Phee & Santa

So glad that Phee's school has Santa pictures one day in November. No fighting the crowds for us. At least until next year when she's in Kindergarten.

Stocking stuffers for readers & writers

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you anything to click on or shop through the links, but it does give me a small amount toward running the blog.

Last year, Doug got me some funny little stocking stuffers that I just loved. See those tattoos and bandaids below? They're awesome. I mean, who wouldn't love a little Edgar Allan Poe on their arm? He'd found some funny stocking stuffers for everyone since the family was all together, but these were, in my completely biased opinion, the best ones.

And so, I thought I should really share them so you can make the readers and writers in your life laugh when they open their stockings this year. There are so many fun little things you could get for that particular group, from paper and pens to page markers, sweet treats for an afternoon of reading and, especially, coffee.

So, here's a fun, and fairly funny, list of stocking stuffers you still have time to get for the writers and readers in your life. Enjoy!

Personalized notepads from Tulaloo
You can never have too many notepads around when inspiration strikes, when you need to make note of some books, or you want to save a quote.

Edgar Allan Poe bandaids
Adults should get fun character bandaids, too!




Handmade ballpoint pen from Wortheffort
These gorgeous pens are great for jotting down a quick note, making notations in a favorite book, or sending off a quick note to a friend.

Jane Austen tattoos
Temporary tattoos are just fun. And these are particularly cute!




Waterproof notepad
You never know when inspiration will strike! I know I do a lot of good thinking in the shower. And then promptly forget it all once I'm dried off.




Hemingway quote keychain from Fragile Elite Design
I love the little ballpoint nib charm on this key chain. And the writers in your life will appreciate the quote!

Funny page flags
Leave notes for yourself with style. Or at least humor!


And, of course, there's always tea or coffee. You need a warm drink to curl up with that book in winter!

What great things have you found for the readers and writers in your life this year?

Chocolate Covered Ritz Cookies

Last night I hosted a Christmas cookie party. Cookies and cocktails are a big hit and I was treated to a houseful of friends for a fun evening. Our little dining table was covered in delicious cookies!

It's such an easy and festive party to host for the holidays. Everyone wants Christmas cookies and what better way to show off your favorite family recipe or to try that new recipe that caught your eye on Pinterest. I'd love to show you a bunch of photos of my living room full of friends and laughter, but I was so busy talking and munching on cookies that I never once got my phone out for pictures. I checked with friends this morning, and they didn't take pictures either. I think it was a good party!

If you want to host a little cookie get together, it's something you still have time to pull of this month. Invite your friends, have everyone bake a couple dozen of their favorite cookies, and be sure they bring some copies of the recipe! Get some festive plates and napkins and lots of bags so people can take extra cookies home. Then, you just need to add some drinks. You can't go wrong with cocktails, but you'll probably want to throw some coffee and milk in there, too, just in case.

I made chocolate covered Ritz cookies, one of my favorites. My mom makes these cookies every year, and has for as long as I can remember. It's a fairly easy recipe and the only thing that really takes a lot of time is dipping the cookies in chocolate. You could certainly make them any time of the year, but they always mean Christmas to me. I added some holiday sprinkles to my finished cookies as a festive topper.

What's your favorite cookie to make at Christmas? Do you have old family favorites that you make year after year, or are you more adventurous, trying out new recipes instead?

Chocolate Covered Ritz Cookies

Ingredients

• Ritz crackers
• peanut butter
• chocolate chips
• Crisco

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and make little cracker sandwiches.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, adding 3-4 T Crisco to thin it enough for dipping. Add more Crisco or chocolate chips as needed.
3. Dip cracker sandwiches in chocolate, covering each one completely.
4. Place dipped cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets. Add sprinkles if desired. Cool in refrigerator.
5. Store in fridge. Can be served cold or at room temperature. 

Linked up at Memories by the Mile, Kenarry, FoodySchmoody, The Country Cook, The Evolution of Mom, Tip Toe Fairy, MamaBuzz, Live Laugh Rowe.

DIY glittery Christmas decorations

I received a box of Christmas goodies from Dollar Tree to create this post. Opinions and ideas are all mine.

We love decorating for Christmas. The fact that it's a really short month between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year is driving us nuts. We got our Christmas tree immediately after Thanksgiving so that we could enjoy it for as long as possible. It still might not be enough time!

Phee has totally gotten into it all this year. She made some different decorations and ornaments in her last acting class and she put those on the tree as soon as it was up and lit. She has her own little pink tree in her room, too, and that has become a bit of a campfire in her games. It's also covered in ornaments she made.

It's so much fun to see her enthusiasm and excitement for the holidays and then to see the pride on her face when she has an opportunity to display her crafts and projects. I'm thinking she gets part of that from me. I love it when I have time to make fun things for the holidays. This year, after making some great Halloween decor with items from Dollar Tree, I was invited to participate in their Christmas promotion as well. A box of Christmas goodies to go crazy with? Sign me up for sure!

I got all sorts of great things- ribbon, ornaments, wreaths, glitter covered everything. We're big fans of glitter in this house. Well, maybe not Doug so much, but Phee and I will use it whenever we can. After I sorted the box, I got to work grouping, organizing, thinking, and generally just playing around with the designs and colors.

And then I made one of my favorite decorations. I have a heavy black tray I use on our dining room table to hold a plant on regular days, or decorations for holidays. But it wasn't being used for anything Christmasy. Well, no more! It's now a fabulous decoration that will be carried right into the new year. I emptied all the silver ornaments I received onto the tray and then nestled two votive holders in the center of the tray. With a LED candle in each one, it's a glittery decoration that I love to look at. It catches the light from the votives, the tree, and the living room and looks beautiful on the table.

I couldn't resist using some of the glittery items as well, so I made a wreath, too. I wrapped some candy-cane type ribbon around a wreath form and hot glued a big red bow to the bottom. After taking apart some decorative sprays, I regrouped the pieces I wanted into a smaller spray to one side of the bow. The final touch is a little gold bird happily sitting on the top of the wreath.

These both turned out so well. And you can't beat easy and inexpensive when it comes to decorating. Honestly, you could make either one of these for $5. You can check out the Dollar Tree website for more decorating ideas, too!

What projects are you working on for the holidays this year? Are you making any decorations? Or gifts for anyone? I love making gifts!

Austin Christmas Bucket List

Christmas is coming! I can't wait. I've been itching to go out and look at lights and decorations since Halloween. I have a pretty hard and fast "no Christmas until I see Santa at the end of the Macy's parade" rule. Wanna know a secret? I get teary every time I see Santa at the end of that parade. Every year. I just get so excited for the holidays and it's such a happy thing. So, the parade ends, we turn on the Christmas music and Thanksgiving dinner happens.

Christmas is Doug's favorite holiday. It's quickly becoming one of Phee's as well, though, as she once said, all the holidays are her favorite, "Valentine's Day, Christmas, fall..." Last year, Phee really got into everything, helping us decorate, singing so many songs, baking cookies. We traveled last year, so we didn't get to do everything that I wanted to do in town. Plus, with Phee's birthday at the beginning of the month, we lose a bit of time to birthday activities.

This year, I'm ready to go. I've got a big list of Christmas activities that I want to tackle in and around town. There are so many awesome things going on in December in Austin. Pack up the family, grab your friends, and go out and have some awesome holiday fun!

Driskill Hotel gingerbread display
Trail of Lights
Hot chocolate & lights at Mozart's
Austin steam train North Pole Flyer
Ballet Austin Nutcracker
Make gingerbread houses at the Thinkery
Snow at the Hill Country Galleria
Ice skating at Whole Foods
Round Rock Rock'N Lights
Luminations at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Paramount holiday film series

And my personal favorite: A drive around the neighborhood with hot chocolate and Christmas music to see people's lights.

Click on the picture to enlarge it and save it, or click here for a printable PDF.

What's your favorite Austin holiday event? What awesome Austin thing have I missed?

Elegant Thanksgiving place cards

Do you have your Thanksgiving menu planned yet? Are you ready to get started on the food prep and cooking? I know I am! I just love Thanksgiving and everything that goes with it. The planning, the buying (but not the crowded stores!), the endless chopping at the kitchen counter... it's all fun.

This year, we're having Thanksgiving a day early with friends. For years our holidays haven't been on the actual calendar holidays. It's something we're used to and this year we're continuing with what has become tradition for us. Doug is on a more regular, Monday-Friday schedule these days, which is something we're quite grateful for. But not all of our friends have that same schedule and here, with no blood family nearby, these friends are our family.

I like to get the china out for Thanksgiving and this year will be no exception. Phee's old enough to handle it and we'll have a table of almost all adults. With any luck, I will be able to handle it, too, and I won't drop anything on the floor!

When I was a kid we spent a few years alternating holidays between Ohio and Virginia so we could see both sides of the family. The first year we had Thanksgiving in Virginia, I remember Meemaw getting out a bunch of cute place cards that she had made for past Thanksgivings. As a finishing touch for our table this year, I created these elegant little place cards. They aren't quite like the beautiful ones Meemaw made, but I can't wait to print them out and put them on our dark green tablecloth. They'll look fantastic!

Grab the file here and print them out on heavy card stock. You can cut them in quarters to have a larger place card with a white border. Or, you can cut them closer to the red border and have a smaller card. Use a fancy pen, or a thin felt tip marker to add names and add that last elegant touch to your Thanksgiving table.

What's your plan for your Thanksgiving table this year: china or everyday dishes? This is about the only time I use my china, though every year I vow to get it out more often!

Thanksgiving crafts for kids (with printable)

There are lots of great projects out there to get the kids involved in Thanksgiving preparation. Try one of these projects with your kids and then stand back and enjoy the pride on their faces as they see their handiwork laid out on the Thanksgiving table.

Placemats
Use cardboard cut to the size you want, card stock, or construction paper. Draw a Thanksgiving picture, use Thanksgiving stickers or stamps, or make a Thanksgiving collage from magazine cutouts. After the placemats are finished, you can laminate them or use clear contact paper to preserve them for future holidays.

Place Cards
Have kids draw turkeys, pilgrim hats, cornucopias, corn, pies or whatever autumn and Thanksgiving pieces they love. Print out the name of each person coming to dinner. Cut out those names and affix them to the drawings. Cut the drawings out and glue to small blocks of wood. Or, even easier, just tape the place cards to the kids’ building blocks. Each person can take their place card home as a memento of the holiday and the blocks go back in the toy box!

Napkin Rings
Download this file or grab the photo below and print it on white or ivory card stock and let your kids color their hearts out. It's a little more work on your end to cut each napkin ring out, but they really are pretty darn cute. And the kids will love showing off their work to everyone at the table!

Centerpiece
There are so many options for centerpieces. Using candles? Let your kids use fall colored ribbons to wrap the bottom halves. Using gourds? Let the kids arrange them in a basket or bowl with some pretty fall leaves and pine cones. Or, get a pretty basket, cut out leaf shapes from construction paper and let the kids decorate them with things they’re thankful for.

How do you get your kids involved in Thanksgiving preparation? I love to hear about the ways people get their kids involved in holidays and create new traditions.


Linked up at Memories by the Mile, Home of Malones, Juggling Act Mama.

DIY Fall leaf votive holders

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you anything to click on or shop through the links, but it does give me a small amount toward running the blog.

I love fall. I miss the changing leaves of Ohio and New England, but this year and last year we've been pleasantly surprised with a bit of an actual fall here in Austin. The polar vortex this week is certainly reminding us of the weather we left behind when we moved!

One of my favorite things about fall is gearing up for the holidays. I love the planning for Thanksgiving dinner. The anticipation of Christmas music and movies and TV specials. With Phee's birthday at the beginning of December, the six weeks from Thanksgiving through the new year feels like one big holiday.

Decorating for all these holidays is one the most fun things to do. Phee loves to help which makes it all the more fun and exciting. She's so enthusiastic and eager about everything and that attitude is infectious. It's such a joy to work on a project with her.

This week, we had some extra time together due to a bit of a cold that knocked Phee out for a couple days. One afternoon, we worked together to make leaf votive holders for our Thanksgiving table. Right now, they're adorning our faux mantle with our other little decorations. We use little LED tea lights for all our decorations and the light they shine through these votives is warm and welcoming. I can't wait to arrange them on the table when our friends join us for Thanksgiving dinner.

DIY leaf votive holders
Materials

• silk leaves
• plastic punch cups
• Mod Podge
  

Directions

• Brush a generous layer of Mod Podge onto a clear plastic cup.
• Add a leaf to the cup and hold it at the top while you add another layer of Mod Podge to the bottom half of the leaf. It's tricky and messy and the leaves wiggle around.
• Continue to add leaves, one a time, giving each one a healthy dose of Mod Podge.
• Set the finished votives aside and let them dry for a couple hours.
• Add LED tea lights and let your candle holders glow!

So, Mod Podging the leaves to the cup is messy. The leaves wiggle a lot and slide around. But the Mod Podge holds the leave well once everything is dry. We only glued the bottom half of our leaves down so that the top half was loose and could fan around the outside of the plastic cup.

Have you worked on any Thanksgiving projects so far this month? Next week, I'll have some great projects to get kids involved with planning for Thanksgiving dinner. Come back and join in the fun!

Linked up at Busy Being Jennifer, Jenny Marie, Texas Women Bloggers, SITS Girls, Home of Malones, Juggling Act Mama, Nancherrow.

Thanksgiving Tree

For Thanksgiving this year, we're working on a month-long project focused on things we're thankful for. We created a tree in our dining room and every day we add leaves to it, decorating the tree, brightening the house, and taking a little bit of time to think about the good things that have happened.

This is such a fun project. Phee helped me create the tree trunk and branches. Then, I dug out some pretty scrapbook paper and cut out a bunch of leaves. She is so excited to add her leaf each day and find the perfect spot for it on the tree.

Taking a minute to think about the good things that happen during the day isn't new for us. Every night I ask Phee about her three good things for the day- good things that happened, that she did, or that she saw someone else do. Our schedule has flip flopped again in the last few months and we've gotten out of the daily habit of three good things, but this beautiful tree is giving us an opportunity to keep that little tradition alive.

I'm looking forward to pulling our regular table out of the dining room on Thanksgiving and making space for our large table when friends join us for dinner. Our tree will add wonderful color and decoration to the day.

What ways do you highlight gratitude and good things in your life? Have you found a way to bring that same awareness to your kids?

Thanksgiving Tree
Materials

• construction paper, brown paper bags, brown wrapping or craft paper
• fall colored construction or scrapbook paper
• leaf templates
• scissors
• tape
• marker

Directions

1. Tape construction paper together to form a long column, or cut open a brown paper bag, or unroll a length of brown craft paper.
2. Draw, or freehand cut, your trunk shape.
3. Add branches of different sizes.
4. Arrange and tape everything to a wall.
5. Trace, or freehand cut some leaf shapes.
6. Add your leaves to the tree every day and watch the Thanksgiving Tree grow!

Linked up at Busy Being Jennifer, Nancherrow, Just Us Four.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

 Phee was quite excited to wear her costume today.

She is Peg, from the PBS show Peg + Cat.

For trick-or-treating tonight, I'll be dressed up as Cat.

We highly recommend checking out the show- it's so funny!

Have a fantastic Halloween!

Last minute Halloween costumes

It never fails. Someone has a last minute Halloween party and you didn’t plan on dressing up this year. Or, your child changes gears days before Halloween. Here are a few last minute ideas to help you out!

Fairy
Get a set of cheap wings from the dollar store, or borrowed from a friend, or made out of paper/fabric covered clothes hangers. Wear shirt, tights, or pants of the same color. Wear a tutu, if you have one, or you can tie strips of fabric and ribbon around a belt to cover the belt and create a tutu effect. And then add lots of glitter, of course!

Plant or Tree
Wear a green shirt and pants, or brown pants and a green shirt for a tree. Get a green hat. Cut out leaves from construction paper, extra fabric, or even use real leaves and attach them to the hat, shoulders, arms… wherever you want leaves! You can customize this costume as a fruit tree with an apple or other fruit cut out and stuck to the shirt. Or even flowers!

Beach
Wear all tan or khaki. Carry a sand pail. Wear a blue hat and affix a printed out seagull. Print out and affix shells, seaweed, crabs, etc. to your clothes. (This is an excellent use of full page labels! Print out, cut out, and use them as stickers.)

Book
Wear all black clothes. You’ll need two large pieces of cardboard cut to the same size rectangle. Paint, draw, or otherwise illustrate the cardboard as the front and back covers of a book. Cut holes in the “spine” ends of the covers and tie them together with ribbon or fabric. Affix black ribbon or fabric to the top of the book covers so that the book can be worn over the shoulders.

So, have you ever found yourself scrambling to put a costume together at the last minute? What did you end up doing?

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Looking for some more costumes? Check these out!

DIY Snoopy costume

I love to make Phee's Halloween costumes. She's had some good ones, but this Snoopy was her favorite I think. If it had fit her, she would have happily worn it again the next year. She even asked about it this year!

I never did write it up the year she wore it, so I thought I'd share it now. It really is easy and it's something that you can take apart and use after Halloween, too. I love the costumes she picks that use regular clothes.

For Snoopy, we used a white zippered beach coverup. Until the week of Halloween, I really have no idea what the Texas weather is going to be like. I decided to go with short sleeves and then we added a white tshirt underneath when it turned out to be a cool night. If you're in cold weather, you could use a white sweatshirt as your base.

To make your DIY Snoopy you need:

• white pants or leggings
• white hooded beach coverup or hooded sweatshirt (depends on your weather!)
• white longsleeve shirt (depending on your weather)
• black and white felt
• black and white thread
• black face paint

Cut out a couple large black spots and two large black ears. Using big stitches, lightly sew the spots onto the coverup/sweatshirt and the ears onto the hood. If you use the big stitches, it's easy to pull them out after the fact and use the base piece later.

Cut out and sew together a small white tail. I stuffed it with a little bit of extra white felt before sewing it to the back of the coverup. Don't skip the tail- it's really cute!

Add white leggings/pants and white tennis shoes. Use black face paint to color your little one's nose black.

We had to use a couple white barrettes to keep the hood up on Phee's head. I made the ears a little bit too big for the hood, but it was awfully cute.

There you have it. It's really easy to put together, even last minute, and it's cute.

What great DIY costumes have you made?

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Looking for more costume ideas? I've got you covered!

Vampires and Pumpkins

I received a box of Halloween goodies from Dollar Tree to create this post. Opinions and ideas are all mine.

We decorated for Halloween a couple weeks ago. Phee's been happily turning on the little votive lights every night in our ceramic decorations. She even took the cutest little ghost and a string of pumpkin lights to her room so she could have some festive decor in there.

We've also been doing a lot of Halloween artwork. I had a stack of foam pumpkins leftover from last year. I had a project in mind, but after drawing faces on a couple, Phee decided to decorate the entire stack, some with stickers, some with drawings, some with more faces. So, we'll save my project for another day. And lots of family and friends will be getting Halloween greetings this year!

I was trying to come up with another project we could work on when I was contacted by Dollar Tree about Halloween decorating. What fun! I got a big box of Halloween goodies and couldn't believe all the fun stuff I had to work with.

First, I made this cute little wreath. It's hanging on the closet door facing our front door so this adorable little vampire is front and center when you walk into the house. I used a wreath form, two rolls of wire edged ribbon, and the vampire to create it. Hot glue the end of one ribbon to the wreath and wrap it around the rest of the form. Fold the end over and hot glue it in place to secure it. To attach the vampire, I used a piece of wire. I wrapped it around the vampire's waist and then poked it into the wreath form on the back side of the wreath. The vampire is securely sitting on the wreath and the wire is hidden- perfect. I topped it off with the second ribbon color and a little spider.

We've never had a mantle, but I always want to create festive and seasonal decorations after seeing all the pretty projects and displays on Pinterest. It occurred to me this week that our low bookshelf could certainly double as a sort of mantle around the holidays so that I can display some decorations.

I used two different pumpkins, plus googly eyes and a set of spooky black and purple roses as embellishment. First, I used hot glue to affix googly eyes of different sizes to a black glittery pumpkin. I used a wire cutter to separate the spiders and flowers from their stems. I used hot glue again to affix the flowers to the larger orange pumpkin. The flowers were a little crunched up, so I flattened and smoothed them and then used a little bit more hot glue to stick the flowers down.

Once I got them arranged on the bookshelf with our current decorations, I added a few more Dollar Tree touches to complete the effect. The orange and purple pumpkin is my favorite out of this set. I just love the big flowers and the spooky spiders.

What's your favorite Halloween decoration? You can find more fun decorating and entertaining ideas at the Dollar Tree site iLeaveHappy.com.

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Click through for more Halloween fun!

Favorite Halloween shows & movies

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you a thing to click or shop through the links, but it does give me a small compensation which I use to help run this blog. Thanks!

We love to have family movie night. We take turns picking movies, though Phee usually has a lot of say in the choice. Phee helps make popcorn in the air popper. We get drinks and napkins and comfy clothes and spread out on the couch. Generally we stop halfway through for a quick bathroom break and so that we can get sweet treats. What's a movie night without chocolate?!

Last week, on a particularly sleepy evening (I miss weekend naps!), Phee and I decided to have a quiet night with a picnic dinner and a movie. We discovered our new favorite thing to watch on Netflix, a new Curious George Halloween movie. It was so much fun! We've watched in a couple more times since then, too.

Phee has lots of favorites for this time of year so I thought I'd put together a little list of Halloween episodes of fun shows along with movies. So much Halloween stuff is too spooky for little ones, or just too cheesy for parent's to sit through. This list is a great compromise for everyone- Halloween themed, but still fun to watch.

Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest (streaming on Netflix and Amazon, or check PBS listings)
It's George's first Halloween in the country and he has a festival, costume contest, and local legend to deal with.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (streaming on Amazon)
A classic! You can't ever go wrong with Snoopy's antics.

Clifford's Puppy Days: The Scary Puppy / Things That Go Bump (streaming on Netflix)
I think Clifford is cute, but this is perhaps a bit for the youngest kids.

Jake & the Never Land Pirates (streaming on Netflix and Amazon)
Both season 1 and 2 on Netflix have Halloween themed episodes, Night of the Golden Pirate Pumpkin / Trick or Treasure! and Tricks, Treats and Treasure! / Season of the Sea Witch. We've been watching these on Netflix since the beginning of October!

Peg + Cat (streaming on Netflix)
We love Peg! In fact, Phee is actually going to be Peg for Halloween and I'm going to be Cat. Definitely check out this show- catchy songs, funny jokes, and math. You can't go wrong! The Halloween episode is The Parade Problem / The Halloween Problem. 

Super Why! (streaming on Netflix and Amazon)
The Halloween episode, The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Halloween, is about Pig being afraid to go trick-or-treating with is friends.  

Certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's our list of favorites. These are great shows that Phee loves to watch. She enjoys watching things for the season and I love knowing that she's going to have Halloween fun without anything being too scary. 

Want to find out what Halloween movies, shows, and specials are on TV this week? Check the TV Guide listings and search for Halloween- there are so many different themed shows!

What are your kids' favorite Halloween shows and movies? What about you? 


Linked up at Jenny Marie, My Turn for Us, Denise Designed, Made In a Day, Sowdering About.

DIY Tinker Bell costume

This post contains Amazon Associate links. It doesn't cost you a thing to click or shop through the links, but it does give me a small compensation which I use to help run this blog. Thanks!

Phee loves pirates, Peter Pan, and fairies. Last year, she was completely into those so much that we had a Jake & the Never Land Pirates birthday, complete with gifts of Jake toys. It's all she watched when she got to choose a show. And then she discovered Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and fairies.

Of course, she wanted to be Tinker Bell for Halloween. She was adorable and she would often make a little tinkly bell sound to talk like Tink.

I love making Phee's costumes, but I wasn't sure how to tackle Tinker Bell in the best way. Matching greens when you go for separate pieces is tricky. I happened upon this adorable, sparkly dress on Amazon and that pretty much took care of the entire costume!

You can easily put together your own quick Tinker Bell costume, for adults or kids. Find a green dress, or green leggins and a tshirt. A lighter shade of green is preferable. With the darker shades, you look more like Peter Pan than Tink.

We used a pair of green wings that we found at Target. You could also spray paint a pair of wings with glitter spray paint.

To make Tink's shoes, we used a pair of Crocs that were just about too small and spray painted them with the glittery green spray paint. I made pom poms out of white yarn and tied them onto the Crocs. These were so easy to make and replace when they got dirty as white things on little feet inevitably do. To make an adult sized version, you could spray paint a pair of canvas flats or tennis shoes and then make pom poms out of yarn, or simply purchase jumbo white pom poms at the craft store. Hot glue either to the shoes and you're all set!

We added little fancy white socks for Phee and put her hair up in a bun and she was all set as a sparkly little Tinker Bell. She flew around the Fall Festival at school and then tore around the neighborhood with her friends on Halloween night. Her costume was adorable and she loved it. Bonus: it went right in the dress up closet and she played with it for months afterward!

What sort of DIY costumes have you made? Are you tackling another one this year?

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Click through for more Halloween fun!

Linked up at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, Made In a Day, Crafty Blog Stalker, DIY Showoff, A Savory Feast.

DIY Trick-or-treat bag

Today is my last guest post this month at Texas Women Bloggers. I've loved being the featured blogger of the month!

Come check out my cute DIY trick-or-treat bag guest post. This bag is so easy to customize with your favorite Halloween characters and themes. Plus, it's easier to store for future years than plastic buckets!

What's your go-to for trick-or-treating? Do your kids have a favorite treat bag, or do they grab whatever's handy and head out?