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DIY Snow White Family Costume

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DIY Snow White Family Costume Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all? Snow White was the fairest of them all in the original 1937 movie that my daughter loves, and she was the fairest of us all in our Snow White family costume. Still, our DIY Evil Queen costume and DIY Hunstman costume weren't too shabby, either.  Family Snow White Costumes for Halloween For our family Snow White costumes for Halloween, my 4-year-old daughter already had a second-hand Disney store Snow White costume. I added the sparkly cape from my Little Red Riding costume and made her red bow headband to complete the look. My husband had a Peter Pan costume, and I had some weird purple alien/choir robe and a vampire cape. Starting with those pieces, I knew I could assemble a DIY Evil Queen costume and DIY Hunstman costume, thrifty style. DIY Evil Queen Costume For my DIY Evil Queen costume, I started with this random purple robe and cut off the silver pieces that were not part of the old ha
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Bluey Birthday Party in the Park

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Wackadoo! This summer, I threw a Bluey birthday party in the park! Planning and executing this Blueyriffic party was a bit different than anything I had done before. I am used to hosting at my home where I have all the time and control to set up, but this year, we needed a bigger space to meet the needs of a larger guest list, so we rented a large gazebo in a quiet, clean park. Hosting a Bluey birthday party at the park made some of the prep easier and some of it harder. Did everything go as planned? Absolutely not! Did my kid and her friends have a great time? Absolutely. Here's how I pulled off the Bluey park party for my daughter's 5th birthday. Bluey Party Decorations Normally when I decorate for a party, I go all out. I obsess over fonts and spend too much time adjusting and readjusting decorations inside and outside of my house. But for Bluey party decorations at a park, I scaled way back. I wanted our large gazebo to look nice, but I knew there would only be so much time
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Why, It's a DIY Winnie the Pooh Party

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Planning a DIY Winnie the Pooh Birthday Party Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood where Scarlett Alexis plays, you'll find the enchanted neighborhood of a DIY Winnie the Pooh birthday party. Yes, as a lifelong Winnie the Pooh fan, it warmed my mamma heart when my soon-to-be 3-year-old daughter fell in love with Winnie the Pooh and wanted a Winnie the Pooh birthday party. OK, maybe I planted the idea of a Winnie the Pooh birthday party in her head, but it was the perfect theme for my quiet child who struggled with speech, but frequently said, "Help, I shtuck!" and opened her first umbrella and immediately said, "Tut tut, it looks like rain!" I was giddy to transform our park-like backyard into the "100 Aker Wood" for a DIY Winnie the Pooh birthday party. DIY Pooh Party Decorations Step 1 of transforming my backyard into the Hundred Acre Wood was crafting DIY Pooh party decorations. I made most of the Pooh party decorations myself or used things I already had.
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Restoring Vintage Blow Molds for the Holidays

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  How to Restore Vintage Holiday Blow Molds I love me a vintage holiday blow mold. They stand out from the sea of yard inflatables (I have those, too), and they are just nostalgic. But for all the memories they evoke of decades gone by, holiday blow molds are not as easy as yard inflatables to maintain. That's just the truth.  Sun exposure can fade the paint to the palest shades; they can crack, and let's be honest, they are cumbersome to store. That's why vintage holiday blow molds need to be restored from time to time. I restored two vintage blow molds for the holidays: a snowman for Christmas and a pumpkin for Halloween. Refreshing a Christmas Blow Mold Much like Frosty the Snowman needed the lousy magician's magic hat to come back to life, my vintage snowman blow mold needed new paint to shine with life again. Having very little experience painting anything detailed, I was nervous to touch the snowman. But just as Frosty braved the greenhouse to warm up Karen, I bra
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DIY Halloween Apothecary Cabinet of Curiosities

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Double, double, toil and trouble! This spooky season, I turned my China cabinet into a Halloween apothecary cabinet. With a hefty dose of Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, some live Bat Wing Balm and Web of Spider, plus a bottle of Poison for good measure, my cabinet of curiosities is ready to conjure up potions and spells. Apothecary Cabinet Containers To create my Halloween apothecary cabinet, I focused on filling the containers I already had inside my China cabinet. My collection of vases, candle holders and bottles of sand (from our wedding's sand ceremony and favors from a friend's coastal ceremony) served as my apothecary cabinet containers.  Free Printable Potion Labels No good witch wants to confuse her poison potion for her potent potable, so I used free printable potion labels to keep my spells straight. I taped the labels on, but they are generally designed to be printed on sticker paper.  I found my free printable apothecary labels at  Hale Grafx.com ,  The Graphics Fair
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DIY Casper the Friendly Ghost Costume

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For Halloween, some little girls want to be princesses, fairies or the ultimate girly combination -- the princess fairy. My little girl wanted to be Casper the Ghost. At age 3, my daughter had a dress-up closet full of princess costumes, and she loved them all. But she was adamant, for the first Halloween she was old enough to have a say, she was going to be a ghost, the friendly one. Now if this was 30 years ago, I might have been able to find her a Casper costume in a store. In the year 2022, the closest thing I could find was vintage Casper masks. That wouldn't do. Mamma had to DIY a Casper the Friendly Ghost costume. Making a Kid's Casper Costume for Halloween To make my kid's Casper costume, I started where I always start for Halloween costumes when I don't have anything on hand: the thrift store, namely a wonderful hole-in-the-wall gem in Citrus Heights called Mary's Thrift Store. Mary's has routinely delivered at Halloween time, and this year was no excep
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How to Make a DIY Halloween Wreath with a Bicycle Wheel Rim

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Ah! It's the most wonderful time of the year. The time when the leaves change color, the air gets crisper, and I make spooky DIY Halloween decorations with items I find around my house.  OK, actually, I live in California where it's mostly been warm and sunny, and everything is still green outside. But I did use my free (read: sick all the time because my daughter started preschool and brought home all the viruses) time to make a DIY Halloween wreath with a bicycle wheel rim.  Why use a bicycle rim for a wreath? Well, in my case it's because my husband is an avid bicyclist. At any given time, I have no idea how many bikes he owns; all I know is that bikes and their parts are all over our garage. At some point, I kept seeing his stripped down bicycle rims lying around and thought, I bet those would work for wreaths! Personally, I like that a bicycle rim is larger than your standard wreath. I place the wreath on a stucco wall above my porch bench, so the larger size does a gr
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