halloween decorations are up

With only two weeks until Halloween, I figured it was about time to decorate the house!

I found this print on one of my favorite blogs, littlebabygarvin. The artist/blogger had a baby due a week after Emmy's due date so I followed her pregnancy and have watched her little girl grow up with Emmy. There are so many similarities between our daughters and her easy, friendly style of writing always make me laugh and smile. I always look forward to a new post and I figured spending $18 for her print was worth it, even if to just say "thank you". Plus, it's digital so I printed one for my office too! 

Floating hats! This was my favorite decoration but I have to be honest with you - they kept falling. Layers of tape and sticky putty later, I gave up and tied them to various objects around the house. Oh well.

I got the black and white garland at Target on clearance for less than $2 (RUN. GET YOU SOME!). I love that these green and natural looking pumpkins are in. The green color ties in well with our living room and it will make a nice transition into thanksgiving decorations. I did learn that it is essential to shop for pumpkins early. It wasn't easy finding a gem out of what was left!

Going up the stairs are 3 more lil'  bit pumpkins. I love these but Emmy does too, she spent half the night carrying them one at a time to her chair in the living room, grunting all the way and so proud of herself. 

Although most of my decorations came from Target, I made a stop at Hobby Lobby. Is it just me or does it seem like everything is 40-50% off all the time? So much is on sale that I really feel jipped when I pay full price for anything. 

I picked up this lamp from Hobby Lobby (50% off), and the frame and owl from Home Goods last month.

I found this jar at Target for $5.99 and wanted to fill it with candy corn but that stuff makes me sick (when I eat it in huge quantities) so I opted for the family favorite: oreos. BIG mistake. Honey boo boo spent the other half of the night pointing at the jar and crying. I'm thinking about replacing the oreos with a popcorn/candy corn/pretzel mix so I don't have to feel as guilty letting Emmy dig in. 

I spruced up Emmy's chair with her chevron blanket from Target's clearance (last year) and a $1 Minnie Mouse book. She points at a character, I say their name, she turns the page, points at the next character (repeat ONE THOUSAND times).  

Have I ever mentioned how much she loves her chair? Best purchase ever. She still likes to climb up on the couch and sit in my lap but when I'm cooking I'll tell her to go sit in her chair and she will. She loves to lay her baby on it face down and pat her back. At night, I put her blanket and a few cute toys on her chair and every morning she throws them all on the floor so she can sit in it.   

For the front door, I made these little ghosts with styrofoam balls and muslin. I found some cute ones at a store for $7.99 each and thought I could make them cheaper but I ended up spending around $30 and not totally loving the final product. My mom said they looked like three casper the ghosts, since our family of 3 is so pale, they are perfect!

I will probably regret doing all of this so last minute when I have to take it down in two weeks. I can't help myself though. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of the holiday season. I think back to the time in my life when family meant so much to me. From maybe age 5-15, the best age for getting dressed up for Halloween and getting awesome gifts at Christmas. This is also back when I was watching sitcoms like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Home Improvement and the Disney Channel (in general) and they would go all out on the sets with holiday decorations. That's how I imagine a happy home, festively decorated. My parents always decorated our home too and anyway, it's exciting to see your house a little differently for a while and I want Emmy to have happy memories of the holidays too.