Raven Brunch

I hosted a Poe/Raven inspired brunch for my Tea Sisters. I wrote on the invitation Gothic Attire Encouraged and my friends do not disappoint with their interpretations.

The centerpiece was created with branches from a tree that was cut down the day before next to our supermarket. The small ravens were from the Dollar Tree and the raven plates with quotes from the famous poem are from Home Goods.

I also made scalloped newspaper cutains and funeral wreaths and hung them on the windows for that extra creepy touch.

 

 For brunch I served hot apple cider, puff pastry spinach quiche, pumpkin donuts and fresh berries. I made raven shaped cookies that never got frosted with black Royal icing or black sanding sugar (just picture it in your head) so I gave my guests boxes of scone and muffin mix.

 After the party, my living room looks like this...

 I made the lampshade from linen and vintage black bias tape.

 I covered existing pictures with poster board and pages from books also from the Dollar Tree and I used my Cricut Wall Decor cartridge to make all of the black silhouettes.

 I had to make a fabric cord cover for the chandelier...heehee.

On Halloween, I'll bedressing up as a Disney-inspired Haunted Mansion ghost and stand on my porch and pass out candy under a black light. This year, my daughter is joining me in a matching costume.

Do you have any Halloween traditions?

"My Fair Wedding" Premiere

 I am a big fan of David Tutera , the celebrity party planner and star of "My Fair Weddding" show on WEtv. So, of course, I am also a Facebook fan, too. A few weeks ago, David tweeted to enter your email address to get tickets to his premiere of Season 5 of MFW so I entered and I got 2 free tickets to attend this event.

I invited my friend, Suzie Smith and we headed down to the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. After standing in line for over an hour, we got in. The giant staircase was lined with 2 girls in red dresses and their trains were the red carpet. 2 girls in the center red aisle were wearing bridal gowns from David's line. We were offered champagne at the top of the stairs and there was also a red carpet Press line. Frenchie Davis from "American Idol", "The Voice" and broadway was giving an interview.

We headed into the ballroom which was to be the screening room. Another hour we waited before Frenchie sang 2 songs (such a beautiful voice!) and then David was introduced. He welcomed everyone and introduced his parents who came out from New York and his partner of 13 years.

 Then the president of WEtv came on stage an introduced the couple who was in the premiere episode. The bride's son, a cancer survivor, was granted a wish from the Make A Wish foundation and his wish was for his mom to have a dream wedding from David. He had only 6 days to pull off the dream wedding!

At the end of the show a marching band marched through the crowd because the bride's son (and David) were both part of a marching band.

Then it was for the time for the after party. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for the non-VIPs to get in so Suzie and I headed home without winning a raffle prize, tasting an hors d'ourve or meeting David.

Halloween Ideas on Houzz and HGTV

My Halloween porch from last year was featured on the Houzz.com blog. Also, Kim from TomKat Studios included my bench in her HGTV blog piece. Such an honor! Next Friday, I am hosting a Poe inspired luncheon for my girlfriends. I will post preview pictures this week!

Book Print Pumpkin

 I added a few pumpkins to my Poe/Raven inspired front porch bench. I made them out of Dollar Tree pumpkins and a book.

 First, I gave the pumpkins a coat of primer white paint and let them dry. Then, I ripped up some pages of the book (yes, it killed me to destroy a book!) and then Mod Podged the strips on. Since I didn't want to buy anything extra, I used some gold paint for the stem since I couldn't find any brown in my paint collection. While they were drying, I used Heat n' Bond for the gingham leaves. I hot glued them to paper covered wires and also used the wires to make the tendrils.

I love how the book flower has darkened in the sun. I hope the pumpkins will do the same. I'm working on some indoor decor with the same theme for my tea party for my friends. Usually I host a Witches Tea (here and here) but I wanted to do something a little different. I seems blogland had the same idea I had! I have found some wonderful inspiration this year!

Halloween Raven Porch

 This last weekend, I worked on my Halloween decor for my front porch. It's funny, a few years ago before blogs and Facebook, I was perfectly content using the same decor year after year, adding a few pieces every now and then. Since I have been exposed to SO many amazing ideas from you amazing people who are so generous to share your ideas, I am FORCED to come up with new decor that is also easy on my wallet. :) So this year's theme is Edgar Allen Poe/The Raven theme.

 Last month for my beach theme, you may recognize the white frame. I swapped the burlap subway sign for a home made chalkboard and added a quote from the famous poem.

 I made the raven wreaths from some fabric I found at WalMart. I made the rosettes from scrap fabrics and the black eyelash yarn and feathers are from JoAnn's and the ravens were 50% off at Rite Aid so they were only $1.50 each.

 The flower on the checked pillow is made from book pages that I got at The Dollar Tree. I punched the pages with a 2" scalloped punch, aged the edges with scrapbook ink and then glued it to a circle of cardboard. Another blog idea.

 Since I cut the chalkboard wood a tiny bit smaller than the frame opening, I added gingham piping to the edges. Of course, I learned how to use my piping sewing attachment from a blog...thank you!

My doorbell is a bit hard to find since it is tucked behind the bench a little bit so I made a sign for people to find it easier. I got the plain wood frame from the Dollar Tree and painted it with Krylon Glitter Blast paint...so cool! Yes, I found out about it from several blogs. Again, thank you! I used my Cricut and Storybook cartridge to cut the letters and swirl.
I made the bench dust ruffle from and old sheet and I have a few more things to add but I needed instant gratification in posting it now. Check back for some new additions next week!

Star Wars Party

 I hosted a Star Wars party for a wonderful 6 year boy and 7 of his energetic friends on Saturday. The weather threatened to rain and even hail was reported in some areas, so we held the party inside.

 I used the weather to my advantage by telling the boys the menacing weather was brought about by Dark forces and that we needed to train very hard to defeat the Dark side.

 As the guests gathered, we painted Rock Buddies. This is always a hit with the kids. I love to see their creativity come out! We balanced balloons on our light sabers to have control and patience. We played Jedi Bingo and I asked to boys to concentrate on the figures on their cards to conjure them up. They would bow their heads and close their eyes tightly to make their cards come up. I gave them Pop Rocks for each Jedi Bingo they got. Also part of their Jedi trianing was to play Pin the light saber on the Jedi. The blindfold is a Darth Vader mask blacked out so they can't see and they needed to use the force to guide the saber to the correct position.

 The highlight of their training was to defeat Darth Vader. 2 boys weren't quite sure about their Jedi skills and hid behind the others. After the other Jedis had their turn at Vader, I told the 2 that we really needed their help to defeat him. It was so cute to see them muster up the courage to face the Dark Lord. They were so proud of themselves and what they had accomplished. When we were packing up, the weather had cleared and the Jedi training was a success! The Force was very strong with these young Jedis!

The Star Wars Deluxe party includes table decor, Jedi training by Jedi Master Donna, a visit from Darth Vader, invitations, Jedi robes to wear during training, favors that include a light saber, photo with Darth Vader, custom chocolate C3PO lollipop, rock buddy, etc and birthday boy/girl gets a custom Star Wars t-shirt.

Disneyland 5K

 On January 2, I signed my family up for our 1st Disneyland Star Tours 5K. It took place on Saturday and we all had so much fun! We only live about 70 minutes from the Happiest Place on Earth but we stayed in a hotel because we had to be at the start line at 6:00am.

Hubby and I trained using the Couch to 5K program and it really helped. There were about 5000 racers for this fun run so it was slow going. It wasn't a timed race so people were taking their time. It took us about 6 minutes to cross the START line after the race started.

 We ran though Disneyland and California Adventure as well as the back lots. They had characters that you could pose for pictures with along the route.

 Some runners even dressed up in costume...LOVE Tink and Capt. Hook!

It was so much fun to train with our kids. They ran circles around us but they were very supportive. Now we are ready to run our city's 5K in November together.