LAST MINUTE DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

Tired? Check. Lazy? Check. Not about to go to a Halloween store 3 days before Halloween? Check. Here are two costumes you probably have in your closet for two of my favorite fictional women!

I designed some free printables HERE for you to add to your easy costume! Yooooouuu're welcome. 

Happy Halloween, nerds.

Oh, and this is my baby Max in tribute to the one and only Jimmy Fallon- my husband and I are giant fans of him and The Tonight Show! Can't you just hear the dancing Hashtag music?

Download Hashtag the Panda's name tag HERE. 

For more ridiculous DIY Halloween costumes for littles, click HERE!

-L

FALL MANTEL DECOR

Hey friends!! I (Jenni) haven't been posting much on here due to pregnancy woes and such, but I THINK I am at the end of the worst part for me. I am always so curious to hear other women's stories about pregnancy because it affects us all so differently. I personally am a major sicko my first trimester  (and usually the first bit of my second), which is just no. freaking. fun. I am grateful to have a healthy baby so far and a healthy pregnancy though, so I will stop my whining now.

Among the many things that have been lacking in my life, my fall mantel decor is one of them. I bought a couple of lanterns on sale one day at Target. I came home so excited to put my mantel together during nap time. Yeah..... I got everything OFF of my mantel, however, I did not put anything new or "fallish" back up on my mantel for weeks. I decided to partake in nap time most days. Anyway, by default I ended up with our perfect mantel decor. I just wanted simple and neutral all the way. I love to use decor that I can leave up until Thanksgiving. I may add a few feathers and other little things, but the overall decor stays the same.

I already owned everything I used for my decor except for the lanterns, which I got for $30 and the chevron pumpkin. I think it was $10. I will use them year after year though and bought them on sale so I am okay with it. I made the book page garland last year. I actually stored it away in a box to get rid of it, but hadn't gotten around to it. I am glad I had it to pull out and put to good use. 

Below are some other inspirational mantels that I loved while searching through Pinterest for ideas for my own. One thing for me that is important is to not spend a lot of money on mantel decor. I like to just find things outside, thrift shops, around my house or simply get my craft on. 

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MAX'S 1ST BIRTHDAY - ROUND PARTY!

When people asked what theme Max's first birthday was going to be, and I said "round"... they were like... ummm cool. Okay so Max is round, he loves balloons and balls- those are round, and honestly I couldn't think of anything that hadn't been done a million times before! Plus it's so simple- just my style. 

The party was supposed to be in our backyard with lanterns strung from the trees, circular picnic blankets, ring toss, bubbles, etc. Guess what? It poured every. single. day. that week including the day of the party. Super dark outside too for pictures. Fantastic. We're still in our rental (egg yolk and old lady sage walls), so basically my plan was to camouflage the grossness with tons and tons of balloons. I think it turned out really well, and most importantly, everyone had a great time! And let's be honest, when you're dealing with one to four-year-olds really all they need are toys and cake. Cake is clutch. 

FOOD:

See what I mean? Cake is clutch.

I baked two batches of white cake in sheet pans so the layers would be thin, froze the layers, cut with a 2.5" biscuit cutter, then just piped colorful frosting in between. 

 All round food!

 Complete with Aunt Ellie's Campfire Crispies! They are SO. GOOD. Do yourself a favor and order these babies.

DECOR:

Had to cover the nasty chandelier :)

Monthly photos of Maxie cut out into circles, naturally.

I made this little picnic blanket out of a drop cloth. Draw two concentric circles in pencil and paint in the lines. Make sure to paint the circle before you cut. That way it'll look nice and neat! 

FAVORS:

Party crowns, tattoos, hula hoops, bouncy balls

Custom temporary tattoos with each kid's name from our Etsy shop!

ACTIVITIES:

RING TOSS

I ordered the rings on Amazon and got bottles from the dollar section at Target. Since the party was supposed to be outside, I had painted wooden dowels to hammer into the grass. Sigh. Still a fun activity for the kids though! 

DIY GIANT SURPRISE BALL

Getting a surprise ball was a tradition at my sister and my birthday parties growing up. I decided to supersize it by using a container from Party City as the center to make this huge!

Each kid got to unwrap a color, once that streamer color ended, they got the prize and gave the ball to the next kid. It ACTUALLY worked! Couldn't believe how patient the kids were waiting for their turn! So fun!

INVITATIONS:

I got the beach balls from Oriental Trading Company and wrote on them with neon Sharpies. Here's the thing... they can't fold totally flat, so they were considered a parcel... which means they were $3 each to mail! I took them to the post office and got 5 different stamps, which actually looked pretty cool. Thankfully I only invited a handful of people, and I hand-delivered most!

 On the back of the ball it said:

ROLL on over to Max's

(address)

It was a sweet day for my sweet, round little Maxie!

-L

And the winner of the Freshly Picked Giveaway is....

Kelly Vance!

Woohoo!! Please email us at loveandlion@gmail.com!

Thank you all for entering! Many more giveaways to come!

SIMPLE PUMPKIN DECOR DIY

Contrary to popular belief, I'm extremely lazy. I could sit on the couch in my jams all day watching movies, eating snacks, and trolling around on Pinterest. Maybe squeeze in a couple hours of reading. That's actually my dream day. When it comes to decor in my own house (not for a client and not for one of my kid's birthdays) I'm just like... no. Too tired. 

So here's the easiest possible one step above nothing fall decor for you!

CHALKBOARD PUMPKIN

1. Sketch a circle/oval/fancy shape on your pumpkin.

2. Paint in the shape with chalkboard paint. The bottle I bought said to paint 2 coats. You can see the first coat below left a few bald spots. Two or three coats is perfect.

3. Um... that's it.

We've been using this as a countdown to Halloween for the kids!

The only thing I'd say about this is that if you use this over and over, the paint starts to chip. Just paint another quick coat of chalkboard paint and you're done.

I brought the pumpkin inside and used it as a centerpiece when we had friends over for dinner this weekend (with takeout...like I said- lazy!). Ari collected pretty leaves for the table. It made our dinner a little fancier.

I bet you could take this idea and run with it! 

Tag us on your instagram photos @loveandlion, so we can see!

-L