say our 25th annual Halloween party was a success.  

Emma even came home from college for a few hours!

We also had fantastic weather for trick-or-treating. 

 Now, who wants to help me pack up all this chaos?

10 days and counting...

It's less than two weeks until our annual family-friendly Halloween party. 

We've been busy getting things ready inside and out.

We're pushing ourselves to work on decorations when we get home from work each night (not that we really mind).

I always feel like it's always a mad scramble to get everything done, but we might "almost" be ahead of schedule.

Chris came home with 22 pumpkins from Aldi's last night.

In case you're wondering, they really do have the best prices right now at $2.29 a pumpkin.

Hard to believe how quickly this month is flying by!

Halloween hugs!
  

Dollar Tree Ideas for Halloween

I think it's no surprise how much I enjoy visiting Dollar Tree, especially at Halloween.

I had thrifted an orange tree skirt a few years ago at Goodwill and really wanted to jazz it up for Halloween.  So, when I saw these felt characters, I knew they'd be perfect for my plain skirt.

I'm pretty excited with how it looks, but now Josie thinks I need to include presents under our Halloween tree.

Another recent addition to this year's Dollar Tree merchandise are these glow-in-the-dark skeleton arms and inflatable eyeballs (bought separately).

We've got several of these strategically placed around our very large yard spider and I think Chris is going back for even more.

I'm also pretty smitten with these Halloween ice cube trays.  Josie and I experimented with them over the weekend using lemon/lime Faygo pop and cherry juice.  Creepy and fun!  Happy thrifting!  Happy Halloween, friends!