Category: Parties/Holidays

Black Cat Halloween Decorations

Black Cat Halloween Decorations

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

The other afternoon, a neighbor’s cat wandered into our yard and my daughter said, “I wish we could get a bunch of black cats to hang out in our front yard for Halloween.” So, if you need me, I’ll be here trying to make that happen.

We have wood left over from previous projects so I put one up on two saw horses and started sketching (and erasing, and sketching again) cats. Once I got it right, I outlined it with a sharpie to make them easier to see.

The next step was to cut them out. I use this corded jig saw and it worked like a charm. This thing is so simple to use! https://outlook.office365.com/mail/inbox/id/AAMkADYyZTBmNzA0LTgxZGUtNGNkYy05Mjc0LWE0Y2ZlNGVlMDM4NwBGAAAAAADjzLN%2BiUlyT7C3uqlCh4aiBwCHFPe2R4sySaIvHM7xsXwuAAAAAAEMAACHFPe2R4sySaIvHM7xsXwuAATNoDu%2BAAA%3D#:~:text=%EE%A5%B2-,6.5%20Amp%20Corded%20Variable%20Speed%20Jig%20Saw%20Kit%20with%20Kit%20Box,-rstyle.me

After I had them all cut out, I painted them black with left over paint I had from (you guessed it!) a previous project.

I had to do two coats on each side. Once they were dry, we brought them inside to paint the eyes. We did two coats of white craft paint and two coats of this glow in the dark paint. Then I went back with the black paint to add pupils.

https://rstyle.me/+8bJOaMfzSEAKPpAjJyqeZA

This is the finished product! Now, when it’s dark it looks like a bunch of creepy glowing eyes in the yard. But then, when it’s light outside, it looks like cute little black cats. The plus is that these guys are so thin that they should be pretty simple to store until next year.

You could also make these out of cardboard with scissors if you only need them for a short time (like a Halloween party).

This Year’s Halloween Decor

This Year’s Halloween Decor

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

This is how we had the skeletons displayed last year. Since then, we’ve removed all of the shrubs so I had to get creative on how I was going to secure them and make them look like they’re climbing on the house.

We had a lot of extra wood in the garage from previous projects so I decided to make a ladder out of it.

I wanted it to look spooky and imperfect so I just eye balled the measurements and cut the “steps” to somewhat fit.

Then, I used my nail gun to secure the wood.

This is how it came out. Perfectly imperfect.

I secured the skeleton with zip-ties. To secure the ladder, I added garden stakes to the ground and zip-tied the legs of the ladder to them. We already had a screw under the soffit so I used a string to secure the top of the ladder to it just in case we got any late season hurricanes.

This is how it looks now. We have a few more skeletons to add but I’m liking how it’s turning out so far! This project took me a total of thirty minutes and cost nothing (since I don’t throw out any extra lumber)!

If you’re interested in any of the Halloween decor I used, click here:

https://www.shopltk.com/explore/Fixin_Up_The_Place/posts/21247fa0-5c7e-11ee-b445-0242ac110003

Quick Easter Ideas

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

I posted this last year but it’s just so easy and fun that I want to reshare it. If you’re wanting a festive snack for your kid’s class party or even just to jazz up their lunch in April, these cheese ball carrots are perfect!

What you need:

. Cheese balls, goldfish, or anything else orange

. icing piping bags

. green ribbon

You can order everything from this link: https://liketk.it/40PtU

Just fill the piping bags with the cheeseballs and tie the end with the green ribbon. Make sure to curl your ribbon with scissors. That’s it!

How cute are these?!

And if you have an Easter party to go to, here is a super quick appetizer idea. Take two store-bought cheeseballs and squish them together. Form them into the shape of a carrot (you may have to use a knife to cut it at an angle) and add sprigs of parsley to the top. Add crackers and you’re done! Check out the reel I made for this here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcbhElRAHai/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=

Let me know if you try either of these!

This Year’s Outdoor Halloween Decor

This Year’s Outdoor Halloween Decor

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

This post contains affiliate links https://www.shopltk.com/explore/Fixin_Up_The_Place

How cute is that little kitty ballerina? You’d think she dressed up like this and drew whiskers on her face for Halloween but you’d be wrong. This is an everyday occurrence and I love it!

I wanted to get a few large spiders to crawl up the front of the house but we’re kind of running out of time. We really want those 6 foot skeletons! How cool would they be climbing onto the roof or the big palm tree in the front yard? Maybe I can find them on sale after Halloween and we can use them next year.

We have these lightbulbs in the carriage lights on either side of the garage as well. They look like flickering amber-colored flames. These bats came in a pack of three from Target. They’re made of thick felt and have a string attached to their feet for easy hanging. The wreath is from Target. We’ve had the creepy fabric , plug-in pumpkin, and Happy Halloween sign for years but I found some similar ones and linked them on my LikeToKnowIt page (link at the top of post).

I wish I could tell you where that skull planter came from. The hubs is convinced it was Target but I’m pretty sure it was Home Depot. Either way, we bought it years ago and I can’t find anything similar on their websites. The “Doorbell Broken Yell Ding Dong’ door mat is from At Home. Brian accidentally ripped the doorbell out of the old house when he replaced the door frame so it was appropriate there. Now, it’s just funny to see who yells at the door. So far we’ve had one neighbor kid and a UPS driver.

This skeleton was from Target. He’s suppose to look like he’s trying to climb out of his grave. This part of the yard is a little humped up (I think there was a tree there at one point) and browning a little bit so it’s kind of the perfect place for him. I thought this guy looked ridiculous when I originally stuck him in the ground but now he makes me laugh every time I drive up.

All of the items I used can be found here: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/Fixin_Up_The_Place

Also, check it out!!! My front door was featured on Target.com and I’m freaking out just a little bit!

Baseball Ornaments

Baseball Ornaments

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

This post contains affiliate links.

This is a super simple Christmas craft to try if you have a little ball player in your house.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Clear ornaments: https://amzn.to/3oP3fKu

White spray paint: https://amzn.to/37gXVJL

Red paint pen: https://amzn.to/3netCcm

I used painter’s tape to cover the silver cap at the top of the ornament and then spray painted it white. I ended up doing two coats and letting it dry for about thirty minutes in between coats. Once it was dry, I looked at one of my son’s baseballs and drew the laces on the best I could. It’s not perfect, but my son loves them and that’s what matters!

7′ Unlit Christmas tree: https://amzn.to/2WrWYbH
Christmas lights: https://amzn.to/37g6xjS

Aiden’s Shark Birthday Party

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

Getting ready for the kids’ birthday party this year, I realized that I am a little behind on posting Aiden’s previous birthday parties. There’s no time like the present I suppose…

When Aiden was turning five, he was adamant about having a shark themed party. He was obsessed with learning everything he could about them, had a whole library of shark books, even watched recorded episodes of Shark Week constantly. And since our parties are always pool parties, it felt like a perfect fit. As usual, I ordered mostly everything from Amazon so I have linked it all for your convenience.

Since we planned to be outside for most of the party (and the fact that I was 9 months pregnant!), I went pretty simple on decorations. I twisted these green streamers https://amzn.to/2RF7YPx to look like seaweed and hung up a few of these shark decorations https://amzn.to/2RACeuY and called it a day.

The calm before the storm.

Our TV has a few free screensavers and this one was absolutely perfect.

A party isn’t complete without chips & dip! This serving tray is almost identical to mine https://amzn.to/2NbQKuz.

I meant to get blue Kool-Aid to make “ocean water” but accidentally grabbed the red. I was about to run to the store to exchange it when Aiden said, “But mom, bloody water would be so much cooler!” This drink dispenser https://amzn.to/2X36z6v is also perfect for sangria. Just sayin’!

For the cake, I just had the bakery do an ocean scene and I added these toy sharks https://amzn.to/2NpameC. The sharks that they draw with icing looked very cartoonish. I think this turned out much better.

For favors, we had rock candy “coral” https://amzn.to/2J6yuNN and goodie bags filled with candy, crazy straws https://amzn.to/2xe0ytl, tattoos, and shark tooth necklaces https://amzn.to/2J1eVX6.

We continued with our Birthday Balloon Avalanche tradition on the morning of his actual birthday.

Hubby’s birthday

Hubby’s birthday

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

Today is my husband’s 33rd birthday! We’re not doing anything too crazy for it this year. I’ll probably make his favorite dinner (lasagna) and we’ll get a cake but that’s about it. We are just way too busy, especially him. Thinking about his birthday reminded me that I never posted anything about the surprise party I threw him last year, so here it goes…

I had never thrown a surprise party before but it turned out pretty great and he had no idea. I wanted a funny theme and thought about doing Pokemon or Hotwheels but then I caught him taking a selfie in the kitchen and immediately realized the best party theme for Brian is… Brian. I sent out messages to all of our friends asking them to send me the oldest, funniest, most random pictures of him that they had. I scoured everyone’s Facebook pages for weeks. I think I printed close to a hundred pictures of him. Some flattering. Some not so much. I made cupcake toppers with them and hung the rest up around the house. I even enlisted some help to make face masks and a banner (Thanks, Mary & Katie!).

picture + popsicle stick + glue= perfect Brian cupcake toppers
I printed all of the pictures at Target and hung them up with clothespins and yarn.
How awesome is that banner?! And ignore the paint swatches. As usually, we had a few house projects going on.
The princess crown was a great addition.
Just take a second to look at the variety of Brians here. The tiny Brian on the couch, the one in a dress, it’s actually kind of creepy.
He had absolutely no idea! Thanks to Sean & Jay for getting him out of the house for me!
That’s the “You got me” face.
Aubrey loved having a house full of people to play with.
Uncle John and Aubrey.
The dads playing a little Just Dance on the Xbox. You can’t let the kids have all the fun!

It was a great party and he was absolutely shocked but surprise parties are stressful. This should earn me a pass for at least a few years. And what do you do with a hundred pictures of yourself? Not to mention someone (pretty sure it was my sister-in-law, Nikki) strategically placed the Brian masks all over the house, in closets, drawers, the shower! I was finding them for weeks! Princess crown or not, that face popping out at you at night when you are trying to find pajamas is terrifying.

Valentine’s Day 2019

Valentine’s Day 2019

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

Brian and I don’t get too excited about Valentine’s Day. We feel like you don’t need a certain day to tell you to show your spouse love. But we do try to make it special for the kids.

I usually decorate the house with some colorful, cheesy decorations and we bake something special. This year, Aiden and I made cupcakes while Aubrey was napping one afternoon.

We started a new tradition, this year. Every night, after the kids go to bed, we write a love note to each of them on a paper heart and tape it to their door. When Aiden woke up, he’d look at the door to see what new message was there. Aubrey just pointed to the door and screamed “Pretty!” over and over.

The Valentine’s that they both brought to their class parties were pretty cute. Aiden’s were these little bags of Cheez-It’s with this free printable from http://www.michellepaigeblogs.com/2014/01/boy-valentines-printable-cheesy.html . I just printed them out on cardstock and attached them with washi tape.

“Just another cheesy valentine”

For Aubrey’s I used this free printable from https://www.iheartnaptime.net/printable-school-valentines/  printed it out on cardstock, and put it in clear treat bags with goldfish.

“So glad we’re in the same school!”

We always give the kids a few small gifts, just to make the day special. This year, Aiden got dragons from the new How to Train Your Dragon movie (which we are totally going to see!) and Aubrey got a stuffed sloth. We gave them both a small heart shaped box of chocolates because, is it even Valentine’s Day without those?! I may or may not have let them eat it for breakfast. Come on, it’s a holiday!

Notice the huge pile of laundry? I’m only human!

And because we are so very thankful for our wonderful daycare, we brought the teachers donuts.

Tonight, Aiden has his Valentine’s Day dance at school and he wants us to drop him off. This will be the first time we haven’t gone to a dance with him. He’s pretty excited about it and it gives Aubrey a few hours of one on one attention from her parents so I guess it’s a win-win!

Here’s to hoping your Valentine’s Day is as full of cuddles, kisses, and bear hugs as ours!

This year’s Holiday theme: Half-Ass Christmas

This year’s Holiday theme: Half-Ass Christmas

Posted on by Kelley Elmore

I started this holiday season just like every year, planning to put up the decorations right after Thanksgiving, shopping early so that I didn’t get completely stressed and overwhelmed the last week, and doing every Christmas themed activity I could find. It didn’t exactly pan out that way, just like every year but for some reason, I’m completely okay with it this year.

Aubrey is 18 months old and into all things girly. She loves sparkles and pink so I wanted to have a tree in her room that reflected that. Her room isn’t very big so I only had a small area to fit it. I found the perfect narrow “pencil” tree at Target for $40. A few rose gold ornaments from Michaels and she had the most magical night light!

See? Perfect fit. Aubrey loved it! Next was Aiden’s room. I wanted to do something special but Brian put an end to buying trees for every room (I didn’t exactly ask permission for hers), so I had to get creative (aka: look at Pinterest).

A few Command strips and a string of lights and he had a “tree”. It took up no room and it made a very festive night light. Aiden says he liked it more than an actual tree.

Both of the kids’ “trees” were up before Thanksgiving but that was it for weeks. We were in the Christmas spirit. We listened to Christmas music every day. I had even started buying gifts but I just could not make myself get the decorations out. It probably had something to do with recently getting rid of so much clutter and not wanting to undo everything I worked so hard on. Around mid month I figured it was now or never and we got the family tree for the living room and I put up minimal decorations.

We didn’t even have a topper on our tree this year and I kind of like it like that.
Ignore the random campfire pillow in the middle of the floor. The below string of Christmas cards were added on the dining room wall after this picture was taken.
Speaking of Christmas cards, we did get that done!

With Brian working and in school, I knew if we were going to have any lights up outside, it was up to me. After work, and while the kids were inside eating dinner, I would get one strand up at a time until it got too dark or they would need me. It took a week but we finally had lights. Aiden and I made a pact that next year we would work together to make it look like “Christmas threw up in our yard”. Aiden’s words, obviously.

Nothing special, but it’s something.

We did get pretty involved in the elf tradition though. Brian even added a new mischievous elf.

Introducing Geronimo, the creepy bad elf. There’s something about him holding scissors that makes me uncomfortable.
Aiden freaked with this one! We had the bad elf holding the camera.

I had hopes of us loading up in the car, getting coffee/ hot chocolate and driving around the whole city looking at lights until the kids passed out but that never happened. Instead, while Brian was at school, we got Chick-fil-a and tried looking for lights, but couldn’t easily find many, so we went home. At first, I was disappointed but when we got back home Aiden said, “Thanks mom, that was fun.” It was? We were only gone for like thirty minutes.

And then there was the annual mall Santa picture. Aubrey was so excited watching Santa from afar, but when it was our turn, she panicked and wanted nothing to do with him! I had to be in the picture (in my work clothes). $40 later and we got this gem…

We may not have made time to do all of the holiday activities like we wanted but we embraced the scheduled events like Aiden’s field trip to The Florida Theater to see Twas The Night Before Christmas.

And Aubrey’s class party where she saw the dreaded Santa yet again.

Before Santa.
After.

And the family and friends Christmas parties.

She’s keeping her distance.

Last night we made cookies with my mom and finally found some pretty cool lights.

Aubrey snuck so much raw cookie dough I’m surprised she didn’t get sick!

I feel like this holiday season was a lot less busy than normal and it was wonderful. I didn’t stress about having everything perfectly decorated or filling up the calendar with events. I didn’t consciously make the decision to do less (life sort of did it for me) but looking back, it made this time of year a lot more enjoyable. I even did the majority of my shopping online so I wouldn’t have to fight the crowds. JOMO (joy of missing out) is a real thing! We did do a whole lot of hanging out together as a family, playing, cuddling, and watching movies. Isn’t that what the holidays are all about anyway?

I’d like to say that next year’s holiday season will be a lot more productive but I’m really hoping it’s not.

Question: Does anyone else’s husband insist on wrapping gifts with construction paper? I wish I had gotten a picture of the bow he made out of duct tape!